arthur richards

Sarah and I are outta here in less than 32 hours. We're off to Guadalajara, Mexico to work on a grassroots media project to document community struggles with water scarcity.

Our project, Adapting to Scarcity, has been in the works for a year. And now, we're making our final preparations to head south.

Today we packed our bags full of documentary equipment and pulled together the rest of our gear. Checking things off our to-do list, an overwhelming sense of excitement and anxiety settled in. It's a bizarre and restless feeling - a feeling I haven't felt this strongly since I packed a truck to head to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Two weeks ago, I was mountain biking in Redwood Regional Park, up in the Oakland hills. I was doing the standard 8 mile loop - a ridge trail along the western side of a canyon with a steep descent to the canyon floor, followed by a steep ascent to a trail along the eastern ridge. Almost all the way down to the canyon floor, I saw a nice clear line - let off the brakes and went for it fast. I can't totally recall what happened - I think there was some sort of lip or ledge I couldn't see from above. Going over it, I think I threw my weight forward in surprise. When my front wheel hit the ground, I flipped over the handle bars. One of those "oh. shit." moments. I landed on my left shoulder. Fortunately, some poison-oak broke my fall.

I tend to create blogs the same way I create new year's resolutions. But this will be different. I swear.