The first day of August. Not to much of that scorching hot weather that I got used to when I was in Vancouver. It's cooler here in Smithers. I wanted to share this photo that Jen took of her sister Stephanie. Oh yah that's Steph's dog, Goose. They drove up with Jens dad, Ian to visit me/us in Smithers last week.

I'm settling in. Hung up my autographed stick. On the vegetarian side. Fake chicken tastes like real soy product. Wine instead of beer. A change of weather every hour. Early to bed. The pursuit of golf. One day I hate you and the next I hate you a little less. It was my grip! My bike every day. I am the traffic! Four thirty a.m.. Full moon to the west as the sun rises in the east. One truck drives these streets. Bears. The best of the 70's 80's 90's. Says who? I do. Quite often.

Read about Ehren Watada. His actions show courage, determination and believing in what you stand for. What he's done takes alot of balls and I slaute him. Check it out...

In a remarkable protest from inside the ranks of the military, First Lieut. Ehren Watada has become the Army's first commissioned officer to publicly refuse orders to fight in Iraq on grounds that the war is illegal. The 28-year-old announced his decision not to obey orders to deploy to Iraq in a video press conference June 7, saying, "My participation would make me party to war crimes."

An artillery officer stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington, Watada wore a business suit rather than his military uniform when making his statement. "It is my conclusion as an officer of the armed forces that the war in Iraq is not only morally wrong but a horrible breach of American law," he said. "Although I have tried to resign out of protest, I am forced to participate in a war that is manifestly illegal. As the order to take part in an illegal act is ultimately unlawful as well, I must as an officer of honor and integrity refuse that order."

red more...

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060626/brecherwebvideo

It's been way to long since I've posted anything. I've recently started a new chapter in my life and I find it difficult to find the time to update my blog. I now it's easy to blog but that's just how I operate. I'm not a multitasker. Please don't tell my boss.

One of the good things about moving up to Smithers, B.C. was that it would enable me to check out parts of the world that I haven't seen yet. Last weekend Jen and I rented a car and headed Northwest to Gingolix, for the 4th annual Crabfest. The combination of past their prime rock acts & fresh crab was just way to hard to resist.

One of the highways up, The Nisga Highway is designated as a scenic route on most maps. It was really nice, like most of B.C. is but their was barely any traffic which made it a pleasure to drive the speed limit and stop to look at the scenery as we went. It also made all the single lane bridges on the highway easier to navigate.

Unfortunately the batteries in my camera died on the way there so I was unable to take any pictures of Crabfest. Crabfest takes place in fishing village which was formerly known as Kincolith. A few years ago everyone decided that it was stupid that they needed to have have an anglocised name and switched it back to it's original name. We couldn't find any seafood right away with the exception of a very greasy looking clam fritter which made waiting for the real food an easy decision.

We watched the Wailing Jennys play a set beautiful music accented by me getting to change a guitar string, and then found out where the crab was and got in line. It was just a guy boiling crabs in front of his house. While in line I got scared and then Jen got scared and then we said, "one please". We weren't sure how to eat it but there was lot's of freindly people to show us what to do. It was really good. We headed back to the stage area and got depressed by the bad metal/cover band and decided to head back to our camp ground at the lava beds.

Back in the 1700's there was a massive volcano eruption that killed thousands of natives. It was crazy. There's miles and miles of hardened lava. I can't believe I had never heard about it. There's a story about kids cutting open salmon and putting shale in their back and laughing at the fish trying to swim. Apparently this is what caused the volcano to errupt. Needless to say Jen and I both vowed never to do such a thing.

More very soon, including a new Neanderthal y'all.

I'm a Smithereen. I've been here for a couple weeks and I'm finding it pretty easy to settle in. There's plenty of natural beauty here and Jen and I went for long bicycle rides the last 2 days to check it out. On Saturday we headed up to check out the fossil beds, a trip that ended up taking about 4-5 hours. Yesterday we went and checked out Galcier Gultch. It was another couple of hours of up hill riding. We had to push our bikes for a while because of the length of up hill road and the steepness of the road. When you get to Galcier Gultch it's well worth it as you can tell from the photos and then it's down hill most of the way back which is fun. If you come visit me, I'll take you up there. Back to work tomorow.