And getting back to climate change

 "Our mother spanked us and sent us to bed without dinner."

 There. That was finally the feeling as I drove past the horror of Swannanoa's crushed buildings again and again. I'm not going to immunize myself to it. They may scrape up the mud turned to hard clay, and the many branches and roots of trees. They (our really great workers) are making some places be able to operate almost as normal. I drove through the Dunkin Donuts and picked up a Boston Cream Donut yesterday! Then looked across the street at the decimated buildings next to the Swannanoa River.

Mother nature is definitely mad at us. Here we are, the people who love the woods, hiking, fishing, swimming...working just in order to have weekends and vacations enjoying her bounty. But we sure forgot how to live in harmony with her. (And this goes up to a much higher chain of responsibility...not only political but religious!)

It started maybe a hundred years ago...commerce along highways. People wanting to live closer to their work sites and thus building nearer and nearer waterways. Not making laws to protect the steep slopes as people built up and up on the sides of mountains.

Yep, Mother Nature, our mother just spanked us good! Western North Carolina was a really safe climate change habitat from all intents and purposes. We had to learn our lesson though. I don't mean causality, that the people themselves who suffered made this happen. It is the fault of our civilization, our communities doing just what they wanted without having nature in the equation.

I don't mean to berate anyone. I just want to share that I feel like I've been sent to bed without dinner after that shameful spanking of Hurricane Helene.  We who kind of were working to help the problem of disassociated humans perhaps coming awake enough to save our planet from climate change...as well as many completely unaware people...boom, we're back to horse and buggy life. No water or electricity, many without safe homes, and get this... days without internet or cell service! That's a big BOOM to all of us.

I'm sooo very grateful that after 52 days of using bottled water to drink (I hadn't before, because of the plastic thing of course) we can now drink safely out of the tap. I'm just doing dishes and showering for now with tap water. Lots of these bottles in my house to use anyway.

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From Heather Cox Richardson last Monday:

On Sunday, speaking from the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, President Joe Biden said that it would not be possible to reverse America’s “clean energy revolution,” which has now provided jobs across the country, primarily in Republican-dominated states. Biden noted that the U.S. would spend $11 billion on financing international responses to climate change in 2024, an increase of six times from when he began his term.

But President-elect Trump has called climate change a hoax and has vowed to claw back money from the Inflation Reduction Act appropriated to mitigate it, and to turn the U.S. back to fossil fuels.

His intended choice of Secretary of Energy is a laugh...an oil czar!

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I must take a deep breath and pay attention to the "things I can control in my life." Politics has left the building. But I read, and listen half-heartedly to the news, and console my friends. And look and listen around me.

Folks, there are some dangerous things happening out there now, just around the corner from you, from me, from my relatives in the bigger city. It's as if the hate groups have been let out of the cages and they are going rampant.

I'll go more in depth about my thoughts and their experiences in another post, trying to keep climate change the focus on this one. It's so easy to digress...

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A bit of good news: all the Black Mountain and Asheville plastic water bottles - are they recyclable?

YES!'

We have plenty of capacity to bring all of those bottles into our facility to process and ensure that they are properly recycled,” Lawson said via email. “Markets may go up and down on plastics and other commodities. However, we have and will always accept plastic bottles for recycling.”

Source: Asheville Watchdog Answer Man interview with co-owner of "Curbie" (Curbside Management"  in August 2024

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Today's inspiration:

As a human being living on earth, it is important to learn to ground yourself in relation to your earth mother.

Alternative building techniques from New Mexico - two

 From my post several years ago when I visited my son and his wife in New Mexico, where we toured Earth Ships.

This was the Earth Ship headquarters, and having slept in one at a B&B for 2 nights, we had a free tour. For more information visit this link https://www.earthshipglobal.com

The tour starts...

We're going inside the largest structure here.

 This earth ship had to stop its construction due to some permit no longer being approved...and the guide said that with the political situation now, it is unlikely to be approved soon. (He didn't give any details.) This was planned to be a dorm for students/workers learning how to build earth ships.

Though the building is incomplete, it can still be used for gardening. This is a compost process.

These windows just have a double layer of plastic on them.

This fig tree had some fruits!

And some other buildings on the site.

There are a dozen or so buildings built here. This was our guide.

The building where students stay while learning how to build earth ships, had a little kitchen area.

My friends, Sue and Geoff Stone, built their own Earth Ship home here in Black Mountain at an intentional community, known as Earth Haven. I've visited it several years ago, and it reminded me so much of what I saw in New Mexico. 

Today's quote:

The earth
laughs in flowers.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson   

I've one more post about these Earth Ships, namely the B&B where we stayed for this adventure.

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This is the big news in Hurricane Helene recovery for Black Mountain NC...

“The City of Asheville has lifted the Boil Water Notice for all water customers as of 11 a.m. today, November 18.

Water Resources lab staff finished sampling the distribution system early Sunday afternoon, and results have confirmed that the water supply is free from contaminants. "

This and that....

 

I hope this doesn't offend anyone. But I figure by now, anyone reading my blog knows I'm not a good Christian, nor anything particularly.

And then there's a new Salvador Dali' that I hadn't seen before.

Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Waking, 1944

New name of Clingmans Dome is Kuwohi. Parking area at (then) Clingmans Dome in Sevier County in 1939.

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Personal note 11.15.24:

I haven't been out of the apartment for 4 days. Felt really achy after Wed. exercise, but picked up some salad and some hot "Chinese type food" at Ingles (grocery). They massacred the veggies with total salty soy sauce. I ate half my salad and some of the chicken.

The next day I was supposed to meet friends for coffee and snacks at one of our favorite restaurants. But I begged off with my achy body, took some Tylenol, and went back to bed. Was all this because I over-did it on exercises? Then dinnertime and I started feeling chills. Within 2 hours my temp had shot up to 101.8. I took the Tylenol (only second dose). I should have done the nebulizer, though at that point I just wanted to die. A long long night, and the fever did go down by dawn to 99. My regular temp is 97.

Some more bed time on through the night and morning of Saturday. I didn't want to get up. I'd roll over, cough a bit, and keep my eyes closed, and hope I could fall asleep again. There is the bliss of nothingness in sleep. I guess I wanted that. Did I mention that all day Friday, off and on, I'd take a breath and suddenly feel a sharp pain in my back under my left scapula. It would happen without warning and I got really scared, is this my heart? No, it only happens when breathing in. I did try to breathe into other parts of my lungs as much as possible. But I had to cry out the pain was so severe when it happened. Thank heavens it stopped during my hiding from life sleep before Saturday.

I've had this "intermittent" fever, which has no name before. I'm determined to get back on my feet. So tonight I'm aiming to sleep no more than 10 hours. I've got some other goals too, but don't want to tell you in case I chicken out and don't do them.

Next day: Sunday I woke up and felt myself again. No pains anywhere! There had finally been night sweats. That's how I know this bout is really over. 

Heavy frost outside on the car and the plants I left out. I'm sorry to say, I really had to let them go. I just have too many to keep inside all winter. 

So I'm trying to keep track to see if there's any causal factor to this recurring illness. I last had it just before the first storm, because I remember not doing dishes while I was sick, and then no electricity or water and the storms had taken care of my doing them at all. So I'd say maybe Sept. 22 or so, and Helene hit Sept. 27 and I was out of town "evacuated" for 16 days.

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Today's quote:

On writing, The first, of course, is to read. It’s surprising how many people think they want to be writers but they don’t really like to read books… The second is to write, every day, whether you like it or not. Screw inspiration. Octavia E. Butler

Disaster and calm

 

This probably was the town of Chimney Rock, where the river has been reconfigured into a close approximation of where it was before Hurricane Helene on Sept. 17, 2024. This was an Oct. 30 ABC news story.

A TV interview with a man outside his destroyed home and business.

Yes, many efforts have been made in the last month to bring back some of the order of roads that are connecting us. The biggest benefit remains how people came together with their neighbors (most for the first time) in this catastrophe throughout western North Carolina. Much remains to be done however.

While in my neck of the woods, some pretty leaves still give color around the buildings.

It's nice that these grounds had little damage from the storms. Kind of makes me grateful to live here!

Here is a video of Jennifer Berezan and others as they made her 2- hour long CD 10 years ago. "A Song for All Beings" Video is just six minutes.

In these Arms A Song for all Beings © (p) Jennifer Berezan I cannot turn my eyes, I cannot count the cost Of all that has been broken, all that has been lost I cannot understand, the suffering that life brings War and hate and hunger And a million other things When I've done all that I can And I try to do my part Let sorrow be a doorway Into an open heart And the light on the hills is full of mercy The wind in the trees it comes to save me This silence it will never desert me I long to hold the whole world in these arms May all beings be happy May all beings be safe May all beings everywhere be free

And here's the 2:15 hour concert: Song for All Beings

I listened to the whole concert...admittedly in short bursts. I loved it so much!

Today's quote:

When wealth is passed off as merit, bad luck is seen as bad character. This is how ideologues justify punishing the sick and the poor. But poverty is neither a crime nor a character flaw. Stigmatize those who let people die, not those who struggle to live.

-Sarah Kendzior, journalist and author (b. 1 Sep 1978)

The woodpecker returned and the Halloween photos (still!)

 The Black Mountain Halloween Pet Parade...better late than never? I wasn't able to attend, it being raining and all. But some brave souls took photos and shared them on Facebook, so I'm passing them along for your enjoyment.

First are some shots by Barbara Holderman Taylor of the kids on Church Street.

Trick or treating was really pushed by various organizations to provide a cheerful time for the kids, many of whom had traumatic changes as a result of the storm Helene which flooded and caused power and water outages at the minimum. Parents who wanted to return to work then had families of kids without any schools being open for weeks.

Town Square also hosted a big Halloween party with many families and young trick-or-treaters!

I believe I already shared the "Chicken Sandwich" meme...yes, a live chicken between slices of fake bread!

And guess who visited me on Sunday last week! This must be the red bellied woodpecker who I saw a few weeks ago. Sorry for the iPhone quality of photos.

Then he took off, which captured a bit of white on wings and tail.

Oh I almost forgot...sharing with Saturday's Critters!

Today's quote:

Gratitude as a discipline involves a conscious choice. I can choose to be grateful even when my emotions and feelings are still steeped in hurt and resentment.

HENRI NOUWEN

Pretty plants on Friday

 

I'm enjoying these mums, which were gifted to me third--hand, after being used 2 times before on last Sunday.

I love how the sun brings out the fuzzy leaves of the violet.

The dear Lavender is growing like crazy in the window. I guess I'll cut it back soon.

Some tiny succulents have survived all my lack of care through the summer, so now I've transplanted them here.

Sharing with Floral Friday Fotos and Garden Bloggers Bloom Day!

Today's quote:

Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, savor you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow.

MARY JEAN IRION

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And the update on western North Carolina...the roads and bridges.

NC lays groundwork for thousands of miles of repairs

I'll only quote one paragraph which struck me.

“The amount of work that’s going to have to be done, and is ongoing right now to continue to get everything restored — it’s unprecedented,” said Tim Anderson, an engineer with the DOT division covering Asheville and its surrounding area. “We know that the contract staff we have available to us in the mountains, and even from the eastern part of the state … we still need more folks.”

(Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images)