Fall approaches

The Summer is almost over and I have still not taken my official vacation. But do not worry. I have a plan. I'm going to visit Yosemite for the first time. The bus reservation is settled. All I need now are a good pair of hiking boots and some cargo pants that communicate the young, hip, endorphin-driven approach to outdoorsmanship.

I'm definitely an accomplished indoorsman. I sit. I eat. I read. But I'm not driving, nor am I consuming other perishable resources in doing most indoor activities. So why are environmentalists all outside polluting the earth with their constant presence when they could be doing a much better job just sitting at home?

"All the world's a stage", and the environmentalists are some of the biggest practitioners of public masturb-oratory activities. Do your yodeling at home, please.

Though I have not yet taken my vacation I did recently come back from Toronto. I spent the weekend watching two people I admire get married and enjoyed the whole thing immensely. The bus station, two airports and hours of layover time were mere pennies compared to what I was getting in return.

My organization got more funding from the grant applications I prepared. So far I have raised as much as my incumbent VISTA, so I must be doing something right...

On top of grants, I helped with a workshop for farmers in the Sacramento area. For anyone whose interested, berries and olives are the new thing for California's Central Valley. There are plenty of growers who produce strawberries, blueberries and olives along the Central Coast from Oxnard to Santa Cruz, but with rising petrol prices there is definite attention to be paid to producers closer to you.

I am also beginning a system through which we can ask farmers and ranchers to evaluate our programming, especially regarding how well these workshops are helping, on top of individualized technical assistance.

So commentary and shop talk are fine for now. I need to write about politics, but will reserve that for a separate blog. Ethics suck...