The Long Weekend

It really feels like I have stepped through the looking glass or some such thing. I'm no different, but somehow my life has leapt from dreary to delightful over the course of one long weekend.

Friday evening I was pretty bagged from having been up late Wednesday collecting and jury-rigging my computers and then being out late Thursday for The Ancient One's birthday. Nonetheless Brenda and I went over to Myriam's old place for her post-op party. Out of the men in the room there were only two of us that were born that way, Brenda (I think) was the only straight female there. I was too tired to be really social (although munching down on some amazing cinnamon buns gave me a bit of a sugar-perk). Nonetheless it was fun to just be around so many interesting people, even if I was biting my tongue over some too-far-left academia that I wasn't up to debating. One of the more amusing conversations was the "What do straight people call themselves?" question and subsequent debate.

I crashed in a big way afterword and slept in much later than intended Saturday morning. Saturday, of course was the big date. I puttered around the apartment doing as much unpacking a tidying as I could. My big accomplishment was to get most everything hung, especially my Jack and Sally posters. I'm not at home until those are up. Then I decided to cut my hair. How's this for an example of Murphy's Law. I pulled out my venerable old pair of clippers and set about to cutting my hair as I have done many, many times before. I put on the right taper and clipped away the hair around my right ear. I put on the left taper and cut away the hair around my left year. I put on the longest attachment and started to take hair off the top. The blades had gummed up and weren't cutting. Par for the course. As I have douzens of times before I tapped the clippers on the side of the sink to knock out the hair and free up the clippers. Only this time the clippers came to pieces and the blades, attachment, backing plate, and two small broken pieces of casing lay in the sink. The clippers fell apart. Time to freak.

O.K. Axis is just up the street, but it is after 5pm so they will be closed. I don't have any scissors sharp enough to cut hair, not to mention I have never cut my own hair with scissors. Would Natalie or Nick and Sandi have clippers? Fuck. I'm covered in hair already from what I have managed to cut and I don't have a whisk broom anymore. I don't have time to shower, dress, run around seeing if I can borrow some clippers, finish cutting my hair, shower again, then get ready to go out. Alright, time to jury-rig the clippers to finish the job. Where's the duct tape? Damn. I don't know! Alright, masking tape will have to do. Somehow I manage to hold the clippers together long enough to finish cutting my hair. Time to shower and dress. Six shirt changes and three shoe changes later I'm ready to go, just in time. Mind you, I'm in such a frazzled state I forgot my camera. Nonetheless I picked up Elaine on time (OK, two minutes late by my clock, but that's within the realm of variations between clocks - by my based-on-analog-timepieces rule +/- 2 minutes is "on time"). From there everything went swimmingly.

We walked by to my place to get the camera and cabbed out from there. Everything was perfect. Being the smarmy couple making out in the corner is great fun. It's something I haven't done since the Twilight Zone days. Frankly I haven't felt so *myself* with somebody else since those days. That's what made the evening so brilliant - I didn't really do anything that wasn't completely natural. Between kisses I took my usual pictures, talked and drank and smoked with my friends, and it was all good because she ran her own community website (which, incidentally, I hosted) and my friends are pretty much one and the same as her friends.

Saturday flowed into Sunday, and unfortunately I missed Sunday brunch (but, honestly... who the hell has Sunday brunch before 1:00 p.m.? That's just sick! :-p ). Sunday got kind of blurry actually. Somehow I ended up buying a bizarre assortment of goods at Army and Navy with Nick and Sandi without ever having even gotten around to showering or shaving. I came home with WD40, underwear and socks, candles, ice-cream and a present for Nat's daughter all in the same bag - where but Army and Navy could one do that? The place is surreal. There was barely enough time to shower, shave, and wrap the present before heading downstairs for a Thanksgiving dinner.

That's the wonderful thing about being here. I had the best Thanksgiving I've had in ages, right here in the same building I live in. The food was brilliant, as was the company. The after dinner symposium on the existence of God, free-will, and culture was a dialogue Socrates himself would have enjoyed. I can only repeat again how wonderfully *myself* I feel here. This is the life I have been looking for. It was in the hopes of this kind of sense of community and home that I tried the live-work studios. But you can't force this sort of thing to happen. Here it is happening spontaneously. The only times before this that was similar was way back in View Towers, in Victoria, in 1986. Friends I already knew lived in the building and more moved in. It was those friends and the feeling of community that makes me look back on that time fondly when the harsh reality of my poverty then could have as easily had me looking back on it as a miserable time. Likewise in 1989, in Nanaimo, there were people, old friends and new, in the same apartment complex that made it a brilliant time even when to much of it was hard. Even tonight, for example Nick and Sandi came down for a few hours to hang around. I've had more guests (of my own) here already than my whole time in North Van. No matter how many people paraded though that house they were her friends, not mine, and it left me alienated. Whether they really were or not the few friends I had over remarked immediately how they didn't feel welcome. Well, here they are, and even though there I was not alone and here I am, there I felt lonely and here I do not.

Following dinner it was off to Sanctuary. Elaine and I spent most of our time in the small room, with the old music. She exhibited an uncanny ability to inadvertently predict what was about to be played. Perhaps those lights Kim wears are really a mind-reading device? Must be the black magic of the Dark City Cult at work. Stupid point of the night was doing my Ukrainian dance through the entirety of "Ra, Ra, Rasputin" - including a sustaining the two-leg kick for about 30 seconds (Try it. I dare you. Squat down, cross your arms in front of your chest, kick both legs out in front of yourself without letting your butt rise more than 2' off the ground and get your legs back before your butt hits the floor. Can you do it once? Twice? OK. Now do it thirty times). I thought my legs were going to fall off later in the night. I give thanks for the couches and lots of gin.

Sunday flowed into the holiday Monday, which was the real "Sunday" of the weekend. Elaine wandered ahead to Christine and Michael's while I had my "morning" shower. I stopped off and bought us each a flying bat (flap, flap... flap.... fl... ap... p... p... <-- lol for bitogoth) then picked up Elaine to go to brunch at Hamburger Mary's.

There are so many other things to say about it, but it was an utterly brilliant weekend. There has been mention of luck and fate lately but I don't buy that this is part of anyone's plan but mine or that anything other than my own actions got me here. I've paid attention over the years to what has made me happy and what has made me unhappy. And for once I have chosen to be happy in and for myself first.

The funny thing about this pursuit of happiness (using the phrase in the Classical sense) is the how, rather than being selfish, it leaves me with more to give. This is a life I want to share, that's worth sharing. And the best part of that is I'm not alone in that belief.

Yup. Stupid Test Time Again

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Congressional Resolutions Urge Bush: End 27 Percent Federal Tax on Canadian Lumber Imports

WASHINGTON, D.C. (October 16, 2002) -- Congressmen Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) and Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD have introduced an updated concurrent resolution calling on President George W. Bush to pursue discussions with the Canadian Government to "promote open trade between the United States and Canada on softwood lumber, free of trade restraints that harm consumers."

The resolution aims to:

• ensure a competitive North American market for softwood lumber;
• ensure free trade regarding softwood lumber between the U.S. and Canada;
• ensure all stakeholders are included in trade discussions of softwood lumber, a reference that specifically includes consumers who ultimately pay the increased costs of protectionist tariffs;
• and calls for a fair and expeditious review by independent World Trade Organization (WTO) and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) panels.

It also urges the U.S. government to abide by the decisions of these international trade agreements to which the U.S. has subscribed. A similar resolution has been introduced in the Senate.

The WTO found this summer that the Department of Commerce action imposing countervailing duties a year ago on Canadian softwood lumber imports should be overturned, and is in violation of international trade rules. The U.S. has also recently suffered a major set-back in the WTO when it ruled that the Byrd Amendment that allows the U.S Government to pay duties it collects to "injured" U.S. companies in a countervail dispute is also a violation of international trade rules.

Similar WTO challenges have been made by Canada on the antidumping duties and other aspects of the long-standing trade dispute between Canada and the U.S.

The House resolution, H. Con. Res. 454, similar to one introduced in the Senate (S. Con. Res. 135) in August and supported by 12 members of the Senate, asks the Bush Administration not to intervene to impede the current challenges by Canada in the WTO and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to determine whether the U.S. countervailing and antidumping duties are legal under international trade rules. The resolutions ask that the process move expeditiously so that this issue can be resolved under international trade rules.

"Softwood lumber is essential for building quality, affordable homes in the United States," said Cong. Hoyer. "Its price and availability have a major impact on the U.S. economy, workers and consumers. The U.S. home building industry employs approximately 6.5 million people." Hoyer noted that this compares to more than 25 jobs in the consumption of lumber for each job in U.S. forestry production.

In May, the U.S. Commerce Department imposed massive countervailing and antidumping duties, equal to 27 percent of the product’s volume, on softwood lumber. That decision was based solely on the hypothetical "threat of injury" with no proof of real injury to the U.S. forestry industry by Canadian imports.

The duties are harming U.S. consumers, according to ACAH spokesperson Susan Petniunas. "The final 27 percent countervail and antidumping duties imposed last May on finished lumber for framing homes and remodeling, may increase the average cost of a new home by as much as $1,000," she said. Based on information from the U.S. Census Bureau, that additional $1,000 prevents as many as 300,000 families from qualifying for home mortgages."

Cong. Kolbe said that the duties "are penalizing home buyers and other U.S. lumber consumers. It is wrong to penalize consumers when there is no significant proof that there has been any damage to the U.S. industry by the Canadian imports. This dispute has been going on for more than 20 years. The U.S. consumer suffers, while the U.S. government and industry have never been able to prove that the imports harm our domestic industry."

The duties are opposed by a broad-based alliance of consumer groups, trade organizations, and companies that represent more than 95 percent of U.S. softwood lumber consumption, American Consumers for Affordable Homes (ACAH).

"The duties amount to a federally imposed 27 percent sales tax on first-time homebuyers and on seniors seeking to reduce home costs in retirement," said Petniunas. "Consumers’ interests should be a major factor considered by the Administration, and we appreciate the members of the House and Senate urging President Bush to do so," Petniunas said. "These duties hurt our ability to provide affordable housing, and jobs within lumber consuming industries."

Because there are not enough trees available to produce framing lumber for home building in the U.S., Canadian lumber imports are absolutely vital for the construction of affordable new homes, and to make improvements on existing homes in America. The U.S. relies on Canada and other sources for approximately 37 percent of the lumber it needs.

Led by International Paper, Potlatch, Plum Creek, Sierra Pacific, Temple Inland and a group of southern landowners, the Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports filed petitions with the U.S. Commerce Department more than a year ago alleging that domestic lumber producers had been harmed by Canadian softwood lumber imports and asking for countervailing and antidumping duties.

"Since 1981, some of the large U.S. producers and landowners have periodically charged Canada with subsidizing its lumber industry, and they have consistently lost when Canada has appealed preliminary decisions," Petniunas said. "The summer WTO ruling, that there is no illegal subsidy of lumber by Canada, continues to show that the U.S. actions are not based on the facts. We believe the Commerce Department will continue to get failing grades from on-going WTO and NAFTA reviews of their actions over the past year. The madness should end, and the administration should sue for free trade in lumber with Canada."

Similar resolutions were introduced in the U.S. House and Senate last year and also in the last session of Congress urging free trade on Canadian lumber. H. Con. Res. 45 and S. Con. Res. 4 garnered more than 110 sponsors earlier in the session. Members of the U.S. House and Senate also have written letters to President Bush over the past three years opposing any trade restrictions on Canadian lumber and indicating their support for free trade in lumber between the U.S. and Canada.

"It’s time for our trade policy to reflect fairness to all of the stakeholders, including consumers, specifically in discussions about trade in lumber," said Sen. Don Nickles (R-OK), lead sponsor of the Senate resolution.

American Consumers for Affordable Homes (ACAH) represents more than 95 percent of U.S. softwood consumption. Industries that depend on lumber as an input and that oppose import restrictions include: manufacturers of value-added wood products, lumber dealers, manufactured and on-site home builders, and remodeling contractors. These industries employ more than 6.5 million workers, 25 to one when compared with those in the forestry industry.

ACAH members include: American Homeowners Grassroots Alliance, Catamount Pellet Fuel Corporation, CHEP International, Citizens for a Sound Economy, Consumers for World Trade, Fremont Forest Group Corporation, Free Trade Lumber Council, The Home Depot, International Mass Retail Association, International Sleep Products Association, Leggett & Platt Inc., Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform, Manufactured Housing Institute, National Association of Home Builders, National Black Chamber of Commerce, National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association, National Retail Federation, and the United States Hispanic Contractors Association.

Muh? D'oh!

OK. Bad idea du jour. Stay up until 3 a.m. on a day where my alarm goes off at 7 a.m.. I'm a bit groggy this morning. I'll make it through the day, but when it is time to go home I plan to sink into the tub for a bit. Kris has his birthday thingy tonight, but I just can't do it. I'm in desperate need of recharging. Plus I've got work that has to be done, I told all my clients "I'll look at that after Thanksgiving" and now I am on the hook (this includes the new Sin City site), a picture backlog that I want to catch up on, not to mention writing some of the new features I've been meaning to add. And on a geekier note, in addition to all this I woud love have someone over to curl up on the couch with me and watch "Enterprise" and I'd like to make a more thematically unified set of LJ icons because I am now jealous of Jezz, Larry, Trish, Chelsea, and all these other people that have icon themes when I just have a spastic collection of images that caught my fancy over time. So many things I want to do. I need more hours in the day, but I can't keep making sleep my lowest priority.