30/10/2013

Forbidden City

Went to the Forbidden City today. It used to cost the uninvited their lives. Lucky for us, these days it's only few yen.

Some friendly guys at the Forbidden City.

27/10/2013

Beijing

Sunday is maid's day off in Hong Kong. It's the law. Mostly they hang out all day in the street as they have no where else to go. It's sad. But yesterday was special. Big international festival in Kowloon. Last night I posted some photos here but no time for words.

Star above the mid-levels.
Hong Kong
Okay. It's 5 AM. We're leaving for Beijing in a few minutes. M. Lee is giving me that look. Gotta go.

26/10/2013

Tung Ping Chau

Yesterday, we went to the island of Tung Ping Chau. I'll post photos when I get a chance. We found old graves in the undergrowth in the middle of the island, guarded by biting ants. Naturally, I did the dance to get the photos. The island also has a new graveyard down by ferry landing but they weren't cool at all. More to come. As usual, gotta go.


24/10/2013

Hong Kong photo link

Hong Kong photos here.  Yesterday we went to Macau so the ones I uploaded this morning are from there. You won't find much of the regular Macau. As usual, I am attracted by obscure corners. We started at a very popular temple, but I
didn't get one photo of the main alter. Instead I photographed the dieties I found tucked away in a closet in a courtyard were the workers store their tools, buckets and brooms.

Ok. Gotta go. Must meet M. Lee and his mom downtown.


22/10/2013

Outtakes

Three dragons


 
Doggie business box

Lama Island

21/10/2013

Jackhammer morning

It's not as bad as it sounds. The jackhammers are not in my head. They are part of Hong Kong's eternal ambiance along with bamboo scaffolding and the sharp echos bouncing between the virus like residential spires rising up from the island rock of the South China Sea.

As usual, M. Lee has us on the run like rats so gotta go but here are a few photos for now. Have a great day.



View from the "courtyard"






Saddest street sign I ever saw



18/10/2013

Hong Kong, day two



Sunny the dog

Hong Kong. We're here for 11 days, renting an AirBnB apartment located in the mid-levels which we're sharing with Sunny the dog and Yu Lee the maid. She lives and works here and takes care of Sunny when the owners are gone. All that's fine except that when we're around she stays in her windowless, closet-size room off the kitchen. This morning I mentioned that she doesn't have to do that. I don't know if that will make a difference. Maybe she's just shy.

Morning from the mid-levels

Some 100 years ago, when the British gained control of this island, they considered it a useless, hilly desert but, as is their style, they got busy conquering it and somewhere along the line, someone or other built the world's longest system of consecutive escalators. Good thing. Our apartment is located at the mid-levels but, even with the escalators, it's quite a trek down and back so crafting plans for the full day is all the more important. Yesterday's main event was visiting the Hong Kong History Museum. I give it a C+. It was nicely curated but there were no outstanding works and a lot of replicas. However, the various groups of school kids visiting definitely get an A+. They were quiet, attentive and well dressed , diametric opposites of the screaming, out of control, iPhone waving hoards of American school kids unleashed upon the Smithsonian.

Morning descent

As for the flight over, it was...doable. I want to say dreadful but I reserve that category for United's so-called "food". That was dreadful. Bring.Your.Own. Other than that, I just pretended I was a larva for 14 hours. Once we landed I focused on being calm as a lizard until we got to the apartment and I could finally sleep. Lucky for us, we got there about 7 pm so it was easy to pretend that it was night instead of 7 am. All in all, travel time was about 28 hours.

Hong Kong waterfront from the ferry.

I feel surprisingly normal abut I know I'm not entirely over jet lag yet. I popped up this morning at 5:30 so we shall see how the day goes. We're headed out pretty soon and down the escalator. The day's big adventure will be to check out a couple of markets and then lunch at a convent. Also, today is Yu Lee's day off, so we get to walk Sunny. There are bottles of water in the dogie bag to wash the pee off the street and newspaper to catch the poo. Apparently people can sue dog owners if they don't wash up after their dog.


Street scene from the tram

15/10/2013

The night before

Reflections
in a mud puddle
My alarm is set for 3:30. The cab picks us up an hour later and our plane to SF leaves at 6 am. Then we will have a five hour layover in San Francisco before our fourteen plus hour flight to Hong Kong. All in all, it will be about 24 hours of travel. I feel exhausted just thinking about it.

The last few days have been all about chasing the details. They seemed endless. And, I know not everyone has this problem, but I have also had to deal with my demons and their irrational, irritating, seemingly endless stream of "what ifs". Yes, yes... there is (fill in the blank) in China and (whatever-whatever) if you forget something. Crazy.

12/10/2013

Movin' slow

Keyboard Cat readies
for our departure.
We're a day behind. We didn't leave for Oregon today as planned but we will leave in the morning. No big deal. We don't leave for China until Wednesday. But my bag is packed. It's so full, it looks like it's going to explode. The main thing  is having all the cables, batteries, charger, mic, camera etc. I think I have everything. The bulky part is packing for two seasons. Beijing will be cold. Hong Kong will be warm. And Thailand? Hot. Really hot.

10/10/2013

The crazies

We're getting down  to it, deadlines closing in like walls. So what do I do? As usual. Blog about it. But not for long. I'm currently having my morning coffee so this is permissible. But must finish packing which, at this point, will require either magic or giving something up. I'll be living out of this backpack for the next 2 1/2 months.

Backpack for China & Thailand 2013
Next stop China then Thailand

Plus there's so much still to do here, including hose the spider webs off the house and call the animal shelter. When Dwayne and his wife were unceremoniously whisked off to assisted living, his cat Snooky had to stay behind. The son bought the house, moved in and Snooky was banished to the front porch. She's half crazy without Dwayne looking after her and now Nevada's bitterly cold winter is coming. The neighbor ladies are counting on me to get her into the no-kill shelter which, at the risk of coming off as one of those horrible, buttinski neighbors, I will attempt. The crazy's in the details but we leave in the morning no matter what. Ok. High class problems for sure, except for Snooky. Keep your fingers crossed. So gotta get busy.

PS. Standard packing list (via M. Lee) By comparison, my only pack is the size of her day pack. Crazy huh?

PPS. Henry the Frog is still alive. He sounds really old now but he's croaking outside my window at this moment. The guy must be a wizard.

07/10/2013

One picture is worth

Ok. Time to roll this page forward.

I'm very distracted at the moment. We leave for China in just over a week and everyday I'm running around doing errands so tonight I have little tolerance for words although I have spent an absurd amount of time fussing over these few. It must end. Here are some photos instead. 


Mr. Leo discovers Florida
and an egret in the Century Plant
Summer 2013

Those are Frankie's feet in the lower right hand corner.

Bird on the Century Plant

Leo in the fronds

Meeting the mammoth of long ago

Father, son and the sea

04/10/2013

This is how we do it

Winds of Change....

CORRECTION: It has been called to my attention that, according to Snopes, Warren Buffet did not write this Act though he did inspire it. Sorry. I should have checked myself. You know what they say about something being "too good to be true". Anyway, it's still a good idea. Of course, getting Congress to pass it would be...well...you know, impossible.


*Congressional Reform Act of 2013*


1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman/woman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they're out of office.

2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.

3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise.Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women are void effective 12/31/13. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen/women. Congressmen/women made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work. 
If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take three days for most people (in the U.S. ) to receive the message. Don't you think it's time?


But what the hell? Pass it on.


02/10/2013

A journey of 3000 miles ends here.

Home.

At least for a few days. We got back on Sunday but I've been running ever since getting ready to leave again in two weeks for China. But yes. The Seven O'clock Magpie did show up Monday morning, 7 am. We've been gone since spring but that bird never gave up. She keeps coming back. She knows the minute I get home there will be peanuts.

26/09/2013

Notes along the way

Alachua temple

Stopped at the Hare Krishna Temple in Alachua yesterday. Had a brief but nice chat with a couple who live there. They are second generation devotees. In other words, they were born in the movement. Like the devotees in New Vrindaban, they were quick to acknowledge New Vrindaban's bad old days during the '70s. That's the period my kids and I lived there.

Cool Al's code. Behave or leave.

We are in Jackson Mississippi tonight. Had dinner at Cool Al's. It's a burger joint but one of the only places in town that offers vegetarian and vegan food. We both had the Jamaican Burger and sweet potato fries. Fantastic. Four stars.

Tomorrow's destination: Amarillo Texas, about a 700 mile drive. With lunch and stops it will be a 13 or 14 hour day.


25/09/2013

It begins

A journey of 2800 miles begins with the first step.

24/09/2013

The last of it

Rainy day on Alligator Creek.

There was an all night frog symphony last night on Alligator Creek. It was stupendous but forget about sleep. That giant sprawling tropical plant to the right of our poor little flood-locked mailbox is the frog palace/opera house. It's been raining like hell since yesterday. The drops are so big they're blops. And yes, thunder is rattling the house and the lightning is way too close. It's very unnerving since I learned that lightning can strike twice. I even heard about one guy around here whose house was hit three separate times. Once is enough! Everyone is laying low, even the lizards. I guess it's better that way. We leave in the morning. No more good-byes. I would like to say good-bye to the Gulf but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. I'm not done packing but this is the last of it. The hard part. The details. Then I'll clear out the screen porch where I spent all the lovely, buzzy evenings of summer, the sweetest with family, and that will be that. Done.

The last of it.

It wasn't much of a squirrel party this year but, hey, nobody died. I stuck to putting out peanuts and bird seed only in the morning and evening instead of randomly all day. A hawk did drop by now and then but the yard never became the big hunting ground like before. And, things being quieter, I had a chance to try out a little squirrel whispering on Dd. If you remember, she was the first one to show up after we arrived. I know. It sounds absurd, but actually it's not. Horses, squirrels, even people...the same principles work for everyone. Too bad I'm out of time. It was just beginning to get interesting.

One last screen porch wildlife rescue.

22/09/2013

Mockingbird Arias for Autumn

It's a warm, sunny morning here on Alligator Creek and just this moment a mockingbird, perched on a frond in Frida Kahlo's pineapple palm, is singing her wild heart out. She's doing it all, from "Pretty Bird" to never-to-be-written Arias, one replacing the other with equal speed. Today is the Autumn Equinox, that brief moment when light and dark are equal. Now the days grow shorter and the night long.

20/09/2013

Snoring bird



A bird is snoring somewhere out along Alligator Creek tonight. It's a soft chittering sound. Maybe birds don't snore. I don't know. I don't care. In my mind's eye I see a bird napping in the mangroves, head resting on its chest, beak nestled in its feathers, snoring away under the remnant of this year's Harvest Moon. Even two nights later, it was about the biggest, orangest moonrise I've ever seen. I wonder if birds dream about the moon.

18/09/2013

Voices in the night

Tin can voice bug is quiet tonight for the first time in a couple of months. I miss him. However the frogs are chatting away about the nearly full moon and the wet cool night. They don't croak like other frogs I've heard. Still their rubbery-voiced, wet bellows conversation in squeaks, trills and purrs is delightful. This is the second to the last Wednesday before we leave so, starting tomorrow, everyday for the next week will be our last.

The Scarecrow




There's something interesting going on with Chipotle. They are blending business and bio-ethics. Not a first but a good video. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out.

16/09/2013

Back to forward

Now the family has come and gone and it feels pretty empty around here. Even the light feels empty, as it does when the sun is in sidereal Leo. But the bug or frog or whoever it is who croaks like a stick drumming on a tin can is singing in the mangroves tonight and in just over a week we drive back to Nevada and, shortly after that, leave for China. These are the good old days but I never want to forget how it used to be staring out the window at a dead end world.

06/09/2013

Life at the beach

Holy cow! I'm so in the rears with this thing. Life is streaming by. Something must be said of the days past. They were good. We walked on the beach early the other morning and came upon the Turtle Patrol checking on a loggerhead nest. In this particular nest most of the babies had already hatched but this morning three were struggling to the surface.

The sun was fully risen. The birds were out. A very dangerous time. Thea, Kristiana and I joined a small group of beach goers helping the volunteers protect the hatch-lings on their long journey to the nearby sea. Two of the babies were still a bit misshapen from their time in the egg. One had a lagging flipper, the other a slight hourglass shape to its shell. We, the human shield, guarded them as they struggled over clumps of sea grass left by the night's high tide. They labored up, down and across valleys of footprints in the sand. The first one sprinted across the wet shore and disappeared under the waves accompanied by cheers and camera flashes. The seagulls were far down the beach but, as just to be safe, one of the men in our group followed it into the water to ward off any possible death from above. It didn't matter. Baby One swam out and, as if from a secret fold in the universe, seagulls appeared and snatched it up and away in spite of our mad waving and shouting.



Just then Baby Two reached the sea and swam out into the waves. This time we were ready and determined to ward off the ravenous gulls. We waved and shouted at the sky. The guy in the water jumped and splashed. Baby Two was snatched up anyway. An aerial battle ensued, seagull on seagull, dive bombing, screeching, dipping, twisting. Baby Two dropped back into the water to more cheers and sudden hopes. It didn't matter. A seagull swooped down and claimed our darling and the battle resumed, rolling down the beach like a storm.


Baby Three continued its perilous journey toward the waves. Generally loggerhead hatchlings emerge from their nests in the sand at night when it's cool and the birds are asleep so, at this point, the Turtle Patrol intervened. They scooped it up into protective custody with a promise to all they'd return in the dark and release it to its fate in the sea.

31/08/2013

Police fury

Congratulations to the DOJ for their recent decision to allow the states to create a regime that would regulate and implement the ballot initiatives that legalized the use of marijuana for adults. Predictably, police organizations are up in arms. Guess what boys. Prohibition doesn't work. Never has. Never will. We know it and so do you.

I, for one, don't want the police state this "war" has created. The United States has less than 5 % of the world's population but has almost 25% of the world's prisoners and keeps them incarcerated longer than than other nations.  

Just as the unlimited cold hard cash  from alcohol prohibition gave rise to the mafia, the richer-than-God profits generated by this cash cow "drug war" gave rise to the cartels and funds the quasi-military police state that is developing in the country. The UN estimates that the drug market in America alone is worth 60 billion dollars. At this point police have grown very fond of the gobs of dirty money they keep for themselves. Time to gut the profit all around. Money, power and prestige corrupts everything it touches on both sides of the law.


Source: Police Groups Furiously Protest Eric Holder's Marijuana Policy Announcement

27/08/2013

Alligators!!!

Being west coasters, alligators are to us mythical as fire-breathing dragons. Seeing one is a top priority. Apparently around here, the two best places for sightings is in ponds at golf courses and Myakka State Park. So, when my son and his family were here two weeks ago, we went to the park.



Unfortunately, that day we only saw one, a baby who hangs out in the lily pads at the beginning of the boardwalk. He was very cool but not The Sighting we'd hoped for. Not the ominous, cold-blooded monster gliding through the reflections of clouds on the water. But the little guy was cool. Leo was intrigued but Frank, being a year, wasn't too taken one way or the other.


It must be a guy thing. They were both much more impressed with the power of the jungle vine and prospects of swinging through the trees on it.


We took Thea and her parents to the park yesterday. We didn't make it to the vine but we had much better luck with the alligators. Altogether we saw 10! The baby was still hanging out by the boardwalk and we saw nine others, big ones cruising the river in classic alligator fashion, indomitable Masters of the Domain.



But the baby was the best of all.

21/08/2013

Aftermath and arrivals

Thanks to Laura, our very cool landlord who OKed everything, and M. Lee's quick action, there were three repair guys out here today and they fixed nearly all the damage from the lightning strike the other night. I'm really grateful. Internet, A/C, TV and the garage door are working again and she approved a new stove. That will take a few days to arrange, but basically we're ready for Thea and her parents to arrive. And just in time. If their plane is on schedule, they are minutes away from landing at Tampa International. We wanted to be at the gate to greet them but simplicity prevailed. We rented them a car, which they'll pick up at the airport, then they'll drive themselves here with the GPS. They should get in sometime after 02:00. Like Leo and Frank a couple of weeks ago, this is Thea's first really different environment and first warm ocean!