Signed Sealed and Delivered.

Yes, we can and we did.

Obama Taking the Oath. ~ Photo: Damon Winter/The New York Times

Throngs Watch the Ceremony. ~ Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Concert On The Mall

Jill & Joe Biden, Barack & Sasha Obama

Pete Seeger was a rickety old man over 20 years ago when I saw him at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival. He must be at least 100 years old. What a hopeful omen for the country that he was there at the Lincoln Memorial today singing Woody Guthry's This Land Is Your Land, yes, with all the verses.

Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen, Beyonce, will.i.am

Beyoncé - America The Beautiful

I feel a little corny but can not stop my eyes from watering while Beyonce leads the crowd in singing America the Beautiful.

Here They Come...

Michelle Obama - Our New First Lady
At Train stop in Wilmington, Delaware to Pick up the Bidens

Taking the same train route that Abraham Lincoln took to his inauguration, President Elect Obama is undertaking the final leg of his inaugural journey to the nation's capital. Stopping along the way aboard the vintage 1930s Georgia 300 coach Barack Obama is speaking to the American people pledging to reclaim America's spirit as he warns of steep the challenges facing the country.

In Philadelphia Obama said, "Let's build a government that is responsible to the people and accept our own responsibilities as citizens to hold our government accountable... Let's make sure this election is not the end of what we do to change America, but the beginning and the hope for the future."

Barack Obama Waves to Crowds in Claymont, Delaware

Mini Mac Lives!

Mini-Mac Lives! with my deepest and sincerest thanks to my neighbors Lee, for sending Roger over, and Roger for performing the resurrection. I may be turning into a droid but when my computer crashes I do too.

Its not just because of my blog habit/obsession but I use my Mini-Mac for so many things including aspects of my jobs not to mention making up flyers and emailing them out. Here is my most recent, a flyer inviting folks to the upcoming Inauguration Day Potluck at the High School. Obviously I owe a debt to Shepard Fairey, the designer of the now iconic Obama poster.

One thing that may have put my Mini-Mac over the edge was my attempt to make a few cents off my blog by advertising books/music/film through an Amazon book carousel. In particular I wanted to feature the book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid by Jimmy Carter and the DVD, Gaza Strip by filmmaker James Longley. Longley, the talented son of my neighbor Roger who brought Mini-Mac back to life, was nominated for an Oscar for this documentary that gives a rare view into life in Gaza under the Israeli occupation.

Carter’s book and Longley’s film are both available at San Juan Island’s public library. San Juan Island Library, the last refuge for the internet addicted during a crash. God Bless the public library.

Peggy Sue Unplugged

Here I am posting at the public library. God bless public libraries! My mini mac has crashed and I have no immediate funds to fix/replace it. If you have a spare Mac laying around that you would be willing to let me use or buy real cheap please call 360-370-5210. I will be able to answer the phone now that I cannot get online. Until then, I hope to be back soon!

People lived for centuries without computers. I myself spent some of the happiest years of my life living off the grid. This is going to be OK.... except I have to get off now because another library patron is waiting....

David vrs Goliath

Israeli Tank

Photo: Ariel Schalit/Associated Press

Gaza Resistance
Photo: Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press

Condoleezza Rice blames Palestine's democratically elected Hamas for bringing Israeli violence down on Gaza. Hamas has fired rockets into Israel. With this rationalization Israeli tanks roll into Gaza. What Rice neglects to acknowledge is that Hamas has very good reason to resist the murderous Israeli occupation of its people. Israel imprisons Gaza in a death grip controlling everything including information going in and out of the occupied territory. With complete disregard for human rights Israeli forces have targeted even clearly marked humanitarian aid vehicles killing not only many hundreds of Palestinian civilians but international aid workers as well. What irony that Israel would turn Gaza into something even worse than the German occupied Warsaw Ghetto.

Link to: U.N. and Red Cross Add to Outcry on Gaza War
Link to: Statements of the Free Palestine Alliance
Link to: Live From occupied Palestine

New Year's Resolutions - A Healthy Future

If getting healthier is on your New Year’s Resolution to-do list here are a few tools you can use to help you along the way.

Eat Tomatoes for Longevity

BLUE ZONES: Go to the Blue Zones website and fill out the Blue Zone Vitality Compass questionnaire to calculate your life expectancy and find out what simple steps you can take to add vitality to you life.

Dan Buettner founded Blue Zones after a National Geographic funded study of world wide populations. Buettner discovered key common practices to living a long and healthy life. Here are the top ten.

1. De-convenience your home – lose the remote, buy a light garage door and lift it yourself, use a shovel instead of a snow-blower.

2. Eat Nuts – Have a can of nuts around your office or home, eat a handful daily.
3. Drink Sardinian wine – Sardinian canonau wine has the world's highest levels of antioxidants. Drink a glass or two a day.
4. Play with your children – this is excellent low intensity exercise and will strengthen a family. Both associated with longer life expectancy.
5. Grow a Garden – This proven stress reducer will put your body through the range of motion and yield fresh vegetables.
6. Hour of Power – Downshift daily with a nap, meditation, prayer or a quiet walk, de-stressing is a proven way to slow aging.
7. Eat Tofu – Arguably the world's most perfect food, eaten by the world's longest lived women. Contains a plant estrogen that makes skin look younger
8. Get a Tan – Doctors are rethinking the notion of slathering yourself with sunscreen. Up to half of Americans are Vitamin D deficient--a condition that can double your chance of dying in any given year. A tan not only looks healthy, it is.
9. Donate your large dinner plates – eat off 9 inch plates as the Okinawans do and reduce calorie consumption at dinner by 20-30%.

10. Write Down your Personal Mission – Know and putting into practice your sense of purpose can give you up to a decade of good life.

Still Life with Teapot and Fruit ~ Paul Gauguin

LIMBA SLIM: Dovetailing nicely, just in case losing weight figures into your New Year's plan for a healthier future, is a helpful new product designed by San Juan Island's own Rebecca Barnard. Limba Slim combines aromatherapy with hypnosis and uses your own limbic system, the most ancient part of your brain by directly accessing it through your sense of smell.

The Limba Slim system comes with a Limba Sniffer, Limba Scent and a 10 minute guided meditation that will gently take you to a beautiful beach where you are guided to make healthy food choices. This is how it works, first dab the scent under your nose and then listen to the meditation. Throughout the day carry the Limba Sniffer with you to bring you back to that relaxed place of luscious, healthy food preferences.