Meir Dikt!

I went back to Zion. Winter's great there. No people. I was the only one at Mosquito Cove last night. I drove through Colorado City today. Everything was normal there. Here, photos:




























































I know you've been waiting. It's been a long time since I've found poetry to contend with "Animal Lover." But I've done it. It was written by David E. Owens, for the sole and exclusive use of the Tri-State ATV Club, entitled The Wilderness and Me.





Who says that it's too hot to ride? Who says it's far too cold?
Who's gonna look me in the eye and say I'm much too old?
Who says this land is wilderness? This land I know so well,
This land I hiked so long ago before my first school bell.

There sure are lots of roads through here to call this wilderness.
Grandpa had a name for it, a name I can't express.
He called it something else one day that made Mom's face just glow.
His cursing ruts and drop-offs just made me want to go.


I traveled into gullies both dry and full of rain.
I booted horse and cow through sage to get them home again.
I saw the rainbow in the sky, the sun burn through at dawn.
I saw the moon come up at night. I watched till it was gone.


This used to be our land, or so it once was called.
Now people say we got it wrong. It isn't ours at all.
Environmentalists explain that all those roads can't be,
But they're the same trails Grandpa rode when he went with me.

It was never hot for my Grandpa nor was it ever cocld.
He rode those trails every day and never got too old.
And I will too, till the day I die. That's all I have to say.
I'll ride them with my Grandson until my dying day!

-Wonderful, right? Be sure to attend the 2007 ATV Tri-State Jamboree from March 14-17th in Hurricane (Pronounced Her-kin), UT.


Finally, have a look at the dying lake:

Going back

Unforeseen until last weekend, I'm going back to Zion(s). Something about that place won't even let me stay away for a year. Maybe I should become a mormon. Maybe that's it.

Probably not. So down on the valley floor, you can see the roof of Zion Lodge, where I'll be taking my wilderness first responder recertification. Not too bad of a place for it, I suppose. Maybe Eeyore should join me. All right. Ok.

The Bay

And now a Tribute to those across the pond:

I think many of the main cities in the US are known for certain specialties w/r/t food. So it is with San Francisco and the Bay Area, with but a slight variation. I think of great food in the Bay Rea, but it is a generalized specialty. Sure there is the Italian of North Beach, and the elegant vegan restaurants near the Tenderloin and in the Mission, but it is the ethnic foods: Chinese, Ethiopian, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Thai, and those I'm failing to mention, that truly stand out here and set the city apart. There are also the historical places to eat, ones that have been recommended but have yet to be visited, such as the Swan Oyster Depot.

I'd like to present a very limited account, based solely on my visit to Clement St., the "New China-town" in the Richmond district. I was with my friend Greg and a friend of his that he had met while teaching English in China, who has now moved over that lake to take a 2-year program at USF. It was definitely a treat to have two accomplices fluent in Cantonese.



As I hopped off the BART at 16th St., Greg took me to one of the best bakeries in the city, with the line out the door. I don't want to dwell too much on the croissants I had b/c they will again incite envy, a deadly sin. But nowhere else can I think of a more stylized, crafted way to indulge in your favorite of any of the seven than in the Bay Area.

So we stopped eating for five minutes to whet the appetite again, and then it was to a Taiwanese restaurant for lunch. The amount of food we ordered and consumed was too large to photograph. We walked it off by exploring the bakeries and stores around Clement St.




What is this?













Or this? I can't answer these questions.










MMMM, Duck's feet





MMMM, Duck's tongue











Or shark fin soup. For those ambitious enough, you can make it at home. Pictures of other exotic foods, like preserved sea cucumbers, were thwarted by the shop's owners. At the risk of saying something extremely stereotypical about picture taking, I let it slide...











Or if you just want prepared foods that you have no idea what they are or what they might taste like, even if they say what they are, there are also stores there for you.









An hour wait at the Indian restaurant led to eating Thai, with numerous options for types of rice (ginger, coconut, pineapple) as well as thai iced tea cocktails, so there was no disappointment.





So I left the way I came, but it was Sunday and the preachers were on the corners, spouting and shouting, this time in Spanish. What a treat.





Still to come is the new M.O.

You're my Boy

Oh, the refrain was such this past weekend.

3rd Paragraph

Press Release

I'm going to try to record the news this evening...
[Update: News had not mention of banner, only that the air quality here sucks.]

39 in 3

We finish:


Set Ropes:















Drill a Bit:



















Voila, but not done yet...


















Still had to hang a little more:























Oh no!!!










I lie. Everything was fine. Here:

Nyleg

Starting out today, with sunrise...




So here is the gig:


An organization termed BringBackBlue has the initiative to address the problem of pollution in the Valley of the Sun. That is, why can you over half the time not even see the surrounding mountains? Traffic? Construction? Farming? Just make it stop.

So the new banner is an artistic approach for their upcoming initial press conference (Tuesday). I'll wait for photos to show you what the banner actually is. But the location is on the Maricopa County Courthouse. We go through fun security daily. The kind that will lose your drivers' license if you're there for over 12 hours. Without further ado, on to the photos of the installation. In one photo, the astute observer can notice the banner hung last week, hiding in the background.
































































Oh, and the Rock and Roll Marathon was today. It was Farqin' cold.

Endeleg

Here it is. Many pictures of the next banner soon, which should be on TV this week. Probably more work by headlamp tomorrow.

Banner Envelopment

Me, right before I decided to play Jonah in a creative reenactment at height, with the banner as the whale.

So this is the New Year (II)

These pictures are from "Media Day" at the Stadium, with Everything ready for the BCS Bowl game held last night. Anything remotely related to the game hanging on the walls came down today.






The banner downtown was finally hung this past weekend. As we were applying the final touches with the use of headlamps, I don't have a full picture of the 100' x 68' ginormosity yet, give me a couple of days...



This here Atifabbit is my talisman. Doing what you might ask. Have a look. I have yet to decide if Atifabbit does anything remotely close to what she is intended to. I'm leaning towards no, but what we've got here is isolated, immediate situations. And we're around that first week in January that has a definite history. I think with the right perspective, Atifabbit might be looking over long term with much more wisdom than I possess. Anyone familiar with the wisdom of Mr. M would know exactly what I mean.







It happened again.