Mat & Amie Levine

On Friday we found out that Barack Obama would actually be holding a rally in Asheville, NC just a few miles from our house. This morning, we woke up and went down at 8 a.m. in the morning to stand in line. We thought we would be one of a few there that early as they had been recommending people arrive at 10 a.m. We are so glad we got there when we did.

It paid off. Look how close we are to see him speak. He talked a lot about the health care system and what he plans for the future. He wants people to be able to continue on their current plans and give them lower premiums. And for those like us that do not have insurance to give us affordable options. Yay! And yes, he will have to pay for it somehow. He’s going to do this by taxing those who make over $250,000 and bringing the taxation back to what Bill Clinton had (and not even as much as the Reagan era). For the rest of us making less than $250,000 our taxes will not go up.

Honestly, for me, I don’t mind paying taxes if it goes to help those less fortunate than I to be able to be on the Medicaid/Medicare/WIC program so that they can be healthy and their children can be healthy. I don’t mind paying taxes to pay for infrastructure and for schools, police, firemen and libraries, etc.

It was exciting to be with the over 28,000 people who were from all walks of life. We were impressed at how everybody we talked to and heard in the crowd were supporting Barack Obama for his stance on issues that were important to them.

I was a little disappointed in Thursday’s debate to find that the Obama/Biden ticket is supporting just separate but equal rights for same sex couples. Why not give them equal rights?

My largest concern this election year, is that McCain has picked Palin who is willing and eager (i.e. drill, baby, drill) to give up the beauty of Alaska just for oil. Oil that won’t be available to us for 10 years and that it would last at the most 30 years, many think less. Why can’t we spend all that money that we would be spending on the extraction of oil (that is non-renewable) on renewable energy sources that would last indefinitely? And would also bring about jobs. Of course, I’m biased. I worked in a very beautiful national park that wouldn’t have been there if there hadn’t been someone who had the forethought to preserve and protect the area.

It was phenomenal to be within 30 feet of a man who is well-spoken and intelligent and listens to the people. We are excited for this election year and the opportunity for people to choose someone who is willing to use diplomacy first instead of just going to war.

Early on in the week I was trying to figure out what people were doing for the 4th. Not much. As far as I could find out there wasn’t a parade just fireworks later on in the night after the A’ville Tourists baseball game. So I decided we should barbecue, so we had Mat’s parents, Ron and Naomi and Sara and Mark and some friends over. We played some croquet and ate lots of good food. Maddy loved all the new people she got to meet and say hello to. By saying hello, I mean, overwhelming them with her eagerness to lick their face.

We played frisbee with Maddy before everyone showed up thinking it might wear her out a bit. I don’t really think it did. She did get worn out playing w/ the dogs who came over though. We were able to see some fireworks from our front yard and then we went downtown and saw the Asheville fireworks. It was a nice evening.

On Saturday night, we went to Shindig on the Green. We LOVE going there. This time we didn’t get rained on!

We enjoyed listening to great people play…

and people coming up to pet Maddy! Maddy was very well behaved. We find it is good practice for us and her to meet strangers and small kids to pet her.

We also enjoyed the end of the evening, when Bill asked if he could race the cop on the segway. Almost like COPS, the tv show, except for the fact the two had huge smiles on their faces!

Fore more pics of the evening, check out flickr.

The weather forecast did not look good for our Friday ride. There was a brief conversation of whether we should cancel or not since the forecast was “SEVERE WEATHER FORECAST” and the radar had it sitting right over where we were going to ride. As I was loading up the car w/ everything – we were going camping afterword – it downpoured on me and there was lots of lightning. But, we decided to make the call at the trailhead and when we got there it was dry…and it didn’t rain the whole time.

After our ride, we hiked to a shelter to sleep. We wanted to stay at the shelter so if it rained we would not have to stay in our individual tents. The weather was wonderful and we had a great time roasting marshmallows! We hiked out Saturday morning and went to breakfast at a delicious cafe in Black Mountain…we ate so much that when we got home we couldn’t really do anything we were too full.

We checked out the first Shindig on the Green for the summer. There were a ton of other people checking it out as well. There were tons of amazingly talented people there playing. We wanted to take out the camera because it is a fabulous opportunity to take photos, but the forecast was for rain. We had parked several blocks away and when it started feeling like a storm was gathering we told our friends good-bye and started walking. Well, we didn’t get very far before it downpoured on us. At first we were running in our flip-flops getting drenched and then we realized that it was pointless, we couldn’t possibly get any more wet than we all ready were.

Our rain barrels are happy and full now. Our garden is also loving the good soaking it has gotten the past several days. Before that we were having a dry spell. Mat took these nice pics of our flowers.