Peace and Resolve

Nothing much to report. I checked my fall quarter grades online: I got a 4.0 in French 201. I don't think I deserved it, and I know I need some review and drill to be ready for next quarter, but I've been very lazy so far over winter break.

In fact, most of the time I was working at the coffee shop I was on closing shift and didn't have to be at work until mid-day, so it's been more than three years since I've had to wake to an alarm clock, or be out of bed before 9am regularly. I told myself this is one of the rare, few benefits of restaurant/retail work, and I had a right to enjoy it.

But now I have no excuse. I haven't been setting my alarm, but I am training myself to get out of bed as soon as I wake up if it's after 6am, instead of lazing, dozing and falling back to sleep until eight or nine. Next step is to practice a few simple yoga moves while my coffee is brewing.

Snow Day

About midnight last night it started to snow. I stayed up late writing last-minute holiday cards, but I resolved to get out early to play in the snow a little, as the forecast is for rain on Saturday.
In the morning there was about four inches on the ground, and more falling steadily. "Early" turned out to be around 11am. I bundled up and took Rosebud, my old K2 hybrid, out for a little ride around town. I wasn't the first bike-rider out, and there were lots of dog-walkers about, too.

A Bend in the River

These aren't black & white photos, it was just a grey-scale kind of day.

I rode about five miles along the river, on the paths in VanderYacht Park, then stopped for coffee and pastry at the Haggen food court. Since I'm not a drinker, the food court, Woods Coffee, the library and the yoga studio are the centers of my social life here in Ferndale.

Looks like someone almost went in to the river during the morning commute. The car didn't seem to be skidding out of control, maybe the roadway hadn't been cleared yet and the driver couldn't find the lane. Or maybe some moron just wanted a closer view of the river. This is why I get very nervous riding around cars in snowy weather.

My leg and back muscles were straining to get through deeper snow on soft ground, but it was my hands and wrists that got really tired and sore.

My Little Town

There was a lot of car traffic for mid-day, and the main streets were already sloppy and dirty. By tomorrow it will be raining, the snow will be mostly gone, and the streets will be slushy and nasty.

But it's pretty and fun for one day.

Home again

Winter Break

Friday the 13th I took my final exam for autumn quarter. Now I have three and a half weeks off before winter quarter, 2014. For winter and spring, my class is scheduled at mid-day four days a week, so I can ride the bus both ways and won't have to use my bike to get home, but I do want to ride semi-regularly for exercise and recreation.

I'll have to harden up again. As a commuter it was routine for me to get out on the road in the dark every morning and ride through heat or cold, wind, rain, sleet, hail, snow, etc. then ride home again in the dark after work, adding or removing layers of clothing as necessary. Now I have to talk myself in to getting my bike out for a recreational ride, and I'm getting whiny and wimpy.

Instead I've been fattening up. A little bit, not that much. I did make one interesting dietary discovery in my yoga class, though. When training for long bike rides I've often been told "eat before you're hungry, drink before you're thirsty". Poor nutrition and hydration affects physical performance and attitude, and can cause adults to become as whiny, quarrelsome or tearful as any tired, hungry, thirsty six year old.

Yoga class really proved the value of a good diet, or rather the consequence of a bad one. A couple of times this winter, I've had buttered toast and coffee for breakfast, then spent the day running errands and doing chores, grabbing a donut and coffee along with my groceries, lunching on a bagel and cream cheese and coffee while running the laundry, returning home with less than an hour to change clothes before leaving for the yoga studio. Realizing I was hungry and should probably eat something healthy before class, I finished off a carton of yogurt and rushed out the door. In class I found my legs shaking with effort while holding lunges or warrior poses. I've had plenty of bike rides when I felt inexplicably sluggish and discouraged, but never "bonked" totally, but it was during those few moments of sustained effort in yoga that I could really feel that my muscles weren't getting enough fuel to support my weight.

At least it's a dry cold

When I got home Monday (the night of the WCC signboard below) I discovered the furnace switch was broken, and I had no heat. Luckily, I do have a poufy comforter and sleeping bag so I was able to sleep comfortably with the two. Then the next morning I had to sit around at home waiting for the furnace repairman, who did show up promptly and replace the switch quickly, so I have no complaints.

What the signboard doesn't show is the wind chill factor, which was probably enough to bring temperatures down to zero Farenheit. It's not uncommon to have windstorms with gusts in the 30-50mph range here, but they don't usually last more than one day or night. Last week the wind hardly let up for six days. Saturday morning when I went out for a coffee break the Nooksack River was dotted with patches of ice drifting down stream, and the Christmas tree at Riverside Park, though it seemed to be firmly anchored, was in danger of blowing to pieces before it was even lit up for the first time.

Wednesday I bicycled to school and back, lost another glove someplace, and had to ride home with just a glove liner on my right hand and a wind-shell glove with no liner on the left. Since then I've been holed up at home, studious and warm, with only daily excursions to the coffee shop for exercise and social life.

I've never seen ice on the Nooksack River in the eighteen years I've lived in the county. Today, Sunday, is warmer and calm. Some rain is predicted for later next week, which reminds me that rain and temperatures in the low forties is really not more comfortable than dry, freezing weather. The long-range forecast is for snow over New Year's weekend.

Unrelated Incidents

Monday night on my way home I came upon this unfortunate scene near the Cost Cutter grocery store in Ferndale. The bike wasn't damaged and it didn't look like there had been an accident with a car. Maybe the rider suddenly couldn't stand fighting the strong winds any more and abandoned. Or maybe he was arrested for not having proper lights and reflectors, although I seriously doubt Ferndale police enforce bicycle safety laws so rigorously.

I gathered up the bike and parcels. The food would have frozen overnight, in case the rider wanted to come back in the morning.

These photos are from a scene I happened upon about a month ago, when I went out for coffee on a Sunday morning. This is the intersection of Main Street and Hovander Road, below the railroad overpass. When I'm biking home from Bellingham I frequently come through this intersection, taking the left fork of the Y to make a tricky left turn just past the barriers, to cross the bridge on Main Street.

This must have happened early Saturday morning. It's difficult to tell where the car was coming from, or where the driver intended to go. Possibly he/she came up on the intersection too fast and was confused by all the arrows, walls and barriers. Or maybe he/she tried a free-form U-turn. Some sort of mental impairment seems likely, too.

The lamp post hasn't been replaced yet. It was more decorative than functional, though, so maybe an upgrade is being considered.

No such thing as bad weather . . .

. . . only the wrong clothes.

I'll be getting out my full winter-commuter wardrobe for the ride home from class tonight. After a sunny Thanksgiving day came three days of drenching rain. For today, Monday, they're predicting snow in the evening. Except for a walk to the cafe this morning, I've spent the day studying indoors, but I'll have to venture out just as the afternoon is beginning to turn dusky.

Fall quarter is almost over, though - only this week and next, four more class sessions, then the final exam at the end of next week. It's gone by so fast! My classes seemed to demand more study time outside of class than I remember, but maybe that's just evidence of how unmotivated and irresponsible I was during my first pass through the undergraduate years.

Winter and spring quarters, my class is scheduled for mid-afternoon, so I can ride the bus both ways, and won't have to bicycle home at night. I'll still need to fit in some regular time on the road, but I can choose the weather and ride in the day-time.

Just two minutes ago, the rain started again, with temperatures in the 40's. Time to start steeling myself for another school-day.

Later:

It was snowing a little when I left Ferndale by bus. Three hours later, when I headed home, the skies had cleared and a strong, cold wind was blowing from the north.

It was an invigorating ride home. My fingers and toes ached from the cold at first, but a few minutes of pedaling got my blood moving and my extremities warmed up, except for my nose and cheeks.

Thanksgiving Eve

I was supposed to have class 4-6pm this evening, or so I thought, but when I arrived on campus I found most buildings were dark. Only the advising and registration offices were open, this being registration week for next quarter. I had a brisk bike ride both ways, about fifteen miles total, which is a good thing because I've gained a little weight since summer and need to keep my metabolism revved up for the holidays. I went to a yoga class yesterday evening, and may go again on Friday morning after the holiday, if I can get going early in the morning.

Possibly the early school closure was due to early snow and good ski conditions on Mount Baker, inspiring students, faculty and staff all to head for the hills for the four-day weekend.

Mental Processes

One Bike to Work Day several years ago, a young woman I worked with in a business near the Bellingham airport, tried biking to work for the first time. She had to ride across a busy freeway overpass, and hadn't had her bike cleaned and tuned before the big day. Naturally, her chain jammed as she was crossing a freeway entrance during morning rush hour. She arrived at work a bit late and pretty shaken, saying she did not feel safe going through the freeway crossing, and would never try again. I'm not sure how she got home; probably someone with a car gave her a ride.

Some time later, she was telling me about the car arrangements in her household. She and her husband had a small two-door car, which he used for daily commuting to his office. They also had a BIG 4x4 pick-up truck. She mostly drove the truck, since she only worked part-time and sometimes needed to haul bales of hay or gear for her horse, which she boarded some place out in the county.

One day when the truck was in the shop, she said, she drove her husband to work in the small car, intending to use it for errands during the day, then pick him up after work. That afternoon, as she was approaching an intersection, an on-coming car in the left-turn lane accelerated to beat her through the intersection.

Her first thought, she said, was: "You don't do that to me, because I can kill you."

Second thought: "Oh, wait, no, I can't! I'm in the little car."

This is a good explanation for the actions and reactions of many drivers, and an illustration of the danger of assuming that other people think like me.

New Shoes

My new Giro Petra cycling shoes got their first test in the rain this evening. The uppers are part mesh, and let in enough water to get my socks soggy, but I'm hoping they (the shoes, I mean) will dry out fast. I'll just have to remember not to leave home without my shoe covers for the next several months. I'm pleased with the shoes so far. They're more comfortable for walking than most of my street shoes. The soles have enough tread to catch on the pedals, but the material is a bit smooth and plasticy, so my feet slip off at awkward moments, especially if it's wet; I'll probably put cleats on them soon. They fit high around the front of the ankle, so the tongue rubs a bit when I walk, but with my toes dipped down while pedaling that's not a problem.

I've always liked cute, chunky oxford-type shoes, a big style advantage for a bicyclist. When I first started commuting by bicycle, riding five miles each way, I wore Skechers or similar shoe styles. The nubby tread was enough to keep my feet on the pedals without straps or clips, and the soles weren't too thick, without the wide over-hanging heel that athletic shoes often have - the cushy heel can bump against the crank arm and knock your foot off the pedal.

Then I started riding with Team in Training, training for the 200-mile Seattle-to-Portland ride. By the time I got to the point of doing forty or fifty mile rides, the knuckles and tendons in my feet began to get sore, and I realized I needed some real cycling shoes with stiff, substantial soles.

I bought a pair of men's Shimano mountain biking shoes, which are still in pretty good shape, though the padding at the heel is worn. The men's sizing wasn't a problem, and the shoes were on sale for ten or twenty dollars less than comparable women's shoes. Six years is a long time for a pair of shoes to last, so they were a good buy, but my feet are six years older now, and don't fit in to them so well - the joints at the base of my toes have widened, making bumps like small bunions by my big and little toes. So that's my excuse for buying the Giros.

I also had a pair of women's Pearl Izumi X-Alp mountain biking shoes. I wore those without cleats, and often wore them at work, doing light warehouse work and even at my coffee shop job. They had light mesh uppers, and got drenched and saturated many times, until they began to smell so bad I threw them out. But I did get a lot of mileage out of them for two or three years.

update: The Giros were dry by morning.

The Dirt in Ferndale

The Ferndale bike jump park is now a work in progress, next to the American Legion Hall at the end of Third Avenue. On Sunday a lone man with a shovel and a bulldozer was working at the site. The dirt piles appear to need some forming, smoothing and packing, and the guy could probably use some help.

Several years ago I joined a volunteer work party to spend a Saturday clearing brush on the Bay to Baker Trail, a much more ambitious local bike project. Five or six people showed up, all between the ages of 45 and 70 years. My feeling now is that kids should beg their elders to build places for them to play, and then show up to help with the dirty work.

Or, you could go fishing

Flashbacks

One morning this week, as I was studying at home, I heard footsteps on the walkway outside my apartment, then a shuffling of papers, a light tapping on my door, and a noise like adhesive tape unspooling to stick up a notice. Like that dreadful blue painter's tape they use for eviction notices. I looked up and saw a young man with a sheaf of papers in one hand pass by my window, walking away from the building while punching the keypad on some type of hand-held device. My heart started thumping and I broke in to a sweat. I checked my wall calendar, noted the date was past the 10th of the month and told myself, "It's too late for a 20-day notice." Still, my hands were shaking as I reached for the doorknob, pulled it open - and found an election campaign flyer taped on my door.

It's three years now since the beginning of the dispute with my old landlord that landed me here in Ferndale. I could think of plenty of negative things to say about my apartment, and the whole town, but the place still feels like such a safe refuge that I've pretty much always been pretty happy here. Still, it's probably good to get over that childish sense of denial that says really bad things won't happen to me, and everything will work out OK.

Somewhat belatedly

Classes began two weeks ago at the community college, and I had my first quiz yesterday. It's been difficult to adjust to studying after several years of working routine, repetitive jobs where I didn't have to think about what I was doing, then spending my off hours scanning on-line job listings and randomly browsing through websites. At first it was hard to focus and retain material from reading and in class, but my mind is beginning to recover.

With classes scheduled roughly 4-7pm, I can ride the bus to campus, but I need my bicycle to ride home in the evening. Since the bus runs only once an hour, I'm finding the best plan is to leave home early in the afternoon and get to campus at least an hour and a half early. Otherwise, I'm likely to get preoccupied with studying or doing chores at home, then suddenly realize I have to rush to catch the school bus. If I missed the bus by a few minutes, I could still ride my bike all the way, but I'd arrive just before the bell, sweaty, flustered and disorganized. By taking an earlier bus I have time to study on campus before class.

The Skillshare Faire convened at Hovander Park the weekend before school started. On Saturday the weather was warm and sunny, and I hear the fair was crowded with resourceful, multi-talented people demonstrating food production, preparation and preservation, skills in textiles, wood-working, jewelry-making, as well as music, dancing and much more. Foolishly, I chose to do boring errands that day, and went to the fair on Sunday, when it was cold, wet and stormy, and only a few resilient and dedicated participants were still there.

The llama wagon

A bicycle-powered grain mill

Next year I'll plan to be back on a sunny day, but it was still worth walking in the rain to see the remaining exhibits, and test out my new winter coat.

Lifestyle Changes (phase 2)

If my life was fiction, I would have been going through a deus ex machina experience this summer. For three years I have been plodding along, diligently checking job listings, filling out online applications, emailing resumes, and attempting to find the legendary "hidden job market" where, they say, 90% of all jobs are found. Knowing all the time I should be doing something to change course instead of following the track of my own front tire.

Lifestyle Changes - Phase 1

After losing my full-time real job in September 2010, I worked a part-time low-wage no-benefits restaurant job for two years, from March 2011 to February 2013. I've been receiving at least partial unemployment comp. benefits for most of that time, except for about six weeks last summer, when I was working a bit more than forty hours a week in two jobs. It must be the combination of working part-time and the federal emergency benefits programs that have allowed me to claim for so long, but over this past summer I was always vaguely aware that my time was running out - in August I would move to Tier 3 benefits, which had been reduced by 20% because of sequester budget cuts. Sometime in July, in checking up on what I had coming, I found out that because the unemployment rate in Washington state had fallen below 7%, Tier 3 benefits would be phased out completely. My claim schedule fell just outside the deadline to qualify, meaning I would have no income after the end of August, with less than $1500 left in savings.

Here's where the deus ex machina comes into action. In mid-June I had received a phone call from my sister, with the news that my mother had died in an Alzheimers-care facility in the mid-West. Already aware that I was running out of money, I decided I couldn't travel from Bellingham to be with my family. My sister, who for several years had been looking after our mother's care, and her taxes and accounts, later informed me that Mom had left us a life insurance policy and some other investments, to be divided equally between us. Mom had also asked to be cremated, with instructions for burial in a family plot near Seattle.

This was the reason for my trip to Seattle last month, paid for from my half of the insurance money, which turned out to be more than I earned the whole two years I worked my coffee-shop job.

I keep thinking of that Cyndi Lauper song:  Money Changes Everything.

Several times I've thought about buying a car, for about a half-minute at a time. But parking isn't secure in my neighborhood, and to me a car still represents expenses, risks and liability, not convenience and freedom. I thought about moving to an apartment with laundry facilities, and looked around a little bit. But in the meantime, I made some other plans and commitments. Now my schedule for fall is filling up, and the weekly bus-trip to the laundromat in Bellingham is so much a habit that I decided to wait on making that major change, too.

In fact, the first thing I did when I found out I had enough money to live on for a while and didn't need unemployment comp. and an EBT card any more, was to check on the autumn class schedule at the community college and register for some business and foreign language classes. Soon I will be a bicycle-commuting student again.

I've also noticed my attitude is getting less meek and laid-back. Once when an SUV-driver yelled something rude at me while cutting in front of me turning in to a parking lot, I yelled back. Now if store clerks seem to be trying to hustle me out of a shop when I'm browsing through clearance racks, or baristas get snippy when I loiter in a cafe, I think "I don't have to put us with this crap anymore." I think I'd better get a grip on myself.

Chihuly Glass

Back in Seattle - we spent a day at the Seattle Center, including a visit to the exhibit of Dale Chihuly's glass works, which pretty much speak for themselves.

My sister, along with her husband and daughter, took an elevator ride to the top of the Space Needle. Being a local, I skipped that tourist trip. Instead I listened to a band of Peruvian buskers with guitars and wood or reed pipes, playing "Hotel California" while I enjoyed a Starbuck's frappucino in the outdoor cafe.

Last Day in Seattle

Check-out time at the College Inn is eleven in the morning, but my train to Bellingham didn't board until about seven in the evening. I'd packed a week's worth of clothing and essentials in two light panniers, which could be strapped together to make one piece of luggage for the train. These were easy to carry on the back rack of my bike, but turned out to be uncomfortably large and heavy to lug around town for several hours.

To spare my back and biceps, I saved a trip to the Burke Museum of Natural History, at the University of Washington, for my last day. After checking my panniers at the desk, I spent about three hours in the museum. Admission is $10 for the public; UW students get in free. The museum has permanent displays of Pacific Northwest plant and animal fossils, and exhibits on geology, volcanoes and earthquakes. The bottom level showcases artifacts from different cultures with many similar traits, from all around the Pacific Rim, including Alaska, BC coastal and Puget Sound tribes, Japan, Hawaii, New Zealand and more. I didn't take any photos in the museum, but appreciated the refresher survey course on the natural history of my home state.

  

After a snack and coffee in the cafe, I caught a Metro bus to downtown Seattle, then walked toward Pioneer Square, stopping in at the Seattle Public Library on Third Avenue to check my email. In the summer, footsore tourists can choose from several types of wheeled tours. I spotted a pretty white horse carriage with a driver in black jacket and top hat and a team of white horses, an old wooden open trolley, and an amphibious "Ducks Bus" all from one street corner in Pioneer Square - in addition to several energetic and good-natured pedicab drivers.

Car traffic and construction made street conditions congested, noisy, dirty and confusing in Pioneer Square. Besides, there was a football game of some sort going on at that new stadium they built a while back to replace the KingDome. I think it was the Seahawks, but it might have been soccer. There were lots of people wearing that vivid green shade that so many bicyclists prefer.

King Street Station has been cleaned up and refurbished, with most work completed early this summer. The old sound-dampening low ceiling panels were torn out, and high arches and ornate plaster trim restored. The waiting area was light and airy in the evening sun, without the cavernous echo people used to complain about. Or maybe I'm thinking of the KingDome.

My train was delayed for about an hour. During the wait, several green-wrapped airplane fuselages, about the same size as a train car, passed through. I guess they must have been on the way from the Everett Boeing plant, for another phase of assembly at the Renton plant. I don't think this was the reason for the late arrival of my train. Oddly, we were delayed again a bit north of Everett because a boat fell off a truck while crossing the railroad tracks.

Strange how paths can cross.

Nostalgia Tripping

August was a scrambled-up month for me. It seemed I spent a lot of time waiting for things to happen, for replies to messages, checks in the mail, meetings and dates, and run-around errands. In the middle of the month I took a week-long trip to Seattle to meet up with my sister and her family, and revisit some of my favorite places.

For many years I've often found myself thinking of places I've been, and felt an impulse to go back, just to be there and see the place again. When I was in college in Seattle I used to spend whole days on the weekend, taking the bus to some neighborhood across town, then walking at random around the business and residential blocks. My favorite bus route was the #43, which ran from the Central District to Downtown, up Pike Street and along Broadway on Capitol Hill, through Roanoke to the University District, up 45th Street through Wallingford, past the Woodland Park Zoo and Phinney Ridge, down to Ballard, then out to Shilshole and Golden Gardens. I think it still takes mostly the same route, and it's a great tour of the city if you have a week or ten days to explore all the destinations along the way.

Now that I've taken up bicycling I find myself following the same impulse. Sometimes I recall a certain stretch of road, not any particular destination, but I want to get out on my bike just to see the seasonal changes in the light, the trees and understory, the sounds of birds and animals, the small farms and gardens along the roadside. And more often recently, the road construction or home building projects, or disturbances from landslides or flooding.

Maybe this is a remnant of some migratory urge left over from our semi-nomadic hunter-gatherer days. Still, I did find it very disorienting and tiring being away from my Bellingham-to-Ferndale routines. Every day around 5:00pm, when I was out and around in Seattle, I'd begin to feel it was about time to head back to my hotel - a Ferndale habit, because if I'm out without my bike I need to watch the time and make sure I can make bus connections to get back to the Cordata transit center in time to catch the last bus home.

This trip was another excursion when I rode my bike to Fairhaven, then left it parked at the Amtrak station. I considered biking part or all of the way to Seattle, but decided to conserve my energy for visiting and walking tours. Besides, I suspect my family thinks this bicycle fixation of mine has gone on a bit too long. My car on the Amtrak Cascades train was about half-filled with summer travelers, mostly single, middle-aged (or older) women riding from Vancouver BC to Seattle or Portland. I got stuck with an aisle seat, but all the way my head was swiveling from water views on the right, to showplace house views on the left.

My sister and her husband and college-age daughter stayed at a Holiday Inn near the Seattle Center, a convenient central location for them, but I remembered that area being part of the seedy drugs-and-prostitution strip (it's improved now), so I chose to stay at The College Inn, in the University District.  The College Inn Pub and Cafe was a traditional cool graduate-student hangout when I was a mousy undergrad, and I was too timid to go inside, but now I'm past caring. At street level now is a Thai restaurant, a pub, and a coffee shop and convenience store, with a small but expensive grocery/convenience store across the street. In mid-August, during the last week of summer quarter, it was very quiet and private, but I'm told during the school year, when the Huskies have football or basketball games, it turns very loud and rowdy, just like the rest of the neighborhood.

The College Inn is a one-hundred-twenty year old Tudor style building, built around the same time as some of the first University of Washington buildings, for the Alaska-Yukon Exhibition. It's billed as a "euro-style" hotel, meaning you get a sink in your room, with men's and women's showers and bathrooms down the hall on each floor. There's no air conditioning, but my room was comfortable enough with the ceiling fan on and windows open a few inches at night. There's a nice, light, free continental breakfast in the fourth floor lounge from 7-9am. The hallways are a gallery of fascinating historic photos of early Seattle, showing the early stages of digging the Montlake Cut between Lake Union and Lake Washington, and the Ship Canal that connected Lake Union and Puget Sound when the Ballard Locks were built.

A little sight-seeing around the University of Washington campus.

The HUB lawn became a favorite resting place for weary students in the 1970's, when student activists demanded the right to walk, lounge and play frisbee on the grass.

Relic in the basement of Denny Hall

The Quad Buildings - grotesques, not gargoyles. This is either Savery or Smith Hall, I forget.

There is a student bike shop in the HUB (Husky Union Building), and covered bike lockers for rent on campus, as well as open bike racks. This one offers a repair station with a tire pump and assorted tools.











After you cross 47th Street on University Avenue (The Ave), there are a few blocks that get a bit dodgy, with aggressive pan-handlers and hustlers, then the street-life settles down a bit and becomes a bit shabby but more genteel.

A neighborhood bike shop

University Heights Elementary School, which was shut down and turned into a community center in the 1980's. It's going through another round of rehabilitation now.

Best Place in Town

Best brunch & lunch place in Bellingham

The Bagelry on Railroad Avenue. I try not to haunt the same places too frequently, but from the first week after I moved to Bellingham in 1995, this has been my favorite place for a snack or sandwich and espresso. When I lived in town I used to walk to the post office almost daily if I wasn't working, then stop someplace for a coffee break. Now that I've moved to Ferndale, it's a ten-mile bike ride away, so they don't get tired of seeing me, plus I earn my carbs and caffeine.

Last weekend I set out for a Saturday bike ride, but found Main Street closed for Ferndale's Pioneer Days parade, with the traditional high school marching band, equestrian teams, classic cars and a team of  green and yellow John Deere tractors, along with floats from many local businesses. The Whatcom County Democrats and the Tea Party both had entries, but the Republicans didn't make an appearance, unless they got in early, way at the front, and passed by before I arrived.

The end of the parade