More images, both from autobiographical vignettes - one involving a venomous snake, and the other involving fanaticism.

Camp is over for another week, with only two weeks remaining. I had a good group this week, with no kids standing out in a bad way. As with the previous week, they really liked making art from whatever was at hand in their immediate surroundings. The paper mache masks came out much better too, because I didn't let them use paint. The previous group used paint almost to the exclusion of all else.

Jeremy the computer doctor came by to take a look at our ailing computer, and recommended that we download all of the Windows updates that we'd been ignoring for the last year or so. He also found a virus, and said that at some point soon he's going to take our computer home with him for a day or two to really fix things up. That should help. In some ways, with the updates all updated, things are working a little better, but things are not perfect yet. We luddites continue to blink stupidly in the overwhelming glare of technology.

I've been listening to lots of weird hippie pagan folk type stuff lately. Banjos are cool. Anything that evokes the back porch of a cabin situated somewhere in an isolated mountain range under a waning moon slowly sinking into the predawn mists... you get the idea. Somewhere where life can be lived according to natural cycles, not alarm clocks or time clocks or any other sort of clock. I'm tired and still battling a cold. We've all been taking turns being grouchy so far this weekend, although there have been bright spots. I drew a picture over a few days during the week, mostly to demonstrate different drawing techniques for my camp, using a marker, charcoal pencil, crayon, and paint. Today I asked Lexy if he would like to add to it, which he did. He was complaining about how he didn't like what he was doing, so I told him that he should never worry about the end result of his art - just have fun and relax. It helped him, and he drew a great tree, with accompanying bee hive (spilling honey) and bees (preparing to sting the smiling woman standing nearby). Pretty cool.

We did a multi-family garage sale over at K's house (on a busy street) and managed to offload a few more bits an pieces of clutter. One of my coworkers from the museum stopped by, lured by the playstructure in the driveway that had unfortunately been sold already.

Granny came over last night and set up a large tent in the backyard so that she and the boys could camp out. Normally, I would have been out there too, but I was feeling tired and grouchy, so I went to bed early. Only Granny and Lexy slept outside all night, with the younger kids all opting for the comforts of beds. I miss camping, but I think I'll wait until we can go someplace with stars and the smell of the woods.

It looks like the windows updates may have fixed my inability to upload images. Let's see.

Today was a day when campers found many small objects on the ground and wanted to take them home. The bits of bark and leaf we used to make little picture frames for the polaroids we had taken (multiple shots of a hapless family of coots), the fish hooks I made them hand over to me... and the dead lizard - I never thought I'd have to tell somebody that they couldn't take a dead lizard home. That's just common sense, isn't it?

At the museum, we combined several types of paint, some shaving cream, corn oil, and gak (borax, clear glue, water, and food coloring) with our hands to make an unholy concoction that resembled, both in texture and color, pond scum. The kids absolutely loved it!

The job gods have offered me a glint of light at the end of the tunnel. It may even not be a train. We'll see.

I have a cold. I hate that.

Now, not only do some parents pick their kids up late from camp, but one dad brought two kids 25 minutes early, right in the middle of our prep time. He asked if he could leave them at the table, to which both I and the camp aide replied that he couldn't. He left them anyway. That shows a considerable amount of disrespect, if you ask me. It doesn't matter if he's late for work either. I took the kids into the center so that somebody could watch them until we were ready for them. The lady who runs the office got right on the phone and laid down the law to whoever was on the other end. I'm not sure if it was the mother or the father. I'll bet he doesn't try that stunt tomorrow. It's always nice to have merciless office folk do your dirty work.

Later, I found myself on the campus where I went to college. I wanted to check out their career center for job postings. For a mere 25 bucks, I can now check it out online. It was strange, though, being back there. I walked past the concrete bench where I had been sitting when the '89 earthquake happened. I remember that day quite well. I had been drinking a slurpee and got knocked on my ass when I stood up in surprise.

Ah, memories. The campus looks much better now. All of the construction that seemed to be constantly interfering with my walks between classes has been completed.

Goodnight.

It looks like another week of campers who like to draw, so things should go well. I had the kids do several different kinds of drawings today, and we hiked around the lake a bit, discovering some turtles and some sort of Kingfisher-like bird along the way. It was pretty hot, and the kids were feeling it. One boy came with a backpack full of water, complete with a drinking tube slung over his shoulder so he could constantly sip. The only drawback was that he had to pee every 20 minutes or so. I hope he doesn't bring the damn thing tomorrow because I don't want the whole week taken up by bathroom breaks.

I've been noticing that most of the kids in my camps seem to have every summer week taken up with some camp or other. Some of them have several activities every day. One boy today told my that he not only plays violin, but has done so at some sort of concert in Europe. I can believe it. Why is it that parents feel the need to push children to learn so much so fast? Why do they also shuttle them off to multiple camps every summer? A lot of the kids seem pretty burned out by all of the activity. Of course, letting them rot in front of the TV for three months isn't acceptable either. Where's the happy medium? Perhaps it has been chased away by the angry extreme.

I'd better post this before it disappears.

Another week has gone by somehow. The mornings, for the most part, have been pleasantly overcast, with fog drifting over the hills. This week's camp was called Wild Images, which I also taught for two weeks last year, and will be teaching again next week. It's one of my favorite camps to teach because it brings art into the mix. We spent a lot of time drawing, making paper mache masks, and creating strange structures in the woods using large redwood branches. The latter was the near unanimous favorite.

I went and saw Neurosis on Wednesday, and found myself immersed in over two hours of doom-laden sludge, tempered a bit about halfway through by the sultry vocalizations of Jarboe. This is doom with a purpose though. It's a cathartic attack against the spiritual emptiness and soulless consumerism so rampant in mainstream culture. Time well spent, I say. I was so energized by their performance that I managed to drive home without coffee, despite the fact that I had worked a ten hour day between my two jobs.

Last night, M. and I went to see Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and Moe!kestra. the Moe!kestra were crammed into every available cranny on the main floor and balcony of the club, so as to surround us with a cacaphony (interspersed with some quiet, droning bits) that culminated in the wailing sounds of air raid sirens. I've got to remember to bring my ear plugs. I hadn't seen Sleepytime Gorilla Museum in quite some time, so nearly half of their set was new to me, and all quite fantastic in their usual lunatic fringe sort of way. More time well spent, I say.

We washed our cars today, which is something I got out of the habit of doing during one of the water shortages during the nineties. The things that the stress of imminent poverty will drive you to do... The job search continues.

Let's see if this post will be lost or if it will, wonder of wonders, actually be published.

We finished the second Jurassic Giants camp by "exploding" volcanos all over our table, using the baking soda/vinegar method, mixed with enough red food coloring to make the porch around our table resemble the scene of some horrific slaughter. The kids all screamed so loud with excitement that people came out of the center to make sure everybody was all right. I also did an animal program with the other Jurassic Giants instructor. She brought her coffee drinking cockatoo, Jackie Chan, and I brought my Water Monitor, who made Jackie Chan so nervous that he puffed up his feathers in order to make himself look like he was of inedible size.

On thursday, M. and I went up to Oakland to see the live debut of Om, who are a duo consisting of Al and Chris, late of the band Sleep. The amplification was excessive in all the right ways, with enough snarling bass and crashing drums to completely satisfy everybody's need for loudness. In addition to seeing Al, who I've known since he was a kid and worked with at two different jobs, and Chris, who I hadn't seen in a decade or so, I ran into Doug, who I used to sing backing vocals with in a band that was fronted by one of my current co-workers, Mary, who we had last seen in Toronto and had just gotten back from the 32,000 mile solo road trip that had taken her there, Jeff, who I hadn't seen since last year's Current 93 shows in San Francisco, and Allan, who I had worked with at Tower Books nearly a decade ago, and who was just recovering from a botched vasectomy that had left him unable to wear pants. Lots of talking was done. Especially interesting was the fact that Doug lives up in Willits (am I spelling that right?) at the end of a 30 minute drive down a dirt road, in a small community where everybody actually cooperates with one another. It was good to see all of these people again.
We also popped up to Berkeley, where I got into a discussion about hair with an old hippie who just happened to be walking the same way as us. His hair was actually a good foot longer than mine, which is unusual.

Okay, I'd better publish this before the computer freezes up and I have to start over again. Goodnight.

Our computer is still ailing.

This week's group of campers is even more rambunctious than the last group, but the location is better, being up in the hills and in amongst the trees. I even had a "teachable moment" (as they say in the education business) with half a dead newt. One of the kids walked up to me holding this little, dried out husk of a newt, minus back legs and tail. I got all of the kids to pretend that they were paleontologists, and that the newt was a new discovery. We then reconstructed what this "discovery" must have looked like by substituting bits of twig for the missing appendages, in much the same way that many scientists must fill in the blanks with dinosaur skeletons.

Near the end of the second day of camp, as I was juggling two activities at our table, a woman approached me and asked me my name. I told her, and she responded by telling me that she'd just been stung by an insect (a yellowjacket, she thought) and was having an allergic reaction. I quickly walked her inside to the office attached to the visitor's center. By this time, she had raised welts all over her body, and was having difficulty breathing. I found out from her that this was the first time she'd ever been stung, and that she wasn't sure whether it had been a wasp or a bee. The woman who was in charge of the center called the ranger, and 911. I could tell she was afraid, and my heart went out to her. She said that she'd been trying to deal with it herself, but it had just kept getting worse. I can relate to that. When I get injured or sick, I'll do my best not to involve doctors (this is only partially due to the fact that I don't have medical insurance). This woman was swiftly coming to (or had already come to) the realization that this was a bit too serious to keep to herself. The paramedics showed up quickly, and I had to get back to my campers, and then on to my afternoon duties at the museum.
Today I found out that the woman's husband had stopped by the center later on in the afternoon to say thanks for helping save his wife's life. It turns out that she'd been camping up the hill at one of the parks campgrounds, and wasn't the mother of one of our campers, which is what I'd assumed. At any rate, I'm glad that she's okay, because I was pretty worried about her. It feels good to have had a part, however small, in helping somebody like that. It makes me want to go take CPR classes so that I can be of use in similar situations in the future.

Time to go for now.

Another quick post, in order to get it published before the computer seizes up...

The van has now made it there and back again on not one, but two longish trips. Yesterday we went to Santa Cruz to splash about in the water at the beach, and today we went to San Francisco to see Algerian singer Souad Massi and Mexican/American singer Lila Downs at the Stern Grove festival (free concerts for 67 years and counting...). Both were excellent, and Willow very much enjoyed it, especially since we were seated next to some kids who were close to her in age. Stern Grove itself is a beautiful area, surrounded by huge Eucalyptis, Laurel, and Pine trees. The attendees were varied in the way that only a coastal city can provide. The atmosphere was relaxed and joyful. The weather was nicely overcast, with fog drifting through the treetops.

I went to the church again today, and wearing the cool bug hat that Jen's mom got me, taught small children about insects, arachnids, and snakes. One little boy roared at the cockroaches, sounding for all the world like The Dickens or Willow, who also enjoy roaring. That reminds me of when I was leaving the church yesterday. Right after handing the local cockroaches back to the administrative assistant, I got in my car and what should be playing? La Cucaracha, of course. The new version by Lila Downs, who we plan to see up in S.F. this weekend.

Okay, let's see if this posts...

The girls are shrieking and running up and down the hall with Willow's new "B", or ball, as the adults call it. The grownups wish that they'd go to sleep.

I got paid $75 to teach a church summer camp about bugs today. The administrative assistant brought in a couple of bugs that she'd found in the neighborhood, to see if I could identify them. It only took a glance. "Cockroaches," I told her. She didn't look to pleased with that particular bit of information. They want me to come back tomorrow for the classes that didn't get to see me today.

The computer has been acting up, and I've lost a few posts before I could publish them. So you might never read this. We'll see.

Is the third time actually the charm, or am I just wasting my time here? The last two times I've attempted to publish it hasn't worked, resulting in my post being sucked away into the informational vortex, to be lost forever from the sight of human beings. Our computer at home is suffering from petit mal seizures, and who knows why it didn't work when I tried it at work...

I got to see somebody accidentally reveal their concealed weapon at the pet store the other day. A woman was using her ballpoint pen to sign for her purchase when it broke in half, revealing a rather nasty looking knife hidden within. She sheepishly fumbled it back together while maintaining, "you didn't see that!". I laughed.

Once I got home, I started feeding the reptiles. As I was dangling a large rat in front of the python, he struck and missed, falling halfway out of his cage and latching onto my knee while the rat continued to dangle unscathed several feet above. There followed a period of time during which I lurched around the room with a snake trying to eat my knee and coiling around my head and neck. I shouted for Jen to get the camera so I could add to my collection of "how not to hold your pets" photos, but Jen was too worried about me to comply, and instead brought me some water which I dumped on the python's head to make him uncomfortable enough to let go. I had to help him unhook his teeth, and then Lexy filmed the aftermath, with running commentary.

I worked today, and got paid twice as much for it because of the holiday! That helps. I now have to park in a parking garage a couple of blocks away because the neighborhood I've been parking in is now "permit only". At least the parking garage is free for museum employees, and the walk from the garage takes me along the river. I saw a large Heron sitting on rock on my way back to my car after work. It's good to see Herons hanging around.

My first week of camp is over, and next week will be relatively calm since I will actually only be working at one job (as opposed to three, like the first few days of this week). I do have one little extra bit of work this following week though. I have been asked back to a summer camp at a local church to teach the kids about bugs.

Today, I brought the Water Monitor, and both Jurassic Giants camps got a chance to see him. I'm a little bit more reluctant to let kids get too close to him since he bit me at that birthday party earlier this year. It's better to play it safe. Despite the fact that the kids couldn't closely interact with him, he was popular. They thought it was pretty cool that he eats hotdogs. Our group also got to see a large red-eared slider in the lake. Yet another non-native species blatantly basking in the California sun. Nearby, the large wasp nest by the spillway was missing its lower half. I wonder if kids with rocks are responsible.

Over all, these kids were pretty knowledgable about dinosaurs, but since the average age was 5, they tended to wander and toss rocks and sticks when they thought that I or my camp aide wasn't looking. The two girls felt a bit outnumbered by the eleven boys. One of them kept pointing out that I had hair like a girl, and then trying to braid it at every opportunity. One of the boys needed his hand held whenever we went down paths where poison oak was present. One boy went home with a stomach ache, and then the next day had a nosebleed that dripped all over his jacket. One boy had an obsession with dirt and rocks, and was forever picking up large handfuls of dusty dirt which blew everywhere. He also shouted a lot.

It was a lot of fun though. On one of the windy days I gave up trying to do any activities involving paper, and ended up just throwing handfuls of shredded newspaper in the air and having the kids chase it like velociraptors chasing prey. I haven't yet come up with an activity to illustrate how ambush predators hunt, but I'm working on it.

Next week should give me a chance to catch up on sleep.