Too many.

Here is an example of high art. I know the director's father. Hi Carl! Click away.

Hunter over at Daily Kos says,

"The only error, Nixonites and their broad base of supporters determined, was getting caught. And so the difference between then and now is that this administration is even more secretive, using the War on Terror to claim preemptive legitimacy and secrecy over every action, no matter how absurd the supposed justification seems. They intend to circumvent the mistakes of the past. They don't intend to give any institution -- the Congress, the FISA court, the press -- the slightest hint of sunlight through which the new but familiar, ever-expanding 'programs' can be illuminated."

Read the rest.

I took the bike out for a ride yesterday and headed out towards Mt Rainier. I found out that 410, as it heads into the park, is closed, so I went up to the Crystal Mountain Ski Resort. This is what you see as you turn around to head back down the road. There is still some snow up there.

Today I returned to the Squak Nursery to get some plants for my deck. It proved to be a little expensive but I think will be rewarding once they take off and grow. The bugs should be happy too because I got some of their favorites, petunias and impatiens. I also picked up some plants for my empty bonzai planter. The miniature juniper is the right size now. I don't admit to knowing what to do with it if it survives. We have had beautiful weather here in the Seattle area. New England has been pretty wet. Even my brother up in New Hampshire is affected. Western Massachusetts seems to have been spared the worst of it.

I tried out my leg today and I think I can inch my way back into running, fingers crossed. I don't know what I'll be able to do next weekend though. I may pace some friends for their run.

I just clicked over to The Seattle Times and found this picture on their webcam. Pretty cool. Here is the link if you want to see what it looks like in your time-frame. You can go to this page and click on the picture. The javascript will pop it up for you.







I have to write this way down here so that it won't crowd the picture below.

Maybe this is where the motorcycle thing started. I remember wanting one for graduation. My mother laughed. I didn't really think about motorcycles after that until about 2000. Before that I identified more with bicycles even more than cars. If I could get by without a car right now I'd do it. This is a picture of me in front of my brother and his BSA. I'm told that my other brother and I used to run around saying, "BSA, BSA, BSA!" when Jonathan would show up with his motorcycle. If this picture was indeed taken in '66 or so then this was before he left for the service. Do I look 3 years old there? I don't remember much of the bike other than that. It was sacrificed to pay my parents' bills while he was in VietNam. One other thing I remember is my father thinking he could give me a ride on it or another, and of both of us falling. Any family members out there who remember better can correct me on this. I think I'm on my way to the city on my motorcyle right now in search of a book. Ciao.

Even though I knew there was a threat of rain, I took the bike out for a ride today. I looked on the radar and I thought it was clear a bit north because the rain seemed to be more to the south of I90. It turned out that there was a convergence zone up into Lake Stevens and Granite Falls. I got wet. This is a picture of the main drag through Granite Falls. I still haven't seen the falls there. I'm told they are very close to town. The wind was somethin' wicked today. It was no fun on the faster, less sheltered roadways.

These aren't the best pictures. I think they show the limitations of my relatively old camera. I went to the arboretum today after I cleaned up the motorcycle. The bike is shiny now and the arboretum is close to being in full bloom. The fruit trees are mostly past, the rhodies are colorful and the azaleas are getting ready. I also cleaned up the pots and plants on my deck this afternoon. I had to do something with myself since my leg won't let me run. This bites. I hope y'all had a great weekend. Mine ends tonight.

I've ressurected Failure's Fantastic Planet on my computer (my computer acts as my cd player/news reader/email and communication tool). This cd is 10 years old and it still lives up to the hype. I got it for "Stuck on You", a short lived radio hit. What I found was that there was depth to this piece. The songs fit into a larger, strange sound. I guess I'm looking for the word theme. It has heavy guitars that can take off to the upper atmosphere. They have been called space rock. It was a pleasant surprise.

I have been listening to this album lately. When I bought it I hardly played it. I guess I dated myself there. It is actually a CD. Do people "play" CDs, or do they rip the songs and then load them onto a portable ipod-type players? Holy crap, it is 12 years old. Where does the time go, while I toil away until I eventualy die? Two people lately have tried to convince me to leave the landscaping grind for better pastures. My sister wants me to seek out a lumber yard and a few running friends think I'd do well at a rental car place. The boss says he's putting in for a dollar raise. El cheapo won't go for that. Same old shit about me not running a larger crew, la la la... I worked for two today. I even sacrificed two of my own properties so that I could pick up an old folks apartment place for another crew. Randy couldn't get to it yesterday. It is a constant game of catch-up. There is never enough time and the pay bites. "Are you ready?"

Something must be wrong with work. I read this and thought that. This goes for romance too.

I'm thinking now that it is the sartorius muscle, which runs from the hip, goes around the front of the leg and inserts at the inside of the knee. What I really know about it is that I'm not running on it until it is better.

I think I've found the name of the latest injured portion of myself. It is called the inguinal ligament. It goes from the anterior superior iliac spine (front-top of hip) to the pubic tubercle (groin) across the upper thigh. For a good while I thought it was a tender muscle. This explains why it has taken so long to (sort of) heal. It started bothering me about three weeks ago after a long (19 mi.) run and has dogged me since. I thought that since it was supposedly muscle, that it would heal relatively fast. I just hope it is good to go for Olympia.

My track workout this evening was fast. We were supposed to do mile repeats at a little slower than our 10k pace, but I wanted to run faster, so I picked a few guys who are a little faster than I am and then tried to stay with them. I did it. I even came through the last lap faster than the fast guy. I was very pleased that my body came through for me; a very nice sign. Our team did well at the Mt. Si Relay. We placed second in the Men's Masters division. It is the only time I have seen a second.

I'm having the fat kitty as a roomate next week. Lee will be down in California and I'm hoping little Nicky will be on his best behavior. I'm back on the motorcycle for the commute. I need to get myself started out the door a little earlier though since everything about riding a bike takes more time than simply getting in a car and going. How about not needing to go to work? I'll have to work on that project. May you all not have to go to work either.

Not that you would notice this by reading these entries, but today's horoscope may help me put my latest setback into some context, or at least give me an alternative to more thoroughly ponder. Those who know me have heard me mention this. Oh yeah, for the second year I didn't get into the program at school. This bites again.

Here is today's horoscope:

"Sagittarius
November 22 - December 20
You are likely aware of your writing abilities, dear Sagittarius, but you may not realize just how talented you are. It would be worthwhile for you to consider devoting more time to honing your craft. You can't expect to improve much when your writing time is scattered in between other obligations. You need large blocks of uninterrupted time in order to really produce something of value. Why not give it a try, even if just for a week or so, to see what you are capable of."

I just learned a new trick over at Joshua's site. It doesn't have anything to do with the content of his post but more the presentation of it. I don't have any stories which approach this one. Free up your rations for the beast. Fear much and we will protect you. Keep moving along, nothing to see here. You are helpless. It would kind of work in a dis-utopian sort of way. This blinking can get OLD. I should write like this all the time. I don't think anyone comes by here anyways. This is amusingly obnoxious.

I guess this doesn't work in internet explorer. The colored stuff is supposed to blink.

Having a friend of mine running in the Boston Marathon today inspired me to get in some miles of my own. I ran 22.5 this morning on three loops through Bellevue. As far as I can tell I didn't hurt anything. That's good. My friend did very well for herself. She finished with a time of 3:23. I think she took 3 minutes off her previous best, and this was only her third marathon. Very well done! I've got some catching up to do. Hey, the sun is out. I think it is time to get on the motorcycle. Bye.

Many years ago I was involved, as these people still are, in the active resistance to the deployment of the Trident nuclear submarines. It is heartening to see these people still at work. I was arrested twice (three times?) in Groton and New London CT. in the late 80s. On one side of the river the submarines are built, and on the other they are commissioned into the Navy. I still believe these systems are bad, wrong - however you want to put it. The warheads are MIRV'ed (multiple independent re-entry vehicles), which are then multiplied by the number of missiles, making the amount of damage done by one Trident submarine apocalyptic. To plan the deaths of so many sentient beings is just wrong. That was one of the arguments back in the 80s when there still was a Soviet Union. Today it just seems stupid.

I'm starting to understand now that this is a symptom of our fear. I'd like to get behind that and shed some light on this phenomenon. I've read that the human species is now on the brink of deciding whether we will continue to exist. I hope we will. I found this excerpt at the end of Susan Watkins' book, Conversations with Seth book one, particularly instructive:

"...when all the young men refuse to kill for the sake of peace, and when all the women forbid their men to kill for the sake of peace, and when you realize that no peace will come through killing, and that the end does not justify the means, and when you grow full and light with thoughts of peace, then there will be an end to war! But as long as any men go to war for the sake of peace, there will be war. And as long as any woman teaches her sons how to go to war because of love of peace, there will be war.

"You make your world. When you populate your world with ideas of peace, then peace will grow. When you think thoughts of aggression, you attract aggression and you draw it out from others in daily contact, and on the part of nations.

"When you do not understand yourselves you project what you do not understand upon others-upon your friends and associates-and then you become afraid of what you do not understand, not understanding it is your own fear. And you do the same thing as a nation with other nations. There is no way to ensure peace but for every man, every man, to lay down his arms."

-pp. 230-231

Amen, lay down your arms. I'd say if we can imagine our way out of this then we are indeed capable of doing just that. As self explanatory and as obvious as it seems, this needs to be looked at singularly. Imagine a world where we aren't at continual war, where instead of fear we greet our neighbors with compassion and support. This isn't pie in the sky, hippy-dippy nonsense. This is what amounts to the continued existence of our species. Y'all have a great week.

OK, the taxes are done, and this year I owe. I need to straighten out how many dependents I have claimed. There is only me, so it should say "1." Us single people are pulling the weight for you procreators. And don't give me that marriage tax shit.

Happy belated birthday Abby.

OK, update time. Running, swimming and a little bit of school.

I guess it's the school first. I think the interview last Wednesday went well. It had to go better than last year's. I asked friends and family for help in the interview world and used their knowledge to answer the questions correctly, as opposed to me being perfectly shoot-myself-in-the-foot honest. I have to qualify that statement because what I know now will influence how I will act in those situations they inquired about. So, in a way I'm being honest. I've adapted. I knew not to show my worst side - the side which won't get me hired. Alternately, what they got to see is my best side. I emphasized my strengths. So, I think it went well. Am I in the running? I sure hope so. My grades are good and the only part I think I might have been lacking in was the math portion. I could have spent some more time studying that. The whole learn, adjust, adapt, qualify, correlate and execute process I liken to what I call verbal alchemy. "Who goes there?" Kind of prescient since I am already in (or near) the Emerald City.

I returned to the water yesterday. For 4.75 American I put in an hour workout at the Bellevue Aquatic Center not a mile from my place. I did surprisingly well for not being in the water for a while. With swimming, you really have to put a lot of time in the water, consistently, and you have to work hard. I found myself actually in control of my stroke and swim at times. Cool.

As for running I joined the ESR marathon folks for a 12 miler between the U Village and the Ballard locks and back Saturday, and then for today's fun I ran up Tiger Mountain. What a bitch. That thing is never easy. I took a minute off from the same run of May's from last year. My time now is 38:47. I started from the main parking lot and ascended up West Tiger 3. With some more long runs I think I'll be ready for this year's Capital City Marathon. I want Boston.

We've started out four-tens now so I have Mondays off again. I really like this. I have to make four lunches, commute four times and I also have more time to get things done. I have a couple of new places on Capital Hill and they will need some attention. Everything is growing so it will be flat out go! go! go! until I get rescued from this green treadmill. Look what I found on Capital Hill last week. Pretty damn funny. I didn't do this. Someone is walking around and posting these in appropriate spots. I just took the picture. Ha ha ha.

Y'all have a great week. I think I'll find out about school in a week and a half. My hopes are not up as they were last year. I'm much more level headed about this this time around. Imagine that. Cheers.