boston to portland

i stayed with the twelve tribes community in boston. they have a beautiful house down in dorchester that had just been scraped and pressure washed for repainting when i arrived. i didn't get involved with any of that work, as they had to let it dry for a couple days. i did work a few hours on monday on a multi-million dollar, five-story house near beacon hill. it used to be separated into apartments, but is now one grand house with a patio on top! my little job was to put recessed handles into three sets of sliding french doors. it was the perfect job for me! i was some lessons again about basic carpentry, like to check measurements, level, and plumb twice. also set tools aside while checking the placement of the hardware, so as not to accidentally mark surfaces. anyway it was satisfying and educational, and i was glad to pitch in a little towards the financial security of my hosts. they have been so generous with me! when i departed i was provided with a lunch.

on my way to the train station i stopped by the boston site of the food project, where i sought to donate some compostables and maybe pitch in for a few minutes. i was told to toss the food scraps on their large, dilapidated bin, which looked like it had some finished compost at the bottom and several recent, large deposits of fruit and veggie scraps. i was told by one of the young folks working there that a nearby restaurant donates scraps. that's great, and i am hoping the twelve tribes house can do the same! currently they are putting all their food scraps (a lot!) into the trash and garbage disposal. i will do what i can to facilitate this beneficial connection. since the recent nitrogenous deposits were not covered with brown cover material i asked if i could add some of the dry stalks of plants in the adjacent 'weed pile', which seemed to have an excess of that useful material. "as long as there are not too many weed seeds in it." was the answer. so i went for it, and it felt really good to help that pile out.

i took the train to boston since amtrak has been smart enough to offer bicycle accomodation between boston and portland. on the train i worked on a hoop bracelet and ate lunch.

in portland i got a little lost right away, which helped me to see a little more of the city as i entered it. in a main square, by the library, i met a nice metal worker/cyclist and then decided to put some superhero bike ride fliers on bikes and hand some out. one guy who i talked to said he was going to screen print a bunch of t-shirts, and i offered to help.

when i crossed the street to the library i met some gals who are part of this climate summer project. that they were walking bikes and wearing matching shirts attracted my attention. their video coordinator shot a short video of me.

after my time at the library i met the cabinet maker fellow who would be my host the next two nights. after hearing a bit about my story he said he had a barn i could sleep in. it is an old barn he refurbished into his wood shop. he made his style of savory oats with eggs over easy one morning for us and his family shared a wonderful dinner with me on the fourth of july. i helped out with some yard work and swept the floor in the shop. i was very blessed to receive the hospitality of these kind folks.

the evening i arrived i attended the weekly tuesday performance of the maine marimba ensemble. it was great to reconnect with this music, which i grew up playing with my family. they invited me to play the shakers (hosho) on a few songs! i also danced much of the time.

on the way to that performance was passing another cyclist with a squeaky chain. i asked if he knew what the problem was, which he sort of did, and i told him i had some chain lube with me and that we could do it there and then! he accepted the offer and so i did the service for him while we chatted. this was a satisfying superhero service that i want to do more of. he was so grateful, and i could imagine how nice the bicycle must have felt after riding that dry, rusty chain for so long.