Line up, kids.

Sooo... Velveeta Suit just never got going. Then I contemplated a Blue Potato blog, but man! Do you know how many people are already doing that? Crazy! I kid you not.

Despite the hectic nature of my life right now, or maybe because of it- and largely spurred by those of you who have checked in lately to see if I am still writing- I'm baaaaack.

Thank you. Thanks to those of you I don't even know, for motivating me to get back here. To start thinking, listening, and writing again.

A lot has changed in my life since I last posted. I now work for a farm, and am often ensconced in the great outdoors, enjoying the sun, howling about the wind, and paying close attention to soil and plants and water and the crew caring for it all. Politics takes a backseat, and for the most part, I find myself blissfully removed from the stress that comes with hearing the daily conflicts- social, political, economic- in the world and in this country. But, that doesn't make it all go away.

Observation: Yesterday I was at a gluten free food show in Denver, CO. The cost was zero, except for the $5 parking fee, for the celiac, gluten free and general public to indulge in stuffing their chopholes with a wide array of food and drink for six hours non-stop. When the herd gathered in the lobby was allowed through the gates, the stampede that would have ensued elsewhere became instead a tightly packed even line, snaking along in order through the sample tables.

In other countries, people seem to not even know what a line is. This can be frustrating when trying to buy a stamp or board a train. However, the mutual respect that is inferred by forming a line is largely lip service. People strain against each other to get their free samples, and look annoyed if someone breaks free of the pattern. I thought the entire first two hours of the show, "If I were out there eating, instead of at this table feeding people samples, I'd be wandering to the tables that weren't engulfed by the masses."

We want a certain order, a certain sense of discipline, here in this country. And we accept it in the form of politicians and religious leaders who tell us how we must think, and what is right or wrong, and who should get what, and who doesn't deserve it. Those of us who aren't entitled to certain privileges, simply accept that is our lot in life. Someone in a position of authority told us so.

So we sit in front of the TV and watch propaganda thinly disguised as news and live our lives in line. Yes, we do.

New Blog

I have a new blog. It's called Velveeta (TM!) Suit. As soon as I can untwitch my stressed out eye enough to deal with the user unfriendliness of it, I will get it up and running.

Time to Wrap It Up

Peeps, it was almost 3 years ago I started this blog, mostly as a way to get my voice back. To see if I could still talk. Well, I can, and I have, and it's time to wrap up now. I've become bitter, argumentative, and frankly, nothing I think or have to say- nothing any of us thinks or has to say- is that important. We're just a bunch of ants running around on a big patch of ground, and it's not worth it to say any more.

Thanks to all you loyal readers. I'll run into some of you in other venues.

Be well.

Birds

When I was in Dominica, the alarm clock was the time around dawn when the day birds were coming awake and the night birds were going bedding down and the whole rain forest all around was a cacaphony of bird songs.

It's been a lot like that here the past few days, only different birds, temperate birds, summer birds flying through on their way south again, winter birds on their way back here for a few months, sparrows and finches and those birds who stick around all year still here, a huge bunch of birds making noise in the morning and the late afternoon and evening, while they stop to eat and sleep. Jays and chickadees defying the record hot temps for this time of year. Maybe everyone who should be farther south by now sticking around a little longer because of the same, even though the leaves are changing color faster every day, falling off the trees and drying and crackling.

Not funny but something pretty right here right now.