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Work 4 Peace,Hold All Life Sacred,Eliminate Violence! I am on my mobile version of the door-to-door, going town-to-town holding readings/gatherings/discussions of my book "But What Can I Do?" This is my often neglected blog mostly about my travels since 9/11 as I engage in dialogue and actions. It is steaming with my opinions, insights, analyses toward that end of holding all life sacred, dismantling the empire and eliminating violence while creating the society we want ALL to thrive in

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Something’s up...



I took Jasi back to Atlanta on Saturday – a round trip flight that began at 7:30am and ended with me returning at 7:30pm: 10 hours of sitting on a plane. The next day, Sunday, I spend most of the day sitting down again, reading in a rocking chair or in bed.

Monday and Tuesday were lazy, slow days: I road my bike maybe 3 miles on Monday, walked maybe 3 miles on Tuesday but that’s the sum total of my exercise. I haven’t stretched since Jasi got here two weeks ago, and although I was very physically active when he was here, none of my actions were committed to exercising for my body.

I fell asleep last night around 10:30, woke up at 12:30 and couldn’t fall back asleep until 4:00. My alarm rang at 6, as I wanted to get up and be out of the house and on the road by 10:00, heading to the Pinnacles for a few days of camping in the wilderness and writing.

I slept in until 7, then briefly sprayed down the outside of my truck, rinsing off dirt and grime, packed my food and kitchen item headed to whole foods for my favorite salad dressing, then Berkeley Natural for my chocolate and Kombucha, trader joe’s for eggs, and lastly the Berkeley bowl for roasted peas on sale, coffee, and to check out the reduced produce shelf before heading out of town.

I only get one fuck you and angry horn blare but not until I reach Hollister. I stop for diesel at Safeway $2.39/gallon and fill up – it’s not good to travel back roads and into a national park where the next ‘services’ are 75 miles away when you run veggie oil JUST in case something happens.

And sure enough, my truck starts dragging – I’m hoping it’s the wind or an invisible uphill but when I switch to diesel, she purrs and gathers speed. I find a parking lot to pull into, lift the cab, and see that my little filter is filthy. I change the filter and get back on the road, hoping that I don’t need to change the big filter as well.

I make it to the campground around 2:30. It is unbearably hot and my camp site glaring heat without one bit of shade. I go back to the office and figure out a site I can switch to that has shade. I find one, pay an additional $5 to make the switch, and then set up camp.

The pool is open til 6, thank the goddesses, so I take a quick swim to cool off in the freezing water, the cold forecasting chilly nights but tonight the shooting stars will bless the sky. I return to my truck after swimming, scramble the two eggs left over from my fridge, jog a bit around the empty campground loops and retire with the sun, setting my alarm for midnite, when the half moon should have disappeared allowing the shooting stars to be at their finest.

I wish my cell worked here so I can at least tell how much it has cooled off. I’m sure it was close to 100 when I arrived but at midnight, I have to put on pants and a sweatshirt to venture out. The black sky is abundant with diamond stars but no shooting ones although I give up after only a few minutes, my warm bed calling me.