End Capitalism!

End Capitalism!
Originally uploaded by Corbie.

...But since capitalism is still showing no signs of going away, I worked both days this weekend to make some extra money. Not that it's ever really extra, but you get the idea.

Yesterday, I did a couple of birthday parties. I haven't been doing too many parties lately, just one a month. It's not that I've been consciously staying away from them, but time just keeps slipping away when I'm not looking. I'm glad I worked yesterday though, because I got big tips at both parties. The second guy even tipped me in advance, which was a first. He wanted to make sure his son's party was memorable because it was his last one in this country before moving back to Korea (I think...). The most memorable thing about the party for me was that about 6 or 7 (out of about 10 or 11) of the kids acted like they had ADHD. Make that ADHHHHHD. There was lots of random screaming and tackling throughout the hour or so I was there. Lots of bouncing and interrupting too. I told the kids that if they behaved I'd let them zap things with the tesla coil. It sort of worked. Surprisingly, nobody got electrocuted.

Today I supervised the weekend work crew at my main place of employment. A group had rented the site for the weekend, so we had to work around them for most of the day, much delaying the cleaning of the dining hall and some of the cabins. There was a little key SNAFU this morning as well, due to the fact that the keys I had wouldn't fit into the locks on the doors behind which important office equipment, like the fax machine, lurked. Luckily there is a guy who lives on site (the night watchman, actually) and has a whole ring of keys that do fit in the locks.

Now, bloated with the effects of capitalism and the cool zucchini fries that Jen whipped up, I'm back home. The big kids are away. It is quite quiet.

This coming week there are no kids at camp, so I'm doing odd jobs. How odd? I don't know yet...

Ringneck Snake Looking Up

Ringneck Snake Looking Up
Originally uploaded by Corbie.

Spring, feeling like summer, has popped out of nowhere, pushing the clouds away and drying out the ground. There are still puddles here and there, but it's actually possible to sit down in the woods without getting a butt full of mud.

The snake in the photo is one of my favorite local snakes, a Ringneck snake. They don't get much bigger than a pencil, but they are beautiful and velvety smoothe to the touch. This one was hiding under a board in the garden, and was one of three different kinds of snakes we came across this week. I saw a total of six Garter snakes, one of them dead on the road, and two California Kingsnakes, or more accurately 1.2 Kingsnakes because one of them was just a small section of Kingsnake left behind by some larger predator. The live Kingsnake was hiding under some rocks by the reservoir, and despite about twenty minutes of carefully digging and moving rocks on my part, remained hiding under the rocks, no doubt sticking out its little forked tongue at me from the shadows as I gave up. The sudden warmth really sapped the campers' energy as well, leaving them whiny and lethargic as we hiked to and from the reservoir. They rallied a bit whenever we found some new reptile (Garter snake, Skink, Alligator lizard...) but then went back to complaining of tiredness.

Okay, time to get off the computer and do something more useful...

Western Skink

Western Skink
Originally uploaded by Corbie.

Skinks are perfect little reptilian jewels, smoothe and shiny, with impossible looking tails. I found this one curled under a board earlier today as I wandered around after lunch. Other animals of interest today were a baby scorpion, a couple of Garter snakes, the mangled remains of a deer near the front driveway, and a number of frogs, newts, and Western Fence lizards too cold to run fast enough to get away. Most of the kids in my group had a great time looking under rocks and boards, and many of them will go home with pictures of the deer carcass. I'm sure their parents will be thrilled.

A couple of days ago, M, Jen, Willow and I went on a long hike at Almaden Quicksilver park. Willow demanded to be carried for most of the hike, so Jen and I traded off carting her up and down hills. Without the bigger, noisier kids along, we actually got to see some animals with ears. A rabbit made a brief appearance early on, and later we saw a number of deer. Best of all was the Bobcat who quickly disappeared up the hill to the right of the trail about twenty feet in front of us. It was the first time any of us had seen one in the wild. I can now cross it off my "animals I haven't seen yet," list.
The recent rains have left the hills carpeted in new grass and wildflowers, making me wonder why I don't go up there more often (oh yeah, too busy).

The day before, M, G, and I went up to see the Faun Fables "Transit Rider" show at The Independent in San Francisco. Dawn and Nils, with the help of Jenya and Matt (ex-Mumble and Peg, who opened the show as Fuzzy Cousins) are touring with a somewhat altered version of their theatrical meditation on transition. Lots of other musicians got up and did short, salon-style songs and skits beforehand, making it a show of epic proportions. The new cd was also on sale, as were some Fuzzy truffles, handmade by Fuzzy Cousins. The chili-tequila one was a work of art in itself.
This was the first show of a tour that will last a little over a month. They'll be back in town at the end of May. Go see it. Check out their website for dates. Check out the fan-run MySpace page to listen to some music.

Now it is evening. I'm listening to "Still Valley" by Mirror as sort of an antidote to the constant chaos. Not that chaos is always bad, but there must be balance.

Sophie, when asked to put her dishes in the sink:

"We don't have to! We're superheroes!"

And, talking to Baby O:

"When you're ten, I can kiss you on the lips, you stinky farty mister."

Happy Earth Day! Remember to use things again and again. There is treasure in the trash. Don't let the landfill mountains topple down on us. Don't let the air become more dangerous than it already is. Water shouldn't come with warning labels. Personal accountability is a good thing. I'm tired of seeing plastic bags, cigarette butts, and fast food wrappers tumbling along in the breakdown lanes of the freeways. It's interesting that many people assume that somebody else will come along with a little dustpan and broom to clean up after them. Be the dustpan. Be the broom. There are not many people more arrogant than those who fling things out of car windows while driving. Royalty of the roads, with the rest of us as servants? I think not! And remember, every purchase comes with a past and future. Where was it before it was yours? Where will it go after it was yours? If you can't be responsible for it, maybe you shouldn't have it in the first place.

It is a hard job for humanity to learn to coexist with all of the other forms of life on this planet. From our track record, that is obvious. If things don't change, the irresponsibility of some will lead to disaster for us all.

I leave you with Edward Abbey:

"If wilderness is outlawed, only outlaws can save wilderness."

and

"The industrial corporation is the natural enemy of nature."

Remember, corporations need money to survive. Vote with your wallet.

Funny Hands

Funny Hands
Originally uploaded by Corbie.

I went up to San Francisco yesterday to trade in some cds at Amoeba and catch the eX-Girl show at the Bottom of the Hill. I traded in about 40 cds and only got a $90 credit slip, prompting me to ask, "is this it?" The cd buyer explained that lately everybody has been dumping large quantities of cds, no doubt because of the availability of free music online. This, in my opinion, is one more argument against file sharing and online song sales. It's bad enough that cd sales have to suffer, meaning less revenue for struggling musicians (I've heard all sorts of justifications for online swapping, which I won't get into here... at least not now), but when I can't get a decent return on my trade, it makes me irritable. I can't afford to keep up with my cd habit any other way these days (of course, that's one of the justifications for online swapping - vicious circle, anyone?). It's the independent artists who suffer the most too. The major labels make sure that their carefully groomed "stars" continue to rake in the green, at least until their "flavor of the month" status is terminated.
I guess this is just another example of how technology complicates our lives. I did manage to get some good cds with my credit, so I guess I can't be too grumpy.
Afterwards, I drove over to Aquarius records, in the vicinity of which I listened to nearly a whole Pearls Before Swine disc while looking for parking. Once inside, I met up with G, who was talking with Jim Haynes. We hassled Jim for awhile, bought some cds from him, got a quick bite to eat, and went to the Bottom of the Hill, getting in on the KALX guest list (kind of ironic, actually, considering my rant above about supporting musicians - I do own all of the eX-Girl cds though, and somewhere on the desk in front of me is an eX-Girl mouse pad, so pththtpth). The opening bands were not too impressive, but eX-Girl were their usual selves, with bizarre costumes and plenty of frog paraphernalia on view. The japanese comedian who introduced them last time was here again. He has guts doing comedy in a language he's not very familiar with. In a way, that makes it funnier. eX-Girl's set seemed short, and most of the songs were familiar. The only real surprise was that bassist Kirilolo is now their guitarist. Perhaps she got tired of her instrument?
Their schtick about being aliens from planet Kero Kero ("ribbit ribbit," in English) was still firmly in place, as were the syncopated movements and their obvious enjoyment of what they do. Short tour this time though, with only dates in Washington, Oregon, and California. No new cd either.

Notice I said cd, and not music files. Be a patron of the arts and send a little money to your favorite band(s). They may not be here tomorrow if you don't.

The luddite has spoken.

Another one from the "where are they now?" files:

When I was 21 or so, I was briefly the "singer" for a band called Backslide. We were all heavily influenced by 80's punk bands like Antisect and Amebix - sociopolitical lyrics, rapid-fire drums, shouted/roared vocals, abrasive, downtuned guitar and bass... you get the picture. We rehearsed in drummer Max's parent's front room in Atherton. Tim, the bass player, and I shared lyric writing duties, and he wrote all the music (if I recall correctly). The guitarist was a guy named Dan - I can't even remember his last name now. We never recorded anything other than a few rehearsal tapes, and only played two shows, one of which was in some kid's room for his birthday party ("stage-diving" from tables - table diving?), and another was at a venue called Pena Moai (or something like that) in East Palo Alto, during which we succeeded in driving a large portion of the audience away. By that point there was a girl called Jimena singing as well. I can't even remember why we decided to call it a day as a band. Max went on to play in Spazz, and probably a lot of other bands that I'm not thinking of right now. I'm not sure where Dan ended up. I think he worked at Tower for awhile. I think I saw Jimena at some protests later on. At some point, Tim moved to Ireland.

I got an e-mail from another old friend last week in which he mentioned that Tim visited him (with his kids - it seems that everybody has them now) and that he raps now. I googled him and found this, and this. Not bad, actually, and that's coming from someone who doesn't usually listen to rap. The sampled strings in Juggernaut are cool.

Chris and John at Gilman Street

Chris and John at Gilman Street
Originally uploaded by acrofish.

Acrofish keeps plumbing the archives. I don't think I've even seen this picture before. This is what I looked like in the late eighties, happily sitting inside the hallowed halls of 924 Gilman, punk mecca and weekend hangout place for many years. I don't know why Chris was grabbing his butt.

Gilman St. is still there. I've been there a few times over the last decade or so, but it's not quite the same. For one thing, I'm now old enough to have fathered most of the new crowd, and most of the bands I used to see have long since broken up or divided themselves, amoeba-like, into other bands. The new bands just ain't as cool. Sometimes you can't go back. Still, I have many good memories of the place, whether it was the actual music (mostly punk, with the occasional metal, indie rock, or experimental band thrown in to liven things up) or playing leap-frog or wallowing in the trash flung into the audience by early Gilman house-band Isocracy. In exchange for free entry, I even volunteered there a few times, working the door or stage managing.

Check out the current state of Gilman St. here. I scrolled through the calendar and only recognized a handful of band names. Some of them are still at it, I see...

Sometime later, Acrofish would get tired of the smelly denim jacket I was wearing in this picture and tear it into little pieces. I safety-pinned it back together and continued to wear it anyway. It eventually disintegrated for good when I finally tried to wash it.

A supernatural lagomorphic fertility symbol visited our house last night and hid a bunch of colorful little shelled fertility symbols all over the front room. This morning, Willow gleefully found them.

Now, it's raining hard enough for me to hear the constant patter of water on cement. Happy Spring, whether it be about resurrection or renewal. It's all the same concept anyway.

We're all just accumulations of stories.

Tuesday and Wednesday were filled with rain, so we all got muddy as we slogged through the woods. I found a small Garter snake and a baby scorpion (at least two kids mentioned the latter as a highlight of their week during our last class) in the chaparral on Tuesday, and on Wednesday the weather gods allowed us to have a slightly dryer night hike. Thursday brought some much needed sun. For the all day hike, I took the same trail I've been taking for the past few weeks. We visited the dead mole that I first discovered last week, and found it to be a bit more decomposed. Everything is a teaching tool. There are all sorts of lessons to be learned from dead moles.
The kids themselves were pretty well behaved this week. The teen volunteers were generally competent too. Makes for boring reading, I suppose...

Jen is out with a friend right now, and Willow is sleeping. The older kids are at their dad's place. I'm off work all next week, so we have lots of plans to get things done around here.

The Abyss

The Abyss
Originally uploaded by Corbie.

The rain is causing subsidence and most of the hiking trails have rivulets of water coursing down them. In places, shoes sink into the mud. In other places, as one can see in the photo, the edges are eroding away. This is a chasm caused by a landslide some 15 to 20 years ago. The edge is once again being redefined by the elements. Large chunks of saturated soil have slipped downward. There is a trail that goes around the slide, but a big chunk of it has slipped away as well.
I think some of the kids would have walked right up to the edge if I had let them. Where is the survival instinct?

In Gowan Ring, Rio Theatre, 4/8/06

In Gowan Ring, Rio Theatre, 4/8/06
Originally uploaded by Corbie.

Saturday offered us a hint of real Spring, with mild temperatures and no downward rushing moisture. I took Willow to the park while Jen took care of some errands, and as usual she spent some time tossing rocks into the creek, which is currently swollen and chocolatey with sediment.

In the evening, I went over the hill to see In Gowan Ring, Nick Castro, and Whysp at the Rio Theatre in Santa Cruz. The show was actually held in the lobby of the theatre, with the main auditorium off-limits. When I got there the door wasn't open yet, so I wandered over to Staff of Life to look for a snack. I got something called Primal Strips, a kind of vegetarian jerky which I decided must have earned its name due to the fact that the only way to open the package is to tear it open with your teeth. By the time I got back to the Rio I still hadn't accomplished this. At least it gave me something to do while waiting for the music to start.
When things finally got going, I discovered that In Gowan Ring was actually a full band this time, with Bee using his newly made lyre guitar accompanied by Nick Castro and his band. Afterwards, he showed me another guitar he'd built (the one on the left in the photo) using a leaf-shaped bowl he'd found at a Goodwill store. They started off their set with Mad Michael (aka Crazy Man Michael), which has been a favorite of mine for years, continued with a sublime selection of newish material, and ended it with a Changes song. After a five minute break, they all came back for Nick Castro's set, which included originals and traditional material (the most notable being Willy O'Winsbury, a song I've heard many versions of over the years). It's a shame that more people didn't show up. This is the kind of music that more people need to hear and appreciate - A welcome sidestep from the endless march of time and the so called "progress" it brings. Bee's softly sung songs often seem to be flowing into the present through a window in time left open somewhere in the middle ages. Nick Castro's songs are more rooted in the present, but similar in feel.
They were followed by Whysp, who continue to sound like Incredible String Band. I love the fact that they have a sitar player. They're a lively bunch, with lots of rattling and shaking and strangeness.

Today the rain was back for awhile. We worked in the yard a bit and I finally got locks on all of the big reptile cages. The new cage door on the Monitor cage is much easier to open than the old one, and Jen said she saw Willow trying to open it the other day, so now the Monitor and Python cages have locks. Just in case...

The diaper changing conversation:

Willow: I see my poopoo!

Me: why?

Willow: It's the colors of the wainbow! Green and red and...

It's raining again. As much as I love the rain, I wish the sky would produce something else for awhile. Maybe Oobleck.

One of the volunteers who helped out with my field class this week tried to describe to me an epiphany she had while on the long hike yesterday. She said that she was looking out over the forested landscape after we'd wrapped up the solo hike, and it all just sort of clicked for her. She couldn't really describe the feeling in detail, but I could tell she had made some sort of connection with the natural world. Helping people find that connection, I think, is the reason I do this kind of work. We don't often get to hear that kind of feedback though. If the teenaged volunteers can't put it into words, then the fifth and sixth graders are even less likely to be able to verbalize their feelings beyond saying what they liked and didn't like. Our closing circles at the end of each week are always much less profound than I would hope for. It's sometimes frustrating that more kids don't wake up and smell the wilderness.

This week, before the closing circle I told an old folktale about the relationship between mice and Douglas Fir trees (look at a Douglas Fir cone and you can see that between each scale there is a little protruberance that resembles the hindquarters of a mouse). The story involves talking animals and talking trees, and a Douglas Fir being rescued from a forest fire by rodents. After I had finished it there was a moment of silence, interrupted by one of the kids raising his hand and asking, "was that a true story?"

It's an uphill battle sometimes.

Morning Deer

Morning Deer
Originally uploaded by Corbie.

Here's a moment of peace to keep in mind when things are less than peaceful. My commute to and from work is often the only time I have to myself during the day. This deer was grazing on a sparkling lawn as I pulled into the parking lot at work this morning, so content that it didn't pay the least bit of attention to me.

A fleeting moment, but a powerful one.

It's still raining. Everybody is still sick. The boys both stayed home from school today. Jen is running a fever. I think I'm getting off light this time, with a bit of a headache and some tiredness.

Being outside invigorates me, even when the rain is turning all of the trails to swamps. I took the kids out in the rain to do a community study in the chaparral this morning, and we very well could have done it in a boat. The whole area was under two to three inches of water and the hills were all waterfalls. Mice were running everywhere, probably because their burrows were all flooded, and the mud was woven with worms. I managed to recapture the same scorpion our group found last week, and the poor thing was glad to have the warmth from my hand. So was the tiny Fence Lizard we found. It didn't want to let go when I released it. The kids were all freezing too, so we cut things short and went back to camp.

More than a few of the kids this week are complaining of stomach pain. A few people have gone home with fevers too.

There are small landslides everywhere. The road was partially blocked this morning. More trees and boulders have made their way onto the road, and the maintainence crews have been hard pressed to keep things cleared. Old-timers say this season has been quite ridiculous. More records are expected to be broken soon.

Charcoal

Charcoal
Originally uploaded by Corbie.

Everybody is sick. The boys actually took naps this afternoon. Sophie has snot coming out of her nose, Jen feels awful, I have a headache and feel more tired than I should, and Willow...

Yesterday evening she had a febrile seizure. She had a fever and had been complaining about not feeling good and wanting to throw up, and then at about 8:30 or so she leaned forward like she was going to throw up and instead went into a seizure, with her eyes rolled back into her head and all of her muscles twitching. Jen held onto her and I called 911. By the time the fire engine and the paramedics got here she was through the worst of it, but totally exhausted and not responding to us. They strapped her car seat to the top of the stretcher and wheeled her out to the ambulance - it was a moment that will stick in my mind: Willow sitting upright like a princess on a litter, with a small, yellow umbrella held over her head to keep the rain off, her face serene with exhaustion and incomprehension, lit by flashing emergency lights.
Jen got in the ambulance and I followed in the van. At the hospital she was more herself. They gave her some tylenol, checked for possible urinary tract infection (okay on that count), and cleared her to come home.

Right now she is getting checked out by her usual doctor. Apparently febrile seizures aren't that uncommon - they tend to happen when a fever increases suddenly. It scared the hell out of us though.

Then, at work today, some mystery kid called 911 from the pay phone out front. By the time I left, they still hadn't figured out who.

On the way home I got pulled over for having a cracked windshield (from that damn tree on Highway 17 a few months back). Of course I had to have big smears of charcoal all over my face. We often do that at work with the kids, utilizing burnt Redwood stumps. If I don't look in a mirror before I get in my car, it doesn't get washed off. The cop looked at me and asked, "are you doing an art project on your face?" Never one to be a smartass in such situations, I told him the truth.

Oh, and I got to use AAA on saturday while M and I were helping Baby O's mother move. I was changing a tire for her when the car fell off the jack. It was only at this point that I realized the bolt one is supposed to place the jack against was quite bent, making it impossible to jack the car up again with the resources available to us. The towtruck driver that came used at least three different jacks to finish the job.

After all was said and done, we went and got Ethiopian food. That was the best part of the weekend. There was even enough left over for me to take it for lunch the next day while putting in some overtime as weekend work crew supervisor at my school.

Some news:

First the good. Bela Tarr's seemingly doomed production of his latest film, The Man From London, is back on track. Better late than never, I say.

Now the bad. Polish science fiction author Stanislaw Lem has passed beyond the horizon at age 84. His legacy still lives, of course. Authors do achieve a kind of immortality, don't they?

My work week was a flurry of rain and mud, with a cold and a stomach bug giving me minor grief along the way. Highlights included finding a tarantula and a scorpion under the same rock, and a generally good group of kids. That said, it is sobering to occasionally discover that some of the kids don't retain a single thing I say to them. One girl couldn't articulate to me a single thing she'd learned during the week. Hmmm.

Last night, I met up with an old friend who I hadn't seen in eleven years . She's living in the guest house at her aunt's place. The house was beautiful, nestled up in the hills and with plenty of wood paneled floors. It was great to see my friend too, and we tried our best to fill in eleven years of history for each other. We've both gone through a number of changes, although she's basically the same person I remember from way back when - full of energy and interesting anecdotes. It was good to reconnect. When we used to hang out we were teenagers and young twenty-somethings. Now forty is waiting to ambush us. There's a distinct sense of unreality about it all.
It's a good thing I ran across her when I did though, because she's moving to the desert. Of course she invited all of us to go stay out there if we're ever in the mood for a desert adventure.

Willow just tried to feed me one of her boogers. She almost got it into my mouth before I realized what she was trying to do. When I asked her why, she replied:

"It's tasty! It's for dinner!"

Not much I can add to that.

Okay, now I feel sick too. I'm not as sick as Jen, but hiking all day in the rain and then expending enough energy during our campfire program to keep 180 kids laughing for an hour and a half has really wiped me out.

It's a good thing there's a warm bed behind me right now.

See-Saw Guffaw

See-Saw Guffaw
Originally uploaded by Corbie.

We all went to Woolfcamp 2 (a somewhat informal blog-writing workshop) on Saturday, in a beautiful house at the end of a winding road in the foothills somewhere up the peninsula. I mostly ran after the kids on the deck or down around the impressive play structure in the yard, while upstairs discussions were had and laptops were abused. Every so often I'd peek my head in to see what was going on and to eat some more of the good cheese off the tray on the counter.
I really liked all of the people I met, but due to my attention being split between the girls, didn't engage in many conversations. A few of us did manage to get out for a walk on a nice little trail that tried its best to mimic the nearby creek. Willow, in due course, became quite muddy and giggly.
She liked the see-saw too, as you can see.
I must say it's nice to meet some of the people who lurk on the far sides of distant computers. There is some great creative energy out there.
At some point I mentioned that I was in danger of losing my luddite credentials, but had an almost simultaneous realization that I have, or take part in, multiple websites. I guess I'm really not a luddite any more. It's so easy to have websites now though. Oh, and not to mention, free.

Today, with no social engagements on our schedule, we dealt with things around the house. Jen feels sick. Hopefully not for long.

Several days into Spring and it's still raining. There is an acrobatic squirrel on the fence outside right now, but the sky is still and grey.

The money faery delivered some much needed relief this week, so Jen went out, stocked up on supplies, and got me a couple of new tires. This week was a bad one for vehicles though. My tire blow-out was the third staff incident in the last two weeks, and they all occurred while people where commuting to work. The first one involved a minor collision at an intersection. The second involved a sandwich of cars on the freeway - followed by the staff member's dad getting in an almost identical accident a couple of days later. Creepy synchronicity. Nobody got hurt though.

Got to go change a diaper now. More later...

My right front tire, already threadbare and leaking, burst on the way to work this morning. So now I'm driving on one of those spare tire doughnuts. This experience also reminded me that it's time to clean my trunk. It's no fun digging through junk to get to the spare when you need to be at work in ten minutes. The machine-tightened bolts attaching the wheel are also amusingly hard to unscrew. I had to stand on the wrench to get the last one off.

Other than that, it's just another average day. I'm tired and fighting off the beginnings of a cold. There is clutter everywhere. Earlier, we saw a dead fawn, lying untouched beside the trail. A coworker mentioned seeing another that appeared ill. Perhaps there is a disease spreading through the deer population. There is something especially sad about seeing a dead baby animal, regardless of what killed it.

Later there will be a night hike. The kids will most likely not be as quiet as they are asked to be.

A guy representing a local teacher's union stopped by yesterday. He talked about organizing the part time teachers and substitutes to take advantage of some legislation likely to be passed in the next few months. Apparently the legislation involves taxing corporations more heavily, with the money being freed up for education. I'll have to look into it, especially since it could mean a step closer to actually getting health benefits.

Health is important. None of us are getting any younger.

Ceanothus Silk Moth

Ceanothus Silk Moth
Originally uploaded by Corbie.

The Ceanothus Silk Moth caterpillars are often found around Douglas Fir Trees, but since they aren't found in large numbers, the damage they inflict is minimal. Some smartass at camp once referred to the adults as Nike Swish Moths due to the white pattern on the wings. That does them an injustice though. Corporate icons have no place in the natural world.

This particular moth was clinging to the side of the dining hall in an attempt to avoid the rain and hail that pelted us all day at camp. The kids got pretty cold on the hike. We passed a Youth Science Institute group consisting of younger kids who looked like they were borderline hypothermic. Everybody survived though. I got pretty wet myself due to my rain pants being quite tattered and my shoes not being waterproof. Not that I care. It's just water.

Every week each field instructor gets information on any medical or behavioral concerns pertaining to kids in his or her group. My list this week contained such comforting words as, "kleptomaniac," "defiant," and "dangerous." Oh, and "liar." Should be an interesting week, to say the least.

At home, poor Willow threw up a couple of times today. Jen doesn't feel so hot either. Hopefully it's one of those 24 hour things.

M and I went to see the new Central Works play, Shadow Crossing, in Berkeley last night, first stopping at Amoeba to trade in surplus cds for new, more desirable cds. I picked up the just released documentary on Townes Van Zandt, Be Here to Love Me, for Jen (for both of us, really) as well.

Shadow Crossing was excellent, with G behind the curtain providing the sound (songs by people like Calexico, Lila Downs, and Lhasa, which fit the mood and locale nicely). The play focuses in on the plight of illegal immigrants and reasons why people leave countries behind. Well written and skillfully performed, it managed to be hilarious and touching at the same time. Somewhere on the floor above there was a small water leak, so the audience was asked to ignore the small, plastic bucket placed center stage. The actors did a great job of not stepping in it too, and they are to be commended for this. The play can still be seen next Thursday through Sunday. Follow the link above for more precise information.

When we got back home, we all stayed up until 3 am watching the Townes Van Zandt documentary. Beautiful and tragic. He had most of his childhood erased from his mind when he underwent shock treatment. Hard to imagine living like that. Of course that's only a small part of the story. See the film.

I did a party today and got tipped twenty bucks, which will go to offset costs from yesterday's visit to Amoeba. I'd better go check on the girls now. They're potato printing in the other room with a couple of potato halves, one carved into a spider and the other carved into the crude likeness of a cat.

Sophie:

I got a skeleton inside me!

I got a skeleton inside me!

What if my skeleton comes out of me?

The weather continues to be cold and rainy, so the science campers this week are getting wet and muddy. A lot of the creek came back to camp inside shoes and socks. This kind of stuff doesn't really bother most kids though. I noticed that a couple of boys arranged it so that their shoes were in a puddle when the group stopped to do journal work. One of the boys deliberately touched scat too. Later, I heard that he also touched the small pile of animal guts we found. His classmates didn't seem to surprised by his behavior. I'm sure his parents would be less than pleased.

We saw a couple of turtles in the pond today, lazily crawling along under the surface. A bit cold for turtles.

Sporadic Snow

Sporadic Snow
Originally uploaded by Corbie.

There is still a bit of snow on the ground up in the hills, seen here through mist, rain, and car window.
I haven't been able to upload pictures through blogger lately, so this marks my first attempt at photoblogging. If you are seeing this, then I have succeeded. If you can't see this, then my words and picture have been sent off into a black hole somwhere. Black holes in cyberspace! Maybe that's the immense gravitational force that sucks so many people towards their computer screens and forces them to waste so much time. We'll never know for sure. It's all very theoretical.

On Friday, during the weekly end-of-camp closing ceremony, snow started falling. It was only a few flakes, but it drew cheers from the kids. It wasn't until after they'd left that it really started coming down. Granted, most of it melted the minute it touched the ground, but there was enough to make a few slushy snowballs with. I did so, and had fun throwing them too. It's not something I often get to do. In fact, I don't think I've seen it snow since I was in the second or third grade. I've been in snow since then, but it has always been after the fact snow. Because of this absence of snow in my life, I just kind of sat and marvelled at the beauty of it all, watching the snowflakes drift here and there, tossed by the wind. The trees in the upper elevations were blanketed, and the front lawn was mostly white. My car windshield was half covered. It made me feel like a kid again.

By the time our Friday staff meeting was finished, most of the snow had already melted.

On Saturday, I saw the elementary school stage version of Peter Pan, in which Alex was a pirate and Nate was an indian. Alex made a convincing pirate, even though he fidgeted with his parrot and eyepatch. Nate was a very serious indian, and was really good during the dancing bit. Of course, this is a boy who does backflips on the couch, so any athleticism coming from him should be no surprise. Much to the chagrin of the boys, Sophie managed to end up on stage during the final bows. There is just no stopping that girl.
Also of note were the set design and the girl who played Wendy, who could really sing. Not of note were the music and sound system. The running time (slightly under three hours, including intermission) could have been reduced. Perhaps some of the songs could have been excised. Oh well, the kids had a good time.

As I was driving M over the hill today, we saw several carloads of people scrabbling in the muddy snow near the summit. Perhaps they were trying to make snowmen or snowballs. People who live in places where it snows on a regular basis would die laughing at the sight, no doubt.

Somehow the girls got to the eggs again. The first I knew of it was when Willow came into the room totally nude and covered with a yellow, slimy substance that upon closer inspection proved to be egg yolk. And yes, for those of you who read on Jen's blog about the initial incident(s), the egg had been smashed on the floor in exactly the same place as all of the previous egg victims.

Oh, and here's a tongue twister that appeared in my mouth last night as I was trying to get my group quiet on the night hike: stick snappers stop snapping sticks!

Today, we added to it: stick snappers stop snapping sticks and snacking on snickers.

I have way too much free time, or at least that's the impression I give sometimes. The reality is that I have precious little free time.

The boys are performing in Peter Pan tonight. I hope it's going well. I'm home watching the girls (uh... no, I'm typing. Maybe I'd better go see what they're up to.) while Jen is watching the play. I get to see it on Saturday.

It's supposed to snow tomorrow above 1000 feet. My work is at about 1200 feet in elevation. This is exciting for a Californian. Snow is something we see in movies.

It has been an uneventful week so far. The weather has cooperated by not raining or hailing on me during field class. The kids are all little angels - the ones at camp, not the ones at home. We're apparently not raising any angels. I let Alex's crayfish go in the pond today, since he's terrified of it and won't clean its cage. It is growing back the claw and the leg that is was missing when it arrived at our house. A few more moultings and it will look less lopsided. Of course it could become raccoon or egret food before it gets that far. We'll never know.
Speaking of missing legs, we also found a six-legged Black Widow today. The kids were impressed.

The clouds are moving in. About an hour from now I'll be hiking into the night with 23 fifth and sixth graders. Will it rain on us? Yesterday's astronomy program was clear and beautiful. One of the smoothest programs I've helped run. Tonight is still a mystery.

More Scribble Seven photos here. I wish I had been there. I read a discussion group post stating that the board recording fouled up (which seems to happen a lot, for some reason), so I hope M got it on his mini-disc recorder.

The boys are away at a friend's house. Willow is sleeping. Sophie and Jen are in bed behind me as I type. In Gowan Ring's "Webs Among the Din" is playing softly on the beat up old boombox we got from the grocery store (!) a few years ago. Outside, the wind is picking up.

Today was one of those days that just slipped away. Jen spent a lot of time shuttling the kids here and there - the boys to play practice and Sophie to a play date. I mostly stayed home with whoever wasn't elsewhere, trying desperately to prevent all of our toilet paper from being unspooled all over the house and making sure the girls didn't run outside nude. Jen went on several missions in search of poster boards and costume bits for the boys' upcoming play. Tomorrow we'll put the poster board cast photo thingie together somewhat. Maybe we'll even go someplace fun. That's the plan anyway. Of course I can think of a bunch of other things that need attention - pet food, laundry, the garage, various things that need being filled out and mailed... Maybe I'll go back to making "to do" lists, which is still the best, most guiltless way of avoiding real work. Not much of a weekend so far. Quieter now.

Here's another old photo from my misspent youth from the Acrofish archives, taken in front of the Gilman St. Project. This was my weekend home away from home for a handful of years during the late eighties. There was a real sense of community there. I will always identify with the outcasts.

These are the first photos to surface of the Scribble Seven performance that M was part of. From the looks of it, Joolie became of part of it too, even though less than a week ago she wasn't. Let's hear it for last minute surprises!

Interesting article. Now if only they could figure out a way to make gasoline from all the bullshit coming out of the White House.

There was snow on the hills this morning, down to 2000 feet. People reading this have to remember I'm talking about the San Francisco Bay Area here. It's just a bit unusual to see snow on the hilltops. On our side of the valley it was just a dusting, but the contrast was beautiful. It hailed on us during class the other day too. Did I mention that?

Willow:

"I scawed of da wat its bery loud.

I scawed of da wat its bery loud.

And yellow and yellow and yellow...

Where's Nathan?"

We saw phosphorescent fungus on the night hike tonight! A small tree had snapped off in the wind earlier in the week, and the portion of its interior thus exposed was enveloped in a ghostlike glow. And all of this happened right after I got finished telling my glow worm story. There's nothing like a bit of real phosphorescence to lend credence to a story that is ninety percent fabrication. After we all finished marvelling at the fungus, we hiked up to the front lawn and looked at Saturn and Titan through the telescope. After the kids went off to bed, I got in my car and promptly had to wait fifteen minutes while some utility guy in a cherry picker fiddled about with the power lines. It's kind of funny that finding the fungus and having to wait on the road were both a direct result of Monday night's storm. We need more fungus and less waiting, in my opinion.

On an entirely unrelated note, here's a picture of me stagediving back when I was young and immortal. I look like I'm attempting to fly.

So I managed to get to work, despite the huge, lichen-encrusted trees that had fallen and totally blocked the road. They took the power lines down with them when they fell, so camp was powered by generator for awhile. Phones were down and internet access is still intermittent.
I had to park at the bottom of the hill, where I was picked up by our facilities manager, who drove me as far as the downed trees. After a short walk through the woods and around the trees, our cabin leader advisor picked me up on the other side and drove me the rest of the way. There were sagging and snapped power lines all over the place. Fortunately they were no longer live. At camp the kids were oblivious to the fact that the only road out was blocked. The rain continued for most of the day, only letting up for a brief period in the afternoon while we were up in the chaparral. We found a bunch of critters, including a scorpion who pinched me (much better than getting stung) and a millipede who doused me with its iodine-based defense liquid. Saw some newts too. No big surprise there.
By nightfall the stars were out, and today its relatively sunny. I can't believe its March already.

The wind is still howling and the trees outside are dancing to the sound. Our camp night-host just called to let me know that there are some pretty sizeable trees down on the road leading up to camp. I may have some trouble getting to work tomorrow, especially since the powers that be don't intend to remove the trees until sometime in the afternoon. Stay tuned.

Sophie:

"Daddy, can spiders walk in your butt when you're not seeing?"

I guess it's a valid concern, although one that had never crossed my mind until now. The subject came up because Nate was upset yesterday when we confiscated some wildly inappropriate comics books that a friend's mom had bought for him. To ease his wounded spirit I caved in and let him watch Giant Spider Invasion, which was filmed in the seventies on a budget of about $17, and starred Alan Hale, better known as the Skipper from Gilligan's Island. The little spiders are real tarantulas, the medium sized spiders are big, floppy puppets that are dropped on the actors from off camera, and the big spider is a silly looking mechanical contraption so fake looking that you can sort of see the volkswagon being used to move it from place to place. Nate really likes it. Alex is sort of grossed out by it (to be fair, so was I when I saw it in the theatre when I was about his age), and Sophie, as one can deduce from the question above, is more philosophical about it.

Ah, the seventies... All of the Mystery Science Theater fodder.

It has been dumping rain all day. Out in the woods with kids we all heard the giant trees groan and creak as the wind forced its way between them. Later, we found a newt eating a worm that was longer than it was. As I type I can hear the wind and rain. As an added bonus, its supposed to be like this all week!

Willow loves her new playhouse, even though the battery operated doorbell isn't hooked up yet (no batteries available at the time). Her Cheese Rat party wasn't exactly smoothe sailing (as those of you who read Jen's blog already know) because she's "scawed of da rat!!" She does love the little plastic slide in the toddler area though.
In the evening, we had all of the local immediate family over. I picked up M at the bus station so he could be the token non-family member. He's like family though, so I guess there's no real distinction. He spent the night because he secretly loves getting awakened by hordes of small children too early in the morning. Tomorrow he leaves for the British Isles to take part in a musical event put on by ICR called Intergration 5. We wish him luck and success. It would be nice to be able to go in person, but we'll just have to wait for his report upon his return.

Time to go check and see if the boys need additional help with their homework. It's too quiet...

In about five minutes or so it will be Willow's third birthday, which is hard to believe because I can still picture her tiny form being cut from Jen during an emergency c-section. Never have worry and joy been so hopelessly entwined.

I went and picked up her big gift today - a large, molded plastic playhouse with a porch and various other bells and whistles (quite literally, I think). The guy who carted it out of the back room seemed skeptical about our chances of wedging it into the van, but wedge it we did. Of course we still have to assemble it, but that's another story for another time.

Happy birthday, Willow. May each birthday be better than the last.

Willow:

Papa! I pooped! Come on! It's pwetty! I made it!

My number came up, so I had to go down to the courthouse this morning. I got there at exactly the time I was supposed to, but then had to stand in the long line that stretched out the door and down the sidewalk towards the parking garage. A half hour later, after passing through the metal detector and putting everything back in my pockets, I found myself in a check-in line while an courthouse employee with a bad cold apologized for the wait and offered to let people with an aversion to standing for long periods of time jump to the front of the line. After getting through this line, I bumped into an old co-worker of mine (the one who ended up getting that water company job I'd applied for some time back) who was there as alternate for a trial already in its third week. We talked shop for a bit, and then she had to go in. I went and sat down in the waiting area and read some nautical fiction until a woman announced that we could all go home because there had been a change of plea in the cases we were waiting for. That's that.

An ex-local family friend currently living in Massachusetts came over with her two young ones today and we went to the park. Her older girl is older than Sophie, and her younger one is younger than Willow, so we had a whole spectrum of ages. The boys were at play practice, so I was the lone male for the outing. We saw a Great Blue Heron building a nest up in a Eucalyptus tree, and Willow had a great time watching the waterfowl paddle around in the creek. We spent a good stretch of time tossing rocks too, while Sophie complained about not being able to skip rocks. Good lazy sunny day. Willow screamed when we left, which is becoming part of the routine.

I've got a cold. Dammit!

I was informed by mail some time ago that my services as a juror might be required this week (actually, for a week in January, but I postponed it until now because I'm not working this week). The court website indicates that they don't need me today. One down, three to go. Not that I have any opposition to serving on a jury - I just don't have the time and can't afford it. Although, the idea of letting rich idlers decide the fate of the accused isn't very comforting. Jury of your peers indeed.

I guess I put on a blatantly political shirt today for no reason.

Sophie (while wrapped in a purple blanket and spinning around on the bed):

Help! I'm getting flushed in the toilet!

Flushed away!

Flushed away!

The older kids are with their dad, so Willow and I went to the park today. She really likes riding on the little steam engine and on the carousel, so we figured we'd get some riding time in quickly before she turns three and all of a sudden she can't ride for free anymore.

She remembered that last time we were there the water level in the reservoir was low, which shows that she pays attention. Of course, on that day we spent a good half hour down by the shore while she threw rocks into the water. She quickly graduated from little pebbles to rocks the size of her hands, and then to crayfish. The crayfish part was my fault. I found a small one under a rock near the shore, and briefly let her hold it. Unfortunately, she was still in rock-throwing mode and hucked the hapless critter into the water. Oh well, that's where it would have ended up anyway.

Today we stuck to the playgrounds. She's getting really good at climbing a wide variety of things, but for some reason today wanted to slide down most of the slides in my lap. She takes great delight in scooting down flights of stairs on her butt as well.

She did not take great delight in leaving. In fact, she screamed all the way home. Now she's playing with the plastic pirate ships and watching B*@#y.

Here's a photo of Jen at Woolfcamp! She's having a great time. You can also check out a whole slew of photos here. Making it happen!

The girls went to bed late and woke up early. One of the first things I heard this morning is this:

Sophie: Knock knock.

Me: Who's there?

Sophie: Papa.

Me: Papa who?

Sophie: Papa you're doomed.

Hopefully she hasn't suddenly developed the gift of prophecy.

Sophie:

"Papa, you're a sissy!"

Now she's bouncing little plastic basketballs on the keyboard while I'm typing this, making it very hard for me to concentrate.

The temperatures dropped enough over Thursday night that on Friday there was a light dusting of snow on the tops of the local hills. In the East Bay, the hills were white.

Jen is away at Woolfcamp, a blog writing retreat, in Santa Cruz today, and is staying there until tomorrow night. It's a well earned break for her. The boys are going to the drive-in with a friend tonight. Sophie, Willow, and I are hanging out at home.

Next week I don't work, but I'm supposed to have jury duty. As always, jury duty would be a financial hardship, so I'll make sure to let them know that if I am actually instructed to report to a courthouse somewhere. Or maybe I'll just act like a hillbilly or express some harsh opinions about the legal system or police officers. It's a thought, anyway.

The girls are hungry. Time to go whip up some glop to eat.

Acrofish, who is an old friend of mine, has posted some pictures from our mutually misspent youth. Look through them and find me, if you can. A couple of shots include Mike Sammon, my old friend who died recently (since I posted about his passing, I've found out that it was due to a blood clot of some sort).

I managed to make it up to the city last weekend to catch a couple of films being shown as part of the 8th annual San Francisco Independent Film Festival. Out of all the films being screened, I decided to go see Dario Argento's Jenifer and Don Coscarelli's Incident On and Off A Mountain Road (based on a Joe R. Lansdale story!). These are both part of Showtime's Masters of Horror series, and as such were projected via video projector rather than actual film projector. Still a treat to see them though. In attendance were Don Coscarelli and Angus Scrimm (Coscarelli directed Incident..., and is probably best known for the classic 70's horror film, Phantasm, which starred Angus Scrimm as the mysteriously villainous undertaker known only as the Tall Man). They did a short Q & A after the screening, which was nice. More Phantasms on the way, apparently - as Scrimm put it, "Oh, why not?" G had interviewed them earlier in the day, so I managed to get in for free as a plus one on the guest list.
Jenifer, which played second, is probably one of the most gruesome films Argento has done, which is saying something. I'll not review it here in detail, but I will say that it is unlike any other Argento films, possibly because he didn't write it. I just read that they come out on DVD in March too, along with the other films in the series. This is good.

I also went and saw Huun-Huur-Tu play at a venue called Don Quixote's in Felton (of all places), and as usual they put on a great show. I've been a fan of Tuvan music ever since I saw Werner Herzog's Bells From the Deep many years ago. The film, a documentary on Russian mysticism, has a segment featuring a young tuvan singer. Sometimes you've just gotta hear more. Huun-Huur-Tu are one of the first tuvan bands I heard, and I've seen them a few times over the years (most notable, perhaps, was the show they did with Kronos Quartet at Stanford) and the utterly alien sounds they produce keep me coming back for more. They're also good animal mimics, making very believable horse sounds with their voices and instruments, not to mention the bird calls... but I ramble...

As for the week at work, I took the kids on a truly epic long hike yesterday. Most people either go to the reservoir or the peak during the long hike. Our group managed to do both. To do this, I utilized my childhood knowledge of trails surrounding the reservoir. It was a lot of hiking, but the trails I used as a kid hooked up quite nicely with the trails I now use as an adult. Hmmm. We saw a Great Blue Heron too. Magnificent birds, herons. Later, just before getting back to camp, we came across a very small, very angry California King Snake by the side of the road. When I picked it up it bit me several times, but due to its rather unimpressive size it didn't do any damage. I noticed that it seemed to have some trouble crawling, but I couldn't see any visible injury. Maybe it was just stressed. I let it go away from the road and away from the kids. The rest is up to the great unknown.
Earlier tonight a girl passed out in the dining hall. We have something we call "special talents" where campers come up and display their... well... talents. This girl's talent was apparently her ability to turn purple. Of course, if you're turning purple, that means your oxygen supply has been compromised, which can of course lead to dizziness and loss of consciousness. Lesson learned. She was only out for a moment, but she ended up being both freaked out and embarrassed.

Now the week is almost over. Not to worry though. Next week will be here before we know it.

There was a brief moment today when we thought something horrible had happened to Alex's crayfish. Jen came into the room earlier and informed me that it had exploded. Looking into the tank, it appeared that she was right. It looked like it had burst. Of course I figured out pretty quickly that I was looking at a molting - crustaceans, like other arthropods, shed their exoskeletons in order to grow. The real crayfish was hiding under the artificial rock cave, looking quite rejuvenated.

Jen pointed out that Alex would have blamed himself for the incident, so it's just as well that it proved to be a non-incident. I thought it was pretty cool though. I never got to witness any of my own childhood pet crayfish (you knew I had some, didn't you?) molting. Better late than never, I say.

February is feeling more like April at the moment. The days have been clear and cloudless this week, and the nights relatively mild. As much as I love storms, this is a welcome break from all of the slogging through mud that we usually have to endure during this season. Of course, we do occasionally find a bit of mud to dip our feet in. We even found a patch right near the recess area (poetically known as the "sport court" ) and discovered that a Mountain Lion had already dipped its feet there. In fact, there was a whole line of large, feline paw prints coming down off the hill. Smallish for a Mountain Lion, but largish for a Bobcat. No claw marks present, meaning that they didn't come from anything canine. Of course there is a large stray dog wandering around, but we've found dog prints as well. The dog even came down and hung out around camp today. It had been described to me as looking somewhat like a Hyena, and it's an apt description. It left when we noticed it.

Last night a couple of us went for a walk at nightfall, and saw a lone bat flying through the oak branches underneath the moon. There are a couple of owls (most likely Great Horned Owls - I'll have to verify this though) living in the giant Eucalyptus trees bordering the road. They hoot incessantly. Very calming.

The night hike tonight kept getting interrupted by bats, which is okay by me. They flitted around mere feet above the heads of the children who, to their credit, weren't too freaked out. We met a couple of hikers too, foolishly walking around without jackets. I wouldn't let them pass me until all of the kids had finished their solo hike. There's nothing freakier for a fifth grader than running into a stranger while walking alone in the dark. Hell, kids freak out during the day if this happens. These particular strangers seemed okay - just a couple out for a moonlit walk.

Today was also the day that the sociopath camper got sent home. The night before he kept two cabins full of kids awake until 3 or 4 in the morning by claiming he'd seen a man with a knife out the window. In addition to the tall tales, he was full of petty nastiness and blatant lies. His teacher pointed out that he had a habit of constantly scanning the room for adults to see if he was being watched. I watched him, and sure enough, he was watching me. I'll probably see his face again someday in the paper after he's done something particularly heinous.

I think I'm on the verge of getting a cold. I've managed to fight it off so far, but poor Willow is feeling pretty miserable with an ear infection and a face full of snot. She's sleeping under a fuzzy blanket on the couch right now. She'll be better soon

Sophie:

"There's gonna be poop for dinner!"

"There's gonna be wipes for dinner!"

"Poop salad!"

"Matt steak!"

Yesterday we packed all of the kids and most of the pets into the van and went to the house of a girl who used to go to school with Alex. A while back, the girl's mom had asked Jen if I would do a reptile party for her daughter, so I was basically working the party but doing it independently of the company I usually do parties for. I brought all four of the snakes, one of the tarantulas (the slow one), and the scorpion. Oh, and a whole cage full of Hissing cockroaches. The python ended up being the hit, with many of the kids posing for photos with it draped over their shoulders. We hung out for awhile afterwards, eating cake and ice cream and adding to the volume level.

Today we're hanging out and cleaning up. The boys are at a friend's house, so only the girls are here to undo our work behind us. They are very effective at this. Sophie, in particular, is in fine form today, clinging to my legs whenever I try to walk and belting out a childish, scatological tirade of her own devising. Things are cleaner than they were at this time yesterday though.

Geekdom is a force to be reckoned with locally. On the way home from work, I noticed that the "do not pass" sign placed beside the road where two lanes merge into one had been modified to say, "you shall not pass!" Visions of Gandalf flickered through my head.

It has been a pretty good work week. We found a Dobson Fly larva in the creek, which tried to take a bite out of my finger but missed. The small Stonefly larva in shared the little bug container with wasn't so lucky. Later on, we found some spotted Banana slugs, which are much less common than the yellow ones. Maybe we should just call them Rotten Banana slugs, since this is what they resemble.
Wednesday night marked the first time I did the astronomy powerpoint presentation by myself, and the first time I presided over the planet walk (which I had never even seen before). These two things are usually handled by our lead teacher (sort of like a vice principal, but friendlier since he's not in charge of discipline) who was a major force in creating astronomy night. He's in San Diego this week though, so we were on our own. There are two field staff members working each night program (with the exception of the night hike, when everybody is present) and my coworker for the evening had never seen, much less helped run, the astronomy program before, so it was pretty much up to me to make sure things went well. There was a moment of panic after I plugged in the laptop and attached the projector to it when all I could it to project was a grim pair of words that said, "no signal." A quick phone call to our other site produced a solution: the projector had to be turned on before the computer. By this time all of the kids were sitting, patiently waiting for things to start. As I fiddled around with the electronics, I explained to them what the word "luddite" meant.
After this, things went smoothly. The classroom teachers ended up being pretty impressed, which is a big compliment since both of us were doing our respective jobs for the first time.

Sophie is standing next to me trying to get me to let her play video games. I'm resisting. Now she's saying she's not my friend because I won't help her. There is just no middle ground with small children.

Last night, deciding to dispense with sleep, I went to see The Living Jarboe, Red Sparowes, and Subarachnoid Space at the Bottom of the Hill. I drove up alone, getting there early since I didn't have a ticket. It ended up being too early, so I went up the hill to Farley's to get a mocha. This is kind of a ritual, actually. I almost always go and get a mocha before the show. It's the closest I ever get to hanging out at a coffee shop like some aimless hipster with a trust fund burning a hole in his pocket.
Back at the club, some guy tried to sell me a ticket for $10. I pointed out to him that A. the show wasn't sold out, and B. it was only $8 to get in. He lowered his price. I handed him a ten and got change. Inside, I ran into a few people I knew, including Jim & Andy, and somewhat later on, G., who had interviewed Jarboe sometime during the afternoon.
Subarachnoid Space were on first. They were crushingly loud, and managed to break strings on two different instruments during the first song. The last time I'd seen them, some six or seven years ago, they were playing noodly space rock, now they play very heavy, sludgy instrumental post-metal. Red Sparowes followed, also without vocals. They sound a lot like Neurosis with their epic, slowly building songs and tendency towards dirginess. Jarboe went on last, singing a mixture of old and new songs, culminating in a cover of Nick Drake's "Black Eyed Dog." She was superb as usual. Kris Force (who I didn't recognize for some reason) played violin. There was a guy on acoustic guitar who I think plays in Ludicra, and a woman on keyboards whose name I didn't catch.

Today another week of camp started. I'm at our second site. The kids are sixth graders and there seem to be a fair amount of troublemakers in the bunch. I hiked a group of them around in the rain and we found newts, slugs, and fungus. One of my coworkers saw a coyote while walking the trails before the kids arrived. We never see them when any kids are around though. Too much noise.

Jen is out tonight. It seems like we've been trading off all weekend. The girls are watching a movie, and the boys are supposedly in bed. I'll bet when I go and check my assumptions will be proven false.

Oh, and there is now a crayfish living here. Apparently is was in Alex's classroom (where it lost a claw and a leg in an argument with a bigger crayfish) and then at a classmate's house (where it was being kept in a tupperware container with peas and carrots floating in the water). Jen rescued it from this ugly fate, although the dad put it in a small, plastic drinking cup for the journey here. What the hell are people thinking anyway? Now it's in a ten gallon aquarium, and it seems to like the chicken bits I fished out of a can of chicken noodle soup. It's Alex's job to take care of it though. There's a pond near work waiting for it if he doesn't.

Another week has gone by without me posting much here. It went pretty well, considering the amount of children we had up at camp. I ventured away from my accustomed night hike trail, taking the group up near the landslide precipice, from which we could see the lights of the valley. I didn't bother telling the kids that we were mere feet from the grove where I had discovered Mountain Lion scat on a couple of occasions. We make it a goal never to mention anything remotely scary during night hikes. Most of the kids, and a good number of the teen cabin leaders are pretty nervous to begin with, if not downright scared.
I tried out my new method of checking for understanding after lessons as well. It involves having kids roll the sheepbone dice. Each side represents an animal, and each combination results in a fortune. I have now assigned a natural science question to each roll, so it's sort of like gambling. Sometimes you get a question you know the answer to. Sometimes you don't. Sometimes several kids will get the same question in a row, so it behooves everybody to listen to the answers as they are given. The kids had a lot of fun doing this.
There was a little girl at camp this week who suffers from a rare degenerative disease that has left her confined to a wheelchair. She is not expected to live much past her teens. She wasn't in my field group, but I heard that her parents came on the night hike with her, and that they said it was a really great family bonding experience. This really hits home because it made me remember back when we were afraid Willow had cystic fybrosis, which is another disease that drastically shortens lifespans. I'm really glad to be part of an organization that provides memorable moments for kids, especially in cases like this. What are our lifes but a collection of moments, connected by spans of routine? We need more moments and less routine. Nobody remembers the routines. I think it is very possible do do as much living in twenty years as some people do in seventy or eighty.

Okay, I'm starting to ramble, but my heart goes out to this girl and it was great to see her smiling all week.

Speaking of breaking out of routines, Jen got to go out and hang out with some friends last night while I stayed home with Willow. Willow wanted to watch some unmentionable show about a sappy, extinct purple creature. I sat with here on the couch and read more of The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell, which is really great so far. It concerns a jesuit mission to a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri. It ends badly. Fascinating read. I just found out that there is a sequel too.

The sun graced us with its presence today. So did 215 kids, which is a near record for science camp. Rooms that don't usually have people sleeping in them are stuffed with bunks and cots. Field classes have 4 or 5 more kids than usual. The good news is that the kids seem bright and respectful, although I'm sure exceptions will make themselves apparent as the week progresses.

We're settling in for the night again. As usual, the kids are resisting. Alex is whining about having to take a shower - "I just HATE using that shower!!" Nate wants to be read to. Willow wants milk. Sophie is watching a video. Of course, I'm sitting here in front of the computer. I think I'll go join the real world now. The real world is a gift. Don't take it for granted.

My mom called this morning and told me to look in the obituaries. When I looked, I found that one of my friends from high school had died. This was during a time of my life when most of my friendships were based on music preference, and the music I preferred was heavy metal and punk. Nearly every weekend we would pile into a car and drive to some little shithole venue in S.F. or Berkeley to experience loud music. I say "experience" because mere listening was only one aspect of a multifaceted picture. A good time was only had if one emerged from the experience drenched in sweat, covered in minor bruises, and with the smell of leather and cigarette smoke permeating clothing and skin. Mike Sammon was almost always there, silently and steadfastly making the trip to nearly every show I went to. He was relatively soft-spoken, as are many people into extreme, cathartic forms of music, so he was often in the background, but he was part of our little group for a number of years. I've already sent out e-mails to a few other people, and gotten one phone call this morning.

Umlaut has already posted his reaction here. Scroll down for some additional words by me. There's a link to his obituary too.

Currently listening to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal - '79 Revisited double cd compilation. As I type, Girlschool's "Demolition Boys" is playing. A fitting tribute, I think.

I forgot to mention. This page features one picture with me in it, and two taken by me, along with various other photos of friends and acquaintances. Oh, and a slug. You've got to love that.

For a needed change of pace, I worked at our second site this week. There were only 80 kids, and the routine is simpler than the one at our main site. The kids were relatively well-behaved, and genuinely excited to be there. It rained during the Monday night campfire, so we had it inside the dining hall, and despite this last minute change of venue (as it were) it ended up being one of the best campfires the veteran teachers had seen. It's always the best campfire the students have seen, but they haven't been coming up every year like the teachers have. The rest of the week flew by, with the weather changing from rainy to sunny and cool on Thursday and Friday.

On Thursday night I went up to San Francisco to see Espers, who are a psych-folk band from Philadelphia featuring Greg Weeks on guitar. I single him out for a mention here because it was his solo cds that led me to Espers in the first place. They were very good, providing the audience with beautiful songs full of cello and haunting vocals, with occasional bursts of Week's electric guitar. Weeks also played keyboards and recorder. Too bad the club, 12 Galaxies, has a bar, with attendant blabbermouth barflies who felt the need to talk through the proceedings. The opening band, Feathers, were also quite good. I didn't stick around to see Vetiver, who were headlining, because I'd seen them before and hadn't been that impressed. I had to get up early for work too.

Stopped in at Aquarius Records before the show. I'm currently listening to the Andrew Chalk cd I bought. Beautiful. Check out his label here.

M spent the night last night so he could go and see an episode of the miniseries on South Africa that G has been patiently editing for a decade or so now. I think it's the same bit he brought with him when he came over during the holidays. I couldn't go because I was performing at a couple of birthday parties earlier today. Both went over well, netting me lots of cake, indian food, pizza, and forty bucks in tips. I stopped and bought Grizzly Man on the way home. You can never have enough Herzog around the house.

Yesterday, Willow went with her grandmother and I to the little park I where I used to play when I was her age. It has changed a bit during the interim years. Gone are the wood and cinderblock structures and the vague smell of pee that clung to them. Gone are the old fountains that never seemed to work anyway. Gone are all of the seventies clothing and hairstyles. Now it's all brightly painted metal and rubberized walking surfaces. Willow bounced around like a pinball, never staying still for long. She's still little enough to have a hard time on some of the ladders, and there's an even chance that she's going to want me to go down the slide with her. The upshot of this is that I got to bounce around like a pinball for a couple of hours as well.

Today, there are five children here. The calm has once again been broken by flurries of bickering and sporadic downpours of milk. Jen gets home sometime around midnight. I'm looking forward to seeing her.

I've actually managed to watch three movies this weekend:

Wheel of Time: Werner Herzog's documentary on Tibetan Buddhism. It took me into a world I've never visited. You've got to love films that do that. It's got me itching to patch the remaining holes in my Herzog collection.

The Card Player: Dario Argento's latest, which reminded me more of his first film than any of the others. His main innovation this time was the absence of the fountains of blood that usually drench his films. That and an increased reliance on natural light sources. This from a man who at one point painted individual frames to get a certain lighting effect (Suspiria) and is (in)famous for his bloody murder scenes. I actually quite liked this film. Granted, due to what I'd read and heard elsewhere, my expectations were low, so that may have had a part in my pleasant surprise. The nighttime shots of Rome are beautiful. The lead actors are good (Some would say that this is unusual for an Argento film), and the plot less convoluted than in the past. Of course, I had a pretty good idea who the killer was almost right away. I was right too. Best line (paraphrased): The winner will go free, the loser will be unrecognizable!"

Shaun of the Dead: I've seen it before, but it succeeded in making me chuckle again. You've gotta love zombies. Jen picked this up for me sometime before Christmas. It came with a free watch, which doesn't work too well. Who needs time anyway?

Don't worry, I did dishes and laundry too.

Oh, and hello to my readers who got married in the same place we did. The comments you've left come through in my e-mail but not on the site itself. Not sure why. Anyway, I'm glad that you're reading and enjoying this.

Willow and I went to the park in the gentle rain yesterday morning, strolling about and investigating various species of waterfowl before returning to the van and running some errands. It's not often that just the two of us get to spend so much time together, and I find it is actually quite relaxing, considering the chaos that usually reigns around here.

Last night, she did wake up a few times, but went back to sleep without a fuss. Maybe she was having bad dreams... who knows? Right now she is playing with the Playmobil grocery store set. Later we plan to go to another park...

Now she's grabbing onto my arm in an attempt to involve me in the Playmobil world. Time to go...

Jen is on her way to Texas, with a stopover in Denver, a city in which I once slept on a stranger's apartment floor. A good place for stopovers, I guess. Alex is in school, but the other three are home. Nate said he was sick this morning, so we let him stay home. Sick of school, I think.

Another week of science camp is over. Since I am home with the kids, my field class this morning was facilitated by the two cabin leaders who hiked with us this week. I'm sure they did fine, even though the kids this week tended to be unfocused and selectively hard of hearing. These negative points were more than balanced out by their general excitement at being in the hills and on the trails. I can tell that they really needed the experience.

I went to see Sleepytime Gorilla Museum in Santa Cruz at the Catalyst with M last night. Tonight they're playing in L.A., followed by and end of tour gig at the Great American Music Hall in S.F. on Saturday. The show was brilliant as always, with a couple of new songs added to the set, one of which Nils dedicated to Per. They've made up some Per shirts too, using his alias of Ward C. Picnic and of course featuring his artwork. I still keep half expecting him to see him walk into the room when I'm around that crowd, even though I know he never will.

Look at Sleepytime pictures on Flickr, since for some reason I still can't upload photos here.

Willow made a sort of bean soup today by dropping beans all over the floor and then spilling water on top of them. She used this as a backdrop for a game she was playing with some little Richard Scarry action figures that I'd recently exhumed from the depths of my own childhood. It involved submerging them in water and exclaiming, "oh noooooo!"

I got a raise too! That will help.

Here are some more myspace pages. Odd folk meanderings by Whysp and Spires That In the Sunset Rise.

More to come.

I just realized that it has been almost a week since I last posted. I've been busy, of course. Last week really flew by. I took my class up the creek, which could have been a disaster due to the amount of water foaming and splashing downward, but ended up being really exciting for the kids as we formed human chains across the water and scrambled over rocks and through the shallows. The rest of the week seemed to be over before it had a chance to begin. Somewhere along the way I found the time to eat the lollipop that G gave me for Christmas. It was green apple flavored, with a big mealworm imprisoned within like an ancient insect in amber. I couldn't even taste the mealworm, but it really grossed out the kids to see half a mealworm left after I took a bite. I've got to get more of those. They're fun. Look on Flickr for a photo. I still can't manage to upload them here.

Over the weekend, I did my first science party of the year, and like last year's first party, I got tipped $40. Then I went and bought shoes. And a cd. More specifically, a Fear of God cd, which sounds sort of like somebody vomiting inside a quonset hut during a hailstorm. It's a acquired taste, I guess. I'm thanked in the liner notes though. I'd forgotten about that. Ah, nostalgia!

Jen went with M to see Brokeback Mountain while I stayed home and watched the kids. They liked it. The kids attempted to stay up until she got back. Sophie and Nate managed. Willow and Alex didn't.

Sunday night I went and helped train this week's cabin leaders. It's one aspect of the program that I hadn't been involved with yet. Now I have. I barely missed getting the full time slot that just became available. One of my coworkers, who has been there longer than me and done a larger variety of jobs for the program, got the position. Not a big surprise, I guess. I was told it was a hard decision though. Aren't they always?

This week is off to a good start. The kids are pretty good, the sky is clear, and fungus is everywhere! This was also the first morning this winter that I had to scrape ice off my car windows before leaving. Tonight's campfire was pretty cold too, and as luck would have it we were unable to get the fire going. The kindling was all wet, my lighter was out of fuel, and the temperature was such that all paper brought outside immediately became soggy. I told the assembled kids about the dew point and about how cold air holds less moisture than warm air. They were not amused. Ha ha.

Here are a couple of more myspace links. I love that so many different musicians have these now. David Tibet and Sol Invictus have spent a lot of time on my cd and record players over the years. They still continue, in different ways, to scratch musical and emotional itches that nobody else can. Both communicate a sense of melancholy that actually makes me feel good - a kind of catharsis maybe. I could go on at length, but I won't. Mecca Normal have been around for quite some time too. When I first heard them, I wasn't sure if I liked them or not, but they were fascinating enough that I kept buying their records. I know I like them now. The last time I saw them play, they shared a stage with Godspeed You Black Emperor. Now that was an interesting pairing, possibly one that will never happen again. Who knows?

Today was my first day of work this year. Everybody seemed in good spirits, relaxed from the time off over the holidays. Rocks and mud, perhaps tired of their perches on hillsides, had slumped onto the road leading up to camp, and runnels of water crisscrossed it here and there. A couple of benches had been blown down the amphitheater steps near where my group meets. Our hike today was relatively short, and accompanied by a duck who caught up to us while we were playing a name game, and later tumbled onto the trail in our midst. It slapped along the trail amongst us for awhile, and snooped around while we played another game before finally growing bored and wandering off.

Strange.

The new washer and dryer were installed today too. We are quite happy with this development! They use a fraction of the water and energy that the old ones used, and they actually get the clothes dry.

I can't seem to get pictures to upload here at the moment. Look at Flickr for duck pictures.

Today was the last full day of being home before the looming spectres of work (for me) and school (for the boys) drag us into the new year. I'm buzzing with things that I want to get done, so it will be good to plunge in and get started. I hope this desire lasts. I'm really good at getting all enthusiastic about getting things done and then losing that enthusiasm when it's time to get started. What will be will be.

The boys are barely asleep and it's almost eleven. I predict that they'll be grouchy tomorrow.

The van died on Jen today. It might be the alternator. It might be the battery. She managed to get it jump-started, but we see more money being whisked away from us in the near future. Isn't that the way it always is?

I've been noticing a lot of music Myspace pages lately. Jen already linked to M's, but I'm going to link to it as well. Just because. Check out Pantaleimon too. More to follow.

In the last post, I forgot to wish everybody reading this a happy new year. Happy new year! Remember, happiness is a state of mind that is often independant of the circumstances we find ourselves in. Live well.

On Friday, G, M, and I braved the pouring rain and wind to attend a wake for Per at Dawn and Nils' house. We helped hang his artwork on all available spaces, and it was my first chance to see a lot of the originals of drawings that have ended up gracing album covers and flyers over the years. There were also originals of the graphic novel styled Emmett Till and Ed Gein stories he did, as well as a lot of other miscellaneous stuff. An old friend of his arrived with a huge (3' by 4') replica of an H.R. Giger piece that Per had done as a teenager. It was beautiful, even though the corner had been mangled by a pit bull at some point. Giger usually uses an airbrushing technique. Per's version was done with #2 pencil. It must have taken months to complete! The house was soon packed with people from all periods of Per's life, and plates and plates of food. The bedroom, which is a semi-converted old stable, was noisey with conversation and the sound of driving rain slamming against corrugated metal. There was even a small flood as water found its way in. We listened to about 20 minutes worth of hilarious phone messages from Per that Nils had saved, and watched a couple of short films that he'd appeared in. Dawn and Nils sung Still Here, which Nils had written about Per some time ago, and the song now has new meaning, making it a wrenching experience to listen to. There was a lot of laughter to go along with the tears as people recounted various escapades involving Per. There is a real warmth to be found amongst this crowd, and I'm glad I got to take part in this collective celebration of Per's life. He's still inspiring us even though he's moved on to elsewhere.

It was my first wake. I'm sure it won't be my last. The world is ever an uncertain place.

On the way home, hydroplaning and peering through the dark and the wet, I received a not-so-subtle reminder about the fickleness of the future. There was a large conifer down across all southbound lanes of the freeway. I knew it had happened sometime in the previous half an hour because I had just traveled that stretch of road on my way to drop of M at his place. Even on the northbound side I wasn't safe. My attention was abruptly brought back to the road in front of me by a loud bang as I smacked into the tip of the tree, which was hanging over the divider and into the northbound lanes. Fortunately the only damage was to my windshield. The two foot crack that was already there is now a three foot, branching crack that goes from the top center of the windshield all the way to the right side. When I got home I discovered that the little plastic man who has been wedged into one of my windshield wipers for about three years had been swept away into the flooded darkness. All that is left of him is one of his feet.

I could have been crushed or impaled, but I'm still here.

If you read Jen's blog, you know that her grandfather, who would be 93 now if he'd lived, has died. I met him only once, when we all went down to Texas for Thanksgiving in 2003. I didn't get to know him well because I was meeting a great many of Jen's relatives for the first time, but he seemed to me to be a kind and happy man. He was well loved and will be missed.

Last night we spent more time with Dawn and Nils, this time at Blake's in Berkeley, where they were performing (as Faun Fables) as part of the New Year's bash being held there. Many of the same people who had attended Per's wake, including Dawn's sister Sheila and Nils' parents Mickey and Jim, were there, so it was more like being at a party than a "show." Faun Fables caught the Old Year Man and ushered in the new in fine form with new songs and celebration. Afterwards, G, M, and I cast about for a place to perform our own New Year's tradition, which involves hauling a bundle of instruments and non-instruments to some remote location and recording some improvised music. We initially thought we could sneak into the Greek Theatre, but found it locked up tight, so we wandered onto the UC Berkeley campus and found an alcove that was sheltered from the wind and contained some shelves laden with cool looking gears and other metal impedimentia. Not exactly remote, but I had no gas and no money, so it had to do. We made good use of the walls and metal, fully expecting to be interrupted by some exasperated janitor at any moment. Nobody appeared though. I guess the UC leaves random lights on to help drain the city's power supply. Don't they know anything about conservation?

M spent the night. Today we did very little, except some drawing and taking a walk when the gale-force winds knocked the power out for a couple of hours. The girls splashed in so many puddles that we had to wring them out when we got home.