Busy busy

Spring has sprung, at least as far as the calendar is concerned (here in Oregon the weather hasn't quite figured it out yet). I've been running around doing all kinds of unrelated things: yesterday I spent four hours getting trained on radio production at KBOO, our local community radio station. Why the sudden interest in radio? I was strongarmed asked by my pal Jack, who, along with his wife Reva, has been producing a show called The Yiddish Hour on  for the last 29 years. They'd like a break from the weekly obligation of hosting a show (ie, they wanna go away for the weekend occasionally), so I, along with three other folks, will be stepping in to co-host the show as soon as we get trained. 

Intro to Studio Production (as taught at KBOO) is interesting because it's all old-school. We're learning on boards that may be older than I am (well, perhaps not, but it's not a bad guess), and we're learning how to use all the old-school technology, including turntables, because KBOO has a huge library full of LPs and they're still perfectly usable. KBOO also has tons of CDs and computer files and the capability to use them as well, but I haven't learned the digital stuff yet; yesterday was all analog and obsolete technology but it was cool learning how to use it nonetheless. I didn't think I'd be able to retain what I learned at first, but we did a lot of hands-on practice stuff and we even have a homework assignment or two to prove we know how to use the equipment without destroying it. Intro to Digital Production is next on my list.

Also put in much of our veggies, both seeds and starts. I'll be uploading pictures later today or tomorrow. I admit I'm not a huge fan of the physical labor of gardening; I'm not one of those who waxes rhapsodically about raising food with only a shovel and the honest sweat of my brow. I think this is because, while I'm not averse to sweating (I go to the gym regularly and work out hard when I'm there), my knees are averse to anything that involves bending over or squatting. According to a sports medicine doctor I saw in grad school, my knees are 15-20 years older than I am (that would put them in their mid-50s), so I think their crankiness is kinda justified here. 

What I do love about gardening is the act of growing the food, watching and being involved in the process of bringing it out of the ground (minus the squatting stuff), sharing it with friends, subverting the industrial food market by opting out of it, and, oh, yeah, eating. 

Speaking of food, I'm off to the Farmer's Market to meet friends and buy tasty locally grown stuff, asparagus, strawberries, salad greens, and perhaps some more veggie starts if I see something that tempts me.