11/18/08 Threatening improvements

We moved to Venice and then, due to gentrification, had to leave.

We moved to New York, and then, due to yuppification, bailed.

We moved to Laytonville. Safe there, huh? Check the pics: new highway, new sidewalks, new roadside trees, new crosswalks and even--sure sign of things to come--new designer street lights. Even Albert's is all cleaned up.

Wadda' we do now?

10/29/08 bear rampage

Well, OK, maybe not that dramatic. About 2:00 AM the neighbors shot their gun 4 or 5 times. We've learned the code: it's scare-off-the-bear time. Minutes later the driveway light went on. I saw nothing thru the bedroom window. A couple of minutes later the outside bedroom light illuminated. I looked out: bear! It sauntered into the shadows, followed by a single crashing sound. Victimized. Photo attached. This same thing occurred about 3 weeks ago, and I'm out of pipe.

10/24/08 Fall

Weather everywhere has been decidedly odd, though here at least we are having a touch of Autumn, tho' without much rain so far. Hope you are all getting some seasonal color. In northern California a car trip is often blinding. Wish you could all stop by!

9/17/08 Fall fog

The first fall day, high of 63, wind blowing fog over the hills. I cleaned the gutters, wind blowing fir needles and dirt into my face and eyes. Chance of rain tomorrow night, increasing on Friday. We hope. It'll distract from presidential politics and--choke!--the economy.

7/9/08 smoky sunsets

On 7/7 air temp hit 106 degrees. The photo is near sunset, pall of
smoke in the distance and the CalFire base camp in the valley at lower
left.

On 7/8 we went to the beach. It was cooler but air quality not much
improved. That white blur right of- and just below center is the sun.


A new road sign near town. Yes, we know...

6/30/06 fire, music

Cal Fire, a state agency, has taken over fire administration. The flats below has turned into a vast encampment (the photo shows a small part) where dozens of bulldozers, water trucks, fire pumpers and other equipment is staged. All around are campers, trailers, and small tents for the fire fighters, with very large tents for administration, cafeteria, etc. This is what parts of Iraq must look like. Smoke has cleared considerably; we can see stars at night, and the hills across the valley. There's is still a threat of new lightning storms and it's cloudy now.

We buried our anxiety in the Kate Wolf Festival with our great kids and their friends. Exhausting but fun: got there at 2:00 yesterday afternoon, left at midnight after a long Ani diFranco set. This was the third such day in a row. We're in recovery. More photos at www.flickr.com/photos/lao_ren100/.

6/27/08 fires

This is the "island" in front of us. 6/27/08, 3:50PM

6/23/08 fires

Maybe you've heard we have fires nearby. True, about 100 in this
county alone and 100's more in surrounding counties. On 6/20 and 6/21
we had thunderstorms and lightning lit the forests. No blazes in our
immediate neighborhood, but we have friends who've had to evacuate,
and others are prepared to. The cloud photo is of some of the storm;
the shot down the valley taken an hour ago. The hills have disappeared
into the smoke. A chopper, loaded with retardant, is passing as I
type. We're OK, cough, choke...

6/21/08

Lightning. Thunder. Seriously dramatic clouds. Choppers and planes
looking for lightning-strike fires. I got the roof on my shop while
all this was happening. No rain.

6/8/08 rodeo

We went to the rodeo. Sorry we didn't see you there.

5/25/08 smoking table

Let's see...

kitchen chairs
kitchen table
beds
couch
dressers
shelves
books
...

yes!!!

5/15/08 Toxicodendron diversilobum

Poison oak (and ivy and sumac) causes an allergic skin rash on contact. It grows as a dense shrub in open sunlight, or as a climbing vine in shaded areas. It appears everywhere in the west. The toxin is called urushiol; the name comes from the Japanese word urushi, which denotes a lacquer produced from the sap of kiurushi trees (Lacquer Tree). 1/4 ounce of urushiol is all that is needed to cause a rash in every person on earth.

We have it. It's seasonally beautiful, always toxic and we try to remove as much as possible. The big limbs are from a particularly huge growth. That's me in full protective gear carrying the base of a three-stemmed vine of it, and the chipper with poison oak (only) chips around it.