I’ve written a new short story. Want to read it and give me your comments? Great. I made a pdf for you.

You can get it here.

My Mom asked me to ride along to the bigger city with her today. She wanted a little help picking out a new fax for her office. She decided on a Panasonic. It looked pretty heavy-duty to me, which is what she needs.

Then we stopped by Costco, a store for those who secretly question their own mortality to an extent that justifies buying stuff is great quantity.

Joe, if you’re reading this, I got a bag of almonds the size and shape of Bush’s cabeza. Excluding his ears. We’re also fixed pretty well for TP and paper towels, so those annoying messes aren’t such a problem anymore. Forgot the DVD-Rs, though. Dang.

Well Tasha and I are home again. It was a long drive, about 450 miles, but Tasha slept most of the way and I just sat there. Mom did the driving.

I write that just to write that the San Joaquin/Sacramento valleys that make up the core of California have their own vague beauty. I wish their was a better stewardship over their environmental future.

need to know what time it is? Here you go.

Here’s to my brother Joe and his crew for cutting, dragging and stacking a veritable shitload of brush and wood today. The forest about the manse is more feng shui. Joe and Dad can pick up a Manfiest Destiny merit badge for their efforts. And Linda swings a pretty mean chainsaw.

I’m blogging again from deep in the wooded Sierra foothills, between Sacramento and Reno. It was a beautiful, sunny Spring day here. At sundown, there were wild turkeys calling from the crown of a hill to the northwest. It all makes me wish I had one of Gary Snyder’s books of poems with me.

Rocks the same blue as sky

Of young fir.

“Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph.”

-Haile Selassie

was one of my favorite books as a kid. It’s been about a third of a century since I read it, but I remember I loved it. What a great adventure. The kids win by being loving and smart, not physically strong or violent. Watching the Disnet version on TV tonight was good fun.

I haven’t been blogging much lately because I’ve been busy. My brother has been staying with me, and we’ve been having more fun than you can have at the computer, even with a cordless mouse. … Sorry about that.

Learning is like rowing upstream: not to advance is to drop back.

-Chinese proverb

I’ve heard from people wiser than me that if a person experiences a spiritual awakening and does not change his life accordingly, he’s doomed. … What do you think?

Ever tasted seawater? If you’ve been swimming in the ocean, you have. Yuck. But we’re in a nasty drought here in Southern California — again — so some of us will have to use it eventually. This article explains the emergence of desalination as a response to drought in our area. Coincidentally, I was just talking with my brother about this yesterday, and we were under the impression that the plant in Santa Barbara was sold or scrapped after it was built about 12 years ago. It wasn’t finished in time to help in that drought. It looks like we were mistaken. This web site says it’s operational and still belongs to the City. Which is good.

The night is still. I close the windows

to hear the frame of the house

breathing. The little whine of the hard

drive, the dog licking her paws. This

goes on for hours. I hear the filament

burning in the lamp and the corn

stalks of the carpeting rustle in a gentle

prarie wind. I’m ready. I throw open

the window and listen for you.

The freeway, the hum of tires, stuttering

jake break of a Peterbilt; the surf,

an owl’s breath, respirations of stone

and a hundred thousand beating hearts.

In all of it, you keep perfectly still.

So quiet, so bright in memory. I

have fallen in love with nothing.

Kyle Kimberlin

10/11/2000

How is it possible that a US Supreme Court Justice can be out jogging around without bodyguards?

CNN.com