09.19.11 
jspeer
One of the best things about living in Oregon in general and Southern Oregon in particular is it’s gloriously easy to live 100% local. One person i know here raises pigs, a host of people grow vegetables, and a large cohort make wine. Really, think about it, everything you might want can be had for the cost of a bicycle ride. If you happen to drive a diesel you can even fill the tank from locally produced bio diesel.
But today’s topic is wine. Of the many local vineyards we sampled over the past few months we both agreed Trium had the best product. And more than just wine there was something special about the place as well. They don’t make their wines at the vineyard, production is handled off-site, but off-site in this case is just down the road a bit. Mostly this is due to the small volume of finished wine produced. The recent release of their cab sauv was only 75 cases.
09.12.11 jspeer
I still feel strange talking about 9/11. I wasn’t there. I was in Saint Paul, Minnesota. I was working at Ordway Center for the Performing Arts. I was sharing a windowless office at the very end of a hallway in a mid-rise glass-and-steel mixed-use building. I got a call from my wife, “they’re saying a plane just hit the world trade center.”
09.7.11 jspeer
Evidence now points to rat(s). In fact there seems to be a bit of a rat problem in Ashland. Several people have mentioned seeing rats in alleys and even hearing them in walls. This could be a symptom of the relatively high vacancy rate in some areas of town. This is especially true of common-wall condos where a unit in the middle is vacant and was not fully cleaned prior to vacancy.
That a rat might have been at large in a house with two very active cats makes me grumpy and a bit nervous, too.
In other news: http://blogs.hbr.org/haque/2011/09/was_marx_right.html
09.5.11 jspeer
Ok, as a species, we have much in common with mice. Generally i get on fine with mice. But unlike the mice that lived in our Brooklyn apartment for a while, these Oregon mice have pissed me off.
