When you clean one corner of your house, unless you take the clutter completely away….unless you figure out how to completely remove it….only if you don’t move it into another corner of another room….only….someone’s going to notice the new dirty corner in a different place.
Same place….different corner.
What do you do with the things you take away to make where you live more pleasant?
I heard an interview about Curitiba the other day and it was one of the more interesting things that I’ve had the chance to listen to while I deliver the mail.
Here was a city that was covered up with trash….covered so completely that you often had a narrow passageway to walk through on the streets of some sections of town.
This man, Jaime Lerner, helped institute policies that changed that situation.
He started exchanging bus tokens for trash….allowing the poor to clean up their neighborhoods and get something in return for their efforts.
They mentioned the term “complimentary currency” in the interview I heard….giving something in return for the cleanup that had value but wasn’t money…..
That was an interesting thought….exchanging something useful that didn’t cost the city a lot of money to get the people of the city to clean things up.
Jaime Lerner is somebody who attacked the situation with a lot of creativity and made his city into something great.
He empowered the community to make where they lived better.
He built greenspaces….improved the public transportation….streamlined the recycling program.
He helped create what is recognized as a very environmentally friendly city.
Watch the first video….and take note of what they’re saying about 7 minutes in, though….
At that point, they talk with some of the people who live around the landfill that serves the cities trash disposal needs.
What’s “out of sight, out of mind” is going to have to be in someone else’s backyard.
Where else are you going to put it? Out in space?
That made me think about some of the “cleaning” that I’ve done in my life.
Sometimes, my cleaning is just reorganizing my “treasures”…..making neater piles.
I can move….straighten….divert attention…but I never really fix the problem.
Like all the stuff going to the landfill, it’s not really away….it’s just someplace different.
That’s a curmudgeonly thing to say, I guess.
What this guy did with the city is pretty revolutionary.
He changed the city and made it beautiful….figured out a way to clean things up, get the people to take ownership of their environment, built efficient public transportation systems…and made things better.
He did all these things and now Curitiba is a showpiece for what’s possible in urban planning.
You do have to wonder, though…..where is all that trash going to keep the city so beautiful?
Somebody’s backyard is going to be full of trash…
HOLY SMOKES!!! IT’S LIKE THAT MOVIE “ELYSIUM”!!! IT’S JUST LIKE THAT MOVIE!!! EXCEPT NOBODY IS IN SPACE AND THE PEOPLE SPEAK SPANISH!!!
That’s a weird thing to realize….
It sure is pretty in Curitiba, though.
And I still want to tear up those railroad tracks so that I can ride my bike.
Not everyone I know is very supportive of the Rails to Trails idea.
I know people who say that we can’t tear up the tracks…that when Armageddon comes, we’ll want to get the trains back up and running to carry survival supplies from burned out settlement to burned out settlement.
That’s kind of nuts.
It’s like all the clothes people save….because “someday, I might fit into them again….”
Maybe these trains are never coming back?
I know that the tracks around our neighborhood have a pretty good coating of rust on the rails.
I don’t think that a train has run on any of them for quite a while.
The thing about it is….I like trains.
They’re a very efficient way to carry a load.
It’s cool to ride on a train.
It’s a lot more fun than riding around in the car again.
It makes all the sense in the world to keep the trains that are running now….running.
That makes sense.
But, look at these converted rail lines! Look at what it could mean for a community to have a recreational option like these trails! It’s pretty exciting when you see something like the Swamp Rabbit Trail and realize what it’s meant for the communities along the trail.
It seems like a good thing.
It seems like something that I’d like to see happen in our area.
Here’s a video of some trails out West….the Couer d’Alene trail must pass close to the old home place in Idaho.
One of the comments that the woman doing the first video made was that a nationwide trail system would have taken away some of the “dangerous” elements they experienced during their ride….when they ran into troubles on the road.
I’m going to look into what the hold up is in getting the old Ecusta line from Hendersonville to Brevard converted into a rails to trails route.
What’s taking them so long to do that?
I’M SELFISH!!! I WANT TO RIDE ON THAT TRAIL!!!
Here’s an organization set up to convert unused rail lines to trails….
I used to go to something called the “hurt book sale” at Rich’s when I lived in Atlanta.
They sold remaindered books….slightly damaged books….books of limited interest.
It was my kind of book sale….bunches of cheap books.
When I was just starting to play guitar, the only guitar method book I had, other than an old jazz guitar book called something like “Mickey Baker’s Hot Jazz Guitar” that I bought at a garage sale….and that was way too advanced for me to use (still), was a spiral bound book about how to play like BB King.
I bought it for 49 cents at the Rich’s Hurt Book Sale.
It had a floppy little record that came with it….that showed you how to bend notes and play with vibrato….all the stuff that, done right, would have you playing like BB King in no time.
I don’t know where that book is right now.
It’s probably down in the corner of the basement with all the tools…and other books.
I don’t even remember what it was called.
That’s how I learned to play guitar….that book…and….playing the Beatles’ “Across the Universe” over…and over.
That’s how I learned.
I’d spend hours bending notes on an out of tune guitar.
When you don’t really know how to tune your guitar….or it’s so cheap that it’s really hard to tune, even if you knew how….or, and maybe this is the truth…too LAZY to tune….knowing how to bend the strings to play in tune with a record is a good skill to have.
I had to bend every note when the guitar was “tuned” like that.
I couldn’t bend notes like BB, though.
There was always something a little more….tasteful….about the way he played.
I don’t know how we get introduced to people like BB King.
For me, it was a cheap little spiral bound book about how to play guitar like somebody I’d never had much chance to hear.
I’m glad I got a chance to “know” him a little….and to try and learn how to bend some strings.
So….I’m wondering how to get some extra money to rent a giant dumpster again….so I can continue to clean out the little bit of property (comparatively “little”) we bought up the road from where we live now.
I’m thinking about something cheap and mundane like that….and these guys is Dubai are out in the desert heat on fancy streets driving solid gold Rolls Royces.
SOLID GOLD!!!! (That’s how you spread a rumor….there couldn’t be such a thing as a solid gold Rolls Royce).
These guys in Dubai are rich.
They have a lot of oil to sell….and who doesn’t like OIL?
Everybody wants it….we all use it.
Even the guys that ride bicycles need to lube everything up….and what are those bicycle tires made of?
I’ll tell you what those rubber tires are made of….they’re made of OIL!!
So the rich have a way to get rich….unless the price of oil drops precipitously….and they’ve overextended themselves….played the money game hard and fast on the margins of sanity….played to WIN while they drove around on streets built on the sand in their SOLID GOLD ROLLS ROYCES.
Man….I didn’t even think about the Dubai guys.
Harold G. Hamm couldn’t pay his giant divorce settlement when oil prices dropped…what are these Dubai guys up to?
Hard times in Dubai, maybe…now that oil is dropping in price?
I’m fascinated with these extremes….Detroit falling apart and all the abandoned houses left behind in the exodus….and now, at the opposite extreme, Dubai, with its crazy wealth.
Dubai, with its desalination plants for all the water they use….their giant amounts of concrete to support the buildings built on the desert sands….all the consumption…..all the wealth….is something I’m not used to.
I don’t wear a hat like these sheiks.
I perch my hats….I don’t wrap my head like they do.
It’s some crazy stuff in Dubai….
It’d be kind of fun to see something like this, though.
I’d be a rube at the beach …..staring up at all the shiny buildings built out there in the desert.
I think that if I had my choice, I’d build someplace with less people and more fresh water.
I don’t know how to get the salt out.
I’d be parched with my limited knowledge of desalination.
Dubai is supposed to be pretty hot….but look at these guys riding the bicycles!!
Lifestyles of the Rich and Two-Wheeled.
Here’s another one….who would have thought that there’d be so many bike shops in Dubai?
But….why not?
If you’ve got the money, you should be able to buy a bike and ride around on the streets paved with gold.
I really just needed something to write about this morning….and I didn’t want to write about why the giant dumpster is still over at our property….or why I was putting off jumping down into the ditch to start cleaning that mess up.
So….another bicycling video (or two….or….) helps me deflect the focus off that dumpster for a while.
I think that the Netherlands still look a little more hospitable.
There must be some money in Dubai, though…..
Look at all these bikes…..and look at this city.
Sure, it’s hot….but what luxury!!!
It doesn’t even look all that hot in this video….check out the sweatshirt this dude is wearing!!
It’s not hot in Dubai!! And you can rent bicycles!!!
I’ve got my passport!!!
What’s stopping us?
I never know what’s going to happen in my small corner of the planet.
I am surprised and amazed by what happens where we live right now.
I never know what to expect.
But….when I get the “itchy feet”, it’s good to know what else is out there in the world.
Knowing that there are bikes in a lot of different places is a comfort….familiar and comfortable.
YOU CAN RENT A BIKE IN THIS CITY!!
That’s the detail that might push me over the top….nudge me over to wanting to experience LUXURY TRAVEL!!
And….you know? When you get down to it, it’s pretty darn impressive that I found something to write about this morning.
Who would have thought that I’d be able to learn about bicycling in Dubai when I got up this morning?
Who would have thought that I’d be able to learn about camel polo, either?
THIS WHOLE WIDE WORLD IS A FASCINATING PLACE TO LIVE!!
The first time I heard David Wilcox, I was at a friend’s house in the mountains up in Weaverville, enjoying dinner….wondering who we were listening to on their little boombox….who it was who was playing music inside that little plastic cassette tape.
When I asked “Who is that?” my friends told me that it was David Wilcox.
Sometimes I hear somebody who must resonate with my spirit or something….simpatico.
David Wilcox was like that.
Now, I’ve listened to him for so long that he almost seems common to me….no longer some mysterious discovery….not something new anymore.
But, really, it’s always something new.
It’s the talking in between the familiar songs that gets me now….the new commentary on something that I’ve heard a million times that surprises me….that reminds me that these songs have been important to me.
Thinking about that “common” comment….something amazing….something amazing and consistent….is easy to take for granted.
I don’t know how you sustain appreciation.
David Wilcox has been around for a while now…like me.
I don’t know how many times I’ve listened to this song….but never this version.
This version is from a concert that David Wilcox gave just a little way up the road from our house….at a retreat center called Tigg’s Pond….this past December.
I couldn’t sleep last night.
That’s not a cry for sympathy….lots of people can’t sleep some nights….but I couldn’t sleep last night, and in spite of any empathy I can usually try to pull together for someone else’s situation, this morning all I can think is “I’M THE ONE WHO’S TIRED”.
Of course, that’s not really true….there’s lots of people who are tired….but from inside my shell, I’m the one I notice.
I think that when you can’t sleep with an empty mind….well, that’s a thing, for sure….but when you can’t sleep with a mind swirling with defeat and comparison and regret and resignation…that’s something else entirely.
That’s a bad reason to not be sleeping….
It’s hard enough to have your head full of that kind of stuff when you’re fully awake….but when you’re trying to drift off to someplace better….someplace easier….you shouldn’t be thinking about stuff like that.
The gift in all of it, I suppose, is that after drinking something hot….and watching some bad infomercials…..and trying to fill your head with something different….something to get you to a different place….your body eventually says, “OK….that’s enough….lay down….just lay down….” ….and you do….when you’re too tired not to listen to your body anymore.
Now another morning is here….another chance to do something more productive about the things that I worry about than just lay in bed and…. worry.
There’s always something better than worrying….and giving up on dreams doesn’t get anything closer to what I want them to be.
Good sleep is sure a gift.
“I could no more stop dreaming than I could make them all come true….”
This isn’t really about Mother’s Day, even though that’s what today is……
Maybe it will be by the time I’ve had my coffee and sat here in the quiet for a while, I don’t really know.
Maybe it’s really all about Mother’s Day.
I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have a mother to celebrate.
This is about a receiver hitch that I bought, started to install, cross-threaded one bolt during the gravel driveway “put together”, got nervous…. and paid someone a hundred bucks to do what I probably should have been able to do myself with the tools I had.
There was something awkward about laying on my back, pushing the hitch up with my knee, pushing the bumper bracket up with my elbow, trying to align everything and put the bolt in without cross-threading it, then torquing all 4 bolts so that I could move on to the part where I drilled the holes in the frame so I could finish the job by snaking the last 2 bolts, attached by special pieces of wire, through the frame and down the holes that I’d just drilled.
Getting the first four bolts in was the easy part of the job ….and when I cross-threaded (just a little….just enough to know that “something wasn’t right”), I gave up and let someone with a lift and some experience, do the job for me.
So….now we have a receiver hitch that will accept the bike rack that will allow us to take 5 bikes to the trails for family rides.
Whew.
Installation of the receiver hitch= one hundred dollars.
Carrying all the bikes and taking a ride with my family= priceless.
Right?
Sometimes, it’s worth a hundred dollars to get up out of the gravel.
So, it’s Mother’s Day and I titled this post “The Receiver”.
There must have been something subliminal going on….something deep in my skull….because when I looked at it again, it made more sense than just being about a hitch.
The receiver….the receiver….THE RECEIVER!!!!
The receiver!! That’s all about me!!
My own mother taught typing as a young woman.
She taught typing….and then spent the last 15 years of her life using a wheelchair….broken physically by something called syringomyelia.
This disease….a cyst within and surrounding the spinal cord….caused paralysis….quadriplegia.
That’s about as hard as it gets.
Broken physically….
She was broken physically….but, even though there were many things that she couldn’t do….she still figured out a way to give us so much.
There are so many different situations in the world….my mother’s was one of them.
My mother’s situation was hard…but it didn’t define her completely.
So, when I say that I’m the “receiver”…..it holds a lot truer than I realized when I started this post.
My mother is the reason for my being….with some help from my father.
(I could talk about him, too….but it isn’t his “day” yet…)
What a day this really is, then.
Who would deny the pleasure of being?
Who could deny the reason for being?
“Being” is a good thing….at least we have a shot at making it right.
Your Mama made you “be”.
Celebrate Yo’ Mama.
This song doesn’t have anything to do with Mothers, either….at least I don’t think it does….I can’t understand what he’s saying, singing so high…..
