Lazy days

Two furbabies looking out the window, waiting for their other daddy to come home. A perfect cuteness moment for a Friday. #furbabies #dogsofauckland

A post shared by arthur_amerinz (@arthur_amerinz) on Jan 25, 2018 at 7:23pm PST

It’s summer. It’s hot. I forget stuff—or is it just forget to remember? In any case, I posted the photo above several days ago and then forgot to share it here. Oops. In my defence, it’s been really hot—so hot that shellfish is being cooked alive in the sand of beaches. So, I don’t feel like doing very much at all. And yet, life goes on.

The day I shot that photo, I hardly left the air conditioned upstairs, and neither did the dogs. These dogs are not mad and do not go out in the midday sun—or any summer sun beyond what’s, um. Absolutely necessary.

This photo was shot a little before they might reasonably have expected their other daddy to return home, and it was. But it was also the Friday before a three day holiday weekend, with Auckland Anniversary yesterday.

The holiday was a lovely summer day, with heat, yes, but sun and fun and events of every description. In our area, some locals took it upon themselves to organise a beach cleanup to deal with the detritus washed up on our beaches in recent storms. The rubbish was collected for disposal, and recyclables were set aside for separate collection. Very modern. But what struck me is someone organised it, and people just joined in, with no government support or participation. This is what Auckland and New Zealand are all about.

We’d had every intention of joining those folks, but it was a summer holiday and we overslept. Well, I did, and I was the one who needed to remind Nigel. Instead, we just had a quiet, lazy day. We went out for lunch, but otherwise stayed in the cool.

Yesterday, when I was looking for something else, I found a box in the garage with stuff I packed up maybe five years ago, probably at a time we thought about selling our house. I went through the contents, and divided receipts and statements into piles for filing and shredding—and that was all I accomplished on my office organisation project all weekend, and technically that was added on. It’s just been too hot.

Today I had a periodontist appointment, and I have a treatment on Thursday (why muck around?). More about all that later.

I’ve also pretty much decided on my new doctors, and I hope I’m making the right choice. More about that later, too, but I don’t expect to see them until well into next month (I don’t need to see a doctor for prescription renewals until March, so there’s plenty of time).

All of that, however, is related to everything else—it’s like a big chain of cause and effect. I’ll talk about that, too, as the issues resolve themselves, but right now, it’s all just a bit too much. It’s too hot, you see.

It’s hot outside

“Everybody complains about the weather,” as Charles Dudley Warner noted, “but nobody does anything about it.” Talking about the weather is one thing we humans do a LOT, especially when there’s a particularly noticeable variation—heat, cold, rain, snow, wind, whatever. It’s what we humans do. Lately, it’s been a major topic in New Zealand.

This summer, New Zealand has been experiencing a lot of hot and dry weather. It hasn’t necessarily been a heatwave, which they define as five or more days in a row in which the temperatures are above the average for that time of year, but in this case, close is clearly close enough for most people.

This past week, a town in the South Island recorded New Zealand’s highest temperature (37 degrees, which is about 98.6F) in seven years [See also: “New Zealand’s 10 highest temperatures ever recorded"].

Yesterday, Wanaka hit its highest-ever temperature, 35.2 degrees (95.36F), and Central Otago has been told to prepare for temperatures at 40 degrees (104F)—or even higher. So, the heat isn’t done with us yet, and this is still January—and February often brings us some of our hottest days (January and February in the Southern Hemisphere are equivalent to July and August in the Northern Hemisphere).

So far, the not-quite-a-heatwave has resulted in one death, which surprised me: New Zealand is a country with a lot of outdoor workers, including farmers, of course, and also construction workers of various kinds. Although air conditioning is becoming common, it’s not everywhere and, poorer and older people are most likely to lack it or not run it due to cost. I was visiting a retirement village recently and the facility wasn’t air conditioned, nor were the apartments unless the resident put it in themselves (and some have). Yet even with high temperatures, there’s no talk of opening “cooling centres” as there are in American cities when there are extended high temperatures.

We’re extremely lucky because we have air conditioning and can afford to run it. I appreciate all that every time I venture outside, which I do as little as possible. In fact, I’ve avoided going to my office (on the ground floor; the living space is all one floor up) to finish the organising project I mentioned recently. The ground level isn’t air conditioned, and gets quite hot and stuffy, even with a fan, so the project has basically been stalled for more than a week. Most days I think I’ll resume work, but change my mind once I get there.

As I get ready to publish this post, it’s officially a cool 27 degrees in the area where we live (80.6F). Yesterday, it hit 28-29 here (82.4-84.2F). But it’s not even midday yet, so no telling where we’ll end up, except, of course, it’ll be hot with intense sun.

And tomorrow is a public holiday—Auckland Anniversary Day. Public holidays are always nice, but this one means we don’t have to go anywhere, which is even better.

Still, it’s summer, and hot though it is, I definitely prefer it to winter. Thing is, when winter returns, we’ll no doubt have some unusually cold weather, and people will talk about that, too. It’s what we humans do.

Nine years later

Today is again the anniversary of our civil union. It was the ceremony we held as we became legally joined in the only way available to us back in 2009. Of course, we were married in 2013, and this particular anniversary sort of fell by the wayside. Still, it was important then, so it’s worth remembering now.

The day of our civil union was very hot. This year, the weather’s been hot, too—though not quite as hot as that one particular day. That’s a good thing, but I couldn’t help but notice the coincidence.

Everything we do in life is connected to everything else, one way or another, and our civil union was the ceremony, our later marriage the finalisation of what happened nine years ago today. And that’s why I remember it every year.

Happy anniversary to us!

This now concludes the 2017-18 “Season of Anniversaries”. The blog now resumes normal, if eratic, content provision.

Previously

2009: Perfect Day – where it began
2010: One and Fifteen
2011: Second Anniversary, squared
2012: Three years ago today
2013: Fourth Anniversary
2014: An anniversary
2015: Anniversaries
2016: A seventh Anniversary
2017: Eight years later

The annual increasing number: 59

Well, today is the day: My birthday. I always say that having a birthday is better than the alternative, because it is. But the truth is that some birthdays are easier than others, and, for me, the “nine” birthdays are particularly difficult. This was one of those.

This year I turned 59, which means I’m now in my sixtieth year, and my next birthday will be a big one. Similarly, this is my last birthday starting with a “5”. This is a difficult thing to get used to.

Turning 9 and 19 were the only “nine” birthdays I didn’t mind: Like a lot of kids, I wanted to be older, so turning 10 was great. When I was a teenager, especially toward the end of those years, I was frustrated by feeling older than I was, so I was glad to enter my 20s.

29 was the turning point. I embraced the acceptance that came from being in my 30s, even as I was sorry to see my 20s, and my youth (symbolically) go. 39 was worse, 49 worse still, and now 59. I can only imagine how 69, 79, 89 (?) will be like.

On the other hand, the year following a “nine” birthday is usually fine. Part of that comes from having a year to get used to the idea, after any angst around the “nine” birthday. So, next year and my 60th at the end of it ought to be fine. Well, I think it will be. I hope so.

This year my birthday fell on a Sunday, and that’s always a weird day: People can’t really celebrate on a Sunday like they can on a Saturday, so we went out to lunch today with some of the family. It was really nice, and being low-key was probably perfect for a “nine” birthday. It helped that the weather, though really hot, was also really nice today.

Birthdays are, as I often say, a sort of personal New Year, “a chance to reflect on my personal year just past, and look toward my personal year now beginning,” as I put it last year. It’s no secret that last year was very difficult for me. In fact, things still are difficult. The reason for that is the ongoing medication problem I talked about last month, something that’s still not resolved.

The most obvious result of that is that I simply haven’t felt up to blogging, podcasting, or making videos. I still want to do those things, but most of the time I just don’t have the energy. I haven’t even finished my office project (not entirely because of a lack of energy—time has been short the past week, too). This has got to change.

Last year at this time I felt much better. In fact, I felt pretty great right up until the medication they put me on in March last year. It’s been rough since then.

Still, I’ve made what changes and allowances I can in order to ease the path a little bit. For example, I again started using my laptop to write blog posts, which just seems so much less physically challenging than going to my office. But even that isn’t that simple: Upstairs is air conditioned, and my office isn’t.

The larger point here is that I’m aware that in some ways things are not as good this year as they were last year at this time. But Nigel is, as always, my rock and my safe harbour, and he makes it possible for me to face challenges. Add the support of family and friends, and things are actually much better than they otherwise would be, and better than they sound. That’s important.

So, this year may not seem as chirpy and cheery as other years, and maybe they can’t all be anyway. But it’s still far better than what some people face, and I’m really lucky that’s wrong can be fixed, and will be. Those are the points that matter.

Now, if I could just blog a bit more this year, that’d be great.

Here’s my annual birthday selfie:

Annual birthday selfie, at the end of a good day. I celebrate when my birthday arrives here right through to when it arrives in Chicago, where I’m from. So, two days of legit birthday celebrations! Yay for me!! It’s been a good day, though turning 59 means I’m now in my 60th year [gasp!]. Oh well, having birthdays sure beats the alternative, because there’s only one way to stop having birthdays. I plan on having a lot more! #59thbirthday #birthday59 #expat #expatriate

A post shared by arthur_amerinz (@arthur_amerinz) on Jan 20, 2018 at 11:00pm PST

The Illinois Route 59 sign is a public domain graphic available from Wikimedia Commons. I’ve driven on the northern parts of that road.

My Previous Birthday posts:

2017: The annual increasing number: 58
2016: The annual increasing number: 57
2015: The annual increasing number: 56
2014: The annual increasing number: 55
2013: The annual increasing number: 54
2012: The annual increasing number
2011: The annual increasing number
2010: The annual increasing number
2009: Happy Birthday to Me…
2008: Another Birthday

How the day began

This is what I woke up to this morning. Bella had more of my pillow than I did, but I didn’t mind. #furbaby #catsofauckland

A post shared by arthur_amerinz (@arthur_amerinz) on Jan 20, 2018 at 1:39pm PST

I wasn’t in a hurry to get up this morning—it’s my birthday, after all—but when I woke up, I realised some things. First, my feet were hanging off the bottom of the bed. Second, Bella was on my pillow above my head (photo above). The second explained the first.

Bella did this all the time last winter, and I didn’t mind: It kept the top of my head warm where, maybe, my own “fur” once did. She’s started doing this again recently, maybe because the air conditioning in the bedroom is making it a bit too cool for her. Dunno—that’s a guess. But lately every time I wake up in the morning—sometimes during the night—she’s asleep on my pillow at the top of my head. I don’t mind, really, especially because she doesn’t attack me when I move and bump her in my sleep.

I haven’t talked much about Bella recently, not really since we thought she might be on her way out a couple months ago. As it happens, she had a diarrhoea attack and was fine immediately after—this time, anyway. Still, she’s very thin, not grooming as much as she used to, and often tears out her fur from scratching too much. So, she has bald patches (the fur grows back, of course). She’s clearly elderly, and not well, but she’s also happy and not in any pain or discomfort, so we’ll take that. As long as she’s happy, we’ll give her the space to be happy.

And that means letting her sleep on my pillow, against the top of my head. I don’t really mind. And, it was a nice start to my birthday.

Birthday eve

Today was my birthday eve. I joke about it, but it’s not actually a “thing” and I don’t take it seriously—except in that it reminds me that the next day is my birthday. Whether that’s a good thing or not depends on the year.

As it happens, today was an ordinary Saturday, with some laundry to do, including hanging washing on the line (like in the second photo in the post the end of December). And then putting some things in the dryer to finish them off (I sincerely hate crispy towels). It was also a very hot day at our house.

My mother-in-law, who is visiting at the moment, made us dinner tonight (vegetarian, even!), so I didn’t even need to do that. I could, however, have a few celebratory wines, since my actual birthday is on a Sunday, and no one has such drinks on a Sunday… well, I could do, of course, but not alone.

We don’t have specific plans for tomorrow, apart from going out for lunch to celebrate my birthday (and obviously that will be blogged and maybe Instagrammed). It’s not a significant birthday this year, and yet, I always celebrate my birthdays because the only way to stop having birthdays isn’t an option. Mind you, some years that’s easier than other years.

We can’t stop time, and we can’t stop birthdays. How we react to those facts is pure choice, in my opinion, and I choose to be positive.

So, I choose to acknowledge my “birthday eve”, even though I don’t take it seriously and it’s just for fun. Isn’t that what birthdays should be?!

Care enough to be a cop

The video above is an ad currently running on New Zealand television, and it’s brilliant. It is trying to recruit New Zealanders to join the police, a worthy goal in itself, but it appeals to younger people and also manages to capture so much “new Zealandness” that it’s hard to choose what to talk about.

The physicality of the ad—so many people running!—will appeal to young and fit New Zealanders, but Kiwi humour is throughout the ad, from the very first scene—the “Sh!” to the pipers. The absolute quintessential Kiwi humour is in the scene where the cop interacts with a woman pulling a tyre tied to her waist.

One of the reasons I think this ad works is very basic: It practically made ME want to join the police! Not that they want a non-fit old guy like me, but still. If it worked on me, it will work on others.

There’s a longer cut available on YouTube, but I honestly think this shorter cut is better: Sharper, more focused, and the humour is allowed to shine through better. In short, it’s just better.

The New Zealand Police have had their ups and downs in public perception, but they are among the very least corrupt anywhere in the world, and police on the streets are never the problem (higher-ups, as is so often the case throughout the developed world, can sometimes be). But we need more New Zealanders to join the police in order to improve it (a large number of cops come from overseas because not enough Kiwis are applying).

I like to see government agencies engage in the real world, not deal in platitudes and imaginary ideals of what is proper. This ad is an example of how to deal with real people in the real world. It’s pretty great, really.

Back to it?

All summer holidays must come to an end, sooner or later. In New Zealand, time was nearly the entire country shut down from Christmas until the end of January, but those days are over. Mostly. And not for me.

As it happens, I don’t go back to work until the beginning of February, thanks to the arrangement of dates and the fact the project I work on every month skips January. It’s a good chance for me to get some projects done around the house, and every year I set out to do that. Sometimes I even succeed. This has already been one of those years.

Last week, I talked about my office reorganisation project, and the barriers to completing it. I didn’t mention one weird obstacle: I couldn’t find a Sharpie, and I knew we had at least four—somewhere. Today I went and bought a different sort of marker (only because the store didn’t sell Sharpies), and I was ready to finish that part of the project.

I wanted the marker so I could write on a scrap piece of paper what years were in the plastic box, which I then folded and faced outward so the signs could be read theough the transluscent plastic. So today I finished the re-boxing of all those receipts and statements I’d sorted, and I even wrote down the destuction date so I don’t have to do the arithmetic later on (because, reasons).

Now, I have little bits of detritus to box up, something I started this afternoon. These are things I want to keep (like political ephemera, for example, something I’ve collected for decades, though I have virtually nothing left of what I had in the USA), but that I don’t need close at hand. That’s a small job, really, and something I’ll complete tomorrow.

In the first few days of the new year, a friend mentioned on Facebook that he was seeing a lot of stuff about decluttering in his newfeed and he wondered why. I pointed out that he was probably seeing it because getting organised is a common New Year’s Resolution. But, in truth, decluttering has been popular on various Internet sites—especially Pinterest and YouTube—for a long time now.

There are a lot of different approaches to this sort of thing, such as, some people merely want to be better organised, as they define that, others want less “stuff”, among other things. As a 22-year-old, I was intrigued by Henry David Thoreau and his talk of people possessing no more than they could carry on their backs. He also coined, “simplify, simplify”, though I think most people wouldn’t take that to mean eat only once a day or have only five plates as he did. Still, the ideas are interesting, if somewhat difficult to achieve in the modern world.

Today I saw a somewhat extreme variations on this “simplify” riff. Called “Swedish Death Cleaning”, it’s basically about getting rid of more and more stuff, starting around age 50, so that our children don’t have to spend hours after we die going through stuff that means nothing to them. I had two completely different reactions to this notion.

First, I frankly resent the assertion I have a moral duty to live like a monk in order to make things easier for my survivors. I have no children, so chances are that if I’m the last one to go, it’ll be some company hired by my estate executor and paid to come in and look for things of value to sell, everything else going to the tip. How is that my problem, and who am I inconveniencing? It’s not, and no one.

My other thought was that—up to a point—this makes some sense. It’s always good to get rid of truly useless stuff, and a good idea to leave explicit intructions as to how to get rid of anything for which we have very specific wishes. If anything. Mainly, though, I want to get rid of stuff and simplify for MY sake.

I often think of the quote from William Morris, a Victorian textile designer and artist (among other things…) who said: “If you want a golden rule that will fit everybody, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”

I often think of this when I see home renovation/decoration stuff, whether on TV, the Internet, or in a magazine. I think about it most frequently when I see the artwork used, often chosen for colour alone, and I think, why?! Sometimes useful things can be beautiful (however we define that), but what we personally think is beautiful is all that matters. To me, Morris’ Golden Rule is always useful when decorating, and also when deciding what to keep and what to discard.

Except when it’s not.

I often remind Kiwis that when they need to connect with earlier phases of their lives, especially childhood and young adulthood, they can easily do so: They can visit the town where they grew up, the schools they attended, the houses where they lived. I can’t do that without spending thousands and thousands of dollars and days—maybe weeks—of my time.

Instead, I have three boxes and bit more.

In this reorganising I’m doing, the stuff I’ve accumulated in the past 22+ years is fair game, but anything before that? Out of bounds. Forbidden. Getting rid of stuff and reducing the weight (literal and figurative) of that stuff is a worthy goal, but life touchstones do matter to most of us, and for me they’re contained within three boxes (and a very few books)—three boxes that aren’t going anywhere. Some day my executors can worry about them.

I’ve actually—What? Enjoyed?—this process of getting rid of stuff. It’s liberating. I can see how my office space, once emptied of junk, will make it easier for me to feel creative and to do something about it. These have been goals for years, and they are now within reach.

And the best part is that my summer break isn’t even over yet.

A day out

Sweet corn fitters for breakfast in Pukekohe. Nigel’s car is in for its service, so an early start. Beside, I haven’t posted food porn in ages! It was nice, btw, but sweet chilli sauce was a bit too hot. #lifeinnz #auckland #pukekohe

A post shared by arthur_amerinz (@arthur_amerinz) on Jan 11, 2018 at 11:52am PST

Today was a day out. The caption for the photo above pretty much explains what we were doing out and about early in the morning, but it was a good a day even despite the early start. And, it taught me a thing or two.

My breakfast of sweetcorn fritters is one of my go-to meals at a café because it’s not eggs, not over the top (usually), and I like the various ways it’s done. And for me, that was pretty much all there was to it until my sister posted a question: “Aren't corn fritters a Southern dish over here?” I didn’t know. So, I looked it up. Of course.

It turns out that, yes, corn fritters are made in the Southern (especially) USA, and the main difference between theirs and ours is that theirs includes butter, and ours doesn’t [Edmonds provides a classic Kiwi sweetcorn fritter recipe]. In most NZ cafés, the fritters are more like pancakes, and one near our hosue uses a waffle maker to make theirs (probably with butter…), which works surprisingly well. The best corn fritters I’ve had (so far) are still from the place I blogged about nearly three years ago.

After breakfast, we ran a couple errands (dog food and grocery shopping, mostly) before heading home. We were almost no sooner in the door before Nigel got a message that his car was ready. I put the groceries away, we rested a bit, then headed back out.

We had lunch in Pukekohe (just fast food, so, not Instagram-worthy…), stopped for a couple more retail errands, and then went to pick up Nigel’s car. Then, we went home, and our errands were done.

All in all, a productive day. We ordered some fencing for a project we’ll be doing soon, but that won’t be delivered until next week, which is fine. And we would’ve needed the dog food tomorrow, so that was important. But, we also got to have a nice breakfast out together, at a Pukekohe café we’d never been to before. The best part is, there are a lot more left to explore.

I’d never had corn fritters until I came to New Zealand, and until today I never really knew all that much about them. Having a day out can be a good thing for many reasons.

In his shoes

The video above is a New Zealand public service TV ad. This country has a long history of running somtimes confronting ads promoting road saftey, one way or another. In that sense, this ad is just another of those. And yet, it’s not.

In past years, the road safety ads were often quite graphic—though not as graphic as Australian road safety ads of the same period. That ended around the turn of the century when the NZ ads stopped being so graphic, and instead began to use humour or matter-of-fact delivery, but not any crash-related injury or death was usually just implied.

This ad revives some of the techniques of the original ads, including graphic depictions of crash scenes and their aftermath. Having the main actor speaking directly to the camera is a little unusual for these ads, though. In this case, it featured a cop showing the consequences of too much speed, which the NZ Police has said is a factor in nearly all crashes, even when it’s not the main cause, by which they mean it makes crashes worse, with more injury and even deaths than may have happened at lower speeds. This is a debatable assertion, but the point of the ad is to get people to see that there are consequences to driving too fast. That’s a very worthy goal in itself.

Favourite line: “Everyone thinks they drive well. But I’ve never seen anyone crash well.”

Very true, that.

Endured

I’m sick today (picked up a bug somewhere), so I only just now went out to check for storm damage. Photo shows worst (but still not bad) damage. There were two other places where fence boards were pushed in—always in threes, which is kind of weird. My tomatoes seem to have mostly survived. I only saw one tiny branch totally wrecked, plus a bigger one that was bent—too soon to tell if that’ll kill the branch. No tomatoes were knocked off, but some baby capsicum seem to have been ripped off their plant. All up, not too bad. 😊 #firstbigstormof2018 #auckland #newzeland

A post shared by arthur_amerinz (@arthur_amerinz) on Jan 5, 2018 at 11:27pm PST

Auckland emerged from the storm in one piece, and so did we. However, by the time the storm passed, I was already getting sick. Saturday evening I finally wandered out to look at the damage (photo above), but that was hard work. Now, I’m recovering, too. With a bonus epiphany.

The caption on the photo pretty much explains what I saw, but I was in no condition to do anything about it. We fixed the damage yesterday.

Meanwhile, on Sunday I felt awful. I don’t think I got out of my chair all day. However, I suddenly felt fine later that evening—the first time all year. Actually, it was the first time since late last year that I felt totally fine (we’ve previously established that I make that sort of New Year joke, but this has been my only opportunity this year; I wasn’t going to miss it).

I woke up during the night feeling yucky, so I took a couple paracetamol. When I got up a couple hours later, I felt okay again. I was fine until afternoon, when I felt yucky again, and popped a couple paracetamol again. Yesterday and today I’ve felt basically okay.

This has meant I just didn’t feel up to doing all the physical work I’d planned for my office project, so, as I said in my previous post, I did what I could. That meant sitting quietly on the floor sorting through all the unfiled receipts and statements I’d had boxed up, sometimes for years. Progress was slow, but steady.

In the process I came up with a solution. I took small plastic lidded bins I’d just emptied, and started putting the sorted papers in year older, the oldest on top. Each January 1, I discard everything that’s more than seven years old (so, anything from 2010 or earlier can go; one year from now, 2011 can go, and so on). This way I need three of the plastic boxes plus one small one for last year.

As I did this, I had an epiphany when I realised this will be the last time I’ll ever have such a huge job to do, and not because of a sudden change of behaviour to be thoroughly organised: We don’t get bills or statements in the mail anymore, so there will be very little to file. In fact, the current year’s file is just a plastic sorting folder, something I’ll never fill up during the year.

This also means I no longer need the filing cabinet where I filed bills and statements as they came in, but the bigger story there is that I’ll never have to sit and file receipts again—easily the houseold job I despise most of all and put off endlessly. Instead, I can take each folder, distribute the contents to the appropriate year’s box, and then the drawer will be empty. I DO have archival stuff, mostly samples of things I’ve done, that I want to keep, and the filing cabinet will be good for that, I think.

All of this has happened because nearly all our statements and bills are now online. I keep them on my computer, but if there’s a disaster and I lose them I can just download them again. This is one way win which this digitial age has made my life so much better.

And I probably realised all of this because I was sick. If I’d been 100%, I’d have just moved everything out of my office so I could reorganise it, but since I couldn’t do that, I decided to sort and purge stuff to be filed, and that gave me time to realise the fuller implications of what I was doing right then—and in the future. Sometimes being sick isn’t all bad.

In any case, I’m doing better. So is everyone else, too: The sun is shining here today.

Under the weather

The wind began to switch, the house to pitch, and while we haven’t been flown over the rainbow yet, it’s pretty wild. This video is of a calm break. It blew some plastic deck chairs the length of the deck (runs along the whole back of the house). My tomatoes are taking a hammering, but it’s too wild to inspect up close. Nothing I can do, anyway. The house is whistling and moaning with every gust. The wind is supposed to switch directions today as the tropical depression moves south. On the other hand, the rain has given us a good and much-needed soaking, but no flooding, so that’s good. #firstbigstormof2018 #auckland #newzealand

A post shared by arthur_amerinz (@arthur_amerinz) on Jan 4, 2018 at 1:25pm PST

Our first big storm of 2018 (the link was updated during the day) was more or less as promised. Some parts of the country, especially coastal areas, were hit hard, while inland areas faired much better. Mostly as promised.

Things were mostly pretty sedate at our house. I shot the video above this morning, during a relative lull in the windy conditions.

The day the storm was due to arrive on Thursday, but what we got was mostly gentle, if somewhat steady, rain. The strong winds, which were supposed to arrive by around 5pm, didn’t actually show up until much later in the night. By morning, the winds were quite strong, but they started to fade by late morning/midday today.

There was rain overnight, but not the torrential rain that had been predicted—sometimes there was little to none. This afternoon and into this evening, the wind mostly faded, but it picked up again this evening. The rain this afternoon was sometimes heavier, but still nothing like what was predicted.

The winds may have damaged my tomoatoes (I haven’t been out to look yet), but the mostly gentle, and not too heavy when it wasn’t, rain will have really helped the gardens and our lawns, which were looking pretty brown. I read somewhere that we got more rain in Auckland overnight than we got in November and December combined. That sounds impressive until you find out we’re talking about around 41mm (around 1.61 inches). Clearly we had a very dry two months. That’s why the rain we got is so welcome.

The flooding from the storm hasn’t been because of rain as much as from the strong winds and king tides, which meant there was a lot more water for those winds to push around, and they did. Watching the reports on the news and looking at various photos, I couldn’t help think that this was kind of dress rehearsal for what will be common as climate change makes sea levels rise and storms much worse. But, then, New Zealand already knows that; too bad one of the countries that's a major causes of climate change is absent in the fight for the earth.

While all this has been gong on, I’ve also not been feeling well—sort of flu-y and very tired. I still worked on my office project, but doing only what I felt up to doing, and that wasn’t much. It wasn’t a good couple days for working on projects; I’ve been “under the weather” in every sense.

The centre of the storm will have moved quite a way south by tomorrow, but they’re still predicting rain for us. That’s okay, we can still use more rain. Regardless of what the weather does, though. I hope I feel better tomorrow. There are tomatoes to inspect.

Before the storm

Out tying up my tomatoes some more before the big storm hits, and had to have a family photo. Seriously, these are all “free”, seeds saved from store bought Roma variety (low acid). All seeds grew, and all have flowers & most have baby tomatoes. Hope some survive the strong winds! Got my hat on for sun, but took off my sunnies so you can see my pretty eyes. 😆 #thriftykiwi #nzsummer #aucklandsummer #lifeinnz #nzgardening

A post shared by arthur_amerinz (@arthur_amerinz) on Jan 2, 2018 at 8:01pm PST

A major storm is headed for New Zealand, with heavy rains and strong winds hitting Auckland by around midday tomorrow. Early reports said we could get “hurricane force winds” and surface flooding, particularly because so much of the North Island has been very dry. We need rain, but…

I decided I wouldn’t take chances, so I went out to tie my tomatoes a bit more to their supporting stakes. Afterward, I took a selfie (photo above). It’s possible to see some baby tomatoes in that photo, and below is a close-up of some of the first to appear. I hope I did enough.

I did all that after we got home from lunch. When we left the house, it was 30 at our house (86F), bright, sunny, and with a few clouds in the otherwise blue sky. Gorgeous day, in other words.

After lunch, we stopped in the local Four Square and stocked up on some food so we don’t have to leave the house tomorrow, which seemed prudent. I plan some inside projects tomorrow, mainly starting work on re-organising my office, the perfect project for a rainy day. I may even work on some kitchen reorganisation (making changes to what I’ve already done). It’s nice to have options, especially since the storm isn’t supposed to leave New Zealand until Saturday (I presume the worst of it will have left us before then…).

So, today was a pretty ordinary summer day, really, and included preparation for a very different one tomorrow. It was a pretty good day, I’d say.

Some looks at the year just gone

At the end of every year, there are many videos that look at the year that’s ending. They often have different viewpoints and emphases, and some choose to split their reviews into several videos. When videos can be taken together, they can provide a pretty good overview of the year just gone.

The video above is from TIME Magazine and covers the “roller coaster that was 2017”. It’s mostly US-focused, but for what it’s about, not bad.

Next up, a much more focused video from TIME:


The video is called “Why 2017 Will Always Be Remembered As A Year Of Resistance”, which pretty much tells everyone what its focus is—and other, unrelated news doesn’t really make the cut for this video. This video ends on a definitely hopeful note, from a certain perspective, noting the Democratic election victories in 2017, and ending with a suggestion that 2018 may see an emboldened resistance movement. We should all hope so, because keeping the momentum building will be vital to ending Republican control of Congress and various state legislatures.

Next, an even more narrowly focused video from TIME:


This video takes a look specifically at the five areas where the current occupant of the White House has been successful in his attempts to destroy the USA. Yes, he only had one major legislative victory, which is a pathetic record any real president would be embarrassed about, but in addition to that one victory, he’s had plenty of opportunity to use executive actions to make things worse for average Americans. It must have been hard for the video makers to limit it to only five things.

Finally, a video from Vox:


The video is called “2017, in 7 minutes” and, seen by itself, could seem somewhat depressing. After all, it talks about natural disasters, tragedies, and international news of all sorts, and plenty of human suffering. It also includes a few of the many international screw-ups of the current occupant of the White House. The Resistance features prominently, of course, but the video’s theme seems to be at the end: “Anything is possible”, which can good or bad. If that’s what they meant to convey, did they mean it’s possible 2018 will be much, much worse? Better? Neither?

I didn’t notice the TIME videos when they were posted last month—too busy preparing for Christmas, maybe, and because I don’t normally follow their YouTube Channel, even though I subscribe to it. The Vox video was only released three days ago, but I was already away for the New Year’s Eve holiday by then. Like the TIME video, I found out about the Vox video because of a notification from YouTube. Which goes to show, I guess, that those notifications have some value.

In any case, I watched these videos today and decided to share them. Putting them all in one post was just a way to make them easier to skip for those so inclined. Always thoughtful!

Auckland has a beach of a problem

Auckland has a major problem with the water quality at its many swimming beaches. Many are unsafe to swim at due contamination from stormwater or even raw sewerage when there’s a heavy rain. While this would be bad for any city, it’s especially bad for Auckland, which is built on an isthmus. Worse, people clearly don’t understand the causes or cures to this problem.

The problems with water quality is that the former city governments underinvested in infrastructure, and left wastewater and stormwater systems combined rather than separating them. They did this to keep rates (similar to property taxes) lower. Other areas, including the former North Shore City, invested in separation to prevent raw sewerage being dumped into waterways and on beaches whenever there was a heavy rain.

The current Auckland Council is planning to fix those earlier failings of the old city councils, but doing that won’t fix all the problems. First, cities are incredibly dirty places, and when there’s heavy rain, stormwater carries all sorts of toxic urban pollution off streets, buildings, and private property. This can include oil and petrol, paint, industrial chemicals, and even garden chemicals used by private gardeners, among much more. For a city the size of Auckland, in a country the size of New Zealand, building a system to capture and treat stormwater is impossibly expensive.

So, in addition to separating stormwater and wastewater (sewer) systems, Auckland Council plans on building a huge underground tunnel system to catch stormwater so it doesn’t flood beaches. The first phase will cost around $1 billion (today about US$713 million)—that’s the first phase.

This is similar to what my former hometown Chicago, did. Beginning in 1975, the Metropolitcan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago began construction of what everyone called the Deep Tunnel Project. The first phase as 176km of tunnels and was completed in 2006, with the next phase due for completion in 2029.

Chicago’s situation is different from Auckland’s in that wastewater and sewerage are both treated before being discharged into rivers. Before Deep Tunnel, severe storms would mean that untreated water—including raw sewerage—had to be pumped out into Lake Michigan, which is particularly bad because Chicago and nearby areas—millions of people—rely on the lake for their drinking water.

The system Auckland is planning is similar in that it will be, essentially, a reservoir to hold stormwater. As near as I can tell, it still won’t be treated before it’s released, and that’s not good.

The projects planned for Auckland’s wastewater and stormwater systems are important, but in addition to being able to contain some stormwater, at least, there’s more that needs to be done. Much of the pollution of beaches is fecal—human and animal. The human part comes from ageing sewerage systems, illegal connections of stormwater systems to sanitary sewers, from poorly maintained (or non-maintained) septic systems in West Auckland, and from dairy farms, whose run-off enters the harbours mostly carried by rivers and streams.

All of which has confused people to no end.

Recently, Auckland Council launched a website called Safeswim to provide Aucklanders with information to assess whether it’s safe to swim at beaches and some freshwater locations. Some 84 beaches and 8 freshwater locations are included, and among them are 16 that have “long-term water quality alerts” and they recommend that people don’t swim at those spots. The closest beach to us, within walking distance, is on the list.

The problem with the site and the list is that no one could figure out where the information was coming from and how reliable it was. Today the New Zealand Herald published “12 Questions” with Andrew Chin, Auckland Council’s water manager. In it he explained what happens far more clearly than I’ve seen anyone else do:

Safeswim forecasts what the water quality is going to be like today, rather than testing samples and telling people what it was like three days ago. People can now go online and check not only the water quality but also the sea conditions including tides and safety risks at 84 beaches and eight freshwater locations region wide. It's a joint initiative between Auckland Council, Watercare, Surf Lifesaving and the Auckland Regional Public Health Service.

So, the advisories are projections, but we know that the water quality is tested. I think, but do not know, that the beaches with “long-term water quality alerts” are backed-up by actual testing, though I have no idea how often that’s done. But even if they tested daily—which ratepayers would never agree to pay for—it’s not where the focus should be, because it’s telling us there’s a problem, not fixing that problem.

In addition to the infrastructure already planned (there’s more than what I mentioned, of course), there’s more that needs to be done.

There’s a lot more that needs to be done, not all of it up to Council. Here’s some of what I think should be in the mix:

• A carrot and stick approach toward people with septic systems in West Auckland: A carrot to encourage the owners to maintain them, followed by a heavy stick of punishment for those who don’t.

• An accelerated programme to ensure dairy cattle are kept well away from waterways, and to restore wetlands to catch run-off. This will require Central government’s involvement, plus the voluntary sector (NGOs are big in New Zealand), probably.

• Education and help for homeowners to install rainwater tanks and graywater recycling systems. This would involved both Council and Central Government, and it should include some financial incentives and well as fast-tracked permits and consents.

• Education to remind people that whenever there’s a heavy rain, they shouldn’t go swimming at any beach. If people understood that obvious point, there wouldn’t be a huge freakout every time a beach is closed due to stormwater contamination as happened yesterday. This will require advertising, and it’s probably Council’s responsibility, but it will cost. I wish common sense was more common, because I’d rather the money went to fixing the problem rather than telling people what they ought to figure out all on their own, but needs must, I guess.

This problem won’t go away any time soon. If Auckland ratepayers won’t pay a little bit more in their rates (currently $1.30 per week is being mooted), then by the most optimistic estimates it will take at least 30 years to bring about any real change.

I have to admit that I don’t fully understand the problem, or what can be done about it, but I’d like to. I’d like to think that one day soon people can swim at our local beach without worrying that they might get sick. And maybe, despite my protestations to the contrary, I’ll have to actually do something to help make that possible.

Related: Auckland Mayor Phil Goff’s plan to fix this problem (via New Zealand Herald)

Our new year has begun

New Year Eve sparklers. Still a couple hours left in 2017. #newyearsevenz #goodbye2017 #lifeinnz

A post shared by arthur_amerinz (@arthur_amerinz) on Dec 31, 2017 at 12:40am PST

The New Year arrived in New Zealand, as it always does, before any other sizeable country. This is clearly one of the main perks of living so far from the USA and Europe. The other big perk is that we have the Christmas and New Year holidays in summer. There’s no underestimating the importance of that to an émigré from the frozen Northern Hemisphere.

This year’s New Year’s Eve was somewhat unique: I wasn’t sitting up alone waiting for the new year to arrive. While there have been other years in which we’ve had company at our house to ring in the new year, most years I’ve been the only one awake. Not this year.

We went to Hamilton for a small New Year’s Eve party at Nigel’s brother’s house. There were several family members there—immediate family and extended whānau—as well as friends of theirs (and Sunny and Jake, though Jake put himself to bed well before midnight). It was a really good night, with karaoke, great food, and fun chats. No one got messy on adult beverages, either. Everyone who was staying at my brother-in-law’s house was in bed before 12:30am, BUT, that was after we all saw in the new year and gave each other hugs and hearty handshakes to celebrate. Considering how different my New Year’s Eves usually are, this was bliss for me.

However, both Nigel and I were shattered today (naps may have been had when we got home early this afternoon…). I was up late the night before working on blog posts, so for me it was the cumulative effect of two late nights in a row. Even so, it was well worth it.

Now, it’s the first day of the new year. New Year is always a great time to make changes because of the fresh start a new year represents, and this year is no different.

My first goal for this year is that I’m going to rearrange my office, which is a big job because it involves moving bookcases that are so heavy it’ll take two of us and a lot of effort. That, and emptying the shelves and then putting everything back. Which is why I haven’t done it yet. But doing this will make it possible for me to finally organise the room—the last unorganised room in the house—and that, in turn, will let me turn my attention to the even bigger job: The garage.

The reason all of that matters is that the huge amount of work I have yet to finish has been draining. First, having all that stuff I need to do keeps me from focusing/working on the creative things I want to do (instead of doing Creative Thing A, I really ought to put that time and energy into working on Practical Thing B). Having so much undone work is kind of depressing, too, so, for a lot of reasons, finally finishing those organising projects is important to making the fun and interesting stuff possible.

Which brings me to this blog. Last year was not a good year for me, obviously, but the fact that I failed to reach 365 posts is a disappointment, not a disaster. Quite frankly, I don’t much care, and for reasons I wrote about a year ago today, that, basically, it’s okay to not comment about things as a way to keep oneself charged and ready for the real battles.

2017 took a toll on many people in the USA as they fought whatever outrage the current regime in Washington, DC was attempting. That’s on top of the usual sorts of challenges in people’s personal lives, so for most of the Americans I know personally, 2017 was a very bad year.

Here in New Zealand, it’s quite different. We finally had a change of government, and things are already moving in a better direction. What happens in the USA doesn’t really affect other countries nearly as much as Americans think it does, and much of what the US newsmedia was debating didn’t even get a mention in our news.

I’m caught between two cultures. While I’m glad that the geographic distance means that much of what happens in the USA stays in the USA, it’s still my homeland and I mourn all the damage being done to it by one man and his political party. So, while I may not be focused on the current regime as much as folks living in the USA are, neither can I just ignore it like most New Zealanders can do. So, the awfulness of the regime in Washington, DC has taken a toll on me, too.

I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions, as I’ve said many times before, so, I won’t promise 365 blog posts in 2018, nor many podcast episodes, or videos, or anything else. My first goal is to get the house better organised so that I CAN devote more time to those things. That’s certainly achievable with my recent health improvements.

All of which means that whether I hit 365 blog posts this year or not, the number I do achieve will be enough. And so will whatever else I achieve this year. A new year, it turns out, is also a great time to adjust one’s attitudes.

Happy New Year, World!

Happy New Year!!

Let’s hope it’s a good one, without any fear.