Silent Sunday

Technological meltdown: Crisis Averted!

Did you miss me?  Wonder why your email didn't get answered, no tweets and no facebook posts?  Well turns out it's been a rough run for me with technology.

As you heard in my last blog, I somehow managed to misplace my camera.  I've spent a good part of the week sorting through different drawers, boxes and pockets but to no avail.  And if that wasn't enough of a problem, on Friday night my modem went out!

Now I don't like to think of myself as an addict, but let's just say I have a somewhat obsessive relationship with my computer.  3 days with no access to my email was like being on another planet!  Every few hours I caught myself wondering what interesting and important messages I might be missing.

The first day of "Christi unplugged" went well.  I had a lovely visit with my dad and his wife Margy in the afternoon.  It was a great chance for us all to catch up as it's been a few years since we've had a chance to get together.  We caught up on the family news and what's going on with my sister and borther.  It was great to have some time for family!  We've kept in touch more regularly through email and the occasional card and such, but in person visits are so much nicer!

They also brought up a donation from themselves and another family of bags to be recycled.  Talk about perfect timing!  I'd just hit the bottom of my closet of donated bags and was working up the nerve to go snag some out of the recycle bin at my local grocer!  So their donation brings me up to a total of 18 families that I'm recycling for.  At FatBottomBags we're growing every week!

Speaking of FatBottomBags, they not only brought donations, but they both bought me out of bags that I had made!  Their getting ready for the gift giving season and had a few environmentally friendly folks on their lists.

After their departure, I would normally have run right up to the computer room to update my storefront, check my email, maybe tweet about some eco friendly links.  That was not an option with a bad modem.  So instead, I gathered up the dog and headed out to see what the locals were up to.

First I stopped by a friends and caught the end of the Huskies vs Notre Dam game.  A brutal disappointment with the defeat in overtime!  After we commisserated about the game for awhile our conversation turned to my bad tech week.  Normally I try not to complain *too much* when things go awry, but being unplugged from my computer friends made me feel like that scene in the Matrix when Neo takes the pill and is literally unplugged. Anyway, it turns out that my friend had just purchased a new digital camera and still had a functional older digital camera that he kindly lent me until I can locate mine or purchase an upgrade.  Funny how somethings work out like that and let me tell you, having a camera back in my pocket eased my unsettled nerves substantially!

I woke up bright an early on Sunday morning excited to have the option to post pictures again and took this photo of the 2 bags that I have still have available for sale:

Now all I had to do was figure out what to do to solve the old modem problem.  In the mean time I took the dog to the beach, visited several friends and even had a late supper with some friends here on the rock. Here's the photos I captured as Echo the ecodog and I enjoyed the sunset at the beach!

I guess the lessons learned here are:

1. 
   
   I can live without the technology on which I have come so dependent on (for a few days anyway)
   
   
   
2. 
   
   My friends don't all live inside of my computer, some live right down the road
   
   
   
3. 
   
   There's always a beautiful beach and sunset waiting at the end of the day
   
   
   
4. 
   
   Things always seem to work out in the end
   
   
   

So as I said in the title of this posting Crisis averted! I'm back in the technology. Now I just have to spend some time catching up on my email and then time to start making some new FatBottomBags!

Grey Whale Stranding Response

Orignal posting:
April 30, 2009

Well I made it out there yesterday around 2 pm. What a sight. It was a juvinielle male gray whale estimated at 2 years old and somewhere around 10,000 pounds!

Carley was out working as the coordinator on this stranding and she was able to contact the Andrew Foss of Foss ships and recruited them to pull the carcass off of the beach for us and coordinated with the county to bring out a crew and a small boat to run line to and from the Andrew Foss.

Thanks Rhonnie! She loaned me her cell phone to take out to the site as mine was dead and my charger is in the car in Goldbar! Good thing too, as this phone became our only contact phone at the site.

The crew from the Andrew Foss came ashore and evaluated the situation and said they would be happy to help, provided we had a strong enough line for towing. We did not and so one of the crew suggested we contact Samson Rope in Ferndale for a donation to the Whatcom Marine Mammal Stranding Network.

I got on the phone with Charolette at Sampson and she worked so hard to find us some suitable line in the 2000 feet that we were looking for. She and the warehouse manager worked in tandem on this for over an hour and many phone calls from me but unfortunately couldn't find anything in that length and strength.

I made a new request for any 2 lines that we could splice and they went through the whole process again and came up with a wonderful donation. Then they even let us come after hours for pick up!!! Thanks to Joe in shipping and the warehouse manager (sorry, but don't remember his name)!

One of our volunteers , Bill, went into to pick up the line and when he returned we tied up the gray. I even got to make cut through the body to form a notch for the tow line to be attached.

If you would have told me yesterday morning that by evening I'd be cutting through the blubber of a whale I'd have thought you were crazy! But sure enough that was what I did. It was interesting and very cool!. The whale blubber is very greasy and thick!

Once the line was secure, we cleared the beach of onlookers for their safety. We had them move back where they could still see, but wouldn't be in harms way if something went wrong.

The county crew ran a line out to the Andrew Foss and then the tug pulled the carcass off the beach. Thank goodness it stayed in one peace and floated! They transported it down the beach to our tie off location and 5 of us volunteers walked down the beach and met them. Then the county brought in the line and we secured the carcass to the beach keeping the body below the low tide line. Where it will wait for a crew from the Friday Harbor Whale Museum to pick it up and bring it to their location. What they are doing with it I am not sure.

Once we had it secure we walked back the 1/2 mile of beach to our cars and made it after sunset, but before total darkness.

Now you can see what a coordinated effort this can be and that was just day 3! So many volunteers were needed for each phase of this.

The Whatcom Marine Mammal Stranding Network is such a fantastic organization. Anything we can do to support them makes such a difference! If you want to get involved as a volunteer or want to help support them financially, the website is http://www.wmmsn.org/

Remember if you see a stranded marine mammal whether dead or alive, you must by law stay back 100 feet. Then please contact the local marine mammal stranding network. They will come and evaluate the animal, dead or alive and they gather data that is used by scientists and researchers world wide.

I'm so happy to be a small part of this organization and consider myself really blessed to be able to help make a difference in the world.