Yvonne & Gary cruisin' the streets of Friday Harbor, with your reporter...

Yvonne insisted that I be in the picture when I tried to shoot her & Gary the other day in front of King’s Market. Gary’s recovery from that motorcycle accident last summer is going well – he’s still smiling & lovin’ life, like the irrepressible Yvonne.

Thanks to Beth Ware for shooting the picture…she caught their smiles just right.

Yvonne & Gary cruisin' the streets of Friday Harbor, with your reporter...

Yvonne insisted that I be in the picture when I tried to shoot her & Gary the other day in front of King’s Market. Gary’s recovery from that motorcycle accident last summer is going well – he’s still smiling & lovin’ life, like the irrepressible Yvonne.

Thanks to Beth Ware for shooting the picture…she caught their smiles just right.

FHHS senior pitcher Richie Ochoa, throwin' smoke....

Ditch your Mariners tickets & go see ball the way it was meant to be played – the Wolverines’ baseball squad (including Richie Ochoa, photo) plays two against Concrete at Hartman Field (next to the Cathoic Church) starting at 11:30am, while the softball team plays Concrete twice starting at 11:30am as well, at the elementary school stadium (I figure anything with hot dogs & a loudspeaker qualifies as a stadium.)

Great way to spend a Saturday afternoon…!

See ya there.

Patrick, getting ready for the next class...

When I saw Patrick from Bakery San Juan on the bench outside Kings last weekend, I realized it was the first time, ever, that I had seen him sit still. Besides running a first-class bakery with Mark & teaching salsa classes at the Grange and Dance Studio at times, the always-moving, always smiling Patrick is now offering a class at Xtreme Fitness called Salsa Sweat, which promises a pretty good workout.

To find out more about this and other classes they offer at Xtreme Fitness, check out their website at at: http://www.xtremefitnesssji.com/.

Patrick, getting ready for the next class...

When I saw Patrick from Bakery San Juan on the bench outside Kings last weekend, I realized it was the first time, ever, that I had seen him sit still. Besides running a first-class bakery with Mark & teaching salsa classes at the Grange and Dance Studio at times, the always-moving, always smiling Patrick is now offering a class at Xtreme Fitness called Salsa Sweat, which promises a pretty good workout.

To find out more about this and other classes they offer at Xtreme Fitness, check out their website at at: http://www.xtremefitnesssji.com/.

Jason & his buddy...

That’s Jason from Discovery Sea Kayaks with a land-born orca he met over on Cannery Landing, next to the ferry. He keeps a well-written blog of his trips & observations around the island – check it out!

Sandy from the VC tells me:

Volunteers are needed for the San Juan Island Chamber of Commerce Visitor Information Center, which is run mostly by volunteers to provide information to visitors visiting the San Juan Islands. New volunteers are always welcome!

Training is offered to familiarize new volunteers with the Visitor Center’s operations. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer for the San Juan Island Chamber of Commerce Visitor Information Center please stop by and visit, or call.  Contact Sandy Baird at the Visitor Information Center 360.378.5240

Ruth at waterworks gallery

Have you seen the nice paint job that Ruth did at waterworks gallery? Drop by & check it out! Here’s more:

waterworks gallery opens for the spring, freshly repainted, and rehung with new artworks from gallery artists including Anne Belov, Kathleen Hooks,  Michael Dickter, Kathryn Trigg and Joan Stuart Ross. The gallery is pleased to announce the representation of Georgia Gerber, the artist who created Rachel, the pig at Pike Place Market. Stop by to see all that’s new and exciting.

Founded in 1985, waterworks has grown over the years to represent an eclectic blend of artists from the Pacific Northwest, including, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia.
April Hours: Thursday ~ Saturday 10.00 to 6.00 and Sunday 10.00 to 3.00.

Check out our website www.waterworksgallery.com for the 2009 show schedule.

There is a constant and intimate contact among the things that coexist and co-evolve in the universe – a sharing of bonds and messages that makes reality into a stupendous network of interaction and communication. It is this ‘sharing of messages’ in Nature that keeps it in balance.
Ervin Laslo

The Chamber of Commerce tells me:

Sewer Project Update: The paving project that was scheduled for March 23-27 was delayed, initially due to weather, then, when one of the ferries broke down and was temporarily replaced with a smaller one, due to not wanting to use up space on the smaller ferry with equipment.

Weather permitting….the paving project is now scheduled for April 13-15.

Jenny Atkinson is the director of the Whale Museum, and she files this update to Jeanne’s report from yesterday:

Beginning at 7 p.m. on April 7, hydrophones operated by The Whale Museum and Beam Reach Marine Science and Sustainability School started picking up unusual sounds.  Hydrophones off the coastline of Lime Kiln State Park and another node about 4 km north recorded SONAR pings and what sounded like garbled human speech.  These sounds became alternately louder and softer in one or the other of the two hydrophone receiving locations.  Recordings of SONAR and other sounds continued until Wednesday, April 8, 3 a.m. PST.  The sounds from these hydrophones stream live via the internet on the public-accessible site www.orcasound.net.  Samples of the recorded sounds are archived there.

Examination of the recorded sounds shows that the sound levels at the southern location, Lime Kiln Lighthouse, were usually higher than at the more northern location off the west-side of San Juan Island.

It is likely that the sound source was generally south of San Juan Island.  Dr. Val Veirs, president of the The Whale Museum’s Board and professor of Physics (emeritus) at Colorado College, stated that “The received levels of the signals at Lime Kiln Lighthouse were about the most intense sounds that the hydrophones there have recorded in the past several years of continuous operation.”

The highest received levels came from SONAR pings. The highest received levels were approximately 140 dB re 1 microPascal.  This is approximately the same as the most intense SONAR signals recorded in May 2003 when the US Navy Guided Missile “Shoup” transited the waters of Haro Strait (here’s the report). The base frequency of the SONAR pings was about 3 kHz which suggests that the SONAR is the Navy’s mid-frequency sonar which was implicated in the death of multiple beaked whales in the Bahamas October 2003.

Dr. Veirs said that “We have been told that the US Navy reported that a submarine, the USS San Francisco, was operating in the Strait of Juan de Fuca at the time that we made our observations and that the ‘garbled voices’ we heard were used for communication between the submarine and a surface tender.  We estimate that the distance  between our hydrophone at Lime Kiln Lighthouse and the submarine was in the neighborhood of 10 nautical miles and for our hydrophones to pick up the strong signals that they did, the submarine was emitting sound with source level in the range 175 dB to 225 dB re 1 microPa@1m.”

These sounds were heard for many miles in a variety of underwater locations from the east at Whidby Island, to the north of San Juan Island and out toward the ocean in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  The Whale Museum has not received reports of stranded or injured marine animals.  If you see an injured or stranded marine mammal, please contact the San Juan County Marine Mammal Stranding Network (800-562-8832).

Steve Brandli....

On Steve Brandli’s website, he has a jokes section…. I think my favorite was this one:

Q: Have you lived here all your life?

A: Not yet.

-ooo-

Our abstract thinking is no more reasonable or discriminating, logical and consistent than are our feelings.
Carl Jung

You’ll love this video of Chris Bliss, master juggler….watch it all the way through, and then let me know if you don’t say, “Wow!”

Wendy displays her wares...

I ran into Wendy at the Farmers’ Market last weekend where she was selling her tuna…it is troll caught, dolphin-safe, high in omega-3 oil, and you’d love it. She says she’ll have crab later in the season….

You can find out more at her website (click here) for www.highseastuna.com or call her at 360-378-4810. You’ll be glad you did!

Wendy displays her wares...

I ran into Wendy at the Farmers’ Market last weekend where she was selling her tuna…it is troll caught, dolphin-safe, high in omega-3 oil, and you’d love it. She says she’ll have crab later in the season….

You can find out more at her website (click here) for www.highseastuna.com or call her at 360-378-4810. You’ll be glad you did!