atlantalarry

Great Atlanta Blizzard of 2009

Well, maybe this isn't a blizzard by national standards, but by Atlanta standards it's pretty darned close.  Here are a few more photos.

A stuffed winter squash recipe from the Fat Free Vegan Kitchen

Since I made the decision to opt out of the manner in which most Americans (and most people worldwide, for that matter) produce food and eat, and since I adopted veganism, I've been on the lookout for good sources of cooking methods, ingredients, and recipes.  There are a number fantastic vegan cookbooks on the market now, and four or five really good web resources.

One of my favorite sources for recipes is the Fat Free Vegan Kitchen .  The recipes have been fantastic with clear instructions and beautiful photos.

This weekend I made Sweet Dumpling squash stuffed with lemon-herb rice.  The Dekalb Farmer's Market had everything I needed, aside from the time spent cooking the brown rice the time requirements weren't daunting, and the result was spectacular.  It was a very delicious and attractive side dish.

I'd recommend this blog as a good source of vegan recipes.  My next dish from this blog is going to be
the Mushroom, Lentil, and Wild Rice Timbales

East Atlanta Kid's Club

I've been pretty terrible about updating this blog (I decided quite some time ago that I'd only write when I felt motivated, and lately the spirit has not moved me to write).

But I did want to post this appeal from Jill Sieder of the East Atlanta Kids Club.

As the East Atlanta area has increasingly gentrified, many of us have forgotten that our neighborhood, and the immediately surrounding neighborhoods, are still majority poor and minority.  The East Atlanta Kids Club has performed a wonderful service in working with the disadvantaged children and youth in the area to make sure that they don't fall through the cracks.

I'm going to post the note from Jill in it's entirety.  PLEASE take a few minutes to register online and vote for their project.  The money will be well spent.

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<East_Atlanta_Kids_Club@mail.vresp.com> wrote:

From: East Atlanta Kids Club <East_Atlanta_Kids_Club@mail.vresp.com>
Subject: Last chance to vote & help Kids Club win $10,000!
To: larryfeltonj@yahoo.com
Date: Friday, November 28, 2008, 6:46 PM

Dear Larry,

If you've already voted for our $10,000 idea this week, thank you!
If you haven't, please vote now!

We're in the final showdown of the national contest on Ideablob.com
with our idea to support the East Atlanta Kids Club's after-school
programs.  The final round of voting will last until this Sunday, Nov.
30, at 11:59 pm.

We're currently in 3rd place and need more votes to catch the leader (!)

Please click here to vote for our idea:

http://ideablob.com/3722

If you voted for this idea before - but not this week, during the
final showdown, please vote again -- this week is when it really
counts.  If you haven't voted yet, you'll need to register. It takes 2
minutes, tops, and you won't be spammed or asked to buy anything.

Then please send this link on to your friends, family, neighbors,
coworkers, and get them to vote, too!  If you have any forums like
Facebook or Myspace, a blog or an online forum that you can post on,
please do. These vitally needed funds are worth the effort!

Gratefully yours,

Jill

Jill Sieder

Executive Director

East Atlanta Kids Club

jsieder@eastatlantakids.org

404.635.0795

www.eastatlantakids.org

Otis White's Farewell Article

It's been awhile since I've followed writings on municipal governance issues.  Having taken a hiatus from much of my neighborhood activism to focus on building a personal and family life of a less erratic and transient nature, the governance press didn't seem to be too high a priority on my reading list.

Over the past few days I've decided to hit the books (and newspapers, and websites).  After all, one never knows when one will be asked what newspapers one reads, and I can't afford to subscribe to The Economist. 

So the first thing I did was a web search on Otis White, who wrote a marvelous column for Governing magazine called Otis White's Urban Notebook.  It included many articles of interest to people who want to know how municipal government functions and how it should function.

On doing this search I discovered that he's ended the column, and ended with a great little article named  Seven Big Lessons for Local Governments.  It includes quite a few links to past articles in the Urban Notebook series, and his columns are a must read for anyone serious about municipal governance issues.

He stopped writing the column "to work on a project to learn how communities make important decisions".  His column was an excellent resource, and I hope his project does well.

An Uncharacteristically Introspective Post

I'm not a very introspective person, and in fact am aggressively extroverted, both in my interactions with people and in my writing.  But I'm in the mood for a bit of self examination today.

I've generally steered away from writing about my personal life at all, much less my emotional geography.  For some reason though I feel like talking a bit about how my environment affects me.  I'm not sure why I have this impulse today.  It could be that the rain has put me in a bit of a melancholy mood, or maybe it's some sort of primitive attempt at self therapy.

At any rate, I pay for this blog so I might as well use it from time to time.

In a cultural sense  spending most of my life in the same set of southeast Atlanta neighborhoods has made me a fish out of water.  Everything around me is constantly in flux, while I really haven't changed all that much.  I'm the same somewhat absurd, overly talkative, bull-in-a-china-shop character I was in the 1950s and 1960s growing up here.  As the demographics of the neighborhood went through all the various shifts it was fascinating to me, so I stuck around and had a constant stream of often awkward encounters with the increasingly diverse characters here.

Since the shelf life of my embarrassment over miscues and culture clash is very short, I've managed to doggedly continue to wander around introducing myself to people and chattering away like a monkey on amphetamines.  I don't mind that.  I'm in my late fifties and the likelihood of me changing much is very low.

Lately, though, I have been examining my priorities.  After my wife passed away I dealt with the grief in the fashion of extroverts.  I began doing intense physical activity (doing 10ks until my knees started suffering, then shifting to cycling, swimming, and dancing).  I also began over committing myself to various forms of neighborhood activism.  It got to the point where I was in constant activity, doing nothing particularly well since I had to do a lot of things rapidly during the course of each week.

I've needed to draw into my shell to some extent, and I've already begun cutting back on volunteer commitments and have been making another attempt to get my house into livable shape.

Well, that's my introspective post for the year.  I'll return to my usual eclectic mix of urban Atlanta posts now.

Human Rights, Nursing Homes, and Home Health Care

Even though I spent twenty one years with my late wife Nancy navigating through the ongoing horror which is the US health care system, and system of services for the disabled, I don't study or write about it much anymore.  I suppose it's mostly sheer burnout, combined with demoralization over the overall national political climate under which debates around these issues are carried on.

An interesting article caught my eye however about a lawsuit in Florida which is attempting to ensure funding for home and community care for people who are now forced into a position where nursing homes are their only option. 

As my generation ages this is going to increasingly become a front and center issue.

I don't want to demonize the nursing care industry.  Nancy's last few months of life were spent in a Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) and given the severity of her disability and illness home care was not a realistic option.  If anything, there should be a national effort to improve the living conditions in nursing homes, and that effort should include increased funding, more vigorous governmental oversight, increased community involvement, and insistance that nursing home residents be afforded basic human rights and freedom.

But there are many people who could live in the community or with their families with increased community support resources. 

The lawsuit in Florida described in this article addresses this issue.

Vegan night at Kasan Red

For about the past three weeks Kasan Red, a restaurant on the corner of Glenwood and Flat Shoals in East Atlanta, has been hosting a vegan night on Tuesdays.  In addition to the standard menu they have an assortment of vegan selections.  Here is a description I posted on a couple of East Atlanta forums:

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Tuesdays Kasan Red offers a vegan menu (along with the regular menu). You can get coupons at SOPO for five dollars off the starter/entree/dessert combo.  I went last night, and below is the mini-review I posted on another forum:

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I picked up one of the coupons from SOPO yesterday evening, and had dinner at Kasan Red.  Since I
don't generally eat out on weeknights and considered this a special exploratory expedition, I went all
out and ordered a starter, entree, and dessert.  It turned out pricey, but an overall good experience, and
one consolation is that there was so much food that I don't have to prepare lunch this morning.

My selections were the Veggie Panini, the Vegan Rosti, and a chocolate tart.

It was all delicious.  I particularly liked the Veggie Rosti.  Also the sweet potato chips were among
the best I've ever had.

The one thing I wish were done differently is the choice of bread for the Panini.  I love Panini, but wish
there were more availability of whole grain focaccia.  My motivation for my veganism is mixed
(compassion towards animals, environmental and ecological concerns, global economics, and health),
but the part of me which is focused on the health aspects much prefers whole grains to white flour, and
I'll bet there are many other vegans out there who agree with me.

All in all it was a great experience, and the folks there were really friendly.

Cycling Montage One

I've begun creating a series of cycling videos with a Flip video camera mounted to the handlebars of my Raleigh road bike.

Here's a short one, which I think is probably the best I've done so far.

Cycling Montage One

I've begun creating a series of cycling videos with a Flip video camera mounted to the handlebars of my Raleigh road bike.

Here's a short one, which I think is probably the best I've done so far.

Cycling Montage One

I've been shooting a series of videos on my Raleigh road bike with a flip video recorder on a handlebar mount. This is my latest one, and probably the best one I've produced so far.