Friday, August 4, 2006

Since it's Friday,A little break in the madness

What a week,what a mess,eh? Since I don't have an Ipod,I can't do the bloggy Friday shuffle thingy.My digital camera is with the husband on the road to Sturgis(he SO owes me.He forgot our 13th Anniversary and left here without so much as a mention of it.His ass is mine when he gets home,heh,heh.He won't do that again,trust me.The Electra Glide is getting deocrated with Hello Kitty and sparkly rainbow and unicorn stickers if he so much as looks at me sideways.Husband,meet thin ice),so no new pics of kitties or gardens today.

Sooo,instead of the ususal Friday bloggy things people do,I thought maybe we could play Better Know A Blogger(or blog commenter for those of you who are blog free).

1)What's your favorite childhood book or story?
Mine are:
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak(I have a "wild rumpus"t-shirt,and all the Todd McFarlane Wild Things figurines,I love that book)

Heidi by Johanna Spyri (I think I read that book at least 20 times when I was around 10 yrs old.I wanted to move to the Alps something awful when I was a kid because of that book)

Almost any Dr Seuss book(except the Cat in the Hat,I think I read it to my son every day for 3 yrs,yikes)

I was such a nerdy little kid that I spent many an hour reading the Encyclopedia Brittanica set my grandma had at her house too.

2)What's your favorite thing to eat in the summertime?
I gotta go for ice cream,an obvious choice.Almost any flavor will do.
But I LOVE pasta primavera with fresh veggies from the garden.I make a mean white cheese sauce with lots of parmesan and romano,olive oil and fresh,organic whipping cream.Yummy.Oh,and roasted red peppers,man,I could eat those every day.

3)Favorite black and white movie?

I'd go with the old Hitchcock movies,Rear Window is high on my list.And then there's To Kill A Mockingbird,Mr Smith Goes to Washington,and the original Manchurian Candidate.

4)Whatcha Readin'?

I've got two books I'm working on now.
The Tao of Willie for right before bedtime. I love Wille Nelson,he's just so cool.

Endgame,Vol 1,The Problem of Civilization by Derrick Jensen.Jensen is not easy to read at ALL.He's an amazing writer,but the atrocities he delves into make his books tough going.
Here's a little excerpt from the book's intro,which I know all you vets will appreciate:

"I just got home from talking to a new friend,another long time activist. She told me of a campaign she participated in a few years ago to try to stop the government and transnational timber corporations from spraying Agent Orange,a potent defoliant and teratogen,in the forests in Oregon. Whenever activists learned a hillside was going to be sprayed,they assembled there,hoping their presence would stop the poisoning. But each time,like clockwork,helicopters appeared,and each time,like clockwork,helicopters dumped loads of Agent Orange onto the hillside and onto protesting activists*.The activist's campaign did not succeed.

"But",she said to me,"I'll tell you what did".A bunch of Vietnam vets lived in those hills and they sent messages to the Bureau of Land Management and to Weyerhauser,Boise Cascade, and other timber companies saying,"We know the names of your helicopter pilots and we know their addresses".

I waited for her to finish.
"You know what happened next?",she asked.
"I think I do",I responded.
"Exactly",she said."The spraying stopped".

(*For those of you who don't know,timber companies,almost without exception,ALWAYS spray crap all over the ground before and after they clearcut a forest.Why?So nothing else will grow there naturally.Oh,they'll sometimes come back and plant trees so they can say they have some sort of environmental concern,but what they plant is most often one or two single kinds of poison resistant trees.This practice is called monoplanting.This is not replanting a forest,forests are not neatly monoplanted and then they recover.I've walked massive clearcuts before,it's one of the saddest experiences I've ever had.)

5)If failure was off the table,and impossible,what would you do with your life that you aren't doing now?

Anyone who knows me or has read anything I've written knows my answer.I wanna be a farmer.I want a totally self sufficient and sustainable farm I can leave to my kids when I die so I know they have something to eat and a roof over their heads even when times get tough.Give me 20 or so acres,a horse or two and some tools and a little tractor,and a nice little farmhouse,and I'd be deliriously happy.

Happy Weekend everyone.Stay cool,stay safe, and if you can't behave,try not to get caught.

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