Tuesday: A day to: celebrate perseverance!
As you can see by Itzl's concerned look, this group gives Kossacks a safe place to check in, a daily diary where we
can let people know we are alive, doing OK, and not affected by such things as heat, blizzards, floods, wild fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, power outages, earthquakes, or other such things that could keep us off DKos. It also allows us to find other Kossacks nearby for in-person checks when other methods of communication fail - a buddy system. If you're not here, or anywhere else on DKos, and there are adverse conditions in your area (floods, heatwaves, hurricanes, earthquakes etc.), we and your buddy are going to check up on you. If you are going to be away from your computer for a day or a week, let us know here. We care!
IAN is a great group to join, and a good place to learn to write diaries. Drop one of us a Kosmail and ask to be added to the Itzl Alert Network anytime! We all share the publishing duties, and we welcome everyone who reads IAN to write diaries for the group! Every member is an editor, so anyone can take a turn when they have something to say, photos and music to share, a cause to promote or news!
We do have a diary schedule. But, when you are ready to write that diary, either post in thread or send FloridaSNMOM a Kosmail with the date. If you need someone to fill in, ditto. FloridaSNMOM is here on and off through the day usually from around 9:30 or 10 am eastern to around 11 pm eastern.
Monday: Youffraita
Tuesday: ejoanna
Wednesday: Pam from Calif
Thursday: art ah zen
Friday: FloridaSNMOM
Saturday: FloridaSNDad
Sunday: loggersbrat
I first met the grove of the oldest trees on earth over 45 years ago, as an undergrad in the UC Berkeley Department of Geography. They are often called “living fossil trees.” And now I’m a living fossil! And although I live very near sea level—and the Bristlecone Pines only live around 9-10,000 ft. above sea level--we are both native to California. (OK, there are a few outlying groves in Nevada and Arizona.)
Here’s a fascinating, recent article about the Bristlecones: www.nytimes.com/…
It was October when we young geographers made our way to Owens Valley (another wonderful memory and a gorgeous high desert locale) and the second day we drove up eastward into the White Mountains, to the Inyo National Forest, to the Bristlecone Pines trailhead.
UC Berkeley had a high altitude lab up around 10,000 ft. We went up the second day so we could (we hoped) get used to that same high altitude. We had spent the first day/night on the Owens Valley floor, with an altitude of 5,000. And when I say “on the floor” of the Valley I am not kidding. We were camping at a very primitive campground. And I really mean “primitive”—we had to bring in our own water. I still remember that night when I looked up at a panoramic heaven full of stars seemingly as close and clear as I had ever seen them. (Probably because of almost zero human light pollution.)
The hike up to the Grove took us through what looked to me like a moonscape.
Even in the Fall, at 9-10,000’ it was pretty cold—and windy. These magnificent trees have adapted beautifully to the cold and the wind, with twisty, otherworldly shapes:
Our guide told us that if one took a Bristlecone pine seedling (which, of course, was strictly forbidden!!) to, say , Berkeley, potted it in good topsoil, in warm temps—and near sea level, it’d probably die. These trees and their very harsh and rarified environment are well-connected and interdependent. In their native habitat they tend to grow low to the ground, bent into wild shapes. And growing in more of a horizontal direction
I made it through this field experience exhausted, but exhilarated. And: no altitude sickness (although I returned 10 years later with a friend---skipping the acclimating overnight in Owens Valley—and got whammed by altitude sickness. Believe me, that’s no fun. My bad.) But both trips remain in memory all these decades later, with a clearness and a lot of that initial exhilaration.
These trees, IMHO, represent perseverance and adaptability—in the face of a lot of adversity. I want to raise them as reference to what remains ahead of us in our fight, everyday, to protect Democracy. We done good this past week, but we must remain vigilant, even in a still VERY harsh environment.
Amen,
EJ
Photos from The New York Times™