Days 68- 71

Day 71
Saturday May 10th
Rose Valley

Early in the morn I bid Dana adios and pointed my feets toward the hills. It was time to get out of the constant grind of day-to-day life, the constant grinding of city life that confines you in a box and slowly wears you down. I need fresh air in my hair and cool grasses between me toeses. I needed a me day but not to sit in front of the boob tube, a me day that was quiet yet productive. The grinding of normalcy is much more powerful then the eroding forces that carved out the Grand Canyon and all its splendor. This erosion also takes place over years and years. Instead of crumbing sandstone it is the souls of men it crushes and grinds. Its real danger lies in its subtlety. So slowly does it work that you never realize until literally it is too late. Isabella reminded me of the words of that rapscallion Dylan Thomas last week, to not go gently into the night & to fight against the fading light. As the week winds down and a new one waits in the wings, that has been my goal.

However raging as it were I soon see, does not necessarily mean careening blindly through life frothing at the mouth and moving forward at break-neck speed simply to be moving forward. Raging against the fading light encompasses a life of directed action sprinkled with occasional doses of inward contemplation and taking time to appreciate whatever situation you happen to have the good sense to find yourself in.

So we rage forth. Hopefully the intensity will increase in the days & weeks to come. That is the goal. For today however we hike and relax and think and groove and forget and remember and take it all in stride.

Finally, a bath!

Day 70
Friday May 9th
Caught the Laker's hoops game w/ Martina and the gang over at the old Benchwarmer. It has been a crazy week of ups and downs, wins and loses, mountains and valleys, cosmic elation and kronik depression, vibrant lights and foreboding darkness-- I am talking about the Lakers, not me. But if the shoe fits right...?

No pictures today. Instead a quote.

If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you got a problem. Everything else is inconvenience. ~Robert Fulghum

Day 69
Thursday May 8th

What a crazy night indeed! An old wise man once said, actually he may have not been very old or wise for that matter, that there are only five reasons for wine to be drunk: the arrival or departure of a good friend, present or future thirst, the quality of the wine, and for everything else. Tonight we certainly did that in spades! Ms. Lisa is off shortly to the frigid fjords of Norway. Saddened though we all are, this night was more about celebrating the last few years then being saddened by all the good-byes in our life.

Wine & puppers, puppers & wine.

"You haven't drunk too much wine if you can still lie on the floor without holding on." ~ Dean Martin
Osama holding on...

*Quick note: 05.16.08 received email-- After a long 28 hours of traveling Ms. Lisa and Heather w/ woozy puppers Osama and Jerry touched down in the winter wonderland that is Oslo in May. They are all stoked, Jerry the most so 'cause he scored some legit Panama Red reefer from a Chihuahua in the crate next to him on the flight over. Aye caramba...!

Day 68
Wednesday May 7th
George in Matilija

Sparky swung into the Ventuckey for a quick night on his way down to Dana Point. We found a cozy spot by the river where I had already stashed a goodly portion of firewood. We burned things and caught up on the last few months. It was a lazy hump day relaxing on the banks of the rolling & babbling river. Though I think I swallowed a spider when I was sleeping. Other then that it was a pretty dang good night!

"To poke a wood fire is more solid enjoyment than almost anything else in the world." ~Charles Dudley Warner