Last summer’s retaining wall project turned out pretty good, especially now that the grass has grown in all around it. Having learned a lot about the process last year, we’re repeating this for the front yard on a smaller scale. Ideally the tires on the front wall will be just as effective in retaining/terracing the front, but won’t show at all. We’ll plant a bunch of native grasses and plants on and around it, nothing edible of course.

We’ve been playing in the dirt for a couple of days now: moving dirt, separating rocks, filling, stacking, pounding, shoveling, excavating and pick-axing. Having spent the last month teaching in NAU’s STAR Program, it was actually pretty nice to do some work of this nature. As I shovel, I like to think of how long humans have been doing work like this. Moving dirt, the sound of the shovel working it’s way through sand and rock, is a very old sound. I think that’s why it’s so calming to sit next to a river or listen to the wind blow through the trees. These are very old sounds.

It’s a little bothersome to bury industrial waste in your yard, but it’s nice to make use out of garbage. We got the idea from Earthship. Check it out; I think this stuff is amazing. To me, this is what “green building” is really about. I don’t think I’d live in a tire house, but there are a lot of other options and combinations of options to build a house that is the closest thing to “no impact” that there is.

I’ve also been spending time with this year’s garden. It’s as ready for the monsoons as I am. This year: strawberries, assorted tomatoes, jalapeños, green chilies, red chilies, peppers, and a few herbs. We’re going to experiment with cloning too. Not in a creepy mad scientist way, but in the traditional manner of slicing a budding branch in the right way, planting it, and watching it sprout roots of it’s own.

I love watching the monsoons build. It hasn’t stormed yet, but every day for the last week or so, ominous clouds build, the humidity raises, lightening strikes, thunder rumbles, it sprinkles, then….it all goes away. Any bets on when the sky will explode?

The last two presidential elections have really jaded me on our electoral system, but lately I’ve found myself increasingly excited to hop on the Obama band wagon.

Change we can believe in? Not anymore.

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama supports the spy bill compromise passed by the House Friday, despite having opposed retroactive amnesty to telecoms that helped with the President’s secret, warrantless wiretapping.

The measure expands the government’s ability to install blanket wiretaps inside domestic communication infrastructure and frees the nation’s phone and internet companies from lawsuits accusing them of massive violations of their customers’ privacy. The Senate is expected to take up and pass the Bush-approved bill next week.

The bill is widely perceived as a victory for the White House, and was agreed to by Democrats out of a fear of being labeled soft on terrorism in the upcoming elections.

The most important political news seems to come out on Friday, which is why the media seems to have missed this. This is nothing new of course. The above news article also cites the statement released late last Friday by the Obama campaign where he attempts to explain himself. He was obviously hoping nobody would notice. I have noticed and I am angry.

I’m not simply angry about his support for this unconstitutional and, frankly, fascist bill. I’m angry that he lied and reversed his position on this bill. American’s have been consistently and overwhelmingly against this bill since the White House first introduced it in January. I’m angry that someone promoting “change” is playing the same manipulative political games that have turned our election process into a farce. Disillusioned and jaded once again.

A lot of people don’t see this telecom thing as very important, but it is. It’s Orwellian. He lied and is tossing aside our civil liberties so that he can appeal to a fraction of conservatives who won’t vote for him anyway. Bad move, Obama. Now you’re just another hypocritical politician.

I have a friend who heard about this and now plans on supporting Nader. I fell for that in 2000 and don’t plan on doing that. I still dig Cynthia McKinny, but if I’m going to “throw my vote away,” I might as well vote for my Dad. As for now, I’ll do my part to bring back Wavy Gravy’s campaign slogan. This isn’t a slogan promoting mass apathy. Rather, we shouldn’t be forced to vote between two unsuitable people. There is still a lot of time, but I’m not happy with Obama. Plus, he’s for nuclear power too. As Ani DiFranco said when she was here last week, “I can sum up my argument against nuclear power in two words: nuclear waste.”

…and if you think my criticism is harsh, you should scroll down and read the comments from this Wired article.

On Saturday night, Melissa and I were riding bikes and someone in a Geo Metro slowed down to yell at us…while we were riding. We were riding west on 66, on that short section after Humphreys, in front of City Hall.

For this short section, we road two abreast and we took up the whole right lane. There is no bike lane on this section of road and there are significant breaks in the concrete next to the curb. His argument was, despite the conditions of the road, we are to be single file and as close to the curb as possible. In other words, “I don’t care about your safety, just get out of my fuckin’ way.”

We told him that he was wrong and even invited him to the house to look at the book together. He screeched away pissed off.

Here is the law. Section 28-815. Riding on roadways and bicycle paths; prohibition of motor vehicle traffic on bike paths:

A. A person riding a bicycle on a roadway at less than the normal speed of traffic at the time and place and under the conditions then existing shall ride as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway, except under any of the following situations:
If overtaking and passing another bicycle or vehicle proceeding in the same direction.
If preparing for a left turn at an intersection or into a private road or driveway.
If reasonably necessary to avoid conditions, including fixed or moving objects, parked or moving vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, animals or surface hazards.
If the lane in which the person is operating the bicycle is too narrow for. a bicycle and a vehicle to travel safely side by side within the lane.
B. Persons riding bicycles upon a roadway shall not ride more than two abreast except on paths or parts of roadway set aside for the exclusive use of bicycles.

If there is no bike lane, we have a lot of freedom. It is our lives against your convenience. It is completely up to the cyclist to determine a safe distance from the curb. It’s our discretion, not yours. And honestly, who is in a better position to make that decision? Cyclists are. We can see the road better than those in a car. We can feel the road better than those in a car. We are more susceptible to debris such as glass, rocks, and rubber. And it is legal to ride two abreast.

If this is annoying…if this pisses you off, than you should be supporting those people working to create bicycle lanes and alternate routes for bicycles. The train station has pamphlets that explain all these rules. I’m going to grab a stack and start throwing them at people.

On a side note – if someone in a car yells something at a cyclist and causes the cyclist to get distracted and crash. Those in the car are legally responsible for the accident.

To the druids, it means this.

To you, Flagstaff, it probably means this.

I, on the other hand, am happy enough to play outside and howl under the beautiful yellow moon.