Final Day of the Year

I always spend the final week of each year reflecting on our planet's most recent journey around the sun. This particular circuit around Sol was a good one for me, primarily because this year Jeanine and I bought a home together, and then got married. Also, for the first year since 2009, nobody in my family died.

This is my 61st blog post this year, at least on this site. I only managed 28 posts this year on my music blog. Still, 89 separate posts is a fair amount. This has been my main creative output this year, and I still feel like I could really be increasing my creativity in other ways. Something to look forward to over the coming year! On the consumption end of the spectrum, I figured out that I read 15,090 pages this year. That's slightly over 54 books, and doesn't count any online or magazine reading. I can't really compare that to previous years, since this is the first year I've been nerdy enough to sit down and figure it out.

Christmas went well, and the kids were happy (which is really what this holiday is about, isn't it?). There were plenty of colorful lights in our neighborhood too, and we got some good rain last week. As I type, it has gone back to being cold and dry, with no rain in the immediate forecast.

I still have another week off. Tonight, I'm heading up to Oakland to see Neurosis play. Happy New Year's Eve to all.

Currently listening to: Misery "Lore"

Deluge, But No Doom

Willow has now ceased to worry about the world ending. A big sarcastic "thank you" goes out to the media and popular culture in general for scaring kids (and gullible new age adults) everywhere.

I've worked my last night of 2012, and now I'm back on a daytime schedule for a couple of weeks. Sometimes it's easy to make the transition, and sometimes it is hard. Take for instance this morning: I've been awake since around 2:30. It wasn't so bad though, because there was a thunderstorm to keep me occupied. The rain was pretty ferocious at times too, pelting the roof and gurgling in the gutters. Every so often, the room would light up, followed by the distant rumble of thunder. Eventually, I gave up trying to go back to sleep and got up. Currently, I'm watching the sky shed darkness as a seemingly endless stream of crows glides by overhead. A couple of them have alighted on nearby power lines, and one is attempting to wake up the neighborhood. They seem to like the persimmons on the neighbor's tree. So do I, and since many of them hang over the fence into our yard, we have a good supply.

Currently listening to: Crows, the burbling of the fish tank, the gurgling of the gutters, and the ringing in my right ear (I think I have a touch of tinnitus, possibly precipitated by a Wovenhand gig a couple of years ago).

Incinerated In Our Atmosphere

Last week ended with a really spectacular Geminid meteor shower. Every other time I've gone out during a so-called meteor shower, I've seen maybe one or two meteors. This time, I saw at least thirty. Thursday night at work, I was out behind the camp buildings with some of the teachers, facing the darkened field. The sky was mostly clear, and sparkling with little blinks of flaming grit. We didn't stay out for too long at a time. It got too cold to stand in one spot, so occasionally I went back in to warm up. The teachers eventually went to bed, but I stepped back out every hour or so and watched some more. One more reason to love my job.

This week is the last week of camp before the holidays. I'm reading "The Neon Bible" by John Kennedy Toole. For years, I thought that "A Confederacy of Dunces" was his only book, but no, he wrote this one too, when he was only 16. I was a bit dubious about starting it, but I needn't have worried. It's quite good. It helps that it's written in the first person, and that the character is a kid. Being so close to the age of the character, he managed to capture the voice of the protagonist quite well. Too bad Toole chose to end his own life.

Currently listening to Michael Tanner/Plinth "Witch Elder" I've been discovering too much good music online lately, so much that I'm starting to feel overwhelmed by it all.

Friday Agenda

Friday Agenda, originally uploaded by Corbie.

You can lead kids to water, but apparently it's hard to prevent them from drinking.

I don't usually make it to the Friday meetings at work, but I often get a good laugh out of the agenda items. This one was no exception.

Currently listening to: Crippled Black Phoenix "Live In Bern 2012 A.D."

Calisoga Bunk Mate

Calisoga Bunk Mate, originally uploaded by Corbie.

As we wait for the third of three storms to hit, I'll take advantage of the calm between the storms to bring you this little photo of a poor, misunderstood creature who was just trying to come in out of the wind and wet.

This particular Calisoga Spider figured he'd warm himself by crawling into the bottom bunk. He probably considered that since he is such a handsome fellow, the fifth grade girl already occupying the bunk would welcome him.

This turned out not to be the case. Like the frog and the beetle I'd had to evict from the cabin earlier in the week, I had to convince Mr. Spider that the woodshed was a comfortable alternative. I walked around with him for awhile before I had time to get him down there though, since I still had to oversee bedtime for the campers.

I hope he is happy in the woodshed. Like other members of the infraorder Mygalomorphae, he breathes with book lungs, which due to their placement on the underside of the abdomen, make it easy for him to drown in a relatively small amount of water, so letting him go outside in the middle of a storm wouldn't have been very nice.

Currently listening to: William Basinski "The Disintegration Loops"

Close-Up

Close-Up, originally uploaded by Corbie.

Here's a photo taken during our short honeymoon last week. We found all sorts of creative uses for the ducks people brought to the wedding.

Call me an idiot, but I just noticed that I can share photos directly from my Flickr page, not to mention compose the post itself from there, so the main function of this post is that of a guinea pig. Here goes nothing...

Deep Autumn

The wheel of the seasons is spinning towards Winter, but for the most part, it doesn't feel like it. California never really has a Winter, instead skirting the edges of the season with a storm or two, and never staying below freezing for more than a few hours all season long. This time of year, the best thing is the interesting sunrises and sunsets. I think my biggest problem with Summer has always been the boring sky. I'd rather have something more varied to look at, and I'd even rather have things fall out of it than have to suffer through months of pale blue nothing.

The Thanksgiving holiday week is drawing to an end. We had a modest little get-together at our place, which included the Trader Joe's brand of imitation turkey. I forgot to put the gravy on it, but it was still good. Willow was actually here on the holiday instead of a day or two afterwards, which means her mom spent Thanksgiving without kids for perhaps the first time in 16 years. I must note that we celebrate Thanksgiving the same way we celebrate Christmas - from the standpoint of tradition rather than any real agreement with the myth behind the holiday itself - in this case, it's the myth that the pilgrims and the Native Americans lived in some sort of Disneyfied fairytale land where everybody helped each other out. I think most people don't really give it a lot of thought. Sure, everybody comes up with lists of things to be thankful for, which is a good thing because it steers us away from taking too much for granted, but I'm sure nobody has ever uttered the thought, "I'm thankful for this continent we stole from the poor suckers who were here before us." People, I might add, who thought the concept of land ownership was ridiculous. Good for them. Why is it that sensible people always get overtaken by barbarians?

We went to a Harvest Festival the other day too, and bought things from artisans there - candy, tea, ear cuffs for Eva, and a romantic picture to hang on the wall. Willow doesn't think the picture is romantic though. She thinks it's creepy because it has skeletons in it. Oh, well. The whole reason I mentioned the festival at all is that the name signifies another thing we're generally out of touch with in modern society, at least those of us who don't live in rural areas. I'm talking of course about the harvest, the bringing in of the crops, the squirreling away of food in order to stave off starvation during the bleakness of Winter. There was no shipping fruit in from the southern hemisphere in the old days. No, you had to spend the Autumn months stuffing it into jars and cans. We have it pretty easy these days, but as always, this comes with a hidden price. Every convenience does. Think about it.

Currently listening to: William Basinski "The Disintegration Loops"

Moon of Honey

We're heading out for a brief mini-honeymoon in a couple of hours. Despite this being my second marriage, I've never been on a honeymoon before. The first time around, circumstances (read: finances and children) didn't allow for that kind of luxury. Here in the present, we're making it happen.

Traveling with us will be a bunch of rubber ducks, given to us by literal-minded wedding guests who read the fine print on the invitation. Or perhaps people just like buying ducks. Either way you look at it, we have a bunch, and they're going with us.

We're taking the chocolate ducks with us too. They won't survive for long.

Currently listening to: V/A "Benefit For Animals In Need" Follow the link if you'd like to support the ASPCA while at the same time adding 31 songs to your digital library. Go on, you know you want to.

Married!

The wedding went off without a hitch. Over a couple of days, our friend Raul whipped together some fantastic balloon decorations, and Earles of Newtown, a swing band from Nevada city featuring my old friend Chad on washboard and vocals, proved to be so entertaining that adults and kids alike had good things to say about them. The ceremony took place in a hillside amphitheater, at just around sunset. We passed around a speaking stick with our rings attached, and lots of people chose to share their thoughts and wishes for us with the crowd. By the end of the ceremony, it was so cold that I invited everybody down to warm their hands around the fire, which ended up being just perfect. The cake, baked by Walrus, was magnificent, and the company was excellent.

Plus, we have a lot of ducks now, mostly of the rubber kind, but also a nice wooden mallard, a plush duck or two, and some wind-up ones. I'm not sure what possessed me to write "nobody will be admitted without a duck" on the invitation. I'm just glad that nobody brought live ducks (at least a couple of people almost did).

My friend Jellyfish took some nice pictures too:

Currently listening to: Celer "Recumbent In Wishes"

Today Is The Day!

Jeanine and I are making it all official later today. We've opted to keep the ceremony simple, since neither of us have ever understood the need to make things more complicated than they need to be. That said, there will be scenic views, a warm fire, yummy cake, friends aplenty, and good music. What more could anyone ask for?

Currently listening to: Xambuca "Kamuy"

Wedding

In less than 48 hours, Jeanine and I will have rings on our fingers and the benevolent gleam of legality will illuminate our already interwoven lives. I think we've covered all of the pertinent details, and hopefully there won't be any nth hour moments of sudden realization due to overlooked tasks. I'm very much looking forward to the ceremony, and will of course write more after the weekend.

After a couple of weeks in the field, I'm working nights this week and next, followed by a week off in honor of the annual Feast of Gluttons.

Here's a picture taken during field class the week before last. I love how fog utterly changes the mood of the photo.

Currently listening to: Tim Eriksen "Josh Billings Voyage"

What's Wrong With This Picture?

I meant to post this awhile ago, but it got pushed to the back of my mind by more pressing matters.

I often get Facebook messages from friends, usually accompanied by a photo (like the case in point here), asking me to identify some mysterious creature that appeared in a yard, or bathtub, or garage, or somewhere else terrifying and inconvenient. Usually I can identify the critter right away. In most cases, if I can't identify it, I'll at least have a good idea.

The animal in this picture is as well known to me as the palm of my hand, and since I know what it is, I would never actually put one in the palm of my hand. It's a Rattlesnake, of course. To be precise (as a pair of fictional detectives are fond of saying), it's a Northern Pacific Rattlesnake. Fortunately for the kid in the picture, the species isn't very aggressive. It makes up for its lack of aggressiveness with relatively toxic venom though, so it's not something you should pick up with your bare hands, no matter who you are.

In this case, if I remember the story right, the irresponsible party was a grandparent. As adults, it's our responsibility to be knowledgeable about potential dangers in our immediate environment. This particular adult fell down on the job. Hard.

Where living things are concerned, the best advice I can give is: If you don't know what it is, don't touch it.

A Brief Update

After inspecting a couple of antique stores, we found a nice pair of wedding rings today. The ladies who sold them to us spent a moment sharing how long they'd each been married. If I remember correctly, the durations were 41, 47, and 65 years. The unanimous opinion was that marriage works. That's good to know.

This day also marks a somber anniversary, since it is the one year anniversary of my dad's death. It's hard to believe that a year has already vanished, since the day is still so finely etched into my memory. It's interesting to note that my dad passed away on the Festival of the Dead, a festival that became All Soul's Day once the Christians got hold of it. Yet another holiday that now has a deeper, more personal meaning for me.

Speaking of the dead, All Hallow's Eve passed without incident. A row of jack-o-lanterns and a large balloon Frankenstein's Monster greeted the surprisingly large number of trick-or-treaters who came to our door. Jeanine reported that many of them didn't seem to know what to say, instead standing there with mute expectation.

Currently listening to: At Jennie Ritchie "The Communist's Garden"

The Night Sky Springs A Brief Leak

It rained, sort of. It hit the valley in the evening, but not for very long. Up in the hills at camp, I was despairing that I'd been cheated, but a few desultory drops found their way to the ground during the wee hours, and again within the last hour. Early on, I did get treated to a bit of thunder and lightning. There was a flash beyond the hill to the north, briefly backlighting it, and of course the attendant rumble of thunder.

It's not much, but it's been dry for so long that even a few drops seems like a deluge.

Currently listening to: Bernardo Devlin "Sic Transit"

Autumnal

As we move into the heart of October, there's a bit of a bite to the night air. Now, as I type these words, I can see a stately procession of tattered, white clouds moving north, starkly contrasting against the deep blue beyond. I love this time of year. I wish it would rain though.

We're slowly but surely pulling the elements of our wedding together. Jeanine and I collaborated on the invitations, and I'm still trying to confirm a band. All of the local bands I've asked are either suddenly not local or have time conflicts (although one band member expressed a desire to play our 10th anniversary). At the moment, I'm pinning my hopes on a friend who has two bands, a swing band and a blues band, and I'm waiting to hear back about the availability of either. They'd be coming from a bit farther away, but hopefully at least one of the bands will be available on the date.

Another friend, who also plays in a blues band, was surprised that we were interested in having a blues band play our wedding, but if you think about it, the whole point of blues is to make people feel good. Of course, most of my favorite music could be labelled "depressing" or at least "melancholy", so what do I know?

I know that the music draws out sadness and expresses it in a way that nothing else can, so the sadder the music, the happier it makes me feel. Not that I'm sad or anything like that, but perhaps the reason I'm rarely sad myself is because I wallow in musical morbidity.

Lest one think that it's just me, Jeanine is fully on board with having a blues band play. Yet another reason why we're such a good match.

Currently listening to: Tinariwen - YouTube mix, which isn't melancholy at all, and thus doesn't really support the point I was making above, but sometimes life is like that.

The Long Fingers of Summer

The week started out uncomfortably warm, with temperatures well into the nineties, but the thermometer has dropped enough so that once again, a jacket is required at night. I've been watching episodes of Dexter at camp while the kids are sleeping, and tonight I plan on watching the last couple of episodes of season 4. After each episode, I take a palate-cleansing walk through camp, watching the stars wheel through the blackness and the fog drift in. It's a peaceful job, as long as nobody is throwing up or bleeding. There have been a lot of bloody noses this week, probably because of the lack of humidity. Kids often seem so fragile, ill-equipped for anything approaching "roughing it".

As I walk around in the dark, I think. This week, I've been thinking about passion, and about how I feel the need to develop some new creative passions, or perhaps revisit dormant ones. I feel like a lot of my creativity has been left by the wayside over the years, although I guess blogging sort of counts as creative, even if it is more like a chronicle of my experiences most of the time. For the time being, I'll take what I can get, I guess. I'm looking for some new muse or inspiration though, perhaps because I just finished reading a novel about a muse of sorts - Christopher Moore's Sacre Bleu. Of course, with this particular muse, pain and loss is inextricably linked to inspiration. I'm not a big fan of pain and loss, even though a lot of great art and music is born from it. Does that make me some sort of psychic vulture, benefiting as I do from the pain and loss of others? Ha.

Currently listening to: Empty Vessel Music "The Burial",

The Small Hours

Back when I started this blog, most of my posts were created in the middle of the night after I'd gotten home from delivering the Wall St. Journal. It has been over 8 years since that job ended, but once again I find myself regularly awake at that time. My goal this school year is to stay awake all night while I'm at camp, as opposed to napping during the small hours like I've been doing for the last handful of years. So far, so good. It's a peaceful time to be awake. As I type, it's nearly four in the morning, and all is well. The only real drawback is that I now have to sleep until mid-afternoon, which cuts down on my free time at home during the week. Life is always about juggling though, and so I'll continue to keep the pins spinning through the air.

I've got a cold. I think I picked it up over the weekend while I was at the Stella Natura festival in the Tahoe National Forest. The festival was phenomenal, and a detailed report will surface on my music blog soon. For the time being though, I'll sit here and continue blowing my nose.

Currently listening to: Natural Snow Buildings "Live at The Pop, Paris, France 05.11.2003"

Sudden Lizards

Suddenly, we have two Bearded Dragons. Their previous owner tried to donate them to science camp, but the nature lab is already stuffed with critters, so I offered to take them home. These weren't available as pets when I was a kid, or I probably would have had one before now. Over the last decade or so, they've become quite popular and easy to find. Everybody seems to be breeding them. Maybe we will too, since now we also have an incubator.

Currently listening to: Hazy Loper "High In The Murk"

The Internet Makes You Stupid

As I was driving to work tonight, I found myself musing about the internet, and how it seems to create its own reality - a reality that can eclipse the world around us by narrowing and distorting it. At my worst moments, I can feel the claws of this virtual world scraping at my psyche, lulling me into a strange sort of complacency. I was listening to Utah Phillips at the time, which always makes me long for the simple pleasure of sitting around a campfire and sharing stories. That's the best antidote for internetitis - unplugging and backing away. That said, as with everything we use, there is a right way and a wrong way to use the internet. Knowing and seeing the difference is the trick.

Moments after having these thoughts, I noticed the license plate holder on the car in front of me. It read, "the internet makes you stupid". Amen to that.

Currently listening to: Felicia Atkinson "Les Bois Rouges"

Busy

The second week of the current outdoor school season has begun, although my part in it doesn't begin until I get to work this evening.

I still feel like I need to recover from my busy weekend, which featured Willow's soccer photo day and the game that followed (well played, although Willow's team lost by a point or two), a birthday party up in the hills (with live blues band and karaoke - Willow is a karaoke monster!), open house at work (for kids who are coming to camp this school year), and an instore performance by my brother at Amoeba Records in Berkeley (followed by pizza at Zachary's pizza). To top it all off, I seem to have caught a cold.

We walked to get Eva from middle school earlier, and as we started walking homeward, I noticed a kid in front of us contemptuously toss his pencil into the air behind him. Half a block later, one of his friends did the same thing, flinging his pencil into a bush. Do kids these days think pencils are a one-use item? I suppose I did my share of similar things when I was their age, but from my current perspective, it seems kind of senseless. If these kids are sixth graders, we'll be seeing them at science camp in the Spring, and we'll get a chance to teach about not wasting resources. If they're seventh or eighth graders, then they've already been at camp and the lesson didn't stick.

Currently listening to: Nurse With Wound "?"