Days of Rain

Cabin fever season. I haven't left the house for two days. The dog and I had dinner about 13:45 today and I'll probably be in bed about 16:00. The dog only gets up to eat or 'go'. After days of rain, the creek behind the house is a bubbling torrent, polishing the rocks at it's bottom where it has eaten the soft topsoil away and now races downhill. Opening the door to the shack one is greeted with the sound of water gurgling by, and it is both pleasant and reassuring. I like the sound of the rain on the roof too! Cozy! Until the water torture affect comes into play.
The shack is completely closed up inside now, meaning the inside walls are built too, and the insulation is no longer showing. Where the rough edges of the boards meet I've used expanding foam insulation for the chinking. Not only is it attractive, but everyday the place has gotten one step closer to being as 'tight as an egg'. I have to be careful not to overfill the wood burning stove or the house gets too hot.
The rain continues to fall steadily. The creek widens and narrows with the fluctuations in the rainfall, and today the waterfalls have been at their full 12 inches. I need a life. I tried to have one, but the Kings are the worst team in the NBA.
It's a shame we can't know that when we agree to buy "NBA Pass". The hated Lakers are winners again. Life is so unfair. Of course, after the referee went to jail and (beforehand) admitted the 2001 playoffs were rigged (you know the hated Lakers were 'supposed' to win), thus robbing the Kings of their championship, I can't believe in the NBA anymore. It might as well be big time wrestling. Commissioner Stern should be tarred and feathered. Really!
The rain has stopped for a moment. The storm, or this storm, must need to take a breath. The Weather Channel says rain for another five days. I am afraid that life in the mountains is too slow for this urbanite. Is the redwood tree, stationary with nothing to worry about save sun and rain and nutrients in the soil, content to observe the world from its platform for thousands of years? It would be a thousand year torture to me. Thus, not having a thousand years, I no longer feel I have time to hermit in the mountains.
I looked at a large trimaran for the second time last week. I'm not getting any younger, it may be time to see the world. I'm not kidding. Every day I wake up and think, "life is so wonderful ...and so finite." There could never be enough time to share with my sons. There isn't now, and it decreases everyday. I need more freedom to be able to spend more time with you both.

The Third Year

Saturday. The Shack in southern Oregon is 2 days away from it's second birthday and the start of year 3. It's raining outside, just as it was two years ago. Unlike two years ago there now is an insulated house with plumbing and hot water, a toilet, a kitchen, and a shower. Life is good, time to sell. Fall is most beautiful here. Deciduous trees mixed in with the Evergreens combine to make a spectacular array of Autumn colors. The waterfalls in back and on both sides of the house are starting to drip, and soon the pond will be full. The firewood is stocked for the first half of winter, and a plan is had for the second half of winter. If I had an oven I'd bake something and Life would be full. I love listening to the rain hit the roof while the house is cozy. Inside the Shack it is a different world than out in the raw wilderness that surrounds it; like a Hobbit hole, with the security and warmth of the fire. I have a Pipe too. In the beginning it's tranquil and serene, after thirty days it's cabin fever. Now though, it's serene.

Sunday. Football. Two years on the Hill complete. It's been raining for four days now. The five day forecast is rain for five more days. The raindrops are softly tapping on the roof, lulling the less wary into forgetting the waters true nature, and force; Erosion. Even the soft tapping becomes monotonous, then aggravating; gently taunting the "cabin fevered" with it's wet reminder that it's raining. I check the Pacific Satellite map at the weather channel website. It will be time for some 'doom and gloom for the valley' predictions soon. Is it sunny and warm today in California?

Monday. Happy Birthday Bradland. It's raining. The weather channel talks about this storm and that storm, in the rain forest the only way to tell is the different temperatures of the rain. Today's has turned cold. This is the fifth day of rain, and the five day forecast calls for five more. Great concealed weapon, weather. I see that Mammoth Mountain in southern California is going to open it's slopes today; no need to ask if it's snowing in the Sierras. The Shack seems to be holding the heat this year. Halleleujah for insulated floors. I'm looking forward to snow on the ground for six weeks this year. It's soundless. Sometimes it all seems worth it. You really have to define 'all' and 'it', and what choices that you have.

Earth Day

Did I mention I live in the rain forest? Ferns cover the ground under Oak, Madrone, Pine, Redwood, and Birch trees. Spanish moss hangs on many branches. 200 yards from my house in any direction it is the mountainous jungles of the Pacific northwest. On days when it rains steadily for hours, like today, it's easy to sit enclosed in the shack, stoke the fire, and feel that 'man against the elements feeling'. Me against the world. The greatest force on Earth; the 'drive to survive'.
Ok, I concede, it's not exactly Mount Everest here, but I didn't say anything about 'conquering' Nature. I recognize and realize, the best you can do is hold your own. The elements will win in the long run. The beat goes on. Man is just one of the dancers. The song will change.
If one considers the age of the Earth (also the brevity of human history in relation to that age) and current predictions for the future, it is hard not to conclude that man's time will soon be over; even if it takes another 10,000 years. Life on the surface of this planet is very fragile. Ask a crocodile.
Which brings us to Earth Day. The Earth doesn't need any help. 'Man's Survival Day' is what we should be talking about. The Earth will continue to spin for as long as you can contemplate where space ends. The Earth can shed all living matter on it's surface like a dead skin and start over, so let's call it like it is, 'Survival Day'. Man's survival.
Now hear me well: man didn't care in 1970 on the first 22 April 'Earth Day'. Man doesn't care now. As my brother would say, "Save yourself. Mankind don't want to be saved." Man isn't worried about mankind's survival, only his own individual survival. Man's standard of living is more important than mankind's survival. Which brings us to that often asked question, "What will you tell your grandchildren?"
Grandchildren? How about children? How about me? How about everybody? Who ya' gonna call? The effects upon the atmosphere from urbanization and cultivation of the rain-forests, along with the problems of burning fossil fuels and the pollution of mankind's industrialization, have long been documented. I remember reading about them in the 70s.
1970 seems a long time ago compared to the period of knowledge in which we now live. But then too, like now, mankind didn't want to be saved. At least industrialized man didn't want to be saved. He wanted a higher standard of living. The rest of mankind didn't have much to say about it. They just wanted to be industrialized. Those that are now industrialized are not giving up the modern world. The beat goes on. The leastest suffer mostest. The fattest are hungriest.
Long past the realities of mere survival in a small, small, small world, industrialized man lives in the fantasy that he'll fix 'it' when necessary. Kind of like taking up religion when one learns they have a terminal illness; industrialized man stops smoking when he has lung cancer. Gas hits $4 a gallon, and then he buys a smaller truck. People will quit driving when the ice-caps melt and the roads are flooded. Then it'll be motorboats, but the guy behind the wheel won't care if people are drowning in a flood halfway across the world if he doesn't know them. Man don't care about man. Man cares about 'himself'!
The Earth is in charge, however. The earth will fix 'herself'. Man most probably won't survive the process. Which is why I wrote this letter; the beat goes on. Whether or not man shortens his existence or lengthens it a little is inconsequential. What counts is... the last man standing!

Happy rainy day from the jungle!

PS ~ These are exciting times we live in. Check out this UFO !

Dogs

My nephew called me today. He said it was about time to bring his dog up here to live, that BooBoo (the dog) had shit on the floor for the third day in a row and he was done with her. I considered whether or not living with two dogs rather than one would make me less lonely. I decided not, so I made my nephew a better offer: I told him the dog could come and live with me if he came too!

On the surface it looks like a selfish offer, I know: I want company. Actually it is a very generous offer when you consider THE TURMOIL OF YOUTH, and that he has to find a new "place" in thirty days

See, I'd have company (probably be tired of his ass in three days, he's always tired of me after 72 hours), but he'd get to keep his dog, and he'd get free rent, and he'd get a stable home for him and his dog, and all without a deposit, first and last, and references. He wouldn't have to falsify income either. He would have to get a job. Remember all those hassles?

I got up today lonely. I'm tired of having nothing to do but work and no one to share my misery with. I've been home two days from Sacramento. I miss many things. Friends. Family. Wife. The weather: Sacramento is a paradise weather-wise. I think one has to live elsewhere from the valley to realize how comfortable it is. I discussed Sacramento with my mother. Her leaving Sacramento after fifty years and moving to Grants Pass was really a return to her home: She grew up on a farm outside of Myrtle Creek, Oregon. She's very happy with her move. I grew up in Sacramento. I'm lonely.

Mom will be eighty years old this July. She's joined the Grants Pass garden club, a church, a widows group. She wants to make friends and have a full life. I am invited to meet people. I decline. I have no interest. I languish in my loneliness and make little effort to resolve the problem. It is not people I miss.

It has been below freezing every night here. I still build a fire every day to take the chill out of the air. There is a lot of work involved when one lives in the mountains. Especially in a cabin that still needs the plumbing and is heated by a wood burning stove. Spring is so wonderful.Summer will be better.

I think about my next move: Should I look for property in the mountains I can pay cash for, then rent a place in Sacramento? or re-invest in the valley and return to the city? or go to China and teach for a while? I'll have to SELL first, and China is out because I have a dog. I can't give Shep up, we're partners!

My nephew's call reminds me of why I moved to the Mountains in the first place: I could no longer afford my home in the city but I absolutely needed a base , a home, stability, a sanctuary with a yard for the dog. It terrified me to think of being a renter while I watched the rest of my assets disappear ( fools and money, I knew I needed to re-invest, quickly). I remember being homeless, money in the bank didn't negate the fears, Those six weeks before I found Happy Camp road were horrid!

Happy Camp road is still all it was before: I realize it's Hell Explained that is making life not worth living...............Google will take you there if you don't understand : It's really a question of here or her. And if it's not her then China may be the answer, in which case this will be a great place to return to. Maybe I should take BooBoo for Shep?

A Lord of the Rings Weekend

All three movies are on Tv today. I am so jazzed; something to do all day that requires no work. Kickin' it with Gandolf and the short, hairy ones. There's a storm moving in too. When the films get to the parts I've already seen (this is a repeat for the first two. They played Friday and Saturday) I can watch the clouds slowly conquer the mountains and surround them in rain. Life is so wonderful!
The Fellowship of the Ring is almost over. As the age of man draws near to it's end, I wonder what the next age will bring? What will the life form of the next age be? Probably a Crocodile. The meteor didn't get them the first time around, Global warming won't get them this time. And there will be a lot more low lying shallow water. Sounds like a good deal for the Crocodile.
Probably a good time for me to start cross-breeding my Croco-dog. The Croco-dog will be the baddest dog on the block. Bred to keep its tough crocodile exterior, but retain a soft warm coat of hair on top of it's skin. The Croco-dog's tail will not only be able to pick a gazelle up out of the water, but also be faithfully wrapped around his master at night to help keep him warm. The Croco-dog will only need to be fed once a year or so and, with that kind of frequency in food necessity, the Coco-dog will be virtually maintenance free. Poop free too, almost. And when it does Poop, it will just look like someone left a steely in the living room, you know ball-bearing type thing, hard and round.
Maybe Ents will come back. A cross between plant and animal: Swamp-Thing. Tolkien must have had secret history books from Middle Earth. No one could could have come up with all the names, maps, history, everything! I call Bullshit. The man had to have found the treasures of Atlantis.
...Finally, the wind is picking up. The assault on the mountains begins. Bradland is normally last to give in to the cloud cover, first to bust out. Thus, the many rainbows. Might be the nickel mountain, but I always heard it was the pot of gold. No matter, they all equate to southern Oregon. Follow the yellow brick road.

Just go north til your dink is dinky
and the air ain't stinky
Where the snow will fly
and the colds' in your eye
the rain don't hurt
cause it ain't filled with dirt

Sorry, I guess the movies are putting me in the mood for some middle earth lore.

...It's raining now. Hard. I can hear it on the roof and the side of the shack. Every wind driven burst of rain screams, "Coooozzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!"