A very worthy holiday

Last Monday was a holiday in the USA in memory of the great Martin Luther King.  This came in the same week as America has gone into shut down as the budget cannot be agreed by the senate.  This is not the first time the government has gone into shut down but it usually happens when the president is from one party and the senate has a majority of members in the other party.  Currently the president and the senate are from the same party (Republicans) so this situation is somewhat unusual!  To say the current political situation is perplexing would be an understatement.

In California, however, because the state is so rich it does not actually need to take a lot of notice of government politics.  Much of how the USA works is run at the state, rather than national, level so San Francisco and the vibrant Californian economy carries on regardless.  Monday for myself was spent on the bicycle cycling up two climbs I did very early on in my first trip, Old La Honda and Tunitas which have 3 and 8 miles of climbs respectively.  This time Eddy and I climbed both with a considerable effort on my part, but with a great sense of achievement.  I has forgotten about the magic of Redwood trees and the amazing smell of the Eucalyptus trees (which are obviously not native and are a source of controversy here https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/11/the-great-eucalyptus-debate/509069/).  The weather at the moment is glorious and as I sat in the sun refueling I did spare a thought for the climate back home!!!

Scientifically I have had a great week.  A couple of things I didnt finish the last time I was here are being done now (by me and I am so out of practice in the lab its embarrassing), new projects are under way and I am getting a fresh perspective on some of our on going work.  A change of environment and travel always helps me to clarify my thoughts as well as reinvigorate my scientific excitement even if it is hard to uproot myself from everyone at home to do this.

This weekend Cedar took me to see a 2000 year Redwood tree which is not far from Tunitas I realised as we drove up Kings Mountain which I recognised from having descended and climbed on Eddy at various times.  On driving it I did start to wonder how I had managed to cycle this road.  The tree was absolutely enormous!  I never thought of myself as a tree hugger, but sometimes these things are necessary.