111503

 

Arcata, CA

Saturday November 15, 2003

     3:34pm  I'm leaving, man. I wasted yet another day. I just stayed at Kati's and played Sonic the Hedgehog 3 all day. When Kati left this morning she told me I could stay. Cassandra, her roommate didn't seem to mind me. Me thinking I wasn't going to play that much, I played a long time. I got to level six. Now, I'm going to walk into town and see what happens to me today.

     3:40pm  I was walking towards town from Kati's and umm, good 'ol Geneva, Ian and Geba drove by in a van and they're going to give me a ride! Awesome. I got in and Ian handed me a loaded pipe. 

                   Geba wanted to sing into my recorder and attempted to sing On the Road Again by Willie Nelson. He doesn't know the original lyrics and it's just a bunch of Geba-gibberish.

     3:55pm  Geneva just parked in town at the Ace Hardware. She went inside and Geba,

 

Ian and I are sitting in the van still. It started raining again. That sucks. I'm glad I got picked up and am in a dry place right now.

     4:24pm  We drove out to Manila with Geneva. We're at somebody's place out here. It really reminds me of Shadow's place in Oregon. Frontier living. There's all these gardens and stuff. Inside, are two dudes with beards watching TV.

                    James Anthony Venible: "Be sure to look up Planet Walker. I forget the guys' real name. He's some black guy. He was going around the world and for years he did not speak or ride in an automobile. He would just walk along and play his banjo. He even did demonstrations for kids and stuff like that. He was an advocate. I first ran across him in the summer of 74. He was mute-walker then. He wanted to walk around the world. I'm sure he rode on a boat, though."

                    I told him I would look up Planet Walker on the web...and I just did:

Planet Walker
                    A man who gave up cars to help fight pollution reflects on his ongoing walk around the world. By Ted Snyder

                    John Francis is one of few people who can claim walking as an occupation. This Inverness, California, man has spent almost three decades on a global pedestrian journey to call attention to the environment. And for 17 years, he also gave up speech and traveled under a vow of silence. Francis started walking in 1972 after an oil tanker spilled half a million gallons into San Francisco Bay. "Walking seemed to be the thing that was most accessible to me. I mean there's always something that we can do when there's some kind of issue happening, but usually we look at it and say, 'well, if I do that it's not really going to do much to change things.'" Francis is trying to change things through what he calls a "Planet Walk." He says his goal is to get people thinking about their own responsibility for the environment. The journey has taken Francis across the United States, South America, and several Caribbean islands. Along the way he's earned a Ph.D. and been named a goodwill ambassador by the United Nations. Francis ended his 17-year vow of silence on Earth Day 1990, and gave up his aversion to cars.
                    "For me not to ride in cars, while it may not have changed, you know, national policy, or what people do, it was a beginning for change in me, and each of us need to find that place to begin." Francis plans to continue his Planet Walk until he has crossed every continent. He says it's a way to connect with people and cultures on a personal level. He'll be walking across Cuba next year. You can follow his journey through his Planetwalk web site.

                    Everyone check out www.planetwalk.org

                    Finally, Geneva brought us back to town. I was hungry and no one was giving me change for a donut. Just then, this nice girl Bella hooked me up with some sandwiches. Cool. Perfect timing.

     6:47pm  I haven't updated in a long time. The sun is already down. It set a long time ago. Earlier I was just walking into town to see what would happen to me. Then, this girl with Ian and Geba drove up and she ended up giving me a ride out to Manila. We went and hung out at this hippie house.

                    I'm walking towards Kati's right now. I don't even know if she's home, but that's where I'm going right now. I don't have shit to do, at least nothing better to do than go see my baby.

     7:10pm  I'm almost to Kati's and some guy just walked by and told me my backpack was unzipped.

     7:13pm  I got to Kati's house. I hope somebody's home.

Next day..