CONTENTS 9/14/2020
Homeless With Smoke & Covid
Love For Firefighters
Whatcom County Voter’s Info
Smoke Prediction Background
Tolkien Air Quality Scale
Mossy Mentors
Chimney Work?
Radio Free Fl!p: Rock Me To Sleep, The Shirt Song
GAH!! The last couple days posts didn’t go out. Operator error. My apologies. Sending NOW. Love/Fl!p
HOMELESS WITH SMOKE & COVID
I received this alert from my friend Heather Ktahdin, who has worked with citizens experiencing homelessness for a long time, specifically with folks who fall through the cracks in city programs.
Please consider speaking a comment at city council meeting tonight. Ask the City to unlock & staff more public buildings 24/7 to provide safe breathing air for those with asthma that don’t have access to filtered air. We are experiencing a weather emergency. Our unsheltered citizens are on day 4 of unhealthy smokey air. Our public library is closed due Covid. Other than late night restaurants, not much is open at night and weekends as a safe public shelter with filtered air.
The old Public Market on Cornwall is now called Base Camp. They do good work with their long term residents but not every citizen is able to integrate into their structure. Not all will be able to be quiet and calm enough to stay in a private faith shelter in a large shared room. These are the most fragile among us.
There was a Whatcom homeless strategy Workgroup meeting on Friday, and nobody at meeting, including health department staff, discussed any concerns in regards to the smoke that started that day. If citizens find anyone ill and whose life is in danger, please call 911 and request a medic, observe the medics or officers, and ask that a DCR, Designated Crisis Responder be requested to come evaluate if the person is gravely disabled, and thus be transported to a safe room even if they refuse.
Tonight’s meeting is Monday September 14, 2020 at 7:00 PM
www.cob.org/cc091420
This link will take you to a very short and simple form to fill out if you wish to speak tonight.
LOVE FOR FIREFIGHTERS
Sorry for the last minute request but the Baker River Hotshots, which is the wild land fire crew based out at Baker Lake, come home for 48 hours on the 16th and I want to take as much fresh food and letters of love as I can to them at the station. We all know how much better food straight out of our garden is and these guys could use all the fresh nutrition they can get. They fight on the front lines of these fires, often times sleep in the black (where the fire has already burned) on the ground in a bivi sac and are supplied with MRE (freeze dried meals ready to eat) as their high calorie food. This year has been an incredibly difficult year for so many and these guys have been doing everything they can to make sure us at home can be safe and taken care of.
Please see the links below to know just how amazing these, and all front line workers are. One is from the Baker River page and the other is one of the crew members. If you have any excess of fresh food or would like to make a card or something fun and loving to send them please let me know via email or text what and where and I will make rounds tomorrow afternoon to pick stuff up.
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10157239121912132&id=124234067131
https://www.facebook.com/sjohnnybrady/posts/10223694470179155
This crew is usually gone for 18 days at a time and get to come home for 48 hours before being sent to another fire. My husband is one of these amazing people and I cant wait to have him home.
Please do not feel obligated to do anything for this but I do have one other request…….Vote. Please vote this year and vote knowing what this world needs is understanding, love, acceptance, respect for differences and equal opportunity for everyone and our environment. Thanks so much and lots of to everyone.
Sarah Grainger, Victor Street sbirdeen@yahoo.com (425)681-9605
WHATCOM COUNTY VOTERS INFO
Whatcom County voters may soon receive a postcard from the U.S. Postal Service encouraging voters to “plan ahead” for the November 3 General Election. Among the recommendations is to request a mail-in or absentee ballot at least 15 days before Election Day.
“Voters in Whatcom County do not need to request a ballot, as ballots are automatically mailed to all registered voters 20 days prior to Election Day. There is no need to sign up or request to receive a mail-in ballot to vote in the upcoming election” stated County Auditor Diana Bradrick. Voters who are unsure if they are registered to vote or if their address on file is current can log in to VoteWA.gov to confirm their registration information. Voters are also welcome to contact the Auditor’s Office at elections@co.whatcom.wa.us or phone 360-778-5102.
County election officials, and the Office of the Secretary of State were not made aware this mailer would be sent to Washington residents, nor were we apprised of its content. By the time we learned of the mailer and reached out to the postal service, the mailers were already in the mail stream.
Voters are encouraged to check the status of their registration now at VoteWA.gov, and to contact the Auditor’s office if they have not received a ballot by October 21. Ballots must be postmarked election day or received in a ballot drop-box by 8:00 pm on election day, November 3. USPS recommends mailing at least a week before election day, and voters are encouraged to check the last mailbox collection time in order to ensure their ballot will be postmarked in time said Auditor Bradrick.
SMOKE PREDICTION BACKGROUND
I did not wake to the clean air I had hoped for. The recent model forecasts don’t agree well with the monitoring that I’m seeing, Here is info about why. https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2020/09/much-more-pessimistic-air-quality.html?m=1
Here’s a blog from an air modeler with the WA Department of Ecology:https://wasmoke.blogspot.com/2020/09/atmosphere-is-not-delivering-what-we.html?m=1
Regards, ~ Tim Sturtz
[So, here’s a bunch of science! I don’t understand it all, but I love getting more understanding of both what’s going on, and the challenges of trying to predict what’s next. And I love this picture of scientists scrambling to figure out what’s really going on and how to modify their models to reflect that. I love watching them think together about reality for the benefit of all of us. My brother Joe said something that struck me the other day about mirages. When you’re driving in the desert, and you see a huge shallow lake covering the highway ahead, it’s not a good idea to base your actions just on what you think you’re seeing. For now, stay inside; keep cleaning the air. If you’re feeling extra anxious today, your body is hardwired for smoke. It’s telling you, “Get out of here!” But unless you are under an evacuation order, right now it’s probably safer at home.~ Love/Fl!p]
TOLKIEN AIR QUALITY SCALE
From the Shire to Mordor, green to brown. This morning we were in Mirkwood (red), but now we have moved into Isengard, post Orc army (purple). A friend from Portland said they peaked at 770 – directly above the fires of Mt Doom. Sometimes I just need to laugh, even when it’s not appropriate…
MOSSY MENTORS
Children’s outdoor program. Location: Fairhaven Park, then we head into the Hundred Acre Woods, 9:30-2:30p. 9-12 years old meet Tuesday and Thursday, 5-8 years old meet Wednesday and Friday. Maximum 10 kids per group with COVID precautions. Cost: $25-40 per day which comes to $200 – $320 Sliding scale per month with scholarship spots. We aim to create a safe space for children to integrate the rapid changes of the times we are all living in. Some of the ways we will do this are through connecting with the natural world, imaginative play, learning and practicing wilderness skills, circle time and discussion, trust building exercises, being outside together and being present with what arises. – contact mossymentors@gmail.com for more info – Katie, Katelyn & Yin
Katie, who is spearheading this program, is an incredible mentor and ally to children and a strong earth-based educator. ~ Jess Radovich 2310 Park St.
CHIMNEY WORK?
We are looking for someone to inspect and possibly clean the chimney of our fireplace for the winter season. Recommendations? Email jessicaradovich@gmail.com Thanks! ~ Jess Radovich 2310 Park St.
RADIO FREE FL!P: ROCK ME TO SLEEP, THE SHIRT SONG
Today was Tom Hunter’s birthday. Tom & Gwen & their kids lived over on Victor Street for decades. Tom was a minstrel who traveled the world singing and writing songs with and for children and their teachers. He was a Congregationalist minister too. His compassion and humor illuminated the world for all the years I knew him. His humor was just plain joyous. You get two songs today. The Shirt Song was the first one I ever heard of Tom’s, way before I ever met him. He phoned me one day back in the mid-1970s from San Francisco hoping to play at the coffeehouse I ran at WWU. My reaction was, “You’re the guy who wrote the Shirt Song. A song that good couldn’t have been an accident. You’re hired!” That was the beginning of a lifetime friendship. Tom died way too young, but he left behind hundreds of songs and thousands of people still sing them. Including me.
Rock Me To Sleep
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcJd_3zHw-E
The Shirt Song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHJq8nxPI18
Love/Fl!p 360-671-4511 2518 Cherry Street flip@columbianeighborhood.org
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