Cocoposts

Don't Put Daddy in the Daiquiri

Archbishop Sheehan, most out-of-touchiness,  says not to be "misled by the atmosphere of paganism" around.  Oh, and don't scatter Daddy's ashes.  It'll make it harder for God to put him back together again. 

From The Santa Fe New Mexican:

Owen Kunkle, a deacon in the Episcopal Church and a hospice counselor, said that obedient Catholics usually follow the guidelines, but among others, "It seems people are exploring a lot of different ways to honor and memorialize their loved ones. Sometimes they are following the wishes of one who died."

"He wanted his ashes added to this rum daiquiri.  Whirrrrrrrr." 

Concern about resurrecting the body if it is scattered over continents — or even mountain ranges — would seem to limiting the power of God, he added.  "If you figure God can bring the body back together and can do that from atoms of the disintegrated body, he can probably do it if it is scattered in Hawaii or London or wherever," Kunkle said.

Wow.  And so the Episcopal deacon gets to explain.  He's translating for those who don't speak Catholic.

Kennedy - 46 Years

The 1967 Look Magazines - a four-part series by William Manchester that preceded his book Death of a President are totally absorbing - especially the old ads for Pall Malls and the 1967 Plymouth Fury.  I've been too busy reading them to note the passage of the anniversary Sunday.  Esquire draws a connection with today's hateful rhetoric.

The Kennedy in the "news" was JFK's nephew, Rhode Island Congressman Patrick.  He was not yet born when the President died.  He's been barred from communion for being pro-choice.  

 I'm heading for Kennedy country today - Thanksgiving in Providence - and read Sarah Vowell's The Wordy Shipmates in preparation.  The New York Times called it "a pop history of the Massachusetts Bay Colony" like that's a bad thing.

Imbolc

Sunlight and superbowl signal spring.   From Mercury's Voice. 

February feels like a month in which we begin with a call to clean house, both as a country and as individuals. Tend to the seeds of the dreams that were sown in the late fall and early winter. These seeds must be nurtured, and provisions must be made in preparation for a possible extension of the winter.

Imbolc is generally a time hope, as we see small signs of spring occurring as the light’s return gains speed. This particular Imbolc feels more like a reminder not to forget the dark so easily, not to leap forward blindly toward any sign of warmth and light. The cold and darkness are incubators for something in us that, perhaps, needs a longer gestation period.

Shucks.  I was all about leaping forward blindly toward the warmth and light.

Nevada Empress on PBS

I turn on the TV last night and there's Patricia Mulroy, The Water Empress. Only the News Hour with Jim Lehrer calls her the Water Czar.  The first, more accurate title, was bestowed by High Country News in 2001.  It is more in keeping with her vampiric ageless stature.

Nevada is a bell weather for New Mexico and they have lots in common.   We have written and thought much about Nevada's  socio-political construct. 

Mulroy got her own little segment in the show and didn't have to answer silly questions on the panel about whether growth was good or bad.   She even got to bash planning in a sentence they used as her opening. 

PAT MULROY:  From a planning perspective, we're assuming the worst.   

I hear disgust in her voice - like she's saying she always assumes the worst from planning. But I'm touchy, I know.

RAY SUAREZ: Pat Mulroy is called the water czar of Las Vegas.

Empress!  She's the Water Empress!  I yell at the TV jumping around trying not to spill the cab.  Big dog sighs.

She describes why farming and ranching must die.  And how its a natural thing.   She's saving Vegas from drought, afterall.   She looks like  a tough cookie.  If I were drought, I wouldn't want to mess with her.

(...)  PAT MULROY: We have to protect this community from that drought, and there's only one way to do it, and that's develop a water supply that is hydrologically separate and apart and not connected in any way to the Colorado River.

So that project is not driven by growth; that project is being driven by what we see the consequences of climate change are on the Colorado River Basin.

RAY SUAREZ: Mulroy argues Las Vegas actually uses only about 10 percent of the state's water, compared to nearly 80 percent consumed by ranchers and farmers up north. And while she says she doesn't want to compromise the food that's grown in the region, it may be time to rethink whether it makes sense to have so many irrigated farms in areas that are naturally so dry.

PAT MULROY: It's the culture of the west, and a lot of what we're talking about here is cultural. You have, what, fifth-, sixth-generation families that have grown up on farms and have lived on farms and on ranches, and you're changing their reality.

And it will be difficult for them to envision it in a different way. I think there's a natural evolution already occurring where some of the less profitable, more difficult to ranch areas are already selling out.

RAY SUAREZ: Those are fighting words to ranchers.

CECIL GARLAND: We're not down there trying to Las Vegas' water. They're up here trying to take our water. That's the simple truth of it. And the point is that in the southwest, with an ever-exploding growing human population, it's on a collision course with the amount of water.

Those people down there are going to have to learn to conserve, have to live within the limits of their own ability to grow, and they have to recognize that. So far as I can tell, they're not willing to do that yet.

The panel talked about growth without ever defining it.  There is population growth, gross receipts tax growth, gross national product growth.  Regional, state or local measures of the economy - like job and income growth can be measured.  And then there is growth in the number of developed acres.  Building growth.  Sprawl growth and redevelopment types of building growth.  18 hole golf course growth. 

But Noooooo.   Its all lumped together.    Tree ring growth is the same as new casinos, is the same as 5000 new people a month.  Growth is growth.  It all needs lots of water and power.

Is the growth good or bad?  The inane question begs the question.  Is it cancerous?   

The closing sentence bugged me too - something about how "city planners" say  stunting growth will cost everyone.   He didn't interview any city planners as far as I saw.  Everybody but Moses was on the panel, but no city planner.  A city planner might have said that sustainability depends on how you build to accommodate growth.  You have to talk about the quality of growth, not just the amount.

Happy Lammas

Cleaning the Garage

I clean my own house. This is the subject of a post and discussion over at IBTP.

In addition to the non-stop dark chocolate consumption, I'm spending these last few days of Spring in a manner appropriate to my status as a minor goddess of home and hearth - I'm cleaning.

For the record, the experiment in chocolate over-indulgence has thus manifest in a mild headache and an overwhelming urge to tidy-up. This weekend I took on the garage, in addition to floors and laundry.

This ritual involves tossing everything into the yard and sweeping. Then moving everything in again to the other side of the garage. The shuffle of stuff raises a lot of dust and reminds me of how many political yard signs I've collected for losing campaigns. But I may need those again someday, so they get moved from where they were tangled in electrical cord to where they'll be tangled in hose instead.

The dusty deed of cleaning the garage must be accomplished to fit my car inside. I seek tidy virgo-like everything-in-it's-placement and want to prove I can put my car where it belongs. It can be done. At least once a year, anyway. Because I'm not really going to start parking in there. But I can if I want to.

The cleaning took all day since it was fit in between long rests to debate where to restuff that gross old tarp and whether to flatten which boxes yet. And those decisions were savored in between various other Sunday activities - like eating dark chocolate and watching Angel Cabrera, the Argentinean, win teh golf. Viva El Pato!

Dark Chocolate Tasting

Winter Sun Stood Still

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PHOENIX AZ
455 AM MST THU DEC 21 2006

...THE WINTER SOLSTICE OCCURS AT 522 PM MST TODAY...

THE WINTER SOLSTICE WILL OCCUR WHEN THE SUN REACHES ITS SOUTHERN MOST LATITUDE OF THE YEAR AT 522 PM MST TODAY. THIS IS WHEN THE SUN WILL BE DIRECTLY OVER THE TROPIC OF CAPRICORN IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE AT 23 1/2 DEGREES LATITUDE SOUTH OF THE EQUATOR. IT WILL BE PRECISELY 522 PM TODAY WHEN THE SUN ENDS ITS 6 MONTH JOURNEY SOUTH AND BEGINS ITS 6 MONTH JOURNEY NORTH.

THIS IS THE TIME OF YEAR WHEN THE LONGEST SHADOWS ARE CAST BY OBJECTS IN THE SUNSHINE IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE. ...

Mark your noon shadow.

Perhaps aspire to a project like this in Canada: Kappel Henge

Fish Story

Literally.   Here's Vallecito-area fishing news from Durango Herald, because I love fish - mostly eating them, and I love this area:   

Other (Kokanee) salmon opportunities exist on Williams Creek upstream of Williams Creek Reservoir, and on the Florida River upstream of Lemon Reservoir. ... while the division has not stocked kokanee in Lemon for 15 years, there is a small, naturally reproducing population of salmon in the lake.

The once bountiful salmon waters of Vallecito, however, are a different story, as the lake is still recovering from a crash of its kokanee population caused by runoff effects from the Missionary Ridge fire. The lake has been restocked with salmon, but it takes an average of three years for kokanee to reach sexual maturity. ...

More information on fly-fishing for kokanee can be found in an article by Dennis McKinney on the DOW Website at wildlife.state.co.us/Fishing/.

On My Summer Vacation

Things that happened on or around Lammas 2006 when the veil between worlds was thinnest blah, blah, blah.  I was on vacation.         

Mowed a toad in thick bermuda grass in the same place where my neighbor intentionally killed a bull snake.  Poor toad didn't even stall the new mower so I didn't see him until I slid on him.

Found a Flea 0n my arm while hurdling 80 mph up an undivided highway.

Washed dog toys with the sheets - new white 1000-thread count sheets for the guestroom to replace the last set (used in a magnificent red wine spilling demonstration apparently.)  I probably should have washed them again because those dog toys were really gross.  If they were sheets for my bed I would have but, you know, I'm saving water and they looked clean. 

Found a front end rattle.  Stopped on the side of the 80 mph undivided highway to look underneath.  Nothing.  ::insert mental image Gremlin on airplane wing in Twilight Zone::  Wondered  again about the karmic implications of adoring a finely crafted German engineered machine while abhorring American car culture.   Agonized about maybe getting a new car soon.  A Prius?  A Fit?  Or maybe I'll not have a car at all!  Later found source of rattle to be the plastic spoon and knife in the glovebox.

Barbie got a Target Letter.    Watched movie The Safety of Objects and dreamed Barbie could talk.  We were at a party, she got terribly drunk and starting spilling the beans about the FBI investigation into construction of Albuquerque's courthouses.   She knew about it all but I couldn't hear her because I was making her coffee so she wouldn't get a DWI in the cute pink Corvette.  So another blogger got the scoop.   ::insert mental image Joe Monahan stroking a doll:: 

Discovered Boy Pup loves snails. He really enjoys them, crunching and smacking on the shells and gelatinous ooze loudly.  This is both gross and mesmerizing.  Are Chows or Golden Retrievers from France?