Today was dedicated to Toppenish. It’s a small agricultural town 30 miles from Yakima, and it is famous for two accomplishments: almost 80 murals, and a museum dedicated to Hops. The day started with an Uber ride there, because it’s too warm to walk around a town with riding gear.

Uber to Toppenish

My driver was the Navy Seal in the Jeep. We picked up where we left off. Starting with the silencer to that, he claimed, three are Seals, Rangers, and Green Beret special forces involved in the Osama bin Laden operation. Though then my driver drifted into other topics. We started with Uber, and how he is trying to get them not to deduct insurance, which he already has for another ride share deal.

“You call them, and they have a book. Literally a book. You ask a question, they look it up, and read you the answer. They don’t know a thing. It’s like 911. They got a book, and they follow that. I was up in the mountains fly fishing and camping when I noticed a smell. I recognized it. It was a decomposing body. Human bodies smell different from animals decomposing. So I followed a smell, and there she was. A dead woman.

I had two bars on my phone, so I could just call 911. You know what she told me to do?”

“Go put your index finger on her throat to see whether she is alive.”

“Well hell, lady, I’ve seen lots of dead bodies. This one is dead. She’s all bloated, ready to pop. I’m not gonna touch her. This is a dead one.”

“So the first responders come, and put her in plastic. But before they can close the bag, she disintegrates. Every one there starts vomiting. Me too. That smell was something else.”

“Anyway, you know, I don’t worry about things. I just don’t. I’m not stressed because I don’t worry. My wife of 19 years went and left me some time ago. Tried to get the house. You know what she got? $30,000. And she spent it all. That woman spent money. But she never bought a decent car. Always these used no-gooders.”

“Now, my son is gonna have to live off social security. Boy is he messed up. I used to have a daughter, but she died of cancer. Anyway my son transported dead people to the mortuary. He worked for a mortuary. He and his buddy were taking a big woman out to the truck. I don’t know how they got her through that door. But anyway, the other guy slipped. And the woman fell on my son. All sorts of rib fractures. But lots of damage to the spine. He’s not gonna work that job no more. We’ll have to see what he can still do.”

“How long ago was that?”

“About a month ago. Anyway, over there, that used to be a sugarcane factory. That closed down. Probably political. Ah, that over there? That’s hops. Yes. Lots of that around here. So, where do you want me to drop you off?”

The Murals

The murals tradition was started during the Centennial. The town was dying. So days were organized when many artists would gather, and create a mural a day. Each artist would work on one section, and they were them composited onto a wall.

There are more murals than I can show. To qualify, the timing of scenes must be between 1840 and 1940. Consequently you have Western cattle and cowboy themes. As well as murals displaying strong women, civic life, political statements about Mexican workers brought for farm work and exploited, as well as bordello remembrances.

The Bordello Murals

I’m putting the bordello ones separately, so you can find them easily:

Hop Museum

I suspect there are not many museums dedicated to Hops. But Toppenish has one. And yes, according to the museum attendant, it is one Hop and many Hops. So the museum considers each hop as an individual.

Mommy, Where Do Hops Come From?

Here is what everyone is after:

The oil inside the kernel goes into beer, medicine, lotions.

All else is fertilizer. Some images, such as the one on the right are shot from the screen of an instructional video. Pardon the quality. Here is what you need to know. Getting from root to extract is quite labor intensive, despite machinery:

The Gift Shop!

So, now you now how hops is grown and harvested. What you don’t know is what could possibly be on offer in a Hop Museum gift shop.

Taxi Back to Yakima

Took a while to get a car into Toppenish. They don’t cruise there. But eventually it worked out. She told me on the phone that:

“My GPS says 30 minutes ETA, but I’ll be there in 20 the way I drive.”

Comforting.

Now, her story is that she is on disability and can’t make a lot of money. She had a rare anal cancer, the treatment of which messed with her GI tract. Also, she has a fistule (?), which is different from a fistula. And arthritis and bone failure in her back. Constant pain, and sleeping issues.

However, her daughter, who owns the taxi business, though she now sold it now, because she’s moving, called my driver one day, because one of her customers has MS, and the helper didn’t show up. Could the mother help?

That was six months ago, and she is still the main caretaker, including lifting, which makes her own pain worse. But they can’t keep a caretaker for more than a day, given that the MS woman can only pay $15 under the table, which is the same as $20 above the table as my driver tries to convince the would-be helpers. “You can’t fight stupidity.” And the insurance will only pay for institutionalization, not for home care, which is silly.

The MS woman is too proud to ask her kids for help, and instead keeps calling my driver. Who is a Christian, and needs to help.

It sounded like co-dependence to me. But we arrived at the hotel before I could bring that up. (Kidding! I wouldn’t have!)

Then, tonight, on my way back from Burger King I noticed a guy studying my bike in the parking lot. He was a retired electro mechanical engineer who did work for aircraft and submersibles. Mostly Air Force and Navy.

“Even if the hardware is perfect, there is always software that goes wrong. I got a call from a general, who yelled into my ear that the electronics for the Navy weather station we had just serviced wasn’t working.

“Why? Because these software people can’t leave well enough alone. One software engineer noticed that an input for humidity was always in percent. The version of their system that the Navy had used so far had operators put in, like, ‘20%’. Well, the software engineer simplified the user interface, taking out the need to add the “%”. What he didn’t do was deal with users adding the percent sign from habit. So the system crashed.”

We also talked about the Manhattan project, and AI ethics. The uncertainties around AI.

“But,“ he said, “let’s vote for Democrats, and enjoy the ride!”

Nice evening conversation. He recommended Victoria Island.