Main Street improvements, Ferndale, WA.

Main Street Ferndale, Washington. Doesn't look bad on a Saturday (when I biked there), but choked with traffic weekdays according to a February 26 Herald article. Things usually look better from a bicyclist's perspective anyway.

Car and business owners are doing some fuming now that the 5.4 million dollar bridge and street improvements are complete.

It's still just 2 lanes.

To widen this section of Main into 4 lanes would likely require tearing down the businesses who's buildings abut the right of way.

Tear down Main Street businesses to make room for more cars, or try and survive with less cars. Bus service is gradually improving. The sidewalk and bike lane improvements, that were part of the recent work, take up less space than making everything 4 lanes, 6 lanes? 8 lanes?

Eat your vegetables.

Not easy to do, as a single person, when lettuce comes in a big head that rots before one person can eat it. Radishes often come with the leafy tops attached. Leads to quicker wilting.

I like the way radishes are presented at the Bellingham Grocery Outlet. Topped and chopped from their rat tail like roots. Then washed and packed in an individual size package. Like eating potato chips. A nice snack pack.

Vegetables can be very good and easy to eat when presented this way.

Who decides right to life, death in Oregon?

I hear that right to lifer's in the Bush administration are challenging Oregon's assisted suicide law. A case is being argued before US Supreme Court, but both sides seem to be arguing the wrong things.

They are arguing over whether federal, or state governments have jurisdiction over these matters. Oregon's jurisdiction says assisted suicide is okay in certain cases, the feds, under Bush administration, say it's not.

This is the wrong debate.

What really needs to be debated is whether it is up to the patient's wishes or up to governments, either state or federal.

I would say the patient, doctors and people close to each situation should have the say. This would tend to uphold Oregon's law, but not because it's a state's right. It should be seen as the patient's right.

In some ways, one might feel reassured that the Bush administration is pushing a right to life agenda because powerful economic forces do threaten the right to life. Lack of access to health care, lack of medical insurance for large segments of the population. Even policies that the Bush administration pushes, itself, threaten the lives of patients.

Something is wrong with this picture when the Bush administration sets itself up as a champion of life, while pulling props out from under the social safety needed to sustain it.

Ideally, the right to life and the right to death with dignity should be determined by the patient, the doctors involved and close by relations. There should be plenty of safeguards to implement these choices carefully.

In an ideal world, it should not be up to economic forces, the marketplace, insurance companies or governments either state or federal, to make these choices far removed from the patient.

See Dr. Kevorkian: your approved provider?

Gay Environmentalism

I did a Google search with quotes and only two things came up!

One would think this should be an obvious connection. Over population partially the result of "family values" being pushed down everyone's throat.

Environmentalism should go beyond just saving some wetland or sitting in front of a logging truck. As population, in Washington State, increased around 20% in the last decade, that means 20% more houses, jobs, everything just to tread water.

Much of that population is migration to the state, but too many people are being born, somewhere.

Also, things are going to have to change for a sustainable future. Smaller lot sizes in housing, more people living in apartments and condominiums. Mass transit, bicycles.

They say alternative transportation is more likely to be used in dense urban environments; like Seattle's Capital Hill district.

Capital Hill also happens to be called the "gay ghetto."

Are people of gay lifestyles better adapted to living in close quarters? Treading lightly on mother nature?

One might not think that walking around on Capital Hill. A lot of SUV's are tucked away in parking garages. On the surface, it seems like there is a shallow and consumerism side of gay culture as well.

Couch potatoes spending all their time at department stores trying on mascara.

There is a disconnect here. A missed opportunity.

One would think more gay people would embrace the outdoors and bicycling lifestyles.

It helps one's figure.

At the same time one would think environmentalists would be pushing for gay rights; population reduction.

If these two social movements would come together, wonderful things could happen.

Part of the problem is, "compartmental thinking."

Here's for child free, car free living.

Belt tightening, splitting the middle class into upper and lower classes

Political cartoon ideas about Bush budget.

Above image is crude, but hope you get the point. Budget belt tightening splits formally fat around the middle "middle class" into two sections. Top is upper class while bottom is lower class. The tight belt is splitting middle class in two.

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Maybe I shouldn't even try drawing the other idea.

It is Uncle Sam playing strong, holding up the world, but can't even afford a good pair of shoes at his domestic foundation.

If someone wants to draw these concepts better, it can be considered a collaborative effort.

Picture at Fisher Plaza

Satellite dishes on top of Fisher Plaza in Seattle. Space Needle in background. A recent trip to Seattle.

Neon sign.

Bellingham's Greyhound Depot is now part of a multi modal transit hub with Amtrak. It's moved to the Fairhaven District. Old downtown spot, where Greyhound was, is a fancy new restaurant. The State Street Depot.



Looks like it's now (Sept. 07) out of business, but sign hasn't been removed. Bellingham businesses sure come and go.

Now there's a new business there and the sign is gone (Jan. 09).

B&W TV chairs; a throwback. Still in Seattle Greyhound terminal in 2005

Sit in a time machine.

TV chairs at Seattle Greyhound station. A "throwback" to at least the 1970s. Back then, it seemed pathetic that folks were so addicted to TV that they would drop the quarters in; like folks dashing off the bus to catch a smoke during pit stops when "smoking in the last 4 seats" was outlawed.

Today, these chairs are nostalgic. Still in use during a time of flat screen DVD players on stair masters. Click dials, black and white TV, only the channels one gets with rabbit ears.

Should this environment be preserved as some heritage site? Seattle Greyhound has not yet been supplanted by some mega transit high tech super hub.


Sit in TV chair, if picture is a bit fuzzy, gaze across drab lobby to Pete's Diner.

Was Iraq war about oil?

Basically yes, the first war (early 1990s) at least.

The second war might have been more about clearing up unfinished business from the first war.

First war had a lot to do with oil. Iraq accusing Kuwait of side drilling. Oil flowing underground not following borderlines. Iraq and Kuwait arguing over who's sucking it out from under the other side.

Then you have the oil thirsty west worried about "stability of Persian Gulf supplies." Not wanting instability to consume the region. It would disrupt the economy.

How can people get to work?

Get the kids off to school, day care?

Soccer moms, security moms?

The West was too dependent on that region. Not enough people ride bicycles, or use public transit. SUV's getting more popular.

After the first war, many folks felt the job was abandoned. Uprisings in Iraq, against the brutal dictatorship of Saddam Hussein were abandoned by US military.

Let down in their time of need.

US finally decided to topple the dictator that they had helped to create.

Maybe the second war wasn't all about oil. It was about unfinished business. Even some human rights concerns.

Still, oil lead to the entire situation.

To prevent future problems, will we ever become less dependent on gobbling up world resources for the "good life?"

The bicycle is one step toward peace.

Also I hope things get better now that Iraq has had an election.

Still lots of news on Iraq last weekend.

My radio bubbles with hints of some optimism now that the historic election has taken place.

George Bush may have pulled off another partial success.

If liberals want something different, it is time to really change the way we live, at the grass roots level.

The bicyclist can afford to be less concerned about "stability" in the Persian Gulf, what ever that means.

Stability for who?

That question never quite goes away.

History moves on.

I just hope for the best.