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Published On: Dec 09, 2003 10:42 AM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Dec 09, 2003 10:42 AM
Weekend in the Mountains
I know Mom loves to wake up to the smell of fresh
brewed coffee; you'd think she'd get a coffee maker with a timer. Anyway, just
knowing that by getting up 30 minutes before her and having things brewed I can
do a small nice thing for her—it makes the effort worthwhile.
I know everyone in the world thinks I'm insane for
this, but I rather like being a morning person. My alarm went off at 5:30am this
morning. I got up, went upstairs, set Mom's thermostat to raise the house
temperature up to 70 degrees (The thing isn't working right on its own.) and
then crawled into bed. Got up again at 6, went into the kitchen and got the
coffee brewing, and sat down to check what was new on the
net.
I know Mom loves to wake up to the smell of fresh brewed coffee; you'd think she'd get a coffee maker with a timer. Anyway, just knowing that by getting up 30 minutes before her and having things brewed I can do a small nice thing for her—it makes the effort worthwhile.
On Saturday I attended the memorial service for my committee member's son who died in that hiking accident. I never met the boy, but his accomplishments were amazing. I think about 200 people showed up to the event—it was standing room only—and I'm glad his family was able to see such support.
Afterwards, Mom and I went up to the cabin for a short little retreat and to select a Christmas tree. Now that there's a cabin on the property we have to be much more diligent about making sure the undergrowth is thinned out so we can defend against a forest fire. That makes it a lot easier to justify killing a tree for the Christmas holiday because we try to pick a candidate that should be taken down anyway. We got a "little" 7 foot tree that didn't have much of a future because a couple larger trees had grown around it and were stealing its light. It's strange because I would swear that tree couldn't have been more than ten years old, but after cutting it down and counting the rings it appears to have been about 40! Yes, I'm feeling guilty.
Saturday evening we stopped near Red Feather Lakes to attend an informal dinner of some of Mom's UU (Unitarian Universalist) friends. I wore a "Howard Dean for America" pin, and it didn't take long for people to ask a few questions and direct the conversation to the 2004 election. It was no effort for me to assume the role of "Howard Dean Campaign Public Speaker" and address the issues.
In this case it was really preaching to the choir, at least with respect to convincing the people that our current administration was a nightmare. The bigger challenge by far was convincing them that there was a candidate (Dean) who could make a difference. MY GOD I had no idea how crippling Apathy could be. There was an old guy there who thought he was so damned cute by constantly pooh poohing everything I tried to say, stating that all politicians were the same (self-serving and corrupt) and that all Americans were too stupid to listen to reason, etc. etc. I got a little miffed and told him to go find a spade and start digging his own grave, and that I was thankful that young people didn't share his sentiment.
Mom's talking about going with a group of Dean supporters to Iowa in early January to go door-to-door and convince people to support Dean in the caucus. I'm pretty damned proud of her for getting involved like this. In April I might try to take the time to do the same thing in Arizona or New Mexico. Meanwhile, I'm hand-writing letters to Iowans. The Iowa group is saying that the handwritten letters are making the single largest difference, so I'll keep it up.
Go Team Dean! Huah!
I know Mom loves to wake up to the smell of fresh brewed coffee; you'd think she'd get a coffee maker with a timer. Anyway, just knowing that by getting up 30 minutes before her and having things brewed I can do a small nice thing for her—it makes the effort worthwhile.
On Saturday I attended the memorial service for my committee member's son who died in that hiking accident. I never met the boy, but his accomplishments were amazing. I think about 200 people showed up to the event—it was standing room only—and I'm glad his family was able to see such support.
Afterwards, Mom and I went up to the cabin for a short little retreat and to select a Christmas tree. Now that there's a cabin on the property we have to be much more diligent about making sure the undergrowth is thinned out so we can defend against a forest fire. That makes it a lot easier to justify killing a tree for the Christmas holiday because we try to pick a candidate that should be taken down anyway. We got a "little" 7 foot tree that didn't have much of a future because a couple larger trees had grown around it and were stealing its light. It's strange because I would swear that tree couldn't have been more than ten years old, but after cutting it down and counting the rings it appears to have been about 40! Yes, I'm feeling guilty.
Saturday evening we stopped near Red Feather Lakes to attend an informal dinner of some of Mom's UU (Unitarian Universalist) friends. I wore a "Howard Dean for America" pin, and it didn't take long for people to ask a few questions and direct the conversation to the 2004 election. It was no effort for me to assume the role of "Howard Dean Campaign Public Speaker" and address the issues.
In this case it was really preaching to the choir, at least with respect to convincing the people that our current administration was a nightmare. The bigger challenge by far was convincing them that there was a candidate (Dean) who could make a difference. MY GOD I had no idea how crippling Apathy could be. There was an old guy there who thought he was so damned cute by constantly pooh poohing everything I tried to say, stating that all politicians were the same (self-serving and corrupt) and that all Americans were too stupid to listen to reason, etc. etc. I got a little miffed and told him to go find a spade and start digging his own grave, and that I was thankful that young people didn't share his sentiment.
Mom's talking about going with a group of Dean supporters to Iowa in early January to go door-to-door and convince people to support Dean in the caucus. I'm pretty damned proud of her for getting involved like this. In April I might try to take the time to do the same thing in Arizona or New Mexico. Meanwhile, I'm hand-writing letters to Iowans. The Iowa group is saying that the handwritten letters are making the single largest difference, so I'll keep it up.
Go Team Dean! Huah!
Posted: Mon - December 8, 2003 at 07:30 AM