A Rash Reminder
All too easily we can succumb to heart disease from fast food, or, worse, lethargy brought on by electron overload from our computers and TVs. We can become Pavlovian robots surrendering free will to a ringtone or text message, compulsively plugged in to an ethereal expanse of cyberspace. Living-dead, continually rooted in an alternate reality that is akin to schizophrenia — we try to be present but all too often we are living dually in a digital unreality.
Well, moving out of your house can help. Throw all your important things in the back of a truck and hit the road. Or better yet, sell the truck and hitchhike and take mass transit. Sleep in the dirt, eat when you’re hungry and shower when you are really dirty — like every few days. High adventure for sure, and given the current social and political climate, where a forest is good for the dollar value it can bring when parceled into a subdivision or as checker-boarded clear cuts, this kind of frivolous thinking is in jeopardy of becoming high treason.
And, yes, even poison oak is a good reminder, as well as a view of an elusive mountain lion. The wild helps reconnect us to the fact that we are living human beings in a physical world, with lots of other living things — something we are desperately in peril of losing. John Muir knew this: He bailed out with a tiny rucksack and a pocket full of flour and survived well for weeks at a time in the mountains, living a life of high quality high adventure well into his 70s.
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Today
Lanphere Dunes Restoration
STAFF PICK / outdoors / 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Meet at Pacific Union School. Help remove non-native invasives at the Lanphere Dunes Unit of the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Tools and gloves provided, wear work clothes and bring water. Carpool to the protected site. 444-1397.
44th Annual Kinetic Grand Championship Race
STAFF PICK / events, art, outdoors, sports, for kids, free / 9 a.m.-6 p.m. A 3-day, 42-mile kinetic sculpture race over land, sand, mud and water! LeMans start at the Noon Whistle on the Arcata Plaza. Follow the race through Manila, Eureka and into Ferndale on Memorial Day for the Glorious Finish. kineticgrandchampionship.com. 889-3024.
Open Gardens
outdoors / 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Humboldt Botanical Gardens, College of the Redwoods, Eureka. Roam the 44-acre fully fenced property. $5. www.hbgf.org. 442-5139.
Organic Gardening Seminar
garden / 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Shafer's Ace Hardware and Garden Center, 2760 E St., Eureka. Free lecture by Duncan McNeill on how to create a healthy environment and healthy soils for your plant’s roots. E-mail shafers@sbcglobal.net. 442-5734.
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