Procrastination

So, I'm supposed to be reading right now for my Urban Studies class at U.Penn, which has been a challenge for me. So much theoretical/philosophical/critical thinking is verging on the limits of my brain power. The rest of the class is filled with Penn prodigies who can talk endlessly about the Marx dialectic of the fetishization of commodities. The other hard thing is that we're sitting in a classroom filled with relatively wealthy individuals and we're talking about the working class like we (collectively) are all on one big team. Somehow I miss the connection between most of the class and their socio-economic background compared to that of the rest of Philadelphia.
I'll get off of that track before I offend anyone.

So yesterday I had several first time events. First, I bought coffee from the corner store. Nice to know that's available. Second, I went to a class through Greensgrow on fermentation where we made sauerkraut, pickles and mead. Third, I went to the new South St. bridge which is now open and there was a pre-opening (to cars) free time for anyone to walk/bike around. Fourth, I had a Vietnamese hoagie. So good. Then my amazing day ending with the neighbor complaining about my campfire in the yard, so I retreated indoors to read/procrastinate reading for the rest of the night, which has continued on to this morning.

Here are some pics, didn't remember to check my ISO before I started snapping photos, so they're kind of grainy. Lesson learned.

Stuffing sauerkraut into jars and prepping mead in the background.

Ya Philly, new bridge for all the Penn folk, I'm sure a lot of people are happy about this. I almost never go this far south and need to go to W. Philly so not that big of a deal in my daily life, but, if it's good for Philly, it's good for me, somehow.

The best part was that the Bicycle Coalition invited people to play bridge on the bridge, here they are doing their thing.


Now that 12 noon will soon be upon me, I really should start reading for class. 100 pages and 12 hours until midnight is only 8 pages an hour (eek!) better get started that sounds like a lot of reading. The book, by the way is by Alex Callinicos, Social Theory.

Old friends and fire

So, when Sharon was back in Philadelphia (which was amazing) we found out that a few of our old co-workers from Haiti were going to be in town for a training. So, we borrowed D&C's car and made our way down to South Philadelphia and hung out at the airport waiting for our old work pals and after only a few minutes they emerged, and here they are:



That's Meleck the office administrator, Margot (not sure what her current position is), Nahomie an environmental educator and Frantzo an environmental educator. Me, of course, arborist intern and Sharon, graduate student at Vanderbilt. A fine looking bunch.

On to somewhat exciting and scary events, take a look at what happened a few blocks over from the house last night.



What?!!! Ya I know, crazy fire......I couldn't stop taking photos:

And with my new found camera skills, I just kept taking more and more:

and then I got worried it may go out before I take the perfect photo, so I took more:



and then I realized that thing is not going out soon, so I then leisurely sat around on the roof looking for amazing fire photos:


and then I got the perfect photo:



Well, maybe not, but it was a good ending to the story 'eh?

I mean, you just have to love Philly, right?

(First off, Sharon just posted photos of Nashville, so scroll down when you are done here, or go there now and scroll up.)

So, after dropping off the rental truck, I went next door and bought a cranberry juice cocktail drink and while enjoying my tart beverage I spotted this:




So, why oh why Philly are these three things like this? I offer two potential reasons. 1. There is an alternate space time paradox world where birds like a little nip of the "sauce" especially after a difficult flat tire. This flat tire was so bad the poor bird took his/her own life. Sad. 2. John Q. Philly said "Hey, I just finished my potato gun, go find things this long by this wide and line them up here so I can shoot them over I-95".

So, they are the only two possible scenarios. (period). Feel free to offer your own, but know that these two are the only I want to accept.

I loves me some Philly.

Daily commute: Intro

I've been commuting by bike the last few weeks and for the foreseeable future to the Morris Arboretum in Chestnut Hill, which is still Philly but it's a healthy 10 miles away. I have the best of both worlds:

1. A crazy 5 miles through a semi-rough north Philly neighborhood where I have seen two fires, one police raid, lots of trash, the already-blogged man with an amazing homemade chopper bike, a huge megachurch, a human hair super city, and the list goes on and on.

2. 5 miles through one of the largest urban parks in the country where I dodge chipmunks, wave to the same joggers EVERYDAY, pass covered bridges, listen to woodpeckers, pass waterfalls, watch kids jump off a rock into the creek, a really cool old inn/restaurant, and once my new Karate Monkey gets here I will head into the trails for my commute home, making it the most amazing commute ever!

More photos to come, but here's just one example of the amazingness:

Hot crabs every half hour! Who could resist? And the words on the side enticing you to "grab crab" - whoever thought that up needs a nice pat on the back. Yeah for hot crabs!

Curiouser and curiouser.

While Bryan was working at the Arboretum yesterday, this guy yelled from his car, "Do you know Nikola Tesla?"

Bryan said yes (of course) and the fellow came dashing over to hand this brochure through the fence.

I for one think the weekend just got that much more interesting.