OT ~ Welcome to Saturday!

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 12/16/2017 - 3:37am

Sit-a-while
on swinging porch
where tin-dippers and
sweet water
in cool touches
meet lips
from hand dug wells.

Good morning good people!
How do we get to a better place? Step-by-step.

Song
The weight of the world
is love.
Under the burden
of solitude,
under the burden
of dissatisfaction

the weight,
the weight we carry
is love.

Who can deny?
In dreams
it touches
the body,
in thought
constructs
a miracle,
in imagination
anguishes
till born
in human--
looks out of the heart
burning with purity--
for the burden of life
is love,

but we carry the weight
wearily,
and so must rest
in the arms of love
at last,
must rest in the arms
of love.

No rest
without love,
no sleep
without dreams
of love--
be mad or chill
obsessed with angels
or machines,
the final wish
is love
--cannot be bitter,
cannot deny,
cannot withhold
if denied:

the weight is too heavy

--must give
for no return
as thought
is given
in solitude
in all the excellence
of its excess.

The warm bodies
shine together
in the darkness,
the hand moves
to the center
of the flesh,
the skin trembles
in happiness
and the soul comes
joyful to the eye--

yes, yes,
that's what
I wanted,
I always wanted,
I always wanted,
to return
to the body
where I was born.
~ Allen Ginsberg

Off to the slopes to ski around as Santa; have a great day, everyone!

The floor is yours...

“A day spent without the sight or sound of beauty, the contemplation of mystery, or the search of truth is a poverty-stricken day; and a succession of such days is fatal to human life.”
~ Lewis Mumford

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Submitted by eyo on Sat, 12/16/2017 - 7:42am

I gotta get this off my chest

Third attack by marine mammal in San Francisco's Aquatic Park prompts swimming ban

“A sea lion came up from underneath and grabbed him on the inside of his thigh,” Andrew Burrell, a witness, told KPIX-TV.

A day earlier, a swimmer was hospitalized after being bitten on the arm by a sea lion.

--- no connection whatsoever ---
Northern California commercial crab season delayed a second time

the crab aren’t meaty enough to be harvested yet

YET?
North Coast kelp beds ‘like a desert’ ~~this~~ last year

July 21, 2016
During 25 years of diving, Hayman had come to know the area offshore the Mendocino County town of Point Arena as a source of succulent abalones, abundant and plump with meat.

In June, he came ashore with his limit of three, despite a substantial reduction in the number of shellfish he saw. But they were so withered that, once removed from their shells, the creatures weighed less than a third of what they normally would.

“They’re starving to death,” the Calistoga man said. “It’s obvious.”

'Speak up'? Well alrighty then!

Aerosmith - Eat The Rich

Submitted by randtntx on Sat, 12/16/2017 - 8:04am

@eyo Do you know why the kelp

@eyo Do you know why the kelp beds are like a desert?

Submitted by eyo on Sat, 12/16/2017 - 8:24am

"collapse of the North Coast’s iconic bull kelp forest"

@randtntx more quotes from that link:

Scientists had predicted as much just before the season’s April 1 start, describing an unprecedented collapse of the North Coast’s iconic bull kelp forest and the resulting gloomy outlook for the abalone fishery and the overall ecosystem.

Divers reporting in over the past few weeks — people like Napa diver Andy Treweek, 55 — witnessed as much in some areas, where they discovered a few undersized abalone living on near-barren ocean floor.

“Usually by this time of the year, you’re swimming out over mats of kelp bed,” he said, “to the point where if you’re shore diving, it’s tough to get in some places because the kelp is so thick.”

Not everywhere is barren as far as I know, some protected areas are still abundant and other pockets have not been reduced to nothing. Yet. Some of the scarcity is cyclical, natural. Some is from warming ocean, climate change. Then there is overfishing, pollution, plasticgeddon, etc.. Big karma. I am not a professional observer, just regular citizen going on six decades of eyeball experience in the same place. The ecocide is saddening, thanks goodness for the few people left that care for ecology as much as economy. Precious few.

Do Fish Suffer?
yes

Submitted by randtntx on Sun, 12/17/2017 - 5:13pm

@eyo Big karma indeed...

@eyo Big karma indeed....thanks for the explanation.

Submitted by eyo on Sat, 12/16/2017 - 8:41am

Things I would never ever think of searching for ...

Whistler Blackcomb Dress Like Santa Day - 2014

big grin

Thanks smiley7, hope you are having a good run. Cheers.

Submitted by Raggedy Ann on Sat, 12/16/2017 - 8:59am

Good morning, smiley ~~

I hope to go skiing again, someday. It's been 20 years, but it's like riding a bike. I'd just have to slow down because I might be easier to break.

I wrote a poem in the EB last night. It just came to me because the times, they are a changin'!

Hope you enjoyed your day!
Have a beautiful day, folks!

—

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Submitted by riverlover on Sat, 12/16/2017 - 9:01am

One of my work chores was to assist the

the fish lab next door. I have wrestled too many Atlantic salmon and walleyes to count, but got publications out of those. Only ate one captive Atl salmon, had to assist in killing. IN THE LAB. Somewhat appetite-suppressing. Two hardy biologists squirmed.

Sheepheads are scary.

—

Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

Submitted by detroitmechworks on Sat, 12/16/2017 - 10:29am

Leaving in about an hour to make it to the meetup

So, I won't be here for cancellations, etc.

Look for the guy in the digital Camo sitting inside!

Look forward to seeing all,
DMW

—

I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Sat, 12/16/2017 - 11:32am

Good morning, all. Thanks for the OT, smiley7. Not skiing

here, not now or never, but enjoy your ski time.

For me it is making bread and making a large stash of brown rice for future use, holiday cards, some citizen science (feederwatch), maybe gardening a bit, trying to get organized about getting organized and get up to date with digital help and all that. Oh yes, time to start xmas eve and xmas OTs, or commit to bail, as the case may be.

Brown rice trick, for those who might use it.
I make about 8 cups of brown rice and put it in large baggies, 2 cups per baggie. I lay those out flat in the freezer in a stack, though, this time, I might try rolling them up. Then, for breakfasts: 1/2 cup cooked rice heated in a tad of butter and then add some chicken stock or water to make a porridge. Add a small amount of chopped veggies or leftovers, some chopped shroom (a small chunk off of a mitaki or a crimini or something) and lastly crack in an egg and cook until it curdles. Each 2 cup baggie makes 4 such breakfasts, then 3 days doing something else, then defrost another baggie and start over.

—

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Submitted by mhagle on Sat, 12/16/2017 - 12:04pm