sunrise on winter solstice from Peony Peak

This morning I hiked up Peony Peak, which is my unofficial name for a small peak/large hill northwest of my home in Carson City. The sun was behind a band of clouds at the official sunrise time of 7:15AM, but it popped out about 15 minutes later.

This is my favorite short hike, about two hours from my door out and back, depending on which way I go. From the top I can see Carson Valley south to California and Washoe Valley north to Reno. On the east there is the Pine Nut Range with Rawe Peak and others, and on clear days the area around Dayton. To the west is the much higher Carson Range, and southwest Freel Peak, the highest.

I named the hill Peony Peak because there are a lot of Brown’s peony (Paeonia brownii) on the north and east slope. Peony Peak is 5636 feet, and my apartment 4720 feet or so, so the walk up is less than a thousand foot climb, but half of that is a straight-up section of trail on the south facing slope of the peak. The south slope is nearly free of snow, two weeks after a snowfall of about 18 inches, but the top and other slopes are still deep in snow. I sometimes walk from my door to go backpacking, up over Peony Peak, over to Lakeview Gate, and up into the Carson Range.

Some of my Peony Peak photos are on Flickr. I know somewhere I have photos of flowers on Peony Peak, but apparently I didn’t keyword or tag them properly, so I can’t find them.

fresh footprints in fresh snow

Winter Solstice seems to me a good time to look back at the year.

Bicycling has become my primary form of transportation. Though I do some recreational riding, most of my trips are commuting, going to and from schools for work. It has been 24 days since I’ve driven my car, and I hope to make another 22 before driving my car again, though I do often borrow and drive my sister’s car when in Las Vegas. For over a week after the December 6 snowfall of 15 inches, I had to walk everywhere because I only have a skinny tired road bike, but that worked OK and actually got me back in condition to some degree since walking is so much less efficient than bicycling. When I do drive, it is to go up to Incline Village for meetings and hikes with the Tahoe Rim Trail Association, and rarely to dances or to visit friends in California. If there were transportation from Carson City to Incline Village, I could give up my car. I am obviously working towards that end, but am not quite ready to cut myself off from a few things I like to do.

This isn’t to say I don’t travel. I fly to Las Vegas about every two month to visit my mom, sister, nieces, and grand-niece, and the many friends I still have there. To get there other than by flying is a one-day drive or a two-day train and bus trip, so the hour and fifteen flight is hard to argue with. But I do think about the carbon footprint implications of every flight. I do carbon offsets, but that only undoes part of the damage. I use Amtrak quite a bit. Most of my trips to dance weekends are on Amtrak and other public transportation. I really enjoy being on the train – the “scenery” is interesting whether it is nature or the deteriorating backside of civilization, I like being able to move around, I like meeting people from different places and with different stories, and I like that trains are significantly more efficient than cars and planes. But carbon is carbon, and this coming year I’ll probably travel less than I have.

Most of this year I’ve worked as the Safe Routes to School Coordinator for Carson City. Safe routes is a program that encourages kids to walk and bike to school rather than being transported by their parents. When the way is not safe, we work to make it safer, though in most cases the greatest safety hazard faced by students who do walk and ride is the parents who are driving their children to school. I wrote and the school district was awarded a new grant for two years, 2009–2011. This grant was supposed to follow immediately on the old one, but it was delayed for three months, so I was without income for three months and that trashed me financially. I really enjoy some of the people I work with on this project, particularly the students, PE Specialists, and Patrick Pittenger of Carson City Public Works. Others are more challenging to work with because they don’t believe in safe routes, or in me, or both.

Much of my free time I spend advocating for pedestrians and bicyclists, which means advocating for myself. Carson City is not a bad place for either, largely because it is a small and slow town, not because it has so far been very friendly to alternate modes of transportation. I’m working with the local advocacy group Muscle Powered and with Carson City Public Works to change that. We have had some success, modifying bad projects and supporting new projects that integrate walking and bicycling, but there is a long way to go. Carson City is spread out, the kind of spread that happens when gas is cheap, undeveloped land is cheap, and development does not pay its way (yes, and so are most other places), so it is harder to make human-powered transport and public transit work. Too many people in Carson City grumble about the price of gas but have not yet thought beyond the car-centric worldview. But progressives and other leaders are beginning to notice, and to rethink how we are and what we might be. Many people are waiting for the economy to recover so we can get back to business-as-usual (both literally and figuratively), but I don’t think that it ever will recover to what it was because it was built on cheap oil, externalized costs, and criminality. The short period of time in which we could all drive as much as we wanted, which I benefitted from as much as anyone, is past. I think we are close to a future in which most transportation will be public or active (walking and bicycling), vehicles will be used to deliver goods only, and only people rich enough to ignore their societal obligations will have their own cars.

Contra dance is one of the joys of my life. Contra dancing is a style of traditional folk dancing from New England, but mostly it is community dancing – it builds community. The live traditional music would be worth listening to even without the dance, but both together are something much more. This year I traveled to several dance weekends: Dance Awakening at Harbin Hot Springs in April, Northwest Folklife in Seattle in May, Balance the Bay in San Francisco in August, and Danceable Feast in Eugene in November. The Fall has Sprung 12-hour contra dance in Grass Valley is always a favorite. I most enjoyed Balance the Bay, not just because of the dance itself but because of the people I stayed with – host Darva Campbell and the others. It is rare to have more fun outside the dance than inside, but this was it.

The Sierra Nevada outside my door and around Lake Tahoe has become my backpacking backyard. I did four backpacks in the Granite Chief Wilderness, which is northwest of Lake Tahoe, and my most common destination the last few years. Except for the PCT which passes through and the Five Lakes Basin, the wilderness is not much used. I explored old trail alignments which are on the topographic maps but not the current recreation maps, enjoying the challenge of finding old traces which were once trails but are now only used by bear and deer. I also did some trailwork, brushing trails and clearing winter debris, but not as much as the last three years. But the brush along the PCT is coming back, so next year will need some dedication.

The big backpack of the summer, though, was co-leading the Tahoe Rim Trail Association through-hike of the rim trail with Bill Holt and Sly Boskovich. It has been years since I’ve been out for this long – 15 days – and since I’d led other on a backpack. Most of my trips are solo and 5 to 8 days in length. The leadership challenge for me was in going slowly, at the pace of the group. Since I bought lightweight gear two years ago, I’ve grown accustomed to covering 10 to 25 miles a day without much effort, but the group had heavy gear and in some cases was not in shape. We had summer with record setting high temperatures, and winter with rain, snow and high winds, all in the same two week period. Nevertheless the experience with the group and being out and away was a very positive one.

My other big “hobby” is watching movies. Though I occasionally go to the theatre, most of my movies come in a red envelope from Netflix, or through their streaming service. I watch several movies a week, almost always really enjoy them. I mostly use Roger Ebert as my guide to find great movies and avoid stinkers, but every once in a while we disagree. This year I’ve been seeing a lot of movies that I last saw 5 to 20 years ago, now being streamed. I suspect that this abundance is not a good thing, though. I spend too much time watching movies that I could be doing other things like being outside and keeping in touch with friends. Sometimes I can’t remember what I watched the day before. Movies that I’ve enjoyed from this year (though they may have been released last year) include In Bruges, Wall-E, Vicki Christina Barcelona, The Reader, Man on Wire, Sin Nombre, and Star Trek.

Several times this year I’ve gotten in touch with friends, some recent and some long ago, when I had some extra time to do so, and the interest. But each of these instances was followed by being very busy with work, and so I didn’t keep up. If you are one of those this happened to, my apologies. I spend a lot of my time on the computer, with email readily accessible, and have free long distance on my cell phone for that matter, but it seems friends always come in last. Sad, for me, and maybe for you.

I picked the winter solstice on which to write because I enjoy noticing and celebrating the turning of the year. The winter and summer solstices, the spring and autumnal equinoxes are days for special recognition. I try to not be working on these days so that I can spend some time out in nature. I’d enjoy spending time with people in celebration as well, but my local circle of friends doesn’t pay much attention to these days, so often I’m out on my own. Though I don’t as often do something special, the cross-quarter days are also worth noting: Imbolc on February 1, Beltane on May 1, Lughnasadh on August 1, and Samhain on October 31 (these are the commonly used Celtic names for these days).

So, I wish each of you reading this a happy winter solstice and a great coming year.

the movie

I just watched the movie by Robert Greenwald Uncovered: The War on Iraq. It was a shock to again see the “leaders” of the country – somehow I’d blocked them from my mind visually. This movie is an important reminder of how immoral, yes, how evil these people were, and are. I have thought all along, but am reminded again, that we must not move on from this horror until we have come to terms with it. If we leave it in the past, it is a wound that will continue to fester, until it erupts again and causes more incalculable harm to our country and to the world. They all lied to us, on purpose. It is so easy to see in their faces that they were lying, and so hard to accept that anyone then or now believes them. Let me say it clearly: George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condolezza Rice, and Colin Powell are criminals. They lied to the American people in order to accomplish other objectives of power and wealth. They must be brought to justice. Their intricate deceptions must be exposed. If we do not do that, it will all be repeated again, by another set of people in another time. And we will again wonder how we let it happen.

This is not about politics, and there was certainly enough blame on the Democrats for going along with it, even becoming cheerleaders. This is about morality and law. These people were, and are, immoral. No religion that is honest with its values could see what happened as anything other than an absolute betrayal of those values. These people were and are criminals. They broke the laws of the United States, again and again and again, and the laws of the world. And they are traitors. They betrayed our country, they betrayed our soldiers, and they betrayed the world.

The last few months I have been wondering why the Republicans and the right wing fringe have been lying so profusely about global climate change and about health care. Now I see the light. They got away with it before, in Iraq, and there were no real consequences. They are using what works. And it works because we, all of us, have let them get away with it. We must not “move forward.” We must go back, identify and clean out the infection, discard the diseased material into a biohazard container (jail), and let the wound start to heal. It will take time, as it is a deep wound. But if we do not clean it, if we ignore it and hope that it will go away, the infection will spread, and it will kill us.

Wild Asparagus, in concert

I just had a wonderful time at the Danceable Feast contra dance weekend near Eugene, Oregon, November 13 to 15, 2009. This was the tenth year of the weekend, though the first year I’ve been, and I think the first year I was even aware of it. It is sponsored by the Eugene dance community.

Wild Asparagus was the band, with their driving dance music that is impossible to stand still to. Wild Asparagus was the band at Dance Awakening in 1997, the first contra dance band that absolutely gripped me. Listening to David Cantieni’s bombard this weekend, I came up with the thought that bombards can resurrect dead people, get them up and dancing, and maybe there was a bombard player at Jesus’s grave. George Marshall was the caller, and he is also part of the band. I bought their brand new “Live at the Guiding Star Grange” double CD (not yet available except in person), and listened to it on the southbound train last night. Back in the feeling so easily!

the blur is due to lack of flash on my iPhone, but it does capture the feeling

The other part of the dance weekend was The S Curves and swing dancing. The food, prepared by Annie and her crew was great. I chuckle when seeing vegan – vegetarian – gluten free – dairy – no dairy permutations of the dishes, when in Nevada I still usually get “vegetarian? what’s that?”

Most of the attendees were northwest people, but there was a strong California contingent as well. No other Nevadans, though. I especially enjoyed dancing with Jacque and Denise, but all the dancers were competent to spectacular.

I love Ethiopian food, the tastes, the things it is made out of, the tradition of eating with injera rather than utensils. Recent I managed to eat two Ethiopian restaurants: Queen Sheba, in Sacramento at 1704 Broadway, and Merkato Ethiopian Cafe, in Las Vegas at 855 E Twain. Both were great. There is an Ethiopian restaurant in Reno, but I haven’t gotten there yet. Ironic that I’ve been to more distant ones before the close one.

Lily

I spent last weekend in Las Vegas, visited with friends Mike Pearson, Marc Pitchford, and Donna McKay, and spent time with my family (mom Ruth, sister Jane, John, Allison, Vincent and Lily). All are doing well. Of course the most enjoyable time is with my grand niece Lily. It is strange to go from Carson City where it is late fall to Las Vegas where it is still late summer, with 20 degrees Fahrenheit higher temperatures. I visit Las Vegas about every six to eight weeks. It is always a culture shock, I will never get used to Las Vegas even though I grew up there, but at the same time it is always great to see family and friends.

Lady Fern with fall color

I had a great three day backpack trip in the Granite Chief Wilderness, enjoying fall colors and doing some exploring of abandoned trails.

Check out my trip report on Granite Chief blog at http://granitechief.wordpress.com/2009/09/27/powderhorn-2009-09-23/

Today is fall (autumnal) equinox, the day on which night and day are of equal lengths, one of the quarter-days of the year. Of course the seasons trail the official days as the earth heats up and cools down more slowly, and so the beginning of fall is often celebrated by the cross-quarter day Samhain in the celtic/gaelic calendar, which evolved into Halloween in our current calendar, October 31. I notice that days are still summer-like, but mornings are fall-like. Though my tomatoes are still producing, the vines are looking a little wilted. Last Wednesday when I headed up to Incline Village, some of the aspen trees were turning and there was a yellowish cast to all the vegetation. It is a good day to stop and reflect on the year, as are all the seasonal dates of the year.

Dan & Teralyn Dancing

Dance Awakening at Harbin Hot Springs is one of the greatest contra dance camps around. The story of the dance is: dance, soak, eat, hike, and repeat as needed. The place is wonderful, the staff (musicians and callers) are wonderful, the dance organizers (Kelli and Shane Butler) are wonderful, and the dancers are just a whole lot of fun. The dance staff this year was caller Rick Mohr and The Figments, Anna Patton, Will Patton, Ethan Hazzard-Watkins, and Owen Morrison. The catered food is great. The hot springs are in a canyon in the coast range, between Clear Lake and Napa Valley, with a system of trails up to and along the ridges.

As a substitute teacher, I get a chance to see more classrooms than regular teachers do, and in most cases more than administrators do. I see what works, and what doesn’t, and I have strong feelings about schools and teaching. I believe that John Dewey laid out much of what we need to know about education over 100 years ago, but our schools systems have largely gone off the path he illuminated. He believed that a major purpose of schools was to produce good citizens, and that students developed citizenship skills by experiencing and practicing those skills rather than ingesting pre-determined knowledge.

I’m thinking I should really write up my educational philosophy again, but until that happens, here are some resources that have significantly influenced me.

Stop Homework – I believe that homework should have to do with the relationship between home and school, and not be used to extend the school day into the home. If homework brings home school learning to the family, or brings the knowledge and experience of the family back to school, great. Otherwise, I don’t see any place for it.

Responsive Classroom – There is simply no better resource in my experience for creating caring and academically successful classrooms than the books offered by Responsive Classroom. I hope to someday take one of their trainings.

Project Citizen – A way to involve students in community issues while meeting academic goals.

Cathryn Berger Kaye – The Complete Guide to Service Learning book and her workshops have changed the way I teach and the professional development I offer.

David Sobel – All of David’s books have influenced how I teach, and much of my effort in education is to bring David’s ideas to the classroom and to school systems. I use Place-Based Education: Connecting Classrooms and Communities as a resource every week. I’m reading Childhood and Nature: Design Principles for Educators right now.

Richard Louv – Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder brought all of these ideas up to date in parent and teacher friendly language, and has transformed the way we think about school, though not yet how we practice school.

And on the negative side of things, there are scripted reading programs. The worst of these is Success for All, but the others are not much better. These programs are premised on several tragic ideas: reading must be broken down into parts – as it whole it has no value; curriculum writers know more about teaching and learning than do teachers; reading is supposed to be entertaining but not meaningful; reading can be taught with materials that are content free. These authoritarian scripted programs do not allow students or teachers to vary from the routine, in fact in many schools teachers are punished for being off the schedule during reading time. The materials would seem familiar to my generation, which was mis-taught with Dick and Jane books. Does it work? Yes, it increases test scores, at least for about two years, after which they begin to decline again. Why would scores decline after a time? Because scripted reading programs teach students to hate reading. They are bored with it, they find no personal reward in it. In middle school I continually see the result of SFA programs – students who hate reading, who would never carry literature with them in school, who show up for silent reading periods without a book. Sadly, more than half of the students feel this way. Talking with students about why reveals that they feel this way because they were forced to read boring and irrelevant books in lower grades. They’ve crossed reading off their list of interesting activities, and that is as sad a result as can be.