It's raining a lot now. Day after day. The second annual Bunny On A Bike ride was Sunday. Despite the rain there were 24 of us on it. We ended up here at the commons for tea and cookies. Thanks to Carye Bye for organizing it.
We also (earlier Sunday) had a garden work-party here, we built 2 new raised beds. I think we have the most attractive raised bed layout in Portland. I plan to put a couple more on the wide parking strip on the south side. You can't grow too much food. Zuchinnis maybe, when all of a sudden everyone has them by the armload. Good excuse to make Zuchinni fritters though. And this year I plan to learn to can. These are skills it is good to have. I read a very mainstream piece in the Oregonian talking about the worldwide peak and decline of oil production (starting either late this year or early next, or perhaps already.) At the very least this will make ordinary manufactured and agricultural products more expensive. Worst case it will induce worldwide economic implosion, the eventual settling out of which will be a world where (for those who do not starve in the interim) most production of food and goods will be entirely local. Like from your yard. Or a market garden in what used to be a football field. That sort of thing. Who knows. All I know is, the current agricultural system (and every other facet, large and small, of our economy and way of life) relies entirely on petroleum. It is amazing and frightening that the now-impending decline of world oil production (a decline which will happen no matter whether we start driving 200 mpg cars) has not been addressed by any of our so-called leaders. There is a new book called "The Long Emergency" by James Howard Kunstler (author of "The Geography of Nowhere") which addresses this very issue at length. I have read an excerpt from it and plan to get it soon. People need to wake up to this, pronto. Growing a garden is a good place to start.
Yay! Rain off and on for the past week. So very lovely. Hiked up to Devil's Rest via Wahkeena Falls today. 7 miles round trip and 2400 ft vertical. A bit steep but nothing outlandish, and beautiful in one way or another the whole way. That upper Wahkeena Creek gorge is one of my favorite places in the region. Of course there's lots of competition.
I need to write several kid-friendly songs in the next couple of weeks, for Puppetganza 4 (April 9 at Nocturnal.) I promised (in the guise of Mudbone Orchestra) to do musical interludes between puppet acts. I realize now that I have never really written anything remotely like kid songs. Something to entertain a large and attention-wandering audience for, say, a 5 minute interval, perhaps with a sing-along or two, or whatever works. My Dan Reed Miller/Enrique Bronkowski songs are all basically dark observational and/or "poetic" 2-chord, quasi-dylanesque something-or-others. Whatever they are, they aren't sing alongs for 10 year olds. So its coming up as a major challenge for me, but i'll pull something out.
Except for that one week. Well, it was fairly normal seeming early on. But this endless unbroken clearness it has turned into is weird. I mean, the spring blooming is already almost spent. It is disorienting.
Wouldn't it be hilarious though if the Year Without A Winter turned into the Year Without A Summer? Sort of a total seasonal reversal? Who knows. The weather has already been unprecedented in the 150 odd years since they started recording such things around here. Anything is possible in a world gone haywire.
And then there's the volcano. That I *love*. How many places have an active volcano looming just over there. Loowit, "The Smoker." I think it has much more and bigger eruptions to go in this phase. I predict at least one truly massive one, possibly including throwing volcanic debris, not just ash but rocks and debris, as far as the greater Portland area (maybe Vancouver, WA.) Is that a crazy prediction or what? But I'm making it.
It's been over 2 years now I've been doing this blog. I'm not much of a traveler these days. I need to solve that. The whole time and money thing. Ultimately I may have too much wanderlust to maintain this settled lifestyle thing. I need a plan of some kind. I do so many different things. I've really come to enjoy giving tarot readings for people though, and usually they are awfully pleased with my interpretations (even the scary ones.) It occurred to me to start doing it as a vocational sideline, like at events or to friends of friends. Because it is something I enjoy and find fascinating and which fits with several of my aptitudes. So hey, you wanna reading? Drop me a line (503-816-6491, danreedmiller at yahoo.com,) 15 bucks for a 5 card, 25 for a celtic cross, 5 dollar discount for student, low-income, or gifts of quality chocolate.
I'm almost done with my tile mosaic. The tiling part anyway. Grouting comes next. When it is all done I may have a party to celebrate it, folks can hang out in the bathroom drinking beer and, well, I guess it would just be an excuse to have a party.
Last Saturday Mudbone Orchestra played its second show, 2 rousing songs at the SCRAP member/volunteer party, it went beautifully despite the fact that our drummer Bruce broke his right hand several days earlier in an unfortunate encounter between him (on his bike) and and SUV turning across the bike lane on SW Broadway. It was touch and go as to whether the show would go on, but we played an abbreviated set with some outstanding one-handed bucket drumming. The dude can tap and bang out a rythm even with one hand. Just wait for Puppetganza, April 9, we're gonna tear the place down!
For what its worth, I think the recent assasination of the former prime minister of Lebanon was orchestrated by the CIA. A rare "successful" such operation at that, in terms of achieving various near-term goals (Who knows what the long-term blowback will be.) Because it all plays just too perfectly *against* the actual interests of the Syrian regime, who of course are accused by all and sundry. That was my thought initially and every day it seems more so.