Cycling

Finally, finally! I was able to start biking to work again. After being pregnant, then recovering from the c-section, and finally breaking my wrist, this feels long overdue. But I'm recovered from it all, the wrist brace came off, and the snow is mostly melted now. I hopped on my bike Monday morning, elated, and by the time I got halfway to work my legs were burning and my lungs were working overtime. What the heck? This was before the hill I had to conquer, too. I had thought I was in pretty decent shape once again. Sure, I've been avoiding push-ups while my wrist was healing, but I've been running on weekends and doing what I think of as my "baby weight exercises" on weeknights. That is, on weeknights I've been doing any and all exercises I can do while holding or at least involving my daughter: squats (60, with the 14-15ish pound weight of my baby), lunges (30-50, each side, again with the baby), leg lifts that I could do while smiling at and talking to my girl. She's enjoyed these times more than I have, since she wasn't pushing herself to do more. :)
So I was very surprised when I found myself so out of biking shape on Monday. As soon as I started up the hill, I was gasping for air. I downshifted, I pushed through even though my thighs were burning. And I did make it to the top, but my legs felt like jelly. Over the course of the day, my rear end got saddle-sore as well, but that was expected. I kept telling myself not to feel bad, that I'll get back into biking shape again soon. I mentioned on Facebook that I'd started biking again and a friend reminded me that that hill gets easier pretty fast.
It wasn't until the end of the day, during my ride home (I get to go "Wheeeeee!" down that hill) when I was trying to take my mind off of how sore my butt was that I realized: the first summer I got this job, when I first started biking up that hill, I couldn't make it. I had to stop halfway up and walk the rest of the way. I got better quick enough, but still. The fact is, I couldn't make it all the way up for nearly the first month of biking that hill. I further realized that, though my legs had felt rubbery that morning, that went away quickly. By the time I rode home, other than my sore backside, I was feeling great. Even after everything I listed in that second sentence (having a kid, recovering from an emergency c-section, breaking my wrist) I'm in better shape than I was five years ago. This is something that most people can't say, even without throwing in major abdominal surgery.
I felt like crap riding in that day, but I rode home smiling and feeling proud of myself. And my friend was right, by the next day I already had an easier time getting up that hill.

Life, the Universe, and Everything

Ok, I'm not really going to talk about the Universe. I lied. But I do have a bunch of other cool, and some not-so-cool, things to talk about on varying subjects.
As you may have noticed, I really haven't written much lately. Turns out, becoming a mom has taken away much of my free time. I would have more if my child napped with any consistency or for any length, but she doesn't so I don't. *shrug* What time I do have is usually spent catching up on chores, or just reading. You never realize how much mental energy it takes to keep up with a child and work full-time until you have to do it. Add in tax season and craziness at work (annual evaluations with a completely crazy supervisor, woo) and I've been feeling a little overwhelmed. But in some ways, it's brought me to a good place. It's all forced me to take a good look at my wants and needs, to figure out what is unnecessary stress in my life. Take my garden, for instance. What will be the most satisfying for me? Well, obviously I want to still garden. But, fighting with the weeds and grass in the actual dirt area we have isn't working for me any more. I don't have the time, and I don't have the money to make it right. So this year I'm focusing solely on my garden boxes. However, I am willing to put more time and money into those than I have been. Since they're also the most productive part of my garden, the ROI should be pretty good. And I don't have to stress about what I haven't been doing.
The other benefit of the garden boxes is that they're portable. It sounds like we'll have to move out of our place sometime soon. We were really hoping to stay here until we move out of Alaska (sometime next summer-Shane just found out that he'll finish his degree next Spring!) but there's been a change of regime. Our old landlord sold the duplex, and the new landlady wants to move in downstairs. For now, they've moved in upstairs. Apparently the plan is to fix up the upstairs (to try to rent it out for an exorbitant and crazy amount - $2500!!!) and then move downstairs, where we currently are. She hasn't given us a good timeline, so we're just trying to find something before we're forced to take something at the last minute. Bleh. Again, though, it's making us look around at our Stuff. What's necessary, what isn't? We might have to rent a smaller place, so what can/should we take with us and what should be gotten rid of? I'm paring down the baby stuff a bit (clothes which we were given but won't re-use for a second child, some of the baby blankets which we don't need) and I'm even going through a formerly untouchable category: my books. The idea is to pare down before we actually have to pack it all up.
We have also gained some things recently, however. One of Shane's relatives bought a couch (on clearance) which she didn't like when she got it home. So she bought another couch, and needed to get rid of this one. She gave it to us. Yay! We actually have a decent couch now! We got rid of the second half of our horrible, ugly, broken Cat Pee Couch (seriously, we discovered when we moved it that the cat had been peeing in one corner--thankfully, it was so uncomfortable that we never sat on it!) and put this lovely new couch in its place.
Our upstairs neighbors have moved out, since the new landlady is moving up there. Someone rang our doorbell by accident asking about a piece of furniture that they were selling, and that gave me an idea. The next time I saw them I asked if they had an old T.V. stand that they'd be willing to sell to me. The answer was, "Please, just take it! We don't want money for it, we just don't want to haul it away." So I got a free T.V. stand, in decent shape, to replace the rickety little bookshelf that our T.V. had been sitting on. Thus, we got rid of my biggest babyproofing worry: that she would pull the T.V. over on herself when she starts crawling and pulling herself up to stand. We'll attach the T.V. to the stand so that she can't pull just it over, but now we don't have to worry about the bookshelf and the T.V. falling over. The stand is nice and low and sturdy, just what we wanted. And, just like the couch it was at the right price: free.
In addition to the T.V. stand, one of the neighbors is a liquor distributor and didn't want to move a bunch of half empty tasting bottles he had around. So, he gave them to us. Yep, you read that right. Free booze. And not even a small amount, either. We're not talking bottom shelf liquor, but good stuff, and not all of it has been opened. At my household's normal rate of consumption this is more than 6 months worth of liquor, even assuming we throw a party or two (or bring some along to other parties). I used some of the vodka straight away to make vanilla extract, since I'd been meaning to buy vodka for that purpose for the last month but always forgot. Now, I don't have to worry about it for quite a while.
We went to Arctic Man over the weekend. For me, it really wasn't that interesting. It can be summed up by "A tribute to the decadence of the first world." Or "fat men on snowmachines who think they're so sporty...because they can ride a machine real fast." Ugh. Not my scene at all. the wastefulness of it all, the amount of oil that was burned just in this one weekend. Not to mention everything else. Because people were camped out, a lot of them scoured Craigslist for free couches that they didn't mind having around a campfire. And on the last night, all those couches got burned so that people didn't have to haul them out. !!!! Yeah, you can probably imagine what I felt about that. Then there were all of the motorhomes, and I'm sure lots of food waste and packaging and whatnot. I went for a walk with the baby at one point and a girl on a 4-wheeler stopped and asked me if I wanted a ride. She looked at me as if I was crazy. After all, who would want to walk, right? I said no, of course, and she said, "Oooo-kaaaay," as if she totally didn't get it. Wow. Just wow.
Anyway, we went because my in-laws were going with some friends, and my FIL hasn't seen the baby since New Year's. Unfortunately, she was mildly ill most of the weekend and, especially with the new circumstances, just wanted to be with me the whole weekend. Oh well. But the in-laws were also about to take a trip to Hawaii so they'd brought up a bunch of food for us. A lasagna, a ham (part of which was eaten there), some milk, and a bunch of fruit. Banana bread. So our food bill should be almost non-existent this week, which is nice, especially since we came home to a sick cat.
I took Monday off anyway to watch the ill baby (just a precaution) and myself (I was feeling under the weather too, I just didn't realize it until we got home), so making a vet appointment when I discovered that our cat was peeing blood (I know! poor guy!) wasn't as hectic as it could have been. Still, forcing the cat into the kennel (with gloves on) and taking him to the vet, yowling the whole way, and with the baby, wasn't the most pleasant of activities. I think I need to talk to my child about being kind to animals, though, because she thought his cries of distress were pretty hilarious.
Thankfully, it is *just* a bladder infection. His kidneys seem fine, and the peeing blood should stop within 48 hours. I wish I could tell him that. He might be more willing to take his medicine that way.
So, life goes on. You win some, you lose some. For the most part, things have been going really well for us. Finding out that Shane only has one more year of school was a huge, huge plus. We're nervous and excited because we're not sure where life will take us after that, but it will be good. I'm certain of it.

Boom and Bust

There was an article today in the Huffington Post about one of Shell's arctic drilling ships running aground in Dutch Harbor. Of course, Shell has issued a rather huffy response saying that no such thing happened, but the pictures tell their own story.
Lots of focus will be--and should be--spent on what this means for Arctic drilling. The fact that they can't keep control of one of their ships in waters far south of the Arctic Sea is a troubling sign of what will probably be a more exaggerated problem when (if! please, if!) drilling gets started. This is a serious problem and not something to be taken lightly. I'm glad the article even called out Senator Murkowski for trying to help block Greenpeace.
But the one thing they never talked about was the economics. Yes, they mention the billions of dollars that can be made from such a venture. I'm sure that, if this gets going, plenty of workers will come from other places and make a lot of money. Will it actually help the average Alaskan? Only because those outside workers will be forced to spend some of their money here. And yes, there will be some Alaskans who get hired on, mostly for things like grunt work. But the bulk of the jobs will most likely go to people from outside the state.
Alaska has already been through several boom and bust cycles. The gold rush, the pipeline days. My parents still talk about the pipeline days and just how easy things were around here. You know what happened after the pipeline finished? It caused a state recession which forced my family to move because there simply were not enough jobs, let alone jobs that paid well enough to keep a family of six afloat. The boom years are great, and I'm sure people around here would love them. But the article didn't focus on what happens after the boom, when bust comes around again and people who can afford it flee the state. Those who don't have the money or resources to flee are stuck in a place where money has suddenly dried up like a creek in a drought. I don't think I need to describe the devastation that happens to a place when funding dries up, since that's what we're seeing nationally right now. It can be rather catastrophic, no? Would that make you happy, to see what's coming and not be able to stop it? That's the position I feel like I'm in right now.
Nationally, we're going through a bust cycle coming off the boom years. It's been a long time coming, and what usually happens is happening. Poor people are figuratively being thrown under the bus with services, public transportation, and welfare being cut. When the average person can't make it, can you imagine what it's like for the poor? Now imagine that in Alaska, where it's easy to freeze to death if you can't pay your heating bill. Where the electric company shuts off your electricity even in the depths of winter for not paying. Where poverty is already quite high, and people live on the brink of destitution even in the best of times. Think of the starvation as people make the decision, heat or eat? (This is already quite a common problem for many Alaskans.)
I don't want any of this for my state. I think we need to find a more sustainable economy. If people don't make as much money in the short-term, I'm fine with that. A more sustainable economy would mean that everyone gets their fair share, not just those willing to rape the environment. We need to work our way away from an economy based around oil. We have so many other natural resources which are threatened or damaged by the extraction industries, and the politicians just don't get it. What they see is the money, not the land or the people who will be truly affected.
Can you tell I'm getting a bit jaded about our supposed "leadership"? I'm just not sure what I can do to create change, other than by speaking out in my silly little blog. I know there's a way to create a more sustainable Alaska, to capitalize on all that we have in a way which doesn't wreck the environment. I just don't feel that it's getting enough attention, from the media or the politicians.

"What's the point of wearing butt floss if I'm not getting credit for it?"

I really don't have much to say today. This week is going to be CRAZY at work, for a variety of reasons, and I think a lot of my energy is going to go to that. Which sucks because work has been particularly frustrating the last couple of days. Things have gone wrong and I don't know why, and I've had to clean up the mistakes of people who quit or retired years ago. It's making me actually look forward to my evening run tonight because then at least I don't have to interact with anyone else.
Some days, I could so easily become a hermit.
However, I did want to highlight someone in Alaska who (very deservedly) won an environmental award for her work in advocating for native Alaskans and the subsistence way of life. She's been tirelessly working to point out that all of the business and industry has an impact (almost universally, negative) on the subsistence lifestyle of native people. And of course, since no one lives in a bubble, her advocacy on behalf of native Alaskans has helped all of us.
The plants at home haven't started coming up yet and I'm very impatient. But I already knew that.
When Shane used a paper towel last night, he was about to throw it away and I told him to put it in the compost. Then he told me that I'm getting "too hippie" for him, and I had to tell him about the sandwich gardening thing. Because apparently he didn't listen the first four times I said I wanted to try that. Somehow, the fact that it wasn't composting for the sake of composting made it all right in his eyes.
With the warm weather and the fact that he now gets to/wants to go outside, our cat has mellowed out so much. He'll even snuggle a bit with Shane, which never happens over the winter, and he'll allow me to hold him for minutes at a time. (I think mostly because it gives him a better vantage point to see outside.) It's wonderful.
Oh, and the "dirt" that the dog got into the other day turned out not to be dirt at all. It was fertilizer. Organic fertilizer, thankfully, and she didn't eat it. She just tore open the package and strewed it all over the dining room. To cover up a pee spot. (Shane did help me clean up. Apparently he thought I'd "find it funny". He was wrong.) I know my dog, and I'm 100% certain that she did all of this simply because she was mad that I hadn't taken her for a run or walk in a few days. She's lucky I didn't strangle her. As usual, she spent most of the evening looking sad and trying to snuggle with me in an effort to make up for her bad behavior. I finally took her for a walk later in the evening. In her excitement, I'm pretty sure the entire neighborhood heard us start out for the walk. We also got another dog to misbehave miserably, and terrified a sweet young couple out for an evening stroll. It was a thoroughly successful walk.

Pure Folly

I'm sorry if I've seemed a little absent lately. I could say I've been busy (which is true) but that feels like a cop-out to me. Honestly, I just haven't felt much like writing. I guess all my creativity has gone into "The Music Man". :)
On top of that, though, I've been sore and uncomfortable. I actually felt like running on Friday afternoon (I hate running, and don't usually enjoy it so I try to take advantage when I do) but the dog got over-excited and was a terrible running partner. She tripped me several times by stopping in front of me (usually on the ice because, you know, why would she want to stop on bare ground when I could easily stop too?), which culminated in one flying leap in an attempt to avoid kicking the dog, then having my foot slip out from under me (we were on an icy downhill) on the landing. I have what is now my largest bruise ever: a softball sized bruise on my left butt cheek. (I know, I know, TMI!) But can you see now why sitting in front of a computer to write doesn't seem so appealing? Sitting, in general, is not my favorite activity. Add in this bruise and I've been avoiding it as much as possible. It's even made me tired because every time I roll over in my sleep I put pressure on the bruise and it wakes me up. The dog has been trying to apologize by snuggling against my back (like a buffer) every night.
But this morning, I saw something that offended me so terribly that I had to write. Apparently, there was a rally here to try to get the state government to lower the oil and gas taxes. Not what we pay at the pump, but what the companies (like Exxon and BP) pay for the privilege of drilling here. Let's ignore for the minute the fact that the past few years have been a boom time for oil company profits and go straight to the heart of the issue. IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT THEIR TAXES AND TAX RATES ARE, THE FACT IS THAT THEY NEED THE OIL AND WE HAVE IT. There. We have what they need. Of course they want their taxes lowered. If they can get what they want from us and make just a few cents more in profit, they'll do it. The idea that their tax rate is too high is a pure lie. A lie which, apparently, fooled over 200 people who went to the rally.
Giving into this is folly on the grandest of scales. Forget trump cards, forget having the best hand. We hold ALL of the cards. They'll drill no matter what the tax rate is because they don't have any other choice. Also, having our state lower their taxes still wouldn't meant that the federal government would give them the permits needed to drill. OUR STATE HAS VERY LITTLE SAY IN THIS MATTER. Why should we give in to what is essentially blackmail from the oil companies? ("Give us tax cuts or we won't drill here anymore!")
This is a debate that's been raging since last summer when the same companies asked for over $2 billion dollars in tax cuts from the state. I can't believe there are people, ordinary people, who agree with that sentiment. How much improvement could be made to the infrastructure and schools in our state with just one tenth of the money they were asking for in tax cuts? How many state workers could get well-earned raises with that money? How much of it could go into research?
The idea that they need anything in tax breaks when they're pulling in record profits is just absurd. I sincerely hope the lawmakers in my state are intelligent enough to remember that.