Wow, congratulations! I saw that there were no incidents, which is really exceptional. Portland had a bit of tear-gassing later in the day from another face-off at the ICE facility, but otherwise it sounds like we stayed clean also.

Across the ocean! That must have been amazing alright. Where did you stop in England?

There'll definitely be biking. I can't walk worth a damn but I don't really have a problem with biking, though I'm still working up to much of a climb. Assuming my surgery isn't until spring, we're booked for two months in Tucson this winter and I plan on biking my age in miles again.

Another way to look at the Seattle turnout, from head to tail the march was 1.5 miles long, going down Pine from Capital Hill, then turning north on 4th Ave. The pace was a bit slow, so by the end my back and hips were not happy. It was an energized crowd and Seattle PD noted there were no incidents.

Hey Scott and Rachel. We're finally home from our cruise (3 weeks on the Queen Mary 2 to England and Norway - was AMAZING! - such a beautiful ocean liner and so elegant) and playing catch on our computers. It was too bad that they can't get your knees done sooner than 9 or 10 months. But that's the way Kaiser operates. Hopefully with steroid shots you can keep doing some biking.

That's how I feel. The crowd marching completely peacefully through downtown Seattle was estimated at 70,000. I read that the ferry from Bainbridge Island was so full with islanders coming to join the protest that the ferry was listing.

Good photos as usual. Things are so crazy right now. Today’s No Kings protests around the country give me hope.

You're not everybody, Scott.

That's interesting, and makes sense to me. I do something similar, by stating out loud what I've already got: phone, wallet, glasses, camera, car keys, house keys. It's ass backwards though, because I'm just listing out what I already have, not what I might be missing. I need to put up the list and check off against it.

That's really interesting, and now that I've driven enough it makes sense to me.

Yes, but by then I'll be nearly 80. Nobody climbs Stelvio when they're 80.

There was a rule change in 2022 where, if your stronger eye meets specified standards, you can qualify by demonstrating your ability to safely operate the commercial vehicle in a driving test. It's a federal rule for interstate commerce.

I sure relate to forgetting things, as you did the Garmin. So I thought I'd weigh in to mention the benefits of pointing when going through lists. I heard about it years ago, and have actually found it useful personally.

My favorite AI search engine (Perplexity) can explain it more succinctly than I can:

The Japanese system of pointing to enhance memory is known as "Pointing and Calling," or shisa kanko in Japanese. Research shows that "Pointing and Calling" can reduce mistakes by up to 85 percent, particularly in environments where routine tasks may become automatic and prone to oversight.

While the technique originated with Japanese railway workers, it has since been adopted in other industries, including healthcare, manufacturing, and even daily life. For example, nurses might point to a medication label and state the drug and dosage before administration, reducing the likelihood of errors.

By engaging multiple senses and making actions deliberate, it strengthens cognitive control and recall.

"I start imagining I'm a seventh of the way up Stelvio." Dare to dream! With those new knees, who knows?

I almost said something about that in the narrative. Yakima, 1973, Denny's red Jeep. "Them's the hops", the guy said.

Just remembered the first time I ever saw these and could not figure out what they were until I was told.