Suddenly It's April

I'm back working nights after a week in the field. My daytime shifts were reinvigorating, like they always are. We had a bit of rain during the all-day hike, but not enough to dampen spirits. The Rattlesnakes are back in the chaparral in their usual abundance, and so are the turkeys that have been hanging around for the last couple of Springs. I found a small Gopher Snake in the garden too, and a Mountain Kingsnake, so tiny it was almost worm-sized, was discovered near the bathrooms by some cabin leaders.

It's windy this week, and the redwood tree near the boys' bathroom is leaning at a precarious angle and roped of with caution tape. At home yesterday, our yard was littered with avocado branches, and there were reports of power outages around the Bay Area.

Alex is up at camp this week as a cabin leader, although he'll be heading over to our other site in a couple of hours. He is also learning to drive, which makes me feel old.

Right now, the morning birds are kicking up a fuss outside, and the last couple of bats are fluttering around in preparation for bedtime. In 20 minutes, I'll wake up the campers.

Nightwalking

I've been logging many miles at night, simply by walking in circles around camp. Each loop is only .13 miles, so I have many loops to complete in order to walk an appreciable distance, but with headphones on and stars overhead, the time just flies by. In fact, I'm often overcome with an intense feeling of joy as I walk, especially when the music perfectly meshes with the sparkling darkness. Plus, I get to indulge in my other favorite pastime, looking for critters. At the moment, my nocturnal discoveries are usually either deer or amphibians. Tonight, I rescued a lethargic newt from the swimming pool. Earlier this week, I saw this little fellow:



Currently listening to: Carol Anne McGowan

Spring Springs

Spring has arrived early and borrowed an hour from Autumn. It's light late and dark early now, and the green scent of growing things hangs heavy in the humid air.

In a fit of consumption, Jeanine and I bought new cars. That's right. Cars. Plural. Her old one had a potentially expensive oil leak, and my nineties-era mini-van has been accumulating annoying problems for a couple of years now, not to mention its gas mileage, which would have forward-thinking folk shaking their heads if I revealed it here. As for the annoying little problems, the combination of a broken air conditioner and not being able to roll down the driver's side window did much to encourage my wallet to emerge from hiding. Hopefully we'll both be set for quite a while now.

Our thoughts have been turning to the garden beds out back. I sunk some sprouting garlic bulbs into the soil recently, and today, Jeanine planted tomatoes and a lemon cucumber plant. I'm planning on adding some peppers and maybe some oregano.

Recently, a nocturnal visitor added this:


It's nice to know that owls occasionally visit the yard. I'm sure the local rodents would disagree though.

Currently listening to: Bohren & der Club of Gore "Midnight Radio"

Strangely Stretching Time

Suddenly, more than a month has passed without so much as a peep (or would that be a plastic-y "click" of the keyboard instead?) from me here.

Like the title of this blog suggests, life continues. Nothing of great import has occurred. The usual temporal momentum sweeps us all along. Willow is now 10, and Eva is now 12. The weather has been dry, and I haven't been inspired to write much. Perhaps soon.

Currently listening to: Sun City Girls "Torch of the Mystics", on YouTube of all things. So this is how the kids listen to music. Give me my record player any day.

Get Back To Work!

I'm in the middle of my first work night of the year. It's cold outside, and forecast to be colder by the end of the week. The kids are all in bed, and I'm managing to stay awake somehow, mostly through the constant application of literature, music, and film, although I haven't watched any DVDs yet tonight.

I still haven't written down any vows or resolutions for the new year, and there's a good chance that I won't get around to it at all. That doesn't mean that I won't improve myself in any way, it just means I don't feel the need to make it official. That said, I've set myself the task of besting my monthly walking mileages from last year. This means that during some months, like this month, I'll really have to spend a lot of time walking, and on other months, like June (during which I only logged 10 miles in 2012) and December (during which I only logged 4), I'll have it relatively easy.

By the end of the month, I'll probably regret having logged 74 miles last January. We'll see.

Currently being kept awake by: Tom Waits "Paris At Midnight"

Night and Day

At the beginning of my holiday break, I was having trouble readjusting my sleep schedule. My goal this school year has been to stay awake all night at camp, not because I've suddenly become masochistic or anything like that, but because my boss told me I had to. She did say I could sleep during my one hour break, but I decided against doing that because it really isn't enough time to bother with. The drawbacks are that I now sleep most of the day during the weeks I work nights, and as mentioned above, having trouble readjusting myself to a diurnal schedule during the weeks that I don't. During the first week of the holiday break, I spent several days falling asleep early, and then waking up somewhere between 2:00 and 3:00 in the morning and not being able to get back to sleep for hours. I eventually slipped back into a diurnal schedule, but that will change next week when I go back to working nights. I might actually start taking my allowed naps at night to see if it makes a difference. I still have a few more daytime days though.

We're heading over the hill to Felton tonight to see Marissa Nadler. If we're lucky, we might see some meteors, since the Quadrantid Meteor Shower is happening at the moment.

Currently listening to Celer "Without Retrospect, The Morning"

More Numbers...

The four digit number on the calendar now ends with a "3" instead of a "2". To celebrate this annual changing of the numbers, lots of people blew things up and/or got so shit-faced last night that they temporarily forgot their names. Some people even died. As a society, why do we celebrate relatively meaningless events in obnoxious and occasionally lethal ways?

I've already posted how many pages I read over the past year, but forgot to mention how far I walked. It's not quite as impressive as either the number of pages I read or the distance I walked in 2011, but here it is anyway: 432.36 miles. I'm going to have to improve on that this year.

Wishing everybody a meaningful 2013.

Currently listening to: Neurosis "Through Silver In Blood" from their excellent show last night. Check it out here.

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"