• 15:53 Tell Obama that the public option is not optional. bit.ly/neJh Please sign and RT #

This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the U.S. Department of Energy.

I then took a shower in the clean water provided by a municipal water utility.

After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC-regulated channels to see what the National Weather Service of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration determined the weather was going to be like, using satellites designed, built, and launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

I watched this while eating my breakfast of U.S. Department of Agriculture-inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

At the appropriate time, as regulated by the U.S. Congress and kept accurate by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the U.S. Naval Observatory, I get into my National Highway Traffic Safety Administration-approved automobile and set out to work on the roads build by the local, state, and federal Departments of Transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the Environmental Protection Agency, using legal tender issued by the Federal Reserve Bank.

On the way out the door I deposit any mail I have to be sent out via the U.S. Postal Service and drop the kids off at the public school.

After spending another day not being maimed or killed at work thanks to the workplace regulations imposed by the Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health administration, enjoying another two meals which again do not kill me because of the USDA, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to my house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and Fire Marshal's inspection, and which has not been plundered of all its valuables thanks to the local police department.

And then I log on to the internet -- which was developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration -- and post on Freerepublic and Fox News forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can't do anything right.

From the first day we humans walked about the earth, we have loved one another and the places where we live. We love our food and our customs. We humans look around us and find ways to help one another and make things better. We can't help wondering about everything on earth, in the universe, and in our minds and hearts. We humans like to decorate everything--our languages, our homes, our cities, our bodies, and even our ideas. We like to stay at home, and we like to travel. We are driven to explore all around us, all the way to the stars. We like to tell one another what we think and know, and we like to hear all about what others think and know. We like to celebrate. We humans are drawn back to the past and forward to the future. We want to know who we are, where we come from, why we are here, what everything means. We want to know about birth and death and God. Our greatest power is love, and we are the best and the happiest when we love the most.

Sometimes we are sick or hurt in our hearts or minds and we need each other's love even more. We cannot let people be hurt or treated unfairly. We must stop the hurting and the unfairness. It is hard work figuring out how to stop the hurting without hurting back. We don't always know how to do that yet, but we will never stop trying.

• 10:25 Turns out spanakopita doesn't survive a bike ride very well. #

• 13:31 First tweet from Skytap's new offices. Wetpaint are our neighbors. #
• 14:03 Tony (nefarious) just paid me a visit. He works at wetpaint and we're neighbors! #

• 19:19 "Where are your shifters?" Taught a motorcyclist about STI, feeling the two-wheel love connection. #

• Convenience. It was fun to sit on the couch and pick stuff out. And this morning, there were the 6 boxes waiting for us when we woke up, like a pack of rotund, brightly colored children.


• Filters. As a locavore it's time-consuming to look at packages. There's a "local" filter which made it simple. There are also "organic" and "no HFCS" filters, but walking into a PCC is essentially the same.


• Dry ice. The frozen goods came with dry ice, which I made into a Witches brüe in the sink.


• Carbon footprint. I loathe driving to the store, but sometimes time constraints force me to do it. Our order was delivered by a truck that was already in the area.


• Free flowers. Not sure if it was a mistake or a gift, but there was a bouquet of flowers in the order.

• Price. The order was about $25 more than a comparable shopping trip would have been. We got a $20 discount for being a first-time shopper*, so it was pretty much a wash.


• Packaging. I asked for no bags, but they shipped stuff in bags. I counted about 6 plastic bags and one paper bag. The crates themselves were packed inefficiently which isn't wasteful, just annoying.


• Wrong food. I asked for veggie bacon and I got veggie canadian bacon. It looks good though, so I'm not too upset. Out of the 25 things we ordered that was the only mistake.

• Trader Joe's: Jack FM. There's an edgy and iconoclastic facade, but you're really just getting the same mass produced shit as everyone else in the country.


• PCC: 91.3. You tell yourself you should listen to it more, but you make it through a couple songs every once in a while and then change the dial.


• Safeway: 93.3. Every second you spend on this station you feel yourself losing an IQ point.


• Whole Foods: Public Radio. Pledge drives and Whole Foods are both known to rob you of all you're worth.


• Grocery Outlet: Internet radio. Shop here at your own risk. Many WTF moments.

• 09:07 Glad I didn't take off my fenders/wheel eyebrows/filth prophylactics. #

• 08:53 Took a "long cut" to work today, got in a few extra hills near Frink Park. Scoping out bike routes for the boys to ride to summer camp. #
• 12:32 Three kilometres from the summit, in a landscape of stone, where the mountain becomes most arid, the Briton began to wobble. #
• 16:13 I've been an ordained ULC minister for over a decade and I'm finally doing a wedding this summer! (not my own) #

• 21:23 New Bethurum album hot off the press: www.lala.com/#album/2810527642993310201 #