Hot Tip for Staying Cool

Find your bliss.

Finally, summer weather has arrived. Last winter when my furnace broke down I had no heat during the holiday storms, until my landlord finally installed a new high-tech, programmable thing that also has AC, or some sort of cooling function, for the summer. I haven't really figured out how to set it, though. So far I've been making do by keeping the blinds closed and my apartment shut up while I'm out during the day, then opening up the door and windows and turning on fans to get a cross-draft when it's cooler in the evening. Most mornings I wake up at about 5am and open the door wide to let in some cool air. Since last week day-time temperatures have been in the mid-to-high 80's, though, and that isn't enough any more. I've figured out how to turn on the fan and cooling function on the new furnace (or whatever it is) but it hasn't been very effective. Sometimes it resets itself, and when I check it, I'll find the indoor temperature is set at 82F. I've had trouble sleeping a few nights. Last night I gave up and went out for a late-night stroll at about one in the morning. The night walk was a refreshing change, and it's nice being up early, but then I have to take an afternoon nap.

My best solution for over-heating is an old-fashioned red rubber hot-water bottle, which I fill up with cool water and leave in the refrigerator. Normally I use it for neck and back pain, or for any other sore, swollen joint, but it's perfect for a fast cool-down too. This morning I went for a 30-mile bike ride in the cool part of the morning, but my apartment was pretty warm when I got home around noon, and I was red-hot and dripping with sweat. After a cool shower and a nap, I woke up with a stiff neck and mild headache developing, which can be symptoms of dehydration or heat stress. A cool drink and the cold pack on my head, neck and shoulders cleared that up immediately.

Eco Adaptations

We may soon see the end of drive-through fast-food as we know it around here - which is fine with me, I hate drive-through lines - but I don't know how Starbucks can go on without super-sized grande plastic drink cups. Seriously, fast food places are going to have to change their business model, and the whole atmosphere of their stores. In the past few years, single-use plastic shopping bags have been outlawed, and non-biodegradable food containers and utensils are going soon - plastic knives, forks, spoons and beverage straws, and plastic drink cups, styrofoam cups, bowls and take-out dishes.

I carry a bamboo spork and knife in my purse, and I guess soon I'll have to bring along a re-usable cup, too. I keep shopping bags in my car, and bought some re-usable mesh produce bags, which I usually forget to carry with me (along with my grocery list, which I leave behind on the kitchen counter).

The plastic bag-ban has been inconvenient because I've always used plastic grocery store bags for my kitchen garbage, rather than buying disposable plastic bags to fill up with garbage then throw away. It takes about a week for me to fill one, mostly with coffee grounds and fruit and vegetable scraps, which are too wet to put in a paper bag. Now I'm using plastic bread or produce bags, but I'll have to find a better solution soon.

In my old job we sold large, decorative re-usable shopping bags for $1.99 or $2.99 or so, and we charged $.08 for big brown paper shopping bags at the cash registers - a state-mandated fee. Many customers argued about the bag-fee, and sometimes when I asked a customer at check-out if they wanted a shopping bag for eight cents, they would say no. Then they would watch the register display as I totaled their sale and ran their card. At the moment the charge went through, they'd say "oh wait, you know, I do need a bag . . ." I once heard a manager ask a customer "do you have eight cents?" but usually I just gave them the bag for free. In fact, I got so tired of the hassles that I stopped asking and charging for bags at all. Over time I single-handedly messed up the store's inventory and re-ordering, and we ran out of shopping bags just in time for the holiday shopping season, except for the expensive decorative gift bags. I'd like to think this made customers regret giving me trouble, but I doubt it.

I'm glad I don't work retail anymore. But I suppose next they'll outlaw bubble wrap.

Centennial Trail - 4th of July

Nakashima Barn

Unexpectedly granted a four-day weekend for Independence Day, I took off for an impulsive and not-very-well-planned ride on the Centennial Trail in Snohomish County, about 50 miles south of Bellingham. The Centennial Trail is an almost-30 mile paved rail-trail that runs between the town of Snohomish at the south end, through Arlington, and almost to the Skagit-Snohomish county line at the north end.

The trail starts at the Nakashima Barn, which is found after a long, meandering drive on Hwy. 9, through wooded country-side, past Lake McMurray. The barn is the last building remaining from the 89-acre dairy farm of the Nakashima family, who were forced to sell the farm in 1942 when they were relocated to an internment camp during WWII. The large family was split up, sent to different camps, and never returned to the county after being released.

I did research the bike trail and the route to the ride start in advance, as I'd been meaning to try this ride for some time, then for one reason or another didn't go. Until Saturday morning, when I gathered up my maps and cue sheets, put my bike in the car, and headed south. Expecting a hot afternoon, I tried to start early, applying a thick coat of sun-block before leaving home. But I also brought along a rain jacket and long-sleeved shrug, which was lucky because the day was chilly and over-cast when I arrived at the barn a little before 11am.

I have ridden through this area a couple of times before. First was back in 2010 when I was returning from Bicycle Mechanic School in Ashland. I had meant to take Amtrak home but when I changed trains in Seattle I wasn't allowed to bring my bike on board. After some argument I got a refund for my ticket and set out to bicycle all the way to Bellingham. I cheated a bit and took my bike on the Swift commuter bus as far as Lynnwood. Then, without a good map of the area, I improvised a route by generally following Hwy. 99 generally northward. A long day, but I made it. The second time was in 2014 when I rode the Red-Bell 100 World Bicycle Relief fund-raiser, which was a much better planned and supported ride.

But much of the route I rode this time didn't really look familiar. True, a lot of the trail is a smooth strip of blacktop beside a mowed-grass equestrian path, bordered by green shrubbery and trees, which kind of all looks the same wherever you are. The Red-Bell 100 had a rest-stop in Arlington, at a city park with a band-stand or picnic shelter. I didn't spot it on my first pass through this time, because it was surrounded by vendors and buskers at a Saturday Farmer's Market, but I stopped for coffee and a snack on the return trip and then recognized the place. North of town, the route runs on wide paved sidewalks along a city street in an industrial/commercial area, with many newer apartment and condo developments that weren't there in 2014.

In Arlington a small bridge crosses over the confluence of the north and south forks of the Stillaguamish River, which creates some interesting currents, sand bars and log jams under the bridge. (This point is also about twelve miles down-river, or down Hwy. 530, from the little town of Oso, which was destroyed in a huge landslide in 2014.)

Pilchuk Creek, 7-8 miles from the barn

I rode about 17-18 miles, to somewhere past Getchell Road - the trail is pretty flat but there are some long, gradual up-grades that can get tiring, especially considering that I had only brought along one water bottle, and no snacks. By this point it was also getting warm and sunny enough to take off my jacket and long sleeves. So I turned back at the top of an up-grade and had an easy coast back toward Arlington for my rest-stop, making a 35-mile round-trip.

I feel a little guilty for driving 100 miles for a 35-mile bike ride, but it was good to have a change of scene for the holiday weekend. If I'd planned better and brought more food and drink I could have made the ride longer, and maybe even found some ride companions to carpool with me. Full round-trip ride would be 60 miles.

Next time.

Not the Farmer's Market, but there was a beer garden