Mountainous terrain, seen from Sim'layshee (Eagle Peak), Ti'swaq' (Mt. Rainier)
Mt. Rose Vista
Drepung Monastery Loseling Monks ceremonially pour sand from a Mandala into water at Percival Landing, Budd Bay, Puget Sound, Pacific Ocean
Light of autumn Moon with mountains and sea
Surreal light with smoke in the sky
These photos are from the past few months, weeks, and days.
Still working hard on the public power campaign to authorize the PUD to provide electrical service. Vote Yes on County Proposition No. 1. Lower rates, better reliability, good for labor and environment, jobs, service, infrastructure, local economics, stewardship. www.ThurstonPublicPower.org
For the full view, support public power proposition 1 on your Thurston County election ballot this fall. Ballots go out this Wednesday, and the electric company has been spending huge amounts of cash to oppose this proposition. The proposition would allow for the Public Utility District to provide electricity.
So please mark your ballot Yes on Proposition 1. Whether it's because you dislike PSE, or because you just want a better way of doing business for generations into the future— vote Yes on Prop 1 for local control, so that the people of Thurston County can have a choice.
Take the wide view, increase our options. Vote Yes on Prop 1.
Cheers!
And on a separate topic, just for fun here's a 360º panoramic photo from Mt. Ellinor from earlier this month:
I haven't been posting on here much lately, nor on my blog at OlyBlog.net either. Have been using Twitter and Facebook and Youtube though, and Instagram.
Life has been distracting. Lots going on. Spending a lot of time and energy on the Public Power Initiative here, to promote authorizing Thurston County Public Utility District to provide electrical service.
PSE, the current provider, has not been treating the county well, charging the highest rates in the state for an inferior quality of service. Public electrical utilities are known to provide, in general, a higher quality of service at a lower rate. And since they are public, they are subject to the volition of their electorate.
There are a lot of reasons to support public power. And current PSE employees need not be in fear that their jobs are in jeopardy, because there is every likelihood and reason to believe that the PUD would seek to hire current PSE employees with experience working on the system here in the county.
Public power stands to be a great improvement. More in county jobs, lower rates, better service, something that everyone in the county can be proud of. Also, there is the part about being non-profit and saving the revenue from being shipped away to satisfy profit-hungry shareholders, instead of keeping it in the county to benefit customers.
It's a big deal and an important contest in the election here. It's been the costliest election so far, and the disparity in spending between the David public power advocates and the Goliath juggernaut electrical utility which is part of an international conglomerate is incredible. The home-team little guys who are working for a better way for all rate-payers, a better way for all county residents and businesses, are being outspent at a rate far exceeding 10 to 1.
So please, do what you can to support the home-team effort. If they don't win it's a shame.
Yesterday I went on a hike near Ti'swaq. Ti'swaq is the native name of the mountain according to Robert Satiacum. KOMO News has a story on that here and there is a Restore Native Names website here.
The hike was at the Sunrise area. It was my first time there, and the landscape was totally awesome. The air was hazy. And perhaps that even added to the mystical quality of the area, which alternated between moon scape and lush wildflower garden, with plenty of snow patches, even at this time in early middle August.
It was a busy weekend Saturday. And it was totally worth it. Even with so many people, the trail was not too congested, and people were in good spirits. The Sun was very hot, and for anyone with sensitive skin, sunblock is highly recommended. There was very little shade on the trail.
I have a lot of photographs, I plan to process and post more (to this Flickr photoset.)
For starters, I have already processed a couple of panoramas, and uploaded them to Flickr. I will post them below. I also uploaded a couple of videos, with more on the way.
The first panorama is the view from the escarpment on the way to the first of the three Burrough's Mountains. In the distance can be scene trails to Mystic Lake, Berkeley Valley, and Fremont Mountain and lookout.
The second panorama is from the Southern side of the first of the Burroughs, and shows the volcano, with one of the largest glaciers, the Emmons glacier, where the White River flows out of its terminus. The images were captured just past an area where a persistent patch of snow is still packed on the trail.
following is a little bit of video from a hike i did today.
also been thinking about changing the name of the blog (maybe url too.) because of the association of potential with unused energy, "great potential," and such —and wanting to achieve more of an acceptance with the present reality sort of an ambiance... anyway, been thinking about that a little bit, today.
here's that video, i will probably post some photos to flickr in the next few days or so.
I went to the beach yesterday, and used Twitter @berdww to post about ten photos. GPS was enabled, and the location that showed up was specific to Washington State. Here are the updates as posted to Twitter:
Today I went to Burfoot Park, to the beach there, with Charles. It was about the third or fourth day in a row of cloudlessness. Bright blue sky and hot sunshine as far as the eye could see. A little bit of haze in the air too.
It has been interesting helping with the Public Power Initiative, feeling a sense of nationalism, or at least "countyism." Going to parades and Fourth of July fireworks shows.
Last week, had a talk with Michael about nationalism, and how it's not necessarily a bad thing, if the spirit is good. If the competition is toward a good goal, like sustainability and human rights. Say, hey, we can compete as a county for the most efficient and sustainable electrical infrastructure. We can compete to drive down the factors that cause homelessness and unemployment... Sort of along those lines, we were thinking.
Anyway, here are some striking photos of a bright summer day at Burfoot:
