WALKING, PACKING AND MORE

* I am starting to get packed for my trip. Because I am an organizer I always start by making my list of things to take, begin setting things aside, and even getting my clothes ready to be put into my bag. The only big decision is two bags or three? Dragging three bags around for a month is not something that I am excited about so I think I will go easy on myself and just take two. My back will appreciate it.

* We've had a string of just wonderful Maine weather during recent days. Sunny, in the 70's, with a cool breeze blowing. The smell of grass and the bounty of flowers all over. I've been walking everyday lately through town, down to the river, and then up heartbreak hill that leads back to our house. I've got to build stamina for this journey.

* Friend Peter Woodruff and I did our radio show last night at Bowdoin College. He just returned from a holiday trip to Quebec and while he was there he bought some French-separatist music from the province, so we played it on the air. Nice tunes.

* While I am gone Peter and Mary Beth will be going to Woodstock, New York to speak at an economic conversion conference being planned there by a longtime Global Network member who lives in that community. Apparently a military corporation has opened up a production plant in Woodstock so the peace community has quickly responded with a conversion campaign. The signs of a militarized economy and culture are popping up all around us. Peter works at Bath Iron Works (BIW) where the Aegis destroyers are made and has been a leading voice in Maine for the idea of building wind turbines at BIW.

* It's mid-season break time for baseball so the Orioles have four days off. They are holding steady in last place, just in case you were wondering. So I've had to be creative in the evenings this week not having a game to watch via the computer.

* I've got Skype set up on my computer now so I can talk over the Internet. Yesterday I had a nice chat with our GN chairperson Dave Webb in the UK. It's free and other than him looking various shades of blue on the screen it worked well. I promise though that I will never Twitter....don't even like the sound of it.

* I've learned that while in Korea I will visit one of the six Korean reunification activists who was recently jailed under the "National Security Law". This particular woman was on the organizing committee that hosted our space organizing conference there last April. You might recall that we gathered hundreds of signatures in support of the six who were arrested. I will be sure to write about them more in the future. Their trials begin on July 17. See story here