National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissions

We are finished with most of our NARUC meeting activities. The time has gone too fast. We had nine attendees and several guests at our sessions, which is always gratifying. I have a goodly list of things to do and to look at when I get back to work, which is the best reason for coming to these. We talked about Ed's RSS talk this afternoon and agreed that the face-to-face and discussion that followed is so much more effective than any e-mail exchange or Web page viewing, no matter how compelling, could ever be. That's why we come here.

We decided to hold the next meeting, later this year, on our own, in the hopes of some people who can't work their ways up the queue to attend meetings with the rest of their agencies' staff, can attend when it's not with the rest of NARUC. Coeur d'Alene and Seattle were mentioned as possibilities, so I'll start to work up possibilities for a Seattle meeting. It would be nice to pull in some of our staff to present and listen to our colleagues at such a convenient location.

National Museum of the American Indian, DC

I took my free morning and walked down to the Mall to visit the Smithsonian. Overnight, about six inches of snow had fallen, though only three or four inches stuck around the hotel. I'd heard that DC has had trouble with snow removal, but I didn't see any evidence of that today. The streets were clear and there were usable sidewalks the whole way.

On the way, I went a little out of my way to complete a task I'd set myself last fall, when we'd visited Vancouver for a weekend. On the way out of town, we detoured to the airport to see Bill Reid's Spirit of the Haida Gwaii sculpture. It's a wonderful, monumental work, in a dark, jade green. And there's another casting, in black, at the Canadian Embassy, along Pennsylvania Ave. Today, it was covered in snow. The viewing is better in Vancouver, where it's placed in the center of a little amphitheater. Here's is poked into the corner of the courtyard, with rails around it. Still, it's a beautiful, powerful work and I was happy to have seen it again, anew.

Then, I went to the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian to see the exhibit of North Pacific Coast peoples. I first visited this new museum last year and I was very impressed. The previous Smithsonian exhibits of Native American articles I'd seen, in the Natural History museum, were hideous.

My favorite museum is the Makah Museum, which I had the chance to visit twice, when my kids were in fifth grade, thanks to Mr. Hickle. I love this little museum because it was built by the people descended from those whose artifacts are preserved and presented in it. I found it beautiful that the articles were described using the words "ours" and "us."

Something of this spirit is retained in the exhibits in the National Museum. The exhibits, in general and in the case of this exhibit of North Pacific Coast peoples, are developed in cooperation with the people's themselves. Visitors might come away realizing that they have missed the "overview" -- the map of the "tribes" and their distribution before so many of them were wiped out. Small loss, in my opinion, when compared against the vitality and real understanding that comes from the people telling their own, distinct stories. Wonderful exhibit in a beautiful building.

From January in the BVI to February in DC

I've let this go too long. I'm working on a description of the trip to the British Virgin Islands; in the meantime, I'll work with where I am now.

I just got into my hotel in Washington, DC, where I'm attending the Winter Meetings of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissions. I'm grateful for the opportunity to occasionally travel to interesting cities in my work for the State of Washington. These meetings are a good chance to catch up with some of my colleagues from other states and learn some useful things from them. DC's a pretty interesting town, too, and I always find something energizing to do.

Just arriving this evening was fun. The first half of the flight was over cloudless country, all the way over the Rockies. The second half was cloudy and, as we approached Washington National, we descended through clouds for what seemed like an hour. It was one of those landings: you couldn't see a thing but clouds, until a couple of hundred feet above the runway, when we popped out into snow falling. That made the walk from the Metro stop to the hotel more interesting than usual.

Off to see the winter...

The winter in the 'Ribbean seas...

We leave tonight for twelve days on a catamaran in the British Virgin Islands. It's a wonderful privilege to be able to do this and a blessing to be going with such good friends. I'll report when I return.

Scrub-Jay

As I walked around the loop today for my regular constitutional, I heard an unmistakable Scrub-Jay call. I spotted him in the hedge next to the Conservation District office. I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen or heard one in this part of the west side in the over fifteen years I’ve worked here.

When I lived near the bay on Foote St., they were regular in the neighborhood, which they shared with Steller’s Jays. I think Scrubs the most attractive of the jays in this part of the world, but I do have an especially soft spot for the Gray Jay. I was disappointed to learn, when I moved only 1.5 miles northwest in town, that Scrub-Jays apparently don’t live in my new neighborhood. I haven’t heard or seen one in eight years there.

Most of the maps that I see of distribution, including in my beautiful, new Sibley, don’t show south Puget Sound in the range of Scrub-Jays. One other guide I read years ago suggested that they’ve been moving north from the Columbia River. My near-west-side neighbors were evidence of that, as was today’s sighting 1.5 miles to the south.

Update (10/3/09): I've seen a couple of scrubjays over the last couple of weeks, in downtown Olympia, near the capital campus, as shown on this updated map.

Update (2/4/10): A few weeks ago I saw a pair of scrubjays on the east side, near Madison Elementary.


View Scrubjay Sightings in a larger map

Winter, but no Christmas

J and I attended "The Chronicles of Narnia" yesterday. I'm at a disadvantage in reviewing it, because I never read the books. I thought it was pretty good. There were good performances and the effects were effective. The interaction of the kids was realistic and provided a solid emotional engine to the story. I loved the variety of the creatures, especially the minotaurs and the centaurs. I was some disappointed in the general ugliness in the "bad guys." And, Santa? I'm sure it was in the story, but the chase that turns out to be not the witch, but the big, jolly guy felt more than a little manipulative.

At this point, I can't resist a comparison to "Fellowship of the Ring." In that movie, the pursuit by the Nazgul was real and frightening. No manipulation needed. I should resist these comparisons further, as I read the Tolkien books twice and have seen the movies two or three times. Still, I think that Peter Jackson's vision for his movies, both in story and the cinematography, was much bigger than "Narnia." Good movie, but not really a thrill.

New Year's Party Music Selections

The first five on the shuffle:

Leo Kottke - "Peculiaroso"
K.D.Lang - "Hymns of the 49th Parallel"
Beatles - "Abbey Road"
Laio - "Como Corre O Tempo"
Buena Vista Social Club

The second five:

Beach Boys - "Pet Sounds"
Stanley Clarke, Al Di Meola, jean-Luc Ponty - "The Rite of Strings"
Bourne, Quitsau, Madagascar Slim - "Tri-Continental"
Bob Dylan - "Blood on the Tracks"
Django Reinhardt, Stephane Grappelly - "The Quintet of the Hot Club of France"

A good time was had by all. Everyone made it to at least Mountain time.

Holidays Begin

The week ends with a whimper inside the building and plenty of moisture outside. We're a little behind on the rain for this month, but we're on the way to catching up.

Tomorrow, we'll head up I-5 to my folks' house for the day. Sunday will be at our house with H and M. And that followed by a glorious Monday off. Ahh...

Gabriel Kolko sums it up

The dilemma the U.S. has had for a half-century is that the priorities it must impose on its budget and its plans have never guided its actual behavior and action. It has always believed, as well it should, that Europe and its control would determine the future of world power. But it has fought in Korea, Vietnam, and now Iraq – the so-called "Third World" in general – where the stakes of power were much smaller. Its priorities were specific, focused on specific nations, but they also set the United States the task of guiding or controlling the entire world – which is a very big place and has proven time and again to be far beyond American resources and power. In most of those places in the Third World where it massively employed its power directly, it has lost, and its military might has been ineffective. Local proxies have been corrupt and venal in most nations where the U.S. has relied upon them. The cost, both in financial terms and the eventual alienation of the American public, has been monumental.

Impeach Bush

Ok, as far as I'm concerned, this is it. President Bush has admitted to authorizing spying on Americans without judicial authorization. He has also admitted to doing so dozens of times. And he vows to do it again. This is illegal, his excuses notwithstanding. Mr. Bush should be impeached.

This is a critical test. During the run-up to the war, there was a lot of noise about how the United Nations was irrelevant in this new era. As I watched the U S Congress struggle to figure out how to do its constitutional duty, I came to the sad conclusion that it was the Congress that had become irrelevant in this new era. Time to show us all that this conclusion is premature.

This is a critical test for our democracy and republican form of government.