Friday, 8 December 2017
at home
We stayed up till 2 AM finishing season one of Stranger Things, and since I did not get to sleep till four, my idea of getting back to the compost project early did not come to fruition.

Noon! Allan is on the job, with the two new pallets that he got last night.

1:15: The new Bin One. Getting it installed involved shifting a heap of compost.
It took me an hour to shift most of bin two into bin one. Now that bin one is installed, the job entailed shifting compost sideways to make room for bin two. I longed to get the project done, but since we had a rally to attend a half an hour away at three thirty, I figured we’d be lucky to get two bins done.

1:40 PM: Bin One is full

Allan helps.
When the space for Bin Two was close to the bottom, it was possible to skoot the compost around in order to install the back and second side.

Two PM, with Bin Two installed. A long throw from Bin Three.
We were also moving the bins forward so that they would now be accessible from behind.
We had pushed hard to get that far before having to leave for the rally. I wanted so much to stay home and finish the fourth bin! I sternly told myself that there is no composting for people languishing in the detention center.
Ocean Park: Rally for “Rosas”
“Rosas was arrested when going to Okie’s early in the morning of November 27. When he asked why he was being arrested, ICE officers said “My supervisor asked me to come find you because of what appeared in the newspaper.” We want to speak out against this arrest and on the attack on his rights to free speech. Please join us!”
Background:
The original story in the Seattle Times (my home town paper) is here, and well worth reading.
The follow up, after the arrest of Rosas, is here.
He appears to have been sought out because he spoke (under his nickname) to the Seattle Times. ICE did not detain him earlier, even though he asked them why they took his family and not him.
This story has drawn the attention of the Mexican consulate and has been picked up by national and international news, including the Washington Post and The Independent, UK.
Here is a link to the gofundme where you can contribute, to help him and his family, who were deported to Mexico. (His children are American citizens, who went with their mother.)
We arrived to find folks on both sides of the street by Okie’s Market, mostly on the other side of the street because we don’t want it to appear that we blame the local markets for the fact that ICE uses them to catch Hispanic people who are shopping for groceries.
Another group had settled in three blocks east on the main intersection. Eventually, we walked down there to join them. As we walked, a man came out of one of the shops and said “Thank you so much. I would love to join, but I don’t want to be targeted.”
I suggested he put something warm and fuzzy on the other side:
We had enough people to be on three of the four corners of the intersection.
Someone who walked by the sign holders by Doc’s said something about people being illegal, and then went into Doc’s. A few minutes later, she came out and said, “You are right!” Something in there had changed her mind.
A woman paused her car to say she had just moved to Ocean Park and was pleased to see us, as she had no idea there were protests here. I want to meet her. None of us got her contact information.
I was heckled by a driver with a scowly face, something about “illegals” and “securing our borders” and “they should get legal.” “It takes years and costs thousands of dollars,” I replied, but he had driven on. That was the only heckling that I noticed. Mostly, we got some honks and thumbs up.
Lee Hogan Knott, local teacher at Sea School Cooperative and yoga instructor at Earthlight Yoga, joined us with her children.
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Some black and white photos by Stephanie:
Two counter protestors showed up after sunset, just as we were ten minutes away from departure.

The counter-protest duo paraded back and forth on the other side of the street with their yuge Trump banner.
The rally ended at dusk, when it was too dark to easily read signage. Some ralliers went to a nearby pizza place. Allan and I had other plans. Since my goal is to not get out much during staycation, we combined the rally with our annual visit to the Hungry Harbor Grille to see their lovely holiday village.
Hungry Harbor Grille
Every year, Hungry Harbor sets up an ever larger and more elaborate village.
It is a coastal village with boats and lighthouses.

It’s odd that the flat with roof garden is my dream instead of a house with towers and room for a garden….
Our burgers and onion rings were perfect comfort food.
Tomorrow: Barring calamity, I WILL finish the compost project!