We're Back...

....back from our trip to Maui! David and I have made this an annual trek the last couple of years. We go to Maui to get some much-needed sunshine so we can survive the black winters around here. However, this trip to Maui was a little bit stormy. When we arrived, the power had been out on Maui; trees had blown over; the roads were flooded and some were impassable.

We spent the first three days on the island in our room reading books, typing on the computer (editing stories) and eating whatever came our way.

The last two days there were sunshiny and bright, which made it all worthwhile. David and I explored a little bit and checked in at the surfing championships (the Billabong) north of where we stay at Ka'anapali.

It was pretty warm, but not the first few days. I wore everything I had to walk on the beach one day.

Sears and the New Gas Stove

In addition to the exterior changes we're making, we've updated some interior stuff. Like I re-did the cabana for guests (see the cabana posts from July for pictures.)

David, back in May, bought a new gas stove for our kitchen from Sears. So the evening after my rotten experience with the exterior door I told David I would cook dinner. I was frying up the Chinese tofu dish that Susan Duncan taught me to make. I had my back turned to the stove as I was chopping vegetables for stir-fry. Suddenly I hear a beeping alarm coming from the stove. I turned around to see that the plastic keypad on the stove had melted (!) and a flashing F11 sign was telling me to do something.

I turned everything off, but the alarm wouldn't quit sounding. I had to call David to help me get the stove entirely unplugged to make it stop beeping.

When I called Sears they blamed me for this problem; but the "diagnostician" will be here on Monday am to see how much it will cost to fix. In the meantime, David and I are using the Cabana stove top for making coffee and food; but we have no oven. And that's a shame, since today is David's 65th birthday and I wanted to make him a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.

Changing an Exterior Door

David and I have been slowly updating some stuff around the exterior of our house this year, in an effort to make sure all is secure, no water leaking in, etc. We re-stuccoed and painted the Cabana, which made our out-building (and guest quarters!) safe, sound and comfy!

We have been trying to replace an exterior door on the side of our house for several months now. I decided to not do this ourselves, but hire a professional carpenter to help out. We called in August. Made an appointment for September. Went to see about ordering a new door and the first roadblock was apparent: Our exterior door is not a standard size, so the door had to be manufactured specially for the job.

This last week, some two months after ordering the door, our carpenter called to say it was in. I left work in a rush and came home to meet the carpenter. We excitedly ripped off the south side of the house, in preparation of the new door. The new door was a beauty: a nicely made exterior door with tempered low-e glass in a rectangle down the middle, brass hinges and a sturdy threshold that would help keep the inside warm and the spiders outside.

So we prepared to put in the door, but something was wrong. It was too narrow (by about 3 inches) and too tall (by about 2 inches). This wasn't good. The carpenter looked at the paperwork and we ordered the correct dimensions; the manufacturer, for some unknown reason, manufactured a door to the wrong dimensions.

We can't go and buy a door that fits. So we called another manufacturer, played the lottery to see if another manufacturer could use a tape measure, and it will be another month to get the new door.

The WORST part was putting the old door back up, and tacking up all the rotten old trim again. It looks worse than before; I joked with the carpenter that he may want to pay me to be quiet that he put that old door back on (it looks so awful). He wasn't amused.

It's now raining, cold, and the wind is whipping underneath the door. Let's not talk about the spider traffic.

Lights Out, Updated

Although I seem to think it's a good idea to turn off lights, the City of Portland administration does not. I received this e-mail from an aide to Mayor Tom Potter:

This sounds like something that the Energy Trust of Bureau of Sustainable Development (BSD) might consider. That said, BSD is hesitant to talk about darken the west coast. Darken implies the negative side of conservation...using less at the expense of standard of living. Remember Jimmy Carter and his sweater in a cold room! BSD prefers efficiency and that is the recent direction of national and regional programs, for example, the "change a light, change the world" program which encourages use of CFLs.

All I can to this response is: You couldn't turn off one light for one hour on one day of your life to make a point? Evidently, the city administration isn't ready to make any points. That's too bad.

Lights Out, Portland!

A couple of weeks ago David and I saw the movie "Arid Lands"a documentary feature about the land and people of the Columbia Basin in southeastern Washington state. The film was done by a couple of kids (well, they're 20-somethings so they're kids to us) and it is exceptional. It captures, in the inhabitants own words, their feelings about the Tri-Cities in Washington, from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation,to agricultural interests, to sport fishing, to environmentalists.

One of the messages of the film is how the folks in the Tri-Cities feel about Portland. (Not positively). At about 5:00 pm the river levels drop up there when Portlanders go home and turn on their lights. That really surprised me; I had no idea that power usage anywhere determined the water level in the river. (That's an admission that I'm really stupid or something, but whatever: I'll admit it)

Anyway, when the river levels drop up there there are serious consequences, not the least of which are the effects on the fish, or more accurately, smolt. They can die easily if they're stranded on the banks with no water.

Then, I started thinking about what it would mean if people in Portland turned their power off for a day. David and I discussed that it was improbable we'd get many people to join into that experiment. A few days later I saw an event posting in San Francisco. A group has picked a date in March 2008 where they are asking San Franciscans to turn off one light bulb for one hour on one day. If they coordinate this right, and people do it, they figure that they will save 15% of the normal power consumed in San Francisco on a Saturday evening.

Why don't we do the same thing in Portland???? Heck, couldn't we turn off TWO bulbs for TWO hours and beat San Francisco??? What's wrong with us if we think turning off a light bulb for one hour is an inconvenience???

Anyway, I'm on a mission now. Come on, Portland, we can do it. Let's turn off our light bulbs March 29, 2008 from 8:00-10:00 pm - let's get our neighbors to the north in Seattle and our neighbors to the south in Los Angeles to join us. Let's darken the West Coast for an hour or two on a Saturday night and let's see how much energy we can save. I would love to see satellite pictures of the West Coast turning off its lights on March 29, 2008 for an hour or two and save some smolt in the Columbia River, and maybe make the people in the Tri-Cities a little less irritated with us.

Italy Update

My friend Carolyn and her family are back in their routine in Cesena. Recently, Carolyn let me know that her Mom had suffered another setback with her bowel problem, and had been hospitalized again. But all is evidently fine again.

I remember one fall Sunday when my roommate or someone in Munich invited me to go out to Cloister Andechs, a S-Bahn trainride away from Munich. One Sunday we went out and attended a church service, exiting the train and making a trek around a village and up a hill to the castle of sorts. The buildings were right out of the middle ages.

After the service, a monk motioned everyone to go out the side door of the church into a bright courtyard where I was surprised to see a full-service restaurant with a commanding view of the countryside. There were several chickens roasting, a bunch of kegs, and what-not. But what surprised me the most were the kegs of beer. The monks specialized in brewing beer. That blew my North American Protestant mind.

Carolyn took her family to Munich in August and they visited Andechs. Here's a funny picture of Antonio from that trip (and no, he wasn't really drinking beer).

Kindness, People

Yesterday I drove into downtown Portland at lunchtime to do some errand. I was driving behind a van that had a couple of bumper-stickers on the back. I love bumper stickers and was catching up to the van so I could read one. It said: "When everyone yogas the world will be a better place." A bumper sticker on the other side of the van read "Namaste." I was clearly following a yoga fanatic.

Just then, a mercedes pulled out in front of the van, causing the van to swerve. The van driver shouted angrily at the mercedes driver and shook his fist at him, clearly not practicing loving kindness. Oh, well.

When Mahatma Gandhi was asked what he thought of Western Civilization, his response was "I think it would be a good idea." I would add the addendum, as I am guilty of it nearly every day, that civil people everywhere would be a good idea. Starting now I'm going to practice kindness and see how it goes. I will try to think of one thing I can do every day to be kind in an unkind world. It may be more courteous driving. It may be doing the dishes at work. It may be sending somebody flowers unexpectedly. I don't know, but starting now I'm going to try it for a week. I'll let you know how it goes.....