Eric made this picture(and the one below) of me walking away from my bike which I had just propped up against the chain tired tree chomper.
Shackles encompassing the powered front tires of the chain tired tree chomper allows for access to chomp trees high up steep slopes.
It started with a dream the night before the ride. My dreams have gone over the top at this point to where I am now identifying smells, tastes, feelings, sounds and touches while in deep sleep. These perceptions are occurring in the dream while I'm aware that I am actually safely tucked in under the covers and not awake even though I am starting to feel like I am. During these dreams the senses are not just imagined, they are actually perceived and triggering a physical response within me.
For example, a few weeks ago I walked into my Noni's kitchen on route 205 near Wauregan Connecticut backwards in time to when I was just eight years old. I saw her standing there working on the stove top, the dress was the same as was her voice. She stepped away from the pot and I stepped towards it lifting the lid. Not only did I see the delicious soup bubbling within, but I felt the warmth of the burner and in real dream time I immediately smell identified basil mixed with various vegetables and other spices like oregano.
Back to the dream the night before the ride. I was walking through an amazing evergreen forest, it was dark but there was enough light filtering down to realize that what I was walking into was the most beautiful thing on earth at that moment in time. The trees went on forever and the further I walked towards them, the more that I became surrounded by their power. Of course I was smelling the pine and feeling the soft needles under foot when I stopped walking, opened my arms and spoke one word loudly into the majestic boughs covered with needles and cones, "Treespect." That is a Fehrese word if I have ever heard one. The strange thing is that it came to me in a dream while I was sleeping and with the techniques I am using to retain the occurrences of my dreams when I return to the eyes open conscious state I was easily able to remember my new made up word, Treespect.
So, I head to the mountains for a ride with friends with my new word tucked away ready for the implications realizing that the last time I rode in this area was the day that Goelzer died. I felt something more like awareness of respect and power not grief as we took off down Raspberry. Flowing speed stopping once to let a bit of air out of the front in an effort to find that magic rigid pressure that makes things tolerable and fast for that machine. Passed a crash and a funny camera shot and on down the hill.
As time goes on and the overland bike travel gets us around the mountain, the skill and force of these folks I am riding with becomes more apparent. Down in the low near the river a few of us stopped at the well to top off our hydration gear. When I turned the spigot earthen particulate came shooting out and within ten seconds went crystal clear. A short break was had by all and then up the final climb we went for the saddle below Sink Hole.
On the traverse across the meandering grassy double track ridge just as I was wondering about why the word Treespect came to me the night before, there it was plainly in front of me getting larger as I continued pedaling straight for it. The large pieces of equipment sat quietly next to the even quieter piles of long straight hard wood on the left hand side of the path. Behind and above the winners and losers, the sloping hillside was evidence of modern thought. I realized that logging in the now at this spot could not be profitable by the board foot. However, after more thought I also realized that with these huge diesel burners and all the smaller ones that transport the operators in and out of here as well as any other vehicles associated with the business end of crushing the trees down that there must be a subsidy. And there is, it is large. The more your company, I mean country burns in fuel the more the Fed repays you for that waste which is the only way that this big patch of the Lorax's woods in front of me could possibly be in the condition it now is. Foolish, like a repetitive loop of unoriginal thought, but it is not mine.
What is though, is the idea that the subsidies are pushing us further away from what is real. Especially in the right now with more humans on the face of it requiring what is theirs and wanting it immediately. Even the fake empire powers know that soon there will be nothing left here on the planet(sounds like plan it, eh?) which is why they are headed to the moon as we speak in a multiple pronged approach to advance man kind's progress by adding robotic and manned fuel productivity based solutions to the lunar surface. Interestingly enough, the moon is only 1/50th the size of earth which in my world makes it extremely vulnerable. That means the moon's surface is about is big as four lower 48s wrapped into an orb. Yes, it is really happening, although unfortunately there is not really a double click full scope scenario for you to get the Christmas wrapped package to put on the shelf making it easy to understand. I may suggest getting a hold of the works of Chalmers Johnson, specifically to begin with is
Nemesis, from his blow back trilogy. As a scholar this gentleman knows that the moon is the global high ground that a multinational force in the name of earth is ready to lay claim of land and military stake on. I would also suggest to keep an eye on the NY Times' Science page where occasionally there is some information regarding the by 2030 plans for our moon, the only one we have.
