Ed note: This is a rather “heavy” entry but a friend who’s in the midst of a crisis, sent this story. It brought me back to a Russian lit course in college and plowing through Dostoyeveky’s “Notes from the Underground.” Dostoyevsky seemed to be saying, we’re not truly alive unless we’re in pain – a truly morbid thought! But this essay brings us away from the darkness by discovering, “And it is so simple… The one thing is — love thy neighbor as thyself — that is the one thing. That is all, nothing else is needed. You will instantly find how to live.”
One November night in the 1870s, legendary Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky (November 11, 1821–February 9, 1881) discovered the meaning of life in a dream — or, at least, the protagonist in his final short story did. The piece, which first appeared in the altogether revelatory A Writer’s Diary (public library) under the title “The Dream of a Queer Fellow” and was later published separately as The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, explores themes similar to those in Dostoyevsky’s 1864 novel Notes from the Underground, considered the first true existential novel. True to Stephen King’s assertion that “good fiction is the truth inside the lie,” the story sheds light on Dostoyevsky’s personal spiritual and philosophical bents with extraordinary clarity — perhaps more so than any of his other published works. The contemplation at its heart falls somewhere between Tolstoy’s tussle with the meaning of life and Philip K. Dick’s hallucinatory exegesis.
The story begins with the narrator wandering the streets of St. Petersburg on “a gloomy night, the gloomiest night you can conceive,” dwelling on how others have ridiculed him all his life and slipping into nihilism with the “terrible anguish” of believing that nothing matters. He peers into the glum sky, gazes at a lone little star, and contemplates suicide; two months earlier, despite his destitution, he had bought an “excellent revolver” with the same intention, but the gun had remained in his drawer since. Suddenly, as he is staring at the star, a little girl of about eight, wearing ragged clothes and clearly in distress, grabs him by the arm and inarticulately begs his help. But the protagonist, disenchanted with life, shoos her away and returns to the squalid room he shares with a drunken old captain, furnished with “a sofa covered in American cloth, a table with some books, two chairs and an easy-chair, old, incredibly old, but still an easy-chair.”
As you no doubt read, those of us over 50 (ha!) are now eligible to have a second booster. Bartells (and likely many other sites) are offering this service (as the vaccine becomes available – not at the store today per a resident phone call). Bartells prefers you call for an appointment at 206-340-1066. To get through the pharmacy phone tree, press “0”, then when prompted press “1” to speak to the pharmacy directly. We don’t have a date as to when Skyline may offer the booster, but for those traveling or at high risk probably not delaying too long is wise.
I made a YouTube video, about half the length of my talk, leaving out the Skyline-specific material.
I will be giving a talk about recharging electric vehicles in Skyline garages in the Science-Technology lecture series on April 19th at 3:30pm. What follows is aimed at preparing for the Q&A after my presentation. I have been writing an eight-page “consultant’s report” as I recall details from my EV education a decade ago when recharging was more iffy. You can access a PDF of it at WilliamCalvin.com/EV/. Here is the last page:
Mindset Matters When “Filling Up” an Electric Vehicle
EV owners with assigned parking near an electrical outlet need to get out of their established gas-station habit of waiting until 1/4 full before refilling.
There are three different strategies for EV charging: one for slow 110-volt top-up charging, another for ‘full-tank’ overnight 220-volt charging, and a third for 440-volt Level 3 (supercharger) half-fills in 15 minutes for long hauls. Here are some mindsets to readjust when you become an EV owner:
“Wait to refill until down to quarter-full.” (But only for highway trips!)
Take your 15-minute rest stops at Level 3 DC Fast chargers (or Tesla superchargers). Around town, just top up every night using an ordinary 110-volt outlet.
“Fill the tank to Full” — except on road trips! (How non-intuitive is that!)
A fill-up makes sense with liquid fuels and also with overnight recharging—but the EV charging rate varies with how full the EV battery already is; doing ¾ to full takes much longer with an EV. The strategy for minimizing recharging time on a road trip is to routinely find a Level 3 changer or Tesla Supercharger when at ¼ full— but, when impatient, stop recharging at ¾ and hit the road.
“Refilling requires a weekly visit to a special parking spot, vacating it when done.”
That’s still true if one’s EV does not have an electrified parking space for 8 hours every night (or during the working day). Otherwise, simply top up overnight, every night—there will be a full ‘tank’ every morning, even with 110v charging. Unless one is just back from a long drive and about to leave on another long leg in the morning (that has happened to me once in the past ten years), one is going to be drawing many little sips, not one fast overnight gulp needing 220v Level 2 chargers. After you lock your car, hook up the Level 1 charging cable (dangling nearby) before walking away. It is just like those parking meters with electrical outlets that you see in Jasper, where cars need an electrical heater to keep the radiator and oil pan from freezing.
A proposed hybrid gas station. But until they arrive, how does one recharge an EV?
EV Economic, Health, and Safety Advantages
At least in Seattle, it costs about $5-10 to fully recharge a large EV to 250-mile range, versus $100+ to fill a gas tank.
EVs also have many fewer items to routinely service: no oil to change, no transmission, no muffler and catalytic converter, and infrequent brake pad replacement because most of the braking is done with recharging the battery, Prius style.
Some EVs, such as the Tesla Model S, were redesigned from scratch to better protect the driver and passengers with crumple space up front. Dual-motor Teslas are excellent at automatically recovering from swerves and skids. And because Teslas are designed to be bottom-heavy, they seldom roll over. Most other EVs, however, just fill the empty engine compartment with heavy batteries.
EVs do not produce tailpipe air pollution to breathe. Try to drive behind an EV whenever possible.
It isn’t just Tesla (though I still think they are the best). Here is a table of EVs.
Posted inUncategorized|Comments Off on Charging EVs in Skyline Garages
With 171 years of life experience between them, including about 80 managing hospitals and rocket systems, Ruth Benfield and John Pehrson have seen a thing or two.
Benfield was a vice president at Seattle Children’s hospital, overseeing that facility’s master development plan. Pehrson was the program manager of missiles and spacecraft at Boeing’s Kent Space Center.
So when the two retirees, now neighbors, put their heads together on a homelessness aid project in their South Lake Union neighborhood, they figured: How impossible of a task can this be?
“We’ve navigated a lot of bureaucracy in our day,” says Pehrson, 95. “This system is something else.”
Their odyssey started more than a year ago, when some of the 400-plus residents at Seattle’s Mirabella retirement center suggested they all pool their resources to help out with the city’s homelessness crisis.
The pitch they hit on was unique, the opposite of “not in my backyard.” They told the city: If you put a homeless shelter next to us, we’ll raise the money to help pay for it.
With the encouragement of multiple Seattle city council members, they raised $143,000 from Mirabella residents in about four weeks, and another $100,000 was pledged by a South Lake Union developer. That was enough for about half the capital startup costs for a temporary emergency site, a 40-unit tiny house village, which was proposed about a block from the Mirabella at a leftover City Light lot that has sat mostly vacant for years.
“We’re old and have a lot of time on our hands, so we could cook meals for them and make lunches and do clothing drives,” Pehrson said. “It would be right down the block. So people here were very excited about finally being able to do something to help.”
The rest of the money needed was just sitting there — in the form of $2 million in grants the state had already given Seattle, earmarked for “tiny houses and cottages.”
But maddeningly it stayed sitting there, unspent, all last year. It’s the same money that’s now the subject of dispute and intrigue, having been transferred by the city in January to a new regional homelessness agency, where it was awarded to other aid projects, only to be pulled back by an edict from Rep. Frank Chopp, D-Seattle.
It isn’t clear what’s going to happen with those grants now, or when they may be spent. The city says it wants to move on though and use the abandoned lot near the Mirabella for other City Light work. So unless a new spot is found, the $143,000 these volunteers raised will be returned, donation by donation, back to Mirabella’s residents.
All this in the middle of a declared homelessness emergency.
“Most of 2021 and now the first part of 2022 has been wasted,” Pehrson said. “I know what it’s like to have an emergency at work — we’d have a stand-up meeting about it every day. I mean everybody would be standing. They’re not acting like this is a crisis.”
Says Benfield, 76: “We could have already sheltered people all through last winter. We’re not experts, so we had only two questions: ‘How do we get this done? How do we help?’ The city slow-walked their response until it all went nowhere.”
The city says it didn’t award the grants last year because it was winding down its homelessness work to turn it over to a new Regional Homelessness Authority. Ironically that group was set up in part to remove parochial politics from the equation. It’s now mired in even thicker politics with Seattle lawmaker Chopp.
As reported by The Seattle Times’ Scott Greenstone, Chopp big-footed the $2 million in grants back to Seattle’s Low Income Housing Institute — a nonprofit he co-founded — which manages the city’s tiny house villages, and would also have managed the proposed one near the Mirabella.
But the regional group, which is now in charge, clearly does not favor tiny house villages as a shelter strategy. Also they said they hoped to “diversify” by including other nonprofits.
The Mirabella folks are like a benevolent ladybug that flew into a spiderweb.
“I see people working very hard at not solving the problem,” Benfield says. “The government agencies, the nonprofits, the politicians are caught up in power struggles. We sat in meeting after meeting where they were expending a lot of energy, but it was on maneuvering. They’ve lost sight of the goal.”
That goal is supposed to be helping people get up and off the streets. There are disagreements about how best to do that, which hopefully this new regional group will resolve. But c’mon, we’re more than six years into this emergency.
The city, the regional group and the nonprofits all say it’s a top priority to put a new shelter of some type in South Lake Union. Yet as of now there isn’t one planned. Despite this unprecedented volunteer push from the Mirabella residents.
Says Pehrson: “We set out to get an education and we got one.”
Professor Jeffry Sonnenfeld (Yale University) has developed a list of companies who did, or continue to do business in Russia. The list is divided into five categories, ranging from “Withdrawal” a clean break with to “Digging In” – those who are committed to retaining their involvement in Russia.
Since the invasion of Ukraine began, over 450 companies have announced their withdrawal from Russia—but some companies have continued to operate in Russia undeterred.
Originally conceptualized as a simple “withdraw” vs. “remain” list, our new list of companies now consists of five categories:
2) SUSPENSION – Keeping Options Open for Return: companies temporarily curtailing operations while keeping return options open;
3) SCALING BACK – Reducing Activities: companies scaling back some business operations while continuing others;
4) BUYING TIME – Holding Off New Investments/Developments: companies postponing future planned investment/development/marketing while continuing substantive business;
5) DIGGING IN – Defying Demands for Exit: companies defying demands for exit/reduction of activities
Download the list as an excel spreadsheet by clicking below. (make sure to “download” the file from Box as an excel document rather than “previewing” for best file quality)
The list is updated continuously by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and his team of experts, research fellows, and students at the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute to reflect new announcements from companies in as close to real time as possible.
Our list has already garnered extensive coverage for its role in helping catalyze the mass corporate exodus from Russia.
When this list was first published the week of February 28, only several dozen companies had announced their departure.
Hundreds of companies have withdrawn in the days since, and we are humbled that our list helped galvanize millions around the world to raise awareness and take action.
Although we are pleased that our list has been widely circulated across company boardrooms, government officials, and media outlets as the most authoritative and comprehensive record of this powerful, historic movement, we are most inspired by the thousands of messages we have received from readers across the globe, especially those from Ukraine, and we continue to welcome your tips, insights, and feedback.
Please refer to Jeffrey Sonnenfeld’s insights and commentary below on why our work matters.
I don’t understand why we are not talking about this:
Remember that Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, worked for the pro-Putin Ukrainian government. Remember when support for Ukraine was removed from the Republican Party platform in 2016. We thought it fishy then; well, now it’s beginning to smell even more.
President Trump withheld approved funding to Ukraine and tried to blackmail President Volodymyr Zelensky into providing a political favor — a corruption investigation into Joe Biden.
Mr. Trump wanted the U.S. to withdraw from NATO He devised a plan, reversed by President Biden, to take troops out of Germany. And all of this seemed completely bonkers at the time.
Now Mr. Trump called Vladimir Putin a “genius” as he invaded Ukraine. At what point do we seriously consider whether Mr. Trump is a Russian operative?
Janet Woodworth Kirkville, N.Y.
Posted inCrime, Politics|Comments Off on Why aren’t we talking about this?
At the end of March, the Washington State Transportation Commission will be sending you a link to a new FROG survey that will ask for your input on WSF’s recent performance (January to March 2022).
To get as many people involved as possible, we are hoping we can enlist your help in getting more people to join the FROG and take the survey. The more people we hear from, the more impact your collective voice will have.
If you know of any ferry riders or people interested in ferry issues, who might want to participate, please pass this email along to them. All they need to do to sign up is click on the link below and fill out a short form:
(HERE IS THE LINK YOU CAN SHARE FOR OTHERS TO JOIN FROG) CLICK HERE TO JOIN the Ferry Riders’ Opinion Group – It only takes a few minutes to join and receive an email invitation to participate in our next survey.
We truly do appreciate you taking the time to share your views via the surveys and appreciate any help you can lend us in getting more folks to join the FROG community.
Sincerely,
Roy Jennings, Chair Washington State Transportation Commission http://wstc.wa.gov/
Posted inTransportation|Comments Off on Ferry Rider? Take a survey
Skyline’s Ikebana teacher shares the thoughts of the cherry tree
Double cherry blossoms
flutter in the wind,
one petal after another.
Shiki
As the years pass and we grow older,
we realize that no moment repeats itself.
They are all unique.
Sofu Teshigahara
Happy Springtime to all!
Equinox—that moment of perfect balance
between two polar opposites.
Light and Dark, Fire and Ice, Bitter and Sweet.
Let us celebrate with listening
to the words of a master.
CHERRY
I can be so sweet,
I can be so bitter.
I am Cherry.
While I provided the elixir that gave the Greek deities their immortality, I also provide a bed of blossoms for the magic Phoenix of China to sleep on, ensuring the continuous flow of its vibrant energy. In the Isles of Japan, I am called Sakura. Springtime festivals are held far and wide for simply viewing my blooming splendor in quiet contemplation of life’s many precious moments as my petals begin to fall.
A world of grief and pain,
even when cherry blossoms
have bloomed.
Issa
While my natural habitat spreads far and wide around the globe, I am a tree that often grows alone among other forest inhabitants. The peoples of the North Country, finding me in blossom in their wanderings through the woods, consider it to be a welcome and auspicious omen for the coming year. While my wood is tightly grained and sturdy, I provide magic walking sticks for Scottish Highlanders that prevent them from getting lost in the mist.
Mother shake the cherry tree,
Susan catch a cherry.
Oh how fun that will be,
let’s be merry!
One for brother, one for sister,
two for mother more,
six for father, hot and tired,
knocking at the door.
Christina Rosetti
The name cherry is derived from French cerise, Spanish cereza. My fruit has been a favorite of Homo Sapiens from time immemorial, as cherry pits have been found scattered in dwellings dating from the Bronze Age. It was in Asia Minor where humans first began cultivating me, while I made my way to Rome with returning general Lucius Licinus Lucullus in 72 BC. I gradually traveled from there northwards, introduced to England by Henry VIII who tasted me on a visit to Flanders. And then in the early 1600s, the Dutch made me a home in Brooklyn, NY, on the site of the former colony “New Netherland“. Heading out west from there, I was warmly welcomed in both Michigan and Wisconsin and then on to the West Coast, in California, Oregon and Washington.
I am of the large family, Prunus. Of its 1000 plus species, just a few have given birth to the various varieties of modern commercial cherries. The two main parents are Prunus Avium, Latin “of the birds”. I provide tasty sweet treats for my feathered friends while they in turn help me with propagation. The other parent is Prunus Cerasus. Bitter fruit, sour to the taste. This is the cherry responsible for cherry pies and Cherries Jubilee. Need I say more about that!
And then there’s my wood, especially my characteristic burls, highly prized for its hues and colors, great for turning, to craft vessels and bowls and bagpipes, too. Oh, and my resin. Great chewing gum, kids love it.
I gave my love a cherry, that has no stone.
How can there be a cherry, that has no stone?
A cherry when it’s bloomin’, it has no stone.
Appalachian Folk Song
I can be so sweet! Just ask the Celtic sweethearts pledging themselves to each other as they each sip from the quaich, the ritual wedding cup carved from my magic wood. And I can be so bitter. Just ask the orchardist who lies awake in the wee hours of a springtime morning, praying to the frost gods to please hold off for just a few more nights. Just a short hour’s icy kiss can spell sudden doom for the year’s entire crop. Bitter indeed. But then, such is life’s journey, is it not? The bitter and the sweet. Let us close my story with where we began. Gazing at my lovely pink blossoms, astounded by their pristine beauty, then seeing them begin to fall, one by one. . .reminding us of the need to savor ever more deeply life’s many precious moments.
I can be so sweet,
I can be so bitter.
I am Cherry.
Be safe. Be well.
See you in April!
Charles
Posted inEssays|Comments Off on Bittersweet from Charles Coghlan
Reload document 
Open in new tab 
