another haircut and the silver waves keep coming in

these days every time I get a haircut - the silver waves grow in the sea of hair. no bald spots yet but the temples and back are silvering in at an increasing rate.

tried to get a reflection in my glasses of the russian river but NO GO MO. ah well, the hairless mug with roman nose and indian ears will just have to make do. I remember my grandmother telling me how indians would pluck out the occasional beard stubble with clam shells, but a couple of swipes on the chin and under the lip do it for me.

after years of wishing I had a tight curly haired head like my brothers (they call them anglos instead of afros) I'm finally resigned to the wimpy straight haired look. funny how all the red highlights disappear when the silver tides come in. heck, at least I've escaped the top of the dome pattern balding that's prevalent in our gene pool.

I've never liked pictures of myself and remember the stories about how you lose a little of your spirit every time a picture robs you of another little increment. I can almost feel the pull when the camera clicks.

lately I often wonder if a new creative suicide might be possible with a digital camera that had a very large memory card. "they found him drained of life force holding a cannon sure shot that was full of self portraits." hah.

anyway, after looking at this picture I think that I'll spend the rest of this summer sun worshipping. some sunscreen and small doses of solar radiation should sidestep the risks. it's been a long time since I've gone full dark and turned the green windows to wolfie gold.

guess I'm finally starting to look like my old man.

film review "Kingdom of Heaven"

watched this film last night on a friends computer that we set up this weekend. Dano, Olga and I sat transfixed for however long it took. film by Ridley Scott written by William Monahan about the transpirations of history in Jerusalem right before Richard the Lionhearted king of England took on the Crusade.

this film does things with the realities of "holiest of holies" - ie. Jerusalem that NO ONE has ever done before. it puts into perspective VERY IMPORTANT issues of this thing we call life with the diametric opposition of Christianity and Islam as its matrix.

a lord comes back to find his long lost bastard son who is a blacksmith. he reveals paternity and invites the young man to Jerusalem where they can assuage their combined and personal problems and get to know each other. the father (Liam Niesen - sp?) imparts to his son that in the present kingdom of Jerusalem a king sits who has bonded Christians, Jews and Muslims into a coherant knit of society with the good of "the people" as his primary duty instead of pandering to one of the diametrically opposed religions (Christianity and Islam). the sons wife has just committed suicide after losing a child and he is totally spun. to make things succinct, he commits a murder and then follows and catches up to his father and they go to Jerusalem.

the father dies of wounds in Jerusalem but passes his title on to son and knights him. from here the story blossoms as the son exhibits his love for humanity and the truth above all other earthly garnishments and allures and will not compromise his values and promises for any reason.

I can't ruin the rest of the plot but the way it unfolds is ASTOUNDING. the point I received from this film is that PEOPLE should always be the focus of any governing body and not A RELIGION OR OTHER STUMBLING BLOCK.

this film shook me to the core of my being and did it with a view into a point in history that has often been overlooked.

at the end of this film, when Richard the Lionhearted makes himself known - the fact that Christianity and Islam were trashing humanity to make their own points and FORTUNES is slammed home. whereas the sons rule of Jerusalem was only for a blink in time, it was for all the right reasons and in all the right ways. his eventual rejection of power and status is also an underlining aspect as well as only getting the woman of his dreams in a way that is honorable and doesn't compromise his life and hers.

it's a cosmic sleeper and a magnificent film as well as a monumental historical piece.

losing freedom and life itself

"Suffrage for unwealthy, differently hued people can only lead to more trouble," said House Majority Leader John Boehner. "I know it's not 'PC' to say this, but these people are on the whole incredibly selfish. I think our founders understood that when they extended voting rights only to people rich enough not to really need political representation. Given political power, America's idle poor will just vote themselves more social welfare programs, and we just can't afford that right now. If you haven't noticed, there's an unnecessary war on at the moment."

Voting Rights Act of 1965 is being strangled by our wonderful republicans.

House leaders have opted to allow the Voting Rights Act to expire as its sunset provision later this year, thereby passively repealing it and protecting themselves against being accused of voting against the popular law.

In his own testimony, indicted lobbyists Jack Abramoff told authorities that he arranged quid-pro-quo agreements with lawmakers not to fill their campaign coffers to pay for television ads or mailings, but to for armies of "fixers" to turn black voters away from the polls in 2000 and 2004. Without the Voting Rights Act, Southern Sherrif's deputies would be doing that work as a matter of duty and the fundraising culture in Washington would simply poof into nonexistence.
Even more imporant than its corrosive effects, Republican lawmakers say that the Act itself was ill-conceived from the beginning.

"Suffrage for unwealthy, differently hued people can only lead to more trouble," said House Majority Leader John Boehner. "I know it's not 'PC' to say this, but these people are on the whole incredibly selfish. I think our founders understood that when they extended voting rights only to people rich enough not to really need political representation. Given political power, America's idle poor will just vote themselves more social welfare programs, and we just can't afford that right now. If you haven't noticed, there's an unnecessary war on at the moment."


above taken from article in ridiculopathy at this site:
http://www.ridiculopathy.com/news_detail.php?id=1607

in personal meanderings, attended a barbeque this weekend and came to grips with some aspects of my own loser status as well as other things while prepping and completing a feast for the gang. received some warranted jabs and taunts but still came through with near perfect north california cuisine. then, without appetite of my own watched the other happy munchers.

life goes on.

107 at 3pm in Santa Rosa yesterday

but it didn't seem like 107, not even in the sun. weird. everybody else complaining about the heat at work, on the street, in the neighborhood. but it felt GOOD. think I was meant to live in a high heat zone. dry heat is wonderful.

it was still in the 80's at 10pm.

in the hundreds

yesterday in sonoma county our temperatures were in the hundreds. saving grace was that when it's hot here it's DRY heat, not like that sticky clammy stuff like the south pacific (guam, saipan) or south east asia.

after a trip to clearlake where it was one hundred plus, I thought santa rosa would be cooler. WRONG. healdsburg was 103 and surrounding areas almost that. the grapes are thriving on this stuff.

finished the day with a trip to the river and was hit with memories of my last wolfdog and some of the great sunsets and fetch games we goofed there. been thinking of chevy a bit lately and think its about time to visit the top of Mt St. Helena to pay respects to his ashes there.

Miami Heat pulled off the coup of the year beating the Dallas Mavericks, kudos to D Wade, Shaq and Riley. Giants lost the third game in their series with Lost Angels Angels but took the first two.

Mendo gang is throwing a big hoorahrah next month and want me to plan the barbeque agenda. thinking about the famous red chicken breasts marinated in a full bodied pinot noir, rice vinegar, mango, lime, cracked green peppercorns and garlic with the usual marinated green onions and asparagus and probably cal cuisine med style rice (risotto) on the side.

back to the drawing board - july ads to do, symphony ads to do, new logos to crunch and wiggle in to the right places. should be a bit hotter today than it was yesterday. life begins at 100 degrees or so though, right?

over and out

long weekend faster than downhill train

took a long weekend to counter the recent 50 hour workweeks that have been making things interesting lately.

spent two days doing absolutely nothing. just sat and watched the river flow and did some internal reflecting while the river did the same.

visited Penny's Island at Jenner in the picture here. nothings changed much since the last time I visited except for a few pieces of trash that I gathered and hauled out from the one still standing structure at the east end of the island. the river was down to a dribble at the estuary, no doubt county of Sonoma is on low flow from the Lake Sonoma Dam in order to conserve that valuable resource.

the other two days were spent with friends barbequeing, playing baseball, darts, horseshoes and a few other equally urbane activities. didn't play a lick of guitar, harmonica or any other musical instrument with or without accompanyment. just sat and listened to the music of others.

one of the subjects of conversation this weekend was the near fatality of "steve". guess he left his house mad at the girlfriend and had a head on with another couple. they're all in the hospital with extensive injuries. there may be fatalities if critical conditions don't take a turn for the better. must say I saw this coming and wish I would have been wrong.

here's a quote by John Muir that recycled this weekend, "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe".

Snakes beat Giants 2-1, Heat beats Mavs...

dang. that look of incredulity that Shaqs had for the first two championship NBA games has finally changed to "maybe we can do it".

Shaq and the Heat hung on to beat the Mavs in the third of the NBA playoffs. give it up for Pat Riley - he has those guys beating on all eight pistons, for the time being anyway.

as for the Giants, maybe they had one of those mind altering and world stopping headaches like I had last night because they didn't come back at the end of the game and were beaten by the Diamondbacks in the bottom of the 9th inning. complete ignomy. (that's a Shaq word that he used once for the embarassment of defeat.

ok, tonight is another night for the Giants, and the Mavericks (although they are from Texass) are probably the better team and will take the championship. they're 2 wins and 1 loss now and coach Avery will come back with some good adjustments.

manchester big cypress

here's the big cypress trees with incredible prune jobs and a telephone pole for scale.

these guys get my vote for best coastal fire department.

Gualala again yesterday

yesterday was a gypsy day on the coast. went back to Gualala to pick up a few calcium chloride tests and since the highway was being worked on in a couple of places, took the long way back and went north to highway 128.

Manchester is a little hamlet along hwy 1 and in front of the fire station they've done some wizard pruning to their cypress trees. this one is the smallest of the group.

the day was socked in mostly without sun and only that gray light that comes from everywhere.

was back in the office by about 2:30 and finished the petri dish weighs and formula crunching on the test materials. too bad, wet slab.

worked on next weeks ads for a bit and then got the heck out of there.

no Giants game last night - but they're in Arizona tonight.

over and out

barbeques and yardwork

saturday morning from the crack of dawn went to a rehabilitating friends house to do some clean up, yard work and get the place ready for a visit from his son and pieces of family. swept all areas, raked monster yard, trimmed some trees, pruned and tied up roses and filled in a few details on a new horseshoe fandango area.

it was like a sleepwalk in the morning mist but all was done in time to cool off and listen to the Giants get whomped by the freaking Pirates in another pitchers dual that went Pittsburghs way. good game anyway.

dans son and his new son were something to watch. three generations of y chromos and a high energy family. watching the kids make up games and interact with a new puppy made the day pretty magic.

tribes.

long day on highway one

but not a bad one. been doing the advertising again after years of hiatus at my place of employment and it keeps me at the desk waaaay too much. today had an inspection in the hills of Cazadero and then an inspection and calcium chloride test a bit north in Gualala.

the day is brilliant, the pacific went from jade to marine blue. clouds went from intermitant to none to be seen and just blue blue blue. no traffic. lots of time to think and sing little stupid songs and reflect on the whole ball of wax.

some very interesting things struck me as the miles dawdled by. houses I've known set off memories during the journey, some job related and some personal history. highway 1 is rich that way for me - like a big trigger mechanism.

monday I'll retrace the same route and pick up the calcium chloride petri dishes, do the weigh ins and insert their little numerical data in those freaking equasions that will render how much moisture per cubic foot inhabits the new edifices slabs. big freaking deal, eh? what the heck, it's a living and the drive makes it all worthwhile. I love this west edge, it's the first place that ever really felt like home.

here's hoping baja california will feel the same way. heck, same ocean - the good old pacific - so IT WILL BE SO!

over and out

pitching duel and nightmare jewel

after one of the best pitching duels I've seen lately between the SF Giants and the FLA Fish; I had the most disturbing nightmare of my life.

Jason Schmidt pitched a 7 hitter game in which the magnificent Giants beat the Marlins 2-1.

M. Alou is back in the lineup, the bats are hitting when they must and things look good. third game in the series is tonight and should be good since the one and only Dontrell Willis (an eastbay native) is pitching for the fishboys.

on other fronts; one of the most convoluted and hodge-podge rapid eye movements of my life visited me last night. haven't put it in perspective yet but if I do and as soon as I do I'll attempt to scribble it down here. it's the first flying/falling dream I've had in awhile and the images are unsettling. enough of that.

Giants crush Marlins on the dock of the bay

In a total pounding, Barry Bonds hits homer number 716 in San Francisco while Irish rugby team looks on.

Giants cream Florida 14-2 in a runaway loss for Florida. the bongos were quiet in fla fla land but at ATT Park fans couldn't get enough of either the Cha-Cha bowls or the Giants continual hits and scores.

The Florida fish not only didn't answer, they tucked their tails between their ungreased legs and wished they were in Miami. (around here we call it Yoami). Mo Alou wasn't back in the lineup last night but we should see him in the next day or two if everything is alright with that ankle.

after the game I went home and put on some Otis Redding and listened to the freaking mockingbirds singing their stolen songs at a piece of the moon. there's one bird that has a whole series of calls - one that sounds like a cell phone.

pacific realization weekend

this weekend the news that two couples are on the road to kaput crossed my consciousness.

both couples had relationships that I never thought would quit. the weight of their loss and thinking about ramifications and alternatives in life and direction is a very somber note. it blasts home the fact that not only do I NOT know the lengths and bounds of my own relationships: I have no clue about the realities of others. the one thing that is known though is that when friends separate it strikes a note as deep and down as when the loss is my own.

so I guess it brings up some of my own stuff and reminds me that nothing is permanent no matter what's said or felt. promises and loyalty only exist in most situations so long as there is constant reinforcement. when there is no reinforcement, most cut losses and run. no bond or magic should be taken for granted - no matter how big or deep.

as usual, when the world is a yoke on shoulders and the cart is heavily laden I streak off to the coast to recharge the old batteries and process the pangs and twangs. ah, the hold that ocean has on me and the release it gives me at the same time. now THAT may be as good as love gets for me.

it's funny though that my own emptiness and feelings of big owie take a back seat to the fragmenting of the union of friends. evidence of lack of self or something.

crumbled cookies. spilled milk. a lyric from joni mitchell, "don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got til it's gone, pave paradise, put up a parking lot".

who needs a tree when you can have a big empty space to accomodate constant meaningless comings and goings?

here's my taxi, see you later.

the absolute CUTEST derrière on planet earth

every time I see this beautiful german beauty; she reminds me how good it is to be alive.

it's not the way she sounds, not the way she hugs the curves on highway 1, not the way she never complains or waits patiently in parking lots or other lonely places, not the way she looks totally topless and ready for the beach or an afternoon delight; it's the way she moves me.

(forgive me paul m.)

miracle accomplished

ok, ok, ok. much to my chagrin and relief - received tacklebox back last night from a very interesting chap. at our last phone conversation before scheduling the meeting place I was forced to capitulate to certain indignities but what the heck - 30 years of flies, lures and other meaningless paraphenalia are more sacred than almost anything on the planet.

once again, all the fish are laughing or cringing somewhere in their favorite hiding places, either in deep pockets in rivers and streams or off the coast in schools waiting to assault the freshwater in breeding frenzy.

the ones that are laughing know that more often than not, I'm just sitting down there by the river or stream with a fishing rod as my "hall pass". try to sit on a riverbank or stream by yourself sometime and everybody that walks by will have something to say or a question. then again - sport a fishing rig and they all steer clear and give you some space.

huzzah to shallow ploys!