Innocent Dragonfly is Crucified on the Grille of a Jeep Cherokee!

Click on individual photos to enlarge
All photos © 2010 jim otterstrom

Sacrificed to a machine, the haunting corpse of a dragonfly hangs by its wings from the crossbar of a 1995 Jeep Cherokee grille on August 6th, 2010.

I was quite taken aback when I discovered this unfortunate victim of an automobile suspended from a plastic cross---it's fragile body perfectly preserved in graceful form---too reminiscent of familiar images of a more well-known crucifixion.

Most bugs splat unceremoniously into oblivion when they're hit by several thousand pounds of machinery speeding down a highway, leaving us not much to think about except cleaning up the mess, but somehow this magnificent little creature, even after death, has managed to tell us something about the beauty of its existence, and the tragedy of its passing.

Yes, it's just another bug, one of billions lost each day to the unintentional recklessness of human activity.

Yet, perhaps this tiny innocent member of earth's living community has also died for our sins, by our hands, so that we might once again be patiently reminded by Mother Nature of the destructiveness of our way of life.

How many messengers does Nature's Creation need to send us before we finally get the message?

We have already wiped out 98% of our old growth forests, 99% of our native prairies are gone, 80% of the rivers in China no longer support fish life, and 90% of the large fish in the worlds oceans are gone.

Earth is currently losing between 150 & 200 species every single day, and I can only wonder at the bountiful diversity that once graced this planet before our species came stumbling along into fossil fuels, industrialism, and the age of the infernal combustion machine, which may well render the planet uninhabitable for oxygen breathers.

I'm certainly not religious in any traditional sense of the word, but take another close-up look at this dragonfly, it has a message for us, and, it even looks as if it might have been praying when it died...

...praying, possibly, for the rest of us.

So, just in case, I'm keeping it in a box until Easter.

~

Photographed on a cloudy afternoon with a Canon SX10IS on a tripod; manual function, super macro setting, ISO 80, f/8.0, at 3 tenths of a second. Contrast & brightness slightly modified in Photoshop CS3. Some images cropped to show detail.

Celebrating 13 Years Without A Car

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2005/2010 jim otterstrom

Today is the 13th Anniversary of our decision to live without a car.

Peggy and I truly love knowing that we can live quite comfortably without a gas-guzzling, CO2 belching, atmosphere destroying, infernal combustion death-trap parked in our (no longer existent) driveway.

We are proud that our decision means we haven't spewed approximately 163,000 pounds (or 81.5 tons) of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere during those 13 years.

It makes our hearts feel good that we actually enjoy life without an automobile as much or more than we did when we owned one.

It was another step toward freedom from servitude to the corporate state.

We don't buy their cars, we don't buy their gasoline, we don't buy their oil & tires, we don't buy their auto insurance, and we don't borrow their money for car loans.

But, for me, the most important aspect of all this, is that, in a couple of decades when our kids are facing the ever worsening consequences of this culture's destructive behavior, they will know that mom & pop gave enough of a damn about their future to at least make dramatic and constructive changes in our own lifestyles now.

We are leaving our descendents an unimaginable mess and future generations will not look back on us favorably.

The graph below, borrowed from Wikipedia, shows the rise in atmospheric CO2 concentrations over the past 50 years. I have slightly modified the chart by circling the maximum 300 to 350 ppm target we need to achieve if we are going to avert irreversible climate catastrophe (read a related up-to-date article here), and by placing a black X at the point where Peggy and I stopped owning cars.

As you can see we got rid of our climate killing vehicle a full decade after that 350 ppm target was exceeded, so---fully realizing by that point in time that we could no longer live at peace with ourselves if we didn't take personal responsibility for our own emissions---we took action.

We're trying to do our part and I'm renewing my pledge right now, to all the species of planet earth, that I will not own another fossil fuel powered vehicle during this lifetime.

On that note, Peggy and I will toast each other tonight with glasses of Pinot Noir over a spaghetti dinner by candlelight.

Click on graph to enlarge

The photo at the top of this post, of a 1940 Chevrolet Master Deluxe 4 Door Sport Sedan, was made on April 18, 2005, at Goffs, a historic railroad town on old Route 66 near Needles, California.

The town is being restored by the Mojave Desert Heritage And Cultural Association, of which Peggy's stepbrother, Phil, is Vice-President.

Peggy, her sister Penny, and I, were out there for the weekend as part a of a volunteer crew to do some weed abatement and other work.

To Santa Barbara & Back, By Train, Bicycle & Bus

Monday, June 22nd, 5:44 A.M.

Big Bear Lake

~Leaving Home~ Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

Peggy and I took a 4-day trip to Santa Barbara last month to visit our friends, Alver & Judyl, and I thought some of you might be interested in seeing how we manage to get around without a car.

In the photo above, we are on one of the footbridges along the Stanfield Marsh Wildlife Preserve, about halfway between our house and the MARTA (Mountain Area Rapid Transit Authority) bus stop, where we will catch the 6:30 A.M. shuttle down the mountain to the Metrolink train depot in San Bernardino. It's about 1 3/4 miles from our house to the designated Off The Mountain (OTM) bus stop, about a 15 minute ride. We left early to go the local donut shop for a cup of coffee.

The shuttle runs down & up the mountain 3 times a day during the week and twice a day on Saturdays. There is no service on Sunday so we have to plan our trips around that. The fare for the forty-some mile trip is $7.00, each way. MARTA considers anyone 62 or older as a Senior Citizen so my fare was only $3.50. Peggy has several years before she qualifies as a senior so it cost us $10.50 to get down the mountain.

6:16 A.M. ~ At The Wrong Bus StopClick on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

A week or so before our trip I discovered that several of our bus-stops had been relocated to avoid traffic congestion in the shopping center parking lots and assumed that the OTM stop was also moved to the newer location in the Von's lot. I was wrong!

Fortunately, I noticed people hanging around the old bus-stop in front of Rite-Aid, and, sure enough, there are now two bus stops in the same shopping center, one for the local MARTA buses, and another for the OTM shuttles. Go figure?

Each MARTA bus and shuttle has a rack on the front which holds 2 bikes (no extra charge), but we were a little concerned that we might have to come back for the noon shuttle if there was another bicycle rider here before us. We had alternate train schedules figured out if that happened to be the case but we were the only bicyclists there.

6:39 A.M.

On The Shuttle With AngelClick on photo to enlarge -© 2009 jim otterstrom

When the shuttle arrived promplty at 6:30, we were happy to see that our old friend, Angel, would be driving us down the mountain. Angel's been driving MARTA buses for many years and, when you live in a small town, the people you encounter so regularly become like extended family.


Strapping The Bikes Into A Metrolink Rail Car

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

Purchasing tickets from the Metrolink ticket machines is always a bit confusing if you haven't used them for awhile, but there always seems to be some well-experienced Metrolinker there to help as the train rolls into the station and the neophytes (or under-experienced) start pounding buttons in hurried frustration.

Unlike MARTA, Metrolink won't consider me a senior until I'm 65, sixteen months from now, so Peg and I paid the full one-way fare of $10.25 each, for the ride from San Bernardino to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles.

Each Metrolink car has tie-downs for two bicycles, and a conductor informed me that, during rush hours, some bicyclists bring along bungee cords, enabling them to tie their bike to another.

Metrolink cars are light and cheery, ride very smoothly, and some seats face each other with tables in between for socializing or catching up on office work I suppose. But these are strictly commuter trains and have no food service or snack bar.

Preparing for the trip, I researched the various transit systems we'd be using, for fares, schedules, and bicycle accommodations (again, no extra charge), and our entire experience was extremely relaxing and enjoyable. Trains can be subject to delays though, so it's always advisable to not be on a tight schedule, and to have alternate plans if you miss one of your connections.

Our biggest delay would've been if there wasn't room for our bikes on the MARTA OTM bus, which would've set us back 6 hours, or until the next day. The Metrolink trains leave San Bernardino beginning at 4:18 A.M., until 7:15 P.M., running every half-hour to hour, depending on the time of day, while the AMTRAK Pacific Surfliner we rode from L. A. to Santa Barbara departs approximately every hour from 6 A.M. to 10 P.M.

In The Garden At Union Station DepotClick on photo to enlarge - © 2009 peg otterstrom

I love going through L.A.'s Union Station these days to find the grand old building bustling with thousands of travelers at all hours of the day. Most of the time I was growing up, and even after Peg & I moved to Big Bear, Union Station was more like a ghost town, sparsely populated a few times a day by die-hard train enthusiasts who still traveled by their preferred method, or those who couldn't afford, or were fearful of air travel. But, in the 1980s things began to look up for Union Station. Los Angeles re-introduced light rail and, even a subway, to the city which once proudly touted their Pacific Electric Red Cars (my dad was one of their operators and I rode them many times), back when L.A. had the most extensive public rail system in the world. And, thankfully, they made the beautifully designed & crafted Union Station the central hub for the various lines, bringing life and vitality back to the area.


Olvera Street ~ La Noche Buena

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

Every time I find myself at Union Station I also visit my very favorite little Mexican Cafe , La Noche Buena, number E 8, Olvera Street in the historic El Pueblo de Los Angeles.

The friendly staff seems to be family, always the same guys there, and somehow they remember me on my infrequent trips through town. A busy fast-paced place overflowing with locals and regulars who are there for deliciously authentic, affordable Mexican food. I can still taste those great chicken tacos!

Historic Glendale DepotClick on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

At 12:45 P.M., about 15 minutes after after leaving Union Station, northbound on AMTRAK's Pacific Surfliner, we passed another historic and lovingly restored train depot. The onetime Southern Pacific depot serving Glendale, California was opened in 1923, and is now known as the Glendale AMTRAK/Metrolink Station.

Pacific Surfliner cars have space for three bicycles in each car, but unlike Metrolink, AMTRAK has racks installed where you hang the bikes vertically on the wall near the entrance. It was the first time I'd used these, and, during the task of figuring out how they worked, I forgot to take a picture of them.

The Pacific Surfliner is what I call a fun ride though! There's a Coach Cafe Car with large windows and tables downstairs, and coach seating upstairs. The food is nothing fancier than what you might find on a catering truck, and rather expensive, but they do serve beer and wine, including some very good beers from Stone Brewing Company in San Diego. Be prepared to pay for it though, running a railroad isn't cheap...

We opted for two small bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon, at $7.50 each, to enjoy during our afternoon ride, as Peggy and I nostalgically rolled through our old hometowns of the West San Fernando Valley, and chugged northward through Simi Valley, Moorpark, Camarillo and Oxnard, toward Ventura, and the coastline of the Pacific Ocean.

Our one-way fare between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara on the Pacific Surfliner was $25 apiece, with mine being discounted to $21.50, because AMTRAK also classifies Seniors as those 62 or over. We packed our own healthful snacks to eat along the way so the cost of the wine didn't deter us as we meant to thoroughly enjoy ourselves and the casual ambiance of the Pacific Surfliner.

Cruising Along The Blue PacificClick on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

Once you depart the Ventura Depot you're only a couple of minutes from the most scenic part of the trip, where you travel right along the coast, with waves crashing just outside your window, if you happened to pick a seat on the west-facing side of the car. Our wine and snacks finished, we're now just enjoying the scenery and looking forward to visiting our friends in Santa Barbara.

~SIMPLE PLEASURES~

3:48 P.M.
~Santa Barbara, California~Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

Santa Barbara is a gorgeous, artsy, people-friendly, bicycle friendly city, with stunning architecture that reflects the natural beauty of the Southern California coast. As far as I'm concerned, cities don't get much better than this!

I was taken by the walkway to the front entrance of the circa 1902 Santa Barbara Train Depot, which is simply a gravel path leading from a residential neighborhood of modest size homes situated between the tracks and the Pacific Ocean. How Old California is that?

Our friends, Alver & Judyl, live about 15 minutes from here, by bicycle, and we had just called to let them know our train had arrived and we'd be at their place soon.

But first we wanted to stop by and say hello to another old friend of mine, Janet, who lives on a tiny houseboat in the Santa Barbara Marina just a couple of blocks from here.

~Small Is Beautiful~

Janet's Lovely Little BoatClick on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

Janet has classes during the day and is somewhat difficult to get in touch with by phone at any given moment in time (kind of like me), so we just followed her directions to the location of her boat, and how to gain access to the dock. Once there, of course, Janet wasn't home, but the boat was open and an ice-cold Pilsner Urquell awaited me in the fridge.

~Waiting For Janet~
Or... How You Know You're On Vacation!Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 peg otterstrom

We waited around for about half-an-hour, enjoying the light & airy feel of this pretty & well-organized little boat, but no Janet, so we decided to try again another day and headed off to Alver & Judyl's place.

Did I Mention That Alver Is An Artist?Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

I've known Alver for forty-some years, since the good old days of Topanga Canyon, and visited him a couple of times shortly after he moved to Santa Barbara around 1970, before losing track of him. About a decade ago I ran across a mutual friend who had Alver's current contact info and it's great to be back in touch with him.

On a previous trip to Santa Barbara, for a family wedding two years ago, we had the chance to visit with Alver for just a few minutes on our way home (the first time in almost 40 years), and met Judyl, his significant other, for the first time.

Peggy and I felt so much at home in the presence of both Alver & Judyl that we really wanted to get back up there and spend some time with them, so, over two years later, we finally made it.

In the picture above, Alver is demonstrating how the spinner in the center of his somewhat prophetic 1981 assemblage piece, 'Suckabuck', works.


JudylClick on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

And this is Judyl, one of the strongest, most creative, and interesting women I've ever met, possessed of a deep-rooted beauty which shines from within her like a beacon of honesty radiating from some special place where we all wish we had spent a lot more time.

Among other things, Judyl is a poet, a former publisher of poetry books, a gardener, an excellent cook, and, a gifted weaver, of enormous talent in so many ways.

But, most of all, she's simply inspirational to be around!


Two Old Coots In Judyl's GardenClick on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

Alver and I in Judyl's garden Monday evening, shortly after Peg and I rode in from the train station. It seems that a large number of my old buddies, oddly enough, are afflicted with HFS (Hairy Face Syndrome).

Judyl & Peg On The Porch

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

Peggy & Judyl share a chuckle on the front porch Wednesday morning, at my expense I believe. Something about, "does he ever put that camera down?".

Judyl's GardenClick on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

Peggy spent a lot of time here during our visit, doing good-work in Judyl's garden, and what better hours might anyone ask for than those spent in the bountiful garden of a dear friend?

Judyl With Her LoomClick on photo to enlarge - © 2007 jim otterstrom

This photo was taken in what I'll call Judyl's weaving studio back in 2007, during our previous and very short visit. I believe she had recently finished the shawl she is wearing.

I was, and still am, completely taken with the beauty and quality of her weaving, and in a subsequent post will be sharing more of that here, but you can see already why Judyl is such an inspiration to Peggy and I.

Alver In His StudioClick on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

One of my reasons for making this visit was to convince a somewhat reluctant Alver to allow me to photograph some of his work for him, much of which hasn't been documented.

During our four days at their place I managed to photograph over 50 of his assemblage pieces, many of which were large works that had to removed from walls, and all of which, had to be moved outside to a makeshift photo studio. Time was short, my equipment is not what one could call professional, and we had to make do with less than ideal conditions, so Alver was, I think, justifiably skeptical that the results would be worth the effort. But, little by little, I've been sending him some of those results, which I'm quite happy with, and I believe Alver is pleasantly surprised as well.

Alver honored my efforts by generously sending me one of my favorite pieces, 'Spin, Twist, Traverse', constructed in 2004, which you will also see in a future post.

All of my time wasn't spent taking photos though!

I too worked in the garden a bit and we had some really delicious meals together. We visited the Santa Barbara Community College Adult Education Floor Loom Class Judyl is involved with (an amazing 35 floor looms all in one big room). We went to Alver's favorite thrift store, in Goleta, where Peg & I made some cool finds, on the cheap!

Peggy and I went for early morning bike rides, discovering little hole-in-the-wall joints with great breakfasts. We rode miles of bike paths along wide-open ocean front parks. We rode out on Stearns Wharf and did a little shopping. We had delicious omelettes at The Breakwater Restaurant, overlooking Janet's houseboat in The Marina (while we were keeping the boat under surveillance after our third unsuccessful attempt to visit her). We took a short boat excursion out to Stearns Wharf again, aboard The Little Toot, with one of Janet's friends who works on the boat. We rode our bikes to the Tri-County Wholesale Produce Market and bought bunches of goodies for dinner.

Judyl and Peg chatted away, getting to know each other while Alver and I reminisced with stories of old friends, and the good time was obviously shared by all.

Yep, this all happened in four very short and relaxing days.

But it was time to go home...

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2007 jim otterstrom

This is Alver & Judyl saying goodbye to us from their front porch back in 2007.

It is the photo I kept referring to in reminding myself that we needed to go back and spend some time with these two people.

And now we have scads of new pictures, and fond memories too, which will bring us back together, sooner, rather than later.

Thank You Judyl & Alver!

~But Alas, We Have A Train To Catch~


Santa Barbara Depot
6:22 A.M. Friday, June 26th
Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

We left Alver & Judyl's place about 5:30 A.M., riding southward down Milpas Street until we found an open place to get coffee, then continued on to the beachfront bicycle path and headed north toward State Street and the train station. Another coffee stop on State and it was time to wait for our train. But we had an unexpected surprise in store.


JANET!!!
Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

During our last visit, on Thursday, to Janet's unoccupied boat, I wrote her a note on a napkin and left it sitting on her bedside table. I said I was sorry that we had missed her and that we were leaving on the 6:30 A.M. train the next morning.

Well, I'll be damned if some character in her dream didn't keep telling her that she'd better wake up and get over to the train station, so she jumped out of bed, got herself a cup of coffee somewhere, and came running up the platform yelling, "I'm here, I'm here!".

What a wonderful surprise, and the perfect ending to our Santa Barbara visit. I hadn't seen Janet in over 20 years either, although we keep in touch by phone, letters, and e-mail.

We got to hang out for fifteen minutes or so until it was time to board and we were saying that we were looking forward to breakfast at Olvera Street again when she told us she was recently there and had absolutely great molé at La Golondrina Restaurant.

We all hugged, and Peggy & I climbed aboard our train, racked our bikes, and took our seats. We waved goodbye as our train rolled away, southward again, with Janet running alongside blowing kisses like some scene from a Humphrey Bogart/Lauren Bacall film.



~La Golondrina Restaurant~
Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

During our train ride south, Peg asked me if I remembered the name of the Mexican Restaurant Janet told us about, to which I replied, "Of course I remember the name, I used to live in a house on the corner of Canoga Avenue and Golondrina Street in Woodland Hills". With that question, I knew she really wanted to taste that molé and we got to Olvera Street just as La Golondrina was opening up, so we each ordered our particular style of Margarita before we studied the menu.

A Toast To Olvera Street, To Janet, And To Us...
Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

When the waiter brought us our drinks, and some paper napkins, I remembered something else about the word Golondrina. La Golondrina was printed on the napkin in Janet's boat, on which I left her the note about the train station, obviously a napkin she saved from her recent trip here.

She awoke from her dream, rushed to the old Santa Barbara Depot, and now we are here at La Golondrina. What a strange and magical world it is...

~Molé With Music~
Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

Peggy got the molé, which she loved, and I ordered an unbelievably delicious crab-stuffed chile relleno that just melted in my mouth. The best chile relleno I've ever had and I consider myself a bit of a chile relleno connoiseur!

This was the only time on the trip that we really splurged. The meals were out of our budget range, but the food & service was excellent!

Besides, it was providence that brought us here and who's to complain about being guided to a divine meal, accompanied by mariachi music, before embarking on the last leg of a perfect mini-vacation.

Don't mess with the Gods of Muse!
Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom


Back At The San Bernardino Metrolink Station
Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

By 1 P.M. we were back at the San Bernardino Metrolink Station where we met up with two Big bear friends while waiting for the shuttle up the mountain.

Eric (red-shirt), who works at a local firewood yard two-blocks from our house, was on his way home from visiting family and entering his pride & joy, a custom all-chrome low-rider bicycle, in a big low-rider bike competition, and Roger (hand-up behind the arch), an old friend from my Post Office days when I'd see him during my frequent lunches at the Teddy Bear Restaurant.

We're feeling close to home now...


HOME, SWEET HOME!
Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

An hour and a half later our shuttle was rounding the meadow by Juniper Point just a couple of miles from our house and we were happy to be home again after a wonderful trip.

Sometime soon I hope to be sharing some more photos of Alver & Judyl, of their home, their art, and their life together.

~PEACE & LOVE~

7:47 This Morning.

LOOK MA! NO HANDS!

Click on photo to enlarge - ©2009 jim otterstrom

Peg and I enjoyed a nice relaxing 17 mile ride around Big Bear Lake on this perfectly beautiful summer morning.

The photo was taken on Highway 18, along the north shore beside Grout Bay as we approached the little town of Fawnskin.

And, no kids, I'm not really riding hands-free!

I stopped and had Peggy pass me while I took the picture. We left home at 6 A.M., stopping for pictures and a cup of coffee along the way, and rolled back in the front gate at 9:20 feeling refreshed and ready for a day in the garden.

This evening I'm planning on posting a bunch of photos from our recent Santa Barbara train/bicycle trip.

We were up there for 4 days visiting our friends Alver & Judyl.

Twelve Years Car Free

Click on image to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

Today, Peggy and I celebrate 12 years of automobile non-ownership.

12 years of reducing our personal carbon footprints by almost 13,000 pounds of CO2 each year, for a total of over 150,000 pounds.

12 years of not blowing the putrid stench of our exhaust into the faces and lungs of pedestrians and bicyclists.

12 years of not buying expensive gasoline refined from oil which innocent people are killed over.

12 years of not paying gasoline taxes for habitat destroying road construction.

12 years of not wasting money on tires and car maintenance

12 years of not paying for car insurance.

12 years of not contributing to gridlock.

12 years of healthful exercise derived from walking and bicycling instead of sitting in cars.

12 years of withholding financial support for the destructive biosphere-polluting automobile and oil industries.

12 years of a greatly reduced responsibility for the substantial numbers of living creatures being sacrificed along our highways as roadkill; squirrels, rabbits, deer, birds, honeybees, butterflies, and all the rest.

12 years of conserving what's left of our dwindling oil supplies as the world reaches peak-oil production and economic decline.

12 years of practical experience getting ourselves around on foot, and, with bicycles fitted with utility trailers.

The above are only twelve of countless reasons we celebrate our decision to live without an automobile. To read more about our commitment to being car-free, read our 10th Anniversary post here.

The Chevrolet pictured above appears to be a 1941 Special DeLuxe Sport Sedan fitted with a 1940 Master Deluxe hood that has no way of ever closing properly because of the '41 grille re-design. This was a "wildly popular" best selling car in America in 1941. I especially like the improvised 2x4 wood bumper brackets on this one, with plumbers tape holding the bumper on. The car is a prop out in front of a roadside-Americana auto-themed restaurant in old-town Victorville, along a ragged stretch of what's left of the fabled Route 66, The Mother Road.

I know a lot about cars, the older ones that is. Like most boys of my era, I grew up infatuated with them, totally immersed in the stylish, sexy, hot-rod auto-culture of the 1950s. I could name just about every make, year, and model up through the 1960s. I rebuilt my own engines, repaired transmissions, did my own brake jobs, carburetor rebuilds, and tune-ups. I did auto-body work, and, for awhile, made my living taking apart wrecks and putting them back together, but that was a long time ago. My love affair with automobiles, except as post-industrial artifacts, has been over for many years.

That old Chevy is the style of car that populated the world I was born into. A giddy post-war world of about 2.25 billion people. A world full of promise with a bright shiny future being created for us by the folks at GM ("See The USA, In Your Chevrolet"), General Electric ("Live Better, Electrically"), and DuPont ("Better Living Through Chemistry").

Yeah, the old slogans still echo fresh in my mind, 60 years later, as our gridlocked auto-infrastructure devours more & more tax dollars while it crumbles into disrepair, as our antiquated overburdened coal-fired, gas-powered, uranium fed, hydro-electric charged (as in dammed rivers, or should I say ruined rivers?) electricity grid crashes on a regular basis, leaving millions without power for weeks on end, and our water, air, and food become evermore contaminated with the wonders of modern chemistry.

But, not to worry, the same folks are bringing us new technologies to remedy the incredible destruction caused by the previous ones, and some of them are already on the market, if we'll only start buying into them.

Soon, much of America's remaining open land will be slathered over with whirring aluminum & plastic windmills generating "clean" electricity, while killing birds along their migratory flyways, and destroying expansive scenic vistas (been to Palm Springs lately?).

We'll have mile upon mile of photovoltaic panels glaring in the sun from the surface of former Southwest desert wildlife habitat, all fenced in by chain-link and barbed wire to protect the crap from vandals and terrorists, all of it strip-mined & manufactured from the dwindling resources the world is now at war over, so we humans can continue to power our empire of destruction.

Yes, clean energy is coming folks, and zero emissions electric cars, so we can all have a clear conscience as we sit in the midst of our oppressive mind-numbing gridlocked bureaucratic crime-ridden war-ravaged nightmarish consumer-driven industrial civilization steeped in bankrupt ideology, failed technologies, and moral irresponsibility.

I've been listening to the salesmen of Capitalism and growth for 63 years now and the only thing that changes is the label on the cure-all snake oil bottle.

It's too late to patch all the monstrous holes in this Titanic and there's 5 billion too many of us to fit in the lifeboats.

It's way past time that we face the gravity of our predicament with the appropriate humility and show compassion for one another as the world we know disintegrates around us. We're all in this together, there's no one to blame but ourselves.

It's not the Muslims, the Jews, or the Palestinians, not the Christians, or the Pagans, the Gays, Lesbians, or Homophobes, and it's not the Democrats, Republicans, Commies, or Anarchists.

It's not even God, or Satan!

It's Us

And, it's just the way things happened, we're the victims of our own success.

We achieved too much too fast without soon enough gaining sufficient insight into the destructive consequences of our extraordinary power to alter and overpopulate the natural world we depend upon.

A world of 6.5 billion people, all scrambling for precious resources, is now reaching Peak Everything and we're not at all prepared for the downside of the curve.

So, hang on friends, and hold each other close in your hearts, because our great super-highway is fast becoming a very difficult and bumpy little trail to an extremely different future.

I played with my photo of the '41 Chevy in Photoshop, feathering the image with an oval mask, adding poster edge effects from the Artistic menu in the filters tools, and then slightly increasing the color saturation with the Image, Adjustments tool.

We Made The Front Page!

Click on article to enlarge - © 2008 Big Bear Grizzly & Kathy Portie

Our local newspaper, the Big Bear Grizzly, has been doing some recent stories on the high cost of gasoline and how people might cut back on their fuel expenses.

The paper got word of our car-free lifestyle and called us over the weekend to arrange an interview about our experiences.

So we knew this was coming out today but were surprised to see our mugs on the front page.

Peggy and I think the article is nicely written, simple and to the point, and we feel honored to be featured in our local paper.

There is one slight error in the story that I will correct here. It says that we retired from the Postal Service in 1997, but I retired in 2001, and Peggy retired in 2004.

Eleven Years Car Free...

Click on image to enlarge - © 2008 jim otterstrom

Today is the 11th anniversary of our decision to live without owning an automobile!

Another year in which we did not contribute approximately 6.5 tons or 13,000 pounds of CO2 to our communally shared atmosphere.

Read last years 10th Anniversary rant here.

What more can I say?

The 76 gas pump is one of the altars in a little outdoor shrine we call our

Temple To A Lost Civilization.

Through A Different Lens....................... 10 Years Car-Free

Click on photo to enlarge - image © jim otterstrom 2007
headlight lens © Ford Motor Company 1937

Today marks our 10th Anniversary of living car-free.

By "car-free", I mean that Peggy and I haven't owned a car since January 31st of 1997.

But, we have found it necessary to rent cars on several occasions, particularly during the time our son was hospitalized and recuperating after his near fatal car-wreck in 2005.

Still, cars haven't been part of our daily lives for those 10 years.

When we owned a car, we drove somewhere around the national average of 12,000 miles per year. So, according to this 'An Inconvenient Truth' CO2 calculator, our personal carbon dioxide output has been reduced by nearly 6.5 tons per year.

That's 130,000 pounds of CO2 over the 10 year period!

But, we must also factor in the approximately 6 thousand miles we have driven during that time, which means we need to subtract 6,500 pounds from that 130,000, bringing our net infernal combustion pollution reduction down to 123,500 pounds for the decade. This means we reduced our personal CO2 output by nearly 87%!

123,500 POUNDS!!!

Talk about a diet, now, to me, that's something to celebrate!

Yet, in a world of 6 1/2 billion people, does it make any difference?

Not really. Not to anyone but Peggy and I, and a small minority of eco-centric types whom, according to the status quo, would be defined as part of the lunatic fringe.

To a planet that's been around for some 4 1/2 billion years, and seen millions of species come and go, does it make a difference?

None whatsoever, unless you happen to be one of those species who have come, but not yet gone.

In a vast Universe of countless galaxies, stars, and planets, does it make any difference?

Nope...

...unless, by some miracle of chance, you have the good fortune to be currently alive and breathing oxygen upon the beautiful blue planet, Earth.

No, a few individual members of an entire culture which is addicted to conspicuous consumption and material gratification aren't going to make much of a difference, so why bother?

Well, that's a good question, and one I've asked myself many times.

Once you know that smoking cigarettes causes cancer do you continue smoking?

Many people do, and continue doing so, even when they're hooked up to an oxygen tank or permanently bedridden. I've seen people, whose vocal chords had been removed because of smoking related cancer, suck on cigarettes through a trachea valve.

That's what I call addiction, mental, emotional, and physical addiction.

Yet, this is supposedly a free country, and I would say that's their business, as long as I don't have to pay the associated medical bills.

So, what is the difference between a person who, through denial, apathy, illness, or self-loathing, commits suicide by ignoring their addictions, and someone who hastens the destruction of a planetary life support system through denial of their addiction and its consequences?

The only difference I see is that people who commit suicide through substance abuse are just hurting themselves, and those who care about them, where people who would poison an entire planet because they refuse to face their own addictions, are not only suicidal, but homicidal, genocidal, and biocidal as well.

Are we that oblivious to reality, and to our own responsibilities?

Do we just not give a damn, or do we feel too hopelessly addicted to our old habits? Or, are we just in denial that there is a real problem, and that each one of us is a big part of it?

Of the thousands of cars which drive past us every week, blowing exhaust in our faces as we walk around Big Bear, how many of the drivers ever think about what they're doing, or about our health, or the stench they're spewing into rarefied mountain air belonging to everybody?

Why is something like that legal?

Should it be legal for me to shit all over everyone and everything?

What's the difference?

Legal or not, it's most certainly immoral!

Todays' infernal combustion automobile is probably the worst of our addictions, because of the magnitude of its destructiveness, but our disease goes much deeper than that.

How often have you heard the term "for the benefit of mankind"?

Humankind, blinded by its own cleverness, and imagined self-importance, values each technology primarily for the benefits to mankind.

Wouldn't a species with the slightest bit of common sense, and some desire for long-term survival, assess technologies primarily on their benefits to all life on Earth and the long-term health of their ecosystem?

Isn't survival considered a benefit to mankind?

We have grossly overpopulated the planet through the invention and use of technologies which supposedly benefit mankind. Yet it is becoming clearer every day that those very technologies may soon render our planet uninhabitable for those who would breathe oxygen, including the mankind they allegedly benefit.

And, once again, we turn to the technologies of an obsolete social & economic model---to the proponents of a failing civilization---for so-called clean car technology, alternative fuels, and renewable energy sources, so the worlds 6 1/2 billion people can, by 2041, become 9 billion (see chart here).

Contemporary wisdom as seen through the dominant lens:

For the good of mankind, all 6 1/2 billion of us, we will find solutions.

The global economy will not fail because our technology will find ways around nature's limits.

I wonder what percentage of the world population ever considers the consequences we face if this ever-expanding global economy of 6 1/2 billion people doesn't fail until our ecosystem does?

Can we even imagine the collapse of our entire civilization, the complete die-off of the human species, a total extinction of life on the planet, or an Earth that more resembles Mars?

Are we aware that the entire world is now embroiled in resource wars over oil, water, minerals, fish & game stocks, and arable land?

Have we paid attention to the fact that huge tracts of land recently used for growing food, or sustaining wildlife, are now being converted to growing crops for ethanol based fuels, or, that more than 50% of the pollution an automobile generates during its lifetime is produced during the manufacturing processes, or that we are in the midst of the 6th great extinction period in the history of our planet, and that habitat loss due to human expansion, industrialism, climate change, pollution, and resource extraction is causing those extinctions (I recently read that 13% of Americans have never heard of Global Warming)? READ THE LATEST CLIMATE CHANGE NEWS HERE (added 2/2/2007).

As the diversity of life on our planet diminishes, as the atmosphere deteriorates, and the pollution of our air, water, and soil increases exponentially, as world fisheries are depleted, and soil erosion claims more & more acres of farmland, how do we respond?

For the good of mankind---to provide jobs, housing, schools, and to accommodate more resource extraction in support of the teeming hoards---we build ever more subdivisions, shopping centers, and freeways.

WE'RE ON THE TITANIC!

We've bumped up against something and the ship seems to be listing a bit. But this is the "unsinkable" Titanic, a marvel of modern technology, and besides, the band is still playing, many of the passengers are still dancing, and the crew in charge says there's really nothing to worry about.

FANTASIA REVISITED!

Anyone who has seen Walt Disney's Fantasia will remember the Sorcerer's Apprentice, whose ineptness with technological wizardry, and Mickey Mouse tomfoolery, backfired when his creations ran amok, swarming uncontrollably with their own single-minded purpose.

WE ARE MICKEY MOUSE!

And unfortunately, like Mickey, we're desperately hoping that the wizard wakes up soon to save our sorry butts.

Only this is no cartoon, unless you believe what you see on television.

Much like the prism design of the headlight lens above, from a 1937 Ford---which aims light in a prescribed direction, for a relatively short distance---our vision today of what lies ahead is mostly defined for us by the corporate media propaganda machine of the dominant culture, and designed to focus our attention on economically specific, anthropocentric, elitist solutions. READ HERE HOW A CONSERVATIVE AMERICAN THINK-TANK IS WORKING TO PUT THIER OWN SPIN ON TODAY'S BEST CLIMATE CHANGE SCIENCE (added 2/2/2007).

I try to contemplate the future through a different lens than the one offered by those who would rule the world solely for the benefit of mankind.

Through this alternate lens (I might call it a full-spectrum lens), which is focused upon the Laws Of Nature and the needs of all living things, it becomes more obvious that there will very likely be zero automobiles in the not too distant future of planet Earth---bio-fueled, hybrid, hydrogen or otherwise.

But the clarity of Nature's lens is where I also find reasons to hope that life itself---with or without Homo-sapiens---might continue to evolve and flourish on Earth, regardless of the arrogant selfishness of todays' dominant species! (HERE'S AN ARTICLE ABOUT THE PROSPECTS OF LIFE ON EARTH (updated 2/2/2007).

And, like I've said before, hope is more powerful than despair.

My hope might actually evolve into optimism if I saw the faintest hint that individual human beings, in huge numbers, were willing to address their own addictions to destructive technology.

I still have plenty of addictions of my own, like hot-running water, indoor plumbing, electricity, refrigeration, music, photography, the internet, beer, wine, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

And I'll be working on some of those...

...but I'm already way over the automobile, and the stupid-ass television, which is nothing more than a brainwashing advertising platform for this whole conspicuously consumptive life-threatening mess.

An 86.7% reduction in our fossil-fuel burning?

123,500 fewer pounds of CO2?

Insignificant, maybe...

...but it's our small contribution to the future, to your future.

It's one simple thing we can do, and it feels good.

It feels right!

Love & Peace

Was Our November A Canary In A Coal Mine? How Hot Might It Get In The Next Few Decades? You Tell Me...

Click on chart to enlarge - courtesy of Yahoo!/The Weather Channel

Warning!!

This IS a RANT!

...and not a very nice or funny one.

I knew we had an abnormally warm November here, I lived it, but the hair on the back of my neck stood up when I saw these Yahoo!/Weather Channel temperature charts!

If these numbers are accurate, and I'm assuming they are, we've just had one extremely freakish November.

In Big Bear City we surpassed our previous record high November temperature by 15° F.

FIFTEEN DEGREES!!!

And, not only that! We surpassed the previous November record of 74° on 22 of those 30 days, with seven days of 80°+ temps. And not one day of the month did we dip down to even the average low temp of 25°.

It was 89° on November 7th (88° on the 8th), fifty-five degrees above average, and just 5° shy of our all-time summer high of 94°.

All over town I hear people cheerfully saying, "Isn't this weather wonderful?", as they go to and from their X-Mas shopping destinations in their SUVs.
Yes folks, it's just lovely, and pretty soon you may not even have to battle the traffic that comes with living in a ski resort either.

Of course you won't have anywhere to work because Big Bear's economy is dependent upon the ski industry. So you'll have to sell your house and move someplace where there is work, but then your house won't sell because there'll be a glut of sellers and no buyers.

And, we may not need to worry about forest fires much longer either, because, with temps like these, the bark-beetles can just chew their way through the forest all year long. Who needs a forest anyway? Then we can just haul all that dead wood home to burn in the fireplace instead of letting the wildfires have it. But we may not need fireplaces to keep warm, we may need air-conditioning instead.

Ahhhhh.... Endless Summer!

So hop in those Escalades, Excursions, Navigators and Hummers folks! You know, the ones with the Jesus fish, the American flags, and the 'family values' oriented bumper stickers plastered all over ém.

Make all the trips you want to McDonalds, Starbucks, Carl's Jr., Taco Bell and Burger King . They all have drive-throughs and you don't even have to climb down out of the car to notice the weather.

Just sit there in your air-conditioning listening to Fox News, Rush Limbaugh or NASCAR results while you wolf down those mega-calories.

Even the Pharmacy has a drive through so you can refill your Prozac, Valium and Viagra prescriptions right from the driver's seat. And if you forget to have your hair cut, or your nails done, you can always make another trip. No worries! Because, thanks to oil subsidies, corporate welfare, and very creative economic policies, gasoline is back below $3 a gallon.

But the hidden costs are becoming more obvious aren't they?

Global Warming may be the most insidious, but what about that $350 billion of our hard earned money spent on the War in Iraq? Or the tens of thousands of human lives sacrificed, just so we can continue driving behemoth gas hogs around in circles all day.

Ooops! Sorry!
Do I sound a bit testy?

Perhaps I'm sick of hearing people say Global Warming is no big deal?
Or maybe I'm a little under the weather from breathing all those exhaust fumes on my walk to the grocery store yesterday morning, especially the diesel fumes?

Oh Look! I just noticed the first syllable of diesel is 'die', as in Die-Off!

I wonder what it feels like to be broiled?
Or what it's like to watch your children or grandchildren being cooked in a solar oven.

Stick around, the fun's just beginning...
...but the party's coming to an end.
Whether we believe it or not.

Pissed-Off?
Me?

Hey, it's my blog, and I can vent today if I want to!

Because our collective ignorance is infuriatingly pathetic and Peak Oil can't come soon enough for me...

...so you can consider this my exhaust, I certainly have to breathe enough of everyone else's!

Love, Peace, & Mercy Earthlings...

It’s looking to me like we're gonna need plenty of each!

The chart below shows the daily high and low temperatures for Big Bear this past November.

Enlarge it and compare them to the record highs, lows, and average from the chart above.

Click on chart to enlarge - courtesy of Yahoo!/The Weather Channel

Most of the folks who visit this blog are well-informed about Global Warming and are making big personal changes toward sustainable living. This post isn't meant for you.

It's for the masses who are either ill-informed or just don't seem to give a damn!

The people who say, "Isn't this weather wonderful?, Have a nice day, and a Merry Christmas"

They sound to me like Stepford Children.

All programmed to speak polite, meaningless, rose-colored gibberish.

Maybe I should apologize for another of my impassioned outbursts, but I'm not going to.

This is a real world we're living in, and I have a full spectrum of feelings about it, so there's little relevence in my simply posting pretty pictures every day.

Now I'd like to refer you back to some charts I posted last January which show the correlation between atmospheric CO2 levels and temperature. Click here to review the charts, especially the fourth one down which uses data from the past 160,000 years. Compare where the CO2 levels are right now with the historically corresponding temperature line.

Then you tell me. How hot do you think it might get?