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Here's a picture of the hills that become the Cascades. Four houses down the street looking east. A fun day of a cell phone to my ear starting with an early morning conference call I forgot I had waking me out of a dream. But the food bank is always a fun way to re-connect to Bellingham and got me out of the house.

I also repair bicycles as a service to the cyclists of Bellingham that participate in the local alternative currency: Fourth Corner Exchange. Today I had my second happy customer take her serviced bike. Two more to go in the garage. And two more in queue.

And my roommate took some wonderful pictures of the tulips just south in Skagit County - taken a few Sundays ago in the morning mist. You will probably see more of her really cool pics in the next few days.

Broad

Today a chilly, yet beautiful, partly sunny day, with the standard afternoon shower. And raindrops on the window tonight.

Here is a picture taken today on Broadway heading southwest to the sea. Or bay. Or both. In the distant is Lummi Island. Although this road has a fine bike lane on it, unfortunately it's not too useful. Most of the main arteries into town run perpendicular to this road. A great idea, but poor planning. Oddly enough though, we did take this road on the garden tour a few months back. It was sort of a zig-zag, but more conducive to group biking.

To the left are the Lettered Streets, and to the right are the (I believe) Columbia (closer) and Cornwall (further) neighborhoods.

Tonight was movie night, watching My Blue Heaven - a very funny movie I might add - on The Channel.

Oddly

Oddly enough (or maybe not), people have been coming to me telling me they've done something they never imagined: they'd sold their cars. One friend came up to me and secretly pulled something out of his wallet. Here I thought it might me a membership card to the CPUSA or the John Birch Society or something even more illicit. But instead, it was a WTA bus pass. He was an old hippie friend that said "I've never done this before, man."

We are lucky to have a decent public transportation system in Bellingham, but fortunately it is also quite easy to also just bike around. I wish I needed to take the bus more, but a bike suits me fine, as my radius of existence usually doesn't span more than three or four miles. I can actually get to many points in town by bike faster than driving. I feel sorry for Bellinghamsters that don't bike, as they are missing out on a pleasurable experience in one of this nation's most bike-able cities.

I wrote this (above) today at the Public Market while working. (Fortunately,) I erased a scathing tirade that included such things as energy decline, societal collapse, greed, etc., but the day ended well. The Bings went on, the R60/6 started right up, and I've aspired to a new level of BMW competence and hold my chin a bit higher. Carb rebuild? Not a problem.

Now for these friggin' knuckles to heal...

Acclimate

This is a picture that I did not take, although it reminds me of a winter sunset when the sun pokes through in the sky clears in the late afternoon

Today I wasn't cold. I do not know why. I was in the fifties and rained here and there a good chunk of the day. I was outside in shorts and a t-shirt and sandals in the drizzle and surprisingly the chill did not bother me. I do not know why. A friend said that I finally acclimated to this chilly, damp climate. And I just accepted the fact that I would only be truly warm in this moist and cold climate roughly ten days out of the year. I recall that time being some time in August. But still, it was really odd that I wasn't cold today. Hmm.

I wish I had something to say, but the bed beckons. A busy weekend: On one hand having a friend help me build a chicken coop, and on the other hand getting the Bing carburetors back on the R60/6. Tomorrow will determine the success of the mechanical endeavor, while a few more days (or weeks) will be required to measure the success of the coop.

Another dream is a southbound trip next year on the BMW down the coast. Maybe take a few weeks and ship the bike back home. "I'll always be a dreamin' man, I don't have to understand..."

Late

A late night that involves lost keys (not mine), bagels, and some other interesting tidbits. But it is late an I've demonstrated again today that in a battle of flesh and aluminum fins on the block of an aircooled BMW motorbike, the latter will prevail. More tomorrow.

Short

It's late, and I am just got in a bit ago after a beautiful midnight ride from Fairhaven up along the waterfront. Waited a few feet from a southbound train wooshing past on its way to Seattle or beyond. Through the downtown area with loud college kids being college kids. On to the quite streets of Sunnyland. And home to get to bed within some reason, although tomorrow I sleep in.

But the right Bing went on with evidently little challenge.

And also a shareholders' meeting for my company to which I was officially named to a quite important role. (I think that last sentence in grammatically correct.)

Sorry no picture. Eric Clapton does that to you. Righht now I am listeninig to a CD with many cuts from the live album Just One Night. I had this album years ago and I realize how this is one the best, if not the best, white blues musicians in existence. Okay, maybe I will put a picture up...

Coop II

So the work continues on the chicken coop. Quite sturdy and it should make for a nice shelter for four hens or so. I've never envisioned myself being raising chickens, as I do not eat chicken and don't really eat a lot of eggs. I guess I will soon. Local eggs are tremendous, with rich yellow yolks. (You see, I was more a city and suburbs person.)

And considering that the price of oil doubled in the last year and increased sixfold in the last eight years, something is awry. It is always good to produce your own food and I am glad to be part of a burgeoning local trend of producing food locally her in Bellingham - even in your own back yard. Now if I could only finish the sheet mulching...

But the compost pile (background of picture) is doing miraculously well. The smell and texture is beautiful. Not to mention the overabundance of worms that now call it home.

Tonight was a fun meeting followed by a pot luck with a local group with which I work (or technically volunteer). And my house mate is en route from California with Maggie. I hope her journey is safe.

Tomorrow I hope for the Bing carburetor parts to arrive Priority Mail, and I asked a friend to teach me appropriate German curse words to use when the BMW draws blood from yet another knuckle.