3/20/03 - 3/20/08

NO MORE WAR,..it is hard for me to think differently these days, five years of this war has made me sick every day, all the damage we are doing and have done.
Innocent lives lost.
An irresponsible administration.
The above video and song is written by an artist I admire truly and greatly, Ed Vedder. He wrote this song for a guy named Thomas Young. There is a documentary that is coming out called Body of War and it is about him. He is one of many that are treated poor, under the policies for veterans by our current administration , upon returning home from war. He returned with major wounds and in a wheelchair.
NO MORE WAR!

Listening to She & Him

Momentum

The energy is flowing and building up, up, up and up. No one knows who will win the individual parties primary elections or in the presidential elections between the two parties in November 2008. I have been a strong supporter of liberal politics in the way of voting for the candidate that demonstrates they will help clear a path, a path of change. Nader 00’, Kucinich 04’, Kucinich 08’, oh wait; they would not let him debate or even run a competitive campaign. Obama 08’ is the next best, electable, candidate who will create change and he had and will have my vote.
The past eight years have been a living hell. The United States has separated itself from the rest of the world and our administration has cut off many ties to coexist in a global community. I am ashamed to call myself an American under this administration. How do I live in a country with an admin that is irresponsible in their actions? How do I live in a country that creates and supports endless war? And how do I live with G.W.B. as my president?
We have to change. We have to end this war. We have to open our conversation with other countries and react responsibly and peacefully in this universal, global community.
After living with war for this long, this election feels like all the momentum that Obama has built up and will explode like the bombs that George Bush ordered dropped on innocent villages and childen, men and woman, but different, Obama's bombs will be bombs of peace, they will be bombs of change, and they will be bombs of fresh air, a fresh breath of air. Obama continues to build up this energy, and with the positive change he will bring to our nation, and if he gets elected, I will be proud to call myself an American once again.

No matter how cold the winter....

Late January. Buried deep in work, buckets and pales and cans filled with print, type, hard cover books, soft cover books, and click click click of keyboard text typing. All of this and long nights spent going through material, extracting information from resources once unheard of and now understood. From seven a.m. through nine p.m. Monday through Thursday is beating me up like a street boxer beating a frozen raw meat carcass hanging on a hook at the local butcher downtown sometown. Only to sleep and wake to begin it again.

It is not that bad, just feels like that sometimes, but at the end of the day,..to truthfully describe what a full day feels like, I should reference a blue sky and a fine grain white sand beach sun tan, a cool ocean dive off the coast of Mexico, a couple cold coronas on ice and a bottle of rum, a winters snow and a hot coco, a long night sleep and a 6:30 wake up to coffee and toast and eggs and bacon and the paper and another cup of coffee, a brisk Minnesota morning walking with dog down the road into the winds of the farm land frozen over, Life is good and there is no boxer beating raw meat,..there is a spring time ahead.

Listening to The Frames - For The Birds

"I feel my wheels are turning,..I see the open road before us stretch"

Innocent When You Dream,..

Rough gravel,..
and a long journey through the desert,
without water.
Cigar smoke and scotch.
Chain smoke for five days straight without cough.
Corporate oil drilling spilled in the ocean by a drunken tanker.
God must be away on business.
A foreign accent speaks broken English.
Hot water in a cold, cold ground.
Apples crunching with white peaches.
Warm home and a broken window.
Soft sandy beach and a sun burn.
Long trail out to the wilderness and a grizzly growl.
A summer surf and a shark attack.
A duet with a tenor and Tom Waits.

Brewin',..

Brewing beer is something that my dear friend Daren and I have been experimenting with for the past year. We have made I.P.A., double I.P.A., pale ale, lemon ale, and most recently a Hoppy Red Ale.
Interestingly enough, brewing beer has been in my family for many generations. My great great grandfather was a brew master for Steam beer, which I believe is what we know now as Anchor Steam. My father has told me stories about tasting beer right from the vats at the brewery.

More recently, summer of 2003, driving West on highway 80, hills rolled on forever like waves that roll onto the coast. We were riding through Iowa, into Nebraska to visit Steve, my Dad's brother. My two Australian friends and I blasting the Chili Peppers, eating jerky, drinking red bull, smoking cigs...the reason for the road trip across this vast nation was to deliver a car from New York to Colorado for my old Boss.
We drove out of the rolling hills of Iowa into the flatlands of Nebraska. My uncle was extremely hospitable and my aunt and cousins welcomed us and it felt like we had just said goodbye last week, when it was really the previous year. We pulled the car into the drive way and walked up to the door, leaving the baggage in the boot. Stretching as we walked to the door, all the kinks of the road rolled out of our shoulders as we stepped into their home. After we settled in and had dinner, my uncle invited us downstairs. We went down into the basement and he offered us a beer that he had recently brewed. I do not remember much about the beer, but that it was a pale ale and it had a unique taste, a home grown, home brewed tatste. Maybe because he told me he brewed it, or maybe it is, as Greg Brown says about canned goods, "Ah, she's got magic in her - you know what I mean, she puts the sun and rain in with her canned green beans....'Cause these canned goods I buy at the store, ain't got the summer in them any more." Home Brew has a taste, a home made taste and this taste is not like anything your local grocery store sells, and trying this for the first time was a memorable experience.

Dave, my mothers brother, has brewed his fair share of beer, I believe since he was my age. He gave me a 5+gallon carboy to help me get started with my brewing. Two years ago he brewed a seasonal holiday beer to go with his annual Christmas party. It had hints of spices, nutmeg and cloves and a rich ale in the front. This year I am going to brew a winter beer for those cold California nights.

I know, I am brewing on a much smaller scale than my great great grandfather ever did, but I am carrying on the tradition and that is whats important to me.

Relax, have a homebrew.

Townes Van Zandt fills the room,..

Changes,..

I am a teacher. I have been for about a month and I love my job. I get to hang out with kids all day, it is tough and my head hurts at the end of the day and my body is exhausted, but it is a good hurt and a good exhaustion because teachers change lives and their lives are changed by students. But once I hit the trail on my bike ride home, I am rejuvenated and the positive energy is taken out of the exhaustion and hurt. What does it mean to have new change in life?
I have lived with my girlfriend since January, which has been wonderful and still is and I love her and she is an amazing partner in my life. We moved into a larger 2 bed room apartment in August from a smaller one bed room apartment. What does it mean to have new change in life?
Jill wanted to buy kittens, so 2 weeks ago she did. They are a positive influence to our living environment. They were new when we picked them up two weeks ago, but they have grown and now they are growing larger. Isabel and Sylvester arrived in my life a week to the day before my childhood cat died from cancer. She was seventeen years old and in pain so it was for the better. I pondered the irony of this over the past week, but new life comes and old life goes. What does it mean to have new change in life?
I am taking tomorrow off school to celebrate my uncle's wedding. He is a dear friend of mine and he is an important person in my life. We have traveled together, backpacked, camped, seen concerts, taken road trips and toasted many a drink. He is taking on a new exciting journey with Victoria. I am happy for them and they are wonderful together. Maybe one day we will figure out what all this newness means.
There is a beautiful world around us with opportunity to discover new ideas and new places and new people and cultures and music and friends and relationships. Opportunity to breathe a new breath each moment and to live a new day each day.
I remind myself that we only have one life. Only one life.
But what does it mean to have new change?

Ben Harper's new album lifeline is on the stereo.

every morning,..beatutiful

Crisp air,
muscles wake up.
mind, wind and body in tune,..
balance.
Eyes water and legs pump and petal.

Sun comin' up
crickets gone to sleep
sprinklers splitter,
make plants survive,
where in natural conditions,
they wouldn't.

The air is cool and feels good inside lungs.
The sky is ocean blue and the moon is faint.
The grass is freshly cut and the stars are still out.
Also, the sun rises and the daylight begins
but ends on the far side of the world.

Round and round the wheels
cut through the wind
and arrive at the destination
as a friend of the environment;
friendly, clean and no pollution.


Listening to David Francey