Well, I just flicked on the lights. Earth Hour in the Pacific time zone just ended. It will be interesting to see if satellite photos will show if the lack of light traversing the time zones around the globe. Thousands of communities planned to participate, and individuals also were invited to dim their own lights for 60 minutes between 8:30 PM and 9:30 PM, local time. The idea is to draw attention to the need to conserve energy and find greener ways of living on our one and only home planet. Let’s hope an hour of darkness will help more folks see the light.
Archive for March, 2009
60 Minutes.
Posted in Marysville, tagged Earth Hour, energy, environment, green living, lights on March 28, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Spring is here.
Posted in Gardening, Home, Marysville, tagged blooming, garden, Marysville, Nature, spring, wisteria on March 28, 2009| Leave a Comment »
OK, this is wild. In my backyard I have this huge wisteria whose branches and vines cover the back porch, snake across a tree onto a small pergola and attempt (by growing a foot a night in season, I swear) to take over the benches on the deck and cover two windows. Well, yesterday they were absolutely bare. Maybe a few buds. This afternoon, I looked out my window and Wow! a good third of the vines and tendrils were heavy with gorgeous, sweet smelling lavender blossoms.
The Instructables. Super Heroes or Just Plain Fun?
Posted in Art, Education, Games, Internet, Marysville, tagged crafts, gadgets, green, instructables, inventions, papermaking on March 26, 2009| Leave a Comment »
If you have never visited this website, do so now. Whether you are interested in saving money, living simply, living green, recycling and repurposing, being creative, or all of the above, the Instructables will delight and….instruct. Want to make your own paper? It’s here. Turn an old Altoids tin into a survival kit? Build a mini-greenhouse for your seedlings or a giant robot? Make a chalkholder out of bamboo or a plushie photo frame? It’s all here. Go ahead, get in touch with your inner Da Vinci. I think this weekend I will make a couple of April Fool pens. Should go over big at the Library.
Beware the Bean, they say.
Posted in Marysville, tagged caffeine, coffee, coffeehouse, decaf, tea, Vienna on March 26, 2009| 1 Comment »
My regular readers (Hi Mom! Hi Whoever The Other One Is!), will know by now that I drink tea, usually decaf. And when I drink soda (Pepsi, not Coke), it is also decaf. Let’s just say that I am jittery and jangly enough without an extra load of caffeine. Some days, I *am* caffeine. Not that I don’t love the smell of coffee, I do. It’s the taste I can’t stand. Nevertheless, I still like the *idea* of coffee, coffeehouses, local joints with WiFi and open mic nights…Coffee Culture, so to speak. (Or maybe, since the coffeehouse was invented in Vienna, I should write Kaffee Kultur.)
So, I am totally accepting of the coffee lifestyle, and believe that for most of those caught up in it, it is probably not even a choice – they were born that way.
However, there are folks out there who care about your caffeine intake. They have formed a Caffeine Awareness non-profit and they have declared today Caffeine Awareness Day, which might actually be part of Caffeine Awareness Week. They even have devised a Caffeine Calculator to help you ferret out all the hidden sources of caffeine in your life. Being a non-profit, they are asking for donations to the cause. According to the homepage donate-o-meter, so far this month (which is almost over and is dedicated to Caffeine Awareness, after all), they have collected…..zero. I imagine the general feeling out there is, “My 401K is down 350%, my rent is overdue and you want me to give up coffee, too?!”
Beware the Bean, they say.
Posted in Marysville, tagged caffeine, coffee, coffeehouse, decaf, tea, Vienna on March 26, 2009| Leave a Comment »
My regular readers (Hi Mom! Hi Whoever The Other One Is!), will know by now that I drink tea, usually decaf. And when I drink soda (Pepsi, not Coke), it is also decaf. Let’s just say that I am jittery and jangly enough without an extra load of caffeine. Some days, I *am* caffeine. Not that I don’t love the smell of coffee, I do. It’s the taste I can’t stand. Nevertheless, I still like the *idea* of coffee, coffeehouses, local joints with WiFi and open mic nights…Coffee Culture, so to speak. (Or maybe, since the coffeehouse was invented in Vienna, I should write Kaffee Kultur.)
So, I am totally accepting of the coffee lifestyle, and believe that for most of those caught up in it, it is probably not even a choice – they were born that way.
However, there are folks out there who care about your caffeine intake. They have formed a Caffeine Awareness non-profit and they have declared today Caffeine Awareness Day, which might actually be part of Caffeine Awareness Week. They even have devised a Caffeine Calculator to help you ferret out all the hidden sources of caffeine in your life. Being a non-profit, they are asking for donations to the cause. According to the homepage donate-o-meter, so far this month (which is almost over and is dedicated to Caffeine Awareness, after all), they have collected…..zero. I imagine the general feeling out there is, “My 401K is down 350%, my rent is overdue and you want me to give up coffee, too?!”
Tooth Scary.
Posted in Marysville on March 22, 2009| 1 Comment »
OK, has anybody seen the ad that pops up here on the Appeal-Democrat site that shows the world’s scariest teeth? Forget that they’re yellow in the “before” shot; in both photos they are about as long as my pinkie!! It’s a Google display ad, not a local advertiser. Watch for it; I tried to conjure it up by searching on the website for keywords “yellow teeth” — but it did not work. The ad seems to show up, for some reason, to the right of the Editor’s Blog. (Note: his teeth are very white, thank you very much.) Anyway. it is a freaky photo. And this post is totally play-within-a-play, breaking-through-the-fourth wall (or I guess this would be the third wall). Whatever. That is to say, I guess I should be blogging ON the website, not blogging ABOUT the website. I should be posting this to my Facebook account, which is all about commenting about everything, but I already shut down Facebook and I still have the second half of The Amazing Race to watch. I will probably delete this whole post tomorrow. So lucky you, you got to read it first! Whoever you are.
Junk (con)science.
Posted in Marysville, tagged dump, firing, junk, resources, table, yuba collage on March 22, 2009| 2 Comments »
I am still suffering from a dropped jaw over the recent story that Yuba College fired an employee because she took a table that was on its way to the junkyard. Come on! At least the woman was trying to recycle and reuse, and for the good of her community, not to redecorate her house! The College’s actions make it clear they placed no value on the table, so how can they punish someone who was willing to repurpose their trash?
And the bigger question is — why is the college sending still usable items to the dump? What other equipment and resources are being squandered? Why didn’t someone there think to donate the table to a non-profit group or a thrift shop, rather than just add to the landfill?
The devil’s in the details at The Acting Company.
Posted in Marysville, tagged Arthur Miller, The Acting Company, The Crucible, theatre, Yuba City on March 22, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Saw a pretty good performance of The Crucible last night at The Acting Company’s wonderful little theatre in Yuba City. Arthur Miller wrote his play about the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 in response to the prevailing paranoia of Joe McCarthy’s House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s. Plus ça change, and all that. I especially enjoyed the performances of Margeurite Grover (Abigail), who appeared previously as Anne Frank, Bonnie Williams (Elizabeth Proctor) and Harold D. Whitson, Jr. (The Rev. John Hale), who currently can be seen daily as the Statue of Liberty, waving his arms in the front of the tax place. One quibble: about those wigs. Poor John Proctor looked like his hair was stolen from my Great Aunt Mary. Then again, maybe that was part of the Tragic Hero effect. Nonetheless, it was solid entertainment and I recommend you help fill the few empty seats left for the remaining performances.
Speak up? No, Sit Down!
Posted in Marysville, tagged citizen participation, City Council. democracy, Marysville on March 17, 2009| 6 Comments »
Well, I went to the City Council meeting again tonight, sacrificing a second round of the great corned beef and cabbage at Stassi’s to do so. My friend and neighbor Kelly and I made a pact two months ago to attend every meeting if we are in town. We resolved to become more involved citizens. After all, we both pulled up stakes from settled lives elsewhere in California, bought historic homes, set out to restore them and make Marysville home. I joined the Chamber right away, volunteer at community events, patronize as many local businesses as I can and generally try to be a good citizen. So attending City Council meetings seem to be an important component to that involvement. Kelly’s been here a year longer than I, so she has more council meetings under her belt. But tonight was a real eye opener. I might as well have stayed at Stassi’s.
Tonight, after listening to some pretty nasty exchanges over this Cemetery flap, I stood up to offer a win-win solution to the controversy. Despite two other persons who were not listed as speakers being allowed to make a comment, I was told I would not be allowed to speak. Despite the statement at the top of the meeting agenda that encourages public participation and gives instructions as to how citizens could be heard on an agenda item, and despite my following the instructions for ad hoc speakers. Plain and simple, I was shocked. And I am discouraged. This city is on the brink, but apparently the Council is not interested in positive input. Sad. But, hey! we’re still gonna be able to sell fireworks within the city limits. And that’s really what should be at the top of our agenda, right?
Greetings From Marysville 