Hours of Daylight 13:52
Well, this is a tad overdue, but i’ve actually been just a bit busy. I’ve reached that stage where i can turn the littlest things, yard, sweeping, playing with the cats, doing the odd web-job, into an all-day affair. Thus when i actually have to do somethine i become frantically busy.
What am i doing? Well, for better or worse, i’m “teaching” an online intro to computers in health care. It’s basically an intro to the Windoze operating system and the Office suite of tools, but i completely understand there are plenty of folks out there who don’t have hands-on experience with these tools. I’m happy to help, and to offer whatever subversion i can (i was toying with the idea of adding things like “windows sucks” in hidden places, but thought better of it). Classes start on monday, so i’ve been trying to figure out the Blackboard course system, how the gradebook works, etc. It’s all pretty new.
Ok, the second trip i allude to in the title of this post was another four day jaunt this time to the north of Idaho. Annette scheduled two days of meetings in the northern town of Coeur d’Alene. She’s very mindful that so many projects sponsored by universities here tend to focus on Ada county. Ada’s where most people live, but to limit studies to the “state of Ada” is to limit the reach and the effectiveness of the center she’s been tasked with starting. So…. off to Coeur d’Alene we went.
First, anybody who has read anything about Idaho in the mainstream press probably has read that the north is where the white supremacists and the heavily armed militias plotting the overthrow of the government do their thing. While that may still be true i was disapointed to find no overt evidence of either manner of group. I did find several Starbucks and loads of extremely rich white people. I noticed plenty of Hummers, Jaguars, Porches, and spiffy-clean F350 crew-cab pickup trucks. Clearly the money is flowing in northern Idaho.
While Annettte did her meetings i logged miles in the VW first trying to secure a place for us to camp (we’d driven up planning to spend a summer weekend w/o any reservations), then scoping out the local scenery. By showing up early at the visitor center of Farragut State Park we managed to score two nights in different sites. The park was booked solid. I managed to snag one of the few cancellations.
Farragut is a very big, very nice state park with a great deal of shoreline fronting on Lake Pend Orielle. Yes, like Minnesota, they butcher the French here too. It is pronouced “pond-uh-ray.” Of course pond-uh-ray sounds better than the English translation “ear lobe lake.” Pend Orielle is quite deep at about 1,156 feet. The tiny town of Bayview past Farragut State Park is home to the Navy’s Acoustic Research Detachment which, the tourist propaganda explains, is involved in “environmentally sound research using advanced sonar equipment.” I got a chuckle at the pun there…. environmentally “sound” acoustic research. Har! All i know is they’re not blasting the eardrums of any Blue Whales from their mysterious floating sheds near the center of the lake. The humor continues with the sign by the front gate “Welcome to the ARD” and the little white submarine in one of the hangers under a sign stating “World’s largest remote controlled submarine” with a happy face painted on the nose. It’s a nice base… looks brand new. Anyway… i didn’t stop to take any pictures for fear i’d be whisked away by homeland security and, at the very least, have my camera confiscated.
I did take some pictures in downtown Spokane. Years ago (like 12 years ago) Annette and i traveled through Spokane on the return leg of our “big trip.” Not too long after that trip the original MYST was released and made a small company in Spokane a ton of money. That combined with the whole internet hype thing brought me to the conclusion that Spokane was well-placed to be the “next big thing.”
Well…. yeah, i was pretty much wrong in that prediction. Spokane still exists, and like most small cities, it’s spreading at the fringes to encompass nearby small cities, but it is a town in major need of a coat of paint, and some serious re-investment. While not victimized by urban snake-oil salesmen to the extent of Saint Paul, it nonetheless bears the scars of “hey! this is what the city needs” kind of progress. Probably the most noticeable item is the “Parkade.” The Parkade is a massive parking garage just about dead center of downtown. Now, before you jump on me saying “cities need parking” let me clarify that nobody needs the Parkade. At least nobody needs it in the center of downtown. “But then you’re close to everything.” Whatever! It’s UGLY. Put the art museum and the performing arts complex with the main stage and the film screening rooms adjoining the library in the center of your city. Rather than one honkin’ “Parkade” put two or three smaller garages outside of downtown and provide safe streets for people to walk on. God knows we need the excercise.
About the photos: note how well the Parkade ramps are integrated with the local architecture.
This Nike logo placement is only one step better than seeing it on the sneakers of all those folks in San Diego who committed suicide.
I guess Spokane has a serious crime issue with people abusing vending machines. I only shot this one, but there were plenty more examples.
One of the lingering events from Spokane’s past is some kind of “expo.” Basically in the 70’s Spokane played host to a big “international event.” I tried to read a plaque explaining it, but the grafitti made it difficult. Essentially there’s an island in the Spokane River where a whole host of things were set up. There are performance spaces, and bridges and pedestrian walkways, an Imax theatre and lots of other things. The problem, as i’m sure you know by my ongoing pessimistic attitude, is that these things are all degrading due to lack of maintenance. No, it’s not Cleveland where the animals are taking over the streets in some parts, but it all returns to the immortal quote by Kurt Vonnegut Senior, “everybody wants to be an architect, nobody wants to be a janitor.” By way of example I’m guessing the wireframe structure in the photo at right once had some kind of covering when it was new. Now it’s basically a massive pigeon roost where they poop on the rides and the people below. Of course i could be wrong and it never had a cover and it always was a poop-o-matic. But today the paint is peeling in sheets from the upper and lower rings and rust is taking hold. Everybody wants the Expo… nobody wants to be responsible for what happens when the Expo’s over.
Lastly, upon leaving Farragut State Park, we went down a side road to see what was there. As we rolled along i noticed words painted on the road. This is common in state parks… and i tend to read them as Yoda would speak them “Green Idaho Keep” and so on, so i ignored these words.
“I have no idea what that said,” Annette mentioned as we passed the third word.
On the way back out i paid more attention. Don’t be a what?
