Exercise Begins

So today I actually began an exercise program. Now the challenge is to keep it going. Today we walked out to the end of the Eckley pier and back. Wind moderate with comfortable temperature. Each day, except Wednesday and Saturday (museum days) i hope to spend some time walking until I can do a full half hour at a brisk pace. This morning my left knee let me know it had enough.

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Eckley provides mental exercise also with the remnants of the old Garden City and the abandoned pilings from along the Strait in the days of sailing ships hauling grain from the several piers supporting warehouses. Port Costa is around the bend and not visible from the fishing pier.

Weather Report

Heavy December rains and snow lead me to consider the issues of global warming. Although the US is set to benefit from warmer winters, the south Pacific is already experiencing the effects of global warming. The US is the ONLY major country where the legislative leaders question the reality of the effects of a warmer earth. During the next 10 years we will witness the deaths and damages directly attributable to changes in weather. The Cancun Conference http://www.daraint.org made several things clear. We can no longer worship at the altar of Adam Smith,

Earthquake Science

Here in Crockett we probably spend more time discussing possible earthquakes rather than the election or Paris Hilton. The only thing ranking higher in our interest is the coming desert (read drought) and the size of our water bill. Who would have thought that this North Dakota raised Crockettonian would concern himself with the movement of tektonic plates??

RUSSIAN RIDGE — At the summit of Rolph Hill, in a corner of the Russian Ridge
Open Space Preserve closed to the public, stands an alien-looking machine — a
small white dome balanced on three long 'legs' sunk deep into moss-covered
bedrock.
Inside is a small, powerful GPS receiver that's measuring the
movement of the earth via satellite every 15 seconds and a cellular modem that
sends the data hundreds of miles away. Scientists are using it to calculate
earthquake hazards across the San Andreas Fault, which lies a few miles to the
east."

Only in California

California Town Digs for Ideas for Historic Ditch Story by Margaret Foster / Jan. 8, 2008

In California, where water is king, an irrigation ditch can have more historic clout than Plymouth Rock.
A Southern California group wants to create parkland around a historic 12-mile-long ditch, built in 1819 in Redlands, Calif.
Located in San Bernardino County, the Zanja, which is Spanish for ditch, delivered water to the local Spanish mission, San Bernardino Asistencia; it has been a flood-control channel for the past 80 years.
A third of the trench has already been cemented over and erased by apartment buildings and other development, so now is the time to act, says Sherli Leonard, executive director of the Redlands Conservancy, which will welcome the public's ideas in a Jan. 28 meeting.
"It's so important to the history of this community that we feel we ought to do something about it," Leonard says.
Last year, the city bristled at plans for an apartment building that would have taken down trees and redirect part of the Zanja, which has been listed on the National Register since 1977.
To create an eight-mile-long park with a trail, interpretive signs, and parks the Redlands Conservancy wants to buy and place easements on the privately owned sections of the Zanja, Leonard says. It also plans list the entire stretch on the local register, which offers more protection than the state and National Register.
"We'd have to find foundations or agencies that would support this project," Leonard says. "I'm really hoping we can get it all done by 2019. We're in the very early stages."
© Preservation Magazine