Graduation approaches

Yikes, it's been 3 weeks since the last time i posted. Sincere apologies to any remaining members of the Faithful Readership. It's been incredibly busy what with graduation fast approaching, and this will definitely be the last blog update until Nov. 10, a date you should mark on your calendar. I believe that at that date i will switch from weekly posts to posting every ten days. But check back on Nov. 10 for the latest on that.

Before getting to a general summary of what's gone down here in the past three weeks, i want to describe for you:

Just This Day
i got up about 7 this morning and again made time for a ten-minute meditation. Showered and dressed and made it up the hill for breakfast in the Lodge by 8, and was walking down the road away from Heartwood by about 8:30. Got picked up by the first car that came along, which happened to be driven by my buddy Matt Reagan -- long-time readers will remember my mention of Matt way back from my first days here, who is still entertaining rock-and-roll dreams which i'm betting are not so far from being realized.

Matt dropped me off in front of my bank, where i withdrew $60 from the atm out front. i then walked about five minutes to the entrance-ramp onto 101-South, and had not been there more than five minutes, UKIAH sign in hand, when an 18-wheeler pulls over to pick me up! A guy about my age named Roy was hauling a rig for Mervyn's to Ukiah, two hours' drive south, and said i was one of three hitchhikers he'd picked up in the past three years, after having been out of work for three years after a long career in printing, eclipsed by the rise of personal computing. Friendly and talkative guy, absolutely loving the tremendous view of this part of the country. He grew up in the Bay Area, his long-time girlfriend has two more years before being able to retire as Postmaster in Oakland, and he's enjoying making runs for Mervyn's five days a week between Redding, Tahoe, Ukiah and San Diego. Makes about $60K, and said that trucking owner-operators could make as much as $110K, but that's in exchange for working about 28 days of every month.

What a great guy. Told me when he dropped me off that if the address i was seeking turned out to be on the other side of town to wait there, and that he'd be back that way in about 20 minutes with a new rig, pick me up and drop me closer to where i was going!

Turned out though that the office of Norcal Healthcare at 527 S. State St. was a ten-minute walk from where i was, and i got there just about noon. They weren't expecting me until 2 -- i'd phoned before leaving Garberville and told them i'd be hitching -- but were able to see me as soon as i'd paid the $125 fee and filled out some paperwork.

So, reason for the visit? To obtain form 215. Two-fifteen is the name of the proposition that Californians voted into state law not so long ago, providing for the medical use of marijuana. The Supreme Court in Washington has ruled that California physicians cannot be prosecuted for recommending that their patients use marijuana; posting one on your property allows you to grow as much pot as you can in a space ten feet (about 3 meters) square. If you obtain 215s for others, then you can grow for them as well. Michael has promised a $3000 bonus for all of his workers who obtain one, and i'm only hoping that i haven't obtained mine too late, since he has started harvesting. But even if he denies me the full bonus due to tardiness on my part, no problems. He has done so much for me and for Sandy until now that getting the bonus or not really makes very little difference to me.

i was waiting to be called into the examination room when the receptionist said to a couple who were getting ready to leave how they didn't often get people all the way down from Garberville. I said, "Are you from Garberville? Are you driving back up there?!" And Lee and Honey Rose ended up taking me back up!

Two miniature dachshunds named Tito and Ruby made themselves at home in my lap during the drive back, and Lee and Honey Rose celebrated obtaining their 215s by rolling and lighting up a joint for the drive back.

Some time ago, Honey Rose had had to pay about $350 in a fine and legal fees after having been caught by a traffic cop with a small quantity. The cop had been coming from the opposite direction and had SMELLED the pot as he'd driven past (hot summer day, and the windows down)! But it was a first-time offense.

Anyway they now figured that if they were going to continue to smoke then they should get their 215s. They grow just enough for themselves, and are not terribly interested in selling it to others. They'd moved up from the Big Sur primarily because Monterey County hassles pot-smokers and -growers a lot more than Humboldt County does. They have two sons who studied massage therapy down there at the world-famous Esalen Institute (where i enjoyed late-night saunas more than once while a student at the Monterey Institute), but who are better known in the area for their work in carpentry.

Anyway, it was great fun to share a ride and two tokes of herb (in recognition of obtaining my 215, and in honor of the gods of this sacred herb!) with them. They dropped me off at the vet's clinic, which is conveniently located ON the road leading to Heartwood, and i had not walked more than ten minutes -- incidentally, it was a GORGEOUS warm sunny day, and i never once needed to put on the pullover i'd brought with me -- when my third ride of the day pulled over! Brand new GM pickup, driven by a handsome though pot-bellied guy with a jug of orange juice in his lap. He wasn't feeling very well and was kind of quiet, but was friendly enough, and took me almost all the way to the general store, which was a long way.

I hadn't walked more than 3 or 4 minutes when my last ride of the day picked me up: two young guys in another pickup. They needed to stop at the general store to fill up a big tank with propane, but were headed out to a farm about an hour's drive past Heartwood, and were amazed to hear that i was just returning from having hitched to Ukiah that morning!

Jimmy, the driver, has run his own surf shop down in Cabo, Baja Californiafor the past ten years or so, and has been up in Humboldt for the past month doing .. well, what would your first guess be?! His companion Sean was a student at Heartwood about ten years ago. Nice guys, and good for some massages no doubt, along with whoever's out there working on their operation. He gave me his card, and i will get back in touch with him after i've found a woman who'd be willing to go out to their farm and do some massages. When he asked specifically for a woman i thought i should make sure he understood that the massage we do was strictly non-sexual massage, but he was cool; just stating a preference to be massaged by a woman rather than a man. To be understood, esp. in this culture. i will probably be seeing them again 10/29 at this huge Halloween party that happens not far from here, attended by a couple hundred people who live on the mountain, and which by all accounts is not to be missed.

Jimmy and Sean dropped me at the turnoff to Heartwood, and i walked the last stretch into Heartwood property in ten minutes, and was in my room and curling up for a snooze by 4:30! Not bad for a day's work, but it meant my missing Sandy this week, i think only the second week since having arrived here that i haven't seen her. Which leads to my next big news ...

Got the job!
i was offered the Welcome Center position Sunday evening, since their first choice, my work-study buddy Vanessa, could not give them the commitment they needed. However, we still need to work out where i might be able to live with Sandy. Staff is incredibly anti-pet, i guess having experienced problems in the past. They only made an exception with this new instructor and her TWO dogs because they'd had a hard time filling that position.

In any event, if they continue to insist that Sandy will not be allowed here, i will at least take up the offer made to me by a former Heartwoodie named Lorraine who picked me up while i was hitching about a month back; she lives about a mile or two from here, and esp. with the cold and wet winter approaching, it will at least be a lot easier to see Sandy at Lorraine's place (and more frequently) than it has been up till now. She is an incredibly nice woman with a great reputation, and i'm imagining that her house would be ideal for Sandy. i will do everything i can though to find a way for me to live with my dog again. We both deserve that.

Graduation -- for the three remaining Work/Study students: me, Hope and Vanessa -- and for four students of other (longer) programs: Karen, Laura, Carly and the German gal Christina is Nov. 3. Amanda and Crystal, maybe Tim Diko: you're coming, right?! (Consider this your engraved invitations! I know it's kind of late to get time off and make travel reservations .. i'd really meant to get more notice to you, but will not be overly distraught if you can't make it. i'm not really expecting anyone to be able to come such a distance.) Abdulkarim how about it?!

As far as the rest of classes go, we have finished our study of Swedish, and are getting brief intros to deep-tissue and Thai massage. And workwise, i will probably switch from Househealing to the Welcome Center next week.

Well, that's all for now. i'll be co-hosting with Word the next Coffee House, Oct. 27, and will share with you my material after the fact. And so to close this with a joke i heard recently:

Q: What do Little Miss Muffet and Saddam Hussein have in common?
A: They both have curds (Kurds) in their whey (way).