Fog

In Bellingham there is a continuum of weather: On one end is clear skies and dryness; travel along that continuum and the somewhere towards the wet end you will find an evening fog that saturates the air to the point of a fine mist that dampens your face. That was tonight. And as I sit here writing from my living room, I cannot even see the blinking red light atop the arboretum less than a mile away. I love fog. (I pulled the picture from Google.)

And I am still quite impressed in this temparate climate that I still have three varieties of lettuce growing in the garden with only one beginning to go to seed. Not too bad.

And today's experiment of making bean burgers:
- 1 lb dried pinto beans (soak over night with salt)
- Cook the next day for an hour or two
- Add two large carrots, one sweet pepper, all diced finely
- Grate in lots of fresh ginger
- Mix in 2 eggs
- And rice flour
- And some Bragg's
Makes about twelve burgers.

Consume

Today was a tremendously exciting day. This picture (taken from The Herald) demonstrates this level of activity. But I took the bus to this mall (Bellis Fair) for an hour to pick up some things.

My highly scientific research (I commented to the check-out girl at Target how few the lines were) indicated that this was going to be a slow season of consume spending.My East Coast contact (my aunt in Cleveland) also received information (another salesperson) that the Sears opened at 5am and was dead. Oh well. To me, it looked just like another day at the mall with screaming kids and frumpy people.

I wish that I had more to say. But a friend is coming by and we are going out to see the Paper Boys at the Wild Buffalo. I need to get out of the house tonight.

YIkes

So today I need to combat the warrior consumers and take a bus out to the mall. Normally I would bike, but it is one of the most dangerous places to bike in Bellingham; add to the equation the horribly aggressive Canadian drivers and it makes for a dangerous scenario. I do not know these people at the mall - they are of an entirely different type than what I see out and around Bellingham. But the girl that cuts my hair used to be right down the street and now she moved to a place at the mall. I really dislike malls.

And I could write about my disdain for malls and the aspect of many of these people spending money on things they don't need with money they do not have. The U.S. as a whole saves -.5% of earnings, meaning that we make less than we spend. I read somewhere that the 35-34 age bracket actually has a -16% savings rate. Initially shocking, but then not really considering the expenses this demographic is faced with - from college to housing to the latest cars and electronics to which they've grown accustomed.

I can't really think of anything that I need to buy right now.

Success

A day I managed to not leave the couch for a good part of the day. And I only left the house to pick lettuce for dinner and to check on my housemate's car, as she is out of town. It's nice that the bib lettuce growing in the garden is still a deep green in spite of the many frosts that we have had. Growing things year after year (and this has only been the second in this yard), you get ideas of what grows at what time. The kale needs to be planted earlier, and I could probably have lettuce longer into the winter. Quite surprising. Carrots too.

I cannot remember the last time where I didn't leave the house. But when I need to relax, I follow the lead of Magilla, the boxer-pit bull mix that lives in the house. There is a reason that one of her many names is Sluggo, and anther is Sluggella. She easily can sleep for twenty hours out of the day. And today we shared the couch for a good chunk of that. I need another day or two like this.

Food

I think that I may have posted this picture before. It's of the tip of Mt. Baker from the end of my block five houses down the street.

After pulling a double shift at the Food Bank, and realizing the time of the year, I become aware of how grateful I should be for the hand I was dealt in life. Things are pretty cool right now. But one of the reasons I work at the food bank is because its tremendous fun and probably the most laughs I get all week. Some other volunteers are there every week; some nights, like tonight, I see other volunteers that haven't been there in months; and then there are the periodic newcomers - some come back, while others do not. And I guess I'm doing something for the community too, but selfishly, that's an afterthough.

And if I am lucky tomorrow, I might decline numerous invitations for Thanksgiving Day and spend the day curled up on the couch with a book, movie or both. And hopefully I can keep the computer off. That has a tendency to suck hours out of my day.

But I write from my happy little Dell with Linux (Ubuntu) tonight. Swiching from the Lenovo Windows (my work laptop) to the Dell Linux is like getting into comfy clothes after chaging out of your work duds. So far, the Dell Linux is far ahead in every aspect. Except that the sounds sucks, and the mouse sometimes doesn't react. (But I think that is more of a Dell issue.) Maybe I need to find some web forums on it, or call tech suport. But it's not that big of an issue. Overall, the Dell 1525N's Linx software has some rather advanced software already installed, not to mention the a game like chess that I recently found. Drat.

Bird

Here is a movie of Orcas Island taken this summer. I am supposed to go over to visit a friend there on Wednesday, but I'd rather just stay home. It's not uncommon to get invited to many place on Thanksgiving, but if it goes as planned, I'll stay home and read and watch a few movies. Or it may not.

Tomorrow is a double shift at the food bank (for a whopping five hours total) to hand out turkeys and hang out and do some work. This is the third Thanksgiving that I've done the turkey thing at thefood bank (although we work there every Wednesday) even though I don't eat the bird. This year is unfortunately likely to see more people in line.

Sweet

This is what the soybean oil pricing looks like for 2008. Pretty exciting. But it is what I have been reading about over the past few days. Years ago I worked in this industry (to a degree), so something I thought I'd never use again in my life has been brought to the forefront of my memorial recollection. A simple observation of this chart would indicate the volatility of this (and other commodities') market(s).

A night of moonlighting and being quite tired. By the time I get home and relax, it's passing midnight. And the house is chilly, and my housemate went back to her kinfolk in Texas, so it looks like her ugly dog will be sleeping with me tonight. Magilla is like a heated sandbag.

But like always, the ride home after eleven was beautiful and no matter how cold it seems, I always end up at the house perspiring. And riding allows me to eat Mrs. Fields Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches with impunity. Yummy.