ojai news at The Ojai Post :: blog, newspaper, events in Ojai, California

The Best Of... feature is interesting - I noticed this in the instructions:

"Voting is limited to local businesses, people and places. That means that if you space out and put down “Taco Bell” in the best Mexican restaurant category, your vote will not be counted. Ditto for Barnes & Noble as best bookstore."

And I have had poor experiences with every cable company I have been with over the past ten years as the get swallowed by bigger and bigger companies. Time Warner, Adelphia, Media One, AT&T - they all work reasonably well most of the time, and when they suck, they really suck.

Laughing about frick and frack of cable land. I think i met their cousins in Louisiana years ago when my dell went belly-up. At least for the moment this isn't outsourced to India or another country. Just wait, it can get worse!
and how maddening is it that people or businesses or a combination thereof don't respect your schedule and see your time as valuable. I get crazy when I'm left waiting and waiting...
Re: walking...what I think is fascinating is how much it can help back pain. I've also been intrigued with circle walking, has anyone tried that?

Kate, yes, I looked into the abyss of insanity yesterday, I'm sure of it. But more importantly, what is circle walking?

I am sorry you visited the '7th circle' yesterday but at least mercury will go direct very very soon :). as a gemini, i am a believer.
Circle walking is a sort of martial arts-meets-walking practice. Here are a couple of links:
http://www.zeigua.com/bagua/bagua_circlewalking.html
http://www.8palm.com/circle1.htm

I just got back from my customary two hour+ walk on Shelf Road. Walking is an experience anywhere, especially in the wild. Now I see what I missed all those years cooped up in those mobile prisons we call cars. I've been meeting this red tailed hawk up on Shelf. We converse. Saw her again today. I recognize her by her special voice pattern. An amazing thing happened this morning. I was lying on the floor in my room to crack my back in prep for my walk when I hear this hawk squeak and it sounds like her. That never happened before. My house is not far from Shelf; I live on Red Hill Road up against the hills, and Shelf is just above. Anyway, I go outside and there she is, sitting just as pretty as you please on top of a telephone pole, not saying a word, just sitting there. So I say hello, and I just look at her for about five minutes. She's quite beautiful. - I had just posted about the inauguration of The Love Government this morning, about wearing the tail feather she had given me, about it being a lucky day because it was 07/07/07 etc and I was thinking along these lines when the hawk takes off and flies right over me, so beautifully, and then starts circling not far off and she keeps doing these wide graceful circles; on the third circle, I'm thinking: I wonder if she's going to do seven circles; and sure as I'm sitting here, she does exactly seven circles and then heads straight off to the west, and right under a hang glider with a red brown parachute, which I had seen farther north when I first walked out in the skyview behind the hawk on the telephone pole. I thought of Saint Francis of Assisi and how the birds flew in the sign of the cross for him. I thought: this is a miracle and is indeed a lucky day. - Walking really is a magic experience; I could tell so many stories about all the things that have happened to me just on these walks: ratttlesnakes, blue tailed lizards, views of Ojai, trees, skylines, breezes, special places, people and animals I see and talk to, etc. I used to feel so smart in a car but I'm glad I don't have one now. Walking helps my thinking too; I think it is the rhythm of the steps, kind of shakes up your brain. At 67, it took a little determination to get into the habit but it's worth it. I remember now when I lived in Wisconsin on this 2500 acre cranberry marsh and I used to take long walks there. I must say you reminded me that walking is one of the great pleasures of life. Unfortunately, now there are so few places that are really a pleasure to walk. Ojai is pretty good, thank Godus; but that could change. - For example, the C.R.E.W. has been cutting down trees and brush up on Shelf. They cut down all kinds of orange tree branches and just left them laying there; dozens of great oranges just waiting for the grinder; I picked up quite a few of them and put some along the fence in the shade and stashed a few for future use. Then I'm thinking, thinks me, why am I doing this? First I was greedy putting away my stash; then I put them along the fence for others; then I thought someone is going to come along with a bag later and just scoop them all up so what's the use? I'll go back tomorrow, Sunday, when the C.R.E.W. is off, I hope, and save some more oranges. - A couple of days ago, a huge crane, cat and front loader arrived on Shelf. Oh no, this is the $62,000 project the city approved, probably for fire protection. The do gooders of the world doing another fix; I hope they don't do too much damage. - Then I'm thinking, what about those poor souls working the strawberry fields; they have to pick berries like I was picking up oranges all day long from dawn to dusk in those god awful plastic covered fields with pesticide and fertilizer up the gazoo, for slave wages. My back was tired after just a half hour. Makes me mad, this mad money system we're all part of. I used to pass these strawberry fields forever in Oxnard on my way to work in Malibu, yes, that's right, rich Malibu in a mansion converted to a rebab center. Like the end of Bridge Over the River Kwai said: madness, madness, madness. - Anyway, walking, after every walk I have lots to think about. If and when the crash comes, we may all be doing a lot more walking. I'm getting my self in shape with that and bicycling. Course, I have the advantage; I'm retired; just an old fool who, next to walking with these fingers, enjoys walking but I still have to push past my laziness and procrastination. There's always something, isn't there? Love, Dennis.

Intrigued by the "7th circle" walk mentioned above, I just linked to the links but couldn't see where they mention 7th circle. I walk in a circle: down Drown, across on Grand, up Signal, over on Shelf, down Gridley, across on Grand, and up Grandview; well a circle with corners and an indent, sort of like a heart with a fold in the middle. Gets a little complicated; got to keep it simple, like a circle, the circle of life. -- The hawk headed east not west. I saw her again later today up on Shelf, and then she headed west. Love, Dennis.