DJ in training

Sitting In
Just got back from sitting in for the first time with an on-air DJ, "DJ Respect" who with his partner Lisa Luv fills in the afternoons on alternate Saturdays. I got good tips from both of them, as well as from another long-time KMUD DJ, Bob Froehlich. Bob, his wife Barbara, Music Director Kate Klein, myself and a few other volunteers were in the station's library tonight working on the annual cull and re-organization of the thousands of CDs (and some vinyl) that are stored there. KMUD receives about 75 CDs in the mail every week, and processing and labeling those CDs is most of what I've been doing there since October or so.

I was stoked tonight to find buried away in the vinyl collection a Lily Tomlin comedy album that had been in the family when I was growing up, and (despite Bob's advice to limit myself to a single medium, at least for my first show), I'll try to play a skit on my first show that I recall fondly, in which this great comedian extraordinaire simultaneously plays 4 roles: a pissed-off teenager, both her square and very boring parents, and a visiting insurance salesman.

DJ Respect (aka Mark) was awesome, showing me just about all the things that I have to learn, as was Lisa whose show followed his. I saw how to cue up CDs and take phone calls .. Lisa even did an impromptu interview with some hip-hop artists who were going to perform tonight up in Arcata.

Anyway, it's been a long but exciting day, and this DJ-in-training is gonna call it a night. Before signing off, here's a special shout-out to my friend and employer Mike, who is basically subsidizing my growing participation at our community radio station. Muchas, muchas gracias, Miguel!

The Birth of Jack Frybulous

High-speed 'net access is truly a wonderful thing, esp. when you've been without it for as long as i have. But i've been online tending to other things for about 3 hours now -- it's 10:20 of a Thursday night -- and just wanted to update you a wee bit before doing dishes and heading to bed. (Big day tomorrow.)

Big News

i'm about to go on the air! KMUD, "Redwood Community Radio," where i've been volunteering for the past 3 or 4 months, has just given me the 2-4 pm time-slot, first and third Saturdays; my first show is Feb. 2. i'd love to take call-in's from friends all over, and do hope that you'll be able to tune in via the Internet. Those of you in the area who may not be aware, the Mud is at 91.1 FM in s. Humboldt County; 88.3 FM up north; and 90.3 FM down south. Check out my new blog site for more program-related info. i would LOVE to get suggestions from folks, esp. what music you'd like to hear: i'm going to play a real eclectic mix, and am compiling a list of songs. What would YOU play on YOUR first radio program?

Rain and cold weather, snow at higher elevations. i'm driving up to Eureka tomorrow to stock up on animal feed and such. Pick up a couple bales of straw and alfalfa-grass.

small news

And headed outside shortly to attempt again (the 3rd time in 3 days) to catch a couple of roosters: we have 2 or 3 too many, and i promised Mike i'd .. um .. make a couple disappear before he returns from his trip down south. Night-time is supposed to be a good time to catch 'em, 'cause (ordinarily) they're not easily roused. But these guys know they're being targeted, and so far have taken flight before i've even gotten all that close to them! i pick up hens who have roosted on the railing (to prevent their pooping all over the veranda) all the time without problem, in fact with hardly a squawk (either from them or from me). But boy is it a different story with those cocky cocks.

dougie t. -- with lots of love and Light going out to you all, and best wishes for all good things for you in this new year! -- over 'n' out.

Got a DJ slot!

Egregious Euphemisms
I don't know how long I lived in SoHum before I realized that the Eel River "Conservation Camp" -- a sign for which you'll notice if you're headed out of Redway going north -- is not a place where kids can go in summer to learn environmental awareness. It's a prison! But no one would ever realize this unless you're about to drive onto the property. Then, a sign next to the road just after the entrance states YOU ARE ENTERING A PRISON.

Now, why can't the sign down by the main road say the same thing?

Hands Off Richardson Grove
One of the things I'd like to use the program for is to galvanize those who are opposed to the widening, and/or straightening of 101 through Richardson Grove. I went to a meeting today at Friends of the Eel River to learn what's going on to defeat Caltrans' plans for the area. According to one participant, the main force behind the program is Ron Arkley (who gave half-a-million dollars to the Bush re-election campaign), who has an agreement with Home Depot to build them a store up north. More on this story as it develops.

A True Revolution of Values

• I’m convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. … When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, militarism and economic exploitation are incapable of being conquered. A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our present policies. … True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth with righteous indignation.

-- Martin Luther King, Riverside Church, 04 APR 67.

Arms R Us
The Department of Defense’s planned expenditures for fiscal year 2008 are larger than all other nations’ military budgets combined. The supplementary budget to pay for the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, not part of the official defense budget, is itself larger than the combined military budgets of Russia and China. Defense-related spending for fiscal 2008 will exceed $1 trillion for the first time in history. The United States has become the largest single salesman of arms and munitions to other nations on Earth. Leaving out of account President Bush’s two on-going wars, defense spending has doubled since the mid-1990s. The defense budget for fiscal 2008 is the largest since World War II. -- Chalmers Johnson, author of the Blowback trilogy

"Planet Humboldt" It's ... Alive
At long last, rule of the air-waves shall be mine, MWAH ha ha ha ha!

The program manager's coffee-cup was dry when she fell for my carefully crafted tale of ambiguity and disguised intent, and -- heedless as yet of the consequences -- she has assigned me my first radio program, under the previously established rubric Planet Humboldt: 2 to 4 pm, 1st & 3rd Saturdays. We be on the AIR, BABY! First show 02 FEB 08.

Communiques of the most urgent nature are soon to be sent forth, enlisting the aid and comfort of card-carrying lunatics like .. why, like you. And you! And you, and you, and you!

Listing requests for songs from friends, family, farmers, furriers, Frenchmen and Phil the cleaning guy; developing various content items -- music, comedy, news, short interviews, poetry and quotations with wispy New Age music playing softly in the background (or to be alternative about it, dancehall music playing softly in the background), call-ins, pre-recorded stuff, maybe a mock PSA here and there, etc. -- then allocating the blocks of time that might possibly contain all my multitudes; yes, these and many other tasks await the intrepid man or woman [people] who would call himself: D.J. Or who would call HERself: D.J. [Or who would call themselves: D.J.s.]

And so the dumping into this blog of anything that might possibly be useful in filling up FOUR HOURS A MONTH OF AIRTIME has begun. The first item: a letter to Hillary Clinton which might be great fun to read on-air (although i'd appreciate a reality-check)! Here it is:

The Common Dreams news website reported 21 JAN 08 that "Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton came under fire when she was quoted as saying [that] King's dream of racial equality was realized only when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964." I decided to drop Hillary a line.

Dear Hillary:

Hillary, I have always recognized you as one of the most intelligent and capable people in politics, much as I might peacefully but vehemently disagree with your unbelievably strident and subservient support for the bellicose bullies and war-mongers in our midst, cravenly cluttering and chattering in the gleaming offices, boardrooms and bomb-proof bunkers of the nation's political, business and military entities, still clinging to mad, race-crazed dazed dreams of glory and conquest, a past in front of their very noses fast vanishing down a whirlpool of history if ever there was one. But I digress.

Your statement -- about how King's dream was realized -- would have been practically unobjectionable if you had simply added that his dream of equality was [at least partially] realized "in law, if not in fact" after Johnson signed the act.

Sincerely,

Jack Frybulous,
Redwood Nation

ps - Sorry to have missed Bill's historic visit to the county seat, Eureka a couple of days ago. Folks still talkin' about it!

pps - Alexander Cockburn in a recent ed. of the Nation describes driving from WA down thru OR and n. CA, seeing hardly anything but stickers for Ron Paul! He added he liked the look of the folks he saw. Huh. What do you make of that?

HaPpY nEw YeAr !!

HALLO again Faithful Readership!

Sorry for the long delay in posting .. big changes in my life (many of which you have already read about here) are part of the reason, as is the hassle of getting access. But all that is about to change. i have signed up for the high-speed 'net access which has recently been introduced to my little town of Miranda! i look forward to more regular posts (and trust that you are, too)!

i'm down in Berkeley for a short visit with my sister Eileen, who's at a Salesian Center next door to the UC/B campus, where she and about 20 others from around the world are participating in a week-long seminar on spirituality. (We last saw each other in May, when she made her first trip to California and to Heartwood.) We walked around Telegraph Ave. today so i could do a little Christmas (yes, 2007) shopping. She has an early Saturday morning flight back to New Jersey, and i'm contemplating hightailing it back up to Humboldt for Josh's birthday party Friday night. i'd love to be there, but am also enjoying being outside Humboldt for the first time in what seems like a long time.

i'll plug in the computer almost as soon as i get back, and will be posting the Mother of All Posts on the next full moon. Insh'alla.

ps - i lost last month all my contact info .. please email me any updates to your phone, email, or snail-mail adddress that may have changed in the past six months. Thanks.

A new link

i want to put this link to my Amazon wish-list in the sidebar, and will play some more with exactly how to do that when i get back home. (Any suggestions?)

marathon monkey-wrench

My marathon-training goal for last Saturday was 21 miles, and it was a beautiful day for a run on the Avenue of the Giants. I'd done 18 miles the previous Saturday (and 15 the one before that), but on Wednesday had missed one of the two six-mile runs i do during the work-week. i wonder if that had much to do with what happened next.

A slight soreness just below my left knee-cap that began around the 10-mile mark would simply not go away, no matter how much loving energy i sent its way. i'd been slowing my pace down more and more, and when i finally stopped just past the 18-mile mark, i was surprised to learn that i was no longer able to put ANY weight on that leg. i eventually flagged down a car whose occupants used a cell-phone to call home. Good buddy from Heartwood Sky Olson was up from San Diego for a 4-day visit, and he immediately jumped in his car and came to rescue me.

i could've used a crutch the day or two following, and am still hobbling about a a bit, but am now a bit worried that at this point, even a half-marathon on the 21st may not be possible. i'll continue to ice it and try not to strain it further, but there is a lot of work around the house to do, and i have been unable to simply lie around and give it rest. Say a few prayers that me knee will heal sufficiently for Race Day, will you?

My visit with Sky was fun. It was initially planned as purely a social call, but with the loss of my co-worker sooner than expected (long story), Sky's visit turned into a sort of working interview. Mike is impressed, and if Sky wants to share the work and the house with me, he is welcome.

Sky'll make up his mind in the next day or two. Some factors in the Nay column: Miranda's relative isolation (which many would crave); and the cold, wet and gray winter which is expected to descend in another couple of months.

On the Aye side of the ledger: Sky loves animals and would love being around them; he has pruned walnut trees before, and can be said to have a green thumb; he would have his own bedroom in a really rad domicile right on the Avenue of the Giants (redwoods abound, eat your hearts out flatlanders and big-city dwellers), and furthermore would get to live and work day after day with your humble correspondent. (Let it be said, there are one or two souls who would argue that this last item belongs in the other column. Pay them no heed, they LIE i tell you!)

i SO gotta get back to work. Plus this update is costing me 10 cents a minute! See ya in a few weeks. Or a couple of days, ya never know.

ps:

EID MUBARAK

Happy end of the holy month of Ramadan

to all my Muslim friends!!

Life after Heartwood

i'm back! Quickie update for ya, as i'm at an internet cafe in lovely downtown Garberville.

i left Heartwood at the end of August, after a blow-out party with TWO (count 'em!) DJ's: Alex (aka DJ Ananda) making his first public performance, and Travai who has spun more than once at Heartwood parties. It was an awesome night, bunch of people showed up, and a good time was had by almost all, as best as we can recollect. i went to bed at about 5 am, and got up about 10 to find Alex outside, stretched out in the sun after having tidied up the carnage from the night before. Since there was plenty of beverage left, the party recommenced, with folks dropping in for a chat and a boogie.

i decided to postpone the TEFL job search until the new year, and am now living in Miranda, a town of 350 about 12 miles north of Garberville, located right on the AVENUE of the GIANTS! That's where the Humboldt Redwoods Marathon takes place, Oct. 21. i ran 15 miles this morning, although a little more slowly than i'd anticipated, in 3 (instead of 2.5) hours. Oh well, my only goal is to finish without injury, and if i break 4 hours this year, so much the better.

i've gone to work for one of the first folks i met out here, a great guy named Mike, who boarded Sandy on his farm from May to November in oh-five. i'm taking care of 6 dogs, 2 cats, 4 hogs, about a dozen chickens, and a goldfish and some guppies. There are also a few plants which need close attention, and being in possession of a green thumb, am enjoying learning more about what goes into keeping them happy. The pay is good, and i look forward to paying off most or all of my debt by the end of the year. Thinking about spending some vacation time around Christmas either in Mexico or Amsterdam. And then settling down to recommence the English-teaching job search, not sure where i'll do that from.

Right, that's it for this time. Not sure when i'll post again, but if i can get my computer hooked up to the internet at Mike's place, it wouldn't be that long from now. Hope you all are doing well and continue to carry a smile on your face. Much love from your humble correspondent ... xx O xx

Ch- ch- ch- ch- ch- changes

O Faithful Readership, such a long time we've been apart! And (as you'd expect me to say) SO much has happened.

I currently have about a dozen windows open on my desktop, which i find makes working with a dial-up connection a little bit more manageable. i go to another window while i wait for others to finish downloading, although it does make for a session that's a bit more complicated, trying to keep track of downloads, and searches, and email replies.

My sister Eileen has come and gone, and in lieu of an account of what she did while here, she has written an account of .. well, it's basically about what a great guy i am. So at the risk of seeming overly self-promotional, and because I badgered her to write SOMEthing after she left, and because i sort of implied that i would post whatever she sent without editing, here it is, in all its naked glory:


On 7/18/07, Eileen wrote:

Do you remember the anticipation of the Christmas when you still believed that Santa Claus was going to come down the chimney? Do you remember your first date, and you wanted to be sure that every thing went just right? Do you remember that big reunion you had when you were going to have the chance to see all the people you hadn't seen in years? Well, put all those memories of anticipation into one event and you will scratch the surface of what I was feeling when I went to visit Doug in May.

I teach school and the last few weeks were a real drag. The things that night-mares are made of were happening to me. The ray of sunshine was my trip to northern California. For over 25 years I have not been to the home of my brother Doug. We of course had been able to visit each other over the years, but Doug had always come to see me or the rest of the family. This trip meant a lot to me before I even left Florida. I was going to see Doug where he was. To walk in his shoes. To meet his friends. To breathe his air. The anticipation of that alone was, at times, and still is, overwhelming.

There would be so many things I could write in the form of a diary, but I would rather recount, after 5 weeks of reflection, what meant so much to me, and what has remained with me since I departed.

This may sound like a prejudiced statement, but my brother is really a great man. Look at the people he calls his friends and you will understand what I mean by this. People don't come to care and love because a person has money or good looks. Friendship is based on the intangibles: loyalty, honesty, goodness, up-rightness and other qualities. The qualities that you remember when the memory of events has long disappeared.

Being in my brother's presence again brought back a lot of memories of growing up. It created new memories, of the man he has grown into, and of the woman I have grown into. The places and the events of the trip were the necessary elements, but the power of the events lies in the essence of the person, not the presence of the surroundings.

Doug is a friend and a big brother to me. I look forward to the many more opportunities we will have in the coming years to continue to grow in our love for one another and to discover the depth of our bonds.

I want to thank everyone whom I met for your kindness and hospitality. I really felt like I was part of the family there at Heartwood. Let us remain united through my brother and your friend.

Love,
Eileen, fma
forever.shamrock@juno.com

i will be autographing print-outs of this blog's update at select bookstores and coffeeshops around the nation in the years to come. Be sure to carry yours with you if i should show up in your neighborhood unexpectedly. ;o)

i had also hope to post photos of Eileen's visit today, but i deleted all the photos from my camera before i had saved them on my computer (first time that happened!), but later today i'll see if a retrieval program i downloaded is successful. i'm hopeful, since i have purposefully avoided taking more photos since she left.

Last news for this update: i've decided that it's time to leave Heartwood. It's been 26 months, and lately there has been one disappointment after another: some community-wide, some staff-wide, and some unique to me, having to do with changes in the workplace.

i have decided to pursue teaching English overseas again, with a view toward doing massage on the side once i'm settled. i'm especially interested in positions in the Middle East, and in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia. i will of course post news about any developments as soon as things happen.

In the meantime, i would appreciate it if you would keep me in your thoughts and prayers, and assist me in the process of stepping into this next big, bright phase of my Life!

Cheers! and best wishes to you and your loved ones ...

So little time .. !

Hi everyone,

Eileen has come and gone from her one-week stay here earlier this month, and although i haven't received anything yet, i'm still hopeful that she might be writing an account of her adventures, which will be posted here (un-edited!) as soon as it's received.

i'm just past the middle of a 7-day Thai Massage intensive, so things are kind of busy. But i'm not scheduled to work this weekend, and so will be back here to update then; there is lots to tell!

By the way, for anyone who might've tried to call me recently: my answering-machine is busted, and i'm rarely here, except at night to sleep. But everything is ok, and i look forward to getting back in touch with those of you who haven't heard from me in a while.

Food for thought, Question: Where would you go to work, if you could work anywhere you wanted to, first: in the US? And what about overseas?

I'm gettin' ready to bust out of this place!

STK, 1

Greetings o Faithful Readers,

Before i go into everything else which follows, BIG SHOUT-OUT to my sister Eileen who comes to visit me for a week at the end of May, her first time in California. On the agenda: at least one night's camping in redwood forests, and the Benbow Summer Arts Festival (first weekend of June), and lots of chillin' at the 'wood, woo-hoo!

Almost a week late to post, sorry. It’s been a very stressful time here at Heartwood. But before i get all wrapped up in Story, let me first point out that something infinitely more important has happened than the story of my stressful last week or month. Darfur has arrived in my heart, and i want you to share it with me. But i’ll back up first, and tell you how i got here.

A lot of the stress which has been in the air lately has revolved around the changing scene at Heartwood. New owners took over in November, and they got around to offering us a new salary and benefits package mid-April. It was abysmal, and all of us were shocked, angry and disappointed by the stingy package we were offered, for starters: 5 days vacation (after the 2nd year of work), instead of the 4 weeks (annual) vacation we currently enjoy.

Heartwood staff has never been very well paid, but some of us had dared to hope that, with billionaire owners, perhaps a small raise would not be out of the question. So imagine how stunned we were to be given a 20% pay cut. The devil’s in the details and i won’t bore you with them. i’ll simply conclude this chapter by saying that, we are now in negotiations with the owners, who have apologized for not checking their numbers more carefully. They had intended, they say, to offer us a bit more. Oops! We staff are waiting for them to make another offer. In the meantime, our pay and benefits remain as they were when they took over.

This is where (i hope) it gets a bit more interesting. Almost a month ago, the evening of Friday, Apr. 13, i had returned from Garberville with a DVD i’d borrowed from the library, and went after dinner to a vacant classroom to watch it with one of the students. A few minutes before popping it in, i realized that this film was just what i needed to put my employment-related woes back into perspective. The movie was Hotel Rwanda.

i don’t know if you’ve seen this movie, or know the story that the movie is based on. In April of 1994, a genocide on the part of the majority Hutus aimed at their Tutsi countrymen began, and when it was over three months later, eight hundred-thousand (some say one MILLION) Rwandans would be dead: some shot, the vast majority hacked to death, by machetes wielded, in many cases, by people they knew: neighbors, co-workers, etc.

There's an amazingly informative overview here, if you're interested in a deeper analysis.

In the movie, Don Cheadle stars as the manager of a hotel in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, who managed to save from the slaughter that was happening all around them the lives of about 1200 men, women and children.

i had always avoided seeing this movie. i knew the story of the Rwandan genocide, and knew that its depiction would be difficult, if not impossible, to watch. But for even the most sensitive among you, i recommend this film, highly.

The director employs certain techniques that make the learning about this Hell a little more bearable. Hotel Rwanda is not a graphic depiction of the blood-bath that one might expect. The director i think understood very well that to drag viewers down into that pit of horrors – to make a portrayal of those events too realistic – would probably frighten away potential viewers. So he did tone it down for us in ways that i will not go into here.

So why see this? Why should you expose yourself to more evidence of the world’s horrors, when you are perfectly aware of them already? Why give yourself more of what you already know too well? Listen to Don Cheadle:

In 2004 I had a life-changing experience. I starred in a film called Hotel Rwanda, about the courageous story of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager who saved 1,200 refugees in the face of a savage genocide that gripped his country and claimed 800,000 lives. Not since the Rwanda genocide of 1994 has the world seen such a calculated campaign of slaughter, rape, starvation and displacement as is happening right now in Darfur.

After hearing Cheadle remind me of what i already knew (that masses of people are being just as brutally slaughtered now as they were in Rwanda), and then after watching his amazing performance in the film, i realized that i could no longer do nothing; that i could at least help to spread the word, and hope that my own actions in doing so might inspire others to get involved, to help stop the killing first in Darfur, then elsewhere.

i realized what a luxury it was to be able to pop in a DVD of my own choosing. And what a blessing, to have been spared the terrors and horrors which victims of mass-murder endure. And that writing the occasional email to someone with influence, making the occasional speech about Darfur, etc. was not too much for me to do. i hope you'll be willing to play some role, too. Simply out of gratitude that you've been spared. And that if you weren't, you'd want someone else to be doing something on your behalf.

Every blog update will have a new suggestion for an action that you can take to help bring attention to the Killing that is going on. And maybe together, we can bring enough pressure, we can shame the powers that be, into doing something to Stop the Killing.

i'll educate myself more on the topic, and share here with you what i learn. For starters, check out Amnesty International's website, and what it has to say about Darfur.

Labor Day weekend 2006, Los Angeles

Agents soUrcerer & Creatrix are reunited for the first time since Nov., 2004, when the former departed Amsterdam. Creatrix, aka Hadleigh Averill, was getting ready for his LA-based art exhibit opening.

So why are you posting these photos now, Dougie? Well, one reason is that my proficiency for efficiently uploading photos while muddling along with a dial-up connection is improving.

Another reason is that i've recently been back in touch with another long-lost Friend from me Amsterdam days, an indomitabley dashing, kilt-wearing Scotsman named Adrian Kennedy, to whom i promised in an email earlier today that i would post here some photos from that trip.

Now if i could only figure out how to move the photos around a bit!

The photo above is me and Dee at Marina del Rey beach. Dee is the creative arts director at a production company, and helped Had to get ready for the exhibit opening.








Hadleigh putting the finishing touches on his work, THE NIGHT BEFORE gallery doors are to open (which is when i showed up)!

A new job for Dougie T?

A week late to post! What can i say. I’m swamped.

I’m applying for the Welcome Center manager position. My current boss, Kristy Hinton, is leaving at the end of this month to pursue a guy she met here who left Apr. 2 for Alaska, and i say more power to her. And to him. To them, whatever. Mark Lyons is a heluva guy, and his mom visited here the weekend before he left and you can see where he gets everything that’s good about him. i gave Jane a Hot Stones massage the day before she left, which she said she loved. She left a big fat tip on the table for me, woo-hoo!

Anyway, Kristy is store manager #5 in the 16 months i’ve worked there, and now that there are new owners, there’s some possibility that the decision to pay managers more than they’ve been paid in the past may have already been made; we’ll find out on Friday when the HR company they’ve hired will come to brief us on our new compensation packages. The upshot: the pay differential needs to make it worth my while to take on the extra responsibility (stress) which of course i don’t really want, but which would allow me to pay off my loans more quickly.

The weekend of Mar. 24-25 was devoted to Heartwood 2017: about 70 people getting together for two days of imagining what we want this place to be ten years from now. It was pretty exciting, and i’ve decided to renew my commitment to the ‘wood for another year! i really like my abode (not to mention life in the mountains), and feel like i’ve got more to learn as well as to contribute, and i admit that it’s exciting to be around a place that i love that’s going through so much change.

Tying up old business! This feels good: some things i left in a friend’s apartment in Amsterdam are finally on their way to me, beginning with 2 of the 4 boxes of books that i’d left there. Another Craig’sList success story. The ad i placed on CL/Amsterdam a few weeks back – for someone to go and get my things out of storage at my friend’s place and ship them from the post office – elicited 2 replies, both of which were good. i ended up going with a young American guy named Stephen who .. oh blah blah blah suffice to say he’s a great guy and he’s sending me my stuff. Hard to believe i left Amsterdam in Nov. 2004. My friend Hans who stored my stuff is an old guy and not in any shape to move stuff like boxes of books around. He is so happy! And i’m having a carpenter friend of mine here, Chris the singer/songwriter dude, to construct some bookshelves for me, hopefully some that would double as a support for my bed (which currently sits on top of concrete blocks).

Well i never started running again as soon as i thought i would following last October’s marathon (my first, in case you’ve just joined us), and am now beginning a six-month period of training for my 2^nd marathon: the Humboldt Redwoods marathon (again)! Mike Morone, how about it, game?!

Oh, update on the love-life: Rosario and i have decided to be Just Friends. (That sounds worse than it really is.) In a nutshell, he wrote to tell me that in spite of how much we’ve enjoyed each other’s company, he doesn’t feel the spark of a long-term lover relationship. Which with me is totally cool: i was thinking maybe there could’ve been something there, but i was well aware of the many things i had in common with his ex-, and that “Zaari” was also in search of someone who looked more like himself. So i replied that i would be more than happy for us to continue to be friends, and that who knew? Maybe he’d be the one to introduce me to Mr. Right!

Having said that, we’ve made plans to hook up twice and he has twice called to cancel (once after canceling, rescheduling, and then re-canceling!), but i’m gonna give the boy one more chance. We’ve talked about those behaviors and is aware of them, and i for my part am well aware of all the craziness he’s got going on in his life, which include a new job with new skills to learn, relocating his mom to another part of the state, and (since his mom sold the building he lives in) looking for a new place to live. Guy’s got his hands full.

My buddy Josh has been hangin' out a lot lately which is fun. He is such a great guy. This is the guy who held my feet when i was sick last month, and which felt so good, that even though i'd just woken up after a long night's sleep, i was able to drift off again, into deep and restful sleep. My good luck: Josh shows up fairly often with his Hungarian puli, Zeke. He's an unusual sort, but the dog's ok, so i let 'em both hang.

This photo was self-shot about a month ago on a gorgeous Saturday morning, when Josh entrusted two years of dreds to me and my scissors. What a guy!

Sister Eileen: you ARE coming to visit next month i trust. Can’t wait. Do let me know as soon as you’ve got an itinerary, and whether or not i should borrow a car to pick you up at the Eureka airport (which technically is in McKinleyville). Btw, Happy Easter! Sorry i didn't have it together to send you a card. In my defense, i did have a Dutch postcard that i was gonna send, but found out in the nick of time that it was actually a Christmas card.

Scott and Kathy: you should get your butts on a train, come out here, get off the train in Eureka, rent a car and drive down (through the redwoods, mind you) and visit me! Or i guess you could drive your camper cross-country and do the same thing. Or you could do the same thing you’ve done every year for the past umpteen years and drive up to Canada. Me, i say: variety is the spice of life. Go for broke and carpe the diem.

Janet and Crystal, dammit what’s a guy gotta do to get an old friend to STAY in touch, not just be in touch like once every seven months.

Did you ever watch the BBC television comedy Are you being served? If so, you may have noticed that the actor John Inman, who played the flamboyant Mr. Humphrey, died at the age of 71 on Mar. 8. i especially enjoyed and appreciated this .. it's not really an obit, more of an appreciation .. and the insight it offered to the role Inman played, and the extent to which .. oh more blah-blah, just go read it.

All right you lot, that oughta hold ya till next time, when i’ll let you know how insubstantial our pay raises actually are. Keep your fingers crossed for me anyway, will ya? i'll leave you with a coupla more photos of Josh and his favorite beast, Zeke [aka Dog Cheenie, which is what's left over after you take the pooch out of Puccini]. A boy and his dog: what could be more precious? i am so in love with these two. A more irie guy you could never hope to meet.

Lights out

Greetings faithful Readership!

i'm 9 days late with this update, but i've just recovered from a really nasty flu that had me flat on my back for the better part of 4 days last week. And we were without electricity for 3 days the week before, from Feb. 27 - Mar. 2, after a giant snowstorm came in and blanketed the area. We got 8" of snow that Wednesday morning, and another couple of inches that afternoon. It sure made the place even prettier!

Anyway, i'll try to get back here by week's end to fill you in a little more with what's been going down around here, including a recount of my first visit this past weekend to a famous spa about 3 hours south of here, Harbin Hot Springs.

Meet the Master Michael Mastros

Man, i shoulda posted a photo of this dude ages ago.

Faithful Readership, this is Michael Mastros (outa LA), alas one of the dudes who just graduated (one of Sky's classmates). Mike chose me as one of his 2 regular clients during his last quarter, which meant i got 5 bodywork sessions from him; a Polarity session in January was especially memorable: it made me feel like a million bucks, even a whole day later.

He stuck around after graduation Feb. 1 to take a Cranio-sacral intensive which just finished last Friday, and is storing a few things at my place while he makes the move up to Arcata. So at least he'll still be in "the neighborhood" (couple hours' drive) for a while.

Here are 2 photos of a going-away party i threw at which Michael DJ'd (taken in front of my yurt Hedon's Eden, July '06).

D-Day

The day of Sky's departure from Heartwood has come and gone, and the photo at left was taken minutes before he began the drive to San Diego, where he plans on setting up a practice with one of his classmates, Lauren (from Wisconsin). His mom and dad were in one car, and he and another one of his classmates Marina, a super gal from Switzerland, were in the other. Ghost was getting used to life from the inside of a fully packed car, prowling about on top of boxes, blankets and pillows.

i'll try be back here later in the week to more fully fill you in on all that's gone down since last time. peace!

Meet Dashiell Hammett

When you hear the name "Dashiell Hammett," you would not be amiss if you were to think of the guy who wrote The Maltese Falcon, but there is now another Dashiell Hammett you should be aware of (see photo)!

DH is a 4-month-old standard poodle, proudly owned by Marshall and Kellyn, the gals who did 8 sessions of Cranio-Sacral work on me back in March and April of last year; they were on campus this weekend in order to facilitate an in-service workshop for the faculty, and had asked if i could watch over their poochie during the weekend. DH will be returning 1st week in Feb., when M & K return to teach the next Cranio intensive course, which i am considering taking again.

On our big walk together yesterday, i took DH down to the lower dorms, hoping to show him off to Sky and some of the other students. Mike Mastros and Lauren were there, and i was pleased when Ghost showed up. DH bounded around Ghost like the puppy dog that he is, and when we left, Ghost followed us all the way back to my place, about a ten-minute walk through the woods.

WELL, uploading that photo only took me AN ENTIRE EVENING. But i've now read all of the Help that Blogger supplies on the issue of uploading photos, and who knows, maybe clearing my browser's cache and cookies did do some good. i'd try to upload another photo but it's going on 1 am here, and that coffee i had at Christophe's place this afternoon while he, Mike Mastros, Maintenance-Sky and i watched the AFC championship game between the Colts and the Patriots has just about worn off now.

Whew, good thing too, I gotta be to work in 8 hours!

Meet Rosario

Ai yai yai ... Now is this one macho looking dude or what?? The photo was taken at "a working date farm and hidden garden spot steeped in the past" called China Ranch in Death Valley: looks pretty sweet huh: Rosario holding up a building ...

Got a 3-day weekend coming up, and learned last night that i can catch a ride to Santa Rosa with a 2nd-quarter student named Beth who's going down to SF, coming back Sunday afternoon. So a little more time to spend with this interesting and quite sweet man, oh boy!

Putting one's rocks under the moon

HaPpY nEw yEaR, eVeRyOnE!

i am quite pleased to be with you again, at least in spirit. The Billies have come and gone from their 18^th annual Heartwood New Year’s gathering, and a wonderful time was had by all, not least by your favorite correspondent. And it pleases me no end to tell you that my love-life may be taking an interesting turn.

i was talking about that guy Sky (at left in a photo from last August just before he left on a bike-camping trip, the same one when he found his kitty-cat Ghost) to a friend in the sauna the other day, explaining a few of the things that make him such an extraordinary individual, and one of those things is his unusual open-mindedness. What an amazing thing it was that we could have a relationship for as long as we did, as special it was, despite the 23-year age difference. And then it hit me: although we have kissed several times, and once did something a bit more than that, our relationship was almost totally non-sexual. And the next thing that hit me was: he was still friends with me, even though he quite obviously wasn’t attracted to me in that way. And i felt flattered, and even greater appreciation for this dude. But i've gone on and on about this guy long enough i guess. Thanks for your patience everyone. You'd understand better what i'm talking about if you got a chance to meet the dude. Body of a 24-year-old with the mind and heart of a much older man .. clearly someone who's lived many, many lifetimes.

Anyway, here’s the interesting turn to which i alluded. i mentioned last month having spent some time during last year’s Billy gathering with a guy named Rosario: he’d spent a night at my place which was quite delightful, and we were looking forward to seeing each other again this year. When i’d asked if he would be staying at my new and improved bachelor pad (Hedon’s Eden), he replied, “at least for one night.” Well, LSS, he ended up staying all four nights, and we both just loved the time we spent together.

Rosario is 39 and works as an occupational therapist in Santa Rosa, about 2½ hours south of here. His family is originally from Goa, in w. India, but he has lived in the US since an early age. He is handsome, and quite a few of the girls on campus were in a swoon when he was around! In fact, Mandy (a chef) was telling me in the store this afternoon how much fun it was when Rosario volunteered to work in the kitchen one day: while they were doing food-prep, he had shown her some dance-steps, and they were both singing along to old Michael Jackson tunes. So it was a nice surprise that when the phone rang just then, who should be on the other end but him!

So he’s tall, dark, handsome: brown eyes and an ever-present smile. Thinks of others. Politically aware. Intelligent, good sense of humor, etc. etc.

Well i won’t go on too much more, other than to say we are looking forward to seeing each other again, probably Jan. 12-14, when i next have a 3-day weekend. This last Heartwood gathering was his tenth, and he loves this place, so he might very well come back up here. But i don’t know Santa Rosa at all and usually look forward to opportunities to get off the mountain, and so i might very well go down there to visit him. i’ll keep you posted. Please keep me in your prayers, that i remember to take things slowly (i haven’t been very good at this part in the past), and allow things between us to develop organically, if they are meant to.

Another nice thing about the Billies’ visit was that i got in 7 hours of Swedish massage, spread over 4 sessions. At $60/hour, that was a nice little chunk of change i earned to pay down my debt. My first repeat-customer was also my first paying customer: a Billy from last year’s gathering who remembered my work and called a few days before the start of this year’s gathering to make an appointment! Word-of-mouth brought in the rest of the clients.

i had a 45-minute talk with Scott and Kathy yesterday, and i asked if they had made any resolutions. Scott said no, he didn’t make them at New Year’s; if he felt a need to change he could do that at any time of the year. i said that i used to feel the same way: why wait until the new year to make change, but had later realized that i am very much the kind of a person who needs deadlines. i found that i never made resolutions at any time of year! So i’ve gone back to making them at this time of year, even if it is what everyone else is doing! So here are some of mine for 2007:

go to the sauna twice a week
train for Avenue of the Giants marathon May 6
run a marathon with Mike Morone
pay off all debt
save money for trip to wedding on Kauai in August
give one hot stones massage per week
give one Swedish massage every two weeks
get one body-work session per week
make an altar
start reading and this time finish A Course in Miracles
get published in the Sun

Wondering by now what's with the title: putting one's rocks under the moon. Well, that's what i was doing a month or two ago: New Agers like myself believe that the waxing moon discharges a subtle energy which is beneficial in different ways. So some of us doing Hot Stones massage try to remember to put our rocks out a few days before the moon is full, so that our clients can also share in the good energy that the rocks soak up. i had to laugh when i was lugging my rocks out to a spot where they would get maximum exposure: it was such an obvious sign of how much i've changed over the years. If anyone had told me even five years ago that i'd be involved in such an activity, i would've looked at them like they were completely bonkers!

Anyway, that should hold you all till next time. i hope your New Year is filled with everything that your heart desires, and that serves your highest good. Peace!

ps - If you are American, please call your Congressperson THIS WEEK, and demand that they support the impeachment of George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, and Colin Powell.

Politicians thought it was proper to impeach Bill Clinton over a friggin' blowjob in the oval office, so they now should not hesitate to impeach this lot when the consequences are so much graver, for the lies that they have told which have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans and Iraqis, for starters. The desecration of the Constitution -- legalizing and exporting torture, the cancellation of habeus corpus -- is next on my list for why these five must be brought to justice. Please, do it for the sake of the country you would like to live in. Do it because it's the right thing to do. Do it for your kids and your grandkids. We can make America the kind of country it used to be, but only if we hold the feet of our Congresspeople to the fire. They're not going to be brave enough to do it on their own.

If you're unsure about who represents you in the House of Representatives (who alone have the power of impeachment; the trial would take place in the US Senate), go to Congress.org and put in your zip code. Then call the office and ask them their position on impeachment: if not, why not. You'll probably reach a machine; leave your number and ask them to call you back. Encourage others to do the same, this week and next. We need to put pressure on Congress right now to make it happen.

The Cat that Came Back

Apologies, dear Readers, for failing to file my November update. (And thanks, i think, to the Anonymous poster, who pestered me by writing only Promises, promises! At least ONE person was waiting to read what i'd been up to!)

Partly i was just busy with stuff, partly i was still adjusting to an unforeseen change in my primary relationship .. i've been a little more depressed than usual -- at times -- over the past month or two, while coming to terms with feelings of having been -- what's the best word? -- supplanted. i won't go into a lot of detail here .. i'll just say that i used to take up a fair amount of the leisure time of the guy who held my heart-strings, and then pretty suddenly, he just wasn't there anymore. i'd felt from the beginning (and told him this:) that my love was as unconditional as i'd ever felt it to be; those feelings have been put to the test during this past couple of months, and i'm happy to report that it is a test that i've passed. Although things did not continue in the way that i'd hoped they might, i have no doubt that we will always be friends. Some people are too good to let go of, and i only hope that the object of my affections feels similarly. But it really doesn't matter, in the end, if he does or not.

Big sigh.

The Hot Stones Massage intensive course was great, and i've given two sessions since then. It fits easily with the Swedish massage that i know and perform so well, and i look forward to offering it as often as i can fit it in with my work schedule. A group of gay guys called the Billies living in rural areas of n. California are returning to Heartwood at the end of this month for their 15th annual Heartwood retreat, and i hope to be able to get a couple of paying clients during their stay.

Speaking of which, i'd emailed a guy named Rosario who was at last year's Billy gathering to ask if he were planning on returning this year, and he called tonight to say that it's about a 75% chance he'll be back. i had my eye on this guy from the git-go last year, and was pleasantly surprised to learn that the attraction was mutual. We got the chance to spend some time together, and i'm really looking forward to hooking up with him again this year. He's Asian Indian, born in Tanzania, but spent most of his 30-some years in the US: really sweet guy, and dark and handsome (just the way i like 'em)!

Here at Heartwood, i learned late last week that the Welcome Center manager, Candice, who's been here like two months, has given her notice, and is planning on leaving to pursue bodywork studies up in Arcata. Heartwood's program is more than she can afford, and her partner begins his studies up there at the same time. So i'll be breaking in ANOTHER new manager within the next month or so, the 4th in about a year. i'm still not interested in doing the job myself. The pay differential is paltry, and besides, it's not what i came here to do. i like the low-stress, low-responsibility aspects of my job, and focus heavily on non-work aspects of life at Heartwood to find contentment and growth.

i haven't yet started running again after finishing the marathon Oct. 15. At first it was because i was doing a 7-day cleanse, then it was because of being busy with the Hot Stones course. Now i'm looking at starting training again after the New Year, with a view toward running the Avenue of the Giants marathon (over the same course) on May 6. On numerous occasions i've asked Mike Morone, that vexatious cock-knocker, if he would in fact be coming out here to run it with me, and still he deigns to ignore my entreaties.

But one of the reasons i remain friends with the dude is because he does things like purchasing 20 ten-dollar bookstore gift certificates and hiding them in the children's book section of the library in the disadvantaged neighborhood where he grew up. Our hometown newspaper even did a story on it. Oy, what a mensch!

Finally, i'd like to mention how wonderful it was to get cranio-sacral work from a couple of fourth-quarter students within the past week: a session from Brian Peterson at 8 pm last Tuesday, which actually didn't produce in me any noticeable changes right away. i went to the sauna afterward, and it wasn't until the next morning that i noticed how really wonderful i felt. People even commented on how great i looked.

Then i got another session yesterday from my friend Shaman, and this time i felt like i was floating immediately afterward. i again went to the sauna afterward before going to sleep, and the happy, peaceful feelings i felt last time are just as intense this time. i really feel that that first session with Brian was instrumental in helping to bring me out of my funk over the relationship stuff. It's experiences like these that compensate so hugely for the low pay staff here take home.

Speaking of which, Heartwood has come out of escrow, and it's offical: Bennett and Delphina (who herself is a former student and staff) are offically the new owners of Heartwood! They were recently married and are living on Hawai'i, but will be visiting here in a couple of weeks to take part in a big party celebrating their acquisition. Those of us here now are very excited to see the big changes in infrastructure, marketing, etc. that are so long overdue. The hot-tub and sauna will be upgraded or replaced, watsu facilities will be installed, the roads will be redone, solar panels will lessen Heartwood's reliance on the energy-grid .. and we will learn about other changes coming our way during their visit. This is a really great time to be here, and depending on what develops, i may extend my time here beyond my original two-year commitment.

Another friend who has been here about three years, Art Brown, has handed in his notice. He worked in the kitchen, but one of his side-jobs was to bring in bands to perform a couple of times a month, and he has asked me to take over this job. i'm happy to do it, if management will allow me a few hours off per week to devote to it, which i think they will. Art lives in a yurt even bigger than mine, with a stove and an oven, but it's way up at the top of a steep hill (about a ten-minute walk from my place), and a little further away from the center of campus than i think i'm willing to be. It'd be a big hassle to decamp and move all my stuff up there, esp. if i'm only planning on being here another six to nine months. i'm pretty happy and cozy here in my 20-foot yurt, so i'm probably gonna stay put.

OK catz and kittenz, that's all fo .. OH MY GOD i forgot to mention: Sky's kitty Ghost was in my care while Sky was away during the last break, and during the first couple of days he was back, she didn't come back after i'd put her out one night! (He wasn't in a big hurry to reclaim her, and i didn't mind having her around a bit longer.) She was on a kitty adventure for TEN DAYS before nonchalantly showing up one night at the Lower Dorms (where Sky lives)! She was as happy and healthy as if she'd just gone out a few minutes before, and i was very happy to call the local radio station and cancel the "lost kitty" ad we'd placed there. We were both dancing in the lodge Thanksgiving night when our friend Brenna waltzed in to tell first him and then me that Ghost had returned! i'd been really close to giving up hope, but was still praying and imagining that Ghost had found temporary refuge with a friendly neighbor. We were all so happy to have this cute little feline angel back amongst us. She really is a frolicsome and friendly little thing.

Oh, there's always one more thing to add, but it's going on midnight, and i'm gonna wrap this sucker. i'll close with warmest holiday greetings to all the Faithful Readership. Those of you with disposable income and the will to donate to the needy/deserving might check back here for my Christmas wish-list .. otherwise, see you all in 2007.

May you and all your loved ones enjoy even more peace of mind, prosperity,
love and joy in the coming days and weeks, and may you never lose sight of the
eternal divine love that suffuses your every molecule.

Damn, that moon came back fast!

Faithful Readers, i salute you.

And beg your forgiveness at not posting on time. i found out last Thursday that i could take the Hot Stones Massage intensive that i'd requested mid-October (today is the 3rd day of 7), and it is requiring all of my time and attention at this point. It is a really wonderful practice, not to mention highly marketable. i got a 90-minute session in class today, and was told that i was making funny cartoon noises while i slept on the table, completely zonked out. What a wondeful feeling to be oiled and then massaged with smooth hot rocks!

In any event, please do check back here next weekend for a more complete update. See you then!

Marathon Man

Marathon weekend began with me catching a ride Saturday morning with the first car that came along as i walked down Island Mountain Rd., a woman who was going all the way to Eureka. We stopped in Garberville for gas, where i gave her $10, and i was dropped off about a half-hour later at the Myers Flat exit off 101, 4.4 miles from where i had planned on spending the night: the Burlington Campground inside Humboldt Redwoods State Park.

After a hearty lunch in Myers Flat of a couple of turkey sandwiches and a container of pasta salad, i walked down the road, arriving at my destination around 1 pm. Everything was going just peachily, until i removed the tent that Sky had loaned me, to find that he had neglected to include the poles!

Fortunately it was neither that cold nor wet, and i managed to snuggle up warmly inside my trusty sleeping bag for a pretty good night's sleep (with a tarp Sky provided) that i'd lain on the ground both below and above me to keep dew away. i was pleased to wake up at 7:30 and find that there hadn't been any dew to speak of.

Sky has not yet been properly chastised for this glaring oversight.

The sponsors of the marathon, the Six Rivers Running Club, had set up a stand at a Visitors' Center next door where runners could pick up their race number. There was a really awful slide-show at 4 pm -- slides about 20 years old, all out of focus, no matter how far back they moved the projector -- after which i walked 2 miles down the road to the American Legion Hall in Weott (the Sinkyone name for the Eel River, still not sure what it means, though) for an all-you-can-eat pasta and salad dinner. Loaded up on 3 plates of spaghetti and sauce, a bowl of salad and a cookie before heading back for a good night's sleep.

Caught a ride in the morning with a couple of other runners, and was lined up with about 700 others for the start at 9 am: about 500 for a half-marathon, the rest for the full course.

What a delight to be running among the redwoods. The first half of the course ran next to the Eel River, and the view was breath-taking. i spent a few seconds at a time more than once simply gazing at the view down by the river, or the mountains above it, and most spectacularly, looking straight up at where the tops of the trees disappeared into the sky, some 350 feet above.

The Oct. 9 issue of The New Yorker has a great article -- which i was unable to find online -- called Tall for Its Age about the discovery this summer of three redwoods, all about an hour north of here in Redwoods National Park, and all taller than what had been until then the world's tallest tree, the Stratosphere Giant in Humboldt Redwoods State Park, a true giant looming at 369 feet tall. The new world's tallest tree, nicknamed the Hyperion, is 379 feet tall, about the height of a 40-story skyscraper.

i'd been averaging about 11.5 minutes per mile during training on dirt roads loaded with hills, and had expected to run faster the day of the race, what with the course all on pavement and mostly flat. The big question was: how much faster? i'd calculated that in order to finish in under 4 hours, i'd need to run each mile in an average time of 9:15, although the marathoner/writer Jeff Galloway had advised first-time marathoners to focus simply on finishing without injury, without any thought of time. Still i wondered: was i capable of a sub-4-hour finish time?

I thought that it was a good omen of success that my first mile split was 9:15! But my next thought was: great, now i only have to run 25 more of these. Which i managed to do: throughout the first 2/3 of the race anyway, i was either on pace or 3 or 4 minutes faster. Even with my one-minute walk breaks -- during the first hour, every 8 minutes, and for most of the remainder of the race every ten minutes -- i found myself to be gaining on runners who i repeatedly passed.

But i admit that it was a bit of a let-down that two runners who i'd looked forward to finally leaving behind made a RIGHT turn at the 13.1-mile mark, to finish the half-marathon, while i made a LEFT turn to do the second half of the course, and suddenly found myself quite alone on the road!

The second half was even more inspiring. More giant redwoods, but on a much smaller road, with the trees coming right up to road-side, giving the illusion (?) of greater speed. But it was a bit more lonely. I only came upon one or two other runners during miles 14 and 15.

i could tell that my pace was beginning to falter around mile 21 or so, and that my margin for finishing below 4 hours was shrinking. When i came upon a young guy who was walking, i said, "Dude! Help me to finish in under four hours!" and he said, ok, started running again, and Kenji from Walnut Creek and i ran side-by-side for the rest of the race.

It was great to have someone to talk to, and to have something take our minds off of the pain our legs were feeling. i'm quite sure that running with him probably shaved a good five or ten minutes or so off my time in that last half-hour. i'd stopped taking walk breaks by this time, realizing that every minute was precious. We urged each other onward, but in the end it wasn't quite enough; i finished in 4:02.51, Kenji a couple of seconds behind. i was 5th in my age-group out of 11. i don't recall now my overall place; my time per mile worked out to 9:15. That damn two-tenths! Thank you very much Queen Alexandra!

The original marathon distance had been 25 miles, but for the London Olympics of 1908, the course was extended by 1.2 miles so that her friggin' majesty could watch the start from Buckingham Palace. The new distance became official: 26 miles, 385 yards. (The marathon is one of two sporting events that have taken place in every one of the modern Olympic games. Anyone who can name the other sport gets the opportunity to submit the answer with question to the makers of Trivial Pursuit.)

I hobbled around for a few minutes after the finish before lying down on a Heartwood massge table! This marathon has long been one of the public events that Heartwood students show up at to get in some practice, and i was there last year for just that.

Members of the Faithful Readership will recall that it was my old high school buddy Mike Morone who got me interested in doing a marathon; runners at last year's HRM mentioned Galloway's book to me, after i'd told them i was thinking about doing one.

It was very nice to be on the receiving end of a massage this year. i got one massage from a first-quarter student named Deborah, and then a second one from Michael Smith, a part-time instructor at Heartwood who has been organizing Heartwood's participation in the HRM for several years. My calves were pretty tender, but after the second massage, i was able to walk fairly normally again, although still with some soreness. And still more back to normal this morning.

Headed up to Eureka with 3 first-quarter students -- Brenna, Mike and Jessica -- to celebrate Jessica's 20th birthday, at the Eel River Brewery. A coupla pints of ale and some fish and chips were just what my doctor would've ordered, if i had one.

Now for a few days' rest before deciding which marathon to run next. Mike Morone, take note: the Avenue of the Giants Marathon -- same course, different day -- takes place on May 6, 2007.

IN CLOSING: a special thank-you to you, Mike Morone, without whose inspiration and encouragement i would most likely have never attempted such an endeavor. Training for and actually running a marathon has been an immensely positive, uplifting and huge (!) change in my life-style, and (if i may humbly say so), i am a much better person, in more ways than one, because of it.

ten / five / oh six

i thought it would liven things up a bit if, instead of giving a run-down of what i thought were the major things that’ve happened since the last full moon (as is my wont), that i would instead describe the events of a single day. And the one i’ve chosen is last Thursday, Oct. 5.

i’d read in an email from Democracy Rising the night before that Oct. 5 was planned to be a day of nationwide protest, over legislation that the US Senate passed the previous Thursday, involving (perhaps you’ve heard) the loss of habeus corpus, increased legalization and codification of torture (i’m still in shock that this is even being debated! As a writer on Common Dreams recently wrote: “What’s next – the pros and cons of child molestation?”

i was really upset about what i read, and started thinking about taking the day off work in order to go up to Arcata, a little town next the Humboldt county seat, and join in protests that were called for noon. After breakfast i went up to the store and told my boss Megan of my plans. It meant the store being closed for the entire day, since Megan was scheduled to be interviewing for her replacement, but i felt strongly that if ever there were a time to skip work in order to devote one’s energy to the bigger picture, this was it.

She only asked that i add to the store-closed sign something about why the store was closed, which i did.

Caught a ride up with my friend and recent graduate Candace, who’d been back at Heartwood to give a talk on eating disorders. Former kitchen manager Art Brown was along for the ride, at least as far as Redway, where he’d heard that a march to Garberville was planned for noon, a distance of about 2 miles. He carried a sign he’d made that said, Bush sucks ass. (!)

After dropping him off, Candace and i arrived about 12:45 on the plaza in Arcata – a block in the center of town with a couple of royal palm trees, some benches, and a statue of a dead white guy – to find about 5 people marching around with signs, and a smaller handful standing on one corner, talking about issues.

One guy let me borrow his sign which i carried around the plaza a couple of times, before deciding that i’d like my own. Got a sheet of carboard from a bookstore, borrowed markers from a “peace and justice center” that was just up the street, and made a sign that said (on one side),

GOT HABEUS CORPUS? (Not anymore you don’t.)

And on the other:

U.S. – Torture R Us.

Candace and i were only gone about 15 minutes, but when we got back the protesters had left, and it wasn’t long after that that the others had left, too. But i’d gone up there to do my thing, and so i walked around the plaza for another couple hours or so, holding up my sign so drivers and pedestrians could see it. One of three teenage guys across the street read my sign and said, “I don’t even know what habeus corpus is!” and so i went and explained it to them. They were cool. Lots of positive feedback, but a few people pretending they didn’t see me. But protesting against government policies in a place like Arcata is a lot like preaching to the choir. It’s a pretty hippified, left-wing-leaning place.

Around 3:30 i walked down the street to grab a burrito, then got my butt onto a 101-South entrance ramp, this one close to Humboldt State Univ., which (i realized) was the ideal place to hitch out of Arcata from. Took about 15 minutes to get a ride into Eureka (about 15 minutes away by car), got a ride from a really handsome dude named Jules, who went out of his way to drop me off in front of the K-Mart at the edge of town, the best place for hitchers headed south.

Stalled out at this point! Waited from 4:30 till 7 pm – rush hour! – till i finally got a ride from an older guy named Bill, headed to Sacramento from Medford, Oregon. This guy has made his money from a process he’s patented involving putting a plastic surface over the concrete flooring at dairy farms. He had two degrees, in Agriculture and another science, i think, and has a patent on a certain kind of fertilizer he’d developed. Said Chemistry was what had made him wealthy. Since i’d mentioned the Redwoods Marathon on Oct. 15, we talked a lot about running – he said he’d run a bunch of five-minute miles when he was in his 20’s. His life has been pretty good, although a 17-year-old nephew who he’d been training to take over his business killed himself not long ago. So it’s not all roses. But he’s happily married, has also made money sailing people’s yachts to them after purchase – his kids grew up on yachts, he said – and some friends and he are doing the figures on whether or not to lease land from the Bureau of Land Management in order to exploit a vein of silver they’d found there. He had a BMW and a Mercedes at home, but liked driving this new VW he had. It was a gorgeous car, really powerful and smooth.

Anyway, got into Garberville by 8:30. Only a few minutes till i got a ride to the top of the hill 8 miles away, and waited there under an almost full moon for a full hour – still 13 miles from Heartwood! – with hardly any traffic: 3 cars passed me during the half-hour i waited. Just as i told my guardian angels that if the next car didn’t stop i was going to start walking – while worrying that they would then think that i didn’t trust them to provide for me the ride i’d requested – a car full of Heartwoodies stopped! Third-quarter student Mike Mastros at the wheel, returning student Hannah Lee, and two staff-dudes in back: “Maintenance Sky” (widely referred to as such in order to distinguish him from "Student Sky;" i just call him “the other Sky”)! They had room for one more, and i was back on campus by 9:30.

A roots-reggae band named Vegitation was performing in the Lodge, and after devouring the dinner that i’d phoned ahead to have set aside for me, i boogied like there was no tomorrow! Man these guys were awesome. The best part was student-Sky showing up about ½ hour before the end of their second set, who also proceeded to shake his student butt in a most professional manner. Man, when he tapped me on the shoulder as i was dancing and i turned around to see who it was, we hugged like we hadn’t seen each other in years! Later that night, i thought about how i wanted to tell him that, although we’d hugged and i’d said something like Hey man!! that what i was feeling inside was the urge, restrained, to KISS him and tell him that his showing up had made me .. "insanely happy" is i think the best way to describe it. Because those two things were exactly what i was feeling at the time. (But i didn’t.)

There were 2 really great messages from dear friends waiting for me on the answering machine when i finally got home around 11:30, that seemed to make a wonderful day even more perfect. i can’t remember the last time i fell into bed with such an overwhelming feeling of gratitude.

Oh, i could go on. i haven’t said a thing about going to Earthdance the weekend of 9/15-17 with Student Sky. My birthday was Sunday, his was Monday, and the whole weekend was a lot of fun.

i’ve revived my own bodywork practice, and have given 5 massages in the past two weeks or so. Feels great, and have gotten some great feedback, too. i’m going to ask permission tomorrow to take a one-week Hot Stones intensive course offered at the beginning of November by an instructor named Erica who was in the sauna tonight with me. She’s running the half-marathon on Sunday, and we’re going on an hour’s run tomorrow morning.

By happy coincidence i ran into her this morning as i was returning to work from a tea-break at the Lodge: she’d left her class looking for a “table-angel” to demonstrate meridian massage to her students, and after clearing it with Megan, i got a really wonderful half-hour massage on my back and butt. (It was a slow day at the Welcome Center.)

Ah such is life at a massage school. My big task over the next few months: bringing clarity and focus to my vision of a transition out of Heartwood, by this time next year.