Thursday, July 23, 2009

Everyday Stuff

Summer rolls along. I take Noodles for walks before dawn over at Anderson River Park, letting her run and swim and chase sticks in the morning cool. Each day we are rewarded by seeing deer and herons and more birds, especially flocks of swallows diving for insects over the cold Sacramento. I do a little housework, read, get my hair cut, and nap, wishing that vacation was longer and I could carry summer with me. Kim and I watch silly 1950's monster movies in the afternoon heat, then eat cool salads in the constant battle to keep the house cool and not use the air conditioning. Summer is good, it returns my life to me.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Best Swimming So Far!

Sometimes it is just the most mundane things in life that you appreciate the most. Yesterday we went up to Whiskeytown NRA to go swimming. We do this every weekend, all summer long, and always look forward to it. My memories of yesterday:

Great conversation with Kim on the drive over
No traffic on the dirt road
Arriving at "our spot" and finding the whole area blissfully deserted
Being able to let Noodles run and swim free
Appreciating living in a place like this with so few people and so much wild area
Watching two great blue herons and one little green heron hunting
Listening to all the birds
Stepping into the cool clean water and watching all the baby bass swim around my legs
The magic of swimming underwater, the delicious coolness surrounding me
Watching Noodles swim and swim and swim!
How good a sandwich tastes on a picnic
The sweet juice of a cold ripe peach on a hot day
Having enough time to be in a place, so that
you can feel the breeze as it first comes through the trees
you can taste the freshness of the morning air
you can feel the warmth of the sun as you emerge from the green cool of the water
you can hear one bird calling to another in conversation
you can smell the essence of summer and store it up for winter
you can see the other world under the water

It was a great day!

Saturday, July 18, 2009

All Things Must Pass...

How strange to find myself watching The Fog of War this afternoon. I had put it on my list ages ago, forgot about it, and sadly remembered it with the passing of Robert McNamara earlier this month. Then, after reminiscing about Apollo 11 yesterday, I hear of the death of Walter Cronkite. All of these people and events, Apollo, Cronkite, McNamara, Viet Nam, JFK, LBJ, RFK, are all so indelibly intertwined in my childhood and teenage memories.

Watching the images of all those years passing by in The Fog of War I felt so sad about all that has been taken from us as Americans. McNamara talks of the withholding of information, and the actual recordings of JFK and LBJ confirming this are stunning. After McNamara leaves, who comes to power in the Nixon era? Cheney and Rumsfeld. No matter the Clinton years, we were doomed. For all of our ability to type words in blogs, one wonders if everything of importance has been lost. Thomas Jefferson, where are you when we need you?

Friday, July 17, 2009

Apollo 11

A few musings on the 40th anniversary of the 1st lunar landing...

Right now I'm watching astronauts at work on the ISS. In many ways it is all so different than the way we imagined it in those years before we went to the moon. Looking at the astronauts moving about the room they're in it all looks so normal. They're wearing comfortable pants, polo shirts, and socks. They float about, busy with work to do. No helmets, no aliens, no strange beeping noises, no robots or androids, just bright nerdy men and women, at the work of science. It seems much the same on the space shuttle, though the danger seems nearer as those vehicles are close to retirement.

I remember peering at a 14 inch black and white TV screen 40 years ago, eagerly anticipating the landing of the Eagle, and the first walk on the moon. I was a fan and always watched, although as time went by the coverage lessened as it became "normal" to go to the moon. How absurd. We are still so far away from it being "normal" to go to the moon. And it is not normal for the astronauts, encased in tiny rooms and vehicles, so far above the surface of the earth, to come and go. The danger is still exceptional, all the time.

Down here, most people alive were not born when that door opened and those legs appeared on that fuzzy black and white picture so long ago. Now, you can look at that footage on an ipod, Zune, or cell phone, as you walk about the supermarket, never thinking that the computer power in your hand is greater than they had to get those brave astronauts to the moon and back.

Happy Anniversary Apollo 11!

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Sleeping through Sonia Sotomayor

It really must be summer. I dozed through the Sonia Sotomayor hearings this morning, fortunately waking to the best part, a discussion of old Perry Mason TV episodes. Listening to the right wing nutcases on the radio leading up the hearings I was starting to picture something like the amazing death sequence of Pris in Bladerunner, kicking and screaming in the ultimate outburst of impotent rage at being forced to die before her time. It seemed that the right wing was about to embark upon some similar exercise. But no, in the calm of the senate hearing room, summertime drowsiness crept in causing quiet sedate questions and quiet measured responses. Ahhh... the decorum of the senate still holds sway, the perfect antidote to insomnia.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

7/14/09 Just Before the Heat

Noodles and I make the morning loop

The dawn hangs on to the last cool air of night

Deep summer now and the whole concept of cool

is ephemeral

We walk into the woods seeking the last dark places

Wind high in the trees deceives

It is a north wind coming down the slopes

of the Cascades

Paradox, north brings heat and south brings cool

The purest expression of friction heat

I watch the leaves of the willows shimmer in the breeze

then momentarily feel the warmth of the coming day

We quicken the pace to the river and are rewarded

Air chilled by the always cold Sacramento creeps in around us

We linger by a pond trying to hold back the sunrise

Noodles swimming and chasing sticks

as the tips of the trees turn ever brighter

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Shasta Bally





Sitting on the roof of the valley

it disappears to the south in summer haze

to the east, in morning sun, rises Lassen

streaked with snow

to the north sits Shasta, a lone cloud playing with the peak

to the west the Trinities, jagged gray edges, white flecks of snow

On top of Shasta Bally, the quiet dominates all

looking down at the vast expanse of where we live and move

it spreads out, beyond the limits of vision

we think nothing of it as we drive across it every day

miles rolling by

we think everything of it as we drive up the road to Shasta Bally

each mile an accomplishment, a small victory in the dust of summer

to rest at the summit, and in seeing, understand


Friday, July 3, 2009

Waving Goodbye to Sarah Palin

Goodbye, Sarah Palin. Oh wait, dammit, you're not actually leaving. Your Barbie lips will keep flapping, spewing out all sorts of utter claptrap and drivel. I doubt even a brain transplant would help, though it couldn't hurt. What about electroshock therapy? It might be nice, if you now have some small amount of spare time, that you actually read the constitution (for future reference) and instruct your kids on using birth control.

Suddenly a horrible thought occurs to me! Could Sarah Palin and her family be replacing John and Kate Plus Eight? Lord help us all!
7/3/09 Walk with Noodles

Light green and golden on the very tops of the trees

Sun barely breaking the crest

cool in the dark shade

as I walk over millions of perfect skipping stones

a mix of igneous metamorphic sedimentary

the jumble of the floor of a dry creek bed

walking across the past

across thousands of years of water flowing

wearing away smoothing flattening

perhaps since before human eyes

the leaves yellow and dusty litter the stones

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Reflection on the Writing Institute

Credit (in more ways than can be imagined) given to the Grateful Dead for use of the lyrics from "Truckin'" ... if it's illegal, sue me.

"Sometimes the light's all shinin' on me;
Other times I can barely see.
Lately it occurs to me
What a long, strange trip it's been."

First, the decision to make this trip: I'm teaching 6th, 7th, and 8th grade writing for the first time, and have no clue what their writing should look like. I ask around. Everybody, and I mean everybody, says I should see if I can do the writing project in Chico. Ok, then, I'll check it out. I did the math project and that was excellent.

"Truckin' got my chips cashed in. Keep truckin', like the do-dah man
Together, more or less in line, just keep truckin' on."

I get all the information and now I have to think. It has been the most exhausting bone crunching year of teaching I have ever had. And now I'm looking at giving up a big chunk of my summer, weeks of camping trips, weeks of dedicated time in Mr. Lawnchair by the waterfall reading whatever I want, and most importantly, weeks of my time to write. I have no time to write when I teach, so this is a big consideration.

"Arrows of neon and flashing marquees out on Main Street.
Chicago, New York, Detroit and it's all on the same street.
Your typical city involved in a typical daydream
Hang it up and see what tomorrow brings."

Oh, what the hell, I'll do it. My husband is less than pleased, but at least I'm not going to be stuck out of town.The first meeting in Chico, on that cold rainy day, sounds intriguing. So, I finish school, and gather the student work requested and get ready.

"Dallas, got a soft machine; Houston, too close to New Orleans;
New York's got the ways and means; but just won't let you be, oh no."

The first few days go by in a blur. The mansion is cool, the writing is promising, the people are friendly, but then there is the reality of the work. I wrestle with that, but it's not something impossible.

"Most of the cats that you meet on the streets speak of true love,
Most of the time they're sittin' and cryin' at home.
One of these days they know they better get goin'
Out of the door and down on the streets all alone."

Now something strange starts to dawn on me, something that I had never really considered. We're in the first week of this institute and, slow though I may be, it is occurring to me that most of the people here, people who are teachers and college professors and so on, don't think of themselves as writers. I'm stunned. I go home and speak to my muse, my husband, Kim, about this. He doesn't know what to make of it either. Born of different mothers, but somehow out of one womb, one strange womb, we have always thought of ourselves as writers. We reminisce , and can't really remember not thinking of ourselves as writers. Then we start thinking. Did our English teachers in high school not think of themselves as writers? Oooohh... that's different...a time honored assumption blown... what about college? Oh some must have, they did write books... but maybe not all of them. Ok... now I'm out of my comfort zone, I feel different from the group. I have to think on this.

"Truckin', like the do-dah man once told me "You've got to play your hand"
Sometimes your cards ain't worth a dime, if you don't lay'em down"

I make a decision. I'm just going to write whatever I want from now on and let the chips fall... And it's ok. I share my feelings with Mike and Jocelyn on the writing marathon. They seem to be ok with it, too. I don't feel like a fish out of water as much.

"You're sick of hangin' around and you'd like to travel;
Get tired of travelin' and you want to settle down.
I guess they can't revoke your soul for tryin',
Get out of the door and light out and look all around."

So I write and I learn, because you can never not learn something everytime you write. I get good feedback on my writing. I listen and I learn. I get really good ideas from everyone on what to do in my classroom. I feel like I have some new tools, tools to use, tools to wake kids up and clue them in on how wonderful it can be to create your own reality, sitting in front of a keyboard. A place where you can just be... anything and anyone.

Tomorrow I'll drive away, heading back to Mr. Lawnchair, and Borges, and camping, and writing, and I'll have much to think on as the days roll by and school approaches. Anticipation of the new year has returned, as I'll have new things to do, and new ways to teach. This is is good.

"Truckin', I'm a goin' home. Whoa whoa baby, back where I belong,
Back home, sit down and patch my bones, and get back truckin' on.
Hey now get back truckin' home."