Year: 2009

Don’t miss Novella Carpenter when she talks about the joys and travails of urban farming at the Booksmith this Monday (at 730 in the Haight.)I’ve never met Novella Carpenter but I recently read the rave review of her book in the New York Times Sunday Book Review. Also, I mentioned her in my recent “Cactuseaters readers in the news” column. I have no idea if she reads this blog, but she is friends with someone who does, which makes her a Cactuseaters reader once-removed. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Here is a sketch I made of a very wrinkled tree in Golden Gate Park, near the eastern entrance. As a matter of fact, a hapless dealer once tried to sell me “sticky green bud” while he was still sitting near the top of this very tree. I don’t know why I added those upside-down dangling gnomes at the last minute. I think the sketch was doing just fine without them. I tried to erase them but it caused an ugly blur on the sketch, like a creeping fungus, so I decided to draw them back again. (In other words, the gnomes seemed like a lesser evil when compared to the creeping fungus.) http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

I’m thinking of auctioning off my cell phone and cat on eBay. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

I’ve just returned home after my latest wild adventure, which included traveling alongside (and at one point inside) a frothing river, exploring farmland and forests and passing through one extremely long tunnel. I almost collided with a huge snake and a small yappy dog at one point. I’m glad I had back-up support on this one! Aside from a couple of very small nicks and bruises, I’m perfectly fine, although I’m pretty sleepy at the moment. I’ll have a detailed story about this experience in the very near future, and will link it to this blog. Meanwhile, my obese 20-pound cat is furious about my absence and keeps trying to sit on my trachea while I’m sleeping. Revenge is the motivation. (This is a difficult situation because I can’t breathe without the use of my trachea.) http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

In case you haven’t seen this already, here is a disturbing article by Paul Rogers about the potential closing of many state parks (including my beloved Nisene Marks.) http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Perhaps I’ll see you out on the Eastern Seaboard. I’ll be out there soon on business for a brief spell. This will be a good chance for me to have some exciting new adventures and let my tennis elbow heal before my obese cat sits on my arm again. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

I think my cellphone has burned a hole through my cornea. I’m having retinal flashes. Maybe it’s part of the new “instant blindness” app. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Seriously. I know that I have about a dozen Cactuseates blog emails that I need to answer. It’s just that I have limited communications capability at the moment. For context, see previous entries about 1. obese cat, 2. tennis elbow caused by obese cat sitting on my arm after almost choking me, 3. WiFi reception complications and, finally, 4: cell phone that has been rendered almost un-usable because of horrendous light shooting out of it. Will be back in touch as soon as these issues are resolved. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

I know this has nothing to do with hiking or my book (or anything that relates to your life in any way) but I’m growing frustrated with my enormously obese cat. For one thing, he is becoming disoriented and gets lost in my apartment — and it only has three rooms. For another, he only eats certain kinds of cat food that disagree with him — violently. And finally, he needs to be reminded to drink water because he forgets that he’s thirsty. Time to try a new diet. And get a cat-training manual. (In the original version of this post, I said, “Time to get a dog,” but I was only joking.) http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

I brought my cellphone to Verizon Wireless but they couldn’t figure out how to turn off the horrible blinding white light. I am going to hit it with a hammer and see if that helps. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default