Dog and Kitty Paparazzi

When you have the paparazzi hiding in the bushes outside your home, the only thing you can control is how you respond publicly.

Portia de Rossi

Okay, JJ, you're actually outside my home...

JJ, the neighbor cat, has become quite interested in Peanut Butter recently. On this day, JJ walked across our lawn and flopped down, exposing his belly and rolling around in an seeming effort to taunt Peanut Butter, who was bouncing about wildly inviting JJ to play like a dog. You can see she's very excited. JJ, on the other hand, was not pleased that I - the "paparazzi" - was capturing this interspecies rendezvous on film.

(Picture taken from a garden level window.)

Visiting Mom and Dad: Silver Glen Springs, FL

Florida has more springs than any other region in the world. There are over 600 springs in the state - some merely a trickle and others among the largest in the world.

From a sign at Silver Glen Springs
Florida Department of Environmental Protection

I visited my parents at the end of January and, while I loved the whole visit, the two days that we spent at Silver Glen Springs were magical. It dawned on me as I was swimming in this hot spring, chasing the fish around, that I new what the Fountain of Youth that poor Juan Ponce de Leon had looked for, but never found was: a hot spring. I asked Mom and Dad what they thought and they said that there is a hot spring, valued by the Native Americans of the area, that people say is the Fountain of Youth he searched for. According to the trusty Internet that spring is Warm Mineral Springs, located in, yes, you guessed it, Warm Mineral Springs, Florida.

Mom and Dad spend quite a lot of time visiting this and other springs; I suspect this is their secret to eternal youth. Silver Glen Springs is a blast which should be obvious from the photos.

Entrance to Silver Glen Springs

The Springs. The area that is dark blue is the spring, about 15 feet deep before it disappears into a tunnel. The water comes out with some force, but, according to locals, not nearly as much as in the past thanks to golf courses and housing developments in the Ocala area drawing down the aquifer. (According to one of my city planning professors, Ocala is the sprawlingest city in Florida.)

Mom, with her hair pulled back in a bun, prefers to stay on top of the water.

Dad prefers to swim below. Just under him in the picture is the cave/tunnel where the spring water comes from.

I preferred being underwater, too. Here I'm chasing a large school of Jacks.

Ladyfish

A gar. These guys are gnarly looking, with their big, sharp teeth and primordial look. (They are actually a primitive fish, which is found in the fossil record as early as the late Paleozoic Era during the Permian Period.) Dad says they're curious, but I screamed and swam away rather quickly when one approached me. I took it as aggression.

You know those delicious tilapia, the favorite of aquaculuturists for their rapid growth and high protein content that promises to feed the planet? This is one; an invasive and an adult, most likely guarding her nest. Here's an interesting article on fat content in Tilapia - doesn't look good.

Palm fronds

Sand boils seen from a boardwalk on the Sand Boils Trail. See a Youtube video of a sand boil in action.

John Breaux: Beloved Community Hero

Louisville man's simple life, guided by kindness, touched entire community

Boulder Daily Camera
February 1, 2009

What does it take to get a community to discuss erecting a memorial in your honor? Declaring a day of service in your honor?

You might imagine an eloquent speaker, a generous community benefactor with deep pockets, a crew of firemen lost in the line of duty. For our community - Louisville - it takes is a bicycle, a wave, a big and kind smile, a very large heart, and a life dedicated to performing hundreds of acts of kindness and goodwill every day: picking up trash; greeting neighbors; helping with groceries; moving neighbors' daily papers onto their porches; shoveling snow; a kind word.

Even though John only lived five doors down from me, I had no idea he was my neighbor. He would wave and greet me mornings when I was walking Peanut Butter, but then I would see him all around town on his bicycle, picking up trash. I just figured he was doing his rounds when I encountered him in our neighborhood. One day, in front of Lamar's Donuts, he gave me a tip that the Lotto Jackpot was really big. I played that day.

When I first met John, back in August (when we first moved to Louisville), I knew I was living in a "for real" community. A special place.

It wasn't until I heard news that he passed away in a tragic accident late last week, that I learned that he was my neighbor and that he was so beloved by so many people.

I am writing about John Breaux in my blog tonight not because I was close to him, but my life was touched by him. He was a remarkable human being who had an extensive impact on Louisville and neighboring Lafayette and all it took was uncommon, sincere kindness. If you like to contemplate the power of kindness and the human spirit at its best, I urge you to read the Daily Camera stories: He was our goodwill ambassador, He believed in people and Tributes to John Breaux.

Today, I walked a bit in his footsteps and took some pictures of a handful of the many memorials around town. I've always noticed what a very clean community it is that we live in. Thanks to John. When I took pictures at the memorial site where the accident occurred, I noticed an errant bag and two store flyers pinned (by the wind) to a nearby fence. I picked them up and imagined John's big smile at my good deed.

Albertsons was one of John's haunts. This one is about a half mile from my house on McCaslin Blvd.

The memorial inside Albertsons, which includes a bicycle with bags on both handle bars, similar to John's bike.


A memorial on the door at the Conoco service station on McCaslin.

A memorial near a walking path on Pine St. in Louisville. (Click on the picture and read the message, if you can't already.)

A memorial in the window of The Empire, one of Louisville's finer restaurants, located in the downtown.

This gold-painted bicycle is just one aspect of the memorial on US-287 in Lafayette, where the accident took place. There are possibly 100 or more bouquets, banners (including one from an area high school), a white bicycle, a shirt from Louisville Rescue, a sign on the nearby footbridge that reads "St. John Blvd.", a mylar Tigger balloon, and much more. John is missed.

If you see litter, pick it up,
move through your day with a smile,
and be kind.

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!

Whatever your life's work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Happy 80th Birthday Dr. King! Thank you for all that you did for our country, helping us to evolve a little closer to the original promise of our nation.

Today, Steve and I and our friends Andrea and Andy attended Denver's "Marade", the second largest - possibly the largest (based on record-breaking attendance) - celebration of Dr. King in America. What's a marade, you ask. A marade combines the protest elements of a march with the celebratory elements of a parade, an apt celebration for a man who brought our country so far, yet has passed the torch to us.

Spirits were high at the event. The temperature was, too: 65F, the weatherman predicted. I think Dr. King and Obama had morphed into one in the hearts and minds of many maraders.

Enjoy what we saw!

A Sunny Sunday in January

The Americans never walk. In winter too cold and in summer too hot.

~J.B. Yeats

I feel like being quiet tonight, so: fewer words, more pictures. Pictures from our Sunday walk, about 3 miles round trip on a sunny, 60+F degree day.

On Sunday this sign announced "1 Day Until Bush is Out of Office". Tonight, Steve road his bicycle downtown, passing this house. The field nearby was filled with a happy crowd with many champagne bottles, counting down the hours until Bush is out of office.

Peanut Butter and Shadow Peanut Butter.

Steve on his gummy-wheeled skateboard.

I like this sign.

Our local coffee shop. Owned by a Parisian - a left hander, just like me, Steve, and Barack Obama... and probably Peanut Butter, too.

Water the dog.

A girl and her dog.

A boy and his dog.

A boy, a dog and a Ford Fairlane.

Crisis = Opportunity 2009! Happy New Year

Urban Crisis = Planning Opportunity

Planners for Equal Opportunity
Conference poster, 1968

This is my favorite quote and I think it's perfect for 2009. I'm pretty sure that city planners didn't come up with it. I believe (but I could be wrong) that it comes from psychology and counseling. Picture a counselor pointing out to their client that a moment of crisis provides one with that flash of insight that things aren't perfect. That knowledge is the key to meaningful change.

The crisis that planners were referring to in this 1968 poster was the urban renewal and suburbanization of America that left the least fortunate - mostly African Americans - isolated in the inner cities where their neighborhoods were being razed in favor of the national highway system and other massive architectural wonders, while white people, factories and businesses skipped town for greener suburban pastures. Planners had really screwed up.

The new wave of people-centric, bottom up, participatory, equity planners, Planners for Equal Opportunity, sought to right previous wrongs. And they did. My advisor at Cornell, Pierre Clavel, is in the process of chronicling this information and making it publicly available at the Progressive City and Neighborhood Planning Archive and the group Planners Network carries the POE vision forward.

In this upcoming year, we are facing global meltdown of the economy, a national housing crisis, continued global warming, and the fallout from one major investment scandal. Crisis! And this crisis presents us with crystal clear 20/20 hindsight on what wasn't and isn't working. We have Opportunity.

My wish for the New Year is that we take advantage of this opportunity and make extrordinarily good things happen in 2009.

Happy New Year!

Traveling up the Connecticut River Valley

I Lovermont.

-bumper sticker

Northamptom, MA
Several friends will be happy to know that we stopped at this old haunt. Mission: Get a tasty cup of coffee.


Vermont Welcome Center
Please bare with my enthusiasm for a rest stop. Vermont does a brilliant job of promoting its arts and crafts economy in this cool, barn-esque center. Think about it: rural artists are connected with their buyers. Everybody's happy. Steve loves this place, too.


Handcrafted goods and original art hang on display throughout the spacious center.



Steve overlooks a snowy field from one of the world's most comfortable handcrafted (Vermont-made, of course) rocking chairs.


Brattleboro, Vermont
We ate lunch in Brattleboro and wandered a bit, shopping for Vermont bumper stickers for our Colorado cars. We saw Eat More Kale bumper stickers - which we already have - on two cars and eventually found our Vermont bumper stickers.




Historic preservation efforts in Vermont have been strong for decades as this steeple-saving effort demonstrates. One of our favorite brew pubs, The Alchemist, in Waterbury, Vermont, offered a brew to support preservation of a local train station. There's something to say for getting the public involved, even if all it requires is to drink a beer.


Grafton Village Cheese Company
Our last stop before heading back was the Grafton Village Cheese Company. This is the factory where they make the best cheddar cheese in the world. Hands down. Critics agree and have honored them with the highest awards. To those who have been following my blog since the beginning, the hunt for Stinking Bishop does continue, but for now we are more than content to work our way through the mini-wheel of smoked maple cheddar that we purchased at the factory store.
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