The Hunter/Gather of Surburbia

Are we where we live?

July 28, 2010

Biking week two

So, still the same distance, but faster. Not sure if that's a good thing or not. I still ache, but I am guessing that may take awhile before I can bike a distance and not ache. Monday I followed to horny squirrels for a bit before they tumbled into some blackberry bushes. Today, I came around a corner and a deer was standing on the path. We stared at each other for awhile and then she trotted off as I followed. She did the cool hopping thing as we both sped up and then detoured into a clump of bushes. That's what I like about biking at Minto Brown. It is so beautiful and so near town and there is wildlife around each corner. About halfway through my current path there is a bald eagle nest with the proud parents and one fledgling. I wonder about the wisdom of having the next platform on top of an electric pole, though it and the others always have nestlings. I have noticed the duck population is smaller than when I used to walk with Rasta and Mocha. Guess they aren't as reslient as the geese on State Street.

July 26, 2010

Geese, geese, and more geese

Read a post from Humane Watch talking about HSUS supporting the killing of geese. I'm sort of on the fence with this issue. Eons ago I seem to remember that there was fear that Canadian geese would go the way of the Dodo. So, fast forward to Salem, OR 2010 the Canadian geese have interbred with domestic geese and the progeny do not migrate, they stay along Mill Creek all year long. They have adapted to the environment so well that if a car tries to hurry them along by creeping up on them as the "migrate" across State Street, they stop and honk and honk. I've sat behind creepers and it can go on for 2 or 3 minutes. The reason the stick around? People feed them bread. Which also feeds the rats and pigeons. And the geese poop everywhere! Anyway, shooting them as HSUS and New York City want to do could sort of be ok if they took the meat and fed people with it. It would be interesting to see if there is a way to give them birth control. You wouldn't want to eliminate the species, but reduce the number as humanely as possible.

July 25, 2010

Family Time

Spent the afternoon with half of my family yesterday. Playing in their pool and getting my typical sunburn which gone this morning.
I'm thinking tomorrow I'll be able to go to the park again. The whole womanly time thing is finally slowing down.
As I was lounging in Brandon's pool with only Raven as company I realized how noisey it is at Brandon's house. Since my pool is toast I am floating in his now from time to time and it isn't at all quiet up there. It is relaxing, just not as quiet. I love floating. I really miss going to the North Fork. I wish I had the foresight that Margaret and her brother did and purchase a space at Taylor Park and keep it until I could move into dad's spot! Stupid of me not to think of that! Oh well, stuck with chlorinated pools now.
Done with dogsitting, sorta miss that crazy Raven though. She is always so happy and loving.

July 23, 2010

Anita Renfro again!

More Angry People

Ok, I was one of the angry ones, but man I wish I didn't have to drive in town at all. People walking and on bikes seem to think that drivers can four directions at the same time. Course some drivers think the same thing. When I was walking downtown I always looked both ways even on the one ways. Good thing too, because after I was back in the FJ driving down Summer street where it changes from one way to two and a PT Cruiser pulls up on my left side, in the wrong lane.  Heh!
People, smart looking people, cross against the lights because no cars are coming at the moment. People on bikes turn without using hand signals. Shoot I was in the park the other day and this lady was using hand signals the whole, even when she wasn't having to worry about cars running her over.
Which brings up merging... I hate merging and I really hate it when people don't read signs telling their lane will be closed and then when they see it for themselves get all annoyed when people don't let them in. Truly annoying.
That was cathartic... but I'm still mad at Kelsey... never mind...

Day two

I decided to go the other way on Wednesday. Again, I thought I might die before I got back to my FJ, but I obviously didn't.
Thursday and today, Friday, I did not go out. Women who tell you they love when their periods stop are so right. Have'nt had one since January and it returned yesterday with a vengeance! Truly, annoying. Today I walked from Marion street to um... well past Front street to deliver some papers for my daughter. Salem and Marion County need to plan their road construction better. Heh! I totally understand they have to get the work done now and the whole stimulus thing. Hopefully, the crews working in Salem are better painters than the crews who repaved and repainted the lines on Hwy 22 between Salem and Willamina, because those guys had to be smoking some gonja while they were working. Speaking of the illegal weed, saw two young men sharing some green herb on the corner of Trade and um maybe Liberty. Out in the open! They have bigger balls than I do! Well ... they have freaking balls so.... And, no, I didn't call it in.
Hopefully, tomorrow I will be out riding my bike in the morning and floating in Brandon's pool in the afternoon.

July 20, 2010

Bike riding day one

I rode only about 2.25 miles today. Maybe a total of 40 minutes on my bike. I remember when I could bike nearly all the trails at Minto Brown in a day! It's gonna take some time, but I can do it again. Yes I can! Minto Brown is so nice and the people there very friendly, of course the friendly ones all said hi when I was struggling to breath so I looked like a total poop head.
The best thing is that I feel good and nothing hurts!

Angry people

The great thing about the Internet is that you can get all this information and it's also the worst thing. With information comes opinion and with the Internet comes some anonymity. You can eviscerate someone and they don't know who you are.
Issues like animal rights, global climate change, the environment get people hyped up. They get me hyped up, but I don't do a good job of eviscerating back. I would prefer a healthy debate to name calling, band wagon, all the terms I learned in Speech class for bad argument. Saying I'm like Sarah Palin because I eat meat and don't have an issue with that, is not good argument. It lumps me in a group that I don't belong for no other reason to titillate other readers and make me angry.
We need to construct our words so that they will be listened to and, if we want it that way, to change people's opinions.

July 18, 2010

Really?

We have no ethical obligation to preserve the different breeds of livestock produced through selective breeding. ...One generation and out. We have no problems with the extinction of domestic animals. They are creations of human selective breeding...Wayne Pacelle - Former National Director of Fund for Animals.


I don’t use the word "pet." I think it’s speciesist language. I prefer "companion animal." For one thing, we would no longer allow breeding. People could not create different breeds. There would be no pet shops. If people had companion animals in their homes, those animals would have to be refugees from the animal shelters and the streets. You would have a protective relationship with them just as you would with an orphaned child. But as the surplus of cats and dogs (artificially engineered by centuries of forced breeding) declined, eventually companion animals would be phased out, and we would return to a more symbiotic relationship – enjoyment at a distance -- Ingrid Newkirk, PETA's President, quoted in The Harper's Forum Book, Jack Hitt, ed., 1989, p.223.
 
So, while the quote from Newkirk is a bit old, it still gives me a chill as I sit here with four dogs and at present 2 cats. Oh and Oliver the cockatiel. Pacelle is now involved with the Humane Society of the United States. You should know that dollars you to his organization does not trickle to let's say The Humane Society of the Willamette in Salem, OR.
 
The HSUS is actively pursuing ways to curb animal farming, even at the smaller sustainable levels, so be careful when the ask for money if you think all they do is for the good of all animals.

Watching Tour of Duty

So, I put Tour of Duty on my Netflix que when I was teaching Global Issues and US History. Finally getting a chance to watch the old episodes. Having a lot of time on my hands and realizing some underlying philosophies in this show. Should have known even back when it was on TV, but I had other priorities back then.
I remember not liking the officers at all. While I can now look at them with a different mindset, I see that maybe they were created to illustrate the total stupidness of the War in Vietnam. I think of how what we are doing now is similar to Vietnam. I doubt I am the first, maybe even Korea. The U.S. always sticking its nose places it probably doesn't belong not for the good of indigenous people, but for the show of might.
There is even an objector that I totally don't remember! He makes the foil to the gunho attitude of the grunts and NCOs. Gunho, of course, is good when you are fighting. Not so much when you come home.

July 17, 2010

Wrinkled Ladies

What will the next global war be over?

In my opinion the next global war will be over water. Access to it will begin to be controlled. Countries will begin to attempt to control where and when water flows. Look at many third world countries. Go to http://www.water.org/ and see how important access to water is.

I guess I will have to reread some Joyce


I write like
James Joyce
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