dream piece...

i am driving and Melian is my passenger...there is snow on the ground, it is still snowing...i pull out onto the main road; there was plenty of room to do so, but the car behind me dangerously pulls up close and then passes our car...then they slow down, and fire two shots at our car! i am freaking out, this is crazy! i am very angry...they turn into a gas station, so i pull into the gas station also...the driver gets out, and she walks back toward me as i am getting out of my car...we start yelling at each other...a police cruiser pulls into the parking lot and handcuffs her...another driver had seen what she had done, and called the cops...i give my statement to one of the cops...she yells some stuff at me as the officer puts her into the cruiser...i talk with another one of the officers about the situation, Melian stands by and then tells him what she saw too...

Everything Is A Photograph

taste buds dancing metallic citrus
cosmos breezes spatial foreground
green oak

dream snippet...

i am online checking out the new Pearl Jam album...i am listening to a bit of each song...they are all terrible...i am sad about that, because i had read a really good review of the album in the paper...

'An Awesome Book' by Dallas Clayton...

Thanks to Valerie over at Evolve Happy I have discovered Dallas Clayton and his book 'An Awesome Book'. I am in love. I just bought two copies. Read this book. Feel your mind/heart expand. Hug somebody.

Awesome Book Tour from Dallas Clayton on Vimeo.

Beer & A Book...

With tomatoes...
Sierra Nevada Brewing Company has done it again. Their new Harvest is a fresh hop ale; the hops from New Zealand, picked and flown to California. Delicious.
I picked up Lisa Grunwald's book 'The Theory of Everything' at the library booksale quite a while back. I've been on a fiction kick this summer, so began reading and got sucked in to the story quickly. Read until some time past midnight, even though I had to get up at 5:00 a.m. the next morning!

dream segment...

it is night and i am outside, walking toward my partner who has just called out to me to come over to where he is sitting against a fallen tree...as i settle down next to him, he tells me to look at the sky...there above the treeline, the night sky is visible full of stars, bright and lovely...as the cloud cover moves by, i see two vivid falling stars, one white & one red...i excitedly mention this to him...i see a few more falling stars, none as bright as those two however...i sigh with contentment at the beauty of the night sky...

Daily Acorn...

Our cat Tyga brings us an acorn every morning. She carries it up from the woods to our front doorstep. Usually it is just an acorn cap, but this summer she has taken to whole nuts. This morning's offering is a lovely two-fer. Thank you, Tyga-boo.

New Hubble photos...

Source: Hubblesite.org

Assateague Island as therapy...

Growing up, my parents and I went to Assateague Island, Maryland every summer. Usually in July, as my Mom always had that month off from work. We had a home-made camper on the back of our four-wheel drive International Harvester "Scout", and we would go as far down the island as allowed, and camp right there. It was fabulous. I loved it.

I had not been there since 1989. Unbelievable, but true. Somehow I knew that I had; HAD, to go this summer. So my daughter, my dog and I went; the last weekend of August and into the first week of September. It was a total healing experience. All the depression that had been affecting me since late Summer 2008 just melted away as soon as we hit the beach. I felt centered and alive. It was also the Full Moon that week, so I was inspired as well.

Rhiannon & I took early morning walks every day. The surf was rather rough, so she did not enjoy getting in the water. We still made a game of it, and enjoyed ourselves. She was into the sandpipers, that was her favorite beach experience.

Melian got a bit of sunburn the second day, but that did not deter her from having a very enjoyable time. At one point she asked me, "Mommy, we are coming back here next year, right?" To which I responded with a enthusiastic, "YES!" I had taken her to Rehoboth Beach in Deleware, and Virginia Beach before, but this was her first trip to Assateague. She dug the ponies and the Sika deer. We had a campsite rabbit pal, and red-wing blackbird visitors.

Is it next summer yet?

the deeper question

tonight on this rain dark shine
blacktop driving road
my only concern is
which one of these are leaves
and which ones hopping tree frogs

dream segment...

in my room (which seems like the way it was when my grandfather had come to live with us and my parents had their bed in next to mine for a while...) there is a rectangle shaped box of soil that contains the possibility of a plant of unknown origin, but that it just might grow...after i have discussed this with some of the other people who live here, i watch the plant grow...it is not unlike a carnivorous plant, the top fronds seem mouth-like...it is known that if this plant is fed something (or watered? much like "Gremlins"!!) it will become a feral animal...this has occurred; and i am sitting on the floor in my room, feeling the presence of the animal/monster in another room of the house, and the dread that accompanies that knowledge...it means to do us harm, and i can feel it...i have a hollow pit of fear in my abdomen, and i want out...i tell the others there in the room with me that i cannot take it any longer, and i am leaving...they are upset with me for this, and block me from re-entering the house briefly to retrieve my camera...i say "fine" and take off down the driveway, my father comes out on the porch and hollers at me to return, he has $325 for me, i decline and keep going...i pass through many towns, mostly on foot, sometimes in vehicles...i come to an auto-repair shop, and hang out in the garage with the mechanics*, talking and feeling at ease: safe...my father and mother (?) find me there, how did they locate me?... they drive into the garage and we are talking...i look out one of the windows and see some people next door, it seems to be a school yard activity of some sort, next thing i know, the police are bringing in three animals that belonged to the monster, in cages...i begin to feel fear again...next the police bring in the monster, and my father decides to kidnap it, he hooks the monster's box/cage to his car and we take off...i am so alarmed!!! i can see the monster, and it looks like a cartoon of a dead animal, with black X-s for eyes, but i KNOW that it is still alive and could come to and get us at any moment...i am crammed down in the floorboard of the back of his car (mom is there also) as far as i can go, but i can still see it out the window, and feel the fear too strongly...


*Later I read Charles de Lint's book 'The Mystery of Grace', and don't you know a lot of it takes place in a garage? Grace is a mechanic!

Dream segment...

We are on our way to a music festival...we go into a resturant, but the other people we are with freak out at the prices, so we leave...at another location up the road a bit, Melian see a sign for coffee and asks to stop there, she & I do...the place is also an Irish pub! she gets her coffee and I order a pint of Guiness...I strike up conversations with the bartender and his brother & a couple of other regulars, there are a lot of Irish rockers & punks there! it's great fun...one of the brothers gives me his card as we are leaving, I show it to Melian as we walk out...we walk to the festival entrance...

Thank You, Keith Olbermann (as always)...

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Happy Birthday Jerry Garcia...

Jerry, I miss you so much. I am very glad that my daughter got to see you before you clocked out. RFK 1995.

Tuesdays @ Fosters...

I'm sitting at the bar reading the poem
"All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace"
which Brautigan wrote in 1967. 1967!!
And suddenly I'm welling up with tears for the beauty of him,
and the loss of him,
and I want the entire world to read this poem.

So, here:

"All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace"
I like to think (and
the sooner the better!)
of a cybernetic meadow
where mammals and computers
live together in mutually
programming harmony
like pure water
touching clear sky.

I like to think
(right now please!)
of a cybernetic forest
filled with pines and electronics
where deer stroll peacefully
past computers
as if they were flowers
with spinning blossoms.

I like to think
(it has to be!)
of a cybernetic ecology
where we are free of our labors
and joined back to nature,
returned to our mammal
brothers and sisters,
and all watched over
by machines of loving grace.

Thank you, Richard

I love a night-bloomer!

The last of the Evening Primroses (Oenothera) in their full glory. There would have been more this year, but the deer found them too tasty to resist. (Insert heavy sigh here)...

And yet, as it turned out, the remaining stalks continued to bloom right up until the first frost; just one or two blooms at a time! Fabulous!

Beer & a Book...

'The Story of Edgar Sawtelle' is an intriguing, deep story. Dogs! Complex emotions, unexpected events! I loved it.

"Scarlet Lady Ale" is a delightful ESB from Stoudt's Brewing Company in Adamstown Pennsylvania. Lots of flavor, lovely color. I must find more brews from this company.

"Catch-22"

Exercise cures depression.
When I am depressed, it is a monumental act to just get out of bed.

Propriety...

I walk down my driveway to the mailbox, a cup of coffee in one hand and the outgoing mail in the other. I am mildly embarrassed; I am wearing my pajamas! Later in the day I walk down to retrieve the mail which has arrived, a cold beer (Sam Adams Cherry Wheat) in hand. I am not embarrassed. I am wearing my string bikini!

Beer & a Book..."Spring Edition"...

'Fire In The Lake' by Frances Fitzgerald is a deeply researched and intimate foray into the mind of Vietnam. It was a fantastic & interesting read. I've had this book for so long! Finally read it, and very glad for the fact. I learned a lot.

"Troegenator" is a tasty, carmel-y double bock out of the Troeg Brothers brewery in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Highly recommended.