Chronicles 311: Don't Mess With Mother Nature

520 Bridge - mid span during high winds

The 311 story continues from the original

As I was riding in this morning, crossing the 520 bridge over Lake Washington a thought struck me. It was nearly daybreak, although rather difficult to tell through the layered windswept grayness of heavy clouds with no visible sun at all; just the black of night turning to shades of gray spattered with wind whipped rain. Waves were rising up on the south side of the floating bridge & smacking it like a boxer on a speed bag, spraying well over the barriers onto the highway. I could actually feel the road swaying below me.


The north side is usually rather placid in contrast to the crashing white caps on the south. This morning you could see wind gusts skimming across it's surface, leaving ripples zig zagging every which way. Here, the bridge is caught in the middle of a big struggle. The harder the winds blow the more it fights against the forces of mother nature.

Mother nature?

With such extreme and sudden force I saw the pavement in front of the bus explode sending pieces of pavement, concrete and cars flying into the inky violent abyss. Jets of water shot every direction as the road disappeared in front of us. Cars dropped out of sight, instant panic spread through the bus as screams filled the air. Someone yelled "We're not going to stop!" I realized that it was my own voice tearing my throat to ribbons. We were just past mid span. No way are we going to make it to the other side. No way are we going to survive in that violent swirling maelstrom. I felt like I couldn't move, like living in slow motion.

Swim?

The icy cold water makes that impossible & rips your breath away in the process. No boats are on the lake this early especially with the tossing and turning. It occurs to me that I'm probably going to die! Terror rips through my pounding chest making breathing severely restricted. I gasped & screamed to draw breath again. People were yelling and shoving their way to the exits trampling over others in the process. Fear induced brutality as one man with a gray beard forcefully knocked an older lady down and others trod upon her while she shrieked. It was the Line Nazi Lady. She disappeared under the mass, her cries drowned by all the din while humanity ran roughshod for any kind of opening they could find.

Chaos reigned over everyone just before the icy shards of lake water blasted through the windshields with such tremendous force it launched people through the side windows & doors. Looking up I saw the roof emergency hatch, leaped for it and managed to force it open as the water swirled trying to pull me down into the large watery casket that used to be the 311. With the last bit of strength I could muster, I thrust myself onto the roof gasping for air, just long enough to have it disappear into the raging angry lake. Under the waves I went, gulping a huge mouthful of black water. Something was snagging me. The 311 was taking me down with it.

I felt around my shoulders and ripped off my backpack from one arm, the other hung up on something. Trying to hold in the last ounce of air I had without succumbing to blind fear I yanked again and broke free as a searing pain ripped into my shoulder. Flailing with one good arm I tried to get back to the surface but it was no good. My water logged jacket and clothes were like a heavy yoke pulling me right down again. The next thing I knew I was hit hard on the side of my head as the bus jerked to an abrupt stop.

Lights popped in my head for a moment and the smell of diesel fumes made me stir nauseously and realize where I really was. Jolted suddenly awake, the 311 had just made it's first stop as it arrived in Seattle. Riders were rushing to get off while others waited for their stop.

April Fools!!! A burst of writing inspiration like getting doused with blast of icy water and waking not only my physical being but my mental state. How odd for so early in the morning to be so inspired as I hopped off the bus and made for my office in the gloomy gray morning.

It made me think that a tunnel under the lake might be a better idea than trying to contain the forces of Mother Nature, letting her winds blow unimpeded across the lake surface instead of bashing into the concrete bridge sections like a battering ram. Then it occurred to me, what could happen so far below the surface that it would be worth writing about?

Maybe I'll cover that next April 1st.

Poetry Corner

Here's a little ditty penned by a fellow traveler of the local highways, byways and parking lots.

My brother; Jeff

The I-5 Blews

Have you ever stopped to contemplate

why the northwest has no big roller coasters?

My belief is, they can't compete

with the adrenaline rush that I-5 offers

Once every year we pack the Lake
in awe of Blue Angels and yet
Similar maneuvers I frequently make
with people I've never even met

A thanks to all the people those days

You paid attention when I did not

I try to be courteous and look both ways

And compensate for a big blind spot

Vehicles intended to comfort and relax

Pay extra for leather and gold trim

Then fret over the cost of a fuel tax

The DOT... what's the matter with them?

Safety designs, some old some new

Engineered for a precious head

A steering wheel becomes, a pillow for you

Drive like it’s an eight-inch spike instead

Some eat, some drink, some smoke, some talk

Some read, some groom, some makeup

We all move along at the pace of a walk

Some negligence caused some backup

Changing Lanes Memo: for ‘the sighted not so far’

Early warning of your intent is crucial

What's to give us a clue you can operate a car

When you can't figure out a turn signal?

Cable barriers not safe they criticize

Won’t stop’em, waste of money's a complaint

While millions of miles of road, you realize

Separate traffic with but a stripe of paint

Nature Lost

I've been away for a couple of weeks. Not sure why, been busy I guess with other things, or making myself busy, who knows? I certainly have my doubts. Again I am being serious when my original intent here was to have fun and laugh a little bit in these tough times without becoming too serious. Sometimes though, I find it very hard to ignore what is going on around me. I am prouder to be an American these days, but still not like I remember when I was a kid. I am still ashamed too. We can be critical of ourselves without being considered the enemy.


Since Exxon completely ruined Valdez, Alaska in 1989, I've been rather intrigued if not absolutely disgusted by how it has played out since. After 20 years of court battles, Exxon appealed all the way to the Supreme Court to get their financial judgment reduced to a pittance by the time they finally paid out to the people of Valdez, whose livelihoods were destroyed along with the environment around them. Even today, oil still fouls the once pristine area, animals are not making comebacks, deeply impacting the lives that reside there. A few even died waiting for their restitution & will never get their fair share. However, if I remain silent I feel I am complicit. I get the guilt without the profit. Perhaps that makes this bitter horse pill easier to swallow?


If there was ever a bigger reason humans to find new means of energy and transportation, this is it. It's not like there's isn't any other reason(s) why we should do so. Of all of mankind's moral failings, Greed has brought us to the brink of economic breakdown. Something I never thought I would see in my lifetime. My parents lived through the Great Depression and I thought we learned our lesson about unabashed Greed/Capitalism and were protecting against it happening again. Am I threatened by two men marrying or by some faceless mega rich greedy bastard raping the system for all it's worth at the expense of my future?

Apparently morality is in the eye of the beholder.

Call me a socialist or whatever, but our economy works better when we do spread the wealth around. When Americans work and build our country is strong. History gives us many horrible examples of what happens when wealth is concentrated to a very few of the whole. To me, it is the height in immorality. Capitalism sans morals is worse than the most ravenous cancer or moral failing in my eye. I have no problems with having money or being rich and making as much as possible. But I cannot sell myself out, define who I am because I want another dollar in my pocket. I hate how we can have so little respect for others and the world around us in the quest for a fat bank account.

Greed by a few has so deeply hurt the many. This is not a game.

By the time Exxon settled with the people of Valdez, they averaged about $15,000 per person pay out after two decades of fighting in court. While their profits appear to be quite healthy. Here's 2007's numbers;

The company reported Friday that it beat its own record for the highest profits ever recorded by any company, with net income rising 3 percent to $40.6 billion, thanks to surging oil prices. The company’s sales, more than $404 billion, exceeded the gross domestic product of 120 countries. Exxon Mobil earned more than $1,287 of profit for every second of 2007.

The company also had its most profitable quarter ever. It said net income rose 14 percent, to $11.7 billion, or $2.13 a share, in the last three months of the year. The company handily beat analysts’ expectations of $1.95 a share, after missing targets in the last two quarters.

Like most oil companies, Exxon benefited from a near doubling of oil prices, as well as higher demand for gasoline last year. Crude oil prices rose from a low of around $50 a barrel in early 2007 to almost $100 by the end of the year — the biggest jump in oil prices in any one year.

“Exxon sets the gold standard for the industry,” said Fadel Gheit, an oil analyst at Oppenheimer & Company in New York.

And they set the gold standard??

It's time for another Tea Party.


Human kind is at odds with God's creation;

A rescue worker holds an oil-soaked victim of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

The Exxon Valdez is recalled as Alaska faces fresh environmental challenges
The 20th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez spill — 11 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound — coincides with the federal government again looking at leases for oil and gas exploration.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/2008910699_edit24valdez.html

CRAIG FUJII / THE SEATTLE TIMES

TWENTY years after the Exxon Valdez dumped 11 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound, the enduring lesson is about eternal vigilance. The consequences of letting up are real and expensive.

The anniversary is especially sensitive for Alaskan commercial fishing and environmental interests, as it coincides with the federal government looking at offshore drilling leases for Bristol Bay, and oil and gas potential at other remote locations. President George W. Bush lifted a ban on drilling in 2007.

Different measurements record the lasting damage of the 1989 spill. Two decades after the tanker struck Bligh Reef, the American Bird Conservancy reports several species of marine birds never recovered from the gloppy tsunami that flooded the sound.

The Seattle Times won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting for its immediate and aggressive coverage of the oil spill and a series on oil-tanker safety. One early dispatch revealed a theme that would echo through nine months of reporting and subsequent years: "A decade of cutbacks in oil-spill workers, equipment and budgets has left the Alyeska Pipeline Co. with only a pale shadow of what was once a model cleanup program on Alaska's Prince William Sound, former company officials say."

In testimony scheduled for delivery before Congress on the anniversary, Dr. Jeffrey Short, Pacific Science Director for Oceana, an international marine conservation organization, offers a blunt reminder that only 8 percent of the crude oil was recovered, despite the eventual efforts of 11,000 cleanup workers and a cost of $2 billion.

As some fishery-rich areas of Alaska are once again looked at as a petroleum resource, the challenge is to consider the risks and the remedies available for what could happen. Among the primary lessons learned are the consequences of hubris, Short will tell a joint subcommittee session of the House Committee on Natural Resources.

Closer to home, the lessons learned play out in a permanent role for the Neah Bay rescue tug to protect Washington's outer coastline and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. For all the devastation wrought by the Exxon Valdez running aground 20 years ago, the wrenching lessons have a salutary effect.


Yes they do. Do we repeat our mistakes and never learn our lessons? Will the profit margin always be the bottom line when it comes to our decision making?

Ya know. I'd rather hug a tree. It provides me shade, a place to lean and read a book, high mountain beauty with a whisper in the wind. No cost, no interest. I'd rather be in a place where the trees far out number the people who'd rather cut them down for a quick buck. The tree has no agenda other than to stand solid in my presence.


"In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks"

John Muir

UPDATE - All Chained Up

Updating my original post regarding Rocky and other chained up dogs in King County;

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/402111_rocky04.html

Rocky has found a home! Let's hope good things are waiting for those still chained up.

"You can judge a society by how it treats its animals"

Ghandi