Where Have All The Flowers Gone?

I picked up an old hippy yesterday hitchhiking down the old highway to Anderson. He jumped in the bus and then immediately went into his 40 year long running diatribe. "America says that people work only for money. But check it out: those who don’t have money work the hardest, and those who have money take very long lunch hours.
When I was born I had food on my table and a roof over my head. Most babies born in the world face hunger and cold. What is the difference between them and me?
Every well-off white American better ask himself that question or he will never understand why people hate America.
The enemy is this dollar bill right here in my hand.
Now if I get a match, I’ll show you what I think of it.
This burning gets some political radicals very uptight. I don’t know exactly why. They burn a lot of money putting out leaflets nobody reads." Wow! That guy was real different.

A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing

....Dame Van Winkle ceaselessly browbeat Rip for his failings, saying he was bringing the family to ruin. Rip would shrug and go outside, out of range of her scolding tongue. She treated his dog, Wolf, the same way, and Wolf began to resemble Rip in submissiveness. Rip often sought refuge with a village group that convened on a bench in front of an inn to gossip, tell stories, and on one occasion discuss events reported in a newspaper left behind by a traveler.

Missing Persons

Where do we go from here?
It seems so all too near
Just as far beyond as i can see
I still don't know what this all means to me

I don't know where to go
I don't know what to do
And i don't even know the time of day
I guess it doesn't matter anyway

life is so strange
Destination unknown
When you don't know
your destination
Something could change
It's unknown
and then you won't know
Destination Unknown

Why include Ants in rapid biodiversity assessment?

Ants have numerous attributes that make them ideal
for biodiversity studies. These attributes include high
diversity, numerical and biomass dominance in
almost every habitat throughout the world, a fairly
good taxonomic knowledge base, ease of collection,
stationary nesting habits that allow them to be
resampled and monitored over time, sensitivity to
environmental change, and important functions in
ecosystems, including interactions with other
organisms at every trophic level.
Ants have numerous attributes that make them ideal
for biodiversity studies. These attributes include high
diversity, numerical and biomass dominance in
almost every habitat throughout the world, a fairly
good taxonomic knowledge base, ease of collection,
stationary nesting habits that allow them to be
resampled and monitored over time, sensitivity to
environmental change, and important functions in
ecosystems, including interactions with other
organisms at every trophic level.

Ant Convention

We are starting day 2 of the annual Ant Survey, out here by Motion Creek. Got some good rain out here in the night. Everyone thinks we may have extra good ant viewing opportunity today thanks to it. Come on out if Ya get a chance. Bring your own magnifying glass!

Store Window Dummies

As a boy growing up in Hollywood, I was (innocently) subjected to a lot of (incidental) fashion boutique manikin viewing. One particularly disturbing Store window dummy was actually an animatronic, little shoe cobbler. I hated the sight of that retched little guy so much I would throw a tantrum if my folks even started to drive down the street he was on. My little poodle-shitzu dog is particularly terrified of the image of this one. I am not Rod Serling. You however have just entered, The Twilight Zone.

IT'S HARD FOR SOME MEN TO FINISH SENTENCES

Sometimes a man can't say
What he . . . A wind comes
And his doors don't rattle. Rain
Comes and his hair is dry.

There's a lot to keep inside
And a lot to . . . Sometimes shame
Means we. . . Children are cruel,
He's six and his hands. . .

Even Hamlet kept passing
The king praying
And the king said,
"There was something. . . ." Robert Bly.

Existential Reckoning

In the words of Neil Peart, I've been doing some serious existential reckoning of late. As many of you know, I cannot and will not, allow stock, over-the-counter thinking, writing, acting, or living into my tiny-little, flying-fortress-Of mystery. Every bit of information is thoroughly masticated and then, triple-filtered through the poly-phosphoric membrane. I have recently learned of an analogue transmitter on top of the mighty Shasta Bally that will allow us to once again receive a signal via rabbit-ear antennae. I, for one, am mildly delighted. That is all. OVER!

DOING HARD TIME IN A ZEN MONASTERY

Almost everybody that reads a little about Zen starts thinking that NOTHING exists because everything is inherently empty, so what we perceive as reality must be delusion. But emptiness is the absence of independent existence. What that means is SOMETHING must exist and one of the qualifications of that existence is emptiness...the absence of independent existence is only possible because there is SOMETHING that exists...otherwise there would be no 'need' for the absence of independent existence, and if there was no absence of independent existence, then everything would not be empty.

Self Portrait Completed!

As an art major of the 70's, my ramblings took me to far off lands, in search of artistic expression. Although mainly limited to the West coast, I did do a bit running around in the South-West (New Mexico) and North to Denver. I tended to fancy art of a decidedly psychedelic form. San Francisco as you might well imagine, was a regular destination of mine. Of course, that was all before the "EVENT" that rendered most of "Me" either dead, diseased or dumb. Now three decades later, I have finally completed my thesis. I give you, my self-portrait.

It's Almost TIME!

The hourglass uses the flow of sand to measure the flow of time. They were used in navigation. Ferdinand Magellan used 18 glasses on each ship for his circumnavigation of the globe (1522). Incense sticks and candles were, and are, commonly used to measure time in temples and churches across the globe. Waterclocks, and later, mechanical clocks, were used to mark the events of the abbeys and monasteries of the Middle Ages. Richard of Wallingford (1292–1336), abbot of St. Alban's abbey, famously built a mechanical clock as an astronomical orrery about 1330. Great advances in accurate time-keeping were made by Galileo Galilei and especially Christiaan Huygens with the invention of pendulum driven clocks.

Layin' down The Law... in my opinion.

I find it extremely important that my message be heard. It is perhaps simple, yet manifold. I would like to start with Helmet wearing while riding bicycles. I believe that it is important to do so. Second, I cannot overstate the importance of trail etiquette while riding where pedestrians are walking. Last but not least I would like to state my belief in the Holy Trinity, as I understand it today. Revelation tells us that there is in God a true fatherhood that belongs to the First Person alone. From all eternity, the First Person has been generating the Son, who is not a mere attribute of God, but a distinct Person. This is clear from the opening words of the Fourth Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Proceeding from the Father and the Son is the Holy Spirit.

Ridin' with the Good Ol' boys

This past Saturday brought some strange chemistry to our morning bike ride in the form of a couple of crazy old, California-Oakie, Good-Ol-Boy, bicycle riders joining us. The endless, conversations, yelled at the top of their lungs back and forth in that decidedly Bakersfield-twang about Big-Block vs. Small-block and 4-11 Posi-traction vs. IRS with 373 ratio... well finally I just decided that if you can't beat 'em, join 'em! Cheers!

Diet For A Madman

Eat more, loose weight! 8am; 2 pieces wheat berry bread, toasted, pat o' butter Tbsp. o' jam. 9am; 1 Banana, 10 raw almonds. 10am; 1 Oz. cheese, 10 whole-grain chips. Noon; 2 pieces Nut and grain bread, fresh basil leaves, homegrown tomato, mayo sandwich. 1pm; 1 celery, 1 carrot. 2:30pm; 1 apple, 1 Tbsp. cashew butter. 4pm; 1 Oz. cheese, 10 whole-grain chips. 6pm; Homemade Burrito- Flour tortilla, basmati rice refried black beans, pepper-jack cheese, shredded cabbage, green onion, sour cream. 8pm; Dessert- small bowl o' Natures Path Organic Hemp Plus Granola, 1/2 cup 2% milk. Drink Green tea and water all day

September Morn...

Stay for just a while

Stay, and let me look at you

It's been so long, I hardly knew you

Standing in the door

Stay with me a while

I only want to talk to you

We've traveled halfway 'round the world

To find ourselves again


September morn

We danced until the night became a brand new day

Two lovers playing scenes from some romantic play

September morning still can make me feel that way


Look at what you've done

Why, you've become a grown-up girl

I still can hear you cryin'

In the corner of your room

And look how far we've come

So far from where we used to be

But not so far that we've forgotten

How it was before


September morn

Do you remember how we danced that night away

Two lovers playing scenes from some romantic play

September morning still can make me feel that way