San Antonio, week 2

Today, My roommate and I went to the San Antonio Botanical gardens, which made everything better.





A Japanese Garden





Squirrels

Jeff Bickart

Jeff taught geology, ecology, ornitholigy, botany, fiber arts, organic crop production and traditional outdoor living skills. He taught us how to make fire with two sticks (harder than you think), to make rope with reeds, and to tan hides. Jeff's intense curiosity and his wide and deep knowledge, as well as his sense of humor, made the subjects he taught come alive to his students. An avid reader, he was also a published poet and essayist. He made clothing from local plant and animal materials, spinning and dyeing his own yarns and weaving, knitting and felting fabrics, as well as tanning hides. He built his own wood and canvas canoe, as well as paddles, snow-shoes, bows, arrows and atlatls (he tried to teach me to throw the atlatl, but it was not meant to be). With his family, he created a homestead farm, with extensive vegetable gardens and a large orchard. He had a particularly strong interest in the preservaton of heirloom varieties of vegetables and fruits and was for 10 years an active member of Seed Savers Exchange. A competitive long distance runner in high school, college, and later, Jeff continued to enjoy running until his illness prevented it. Jeff left behind his sweet and beautiful wife of 14 years, Jenn (Brown); and their two beloved children, Alex-ander (age 9) and Laura (age 7).

Weekend, FT Sam Houston

My first week in TX. It's been warm, in the mid-70's to upper-80's during the days. But, the area is greener than I'd expected, with lots of live oak and blooming flowers. People are nice here, and class is laid back, boring even. It's a big post- I decided to walk to dinner the other night instead of hitching a ride with my roommate and ended up getting lost. Both ways.

We went (as a class) to the museum here at Ft Sam. This is the training center for all Army medics and they've got a very nice medical museum. I couldn't take pictures of most of the exhibits because they were behind glass, but they had some cool old medical tools- bloodletting knives and old apothacary herbs. Lots of old ambulance equipment and some medivac helicopters.
xxx




Here I am by a Korea-era Sioux.



A Vietnam-era Iroquois (Huey).




Some cool art- I like the medic in this picture with a cigarette in his mouth.




Saturday evening, we went to downtown San Antonio to the River Walk, a 2 mile long network of bridges and shops located a story below the street. We got there in the late afternoon, walked a bit and ate some mexican food (I ordered a veggie quesadilla with no cheese and the waiter thought I was a crazy gringo).




We turned down the mariachi band, but the table right next to us got a song, so I stole some pictures. I'd never seen a real live mariachi band before.



By then it was getting dark and we took a river cruise and learned about the history and architecture of the area. Unfortunately, the pictures I took at night didn't turn out well, but it was very beautiful, with the cyprus trees lit up with colored lights and egrets fishing in the shallow water.

Late morning, autumn sunshine

Truly, my dog is unbearably cute.

Bailout bill

Have you seen this thing? Probably not. There's 303 sections on the bailout itself. Not easy reading. Still, it's what the bill is about and, like it or not, we're stuck with it now.

The other disturbing part is that they've stuck all kinds of legislation on the bottom of the bill- knowing that it was sure to pass. Let's look at some of the pork on this bill:

A huge, multipart section on improving our energy sources. Now, I'm totally in favor of spending money on researching renewable energy, but this thing is embarrassing. " Energy credit for small wind property". "Energy credit for electricity produced from marine renewables". "Energy credit for geothermal heat pump systems". "Credit for steel industry fuel"!?! Or, how 'bout these two: "Temporary increase in coal excise tax; funding of Black Lung Disability Trust fund". Followed immediately by "Special rules for refund of the coal excise tax". It goes on and on. " Exclusion from heavy truck tax for idling reduction". How is that energy improvement?. My favorite is, of course, "Transportation fringe benefit to bicycle commuters".

After the energy enhancement section, they just shoveled in whatever they could think of: "Seven-year cost recovery period for motorsports racing track facility". "Exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children". "Provisions related to film and television productions". "Extension of economic development credit for American Samoa".

What a boondoggle. It's shameful. America has spent the last 50 years spending money like it grows on trees. Both private citizens and the government have lost any idea of living within our means. I think we're going to pay the price for it now. I don't think we're going to pass a $850 Billion dollar bailout bill and have everything magically return to the way it was. We have to re-set our standards. Scary, but probably not a bad thing in the long run.

A curse and a myth

We're living in interesting times. Economic upheaval. Ongoing wars in the middle east. Elections that embarrass and insult the public's intelligence. Global warming, torture, breed specific legislation.

Now, a little fable from Ambrose Bierce called "Philosophers Three:"





A Bear, a Fox, and an Opossum were attacked by an inundation.
“Death loves a coward,” said the Bear, and went forward to fight the flood.
“What a fool!” said the Fox. “I know a trick worth two of that.” And he slipped into a hollow stump.
“There are malevolent forces,” said the Opossum, ”which the wise will neither confront nor avoid. The thing is to know the nature of your antagonist.”
So saying the Opossum lay down and pretended to be dead.

It doesn't matter what we do. We'll be swept away in the flood regardless.