10/18-21/07: Dancing Between the Sunbeams

Update:
Today (Halloween) sees me at a Clarion Hotel in Binghampton, New York, on my way to Jan Wilcox's to visit for the night and then back to Annie Cooper in Brunswick, Maine, on the last leg back home.

It's been a while since I last wrote. Stan and his family are OK. Crestline, where he lives, wasn't touched by fire, which is wonderful. Hopefully this blue jay is still flying with its mate through the pines in their front yard.

I saw the lake on the right
on my way out of town -- the back way, through to Barstow and Arizona. I heard that this area burned, but don't know that for a fact. Dancing between the sunbeams this time, I made it to Arizona and stayed in Williams, just outside of the entryway to the Grand Canyon, where I met Pagent and Susan at their Battledress and Bodyworks shop, where I bought a tourquoise necklace made by Pagent. Evidently they had just opened and were willing to give me a really good price. Pagent (the one on the left) showed me where the ATM machine was in a restaurant next door -- very C&W, kind of biker, but with good steaks. Susan showed me photos of women who looked dressed in kind of medieval biker tattooed exotic dress (like sword and sorcery sci-fi art beloved by teenaged boys and young men). It was all paint, not a stitch of fabric to be had, so to speak.

When I walked in they suggested that I could try on any necklace or motorcycle helmet of my choice. In a way, I was kind of flattered and though that if I actually lived in Crestline, I might need a helmet, so that I could ride with Stan on his Ural, but I probably wouldn't get pink.

The next day, I did got to the Grand Canyon, as the pressure from my friend Sue Corning back in Halifax and Pagent in Williams was too great. I realized I'm not actually that much of a fan of on-purpose tourism. But, of course it was beautiful, hot, fair number of people, and of course, the requisite idiots (as can be seen if you look very closely at the top left of the photo on the right. At the very tippy top of the rocks are some dim-witted daredevils.)

I did get some pretty amazing shots though (like on the left), which, of course, you can see more of when I get back.

I stayed that night in Winslow, Arizona. I tried to stay in this really cool train station that I stayed in with Stan when we did our road trip in 2006 to bring my mom's car back, but it was full for days and I ended up staying at a Best Western, I think, at the same great expense as I would have done if I'd been able to stay at the train station. I ate dinner there though, but got kind of sick. I think it was the lime margarita. I was feeling adventurous, but I generally just drink wine or sake, not mixed drinks. Too bad.

The next day, I tried to see if I could stay at the Ritchies, where Stan and I'd stayed last time in Santa Fe, but, while I could have perhaps, it would have been in Halifax, as that's there home base now. Above and on the right is a pic of the border between Arizona and New Mexico. New Mexico has more mesas, though the colouring is a bit like the Grand Canyon, it's a bit more red.

So I made it to Las Vegas, New Mexico, instead and stayed at a sweet little place called The Lodge, owned by Latinos. It was cheap, simple, and clean. What more could I want. Then I listened to the weather news and heard there was a blizzard blowing up in the front range area of Colorado, just where I'd be going the next day, if I kept to my plan. You can see from the series of photos I took on my 100 mile journey to Raton, New Mexico (right on the southern border with Colorado) that the decision to stay at a Comfort Inn in Raton was a good one.

Turned out there was a high pass in about 15 miles that I would have to cross to get into Colorado that was snowed in. This is a picture I took outside the window about an hour after I got into the motel at Raton. The first flakes had begun to fall just as I pulled my car in. Frost was on the windows the next morning.

10/24/07: Update: Lake Arrowhead fire

Hi out there. Just thought I'd let you know, I spoke with my son Stan yesterday. Here's his report:

As background, Stan lives in Crestline, California, up the mountain from Lake Arrowhead, a center of one of the big fires in San Bernadino/L.A.

On Monday night he had packed up his car in case of an evacuation notice, though the fire was still about two air miles away. On Tuesday, four years to the day, they read the official notice to evacuate via http://www.rimoftheworld.net/ to evacuate. By 11 pm he'd packed up the family, cat and two dogs and headed to his mom's (adoptive) place in La Verne. It was very windy, two semi's were overturned on the road, but there was almost no traffic.

He'd spotted boats, trailers, and classic cars (like a '57 Chevy) parked in Goodwin's (the Crestline supermarket) parking lot. He figures they were from Dart Canyon, which was in the path of the fire. Where his house is situated in in a protected spot where he could see the stars and clear sky overhead, but heavy smoke up-mountain. He'd heard that Twin Peaks, a nearby town, had embers the size of milk cartons flying in. Twin Peaks is pretty much gone.

It was four years to the day since he had to evacuate from the last big fire. His daughter Sarah was just nine days old. He said the situation wasn't as bad as that time, believe it or not, at least in Crestline, which historically hasn't yet burned because of wildfires.

He said it looked like Apolocypse Now at Lake Gregory, which is in the town of Crestline, with helicopters thwop thwopping in lines scooping up water to dump on the fire. The level of the lake was already low, but now is noticeably lower than it was when I was there a few days ago.

He said by Monday as he was trying to call me on Skype he heard a frantic knocking at his door. It was his neighbor across the street who said "I'm 80 years old, too old to leave now, but my daughter's freaking out. Can you come over and help?"

They have about 15 dogs and cats. He saw eight cats in boxes lined up by their car. He told them he didn't think they had to leave just yet, which calmed them down a bit. They have three cars that barely run (one had a broken water pump and the engine was spewing oil) and a trailer parked there that had plastic for a door. I think they do have one car at least that can get them out of there.

This time Stan says he's better prepared and shut off the water and all his electronic stuff, like computers, TV, phone. Last time they were gone for 10 days and the refrigerator was a mess, with melted ice-cream leaking down the back. He'd been given a pair of surgical industrial-fit gloves, a bag and a mask which he donned to clean it up. The electricity was still on as of last night, so he's hoping it won't be as much of a mess.

He emptied the garbage and the food out of the dog run, so mice won't get in.

He says in Crestline, because it's not as upscale, people don't plant plants that don't naturally go there or water them particularly, like they do in San Diego, i.e., mesquite and chapperal that burn nicely, and that the infrastructure is better, compared to San Diego.

He said it is raining ash in La Verne, but otherwise it's fine. He plans to go in to work at Redlands on Thursday. Kristen teaches grade six in the Highland area, where another fire has started. They've closed the schools in San Bernadino, so she has a few days off.

Sarah packed her new Barbie suitcase with five pairs of socks, underpants, three shirts and pants, and a few toys, so she's set.

I'm putting in a few pics I took when I was there of Sarah's birthday and Stan working on his Ural (russian-made cherry red motorcycle with sidecar) that he's left up there along with a new scooter.

I got to Crestline in time to celebrate Stan's wife Kristen's and daughter Sarah's birthdays, which was really great. We went out to Baker's restaurant, a favorite of his mom, Vera's, to eat lunch and then came back to her house for cake.

Me, I'm in North Platte, Nebraska, about to head out to the other side past Lincoln, on my way to visit another Darrow expert. I'll keep you posted.

10/12/07: To Crestline the Back Way

Well friends, I now have a quiet moment when my son Stan is at work, Sarah, my almost-four-years-old granddaughter, and daughter-in-law Kristen are at childcare or teaching. I was going to try and go from Howard's house in Richmond via San Simeon to pause and take pics of Hearst Castle to go with the Pan's Pool photo I took (now at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia). Pan's Pool is a photo I took out back of the Berkeley Women's Faculty Club on a visit there in 2004. They were both designed by Julia Morgan in the 20s-30s, the first famous women architect (or so the PR goes).

But, in my effort to get going and spend more time with my son and his family and be here in time for Kristen's 40th (which is today by the way), I opted for directness and, of course, got stuck driving at night on a two-lane road with halogen/brights coming my way and tailgating me from behind (I let those guys pass).

I went the back way, down 58 and then onto 138 and saw these windmills, which were very hypnotizing, spinning in every which direction. There were lots and lots of them, big ones and little ones.

I passed by Edward's Air Force base and was passed by fast vans with Homeland Security and other police services written on the sides. I saw a huge plane fly in a big circle sheparded by a teeny weeny plane (at least in comparison).

Actually it turned out this was a good decision, because the next day on Friday, there was a huge accident in a tunnel on the I-5, around the "grapevine" involving tractor trailers and cars bursting into flames. Three people died. They closed the I-5 for a few days.

I've been spending time diddling with the photos I took at the Wildlife Safari, learning more about this Mac and deciding I was better off using iPhoto than the EOS Image Ready, my Canon Rebel uses, which was taking an incredibly long time to load and delete pics. But now I've gone back to the EOS editing software, because the iPhoto duplicates photos and takes up a lot of memory.

10/07-11: Bay Area: Joe Lutrell, Law Antiquarian

I arrived safely into the Bay Area on Sunday, the 7th, and moved nicely into my son Zeb's dad's spare room in Richmond. Howard has a beautiful place that I find very safe and peaceful. He's a student of crazy wisdom master, Kusung Lingpa and spends a lot of time travelling, hosting various Tibetan teachers, and managing rental properties in central California.

I did fulfill one of my missions, to visit Joe Lutrell (and took a pic), of Boswell Meyers Bookstore. He's an expert on Clarence Darrow. It was really fun to meet face to face. I'd been corresponding a bit via the web. He was recommended to me by my cousin Elva and Randy, another lawyer I'd found who's an expert on Darrow.

I finally got to see the insides of Boswell Meyer (http://www.meyerbos.com/perlshop.cgi?thispage=home.html), which is on Mission Street in San Francisco. It's on the third floor over a house paint shop of a very unassuming brick building. Joe very kindly let me park my car in his spot as he'd ridden his bycicle to work. He showed me his collection of Darrow books, which occupied three very tall bookcases in a "library stacks"-like isle in the spacious room.

We went to lunch at the nearby Tartine Bakery (http://www.tartinebakery.com/), specializing in bakery delights and quiche and salad that had a queue that had about 10 people almost all the time we were there.

On the way there we passed the most amazing painted building that I'd ever seen. It was three stories and painted with all kinds of women images in vivid paint. Joe said it was the S.F. Women's Centre. Here's a web page with closeups of some of the images. http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Women's+Building+Mural%20San+Francisco&w=all

He talked to me about his young days in the Peace Corps and his work with civil rights law in Georgia. I talked with him about my idea of writing a pictorial essay on Clarence Darrow. After I'd come back from getting a coffee refill, I asked about how his interest in Darrow began. He said he was thinking about that and couldn't remember exactly, but that everyone needed a hero and his is Darrow. He said that Darrow doesn't disappoint.

On the last day I went to my favorite book store in Berkeley, Cody's, even though Cody died (along with Moe of Moe's Bookstore) and the store has been bought by a Japanese businessman, or so I heard. They have a really good group of employees who will help you find the book you want. In my case, "Outsourced," a novel about outsourcing the U.S. Intelligence community. I also bought "Look me in the Eye" about a man with Asberger's Syndrome, and "The Imperial Presidency," about Bush et al.

10/06-07/07: Luci, the Artist

I arrived at Luci's in good time -- early afternoon. Luci's been through a lot and has recently moved from her memory-filled ancestral house in Corte Madera, California, to her own trailer home in Sonoma. It's not a teeny type trailer. It's double width and in a nice residential area. She has a garden she's beginning work on. She's a fantastic artist -- painter, collage, and computer -- and is also delving into an astrology service.

She's only just moved in, so we had to improvise a bit on sleeping arrangements. It's wonderful to stay with friends and just chill. She spent quite a bit of time looking at all my pics on the computer and the ones I brought from home. I gave her two -- a large one and a small one. She wrote poems for them.

We went out to dinner at a kind of spiffy restaurant. On the way, I saw the above vividly coloured truck and car. Luci thought I should take a pic.

I ordered some fritatta and a glass of Pinot Noir, which I found out cost $12/glass after it had been poured. Luci was fairly livid about this, since it's one of her favorite restaurants she likes to take her friends to, and they hadn't posted the prices on the sign. I had ordered at a Starbucks-type counter, so didn't necessarily expect that kind of spendy-ness. She complained to the manager (she is braver than I), who ended up giving us the rest of the bottle. It was good Sonoma Pinot Noir, not your rouge ordinaire.

We sat for a while outside to have a puff -- they still allow cigarette smoking in front of a restaurant on the streets of Sonoma, much to my amazement. I took these pics of her. The result is what happens when I use "aperature preferred," without knowing how to take a pic in the dusk. She liked them though, and didn't want me to take another in better light, so there you go. They do have a certain charm (note the pumpkin).

We went back to her place to talk. I learned a lot about how she became a buddhist and student of Khyentse Rinpoche's (the elder, now reincarnated, whom she met in Nepal and held on her lap for a bit).

I slept well. The next day Luci had a lot of things planned. We had seen a store that we wanted to look into near the one with these old Chinese stools, which while cool, were none-the-less something like US$125 each.

I didn't buy the necklace I was looking at (I do have a rather large collection of my mom's jewelry that should do me for a lifetime), but I did get some pants, a skirt, a shirt, and a scarf, at great expense, but just in case I had to dress up for something.

I did take a great pic of the wall in back of the store, which had a few tables in it and was all enclosed. Very New York I thought.

We didn't have time to go to the winery that Luci wanted to take me to -- I spent too much time being in consumer heaven. She had an appointment at 3 pm in Berkeley and I had promised Zeb's dad, Howard, that I'd be there around then, so we went back to her place to pack up and get ready.

I'm afraid I scared her cat -- what you get by trying to "herd cats" -- by rushing it to try and get it to head back into the trailer and not out the door. I'm not really a cat person and don't have a lot of empathy or maybe it's sympathy -- they seem to like me well enough, maybe it's that aloof quality. Luci is a cat mom, and it was kind of upsetting having to rush around to get ready while having to calm the cat.

I asked to follow her out of town, which maybe wasn't a good idea as the traffic in California is not like it is in Nova Scotia. California motorists are almost always in a hurry to get "there," though Luci was very patient and waited for me at crucial turns.

As you can see, Luci also has a good sense of humour and was able to forgive me in the end. She has always been my very good friend. And, I hers.

10/05-06/07: R&R at the Mandels

Today, Friday, after all the excitements and long drivings, I went down to Davis to visit my sangha friends, Joel and Sarah Mandel. Of course, I had to get lost. Last time I visited them New Years Eve 2005, right after my mom died. It was pouring the Pineapple Express (a heavy rainfall that comes across the Pacific from guess, yeah, Hawaii). The whole central valley in California had flooded and houses washed down the Russian River. I arrived at the Davis Shambhala Centre just in time to hear Richard Reoch open an address to be given by the Sakyong that was being transmitted live via phone link.

So that time when I came I had to traverse a number of rather large puddles, more like small lakes and get lost. This time, outside of not recognizing the road, it was less excuseable. Mainly I undershot the mark and travelled up and down Mace, which turned into something else. Anyway, Sarah talked me in via cell and they served up a wonderful dinner of beef stew. Mostly I rested and chatted and worked some on the Wildlife Safari pics, while Sarah sewed beautiful quilted puja table cloths and Joel exercised and travelled to the store. I thank them very much for their hospitality and generosity in just being my friends.

I left at my usual time -- about 9:30 or 10 am -- to go visit my friend Luci in Sonoma, whom I've known since about 1971 or 2. Her directions were from Google and even though down many highways and biways, I was able to follow them and not get lost!

10/05/07: The Langdells

The next day I got up early to visit what I'm calling my "god parents," even though, as you know, non-theism reigns supreme. Heh. Libby and Joe have known my mom since she was in College. She and Libby went to the Chicago Institute of Art back in the 40s.

Joe is 93 and had a medical mishap, but is recovering nicely. I never saw anybody zip along faster on a walker. Joe has spent many of these last years organizing (most of the organizing being done by Libby I must mention) reunions of the survivors of the U.S.S. Arizona in Hawaii. He was serving on board the U.S.S. Arizona during the bombing of Pearl Harbour. He retired a Lt. Commander. He said I should google him and 11,400 listings come up on his name. Bob Schieffer of CBS interviewed him on the 50th Anniversary of Pearl Harbour. I found a good biography of him at: http://www.ussarizona.org/survivors/langdell/index.html

Here's a quote from the biograhy:

"Mr. Langdell is one of three principal figures in the television documentary, "USS Arizona: Life and Death of a Lady" (see right side bar for Spotlight Documentary) which aired of the A&E cable network in 1991 and 1992. During an historic moment aboard the USS ARIZONA MEMORIAL, former ARIZONA Officer Joseph Langdell accepts a floral wreath in memory of ARIZONA'S entombed from former Japanese Lt. Commander Zenji Abe, a pilot who dropped a bomb on the ship."

When I asked Joe if he forgave the Japanese, he laughed and said "Hell no," as only he could say it.

Libby has been a second mother to me, helping me greatly from time to time in working with my mom. She has a wonderful memory for telling stories and has kept the family and house together lo these many years. And, not has much now, has been a wonderful cook and gardener, and specialist in the colour purple, which fills her home.

Teddy, their son, is an amazing fellow. When I googled Ted, I got 7,710 listings. He's what I'd call an alpha geek -- a high compliment in geek circles. He specializes in Macs and as you can see from the pic we both have MacBook Pro laptops. He asked me in some puzzlement "When did you get yours?" About a week and a half before I left. Heh. He lickety split got me up and running on iChat so I can video conference real time with others who have iChat. This was very useful when I got to my son Stan who set me up on Skype with the same video ability.

Ted has a great business where, besides creating commercials and business videos, he creates "documentaries" of personal stories. He can use old photos, records, antique video (like Super 8 or whatever) to create a mini-documentary for a family, which has been used to great effect for memorial services. He knows how to restore all these things and has recently become the sales rep for a restoration machine made in Germany. His website is: http://www.tedlangdell.com/.

He whizzed around taking zillions of photos with my Canon Rebel that could be viewed at one second intervals and have the effect of a video. He somewhat annoyed Libby when he started recording her as was telling my a story about my mother's last meeting with her father, Burt, before I was born. Burt wanted to know what she planned to do after College. He thought being a teacher or nurse, or perhaps secretary was the appropriate thing. My mother did get him to send her to Art School. She later became a cartographer for the OSS (precurser to the CIA) during WWII and then developed a career as an industrial designer.

Ted did manage to document my departure.

10/04/07: A Quality Inn Graphic Detail

I spent the whole day on Thursday, the 4th travelling from Oregon to Yuba City. It was really a long way, through redwood forests, along the Coast of Calfiornia, and then left through to Clear Lake and on into the dark and lightning-struck night of Central California listending to a NPR (National Public Radio) station from Nevada. Got to the Quality Inn in Yuba City on Rte 99 where I'd made a reservation and it was terrible. Requested a smoking room for some unknown reason, which was bad enough, but the worst was the toilet lid would slap my back every time I sat on the seat and then there was a full-length mirror that faced me on the outside of the bathroom door which wouldn't close. Well, that's for those who like graphic details and to know that all is not nirvana and that those little details of suffering are always there lurking. The good news, I think, is that I got the room free with so-called points.

10/04/07: Square Pants and Lone Sticks

My brother gave me the day off, which was very sweet of him, to go and visit the lawyer, Don, down in Brookings (not too far from Gold Beach -- about 20 miles). I let him pick one of my photos as a thank you for all the work he did for my brother and I. As some of you may know, he's the sort who, after a Rotary Club meeting came over to the house wearing a tie that lit up and I think may have played a song. Gad. He has a heart of gold.

He picked "The Dao of Driftwood," which as you may recall is at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. He had me sign the back as an "artist's proof." He's going to frame it and put it in his reception area.

He kindly took me out to lunch at his favorite watering hole and let me take a pick of him in his bright blue new Volkswagen. That's Square Pants Sponge Bob on the side. There's a pic of Minnie Mouse on the hood. He's an avid golfer and has (obviously) a great sense of humour.

After that, I went by my mother's old house that I sold on December 21, 2006, one year to the day after she died. The new owner has painted it pumpkin orange and green and renamed it "Herb Cottage" (as you can see in the pics) from "Set E C," which my mother and brother had named it, meaning C'est Ici for the francophones in the audience. There are what look like four "beds" in the front yard. There used to be Agapanthis (tall purple flowers) under the living room windows, which they've pulled out to expose the raggedy bottom of the front wall. Good thing we sold it "as is."

Then, on the way back, I stopped by Lone Ranch Beach, where I took most of my beach photos of driftwood and such, and spent another half hour taking some really cool pics. I'm just posting one that I'm calling "Lone Stick." It's nice to know sometimes that my photo taking is not always completely serendipitous!

When I got back to Gold Beach I went out to dinner with my brother one last time, this time to the Porthole on the harbour in Gold Beach. Went to bed early to get ready for the long drive to Yuba City and my "god parents" Libby and Joe.

10/03/07: Crab Shack and Dinosaurs

The next day my brother wanted to drive up the Coast to Bandon where we were going to have lunch at the Crazy Norwegians (as per Jan Wilcox, whose sister has a flower shop, that used to be a gas station right next door), but it wasn't open, so we went to the Dock, a crab shack on the coast. He had crab louie, which looked fabulous and I had a cheesy seafood fettucine type dish, which was too heavy on the cheese and noodles.

My brother seems to have really liked the hoodie I got him at the Glooscap Trading Post in Nova Scotia what seems like quite long ago now.

Afterwards we headed back toward Gold Beach where we stopped by the Dinosaur Park, which specializes in life size statues of various kinds of dinosaurs. I'd wondered where the Tyranosaurus was, and missed it right in front of the entrance. Didn't look like Jurassic Park. The proprietress was very impressed that I'd driven all the way from Nova Scotia to see her dinosaur park and insisted on helping us take a picture in front of said tyranosaurus. However, I forgot I had a fully automatic setting I could have used and instead tried to do the f stops. She wasn't able to make sure the light was right, so you can't see us very well, but there you go.

This dino turtle didn't turn out too badly.

But I did take a great pic of what looked like a Primeval forest.

We came back to Gold Beach where we repaired to the cabin where we've had many a good talk. My brother's doing very well and it's been good to see him.

10/01-02/07: Rustic Cabins & The Mother Tree

Last night I arrived in Gold Beach and found a great place to stay for a few days while I visited my brother. It was called the Ireland's Rustic Lodges. I highly recommend it. I got a discount for being over 60, so it cost $80/night -- pricey, but better than some others. It had a "real" fireplace in it where I could burn wood, which smelled good and covered my brother's smoking. It had a big living room/bedroom, another small bedroom and bathroom, small fridge and microwave, wi-fi, TV with HBO (if one were interested) and no phone, which was interesting. I now have moved to Skype (with the help of my son Stan) and can now make video calls to anyone with Skype for free anywhere in Canada or the U.S. (hey, hey).

It was a great place for my brother Frank and I to have some quiet space that wasn't Driftwood Lodge, where he lives, or a restaurant or the bush. He said it really reminded him of places where he and my mother would stay on their many trips around the U.S.

The next day I picked my brother up and we drove down to Crescent City (about 40 miles or so down the Lost Coast of Oregon into California) where he did some bank business, and we got some Kentucky Fried Chicken lunch to take with us to Jedediah Smith Redwood Forest. My brother remembered exactly how to get to the triple-trunked tree where we spread my mother's ashes last year. Turn off 101 to Forest, turn left on Walker Road, .25 mi down road on left.

My brother had noticed only after we had spread her ashes around this tree that it had one big trunk and two little ones coming out of its base (symbolizing our small family). So it was fairly distinctive looking and no mistake could be made as to which tree it was. We ate our picnic as last time and then I burned a sage smudge and said "ki ki so so ashe lha gyel lo" around the trunks. My brother thought I was funny. But hey. Each in our own way. He searched and found that the dumping area had either been cleaned out or grown over and it all looked very beautiful and peaceful. This last is sunlight on a fern growing from her tree.