Archive
Happy Interdependence Day
After a couple of hectic days at home we packed up and headed back to Columbia. We got a room at The Spa on Spruce, as the hot tub and backyard garden make it feel more like a vacation.
I did a podcast yesterday morning and had a campaign meeting with a Senate candidate yesterday. It’s exciting to open a second front on the war against authoritarianism with moving to fire a Kansas Senator who gutted Medicaid when he knows how devastating it will be to his constituents.
The podcast was heavy on CoreCivic, the troubled private prison we are working to keep from becoming an ICE detention facility back in Leavenworth. I’ll share the link when it comes out. Earlier in the week a story by the Marshall Project came out. The Guardian ran it so it was nice to get some national/international coverage. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2025/07/01/leavenworth-kansas-immigration-prison-fight
Today it was grocery shopping, hot tubbing, and off to the beach at Finger Lakes. Another family joined our picnic table while we were in the lake so we just made them part of our party. We’re going to catch fireworks tonight. We brought bikes to drive to the edge of traffic and park and ride in.
Tomorrow it’s a quarry lake party and a neighborhood festival. Sunday we make our way home. Things heat up at CoreCivic with the next hearing taking place at 10:00. Follow along for updates. Here’s a flyer on my book reading in CoMo. If you’re in the area you should come.
Happy Easter
It’s been a great long holiday weekend visiting with family and friends. Even with a doctor’s appointment and some work it’s been nice to focus on family and connection and making memories. Most significantly I finished the final edits on my manuscript and The Practical Guide to Building a Better World will get its layout and final design this week. Very exciting.
We’ve also had a tremendous spring this year and we found time to visit with the Spring ephemerals. With a long frost free period with rain the flowering trees have put on a show and are mostly supported by the budding hardwoods.
Easter is a time of new beginnings. The Spring renewal. I thought I might share my Easter poem/song I wrote some years back. We know of the eponymous Eostre only through the writings of the 8th century, I think, ecclesiastical historian the Venerable Bede. As a super nerdy kid I have been a fan since high school.
He records her name and that the preconquest European indigenous honored her at this time of year. That’s it.
Looking at religious origins of European religions the spring nature goddess Eostre was likely a close cousin of Assana/Astarra. Their stories are better preserved. Her hares ate the dark covering that surrounded the sun, freeing it for the first sunrise. Thanks for the dawn Easter Bunny!
Eggs are of course a symbol of life. Think The Great Egg of Euphrates. With that laid out here’s my Easter ditty.
The Venerable Bede was a friend to me
‘Cuz he told stories
Stories of the way things used to be
Before the great genocide of Europe
That came with the coming of Christianity.
Eostre/Astara/Asana was the goddess of fertility
She sent her swift hares to guide us
From the darkness to the light where we can see
And water drawn on Easter morn is holy
Eggs represent the Earth’s fecundity
And Easter’s really about Eostre
The forgotten women erased from history.
Be peace today. Get outside and see the beauty. Recommit to a life worth living.
Last night I missed a stair, rolled my foot, and ended up with a solid sprain. I hit it with RICE which has given me some unexpected time for reading.
I had picked up Steve Wiegenstein’s novel The Language of Trees. It’s the third of four (so far) in his historical fiction account of a utopian community in the Missouri Ozarks. I’ve been savoring the series with a little pause between each one.
It hits all the right notes. I am a long student of American utopian communities in general and Missouri ones in particular. I had read the founder of the Oneida Colony John Humphrey Noyes’s excellent history of American utopian communities when I was a first semester freshman and it made a big impact on me. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Humphrey_Noyes
Steve Wiegenstein is also a fan. When the Columbia Men’s Book Club read his book of short stories he came to the meeting to talk about his book and he ended up joining our esteemed body. Being with friends with Steve makes reading his stuff a treat but the books stand on their own.
I love the Missouri history and geography and this book covers the very short and very brutal time when the old growth stands were cleared in 20 years. As devastating as the Civil War in many ways, I’m looking forward to learning something as well as exploring an important and sad time in history.
What I like most about reading Steve is his keen insight into the human condition. His characters are flawed and real and he captures the awkward struggle of navigating through life with the dialectics of our dreams and commitments and societal expectations and the yearnings of our hearts as well as anyone putting pen to paper.
You should catch the first book of the series for sure. https://www.stevewiegenstein.com/
The Language of Trees
Last night I missed a stair, rolled my foot, and ended up with a solid sprain. I hit it with RICE which has given me some unexpected time for reading.
I had picked up Steve Wiegenstein’s novel The Language of Trees. It’s the third of four (so far) in his historical fiction account of a utopian community in the Missouri Ozarks. I’ve been savoring the series with a little pause between each one.
It hits all the right notes. I am a long student of American utopian communities in general and Missouri ones in particular. I had read the founder of the Oneida Colony John Humphrey Noyes’s excellent history of American utopian communities when I was a first semester freshman and it made a big impact on me. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Humphrey_Noyes
Steve Wiegenstein is also a fan. When the Columbia Men’s Book Club read his book of short stories he came to the meeting to talk about his book and he ended up joining our esteemed body. Being with friends with Steve makes reading his stuff a treat but the books stand on their own.
I love the Missouri history and geography and this book covers the very short and very brutal time when the old growth stands were cleared in 20 years. As devastating as the Civil War in many ways, I’m looking forward to learning something as well as exploring an important and sad time in history.
What I like most about reading Steve is his keen insight into the human condition. His characters are flawed and real and he captures the awkward struggle of navigating through life with the dialectics of our dreams and commitments and societal expectations and the yearnings of our hearts as well as anyone putting pen to paper.
You should catch the first book of the series for sure. https://www.stevewiegenstein.com/
Ann Peters Localist Hero
During my first campaign for Columbia City Council I was encouraged by my consultants to reach out to Ann Peters. She could be difficult but could be a real workhorse if you could work with her. I found Ann to be delightful. Straightforward and gruff with strong opinions but she was my most reliable campaign volunteer.
She would drive while I knocked on doors which would double my numbers. I won that race primarily on my door knocking. While we drove around we’d talk policy and life, and became good friends.
I remember going to this bombed out trailer which didn’t even have a complete roof. Ann saw a light on and insisted I go talk to him appealing to me as a social worker. It was this totally obscure conspiracy theorist who told me about his documentary on a pedophile ring in Iowa. He neither needed help nor could vote for me as he was relocating.
Ann and I went out to Waffle House after my watch party. She was a good friend and was active as a Columbia Planning and Zoning Commissioner. She fought developers and pushed for the tree protection ordinance, storm water reform, and other sustainability changes. She also rejected NIMBYism and has a keen appreciation for infill projects.
She also was big in the No Kill movement and did some proselytizing on me to address the issue. We had our first falling out over her lack of faith in Health and Human Services oversight over the Humane Society. She called me “dangerously naive” and hung up on me when I wouldn’t demand animal control records on a Friday afternoon, certain the Director would forge numbers over the weekend.
I didn’t get any help in my next two campaigns. I did help her on her County Commission race. I was skeptical but felt I owed her the help. As I saw her run I saw her largely rise to the occasion and I became convinced enough to choose her in the privacy of the ballot box.
I felt though Ann could be rash and difficult ahe would be a bulldog for progressive change. She was smart but had a reading disability. I would have liked to have seen Boone County staff rise to the challenge of having her in leadership. She came in a respectable third I believe and didn’t embarrass herself.
She endorsed the Republican after the winner of the Democratic primary had done some negative campaigning. I had endorsed him myself over a complicated matter of a County law suit over late Tax Increment Financing reports, so I might have encouraged this.
Ann left public affairs for a quiet life in a farm she owned with her sister Betsy. She gave me some heirloom tomatoes and peppers when we visited over the 4th of July. She had developed a quiet solidity isolated on the farm through COVID and beyond. She seemed at peace.
She loves the land and loved Columbia. She left a lasting legacy with her successful work in electing progressive City Council Members, including myself, important work on the spay and neuter clinic and her 5 years on Planning and Zoning.
We were sideways again when she died. I wish I would have been more supportive in the situation that led up to our last tiff.
Holiday Letter 2024
What a year it’s been. The New Year found me in San Diego celebrating with my friend Steve from grad school. I always feel like, if I haven’t seen you for a long time when I do we’ll pick up where we left off and we did.
The La Brea Tar Pits have been on my list of things to do since I was a kid and they did not disappoint. I traveled on to the Bay Area where I stayed on another friend’s boat in the Berkeley Marina and also visited friends in Concord.
I was traveling in a Dodge Grand Caravan that had been given to me to support my homelessness work. During this phase of travel I started to work on my book The Practical Guide to Building a Better World. I began with an outline of each chapter and finished that in the first two weeks of the year.
After visiting friends I went back to travel, dispersed camping, hiking, seeing the sights and finding time to write. I had memorable visits to Death Valley and the surrounding area before heading East.
Chapter 1 was written as I more or less drive across highway 40 across Arizona and New Mexico. I stopped at a lot of ancient sites and took a deep dive into Petroglyph National Monument. I stayed a few days in Gallup which I’ve always liked and spent a day in Canyon de Celle which had also been on my list for a long time.
I stayed in more motels then usually because it was fairly cold for van sleeping. Between completing 28 days of stoic philosophical exercises and building in a routine of exercise and writing I accomplished what I wanted to on the trip.
Coming back through Kansas I visited Shae who I’d been talking to during my trip after starting dating before I left Leavenworth for an epic road trip last November. It went well and I returned for a Valentine’s Day date and she and the kids visited me in Columbia as well.
I had left my job to travel and write but I did some homeless outreach work and related case management in Columbia in the Spring for a couple of months with 4-A-Change. My brother John has taken over the business since I left Columbia but as he was between case managers I helped out until he could hire someone and I helped train them.
It was timely as I wrote my chapter on social service delivery doing the work. I had some modest successes and showed I could still do it. I also did training on case management for volunteers with CoMo Mobile Aid and Loaves and Fishes and later for the Flourish Initiative while I was steeped in the local resources.
Mostly though I was struck by the increase in homelessness and the difficulties at finding housing. I also noted a lot more seniors out there. It’s getting tougher and meaner every day with services increasingly strained.
My romance with Shae continued to blossom and we took a romantic weekend to Excelsior Springs. Our spending time together led me to staying over more until in retrospect we were living together.
Adjusting to family life was a nice transition and being a writer is a good lifestyle to relocate for your relationship. I kept on pace with the book and over the summer I found my voice for the book and began telling more stories versus technical details on building positive change.
We started to look for a property to buy but we struck out on finding the right live/work space for her photography studio. We did find a great historic home and we closed on it just before Thanksgiving.
I finished my manuscript and began to edit. A month or more of that and it was off to the publisher. We’re through the copy edit and initial cover design. We should be having presales together shortly after the holidays and should have books in the spring.
We’ve been packing and getting ready to move early in the next year. It’s very exciting.
I also reconnected with some old campaign staff and organizers who were excited about the book. Together we launched a political action committee called the New American Community to support my organizing and to promote localism. We’re claiming July 4th, 2024 as our born on date.
We supported some house candidates with fundraising assistance and built a digital fundraising operation. We have been preparing materials as well as doing some election advertising around the overall disappointing national election. Mostly though we’re building for the long haul.
Our goal is to identify, train, and support an organizer in every county in America, all 3,153 of them. We’re starting with the hard ones first. Our big campaign for 2025 will be to outreach and organize with county parties.
We believe that especially in very Republican areas organizing to win an election every 2 years is not the best strategy. We would like to see county parties organized as community benefit organizations working to meet the needs of their residents whatever that may be.
Think Nationally, Act Locally is our motto so we’re starting in Kansas where we received a promising welcome from the state party. We’re also talking to Missouri leadership and have been well received where we’ve been able to make contact.
Tomorrow Shae and I fly into Detroit to spend the holidays with my family and friends. New Years will find us in our new home celebrating a late Christmas with the boys.
On a personal note I’m down 62 pounds since my 2023 high. After returning to Leavenworth I joined a gym and hired a trainer to work on my posture and gait. I have been discharged from treatment for my liver and my sports medicine doctor who was addressing my knees.
Life is good and I’m excited to see what adventures 2025 brings. The move, the PAC organizing and book tour promise another year of consequence and travel. I hope this year your holidays are safe and bright. I will close with an important message from Batman.
Meeting Rey (epic road trip 2 #5)
So I’ve fallen behind in my narrative. When I left I had planned on leaving Big Bend because all the sites at Rio Grande Village were reserved and I was overwhelmed by Recreation.Gov to look at other sites. I decided to hit the hot springs on my way out. The panel of pictographs I hadn’t been able to find popped out and the hot springs were hopping a bit.
There was a guy sharing a black bear video from earlier in the week and we struck up a conversation. I’ve been doing Stoic spiritual exercises for a week at this point and Rey was also a week into his spiritual journey so we hit it off more than a bit. He posts his stuff at http://www.us385.com
We ran into each other again and ended up going on a hike and I spent a couple more nights at his campsite at Cottonwood. Rey is a great local guide and he took me to an obscure pictograph site our first day and a settlement site with more mortero holes than I’d ever seen at one place.
While we were at the mortero site we found a sheltered ledge by a water tank that was a perfect spot for a mountain lion. There was some scat and we heard it yowling as we were leaving.
Rey was a great guide and we had some wild coincidences besides both being a week into our wilderness/spiritual journeys. We were both wearing green zipper pants and we had both sewed buttons on them the day before. Rey got me paying attention to my dreams. I’ve been aot more rooted in philosophical inquiry and practice/study and less into mystical experience but being dream aware has been a nice addition to my practice.
Walking back from the mortero site Rey showed me how to spot artifacts and we saw a ton of worked stones and some rocks set up as a base for wickiups.
I also saw some pictographs that had been degraded off of Indian Head Road with some better directions then when I couldn’t find them before. Then I explored the Alpine and Marfa area.
I checked out the Museum of the Big Bend and dis some hiking. After that I went up to Fort Davis, which was the best fort so far of the six I’ve seen. I finished up the area at the Chihuahuan Desert Research Center and cactus museum which is definitely worth seeing.
It’s been a busy time and I haven’t had a chance for an update. I wrapped up my job in Leavenworth 9 days ago. I have been bringing most of my stuff back to my house in Columbia, Missouri and brought in the last load Wednesday evening. In addition to unloading and some unpacking I cleaned house and made a good part of Thanksgiving dinner. Except for not making enough time for getting active minutes it has been a good productive couple of days.
I had a couple friends over and they brought the rest of the dinner and we had quite a feast. I put the most effort into the green bean casserole. I made my own fried onions for the topping as well as a white sauce from scratch. I used canned green beans as using them up was the impetus for the dinner.
I also did a turkey breast. I made an herbal rub out of local minced garlic, fresh rosemary and sage out of the garden, thyme, lemon juice, & olive oil. I cooked it in a cup of Northeast Kansas vignole from Z&M Twisted Vines and cooked for 1 1/2 hours at 350.
In addition to setting up my stuff I’ve been getting ready for my next epic road trip. I’m putting together my final box of stuff I need from home including: Jumper cables, tow strap, tent, drip coffee top and filters, collapsible bucket, checkbook, & the clothes I wore here.
Task wise I need to file for Obamacare, fill out my personal property tax affirmation, fix my PayPal, authorize my new credit card and water plants. I’m also trying to rake leaves and print a document on the 4 Stoic Virtues that I am going to structure my 31 days of spiritual exercises to ride out 2023 and start off 2024 more disciplined and centered.
I’m planning on leaving Thursday of next week. My last road trip I drove 5,000 miles over 2 months. That seems like a lot but it’s only around 73 miles a day. Gas is the biggest expense considering you have to buy food whatever you’re doing. I like to go slow, stay off the interstate and see all the outdoor attractions on the way.
My first stop will be a municipal playground outside of Fort Scott and I will check out the historical fort. Then on to Paola and Pittsburgh Kansas. After that I want to check out those 2 counties in northeast Oklahoma that are Ozark highlands. Then continuing south through the Oachitas and into Texas.
My first significant site is Big Bend National Park. A couple of weeks there and I’ll head west sticking close to the border and check out Guadalupe National Park and so on. I plan to go on for at least 9 weeks. After my spiritual exercises I’m going to outline and start writing a book. If I get my 300 words + a day and am having fun I’ll keep going west to San Diego and all the soCal sites Anza Berrega, Death Valley, & Joshua Tree. Then up the coast to the East Bay and back to Missouri in the Spring in time to pay my taxes and establish medical care.
All of this is subject to change. I’ve only looked at day 1 camping because if it’s cold I’ll go South quicker. If I’ve not yet committed and weather suggests an alternate itinerary I’m open to that. I did get a Federal Lands Park pass so that is an impetus to go west.
I started reading Empire of the Summer Moon to better understand the history of the area. It has filled in some blank spaces in my knowledge. I’ll likely finish before I set out.
That’s about it. Getting ready to turn in. Hiking the High Ridge Trail at Rock Bridge State Park tomorrow morning, raking leaves and seeing the Fried Crawdaddies and a who’s who of local bands doing their Thanksgiving weekend tribute show to The Last Waltz. Thanks for reading this far and please follow along on Epic Road Trip 2. Also please comment your questions, comments and concerns.
dill pickles
Had a request for my dill pickles recipe. From a real foody like Jeff I am flattered. I’ve poured over old blog entries but only documented my variations on bread and butter pickles. Probably won’t do pickles this year with Sarah in St Louis and myself busy. I hope to primer the kitchen and dining room today instead. I also haven’t blogged for a while. Plan to get more on that a bit and still hope to bring the old blog public again. I found a bunch of links to spam sites on an old post so I need to go over the thing from bottom to top and put on a good edit and re-read and make sure there is nothing to damaging there. Next month. Things have at least settled down a bit where I get some down time. I’m getting lazy and responsive, frittering away any time I don’t have constant demands.
For dills though do as follows: Bring to a boil 8 1/2 cups water, 2 1/4 cup white vinegar, 1/2 cup canning salt. Put the equivalent of 7 quarts of jars mouth down in an inch of water and bring to a boil. Boil your your lids and rings in a separate pan. Boil all of them for at least 5 minutes. Stuff your jaw with cut up cukes, 2-4 garlic bulbs depending on size and a sprig of fresh dill (cosmos leaves work as an adequate substitute) and cherry leaves, asian basil and grape leaves are acceptable variants. Garlic and dill is the old school way. Stuff as much cukes as you can to make your brine last. Pour the brine up to 1/2 an inch of the lid. Put on hot lids and rings and sit on the counter top down for a day. Let them sit a month before eating to get up to flavor perhaps 6 weeks. Crisp pickles come in two ways. Pickle them the day or the day after they are picked or you can lime them. If you buy a pack of pickling lime directions are on the container. It changes the flavor a bit but even elderly cukes come out nice and crisp. Fresh is best.
Election Day
Well at long last it is finally here. I woke up early like I needed to for the plan. I was groggy, sleep has been hard to come by and last night was no exception. Up late doing stuff, mind turning, fitful sleep. I made coffee and grabbed my stainless steel water bottle out of the car pleased with my forethought for remembering where it was in the car and remembering to grab it, not going to have time to drink it at home got to get rolling to glad hand after at the polling place after voting. It wasn’t until the bottle heated up and I dropped it spilling hot coffee all over my hand that I remembered I don’t drink coffee in the stainless steel water bottle but in the stainless steel coffee cup. No harm no fowl. Good coffee though, a light roast Rwandan I roasted yesterday, quite yummy. Almost a nutty flavor.
I got my shower, shave and dressed as fancy I get, pretty much, my nice shirt, my first silk tie I bought new, perhaps all the way back in the 80s. It was late 80s so not totally narrow but narrow on the top and flared out at the bottom, not like they make ties now but passable.
I’d gotten vetoed on taking Fido to campaign with me. Last year, regular readers may recall I took Fido to the polls. It was the day after Dad had died and we were coming back from the dog park. We’d opened up our hearts to some sweet old ladies (sisters I recall) and we had all talked about losing our Dads. At the polling place I saw Henry from across the street (he’s working another polling place this year) and he offered his condolences and me and all the poll workers all talked about losing our dads. I never felt more part of a community then to walk out of my house and find solace in the comfort of my neighbors.
I’m very emotional today, crying as I write this. The campaign has been a wonderful distraction as the one year anniversary approaches but I am melting down today, just a bit. Its normal politically astute folks have told me. Excuse me while I go find a tissue.
That’s better. Breathe in Breathe out. So I walked down to the polls, sans Fido. A neighbor I had spoken to at length yesterday (for the third time, I had won her vote, Bill Pauls came by and stole it, I spoke at length to her husband trying to get a yard sign placement when he told me about Bill, but won her back yesterday on the final pass). She pushed the edge of talking about the campaign in the sacred neutrality of the polling place. I told her I called it a “personal project” when I talked about the campaign at work.
I did the same thing at City Council meeting when I spoke up for some neighbors who wanted a zoning change delayed to gather more neighbors. I publicly commented in favor of the tabling at one of their all’s request and talked about how I had canvassed the neighborhood for a “personal project”. As I was leaving I was set upon by some J-school students for an interview and none of them knew I was a candidate and had a fair shot at being on the Council next meeting. It was funny. (tabling passed 5-1, only dissenter was our current rep who I think is bent because I’ve been campaigning against his comment that the Ward was “apathetic”. He also isn’t trying to develop a cordial working relationship with me as the rest of the council appears to be. I also obliquely referenced that in my comments which probably didn’t help.)
The woman I worked so hard to capture her vote voted absentee yesterday (that’s at least 3 of those plus my own so I’m getting at least 4 votes). Another neighbor was there, I had gone by her house a couple of times but she never answered the door. She’s super-religious and felt she was voting for Pauls, I would have if I was her in spite of a personal connection which she made an oblique reference to herself, so perhaps I did win her vote. I’ve done a good turn or two for the community and there will be some folks who don’t normally vote showing up today.
Seeing yourself on the ballot is pretty cool. These things are close so I chose myself. I got my sticker and put my ballot in the ballot machine.
I went outside and stepped past the “no electioneering past this point” sign and should have slipped on my “Michael Trapp for Ward 2 City Council” badge and started thanking people for coming out but just couldn’t do it. As I told my advisers in an email “I’m not really a friendly and outgoing person. I just learned to act like one and I can’t do it this morning”. The church is my neighbor and they have a sign saying “no trespassing except for church business”. I respect that. The counter-argument is that by providing access to the polls that extends to electioneering on site but it was all to ambiguous, it was early, I felt weird and I am tired, not just tired but weary to the bone.
So I walked home took off my tie and dress shirt and wrote this blog. I am going to make a second pot of coffee and put some time in the garden, perhaps nap if my racing mind allows, and probably take the dog for a walk. I’ve earned a little R&R. Hell I’m going to put shorts on. I closed my email with “If I lose by 3 votes I will feel silly and self-indulgent”. True dat. If I get a chance to do this again I will take a friend with me to buck me up.
Multiconstruct 
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