Christmas

I am home from my travels, and finally finished emptying my suitcases enough to repack them this evening.  It's Christmas.  And I am going home.  Home to big snows and family and cooking.  Home to Oregon.  I already took almost all of my Christmas decorations up to Mo's the last time I was there, when  I visited Melody back on Halloween.  I don't have to bring them back to Jamestown.  The moving has begun.  This time next year I will be living in Klamath.  A good thought.  I have lived alone for a very long time, but much of that time in the last three years here in Jamestown, I have traveled with Mo, or she has been here visiting.  I haven't really felt that awful alone feeling that I felt so long ago when I first moved to Klamath.  I can barely even remember what that felt like, the deep sadness inside, feeling that I was going to be alone for the rest of my life.  So funny to me how vague that feeling can be when it isn't right there in your face.

This week, after settling in for a weekend at home and a week at work, I suddenly realized that I was alone, and that it felt great.  Quiet  time, even though I was working, time to knit a bit, watch some tv, write some Christmas cards.  Great.  And it feels great to know that it's temporary.  All the angst, the agony, the sadness, the depression, that adjustment period so many years ago when my life really started shifting, all that was just such a strange phase.  Looking back, I wonder about it, as I wonder about now and the difference. Life just feels easier, more straightforward, a bit more predictable.  Settled.  My friend Jeanne wrote the other day, "But Sue, it feels so settled already!!!! I don't know if I want that!!!"  Settled, sounds wonderful to me.  LOL  wonderful.  I am grateful.

I wrote a card to Eva, my supervisor from so many years ago when I was working for Kim.  I had no real future, I was a soil scientist cleaning houses, and Eva kept calling me, trying to convince me to quit my job with Kim and go to work for her at the Spokane Conservation District.  Looking back in life there are moments, turning points, places where angels appear and change the course of your life.  That was one of those moments, and Eva was my angel.  I am going to retire this year, something I never could have managed without taking that step, taking the huge pay cut and leaving the illusion of all that money that Kim represented, and going to work again digging holes in the ground, walking the hills and mountains, working with the landscapes again.  I look back on my career from this vantage point and it truly amazes me.  I see what the young soil scientists are up against with all the shifts and changes in soil survey as I knew it and again I am so incredibly amazed and grateful at the way my life went because of this job.  I remember sitting in the dirt in Rathdrum and wondering what in the world I could do to make a living in the earth that way.  Little did I know.  Amazing.

So now I am off to Klamath, through the snow, the storms.  I have a gazillion suitcases in my truck, with silly things like the sterling silver for dinner, a set of spode china for Melody that we can use for dinner.  Thirteen people at Mo's table.  A whole suitcase full of coats and scarves and gloves.  It is something like 7 degrees in Klamath right now.  I am out of practice.  Long underwear, jammies.  Something shiny for new years.  Two whole weeks in Klamath with my kids and my friend, my cats and Abby, snow and good food and love.

Yes,  it's going to be a great Christmas.

Getting seriously excited!

I am excited, to say the least. This weekend I am finalizing my packing, making sure bills are paid, details taken care of. I will work the first of the week, Mo will arrive Wednesday from Oregon, and we leave for San Francisco on Thursday evening so we can be ready for our 6am flight to Chicago, and then on to Istanbul by way of Frankfurt. We are traveling with Go-Ahead Tours, a first for us, since past international travels have been mostly with Grand Circle. It's a chance to compare. I am taking the laptop, and plan to write daily and upload photos as well. My last two international trips were journaled sporadically with pen and paper, so hopefully this time I will actually keep better track of everything. This trip has a fairly ambitious schedule, so it might be even more important to keep good track of things since it really can all run together after a few days.
Day 1 - Istanbul
Board an overnight flight to Turkey from San Francisco via Chicago and Frankfurt.
Day 2 - Istanbul
Land in Istanbul, the ancient capital of civilization known previously as Byzantium and Constantinople.
Day 3 - Istanbul
On a guided tour of Istanbul, visit 15th-century Topkapi Palace, home of Ottoman sultans; the ancient Byzantine church of Hagia Sophia, illuminated by 30 million gold mosaic tiles; and the stunning Blue Mosque. Pass by the Hippodrome, an elaborate stadium once the site of ancient chariot races.
Day 4 - Istanbul
Free time to explore Istanbul. Plan to visit the Museum of Ancient Civilizations. Possibly join an optional morning cruise among the Bosphorus Straits, the ancient waterway that connects Europe and Asia. View Ottoman palaces and medieval castles during this half-day cruise along the Bosphorus Straits, which separates Europe and Asia.
Day 5 - Canakkale
Stop for a guided tour of Bursa, the first capital of the Ottoman empire. Continue to Canakkale, a town coveted in centuries past for its strategic location.
Day 6 - Kusadasi
A local guide leads a tour of Troy, where Homer’s Iliad comes to life. Tour the ruins, where experts have identified the relics of nine civilizations dating back 5,000 years. Then follow the Aegean coast to Pergamon, visit the ancient Greek Acropolis. Continue on to seaside Kusadasi. Day 7 - Kusadasi
Visit Ephesus, one of the Mediterranean’s best-preserved classical cities. View the Library of Celsus, the Temple of Hadrian and the house where Mary is said to have spent her final days. This afternoon, opt for a journey to the village of Sirince for a firsthand look at Turkish rural life. The peaceful village of Sirince lies in the hills outside of Ephesus. On a walking tour led by tour director, stroll past some of the country’s best-preserved 19th-century architecture.
Day 8 - Pamukkale
Stop today at the ruins of Miletus. Next, visit Didyma’s Temple of Apollo.
Day 9 - Pamukkale
Take a guided tour of Pamukkale’s travertines, a cascade of snowy white calcium terraces formed from hot springs. The tour includes the ruins of Hierapolis, the Roman spa city built around Pamukkale’s calcium rich waters. In the afternoon, opt for an excursion to Aphrodisias, the best-preserved Hellenistic site in all of Turkey, dating back to at least the 1st century B.C. The site includes a temple dedicated to Aphrodite. In Aphrodisias, explore the city that honored Aphrodite, goddess of love. Ancient sculptures made of glowing marble date back to the late 1st century B.C. in this beautiful getaway.
Day 10 - Antalya
Cross the Kale River Delta to Demre. Visit the 4th-century Church of St. Nicholas. Continue to the ruins of Phaselis, an ancient Lycian city. Later reach Antalya, ancient retreat of Antony and Cleopatra.
Day 11 - Antalya
View the Old Town and visit the archaeological museum and Hadrian’s Gate. Later, a trip to Aspendos and Perge. Perge was settled for new Greek colonists and prospered under Alexander the Great. The ancient remains of the city include the Great Theatre, Hellenistic Gates Roman bath houses and a magnificent stadium.
Day 12 - Cappadocia
Stop in Konya. Visit the Mevlana Museum. Continue to Cappadocia. This evening, an optional excursion to see a Whirling Dervishes performance. The Muslim sect known as the Whirling Dervishes was founded in the 13th century by Mevlana Celeldin Rumi. Learn about this fascinating sect and its modern-day practitioners during this special cultural performance of dance, music and tradition.
Day 13 - Cappadocia
Tour the rock churches of Göreme and visit the towns of Pasabag and Avanos. This evening, attend a traditional Turkish Folklore Evening. Taste Turkish wine, snacks and beer at this authentic Cappadocian restaurant, carved out of sheer rock.
Day 14 - Istanbul
Enjoy a free day in Cappadocia or opt to visit the Eskigimus Monastery. After an included dinner this evening, board your return flight to Istanbul, where you’ll spend your last night in Turkey. Day 15 - Istanbul
Depart for home .

Conversation with the Daily Coyote

Shreve in Wyoming was accusing of pimping out her coyote "charlie" by selling calenders and such. I ordered a calendar and in the process reminded Shreve that the Nez Perce coyote stories would have had coyote being the pimp! She wrote me back with this:

Hi Sue,
Laughing about the coyote pimp observation - so true!!!And yes, totally fine and easy if you'd like to send a check - just make it obvious what you'd like and where you'd like it sent, as my brain is NOT to be trusted these days! Based on your history and experience with coyotes, what do you think it means that they are becoming such a stronger and more obvious presence among humans these days - even in cities and suburbs. What are they bringing us? What are they saying? I understand the logical, physical reasons causing it (people can't stop building 5000 square foot homes and stripmalls!) but the possible metaphysical meaning entertwined with that is something I am pondering a lot recently and would love to hear your perspective or ideas.......

This was so much fun, because it's been a long time since I had a conversation with someone who thought of coyotes as anything other than ... well.... coyotes...

My answer to Shreve was fun, because it made me ponder and made me remember.

First thought, that we humans will need to keep our sense of humor in order to survive in the midst of the strip malls and mcmansions. We will have to learn to survive and to adapt, to change our ways if need be in order to continue to survive, even thrive in the changing environment. Coyote most of all teaches me about surviving and thriving and adapting, and about having fun in the process, so I would imagine those themes might be relevant to humans on a larger scale. I have read that coyotes are even learning to hunt in packs like wolves in some places, behavior that I'm sure you know isn't natural to them. Coyote also reminds me that there is magic in the world, something that I can forget in the midst of the everydayness of living, working, all that ordinary stuff. Maybe Coyote is coming into our midst more to try to remind us about that magic. Shreve, I can't tell you how it feels to have someone actually ask a question like you asked. I have been away from magic too long. I'm a soil scientist, on the verge of retirement after 32 years mapping soils in the mountains and canyons of Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and now California. Coyote has visited me often, physically, and metaphysically, if I pay attention. You remind me to pay attention.

Halloween in Klamath

I traveled to Klamath on October 31. The real reason for the trip was the need to get all my "stuff" out of Melody's space, but the great side benefit of it all was a magical Halloween night sending Hillary and Savannah off to a costume party and then trick-or-treating on Pacific Terrace with my grandson. Melody and I had a magnificent time, kicking deep piles of leaves, smelling wood smoke on the crisp night air, and listening to all the kids and parents laughing as they made their way through the night.

It's been a long time since the reality of Halloween tradition has lived up to my memories and fantasies of what Halloween is all about. It smelled like Halloween is supposed to smell. I ate a tootsie roll and it tasted like Halloween is supposed to taste. No more artificial mall tricks or gather at the school or church treats. It was the real thing.

I am not sure what happened in the intervening years, I just know that for a time, there weren't any kids at my door. For a time, there was no place to go and the newpapers were touting all the other things to do on Halloween night. For a time. But last Friday night, my kind of Halloween came back in full force. I'm just tickled that it did so while I still had a grandson still young enough to participate and I got to share it with him.

More photos of all the fun we had are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/kyotesue/HomeToKlamathForHalloween#

Beaded Scarf Class

I took a knitting class yesterday, 6 hours of knitting in one day, with a lunch break. There we 8 of us in the class, varying levels of experience, but no beginners at least. After 6 intense hours of instruction, this is how far I got on the Undulating Waves scarf. I wasn't alone. Most of us were on something like row 10 or 12, after learning a lot about how to knit backwards as we unraveled our mistakes. I hope I can actually get the hang of this thing. Pat, the instructor, insists that we will eventually get it, as we all knit along. Lucky for me, the fee for the class includes as many "knit along evenings" that I need to finish it without paying the 7. fee for those evenings. Something tells me that I may be showing up on Wednesday nights after work while I try to actually finish this thing. Something else tells me that this may not be an airplane project. Lots of counting and measuring, and sliding of beads, and concentration. I am happy so far with my scarf. Unlike my fingering weight socks that went the way of the stash bin. We will see how it goes.

Silly Shoe Story

Shoes. Somehow they are an incredible delight to me as the years go by. The body goes, clothes become less and less important, but somehow shoes become more fun. So I am often taken by shoes, and probably am collecting more than my share in the last couple of years. Most of the time they are really good shoes, a great pair of KEEN sandals that have traveled Malta, Thailand, and many places in the US, a new pair of KEENS that have reflectors that can stop traffic, and are lighter than my sandals, some truly adorable brown walking shoe things that I got at Sonora's best shoe store, my "mary jane" merrils that can go with anything. All fun, most of them practical, useable, and built to last the rest of my lifetime, maybe 20 years or so at least! Ha.

But traveling through the Salt Lake airport last month I met a pair of shoes in the women's bathroom that truly caught my heart. I never met the woman wearing them, she was in the stall next to me, with slinky black pants and painted toenails, and these amazing shoes peeking out beneath her pants cuffs. Wow. Somehow the woman became endowed with brilliance, intelligence, money, and incredible taste. I could never wear a pair of shoes like those, but still, it fascinated me as I observed my reactions to those shoes.

Home that evening, and Moana arrived for our planned weekend outings. First on the list was the Annual Calaveras Grape Stomp in Murphys. I love Murphys, it somehow is more like what I imagined Sonora to be before I moved here. We drank wine as we carried our commemorative glasses around town, visited the booths of art and food, enjoyed the Abby compliments from a dog loving town , and sat down in front of a quaint little shoe boutique on Main Street. Of course, I had to go in and window shop, and lo and behold, there they were, those same silly shoes that I saw the day before in the stall in Salt Lake City airport. Silly. Incredibly expensive, and even more silly, on sale for 75 percent off. Hmm, maybe that means they are no longer in style? Who cares. I carried them outside to show Moana, since I had actually told her the shoe story, and she laughed when I said, "I don't need these silly shoes at all." "Well, why not?" she asked in return. Why not indeed?! So I bought the shoes. Silly sillly shoes. I will wear them with my black slinky pants to the dress up dinners on our tour and on a cruise, wherever.

I certainly know that shoes are not a great spiritual lesson, but still, these shoes remind me that silly magic also happens, and to acknowledge that magic is a gift. Silly shoes. Magic shoes. Dorothy shoes. I hope I am never too old to see magic all around me, even in a silly pair of shoes.

GPR Week

This week was about technology. GPR EMI and such. Ground Penetrating Radar and Electromagnetic Induction. Great fun . Some people think it's way too much work for the results, but after a week of working with it, I can see the places where it won't work and other places where it will be a time saver in the long run. As with the Digital Soil Mapping technology, it requires a reasonably good model of the landscape already in place to work well. Ground truthing (aka digging holes) is still a requirement, but when it comes to transects to verify and document our landscape models, these tools can help out with maybe a couple of pits dug instead of 10. Yeah. I can go for that, especially in this landscape where the soils are like serious cement from about April through February, assuming we get a rain or two over the winter.

It was a good week, a break from regular mapping, and a chance to do something a bit different. Photos of the rest of it are on the Picasa site. The horses were especially entertaining as they tried to help. One especially pretty black boy was sure that my NRCS lunch bag was made especially for him, looked just like a grain feed bag. I cut up my apple and gave it to him, and I am sure in this dry crackly landscape it was pretty nice. Another day another dollar.

Moving Day

This time, not for me, but still so wonderful, and still so very important. Melody and Kevin and my grandkids are moving into my little house on Painter Street today. Moving to Klamath. I just never imagined this to be a possibility. I though maybe Deb might move there someday, that maybe Deanna and Keith would end up somewhere in Eastern Oregon on their 4-H ranch, but somehow never imagined that Melody would ever be ready to give up her life in Albany, the theater, her friends there, the more progressive urban life found in Albany with proximity to Portland and shopping and such. Yet the day has arrived.

I am excited for the kids, excited for my house, excited for me! I am a bit frustrated that I am still here in Jamestown, but I do know that this year will go quickly, and that this time next year I will be able to sit with my daughter in the dining room for morning coffee without having to drive 700 or 400 miles to do it. This time next year I will be in Klamath too. Close. Family. If Hillary has a play, or Elric has a game, I can drive into town and go. We can have them out for a bbq sometimes, or meet at Third Thursday downtown now and then. Simple stuff. Not all the time, not so much that it is an interference, but more than 2 or 3 times a year at least! Geez!

Life does take some surprising twists and turns, and as usual, most of the twists that revolve around the Klamath Basin for me have been good ones. I love that place, I love the feeling of home that is there, the safety net feeling that comes over me as I drop into the basin from the south, or the every single time thrill that comes when I drive over Doak Mountain and see the lake stretched out before me on the way to home in Rocky Point. Cold winters. yes. Yukky ice in February. yes. But it's home, and my kids are now there.

Unplugging revisited

I read a quote on Andrew Sullivan’s blog written by Michael Brendan Dougherty. It rang true for me in a way that I have noticed only recently. Lately when traveling I have left the computer behind, thinking I don’t need it for just a few days, effectively unplugging from the whole thing. Often my cell phone doesn’t work in these places either, so I have to wait for access or more bars to talk with my kids, with my friends. This in effect is distancing me from some people, it seems, since I haven’t been writing as many emails, not calling as often, somehow unplugging from all the electronic substitutes for everyday relationships. I couldn’t manage my life right now without electronics, however, I am too far from everyone important to me. Still, I notice the difference. What Mr Dougherty said was this: DING!!!’

“Immediately, I realized how much anxiety the flow and ease of communication brings. The annoyance people have when they cannot reach you. The itch to pick up the silent cell phone and check to see if anyone has called or texted. The certain knowledge that e-mail is quite figuratively piling up in your endlessly expansive gmail account. After you put away the devices that keep you connected to the flow, put them out of your sight, the anxiety begins to recede, slowly. The obligation to respond to e-mails almost instantly, or at least within a few hours, disappears, and you can imagine yourself having normal conversation, relaxed, the way your grandparents did. The effect of unplugging is the same as living in a foreign country for a period of time, you can read about the events taking place after the fact, but you don’t experience them in real time, and the panic recedes.”

3rd Global Workshop on Digital Soil Mapping

I am in Logan for this workshop, and so far it has been incredibly interesting. First day was a field trip around the Logan area, beginning at the eastern edge of the Basin and Range geologic province, and traveling up Logan Canyon to the view overlooking Bear Lake in the Rocky Mountain province. Having mapped soils in parts of the world strongly affected by the great Missoula Floods of 13,000 years ago, I was familiar with a similar event that happend during the same time period, the catastrophic draining of Lake Bonneville from Utah into the Snake River and out the Columbia. It is amazing seeing the extent of this huge lake, of which the Great Salt Lake is the last remnant. Much of our day yesterday had to do with this particular window into the geologic past, but we also viewed some incredible geologic history related to the movement of crustal plates and the building of the Rocky Mountains. The changing colors of the maples at the lower elevations and the aspens higher up was magnificent. What a show!

Today begins the actual workshop, with the new DSM technology as the center. I'm looking forward to it a lot.

http://picasaweb.google.com/kyotesue/DSMGlobalConferenceLogan?authkey=vAP6GTHcOJA#

Les Misbarack

Omigosh!

Laying low in Jamestown

It's the time of year when summer is wearing thin, when the daily heat and dry conditions are no longer interesting. Admittedly, the highs are dropping from 100 plus to the high 90's. Doesn't feel a lot different. The soils are as hard as concrete, the vegetation is crispy dry, except for the poison oak, 20 feet high everywhere I need to dig a pit. Tiresome. Work is tiresome and I am a lot more than "some" tired. The skies are blue. Always blue, with a slight brown tinge that reminds me how close I live to the Central Valley. On weekends I am doing small things. I have been knitting a lot more again, since it's too hot to do anything outside. Having fun playing with my yarn stash, packaging it all up into color bands for working up a fun project called the "shawl of many colors". Organizing all my needles into sizes, amazing how many I have.

Walking around outside for a bit in the mornings, checking the plants, removing crispy leaves from the hostas that are as tired of the hot summer as I am. I talked to the hostas this morning, whispered secrets to them. "Soon, soon, I promise. Next spring while you are sleeping I will pack your big urns into my truck and take you home, and when you wake up you will see a cool forest, big trees, shade. I promise". I think they heard me.

I was also thinking about my home in Klamath this morning. The whole story of my life in Klamath and that little house on Painter Street was so magical, moving to Klamath and buying and living in that home was my first real experience of "flow". I have been saddened to see all this magic reduced to mediocrity by the crashing market, having to sell the house when things were down, all to eliminate possible capital gains taxes and to quit dealing with renters coming and going.

I stood in my living room last month, after making my floors all shiny and pretty again, and wondered about all of it. The light coming in those windows is wonderful. There is something wonderful about that little home, and I knew that there was a family somewhere, or someone somewhere who would walk in that door and feel the warmth and delight and safety that I felt there the first time I opened it. But lately, what has felt like a huge burden is shifting into a feeling of hope, not yet real, but at least hope.

My reasons

Seven reasons why I won't vote for Sen. McCain in 2008

1. His foreign policy is beligerant and will continue to add mega-billions to the national debt through continued wars that are useless expenditures of money and lives.

2. McCain endorses economic policies that are destroying the middleclass, causing jobs to go overseas, and endangering the future of our offspring for decades to come. I don't believe that someone making millions is middle-class. I am middle-class.

3. McCain is America's "Number One Neocon" with direct ties to Bill Kristol's rightwing extremist oganization, Project for a New American Century (PNAC), I am not a raging liberal, but I detest the Neocon movement. I am pro-choice and while I don't think president's should be elected based on that particular ideal, I fear most the radical right wing Supreme Court justices that will be appointed during his reign. Oh, he's not a king, I forgot.

4. I have read long lists of repeated flip-flops in his voting record and his statements that go back a long way. He is changing all his stances based on his desire to appeal to the right wing movement and get elected. His maverick ways and attempts to work across the aisle are completely evaporating as he gets closer to the election.

5. He promised in February not run a negative campaign. Then, five months later, rather than discuss important issues like high energy prices and rising unemployment, McCain's advisors unleashed a scurrilous, Karl Rove-inspired attack on Barack Obama's character , such as calling him "arrogant" -- a substitute for "uppity" with racial overtones. Both candidates are getting more and more negative, so this one is a stand-off.

6. I have read several accounts from other POW's and military personnel that indicates that McCain is distoring his POW record and exploiting it for political gain. I don't believe being a POW is any particular skill needed to be President.

7. My biggest reason is my belief that if McCain wins in November, the neocons in Washington will increase their power, Bush's incompetent cronies will remain in office, our nation will become more divided, U.S. armed forces will attack Iran, and the Supreme Court will become completely corrupted by extreme right wing conservatives who will take away any rights I once thought I had.

I am saddened that at the early stages of this campaign I felt that there was hope for the future of my country, that we would become again a moral world leader and inspiration, that our economy would prosper, that maybe things would be different. Now it seems that it all is politics as usual, with both candidates doing whatever they need to do and say to try to appeal to the voters they are shooting for in order to win. No matter what kinds of ideals these politicians begin with, they end up prostituting themselves for power. Both of them.

I will no doubt vote Democrat, because of the reasons that I don't want to vote for McCain, but the whole thing just leaves a really bad taste in my mouth on this early Saturday morning.

Christian The Lion - Reunited - From

This made me cry. A true love story

Getting lost on google maps

This morning has been quiet, I am packing and cleaning and such, and decided to check out my google map. Time went by and before long I had found google street views of houses that I lived in long ago. It was fun making the map that you see in the post below this one. For my kids, you might like to check this out, because it's the chronological record of where we were when. I'll send an email to the family list for those who never get around to reading this blog.

Places I have lived

View Larger Map

Yarn stories

Knitters may laugh at this photo, but somehow I just have to talk about this so that I remember my lessons. I have actually cried over this yarn, actually thrown the ball and needles across the room, but then stubbornly picked it up again.


It all started with a hair cut. In Sonora, the yarn shop is just a few doors down from the salon I frequent, so of course, I have to stop in and oggle and feel all the soft yarns. Seems as though these very fine sock yarns, called "fingering wool" are pretty popular right now with the yarn crowd, and there are lots of pretty socks in baskets to tempt me. Now I have made one pair of socks, with worsted weight wool, successfully. On Number 5 needles if I remember right, or some such big kind of thing. Yeah, sure, I can do number 2's. why not. Hmmm. I learned why not. My fingers can do lots of things, I play the piano, texture soils and type fast. On a side note, I just learned that those of us who have textured soils with our right thumb and forefinger have lost most of our fingerprints there. But anyway, fine detailed dexterity isn't on that list of things that I do well. Tiny screws and such make me crazy. Think I should have known, right?

Well, instead, I bought some fancy #2 double pointed needles and a skein of very expensive, very beautiful fingering weight sock yarn. Gee, maybe I can make a dozen or so pairs for Christmas presents. NOT! I think I spent a week or so trying to actually cast on 64 stitches on the double pointed needles before I finally managed to begin a round. After another week, some dropped stitches, and actually crying when I ripped it all out for the 40th time, I put it on the shelf. Another week passed and I took the whole mess to my camping trip and tried again, once more to rip it all out. I cried again. geez. Nothing like some skinny yarn and #2 needles to mess up my life. Maybe I should just knit big shawls and washcloths. Somewhere in this process I knitted up a very nice washcloth to feel better about myself.

I finally decided that I could possibly try using circular needles. Bought 2 of them, at something like $13 each, and proceeded to find a video on the internet of just how to knit in the round for socks on 2 circular needles. Tried again. These socks are getting pretty expensive, and fairly precious. But I am beginning to see from all this that I am nothing else if not stubborn. So, once again, I attempt to actually cast on 64 stitches, hook them up, and start knitting in the round for a rib knit. Knit 2 purl 2 knit 2 purl 2. Uhoh. I have 63 stitches instead of 64. crap. rip it out. Only this time I didn't cry, I actually started laughing and started casting on again. I am not sure just how many times I did this, but I notice I am getting just a bit better at handling that finger weight yarn, and finally, finally, on a Saturday afternoon when I should be doing lots of other things, here is the proof that if I keep on keepin on, eventually I will get somewhere.

It's ribbing. It's tiny. It is the beginning of a real sock. Do you suppose I will have one pair by Christmas? Maybe if I give them to Mo I can wear them myself sometimes. No one else will get fingering weight fancy wool socks, at least not before I am retired.

Medicine Lake Weekend

I’m back in Jamestown today, after a very fast weekend camping at Medicine Lake. Seems a bit silly, I guess, to drive 380 miles each way for 2 nights of camping, but I somehow hoped that I could get a break from heat and smoke. I at least got out of the heat, but not the smoke. The drive north was mind boggling. It’s amazing to drive hundreds of miles through smoke that is as thick as the famous pea soup tule fogs of winter. Well, maybe not that bad, really, I didn’t have to hang my head out the open car door to see the white line, but the visibility was down to ¼ mile in lots of areas, and never more than a mile or so at best. All the way up I-5, from Stockton to Mt Shasta and beyond.

The fires have dissipated somewhat, and yesterday as I was driving home there was a big Delta breeze cleaning out the valley. It was also an incredible experience, driving through the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys on I-5 with crystal clear views of the western coast range. Truly lovely, as long as I didn’t look east. The Sierras were covered by a thick dark gray blanket of smoke. Like a big wall against the sky, and yet I was in a valley more clear than I have seen it almost since I lived here. Found out when I got home that the smoke was from a huge fire that blew up just south of me here on the Tuolumne-Mariposa county line, on the Merced River canyon. What started as a 150 acre vegetation fire caused by someone target shooting blew up almost overnight and now it’s 26,000 acres and zero percent contained. The smoke in Sonora and Jamestown is again barely tolerable. Inside with the air conditioning going again is the only survival mechanism.

But for one full day, with two half days on either end, I got to sit and look out over a sweet little lake. I had bbq’d steaks and salmon, potatoes O’Brien cooked over the campfire for breakfast, quiet times watching the twilight come slowly, even though the stars never really materialized because of the smoke. It was a first for Medicine Lake. Every other time we have been there, 3 previous times actually, the air has been crystalline, pure, and often cold. We found the perfect camping spot, one more time on the lake, in the perfect campground with stone fire pits and unobstructed views of the water.

Was it worth it? It was windy a lot this time, so time in my boat was also limited, but precious. Perfectly clear water, where I could see 30 feet down to the lava rocks on the bottom. The lake was down a bit, fed by snow melt and springs, and yet lower than I have seen it before. But yes, it was worth it. Time with Mo, time where work problems aren’t foremost in my thoughts, time to knit a bit and read a bit and walk a bit and boat a bit. Time for all that easy nothing kind of conversation that friends have when things are simple. It was worth it.

I am having such a hard time lately, harder than it’s been for awhile, with working and waiting and feeling as though time is crawling along even though it’s going fast overall, sometimes the everyday stuff just seems so tedious. The hot smoky weather here makes working outside barely tolerable, actually not tolerable at all, and I am having an incredibly hard time staying focused and doing what I need to do when it comes to mapping. Employee issues surely don’t help, and hopefully those will be resolved before long as well. Big sigh there. It’s wearing me out.

In the mean time…well, that’s a book, isn’t it?! I have it somewhere on the bookshelves, “In the Mean Time”. The lesson being that we need to do something ‘in the mean time’ while we are waiting for that time to come. Deb gives me lectures on “the secret” thinking positively to attract what I want. Deanna reminds me of “affirmations” to think positively about what I want. For the moment, I am in the mean time, however, and am having a bit of a hard time reminding myself of all those spiritual lessons that I once seemed to know really. Appreciate the moment, live in the now, use the gratitude journal. I’m working on it, in the mean time, I’m feeling frustrated with having to be here, having to keep living in this place, doing work that my body is tired of doing, and my mind is overloaded and burned out doing.

So, instead, I get though the days, and drive nearly 800 miles on a 3 day weekend to feel human, and breathe some mountain air, and drive on roads that don’t have bumper to bumper cars all in a huge angry rush. It was amazing driving 33 miles on a paved road from HWY 89 to the lake and only seeing two other cars. Blessed empty roads, one of my favorite things, and something that eludes me totally here in this part of California.

So, now, back to work today, and tomorrow, and another few days, and then I’ll be leaving for a 10 day vacation to Spokane with Mo. So, in the mean time, I am going to pay attention to the present moment, work, write, and live my day to day life with as much presence as I can muster.

Fourth of July

Fourth of July. I don't consider myself a particularly patriotic person in the general sense of the word. I love my country, more for it's landscapes and variety than anything else. I don't fly the American flag because it's use has been usurped by the hard right wing, sadly I think. I don't want to proclaim my love for wars and guns by flying it. Although I can remember in 6th grade and 12 years old, standing with my hand over my heart and crying when they played the Star Spangled Banner every day at my school.

But I love the Fourth of July. It somehow represents all the good things about growing up in the 50's in suburban LA. Yes, there were good things. A long hot sunny day at Santa Anita County Park in Arcadia, with a 6am arrival for biscuits that Dorothy made for the church picnic, long swims in the "plunge", bbq's and games, potato salad and watermelon, all capped off by the smoky sulphur smell and excitement of the fireworks. The hours before the show were full of anticipation as everyone spread out their blankets and lit their own fireworks, with sparklers and fountains and of course, firecrackers, which were always scary.

So, for whatever reason, I always try to recreate that feeling on this holiday, not for patriotic reasons, but to step back to a simpler time in my life, or at least a time that appears simpler from a distance. It was simple on this one day, and lovely. This year I had the same simple lovely day. My kids have learned that even though I make noises about, "Oh I am fine, you have a good weekend, sorry we can't get togeher"...if I am alone on the 4th, I whine, and feel really sad. Deanna knew this, and as Mo and I were settling in on Thursday evening after I arrived, she suddenly appeared at the door, 350 miles without a warning. I am soo glad we weren't camping at Lake of the Woods and we originally planned. Deborah arrived the next afternoon, and Sally and Savannah came over as well to share in the fun. We kayaked on the warm clear waters of the local quarry, ate lots of potato salad and watermelon, Mo made peach waffles for breakfast, and we sat around the porch table in the evening mixing bug spray and shots and laughing ourselves silly.

The fireworks show in Klamath was wonderful, orchestrated perfectly, not too much, not too little, and the crowds were just enough to feel full of energy and fun but not unmanageable. On Saturday we planned a do-nothing day of relaxation which turned into a marathon wood splitting and stacking day that was a ton of fun, or maybe 2 tons, but at least 2 cords anyway. Sunday we headed back to the quarry with the kayaks after Deanna left and Sal and Savannah joined us again for lazy cool clear sunny skies and perfect water.

On this day, once again, I felt that perfect thing that reminds me that life can be really really good.

NASA website

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/fire_and_smoke.html

Funny, I keep thinking about writing something about my wonderful weekend over the 4th, but instead, back home in California, the smoke sucks out all my breath and dominates everything. This web site is amazing, with NASA images of the fires as they are happening. Seems as though NASA is helping out the state of california and the forest service with thermal imaging. If you look at the photos, you will see lots of cool 3d kinds of imagery that we are now using for soil survey.

Soil survey went through a huge period of change back in the 40's with the advent of readily available aerial photography, somewhat because of WWII. Instead of a plane table and surveying tools from the past, soil scientists used stereo pairs of black and white photos to view the landscape in 3d and draw soil boundaries. Now we use GIS, and the technology is exploding and the changes are exponential. It's an interesting period to be a mapping soil scientist, for sure, if you can handle rapid change. Some soils scientists are having trouble, others never had the opportunity to do it the old way so don't have a clue about the limitations of technology when it comes to the real world. But either way, the technology is incredibly cool, or in this case with the fires, hot.

Fires

My home is just north of the fire shown on the lower right in the Sierra Nevada Foothills

Smoky Saturdays

Ahh, Melody, I can hear you already. Oh for pete's sake, Mother, whole wheat pasta! She hated the tofu and falafel years, and especially the whole wheat macaroni and cheese.. But today I went to the farmer's market and amidst the berries and peaches and tomatoes I found these amazing fennel bulbs. It's hot and smokey outside, a good day for cutting up produce for the week and cooking things that will keep me eating well while the working hours get long. I made some addictive quinoa salad that has a ton of fresh ginger, cilantro and garlic, with a thai chili and lime kind of dressing. It's great cold for lunch in the field, but I am probably the only one thinks it's addictive. For me, ever since going to thailand, put cilantro, lime, ginger and hot chili in something, and I'm hooked. Those flavors just get to me.
\

But back to the fennel bulbs. I don't think I have ever actually cooked fennel. I love the smell of it, and I use fennel seed in my spaghetti sauce, a secret of Italian cooking that I read somewhere, but the bulbs were so pretty I had to buy a couple. Searching the internet yielded several recipes for braised fennel, but nothing looked like a summer dish so I just went for it. Sliced it up, sauteed some garlic in a really great olive oil and added the fennel. Put in some veggie broth from a can to braise it for 20 minutes or so, and hmmmm. It looked a bit boring. Ahah. Box in the cupboard. What if I added pasta, and healthy pasta at that. So I boiled up a cup of this stuff and added it to the fennel, added some pine nuts, ground in some pepper, sprinkled on some kosher salt, and voila. !!! Food for a goddess! I can't quite figure out how the fennel makes the pasta seem creamy when there is nothing creamy at all to be found. So, a couple of dinners for the week and a refrigerator full of fresh strawberries and a pot of really fresh blanched green beans and I am good to go. Smoky hot indoor days can be fun after all!

Fires in California

I took these photos while driving down HWY 4 toward Stockton from the foothills. The smoke extends for a few hundred miles in the valley and foothills. I hear it's in tahoe as well. These photos were taken on Wednesday, and returning to Sonora today on Friday afternoon shows no relief. Now we have thunderstorms predicted for the weekend with dry lightning and no rain. More than 1000 fires are burning in California tonight. Breathing is challenging, even indoors. It's June. Hard to imagine what August will bring.
Just for comparison, here's a shot of the view from near here in the spring.

A Sunday Hike in Yosemite

I grew up in an LA suburb, with memories of smog and tract houses, but every summer, for two amazing weeks, we would travel the 8 hours up old HWY 99 to Yosemite. Almost every year we would hike Vernal Falls, we being my dad and me and some assorted kids. Dorothy usually went as far as the first bridge and waited for us. In 1974 I took my 4 children to Yosemite to camp, and we hiked Vernal Falls. I had to carry Melody most of the way down. Yesterday, climbing these stairs, I wondered how I managed that.

It is a truly lovely hike. Gorgeous vistas, and it is called the Mist Trail for a reason. I was glad for the hot day as I was soaked by the spray of the falls. Last night as I fell asleep, I could still hear the roar of water that accompanied our journey. Alison runs marathons, and digs holes at work like no one I have known, but she said at the end of the day, she was tired too! I'm so glad I wasn't carrying a child.

If you look closely at the next photo here, you can see the trail snaking up along the Merced River with tiny little people climbing along. It's only 4 miles round trip, but that last mile is just exciting enough and challenging enough that when you are done, it feels as though there is something to celebrate in addition to the power of those amazing falls. Actually, my greatest moment of celebration came AFTER I managed to get down all those steep wet craggy stairs. Thank you, Knees. You made it one more time . Many more photos on the Picassa Web Site, of course.

Back from klamath

Check out the MoHo Travels for my Recreation creek kayak trip and photos.

Mother's Day

My son John and his new friend Jan came to visit. It was an amazing serendipity, because as they were driving north, the tornados were hitting all around Joplin. I am sad for the people caught in the storms, but so glad that my son wasn't home when they hit. We had a nice evening and got up early this morning to walk Lincoln in the breezy cool sunlight. Lincoln is a lovely town, and John really enjoyed the architecture. I really enjoyed showing him one of my favorite things in Lincoln, the brick sculpture bas relief down in the HayMarket at the train depot. It is very nearly impossible to get any kind of photo that shows how detailed and beautiful this sculpture is, and it never ceases to amaze me when I look at it.

Teaching soil survey

I'm in Lincoln today and it's raining hard. Not surprising, and not surprising to see the radar with all those bright yellow and red blotches here on the Nebraska line, not surprising for May at least. I'm not sure why "they" seem to think that May is such a great time to be out in the fields here, maybe because the corn isn't up yet. It's been a good week. The erratic weather has been kind and refrained from dumping on us in the field. I have a good group this year, everyone seems interested and seems to be learning and having fun. It's funny how there are group dynamics and after some classes that weren't so positive, I appreciate this one even more. I was assigned a group of six to mentor and the work area we are mapping is the same one I had last year. I enjoyed that, especially taking them to "the tree". It's an amazing old elm along the creek, and definitely worth the photo. Meet a few of the new crop of soil scientists.

We all have the weekend free, and some of us decided to go to the amazing Cabela's store near Omaha. It was like Disneyland for outdoor people, maybe even more so than my old western favorite REI. There are not only acres of outdoor wear, fishing gear, hunting gear, packs of all sorts, boots, and everything wonderful that you ever saw in the Cabela catalog, there are also waterfalls and mountains and even a very huge aquarium inside the store. Lots of trophy animals as well, which may or may not affect your sensibilities, but certainly a pretty amazing place. Check out the website for the La Vista Nebraska store and be sure to go to the photo gallery! Incredible, actually

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/community/aboutus/retail-detail.jsp?detailedInformationURL=/cabelas/en/content/community/aboutus/retail/retail_stores/lavista/lavista.html&cm_re=retail*left*lavista

It was fun, and I bought a really cool soil pack that is made by some sort of fly fishing specialist that just tickled me to pieces. I'm truly a bag lady, and my bag obsession is getting a bit weird, but this one has so many pockets and straps and bells and whistles that I couldnt' resist. i will be the coolest soil scientist around. hahahaha!

Of course, in addition to all the cool outdoor stuff, there is actually a real "mall" here in Lincoln and I managed to get there last night. Nice for a shopping deprived foothill resident. Back home it's an hour to any kind of shopping and it's always crowded and crummy. I enjoyed my little foray and even managed to get a pair of glasses that I needed. Had been planning to try to figure out how to get down to the LensCrafters in Modesto where my prescription resides, and lo and behold, here I was in Lincoln and they had my prescription on line and my glasses ready the next morning. Cool. Melody will be proud of me since they aren't old lady glasses any more. hahaha again! I returned home to beautiful flowers in my room from Melody and Kevin and the kids and John and his new friend Jan will be arriving soon to spend the evening and tomorrow with me here in Lincoln. Not bad for a Mom's day out!

afternoon at home

Afternoons at home are a real treat that I don't often get to enjoy. Today I am getting ready to go to Lincoln for my annual teaching adventure. This time last year Mo and I were heading out with the baby MoHo for our first cross country trip. This year, I am flying instead. My iris finally opened. Last year they opened as I left and by the time I returned they were finished. I am watching the dark purple ones on the other side of the driveway. so far, maybe half an inch of purple is showing. will I see them before Monday when I leave? Will they still be blooming when I return mid May? I wanted to capture the poppies as well this afternoon. They are so incredibly brilliant, blooming all over the hillsides, and right here along my pathway on the east side of the house.







Of course, I can never resist the hostas. I looked back over my photos, and they are like pictures of my children, every year, the same ones, incredibly photogenic children at that! The big one in the pot on the front porch has a history. She is called "Great Expectations" I saw this hosta for the first time in 2002 before I left Spokane at my favorite perennial nursery there. They had more than 300 varities of hostas, and this one was growing in a great old Italian urn under the shade house. It was so incredibly magnificent, and I had never seen hostas in pots before. I bought one tiny plant. The nurserman warned me that it was a slow grower. He was right. I have nursed this baby along for years in Klamath in the ground, then in this pot, moved her down to Jimtown with me, and now, finally for the first time, Great Expectations is living up to my expectations! Something about the huge leaves and the way the light and water plays on the leaves captures me totally. It's a hosta thing. Only hosta lovers probably have any clue what I mean.

Friendships

Been thinking about friendship this morning, especially since I spent last weekend with Maryruth. We enjoyed the reminiscing thing while have dinner and wine overlooking the ocean. 45 Years. It's amazing to me that we have weathered all those years and somehow managed to retain this friendship as an integral part of our lives. For 15 years I had women who were close friends to me, my women's group in Northern Idaho. At the time, several of those women I considered integral to my life. And yet, they have come and gone. Time and distance has eroded those friendships, so that now they are just a distant memory. I don't know how that happens. I guess what I really don't know is how this happens. How a friendship weathers a lifetime. Grace, I guess. Pure Grace. I put photos of the Big Sur trip up on the Picassa web site and of course, wrote all about it on the MoHo Travels blog, but here, this morning, the friendship is what comes to mind

Back to work again

The week has been beautiful actually, with clear warm sunny skies and cool breezes. Spring in the MotherLode is lovely, and for the moment it is still spring. I am working in the office way more than I want to be, but the support work for everything we are doing still needs time and while I would rather be working while it is cool, the deadlines are looming as usual.

But on Monday I took the day to get out with my crew again, and we went to the western most portion of the survey area to look at some soils that I thought were all figured out. Ah well, what's new. Everything was different. I found Ione formation out there on top of the strike zone of the greenschist, far above where it should have been. Great. As usual, a puzzle, and always trying to reconstruct the geologic history of a place. Uplift in the subduction zone makes it even more crazy to figure out. But the sun was shining and the breezes were wonderful, and sooner or later it will all make sense and we will have a good soil survey in the end.

Weekends

Last weekend was great, if short. I remember when a 2 day weekend was all we ever had, but now with 10 hour days 3 day weekends are the norm, at least for the field season. So a 2 day weekend seems way too short to get anything done. Mo has been here since Friday, and Saturday morning we fired up the MoHo and headed for the Sacramento Delta and a one night camping trip. Pictures and thoughts about it are on the MoHo Travels page so I won't repeat them here. It surprised me how relaxing it was. I talked to Deanna about this and she agreed. Even though it was just a short time, on Sunday morning we sat in the sun, listening to NPR and had a simple breakfast. I couldn't quite figure out the difference, why it felt more relaxing than sitting at home on a Sunday morning listening to NPR eating our breakfast. It has something to do with the "to-do" list that is always in the back of my mind when I am home. No matter how much I refuse to do the "to-do" on a day off, it's still there. So a weekend away is a good thing for that reason alone. No "to-do's! Loved it.

Sunday afternoon

It's been a great weekend, and after I finally settled into the simplicity of everyday life, I really enjoyed it. The review was a good one, Kit and I are learning each other's style and by the time the week came to a close, it felt a lot more like we were in it to get the job done, rather than some sort of job review for me personally. As usual, I have a lot on my plate to make sure everything is done to spec, that everything is caught up, but I'm not in it alone, and I feel like I have a good team. It's taken a while, for sure. Here's a shot of my crew, with Kit on the left. He's the review team leader, my technical lead. Next from left to right is John Rule, the one who will not retire and wants to be pushed over into a soil pit when he dies in the field. Dean is next, he is the MLRA project leader from Chico who has been detailed here to work for me during the field season. Ben is a soil scientist from Montana who was in my group at the first Basic Soil Survey session that I taught a couple of years ago. Alison is from Chicago, and has been a soil scientist for a few years, but hasn't had much chance to actually map soils. I miss Stacy a lot for good reasons and some not so good reasons. I ran out of black ink for the printer on Friday, and that's a bad reason. I depended on her too much, I think. She kept track of ink, while soaking in every possible thing she could learn about soil survey, I still never ran out of ink.

John and I have learned to give each other room for our personal style as well. I let John do what he needs to do, and have learned to just get all the good that he has to offer in his own unique way, and he has quit fighting me and my authority. We seem to have figured it out most of the time at least.

Ben and Alison are just a kick, both of them here for the short run, but willing to work hard and they both are fun to be around. They have managed to coerce me into doing a zip-line up at the Mercer caverns some weekend soon. geez. Back to that old thing of cultivating young friends. Ha! hard on the bones, though. LOL.

They both are a little bit daunted by the depth of all the soils around here, and just how much digging is required to see them as deeply as we need to see them.

On Wednesday, I had them go with us for our mid-week break to Table Mountain. Kit said it was like blasphemy, we all went to the mountain without shovels. That was my plan, actually. I always make a new soil scientist walk their ground without a shovel when they first start to map an area because I want them to really SEE the landscape and look at the landforms and come up with their theories before they get their heads caught up in the details of the soils themselves. Kit teased me about this, but he got it. This part of Table Mountain is about 1600 feet in elevation and the part that we mapped last year is only about 1000 feet high. It's amazing how this landform snakes all the way to the top of the Sierra's. Inverted topography at it's best.

http://virtual.yosemite.cc.ca.us/ghayes/Table%20Mountain.htm

It was a good day and a good week, and it has been a good weekend. Spring in this part of the world is certainly a lovely thing, with green everywhere, flowers blooming, cool nights and warm sunshiny days. Who could ask for more.

Morning RUMInations

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness,

Some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all.

Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture.

Still treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice, Meet them at the door laughing,

And invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.

~rumi~

I love these little tickers!

Guess I'm famous now

http://www.rvresources.com/

We are RVer's of the Month for April. I found this rv resources site searching for some kind of rv information and it led to me posting my travel blog there as well. It's been fun, but I never imagined that we would get the RVer of the month thing. Tickles me.

Progress Review this week

Ah the life of a soil scientist. The review thing. This one is different than most, since we did the field portion last fall and this week will be slogging around in the database, checking mapunit design and composition, NASIS data, and all our mapping to date on the GIS. Soil survey has changed a lot since I started this job back in the 70's. I would write a soil series from a handwritten description by hand, would send it off to a distant office to be typed, and to another distant office to be checked against existing soil series. Maybe in 6 months we would get it back, approved and edited. Now we do all that ourselves, from descriptions that are entered in NASIS and out pops a series description that we edit and check on the internet for other series that may be the same. Our database used to be generated from a thing called a SOI 5, a 2 page form that we also filled out by hand and that was sent off to another computer somewhere to create soils tables. That's all done in NASIS now, National Soil Information System, which pops out reports by the hundreds and you just have to find the ones you want. Sounds easy, right? ha! Consistency is still and always the issue. The more data you generate the more it all has to match. Hence progress reviews in the office.

That's what I will be doing all week this week, in addition to keeping my two visiting soil scientists busy, and making sure that the review team leader from the state office is satisfied with the quality of the work. As usual, quality and quantity are the needs, both at once, and for less money and less time and more and more information generated and used. Just for fun, check out the final product here: http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/ and here
http://www.soils.usda.gov/

Thoughtful conversation

I really like Andrew Sullivan. Over the past few years, catching him now and then on a news or a talk show, he has seemed to me to represent what a thinking conservative might be, and I liked to listen to him because he made sense. I felt I could hear him and perhaps understand that "right of the right" movement in this country that wasn't informed by radical preachers screaming hellfire and damnation. So my ears would perk up when he appeared.

Because I truly respect his intellect, I searched and found his blog, and lo and behold, he is an Obama fan. Today I found a post there that said all that I wish I could paraphrase for my conservative friends who once supported the war and no longer do. Maybe they aren't as articulate but maybe these are the principles beneath what they are thinking that causes that shake of the head and frustration with Bush's war.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/03/what-i-got-wron.html#more

Most of my friends were with me protesting the war before it happened, left of center, I am not a total radical lefty liberal. Stacy calls us "progressive liberals" whatever that means. But wherever you fall on this balance, take a minute and read this post by Andrew about why he was wrong about Iraq.

And my grandsons have been there, are still there fighting, while even once strong supporters like Andrew Sullivan are rethinking their position. I would imagine that Steven, doing his job and doing his best, called against his will, but willing to serve, knows that up close, at the level he is doing it, it's good work. I honor him. The sadness at the highest levels of government in this country don't have anything at all to do with how I feel about young men willing to serve this country. It's a quandary, for sure.

So after a break from work, I'll go back to thinking about rock fragments, and iron content, and pH and horizons and quit worrying about my grandson in Iraq and all the missteps and ego that put him there in the first place

Rocky Point

I'm home in Rocky Point. Mo is outside plowing snow and I am trying to catch up. It's snowing outside right now. The snow is so deep here that Mo has boards over her windows so that they don't get broken by the crashing snow when it melts. You can't see over the snowbanks in front of the porches. I am in jammies and will remain so until bedtime. No plans for anything other than knitting, tv, reading blogs, catching up on Quicken, and just hanging out. Tomorrow is David's wedding, late afternoon trip to Klamath for a sweet friend and his bride, then a lovely dinner at the Ragland afterward and back to Rocky Point. Sunday morning I will leave early enough to hopefully get home before dark. Back to Jamestown and my kitties which I do really miss.

Funny, the travel blog is for some kind of public consumption I guess. Mo says, "don't put anything personal in there". She likes to share it with her family and friends, but of course it's then not the place for me to ramble on and on about "stuff". This is the "stuff" place, and only my best friends even know where this is. It's my ramble site. So I'm rambling. I really really want to put photos in here of all this snow, but of course in Rocky Point it's still dialup unless you pop for satellite service, so no photos till I get back home. Back to cats and my DVR. LOL I do love that DVR thing where I am not tied to TV for anything at all, but when I want it I get just what I want when I want! Talk about instant gratification!!! Time to catch up on all my guilty pleasures, like American Idol and the L Word.

I have all sorts of visions of Kauai, some of the dream was just what I imagined, maybe even better. Some of it was just another place to travel, maybe not as magical as I had imagined, but then I guess that happens. The waterfall moment was incredible, it's what sticks in my mind from the whole place, that and the snorkel day, and the combo sound of tropical breezes, ocean waves, and the fans, mixed with birds in the morning as the sun rose quietly. I would go back, yes, for sure I would go back. But some of the magic of Kauai is also right here in the states in places like Edisto Beach, same sighing wind and surf sounds and palms. Maybe not the drama of the NaPali coast, or Waimea Canyon, but maybe a bit more laid back. Kauai could have been a bit more laid back if we hadn't wanted to see as much of it as we could. If I went back, I would beach and snorkel more, and I would try to get to the NaPali coast on a kayak.

But now, instead, I am reading work email, thinking frustrating thoughts about deadlines, and goals, and people coming in that I have to manage. Work. Life. For now. Just for now. 15 months.

Jeremy's birthday and he's somewhere in Texas training, Steven in Iraq, blogging thank goodness, Matthew working in Colorado, for the moment a bit absent, Deb doing her thing, doing well in Portland, Melody living her amazing creative life, Deanna back on the road, John learning to live a different way now that Linda is gone. All the people I love, coming and going, and I am coming and going, and coming back. Watching the snow. Reading blogs. Keeping the fire going while Mo plows the snow. Life is good.