It's Official: Obama Wins Texas

So as of today, Obama has won 99 delegates to Clinton's 94 delegates in the Texas Primary/Caucus. I'm not sure that the mainstream news folks are talking about this too much. They're probably not that interested in a primary that was supposed to be over and done weeks ago. Read all about Obama's Texas Victory here.

Apple Has Big Impact

Here's an interesting article on Apple Computers: apparently a survey of 2,000 folks says that Apple is the #1 brand they could not live without. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Microsoft was voted the brand the surveyees most wanted to argue with. Hmmm.

Soul Train Night 2008 - Recovery

Not much got accomplished today . . . just recovering from Soul Train Night 2008. Geez. I'm glad Soul Train only happens once a year.

Soul Train Night 2008

Tonight was the infamous KBUT Soul Train Night and my girl P.O.D. walked away with the "Queen of Soul" title. She'll be the reigning Queen of Soul for the next 2 years!

Back on the Job

I thought my stint as a Crested Butte Roof Shoveler was over. I was wrong. And if I hadn't of been lazy and left my camera at home this morning, I'd have a cool pic of me and the Sherpas up on the roof of Mountaineer Square with sledge hammer, ice breaker and shovel in tow. So the deal is . . . everybody's roofs are leaking now that the 5 feet of snow on their roofs are melting. Back on the job.

Monday Madness

Today was about getting things done. Checked a bunch of items off my to-do list including finally submitting the data from our hike this Summer of the South San Juan Wilderness for the Backpacker/CDT Mapping Project.

Headed out for a snowshoe on Snodgrass Mountain which made for some good PCT training and few nice pictures:



After my snowshoe, it was off to a forum with the Crested Butte Town Council to discuss the issue of the ski resort expanding its terrain and putting ski lifts on this publicly owned mountain. It would be a huge mistake for this to happen. It's a mistake we don't have to make.

And to top the day off . . . P.O.D. and I headed over to KBUT, the local radio station, to do a little guest DJ-ing with our good friend Arvin on his radio show:



There's nothing left to do now but get some sleep.

The Al Johnson

Today is the 32nd Annual Al Johnson Memorial Uphill/Downhill Telemark Ski Race. This costume-driven annual ski race is named after a diehard 19th century Crested Butte mailman who delivered mail to remote mining camps on his skis! Participants ascend 600 vertical feet to the crest of the North Face, and then race down the double-black diamond terrain to the finish with a ski run called "The Last Steep."

Here are some photos I shot a few of the participants:
















And here's a shot on the starting line:


And here's some vid from the blast off:

Nice View

Had some friends in from Denver & New Mexico this weekend. We got out Saturday and took some turns at the ski resort. Nice view from the top of the mountain.

A Little Snowshoe

Roof shoveling is pretty much done for the season . . . with high's in the mid-30's everyday the snow is melting. So I went out for a snowshoe this morning on Snodgrass Mountain. This is an undeveloped mountain that the ski area wants to expand onto. It'd be a shame if that happened. It's also my mountain of choice to train on for the PCT. We leave one month from today to head down to the Mexican Border. Hard to believe. Also hard to believe I have to train on snowshoes here in Colorado when our hike begins in the Anza-Borrego desert of southern California. You do what you can with what you've got ya know.

Enchilada Night @ The Big House

We're house sitting and we had some friends over for enchiladas. The view from here:

Pilgrim and Zev sizing up one another.



Gimpy counting sheep.



Pilgrim is a Maine Coon cat.

A More Perfect Union

On Tuesday, March 18th, Obama delivered a speech on race in America. It´s the 1st time in my life that I can remember a candidate of any party and any race speaking to Americans about race like we are adults. I´ve included both the video of the speech and the text below.

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama: 'A More Perfect Union'

Philadelphia, PA | March 18, 2008
As Prepared for Delivery

"We the people, in order to form a more perfect union."

Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America's improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.

The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation's original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.

Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution - a Constitution that had at its very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.

And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part - through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.

This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign - to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together - unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction - towards a better future for our children and our grandchildren.

This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story.

I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton's Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I've gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world's poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners - an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.

It's a story that hasn't made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts - that out of many, we are truly one.

Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans.

This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either "too black" or "not black enough." We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.

And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.

On one end of the spectrum, we've heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it's based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we've heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.

I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely - just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country - a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.

As such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems - two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.

Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way

But the truth is, that isn't all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God's work here on Earth - by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity:

"People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend's voice up into the rafters....And in that single note - hope! - I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion's den, Ezekiel's field of dry bones. Those stories - of survival, and freedom, and hope - became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn't need to feel shame about...memories that all people might study and cherish - and with which we could start to rebuild."

That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety - the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity's services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.

And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions - the good and the bad - of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.

Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.

But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America - to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.

The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through - a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.

Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, "The past isn't dead and buried. In fact, it isn't even past." We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.

Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven't fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today's black and white students.

Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments - meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today's urban and rural communities.

A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one's family, contributed to the erosion of black families - a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods - parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement - all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.

This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What's remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.

But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn't make it - those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations - those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright's generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician's own failings.

And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright's sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.

In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience - as far as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch. They've worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.

Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren't always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.

Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze - a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns - this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.

This is where we are right now. It's a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy - particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.

But I have asserted a firm conviction - a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people - that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice if we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.

For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances - for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives - by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.

Ironically, this quintessentially American - and yes, conservative - notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright's sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change.

The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country - a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know -- what we have seen - is that America can change. That is the true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope - the audacity to hope - for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds - by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.

In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world's great religions demand - that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother's keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister's keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.

For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle - as we did in the OJ trial - or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright's sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.

We can do that.

But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.

That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, "Not this time." This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.

This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don't have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.

This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn't look like you might take your job; it's that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.

This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should've been authorized and never should've been waged, and we want to talk about how we'll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned.

I would not be running for President if I didn't believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation - the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.

There is one story in particularly that I'd like to leave you with today - a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King's birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta.

There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.

And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that's when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.

She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.

She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.

Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother's problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn't. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.

Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they're supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who's been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he's there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, "I am here because of Ashley."

"I'm here because of Ashley." By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.

But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.

Under the Weather

It´s been a few days since I´ve posted . . . what can I tell ya . . . I´ve been a bit under the weather with a head cold. Argh. Had a few of these this Winter. I´ll be back soon with some legitimate postings once I can think straight again. Until then, it´ll be a mix of DayQuil and NyQuil.

192 Miles Per Gallon-Ford Escape

Local resident and President of Crested Butte's Office of Resource Efficiency Alison Gannett (she's also a world champion extreme skier but that's beside the point) had just converted her Ford Escape Hybrid SUV to a Plug-In Hybrid. It's now capable of getting 192 miles per gallon! But there's more . . . read on:

Office for Resource Efficiency President Alison Gannett has converted a Ford Escape Hybrid SUV to a plug in hybrid (PHEV), which can run on an electric engine, gasoline engine or both. Alison regularly can get over 100 miles to the gallon. How? - Take a normal Ford Escape Hybrid, remove the Nickle Metal Hydride batteries and add Lithium Ion Nano Phosphate Batteries (think 1600 DeWalt Drill batteries, about the size of a D Cell Battery). These batteries can hold up to ten times the charge and capacity of the batteries in a typical hybrid electric vehicle (HEV), such as the ford escape. Then add a power inverter, and add a plug in spot on the rear bumper, which plugs into a regular outlet. The same engines are then able to run on supercharged electric power - which means mileage up to 192 miles per "gallon" and more power. Electric cars are actually more powerful than gasoline versions with more HP and more torque due the non-existent lag when you press the accelerator. For more information on PHEV - plug in electric hybrids - visit www.calcars.org . Alison is adding an 8 panel solar system on her owner designed and built strawbale solar house to charge the vehicle without using coal fired electricity. Next year, Alison hopes to pull the gasoline engine out and replace it with a super efficient diesel engine, like those that are required in Europe, which will increase efficiency of the non-electric engine by about 40%. She then plans on adding another tank to burn veggie oil, in addition to biodiesel and low-sulphur diesel. She will then add a hydrogen accelerator to again boost mileage by another 40% or so. For samples of these technologies, visit the work of Jonathan Goodwin, who has converted hundreds of Hummers to get 80mpg, double the torque and 800 horsepower. His recently converted biodiesel-electric Impala beat a Porche 911. Alison is taking her vehicle on the road on her Global Cooling Tour, educating the public, athletes, businesses, schools, events, communities, the auto industry, and national and international politicians on the simple solution framework for global warming - CROP™. This simple, yet elegant strategic framework illustrates how we all can C - Calculate our carbonfootprint, R - Reduce our carbonfootprint, O- offset our carbonfootprint - www.carbonfootprint.com, and P - Produce our own power. While the problem has been getting national attention around the world, very little has been proposed to how we will actually meet the stringent carbon reduction requirements as outlined at the Bali summit. Alison has just returned from Washington, DC, where she presented the CROP™framework to Al Gore's Climate Project. Her hope is to inspire people to tackle their own personal footprints, and also illustrate how businesses, events, schools, communities, national and international governments can all use a unified framework to start global cooling and meet stringent forthcoming requirements - CROP™! And where better to start that with your own life - and vehicle! Contact Alison for a presentation to your community, business or government! For more information: www.alisongannett.com

The technology is here now. Just think if Ford offered a Plug-In hybrid model off the showroom floor?

Balancing Point

From the makers of the short film Balancing Point is a video montage of some of their work. Check this out.

South Park on Ice

P.O.D. and our friend Arvin . . . South Park style.

Too Much Driving

After 4 consecutive weekends of being out of town and driving way too much, I really wanted to do bad things to my car to make it all stop.

Garden of the Gods

P.O.D. and I decided that we did not want to be complete lushes this weekend so we headed out to a popular Colorado Springs park called Garden of the Gods. I've driven thru this park before but had never done any hiking. Garden of the Gods is a little bit of Utah in Colorado. Big sandstone rock formations in reds and oranges. Really really scenic.

We took off for a 3-mile hike on the Palmer Trail. It's much warmer in this part of Colorado than in Crested Butte and I just couldn't get over the fact that there was no snow on the ground anywhere. We could see 14,000+ foot Pikes Peak off in the distance and there was a full blizzard on Pikes.

After our hike there was more film festival madness to take part in and then a trip to Boulder to meet up with D-Low and Wendy at Sherpa's Restaurant. The owner of the restaurant is the brother of 2 of the Sherpas that I have worked with while living in Crested Butte and it's always fun for me to go there because I know a number of the Sherpas working there. They are great people and like to joke around a lot. I've picked up a bit of the Sherpa language and I'm able to make them laugh with my feeble attempts of speaking the Sherpa language.

Taos Mountain Film Festival

I was invited to be a local presenter at the Best of 2007 Taos Mountain Film Festival held in Palmer Lake, CO near Colorado Springs. This 2-Day film festival highlighted the best films that were shown at the Taos Mountain Film Festival held back in October.

My 2 favorite films of the night were Balancing Point and The Endless Knot.

There were about 75 folks in attendance and it was a really good experience for me . . . as it was my 1st film festival. Hopefully there will be more.

Obama Wins Texas ???

Ummm . . . hang on to your hats . . . it looks as though Obama will win Texas once the Caucus votes are counted. Haven't heard about this ???

Read this story from NPR to learn more about how the Texas Two-Step will probably put Obama ahead of Hillary once the Texas vote counting is all said and done.

White Box Stove

I just ordered the stove I'll be carrying on my hikie of the Pacific Crest Trail this year . . . the White Box Stove. This thing weights 1 oz., costs $20, runs off denatured alcohol or HEET, and will boil 2 cups of water in 4 minutes. Done Deal. Check out the review below:

Solar Chargers

I came across a really neat product today for charging electronic gadgets (cell phones, mP3 players, etc.) It's the Hybrid 1000 solar charger from Solio. They are available for $80 from REI and I plan to take this on my upcoming PCT hike. The thing weighs a hair over 4 ounces and has a carabiner type clip at the top. Pretty slick. My friend Ethan carried their Classic Charger on the CDT to charge his iPod and really liked it a lot.

The thing I like most about their chargers are that let you plug into the sun and they keep a hiker from being dependent on finding a wall outlet in a trail town and then spending a couple of hours there recharging a gizmo. That frees up time and it's good for the planet. Solio is a Carbon neutral company too, which means that they offset their carbon emissions that occur from the manufacturing of their products. A win-win for everyone.

A tip of the hat to Solio.

The US Bombed Somolia Last Night

I don't think last night's bombing by the US in the town of Dhoble, Somalia is getting a lot of press here in the US. I couldn't find any mention of it of England-based Reuters News either.

The BBC covered the bombing and what I didn't realize is that last nights bombing is the 4th US missile strike in Somalia in the last 14 months. This most recent bombing killed 4 and wounded 20.

I also doubt that there will be much protest from the public about this bombing. If it had been a town in Iran that had been bombed, that would be a different story. But a town in a little well-known country in East Africa . . . not so much.

Feel more secure?

PooKoo

He's a good kid.

Rockies Ruck Update #2

Here's an end of the night update from the Ruck.

BBQ Chicken & Beer matched up with the following presentations:

1) A Viewing of Squatch's This Exit Only

2) A Showing of Gossamer Gear's Lighten Up! DVD

3) "42" presented her very well done 2006 AT slideshow complete with audio voice overs & music

4) Late night presentation of The Walkumentary

5) Tall tales and lies from those still awake

Ruck Update #1

Blogging live from the Rockies Ruck . . . 10,152´above the sea!

It´s been a banner day here in sunny Leadville, Colorado. Wild Bill cooked breakfast for 20 of us and then I headed out with P.O.D., Garlic Man, Andy & Lovebarge for my 1st cross-country ski ever. We lucked out in that there is a groomed nordic trail that starts 5 blocks from the Leadville Hostel. We took it 3 miles up to a high point thru some old mining ruins and then came back the same way. I fell down 4 times and drew blood only once so I think it was a success.

Leadville had their annual Skijouring today. Skijouring is as odd of a sport as it gets . . . it´s a ¨sport¨that involves a horse, a horseback rider, a skier and a towrope. You gotta see it to believe it.

A sewing demo went down at 5:30 to a huge crowd of about 80 . . . I mean 8. Real men sew ya know.

And the hiker geekdom will continue into the wee hours of the night. More updates to come soon.

A Poem by Robert Service

The Men That Don't Fit In

There's a race of men that don't fit in,
A race that can't stay still;
So they break the hearts of kith and kin,
And they roam the world at will.
They range the field and they rove the flood,
And they climb the mountain's crest;
Theirs is the curse of the gypsy blood,
And they don't know how to rest.

If they just went straight they might go far;
They are strong and brave and true;
But they're always tired of the things that are,
And they want the strange and new.
They say: "Could I find my proper groove,
What a deep mark I would make!"
So they chop and change, and each fresh move
Is only a fresh mistake.

And each forgets, as he strips and runs
With a brilliant, fitful pace,
It's the steady, quiet, plodding ones
Who win in the lifelong race.
And each forgets that his youth has fled,
Forgets that his prime is past,
Till he stands one day, with a hope that's dead,
In the glare of the truth at last.

He has failed, he has failed; he has missed his chance;
He has just done things by half.
Life's been a jolly good joke on him,
And now is the time to laugh.
Ha, ha! He is one of the Legion Lost;
He was never meant to win;
He's a rolling stone, and it's bred in the bone;
He's a man who won't fit in.