Journal Entries: Winter Briefs

Day By Day, Week By Week

1 Jan 2002 -- Santa Rosa CA

Mon 28 Jan 2002, SR CA -- St. Thomas Aquinas

 DRAGONFLY  (dobro)  Tues 29 Jan 2002, SR CA

 Dragonfly, with bold eyelashes
  Decoding my dots and dashes
 Flying into burning flashes
  Shadows in the nightmare

5 Feb 2002 -- St. Agatha

13 Feb 2002 -- Ash Wednesday

17 Feb 2002, Santa Rosa CA

• Most plants are larger than most animals!
• How psychic friends can materialize holy cows anywhere!
• The ethical superiority of a non-dairy chocolate-only diet!
• The unholy effects of eating holy chili peppers!
• What sacred qualities are absorbed by devouring a saint?
• And if that saint has tofu flesh, a tomato heart, a cabbage brain?

SPRINGING AHEAD

11 March 2002, Santa Rosa CA

Early Monday morning now. On Sat morn. we signed the contract for the new house, then up to Pioneer, unload, party & drink & play cards, sleep & then off to see Aunt Ginnie in hospital, hope for health. Then back to the rental, plan ops for the next 2-3 months. Yow.

We try to ignore the 'war' mobilization, the unrest, the economic difficulties. By staying on the periphery, the realities are avoided. We rarely even discuss these externalities. It's better that way.

1 April 2002, Yosemite trip - click here   or here

Wed. 18 April 2002, S.Aniceto -- Santa Rosa CA

So, what to do? Other than the requirements, which now revolve around eBaying. Well, some scenario-writing, scenarios about politics / culture / environment / art / religion / etc. Some more game-designing, games about Lemurians and Bible Codes and alien attacks and cats. Maybe travel guides to realms within the above scenarios. And of course more songs. And dubbing CDs to MDs, and porting home videos to CDs, and networking the hardware. Nothing much. And catalog the crafts / art and Injun & travel books. And move these cats to the PDA. And organize / pack excess office stuff.

Thursday 19 April 2002, rolling across California

My autobiography. Alien autobiography. Alien culture, alien comedy, alien music, alien crime, alien crime-stopping, alien religious abuse, alien work, alien agriculture, alien industry, alien business, alien banking, alien stock markets, alien stock manipulations, alien economic manipulation. Alien sports, alien cheating, alien gambling. From alien agriculture to alien food production - production, processing, cooking, consumption. Alien diets, alien restaurants, alien menus, alien nutrition, alien obesity, and other dietary ailments, concerns, disorders. And then of course, alien excretion, and sewage transport.

Song-cycle: LITTLE GIRL! A whole bunch of LITTLE GIRL songs, hopefully with lame lyics and stunted chord structures, all punkish and stupid - well, a few smart ones too. And throw in the LITTLE VAMPIRE and LITTLE ZOMBIE songs in with'em.

Note the locations and time of Farmers' Markets around Santa Rosa for the time that we remain there, and see if there are Farmers' Markets around Jackson for when we move up the hill.

Ah now, here's a tough one -- think about alien senses, I think I'll have to dig up OTHER SENSES, OTHER WORLDS and see how that can be applied... Aliens made of something other than carbon chemistry: silicon chemistry, germanium, anything else in that sequence. Aliens made of gasses. Aliens made of quarks and neutronium, other exotic matter. Aliens made of black holes. Yeah... Stars as alien lifeforms. Pages on these...

Anyway, I'm going through all this beautiful rolling hill country, oak woodlands, puffy clouds in the blue sky, absolutely gorgeous. Poppies and other flowers in bloom along the roadsides. And I'll get to see a whole bunch more of this before this process is over.

Friday 20 April 2002, rolling across California

Meanwhile, think about songs about: Lemurians, Lemuria, Atlantis, lost continents, lost races.

IF PRIESTLY PEDOPHILIA IS A GAME, HERE ARE THE RULES. And go thru various sexual activities, and ways of coercing sexual activity -- "After all, I represent GOD, You'd better do what I say or you're damned forever!" Start off with the little joke: "What kind of sex does a priest have? Nun!" Cover celibacy, marriage, women priests, gay priests, coverups, authoritarianism, all the usual.

Thursday 25 April 2002, rolling across California

On a church signboard in Rio Vista: ARE YOU RAISED FROM THE DEAD? I've noticed this for the last couple weeks here, and of course the answer is, "Well, either I MUST be since I'm alive, or, well, no." In either case, this has to be one of the stupidest things I've ever seen on a church sign board, which says a lot... Ah, so, I just passed Rio Vista, it's getting *real* windy here... Haven't been thru any rain showers but some of the clouds off on either side of my route certainly look like precipitation. [route details deleted]

3 May 2002, Sierra Nevada trip - click here

MOVING

Santa Rosa CA, 29 May 2002.

Also around early 2001, we figured that we'd have to sell the place, since retiring there would be just too expensive. So we accelerated our efforts. Meanwhile, after spending more than a year in searching all over the US (especially the West) for a retirement venue, we found a really good deal in the Central Sierras, coincidentally near some close family. Fate, or ... ??

The spring 2001 Amalfi vacation provoked schemes for extended international travel, and sparked ideas for structuring retirement: a pied-a-tierre, eh? Buy or build a home that would not be for full-time occupation, but just for accommodation in-between rounds of globe-trotting, someplace to send the souvineers.

In mid-2001 we learned that the old Forestville place could be worth a bunch, so we accelerated our cleanup efforts even further, and we started packing. There was a lot to back. We have an immense library of printed material, and non-trivial collections of recorded audio-visual material. (Lotsa discs, lotsa tapes.) So we purchased many boxes and stuffed everything inside.

Then came 9-11, and the market dropped out, and we ended up selling for rather less than would have been possible just before then. Bother. At least we sold...

We swapped houses with the buyer, taking over his Santa Rosa rental while we awaited the construction and installation of our new modular mountain home. And in the space of a few days, everything we had was transported the few miles from Forestville to Santa Rosa. Temporarily.

The new Sierra property has storage: a shipping container, a large travel trailer. Two or three times a week, I haul heavy boxes & stuff up there, a 330-mile round trip. Now, I'm almost done with that, only a few boxes left -- but when the house is ready in a few weeks, everything else (books, tapes, furniture, shelving, clothing, tools, electronics, artifacts, et al) will have to be transferred quickly. And by we/us alone -- the hirelings always manage to break precious things, so the next few weeks will continue to be busy. Bother.

Updates

Addendum, 29 May 2002: Site preparation began today, logging & clearing & scraping & excavating. House construction is nearly complete, so as soon as the site is ready, installation can proceed. It's just a matter of weeks now...

Addendum, 26 June 2002: The site is prepped, the leachfield is extended (I think), some final permit review bobble is bobbling, but I still don't know when they're going to start installing the sucker. Any time now ... ???

Addendum, 10 March 2003: We finished moving in a week after Labor Day, but still have many reasons to return to the Bay Area every few weeks. See the update letters for final notes on the move, etc.

NAMES

Santa Rosa CA, 5 June 2002.

Last time, an older gentleman recommended Anatole France's PENGUIN ISLAND, where a clergyman shipwercked on or near Antarctica tries to convert penguins to Xianity -- I have the book but haven't read it yet, and it's packed away now. And this time, whilst poking around between ANTIQUITY and FEMININITY, I overheard a conversation between the female clerks.

An older Native American woman was telling a younger Chinese American woman that she didn't know her own name. (Was she a local Pomo?) In her culture, when children were born, they were given formal names, but they were only referred to by their nicknames, often the nicknames of older relatives whom they resembled. When a child reached maturity they were to be told their real name. But by the time she had reached adulthood, all her older kin, all those who knew her name, were dead. She was forced to name herself.

(I commented that this was a cultural dynamic that allowed people to reinvent themselves. No response. What do YOU think?)

She continued, saying that she didn't even know the names of her older relatives. In her culture one always showed deference and respect to elders by only calling them by relationship, never by name. "Hello, Uncle" (or Cousin or Sister or whatever). The older would address the younger by name, or nickname, but not vice-versa. Thus one would know who they were within the family structure, but not who anyone WAS by themselves. There are important cultural conclusions that can be drawn from these accounts, but I'm too tired to work on those just now.

MANUFACTURED HOUSING [MH] FOR DUMMIES
- click here

More Moving & Plans

Thursday 13 June 2002, Santa Rosa

I drove another load up to Volcano yesterday. This one was shelving rather than books. [Met with contractor - details omitted.] And last weekend, Friday and Saturday, we hauled up the last load of book-boxes. And also for Trevor Carter's graduation ceremony and party in Jackson. High-school graduations are certainly rowdier than back in my time, the victory of exuberence over discipline -- great fun!

En route back to Santa Rosa via Sacramento and Rio Vista, we cruised thru Emeryville to check the Ikea store. We're still looking for shelving systems and Ikea looks like the solution, even better than Scandanavian Designs, more cost-effective. Zowie, Ikea has an immense store, with an immense customer base. I estimate that building to be about 10 acres, with 2 floors at 10 acres per floor, of which 6 acres each are the public merchandise display areas, the rest being warehousing. Ikea's livingroom stuff is a bit, well not tatty but not great. But all their other furniture systems look splendid. I predict we'll do some outfitting there.

Meanwhile the constant drives from Santa Rosa to Volcano hauling stuff are very tedious in their sameness, the tedium only relieved by tiredness or terror. I was falling asleep coming into Terminous, had to pull over and snore for awhile. Then bits of debris blew off a truck in high winds between Rio Vista and Fairfield. I'll be very very glad when this phase of existence is over. The dealer estimates they'll have the house installed and finished by the first of August, or thereabouts. So we're closing in, that's just 6 or 7 weeks now. 7 weeks to keep hauling as much stuff as possible, just 1 or 2 times a week now. No more. And then at the very end have just enough left to stuff into a big moving van for that LAST LOAD on Moving Day, maybe see if we can recruit some youths around Volcano to lend strong backs to the unloading.

O yes, after the move: the unpacking, the unloading, the configuring, getting all the bookshelves in and built, books and media loaded into place, probably some new electronics purchased and installed. And it looks like we'll actually be occupying the house at least until December, we won't be able to start travelling until then. Yeah, for reason of finances and benefits, we'll be essentially glued down to the new house thru the beginning of winter. After that, we'll finally be able to perambulate.

Note: Be sure to visit Georgia, Armenia, the Caucasus republics, that's supposed to be beautiful country, eastern extension of the Alps, look for similar geographical features. OK, maybe wait for a safer time to visit the Caucasus, they're still fighting in Chechnya and Ossetia and Abkhazia, and between the Armenians and Azerbaijanis.

Dental work. Well, it's just a cleaning today.

Later That Same Afternoon

How ya doing, Petrushka? [cat yowls] Good kitty. [purring]

And always there's the outside world, and the melancholy of interior and exterior events. And what I've already lost and what I hope not to lose, little fragments of song that sometimes I catch, little fragments and words that sometimes sweep past me. There are some things I want to work at when this phase of transition is over with, working with graphics and sound, putting pictures and ideas into place.

And getting this damn cat off my back! Petrushka! Ow! [yowl]

Now and again on public radio there will be features with ordinary citizens who have kept audio diaries. Often these are citizens in dramatic or tense situations and their audio diaries are apparently considered to be of important enough moment to be broadcast, repeated to others. I'm not in such a situation. Why bother keeping this audio diary here? Can I invent some drama? Naw, there's enough out there.

Ah, I know why my audio diary thing isn't working too well! Maybe because a diary should document interactions with other people, not just interior states. And I try very hard NOT to interact much with other people. Ergo, there's not much to document. Much of what I have to say is political-social commentary, and that's expressed in email lists, it's not much I can really talk about here. It also happens that without much physical exertion I don't have much to say. Now that I'm not walking and biking, being too busy with the move, the words are't flowing. But I'll get back to that.

Thursday 20 June 2002, Santa Rosa California

It's so tedious having to remain here in Santa Rosa -- we've been here too long, seen too much of it without being a part of it. Shopped-out, looked-out, experienced-out. It's definitely for new vistas, new experiences, new bookstores. I've been tromping all over trying to find L. Sprague de Camp's CITADELS OF MYSTERY -- no luck.

So what do I see of the world from here? Mostly the pictures in TIME magazine. I hardly watch any television, of course. I'll have some TV news on possibly early in the morning but with the sound off, maybe listening to NPR news while watching the network images of the latest atrocities -- series'n'series of the latest car-bombings in Jerusalem, and retaliations in Palestine. As I've suggested, the only solution there is to nuke Jerusalem and not let ANYBODY have it, because as long as it exists, there'll be fighting over it.

And now that moron Bush, mouthpiece for a strange cabal, is insisting on pre-emptive strikes against Da Axis of Evil. BOOM go Baghdad, Pyongyang, Teheran, Tripoli, Damascus, Havana -- naw, he really can't nuke Havana, there are too many Cuban-Americans whom he needs votes from. The international situation looks TRULY scary. Bother.

It's very tempting to think about being back on the Amalfi coast now, the Coastiera Amalfitani, which was the answer to today's GeoQuiz on the BBC/PRI program THE WORLD. It might be a bit warm there right now, so maybe some other good locales to be at, at this very moment, the 20th of June: Vancouver Island, New Zealand's North Island, Iceland, Mauritius, Reunion, Madasgar, some island somewhere. But have passage booked to somewhere else, for quick escape when necessary.

METALFX.COM -- check it out.

27 June 2002, Sonoma County

And then yesterday at the dentist for a crown, which is always a lot of fun. Killing the pain as best I can, and sleeping it off, as usual. It doesn't hurt as much when I'm asleep -- at least it's not noticable.

Now, the guess from Cousin Gary's is that they'll start installing the house next week. So I don't know if I'll have a load to haul next week, I could actually get a break from the regular rounds. A break or a breakdown... Not that there's all that much left to take, that can be taken before the final spurt. The cave in Santa Rosa is looking emptier'n'emptier. Most of what's left is stuff that will be in use until we're ready to evacuate.

Meanwhile I'm spending my online time mostly just diddling around, not writing much in the way of new pages or songs. Been scanning thru old entries at SENSIBLE and reading the horrific news pages... And I just got an Italian language course on CD-ROMs, I'll have to budget some time for learning Italian. And if THAT takes, I guess I'll have to try French and Spanish too.

Bumper sticker: IS THERE LIFE AFTER DEATH? TOUCH A COWBOY'S TRUCK AND FIND OUT! ha ha ha...

I just made it thru the usual congestion in Santa Rosa, one thing I will NOT miss at all, driving thru Santa Rosa, ugh... The excursion today is down to Rat Town,[shopping details deleted] Ah, done with shopping. And what a lovely day this turns out to be. It's not too hot, not too cloudy, not too clear, not too bad.

So, shopping, walking thru Food-4-Less I am reminded once again what a diverse and interesting place Sonoma County is, something that I will definitely miss when we move away, to a place a bit more homogeneous. Here I go thru the store and there's East Indians and American Indians and Central Americans and South Americans and Africans and African Americans. Pacific Islanders: Samoans, Filipinos. Chinese, Japanese, IndoChinese. Everybody from everywhere.

Bumper stickers: IF I WANTED TO LISTEN TO THE CRAP COMING OUT OF YOUR STEREO, I'D BE SITTING IN YOUR CAR! and I'D RATHER YOU WERE FISHING! and IF YOU SMOKE IN MY CAR, I'LL THROW YOUR NUDE BODY OUT MY WINDOW ... no, it's I'LL THROW YOUR NASTY BUTT OUT THE WINDOW. Now there's a guy with attitude. All this on a little Japanese pickup with an American flag, a red #6 sticker and a FROGGY 92.9 country music radio sticker.

What is it today? Still the 27th of June 2002

A cruel irony: here in the last phase of our stay in Santa Rosa, I'm devising and learning/memorizing all sortsa different strategies for navigating around town, all of which I will have to dump and forget in 6 weeks when I move away forever. Who said life is fair? And if and when I ever do return, temproarily, the city will have grown, expanded, changed so much that all the previous strategies will no longer be operative. Santa Rosa was rated by FORBES Business Magazine as the 2nd-best city in the country for doing business, after San Diego which is considerably larger. This will boom and then bust but along the way it'll sweep away all the less-developed rural areas around it. This WILL be the next San Jose - Silicon Valley. Vineyards on the flats WILL be paved over. It WILL go to Hell in a handbasket. Funny 'bout that...

Next morning, read the news: John Entwhistle has died. Heart attack, age 57. with traces of cocaine. Who's next? [details of network woes deleted...]

Moving etc Updates - click here