Ice Skating in Alameda, December Butterfly, Co-Housing!

When I finally got my family to sit in the electric car, we bought it. I finally got Xena and Caitlan to look at an intentional community. They liked it. Caitlan and I had a heated discussion last night about whether she could live in a commune. "Maybe if it were shaped like a pineapple," she finally conceeded.

"Pffft!" said Xena, later. "That kid could SO easily be a commune-child!"

We visited Mariposa Grove. There's a neighboring house for sale, and they'd like someone to buy it who would be interested in becoming part of their community. Me! Me! Pick me! I'm interested! Could they stand it if I made part of the space into a public demonstration space?

They have three houses, with six units, 11 adults and 4 children. My kids would help fill the age gap. They already have chickens, but they really don't know much about permaculture yet. That's okay... I know plenty of people who know a lot about all the new tools for living we've been inventing!

It's a bit odd around the world right now, isn't it? The rest of the world is moving forward on Kyoto, and yet the US is finding ways to prop up business as usual. I found this butterfly today. Nightly lows have been kind of high, in the 50s... I wonder how long this fellow is going to hang on? My pet spider is still spinning webs. She moves sort of slow, these days, but she's still catching her dinner. How long do summer insects and arthropods usually survive? All the way through the fall? I grew up in OC, so I really have a limited sense of how seasons are supposed to work.

Since it's nearly winter, we need winter sports, right? Alameda had an ice skating rink set up in the City Hall parking lot! It's that fake ice, sort of like Delrin®, but if your skates are sharp you can kind of go on it.


After skating was the tree-lighting ceremony, with music by the Mistle-tones. It's great fun to dance in the street with neighbors!

I sure don't know what the future is going to look like. But I imagine it'll be more out-of-synch creatures, technological solutions to dwindling ice, and celebrating the community we do have.