Louie over at Pepe’s for breakfast yesterday morning. Shot this with Pepe’s Canon Rebel Vixia HF S 200, with EFS 15-85 mm zoom, a very fine less-than-ultra-expensive Canon.
Yesterday Louie and I took a hike to this spectacular bit of the coast. That’s a tunnel through the rock on the right, with white water pounding through on each swell. Man, what a spot! The Pacific Ocean in its majesty and power.
Muck Boots are great for rainy weather. You can keep by door, step into them and stay dry and warm. They are insulated. https://www.amazon.com/Original-MuckBoots-Adult-Boot-Womens/dp/B000WGB196/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1291911702&sr=8-1
Wind chimes made from rock oyster shells make nice clinking sound in wind.
1-½” rain last 2 days.
Yesterday I made a bed frame, a job I’d been procrastinating about for a while, then shredded branches for compost pile, took a nap.
Today got in a good 4-5 hours working on the book, then off to the hills, for a 2-mile run to mushroom grounds. The mushroom part was half-hearted — not happening right now — but I just wanted to get out and run. It was raining lightly when I started. By the time I got back to my truck after the run (and a few measly chanterelles), it was sheeting. I mean, shee-it! I was soaking. Every fiber of my Maxit tights and top, every pore of my skin, was soaked. I started to climb into the cab, but saw this would soak the truck. What to do but retreat to back of camper shell, take off shoe/socks, rain pounding down — you get to the point where you’ve given up keeping dry. Kind of liberating: I’m wet and I’ll go with it!
Took pee in pounding rain. Seemed like the thing to do. Perfect. Then peeled of tights, shirt and hat, put them in a bucket in back of truck, stood in rain a while, got in cab, dried off, put on clothes, Lesley’s hand-knitted alpaca hat, got heater going. circulation started kicking in, came home.
San Francisco 12 miles across the water, last night as storm hovered…
•A (sort of) warm rain started falling around dusk yesterday. Rain has become a treat for me. I love everything about it. I just got a pair of rainpants at REI so now am prepared for walking out to the cliffs during big storms that roar in from the south. The air is sweet, fresh, electric. As energizing as getting head under waterfall. Simple joys.
•Solar light bulbs – For 50 years I’ve made skylights with flat (“Filon”) fiberglass, just interleaving it like a big shingle (on asphalt shingle roofs). It’s so simple. and solar-lights the room, free of charge. (I’ve found translucent, not transparent, provides best light.) I mention this because a young builder was here the other day, and this had never occured to him.
•Eatin local – I had 2 doves for dinner last night. One was roadkill, the other I shot. Yes, I do some small-scale hunting, OK? My dad was a serious duck hunter and my brother and I hunted for ducks and doves when we were about 12. Wild duck is my favorite food in the world. We have finally gotten around to eating a lot of local and/or wild foods. Crabs, fish, the occasional abalone, chanterelles, Yerba Buena tea… artichokes, beets and beet tops, chard, salad greens, tomatoes…from the garden. We started out to do this 30+ years ago and it’s all come to pass in the last 10 years or so. Local. Well, duh!
•End of a running (racing, that is) career – Bottom line: I’ve damaged my knees (20 years of fast downhill running) so at this point I’m knocking off the speed stuff. Oh I am so mature! Dumb fuck, I should have pulled out earlier. I should explain that there is a local race, the Dipsea, with tradition and romance and agony all wrapped up in a 7-mile course over the flank of a magic mountain. Me and my running friends (them even more so) have been obsessed with this great race. I’m starting to run differently. Once I give up on speed as a goal, it opens alternative paths. I’m fascinated with “chi running.” Trying to land more on mid-foot than solely on heel, flex knees more for shock absorption, better posture, and the greatest thing: FEELING the trail with my feet. Running as an art, running like an Indian…
•Tiny Homes book – is rolling. Rick, Lew, and I (with page design by David) have this week started turning out pages. 10-12 so far. We’re watching the book put itself together in this early phase. I’ve been laying out pages at random, just grabbing what looks exciting. Every day new material is coming in. Good stuff! There’s going to be way more than enough for one book.
•Rain and firewood – Rain is like, if you’ll excuse the expression, money in the bank. I feel secure when there’s been enough rain and the earth has enough moisture for the year. Same with firewood, we’ve got maybe a 2-year supply now (all roadkill trees), it’s comforting.
After a week or so of warm weather, the fog rolled in last night at sunset. This is on Panoramic Highway near Mountain Home Inn, Mill Valley. Ocean (in background) blanketed in fog.
Surf has been huge. Triple overhead at Kelly’s cove in SF yesterday, no one could get out. I went down to the beach this morning, very high tide. Three of my neighbors were down there, including fisherman Josh, and we watched the water pouring into the lagoon like mad, waves pounding out in the channel. Josh reminisced about when Jerry Dunn flipped his boat going out. “He tried to turn around and the wave tore the cabin off…”
Tide was high, tricky to get to the high sand area of the beach, so I made a dash for it. Ulp! Miscalculation. Waves washing in, getting higher and higher, up to my knees, and also logs and lots of flotsam bouncing around. Small log whacked my ankle. Please, Madame Ocean, I prayed, don’t slam me against that wall in front of these people. Luckily I made it through, my sweatpants soaked up to the crotch.
I wandered around on what little sand there was. All kinds of driftwood, ocean actively ripping up piers right now. Surfers getting the occasional good ride, abut mostly hammered.
Couldn’t go back the way I came, so I walked to the other end of the beach. There’s a seawall you have to run by to get to the opening shown above. Made it!
I’ve been laying out book pages for over 40 years, and although I’m madly in love with digital communication and thrilled with phenomenal access to info on the internet, I’m continually frustrated by layout constraints. I don’t know html, don’t have time to learn, so I just shovel my photos and daily observations out here in blogger canned format. Can’t use my layout skills. (Anyone know of a drag-and-drop blog template for the technologically-challenged?)
On the way home yesterday afternoon, it was raining. I bought a bottle of Allain-Robin alamic brandy at Vintage Wines and Spirits (great liquor store w/knowledgeable staff) in Mill Valley, and headed over the mountain. Stopped at my creekside place of power. Took a big hit of brandy, didn’t swallow. Climbed up canyon, down to pool, stripped, stepped into water, and swallowed brandy just before ducking under waterfall. Yahoo! Creek pulsatingly alive from recent rains, water hitting body a tune-in to holy mountain spirit…
On the way home after creekside dip, via back road. The earth feels and smells good after the 3″ of rain last week. Mushrooms getting activated.
You know, there is actually a lot of GOOD stuff going on in the world right now.
As I sign off this Sunday (got up early, so excited about my day yesterday), just heard an incredible white gospel song sung by 12-year old Mallory Ledford. I can’t figure why gospel (black & white) is so good, and religion so rotten. It’s occurred to me that black gospel artists have got it right. THIS is the true spirit of Jesus, thank you. Joy and rythym and compassion.
Just published a few days ago, this new book by Wired mag “Senior Maverick” and CoolTools founder Kevin Kelly is, as I speak this morning, #56 on Amazon’s bestseller list (!). Reviewer Thomas King writes:
“What Technology Wants offers a highly readable investigation into the mechanisms by which technology advances over time. The central thesis of the book is that technology grows and evolves in much the same way as an autonomous, living organism.
The book draws many parallels between technical progress and biology, labeling technology as “evolution accelerated.” Kelly goes further and argues that neither evolution nor technological advance result from a random drift but instead have an inherent direction that makes some outcomes virtually inevitable. Examples of this inevitability include the eye, which evolved independently at least six times in different branches of the animal kingdom, and numerous instances of technical innovations or scientific discoveries being made almost simultaneously.…”
Check out Kevin’s writeup on getting his first hard copy (hard cover) of the book, and ruminations on hold-in-hand books vs. eBooks: https://www.kk.org/thetechnium/
I ordered a copy yesterday. Lets see what Kevin thinks is going on tech-wise on the planet these days.