WMO Report says it again

Climate change: Global impacts 'accelerating - from the World Meteorological Asso.

Climate Change Bad News

THOSE MIDWESTERN FLOODS ARE EXPECTED TO GET MUCH, MUCH WORSE

warming ocean = more precipitation = more and more intense rain and snow and storms

not just in the midwest US

Why Do we live here?

Just had some communication with an old friend who asked what drew Katrinka and me to Bali. Here's what I answered:

Past wife experience Elin and I spent two months here in 92 so I had an idea what it's like. My mother died (an inspiring event) and Katrinka's ex died in a convalescent home and we were free and had a little bit of money which I suggested would go a lot further in Asia so on Dec. 1, 2013 we flew to Singapore. After a week there to Bali where we spent three months, then four in Thailand and Japan and then back to Bali which we'd already decided before we left to return to. It's mainly pleasant with plenty to complain about like anywhere, nice good people, an excellent place for me to work without a lot of distraction, Katrinak's quite involved with social work and helping people, and it's much much cheaper than living in the US anywhere we'd want to live. We live in a small world, don't have or need a vehicle, walk a lot, do yoga, swim, have friends, a rather uncomplicated life but still not away from excellent services and infrastructure. Live near a good beach at the edge of the big city, Denpasar. Also I love dealing in other languages even though I never get fluent - hardly anyone does although anyone who speaks even a little bit of a foreign language tends to be called fluent by those who don't. I've not been back to the US and have no plans to do so though things happen. Love, DC [image is a street about five minutes walk from here. Ours is a small dead end one.]

No to another War

No War with North Korea - Kazuaki Tanahashi and others urge us to pay attention to this threat.

Kaz Tanahashi Cuke page

RIP John Jackson

Dear Texas friend with a good heart and great sense of mischief John Jackson died on Thursday, March 21st. Met John at Austin college which I tried for half a year out of high school. We walked out together the 2nd semester and were told not to return. Visited him and his wife since the sixties Julia a number of times in Austin through the years and every few years we've talked on the phone. I wrote about him in the twelve part Freedom Songs. He's quite prominent in
Part I - College.
He returns in
Part IV - Corn Rows
Part XI - News York & Orleans
and Part XII - Afterwords

Bye John! It was great knowing you! Thanks for all the fun!

Photos from the last 1.5 years

On my Instagram page

Mount Everest: Melting Glaciers Expose Dead Bodies

BBC - Estimates are that of the 4800 who've climbed, about 300 have died with one third of their bodies recovered. That's a death rate of one out of 160.

Asleep at the Wheel

Professor Michael Oppenheimer speaks to Christiane Amanpour about the effects of climate change in the wake of Cyclone Idai in East 

A Purchase in Bali

Phillip, our old neighbor of three years, is buying a villa here in Bali. A villa here can be anything from a house to an estate. He's English and foreigners can't buy here but he's married to a local woman so maybe she's buying it or maybe he's buying a 50 year lease. I don't know. What I do know is that he's buying it sight unseen. That doesn't sound wise does it? And people can get ripped off here and if you're a foreigner or of meager means, good luck getting your money back. But he's doing it anyway. He said this is the fourth time he's bought property sight unseen and all the others have worked out. Should Phillip be restrained by his family? One might think so but then one would be rushing to judgement. Phillip is blind.  His wife and assistant of twenty years do see what he buys and through them and listening, touching, and smelling, he forms an opinion. We will visit and bless the new digs soon. And that villa in the image is just a pic plucked off the web.

It Cant be This Dire can it?

Nature Bats Last - worst case scenario for climate change by Guy McPherson

Passing of a Great Poet

W.S. Merwin Dies At 91 - NPR

Nature Magazuine's site for Climate Change

Nature dot com's Climate Change section

A Most Noble resident of Sanur

Sustainable Suzy - quite an impressive site that leads to many good places.

Here she is with plastic straws that were washed up on the beach. Whenever we order a drink here we say, "Tampa pipet plastik (without a plastic straw) and we're not the only ones.

Keep up the good work Suzy!

A Belated post valentines Post

On February 15th, the day after Valentines Day, I read a poem named The Last Valentine at a poetry slam in Ubud. I was going to read something old but before I left I looked at their flier and saw that the suggested theme was - well, here's the message:
It's Valentine's Week, hit us with your hottest pick up lines!

Unspoken - Bali Poetry Slam presents you
Open Mic Vol. 1 - TELL ME MORE
at Uma Seminyak on Friday the 15th at 5 PM.

Meet the Bali Slammers All-Star, Wulan, Juli, Sidhi, Auf, David and Gek Ning and have fun with the best crowd! Bring your friends, your bae, your family, or even if you're alone, just bring yourself and you'll make new connections.

See you there! #Unspoken #PoetrySlam #Poetry

As you can see, aside from me, it's a young, mainly local crowd. Poems can be in English or Indonesian or both. They prefer there be some English in them.

The Last Valentine 

Birthday Song

for Katrinka - it was last November. Just got around to recording it. Sang it to her at Smorgas in Sanur. Kim Patra was playing and let me use her guitar surprising Katrinka. I recorded it while it was raining pretty hard so that's the backup band. It's called:

Cause I Didn't Have a Birthday Song

March 8th

Today's a big day. It's the 2nd day of the traditional year, Caka 1941 - in Bali. The day after the darkness, limitation, fasting and meditating (theoretically) of Nyepi on March 7th (this year's date),  is called Manis Nyepi. Nyepi comes from sepi when means quiet or empty and manis is sweet. On Manis Nyepi people traditionally go to the beach to purify, many entering the water (not swimming). I wanted to go to the beach on this morning but there was more happening on the 8th for me. Katrinka flew back from 33 days away with family including new granddaughter. I had much preparation to do as the housecleaner is off for the holidays (of which there are many here). And there were flowers to get out of the fridge and distribute. Had to be in the fridge cause couldn't get any today or yesterday. And then March 8th is Women's Day so thank you women everywhere for doing what you do and may there come a time when every day is women's day and there's one day for men. Men deserve one day. My mother died on March 8th, 2013 at about ten minutes to midnight. I was sitting right by her. It was a good passing.

Ogoh Ogoh!

Ogoh Ogoh tonight!

This is the the big night of the year in Bali, the night before Nyepi as featured yesterday. Meeting some friends down the street to go to the gathering places for all the monsters - great wonderful statues of wood, styrafoam, paper mache, rebar, anything - sitting on a wood and bamboo platform carried through the streets by young men from the villages, neighborhoods they come from. Maybe about thirty tonight. Thousands watch them going down the street, rotating three times counter-clockwise at intersections. The ones in this area will end up in a field near Mertasari Beach and one by one they'll enter a  performance area surrounded by a fence with people crowded all around. I think it's a soccer field, that size anyway. They'll rotate the Ogoh Ogoh there and ther'll be gamelan music and loud announcing. It will go on for hours. It's a wonderful crowd to be in. Never any dangerous or rowdy or drunk people - not that I've noticed. They'll be drinking water mainly. I've written about this before a few times. This is my fifth Ogoh Ogoh and Nyepi - missed the first one in 2014 because we were checking out Thailand and Japan for four months before coming back and staying put. Google Ogoh Ogoh to learn what it's about.

Nyepi coming!

All day Thursday to Friday at 6am Bali goes dark. It's Nyepi! Only airport in the world to close. Here's the graphic with an announcement from our ISP that there will be no Internet or TV service at that time. We're just supposed to stay indoors in the dark and fast and meditate. You can get arrested if you go out - but you'd just be told to go back in. Katrinka's coming back from the US the next day. She's disappointed she didn't think about Nyepi when she booked her ticket. We keep it dark with some candles and I'll do that. It's great for concentrating. There's still electricity and I have a backlit keyboard and will just get more work done. Yippee. - DC

The Aroma of night in Sanur

First time in a few weeks the TPA Suwung landfill odor has come this way. More and more these days. Didn't notice it much at all a year and a half ago. They really need to stop mixing organic and inorganic, especially wet organic from kitchens. Wasting a valuable resource, using chemical fertilizers. There are a number of groups trying to turn that around. Really bad backward planning and management of waste. Back to the scent of decomposition wafting in through the window.