I Heart Growing Power

I love Growing Power on Silver Spring. Everybody there is just super. The pic above is a young lady helping an older couple collect some compost/topsoil and get it into their car. Below is one of the greenhouses. Probably it would have been a good idea to open the screen door to get a better shot, but I was being stealthy.

Sadly, they had no eggs today. "They all went to the market," said the clerk. "We just have to wait on the ladies to lay more." Plan: call ahead next time.

Open letter to my newly former next-door neighbor

There had been more- much more- including, apparently, a fish tank (gone).

You just moved out, my ex-next-door-neighbor. You left a ton of crap by the curb. Crap that was perfectly usable stuff (or had been at one time) left to go into a landfill, when you probably could have dropped it off at a thrift store. I have some of it now. I enjoyed chatting with others who were looking too. Some of the booty I am going to drop off at a thrift store myself; some I am going to sell. I don't know if I should bother to read "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" or any of your other self-help books, because it would appear as though they don't really help much.

Don't worry about that book from the Waukesha Public Library. I'll make sure it gets back there.

Really, though, I wanted to let you know that I shredded all of the personal financial documents that you left out (the ones that were still there when I got there, anyway. Who knows?). Names, addresses, dates of birth, social security numbers, and your bank statements and medical stuff and your end-of-checkbook-thingies (I tried not to look as I overburdened my shredder. I really did.) All of these are all safely shredded for your safety and my own peace of mind.

You see, I was a victim of identity theft not all that long ago. Yes, somebody wanted to be me- imagine that! Really, they just wanted my checking account, which at the time contained enough money to buy a nice used car. It was a terrible thing.

It's funny how I never really got to know you when you lived there, but now that you have moved out, I feel a sort of bond with you that I never would have otherwise had if I hadn't been willing to dig through your trash.

Sincerely,

The River Otter

Oh, the Milwaukee heat!

The thermometer says 83 degrees F. My personal melting point is much lower than that. We eschew A/C as a general conservation and frugality measure, so my glass of cold sun tea and an ice pack is sufficing for now...that, and dreaming of otters joyfully sliding down icy slopes onto frozen rivers!Otter chillaxin' after a fun day of ice sliding.

Born under the sign of the otter

There is a separate Celtic astrology system, probably quite ancient and very different than the one we typically use in the US (which is, of note, totally random and only based in the vaguest possible way on anything to do with stars, moon, planets, and the earth's rotation around the sun. But I won't get into precession or any other actual astronomical phenomena here). My June birthday, according to the familiar US system, gives me the sign of Gemini- changing, effervescent, random: all true. But the Celtic system gives me the sign of the Otter. Even better!


I found out about this on MySpace way back in the days when people actually used MySpace. I had put some otter-related things on my page, and one day got a request from some guy in Indiana who called himself OtterBrett (he found me when searching for other otterlovers). He requested to be my MySpace friend and we exchanged otter-related info, and found out that we had some other things in common, including that he and I were both born under the Celtic sign of the Otter, loves camping and nature, and that he lives in the same Indiana town as my aunt and uncle- small, small world (yay, interwebs!). So when I abandoned my MySpace page and moved over to Facebook, I befriended OtterBrett there too--never having met him IRL-- on which we still keep in touch. Isn't this what so-called "social networking sites" are supposed to be about? Meeting new people and learning things you otherwise never would have had any idea about?

Here's a rundown of the deets on those born under the Sign of the Otter:

Date of Birth: June 10 - July 7

Celtic Birth Animal: OTTER

Gaelic Name: DOBHRAN (DAV-rhan)

Ruling Planet: Jupiter

Birthstone: Diamond

Key Words: Family, Joyful, Helpful, Intuitive, Playful, Creative.

Description: Otter people are enterprising, with a wide breadth of vision. Optimistic & Opti-mystic. Strong personal magnetism.

Gift, Quality or Ability: Protection, Shape-shifting, Journeying, Shamanic Powers.

Compatibility: Harmonious relations with Goose & Seal. Will also relate well to Salmon, Adder, Stag. Difficulties may be expected in relation to all other signs.

(Brain, who has just as much Celtic ancestry as I do, is a Swan under this system...obviously, it's just for fun! He is a Virgo...which actually does suit him fairly well, I think.)

For more information, including the other Celtic signs, click here.

UWM again

In another fine post today, Capper discussed (in a long post, which I invite you to read for yourself) the whole UWM invasion onto the County Grounds, stating that "the so-called County Board Economic and Community Development Committee foolishly voted to recommend all but giving away the county grounds to a private developer." One reason that it just rubs me the wrong way- besides the idea of developing the County green space that was supposed to remain open in perpetuity- is that I worked for Columbia Hospital for so many years and (overall) loved it. It's closing- gradually, slowly dying; my former unit already closed last year. Some of the buildings are historic, and rather ornate. It would be the best possible thing for everyone concerned if UWM bought the Columbia property.

Look at this map- the Columbia property is situated perfectly within the L-shaped UWM campus. (Yes, I know it is supposed to say "Downer Woods"; it's not the worst error ever made on an online map.)

There it is- perfectly nestled, just waiting to be repurposed as university space.

Letter from Gerry Broderick

This morning I wrote to the County Supervisors on the PEE Committee about the proposed UWM expansion onto the County Grounds, writing essentially the same thing as my previous post on the subject.

I always hear back from Mr Broderick, and this is the response I received from him within three hours:

"While I agree with your expressed sentiments, I've been around long enough to know that an effort to oppose this plan would be quixotic on my part and divert energy from obtainable environmental goals.Keep the faith, lately we win more than we lose."

Reality: usually disappointing.

Friends of the Monarch Trail

In a post on his Cognitive Dissidence blog, Chris Liebenthal describes a recent public hearing about the possibility of the UWM engineering school expansion project sucking up even more of the Milwaukee County Grounds. (Completely illogical. A campus feeds off the proximity and energy of people working, studying, and learning together; off-site experiences are for internships. Selling off and building up more of the County Grounds is foolish and short-sighted.)

Also, if I ever have a kid, nine-year-old Izzy- who wore her butterfly wings and spoke at the hearing- is the kind I would want to have. She shares the opinion of Friends of the Monarch Trail, who is urging the county to create a conservancy to maintain control of the land before any deal goes through with UWM. Sounds like a good idea to me.

Conservative

Charlotte at Cheeky Pink Girl suggested that I post a bit about my own Christian faith, and what better day to do it than Good Friday, the day for reflection, pensiveness, and contemplation?


I believe that an all-wise Creator brought the Earth into existence. Since I wasn't there, I can't say for sure whether this occurred in six days, or a few million years, but it is unequivocally clear to me that intelligent design and not random chance was at work. This is the basis for everything else that I believe and do (of course, being an imperfect individual, I still manage to really screw up sometimes). The Earth is ours to guard and protect, as well as the animals, plants, and people who call it home. A lot of Christians take the opposite belief- that the Earth is ours to do whatever the heck we want with it. Likewise, I see a lot of people in the environmental movement who are not Christians, so sometimes I feel a bit trapped in that in-between space. The word "conservative" has come to be a polarizing word, an emotionally laden word; however, it also means "conserving," as in not wasting, as in judiciously using our non-renewable resources, as in protecting our rainforests and other precious places.


What do you think? How have your religious beliefs (or worldview, or whatever you choose to call it) affected your beliefs about conservation?