a little green

tonight for the third time i took the full container of food scraps and took it down into the green bin in the yard for recycling. now all you hippies out there have probably been doing this for years but it took me a long time to get ready for this big change. we no longer throw our food scraps in the trash can and we are never going to again, gosh darn it. it made me proud to see the fruit flies flitting around that stinky stuff and know it was going to be recycled somehow by
sunset scavenger our multi-talented waste disposal company. that is them above, well just the most handsome and manly, performing their garbage can dance at carnaval. it's my mom's favorite part of a parade full of sexiness, cuteness, asian boys playing latin drums, low riders, very big ladies in very small bikinis, etc. they spin those cans around and run down the street weaving around each other, very inspiring and hilarious at the same time.

i bought some ecobulbs--on a huge sale at cole hardware on mission. $2.99 a four-pack, get em while they last.

also read an article i liked in harper's magazine
called "letter from michigan, detroit arcadia, exloring the post-american landscape". this is not my favorite magazine because somehow the writers mostly seem to have an annoying atttitude, but this article had good photos and was about how detroit is in such bad shape economically it has the potential to be an example for other cities as they go downhill too. some of it is a little vague, but basically it is about how nature is reclaiming detroit and how there could be the potential there of a city where people grow their own food. "urban farming, dollar for dollar, is the most effective change agent you can have in a community" is one quote. this directed my attention to imagining huge mclaren park, the dogbowl down the street, parts of golden gate, our little parque-- all full of intensive gardening, little healthy greens everywhere, chickens and vegetables at all the schools. this is already happening in san francisco, but in such a idealistic way, like an idea or dream for the future. i guess in detroit many people are in such dire strats they really need the food. if it was important to us here it could be something that brought people much closer together than standing behind a stranger in trader ho's.

it made me want to check out the san francisco league of urban gardeners more closely but they have no website, the phone # is not working and when i drove down oakdale i didn't see the storefront. slug, i hope you are alive does anyone know? i miss the community garden plot i had b.k. i wasn't the best, but i grew lots of greens and zucchini and flowers and the old italian gardeners next to me had amazing plots of pole beans, fennel, tomatoes. the old man told me they kept chickens in their backyard in folsom street and grew most of their vegetables in the potrero del sol garden. he shared fennel bulbs with me and i grew them and learned to cook fennel and it was delicious.

i read another article while wasting money in a cafe drinking a big iced mocha. it was in the n.y. times on may 10 and the article was called it takes a hammer to make a salad. it was about making a simple portable salad table to grow shallow rooted plants in basically year-round (lettuces, greens, basil,parsley, amaranth, others. i will make one of these before the end of the summer if i have to hammer it together with maya on my back (or maya watching "deebee" with her brother--no, no i won't let her little neurons be warped yet!) directions are online at hgic.umd.edu on growing greens with salad tables and salad boxes.

i brought miles to school today after a night of confused racing thoughts about where he should go and it was a sweet morning. he asked if his teacher could come visit our home today (the one who is leaving) and then sat down with a big cool kid to show him the photo book of a ferry trip on the bay we took together. and this is my grandma josy and this is grandpa david he informed. a little girl was putting wooden shapes together,it was kind of quiet, and sun was coming in the window. the teachers were all concerned about little maya's cold and pinkeye. after miles bounded out to the backyard i went to teacher marianne and wanted to ask her do you think things will be fine here when the lead teacher leaves? but tears welled up in my eyes as i asked and i couldn't speak. sorry, i said, i'm just feeling anxious. it was an intense but somehow not embarrassing moment. "i think it's going to be fine" she said. and i guess if community is what i want then maybe we should stick with this school, flaws and crazy cost and all, because miles (and i) have started to build a little community here, and though many are going if we move to another place just because it seems a little better maybe this is what causes the bulk of the heartbreaking (to me) community dissolution. is dissolution a word? will i change my mind tomorrow? are most of this society's problems caused by always wanting better? i don't know. right now i am going to drink a tiny bit of caffeine so i can watch the squid and the whale with my husband.

oh, and there was some HUMAN POOP right near my car this morning. miles, who is just learning some primitive sarcasm (he only uses it for litter) said just what his mama was thinking "oh that's GREAT, that's WONDERFUL." at least it was on a piece of newspaper, and on the street not the sidewalk

nighty night