These Troubled Times

When McCain chides Obama for promoting "class warfare" he's essentially telling us middle class folks that we have no right to be resentful and angry at the super rich who've painted our economy into a dark dark corner. Apparently, taxing people who make plenty of money or expecting companies to offer health insurance to their employees is class warfare. But, it's not class warfare to lay off tens of thousands of people when companies are making record profits simply to increase shareholder margins? It's not class warfare to pay working people a living wage? It's not class warfare to drop people from health insurance once they have serious diseases when those people cannot afford out-of-pocket medical bills? It's not class warfare to send our manufacturing jobs overseas and leave ghost towns in their place? It's not class warfare for oil companies to make record profits when people can't afford to drive or heat their homes? It's not class warfare to use our tax dollars, that we actually pay, to bail out billionaires who've been doin' it up for the past 5-10-20 years on our dime? I used to have great respect for John McCain. And, even though I'm sick of hearing about it like it's the only qualification for the White House, I still have great respect for his military service and sacrifice. But, his politics have turned dirty and straight-up wrong, in my mind. He pretends to be out there for all these "Joes", six-pack, plumber and otherwise. But, what the hell? It's been a freaking all you can eat buffet for rich people for way too long. And, now the Republicans are crying socialism when it comes time to look after the little guy for once. People should have the right to a roof over their head, a wage or salary they can support their family on if they're working full-time, a right to health care that doesn't drop 'em like they're hot when they actually need it, a right to time spent with their family and time away from work. In return, we should give something back to our community, be it through military service, community service, churches, etc... But, even prisoners have the right to shelter, food, health care and free time. I'm so sick of this garbage the Republicans are spouting. I try hard to see the humanity behind each person's platform but it's getting harder and harder to not see horns sprouting out of some of their d-bags heads when they talk about the power of the free market. P.S. it's not a free market when these companies have been getting tax cuts that don't apply to the rest of us and government subsidies left and right. And it's definitely not a free market when it's getting paid $700 BILLION DOLLARS to simply stay afloat. It makes me want to puke that we're paying these assholes for all these ridiculous choices they've been profiting on for years now. I understand the necessity but you can only let a market go unregulated when the public sphere is not affected when that risk comes a-knockin'. If the private market is intertwined with the public sphere than it's within the governments jurisdiction to give it some boundaries. And, the first regulation that should pop up is the immediate firing and public stoning of each CEO of whatever these hedge fund/mortgage lenders/whatever other voodoo. Or, we could forgo the stoning (not the firing) if they agree to donate their personal profits to paying back that 700Bil.

One last thing, when everyone sings the praises of the free market, let them just remember this... when your car is jacked or your house is broken into, it's a public servent that comes to your aid. And that's paid for from taxes, for everyone, equally. When your house catches on fire and someone shows up to put it out, that person is a public servant and is paid for with our tax dollars. When you check a book out at a library, or get your first driver's license, or show up to vote for president, or have a day in court, or have the right to spend an afternoon in a public park, these are your tax dollars at work. These people are paid to serve the public. Privatize any of it and these sectors can all follow this same tailspin as the housing market or Wall Street. The military is already massively more privatized than it was eight years ago and that's a terrifying concept.

I am so proud to vote for Barak Obama on Tuesday. And, I'm glad he's on our side in this Class War because, it definitely exists, and has existed for a long time. Now it's starting to go both ways.

I'm feeling a little squirrely tonight. Like, ancy. And, guilty. I have no specific reason for this feeling, but it's damn persistent all the same. Molly says the changing seasons make me anxious, like I'm an arthritic joint that flares up when those October rain clouds come tumbling in. I don't know about that. I think it's the pace of it all. August through December is my favorite time of the year. I know that's almost half the year so so what if I'm greedy? But, I love the hot, rainless time of August (except this year) and the dusty wilt that settles in your skin by the end of the month. The few rainstorms are bold and make the pavement smell like a proposal. Then it rolls into September and the leaves tilt toward amber and rattle in their husks when those ocean winds peel off the tides. The salmon start running, haggard and lonley, jolting and waiting and jerking towards their homes. October is cornstalks and pumpkins and walking through too many spider webs, always doing that body-slapping dance in case the owner was home when you intruded. It's candles and candy and pumpkin-flavored everything. It's 6:00 darkness and mud puddles and leaf piles and grey. But the grey is new and it still smells like clean wet pavement.

In all this, I probably lose myself. I become the possibility of what could be. The possibility of being able to craft the perfect autumn. It would be a fall of pumpkin beer, soups that I actually wanted as leftover, pubs, fresh straw in stalls, chicken eggs (damn lazy hens), dry leaf piles raked after a long day of indoor work, apple pie, pot pie, pumpkin pie, family dinners, ferry boat rides where I actually go up top, fleece jackets and wool hats, long phone calls when rain hammers the window, rubber boots to wade through the front yard, clean gutters, a wood stove. And, the weird thing is that this is what fall is. It happens all around me and I can't always see that it's here.

Part way through October

6 acres in Olalla

6 acres in Port Townsend

10 acres in Gig Harbor

Just some thoughts...

Cleaned up the living room, not hard to do since Molly and I have been cleaning it since Sunday. The dogs were pretty fearful the whole time, cringing and cowering from the broom. When I put their beds in the wash, it was all over. I was surely coming to kill them next. Suzy is curled at my feet under the dining room table now. And, Charlie is sheepishly laying in the hallway, eating one piece of dog food at a time, and looking at me with wide eyes in between each one. What can I say? I'm the devil.

Transferred our savings to my checking account because I found a cool wood stove on Craigslist that we could probably afford. It's a red Vermont Castings. These damn stoves are so expensive to install though. The stove piping is ridiculous. We'll see though...

Looks like we'll be able to build the raised bed off the front of the house with the landscaping timbers my dad had intended for the patio edging. I just need to borrow the chop saw from Al and get a larger drill bit, a bit extender and some pieces of rebar to secure the timbers. Should be pretty easy to build though. Or so it seems.

October Sunday

First off, I can't believe it's already mid-October.

The Beantown/Berkeley match this morning was awesome. Great women's rugby. It definitely made me want to play again, even if egos are a touch much at that level of play. It would be great to be able to become a firefighter within the year so I might be able to play rugby again in a couple years.

After the match we went to the Marymoor dog park. Always good times. It was a beautiful day and a nice 30 minute walk with the dogs, amongst their own kind.

I got in a small fender bender while inspecting my bare feet and waiting for a crosswalk to clear. It wasn't my fault. I was stopped and got crunched into from a car behind me. It was Molly's car so I took the gal's name and number but there didn't appear to be any meaningful damage. I hate when people expect their cars to stay pristine and would repair a tiny scratch on the bumper at the expense of the other person's insurance premiums. I think frivolous lawsuits and going after people's insurance is lame. So, it was nice to have a positive interaction at an insignificant auto accident (not even, really). I liked that.

And I got a Top Pot donut and cup of coffee right afterwards. That's where I was heading anyways. Delicious.

I was pretty productive today. The house has made me feel insane all week so today was the day it had to end. I've slept the last two nights on the couch because the bedroom is such a pig sty it makes me feel crazy to be in there. I know that sounds like a nutso reaction but I don't like feeling grit in the bed and when our house even gets a little dirty it's easy for some of that animal dirt to make it into the bed. Add a few loads of unfolded laundry, some backpacks, and a scattering of papers, plus a nasty dog bed or two, and you've got a recipe for insomnia and anxiety. So, the couch it was. But, today I washed the laundry, cleaned the kitchen, cleaned the bathroom, made the guest bed from Landyn's sleepover, took out the trash, cleaned the living room, consoloidated the house clutter in the guest room to deal with later, and started inspecting and cleaning the gutters. That will be a project because they are pretty tore up and I found one with a totally clogged downspout that had bug eggs in it. I couldn't finish because I had to go to a work meeting at 5:30.

We still have a lot of work to do to winterize the house: cleaning and repairing gutters, installing a wood stove, weatherstripping, and closing the attic off. Those are all time-consuming and/or expensive projects so it'll be baby steps. But, we'll see how far we can go with it all. With my dad out here, him and Molly got a lot done on the foundation for the patio. The pavers are sitting in the driveway but they probably won't go in for another week or two. Then we still need to bump the fence up about 15' and build stairs off the back of the porch.

Today I drank a lot of coffee and ate a bagel, an egg, pizza, a donut, and a lot of ice cream. Awesome. I think a big pitfall in this country is our fear of food. We have so many nutrition programs and detailed ways to eat food. But, there is not as much emphasis on enjoying food or preparing food or understanding where it comes from. I've loved cooking since I was a kid and it's an important part of my life. The most busy I get, the less time I spend in the kitchen, and the grumpier I get. For my mom's birthday I decided I was going to make her a cookbook of the recipes she made for us when we were growing up. I'd like to learn how to cook more with the stuff that's plentiful in this area. We have a ton of great food in the northwest (salmon, huckleberries, Dungeness crab, apples, pears, wild mushrooms, sweet Walla Walla onions, blackberries) and I look forward to eating it. But, before I get into a big cooking spree I think we need to clean out our pantry, fridge and freezer. Last time we did this we just ate what was in the house for a week. I think we ended up with scurvy but we sure did clear up space for more food. Time for that same thing, but with the okay to get fresh fruits and veggies this time.

So, I'm sure I'm way late on this bandwagon but this is pretty awesome.

another wonderful day that I'm not at work.

Apparently there is a group that's promoting a garden on the White House lawn, for the next administration of course, GW has his hands full winning in Iraq, losing in Afghanistan, tanking the economy, and brokering that dang mideast peace deal in four months. Although, he would look darn cute in a gardening apron.

Lily is sounding awful mournful on the porch. She's being extra fat this morning, getting into every nook and cranny (the umbrella stand, the entertainment center (inside and on top), tabletops, counters, anywhere. I locked her outside because she tries to eat the dog food, and they let her! So, she's crying so sadly now.

I'm still really excited about fall. When Rob and Tara came over for Sunday dinner Molly asked Rob if he knew how to install a woodstove. Poor guy, it's like walking into the lion's den here and he's too nice to tell us to leave him and his mad woodworking skills alone. But, he said he's talk to his dad to see how. They would be so rad. What's really missing from this place is that thick sweet smell of woodsmoke, one of my top five favorite smells. We're still trying to figure out how to get the yard raised up but we're making progress on that back patio. And, it's definitely time to decorate for Halloween. It's clear and windy and damn cold out there. So, it's time.

the good, the bad, the ugly

The winds will blow their own freshness into you,
and the storms their energy,
while cares will drop off like autumn leaves."
- John Muir

The three day weekend is over. There were some glorious, and not so glorious, moments. Friday was mostly spent at my mom's. Then there was some Crossfit and dinner at Rachel and Val's. Saturday was gravel pick up, the Mudhens match (sweet sweet victory), and the neighbor's birthday party (too much tequila and some delicious tamales). Sunday was supposed to be the most productive day of all. It was alright. I got the rest of the gravel out of the truck and onto the dirt slab. I scrubbed the kitchen and bathroom floors like Cinderella. I made pear cake and apple biscuit something with the partly-rotting pears and apples on the porch. I planed the top of the front door to try to get a better fit in the door jam. Molly was not amused at the chunks of door that dropped to the ground. I visited my least favorite place: Home Depot. But, I was actually asked if I needed help, a lot. That's a first. Normally I wander around like I'm in the belly of a whale. If you are lucky enough to find someone that actually works there, they avoid contact and if they happen to make it, they scurry away before you can ask anything. If you manage to corner one of them and ask them anything then it's "not their department". Home Depot meant stepping stones. There is more to do in that department but we're going to eventually get the stones all along the fence, by the driveway. And we have some temporary ones from the front gate to the porch so we don't have to sludge through puddles. We also made delicious roasted tomato sauce from all our garden tomatoes. It's what my mom made when I was a kid when she picked all her tomatoes. We had green zebras, big fat red ones with mean brown wrinkles, long yellowish pear tomatoes, yellow taxi tomatoes, and little red cherry tomatoes. It was about four pounds over all and you blend basil, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper in a Cuisineart and then pour that mix all over the halved tomatoes and roast the whole thing in the oven for 2-3 hours. I think it's my most favorite meal of fall. And carrot potato soup with fresh bread. Tara, Rob and a buddy of Tara's from back east came over for dinner. I ended up pulling out the whisky to share with Rob and we both drank too much. Too much whisky, on top of a couple beers and a couple glasses of wine. I felt that today when I went to a brutal day at work. There were way too many shoes and it was stressful. I felt terrible all day and finally came crawling home a little after 4:00 instead of going to pick up the second round of gravel.

I didn't workout this weekend and feel guilty about that but I get my butt handed to me each time I go to the Crossfit facility so I was still sore Sunday from that Friday night workout. I'm trying to summon up the energy for weighted pull-ups tonight.

Beginning of a long weekend

It's finally here, the long weekend. This is wonderful. There's a lot that can happen. I'm looking forward to Sunday dinner with Tara and Rob. And I think the game will be awesome tomorrow. We were also invited to a birthday party with our 8 year old neighbor. I look forward to puttering around the house for the next few days. It's in a pretty special place right now. The creatures are dirt heaps that leave sand piles every time they lay down. And I think every dish we own is dirty, on the kitchen counter. And, the damn fruit flies are back. Molly and I try to scoop them up with the venus fly trap but that thing is dumb as hell, it just gapes open, even when a fly walks over top its teeth. Molly and I are hoping to at least get the frame of the patio set. There is also a nice green tinge settling in on the fence. Decorative? Festive? Lovely. It's probably time to rip up most of the garden. There are a few squash, tomatoes and peppers left. But, that's pretty much it. And, I hate to take it from her, but Suzy's path is digging our yard into more of a trench than ever. Friday is also leaf raking day and Molly bought a giant garbage bag spider for us to put our leaves in. I think they're supposed to be dry though. Especially since Molly wants to put the spider on the roof. I'll watch while she drags a three hundred pound leaf spider ten feet up a ladder onto our rooftop.

But, today I'm headed up north to my Mom's. And, I need to be back to catch the last Crossfit class at 6:30. That'll be super, especially since I'm going to be back tomorrow at 9am. Barf. And, at some point over the weekend, I need to get rid of this fantastic mullet that's taking over my neck.

Sarah Palin is hot but I'm still voting for Obama

I watched the veep debate tonight, most of it anyways. I had a long, bad day at work and cracked open a beer first thing when I walked in the door. It's the beginning of a well-deserved long weekend and I started it off a little too right and continued with some fancier, bottled beverages when my mom showed up to watch the debates. I won't lie, I think Sarah Palin is good looking. I don't think I'm in the minority here. She's a straight-shooter (in more ways than one) and she doesn't mince her words (unless she's being interviewed by Katie Couric). She also goes into zero details and makes few risks. So, basically, she's your typical politician. Professionally I don't think she's any more than that. But, I can see the appeal. I didn't understand everything Joe Biden said tonight. I did understand everything Palin said. That's not to say I didn't wish she could be more specific. She excels at vagueness. But, so does G.W. and it got him eight long (long!) years in office. She may very well win this election for John McCain. But, she could also lose it. Shit, they should put me on her advisory committee with how cloudy my own thoughts are right now. But, what I'm trying to say is that her ability to dumb down the fact of the matter, or to avoid the fact of the matter, is her strength in politics. After a long day people don't want to hear the ins and outs, they want the beef. That's it. And, she's hot to boot. I don't think this is a small matter in these hard times. She might not be saying anything. Or she might be saying a very dumbed-down version (didn't think it could be done!) of the same crap George Bush has been saying for years. But, somehow, it sounds different when a milf says it. So, there's it is.

I'm still voting for Barak Obama. (He's attractive too, for the record). I think he'll get us straight with the economy. He'll help us direct the right attention to Afghanistan and get us the hell out of Iraq. He'll get more people better health care. He'll be thoughtful and well-informed and I believe he'll work with both republicans and democrats in the best interest of the country. I think McCain/Palin will do none of this, the exact opposite in fact. They'd leave us in Iraq to lose more lives until we need to get out like we did in Vietnam and then we'll need to seriously turn to Afghanistan with no troops to call upon. They'll deregulate the shit out of the economy so, just in case we avoid serious recession now, we'll be able to revisit that in the near future in a worse way. They'll pay the rich more just for being rich and give less to the middle class, even though they vouch for them all along the campaign trail. They'll invest in drilling nationally rather than expanding our damn options for the ineveitable oil shortage we'll have at some point in the next century. And, they'll further privatize healthcare so my mom will really be screwed and more and more people will pay more for crappier plans that drop them when they actually get sick. Not to mention the sidebar of social issues like abortion and gay marriage. (Actually, I think McCain would be more mild here unless he was hurting for republican base support). I am the most proud to vote in this election than any election I've participated in so far. I think it may be the most important election of my lifetime. But, I'm just saying, Sarah Palin is easy on the eyes and that will not hurt the McCain cause.