LIFE FOR THE 99%

As i've always said, repatriation is a bitch. It's been a rough ten months. And what i've learned while canvassing for CT Working Families is that things are much worse for the 99% than I thought. Kids are unemployed. Adults are unemployed. Taxes and expenses keep going up. Tax dollars, OUR TAX DOLLARS!, go to big corporations who keep our money even if they don't create the jobs they promised they would. 

So now I go out there and talk the talk, while walking the walk, quite literally. The middle class has to fight back or we will be swept away lke debris down the river. There may be nothing I can do to change things. However, I have to believe there's a chance, that there's hope. Otherwise, why wake up each morning?

Shadows of the Past

Almost done with my second week of front-line fuindraising. Knocking on doors - wow. Never thought I'd have to do that again. But in a way, it's second nature. And it's a young man's game, yet I can hang with the youngsters. 

Be yourself is all that you can do

-Audioslave

Dry

(left) Waterless Urinal

For only the 2nd time in past two weeks, I did not have to work in the rain. It was unbroken sun and high 70's, maybe cracked 80F. It was gorgeous. It was a nice day to be walking around, raising money for a good cause. It should be dry through the end of teh week.

Watching game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals and hoping like hell that CHI can tie the series 2-2.  The B's have been awesome, but I can't live here while a Boston team wins a title. That's too annoying to even imagine. 

Sometime, when I'm less exhausted I will tell you some tales of canvassing. It gets kind of bizarre.

Buenos Noches, my friends. 

a life within a day

One minute to midnight
A life within a day
In the heart of the forest
A life within a day
A thousand threshing windmillsA life within a day
-Squackett

New job is good. Kind of crazy, but that's canvassing. Or sales, as they call it in the for-profit world. 

I walked 6 miles today at work. I suppose i will lose some of the 15 pounds i've put on since I returned to the USA. I walked a lot in Madrid. People always do when they live in a city. You use public transportation but you still walk a lot. But you don't really feel it over the course of a day. 

So things are weird, but good.

Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was.
-The Talking Heads

Canvassing

Got home at 22:00. I'm watching the Mets/Braves game, it was delayed almost four hours by rain. I got caught in a 15 minute downpour canvassing up in Hamden. I was under an awning, luckily. It rained like mad. Then it hailed. Then I saw a beaver, because only a beaver can enjoy such weather. There were 30 mph winds. Then it stopped and I went to getting contributions. 

I have a pedometer on my ipod and I walked 5 miles today. Damn! I had no idea it was so much. 

Only Breathing Out...

Help me now
I'm screaming out
to reach you
But there's no sound

I'm only breathing out
my feet don't touch the ground
I'm only breathing out
No one will find me
-Sound of Contact

Life has changed in the past week, a lot! I am now working for CT Working Familes, a small middle class political party that works in grassroots ways. Our campaign right now is to make sure that corporations that get tax breaks (to the tune of millions of $s) to create jobs actually have to create jobs. Imagine; accountability! I am a canvasser, which means that I go asking for donations, door to door. It's rough, but it's a job. And a great cause. And they pay me in money.

                                                

Planting, Sports and Farting Around

The hibiscus are transplanted into the front yard. They've been lovely; they are red and peach. After living in Jamaica, i have always grown hibiscus when i can. It's their national flower. Trust me, they grow everywhere! It's awsome. They are elegant flowers. And they remind me of Jamaica. 

The Kings are hanging on in 2OT. If they lose, they are done and Chicago moves on. Playoff hockey is awesome. I love it! And it's been such a long time....

And the Mets and Marlins played a 20 inning game, and the Mets lost. It was a primer on futility. Both teams sucked and could not score.  

And the Kings just lost to the Blackhawks. Screw this, i'm going to bed.  

All the same, it was a great day. 

Holes

We got several inches of rain last night. Thus, the saga to open the pool continues. And continues. I've cleaned the leaves of and siphoned the water off of the cover all week. My brother-in-law can finally come over tomorrow with his eldest to help me take the cover off. Right now I have to go out and dig a few holes to transplant the hibiscus into a garden box. The dirt in there is old and crappy. The first crops I planted in there all died. So out with the bad dirt and in with the good. That's the plan.

Echoes

I hear echoes of the past whenever i have a birthday. It's nice. You think about where you are going and where you have been. 

I've been in better places, but i've been in many a worse place. 

So cheers to that. 

Central Park

My first birthday back in the USA since 2006! Damn! Where does the time go? Bonkers. 

Went to NYC and walked around Central Park with the Family. We saw Strawberry Fields, one of the lake, street musicians playing classical music - it was great. Hit an Irish bar or two. It was a gorgeous 72F day. My repatriation takes another step forward. It was a blast. 

I am 45. How the f#^k did that happen?

The Colossus of Rhodes, Yoga and Interviews

Rhode Island Flag

Carolyn and I went to RI this weekend to visit her friend Juliette at her dad's beach house. It was awesome. She's a yoga instructor and I did yoga for the first time on Sunday. We were out in the yard. It was great. 


On Saturday we walked along the beach and then stopped for lunch. I had the seafood trifecta of oysters, Rhode Island clam chowder and a lobster roll. Delicious!

I had an interview today and one more mañana. Then Wed. is my birthday and the family and I are going to NYC. My first birthday in the states in 7 years! Crazy.