After the ecstasy...digital networking

I had to put my cel phone someplace safe while I hip-wadered through the pond.

This image struck me as...anachronistic...contradictory...? But maybe not.
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If Siddhartha had lived today, he probably would have been a Saudi prince/oil magnate (fully digitized) with penthouses in six cities and a modern-day-harem-equivalent before he renounced everything and became Buddha. And if Buddha were around today, he would probably use digital networking to teach. In fact, there are a lot of Buddhist monks around teaching, and I bet you can fit a lot of digital devices under those red and gold robes. Totally wired.
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Speaking of red and gold, I have a new broom.


Sweeping is a Buddhist practice. We're supposed to do it to learn to let go of our ego ("I'm too busy/important/etc. to sweep") and learn to be mindful ("I am sweeping... I am still sweeping") or you can hire me to do your sweeping for you, kind of like Buddhist carbon credits. Which transitions nicely to the real reason I have a broom: to avoid using the noise-and-air-polluting two-stroke back-pack blower that is one of the signs of the end of civilization, so far as I am concerned.
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Back to the broom: this is no ordinary broom. This is a German Wolf Garten broom with a detachable head. You can also buy rake heads, cultivator heads, pole pruner heads etc. that fit on the pole. I was a little delirious when I first discovered these, as you can imagine. And the broom itself is a little bit magic. It is quite effortless. It's a television commercial waiting to happen. I'm a little embarassed that I'm this excited about a broom so I'll stop now. Except for this:


Notice how said detachable head fits in the side-pannier while pole can be tied snuggly (with repurposed bicycle tube) to frame of bicycle for transport. Actually, if I left the broom head on, I'd look like a witch. Totally doing that for Halloween, with a real corn-broom.
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Notice I'm on my bike, rather than The Scooter. I'm figuring out my optimum scooter/bicycle balance and after two days of scooting this week, I started noticing cyclists with jealousy. So today was a fantastic long ride, a totally beautiful cherry-blossom day. I'll have to do another post, comparing rides, because it's quite the contrast.