I was so good!

Yesterday I Got Things Accomplished! I filed eleven months worth of paperwork (Yeah, the in basket was overflowing!) I copied some recipes from "Victorian Cakes" loaned to me by Diane. A wonderful book. I'm going to try a couple of them on the knitters. And with the applesauce / honey cake, I'm going to use the buckwheat honey. It has a distinct, strong flavor that may take some getting used to, so I'll slice the cake way thin. And I'll make almond feather cake. Supposedly, it's light as a feather.

I paid bills, I took Candy to the vet (her sinus infection is back) I cleaned the litter boxes (The cats still won't have a thing to do with the Cat Genie, and the other boxes REEKED!!) I cleaned up after my last sewing blitz, and I issued the invites to this month's knitting get-together.

And THEN, DH and I went to pad the attendance figures for a planning meeting that MJ and RW are so very fervent about. They are fervent with cause. They live out in the country, near where some guy bought prime farm and timber land relatively cheaply, and wants to put a biodiesel plant on it, completely against all zoning regulations. About four hundred people showed up to protest it at the first meeting. They had a hall that would hold 65. Ooops. So they held a second meeting, and we were persuaded to add our bodies to the weight against the plan.

It was more interesting and organized than I had expected. And the citizens raised some excellent points - such as fire protection out there in the tules. An hour and a half away from any agency with the equipment and training to fight chemical fires. And water pollution - it is both an earthquake zone, and a primary watershed area. And air pollution - there's a cemetary across the road. Biodiesel production can be very stinky. Won't that enhance the experience when you're burying uncle Bob? And traffic problems: The site is 27 miles back on a rural road. They will have to have large trucks traveling to and fro all day. The road has a steep hill ending in a curve called "Deadman's Curve" Not too original a name, but quite accurate. The guy who owns the property says that there have been over fourty cars through the fence there this year alone. Get a slow truck going up a hill and some impatient young rednecks behind him in their powerful pickups, and you have a sure fire recipe for tragedy.

Anyhow, I was convinced that the biodiesel guy should be ridden out of town on a splintery rail and made to surrender his property to a land trust. but we left early, so there's no telling how it all ended.

But it's the American democratic process at work, and it's great to see it actually working!