da good life

all that could make it better right now is if i could post the short videos i took of james in the dining room dancing & singing to "sugar blues," then dancing with the dog!! oh well; these pix will do for now til i can figure out the video uploading. :)

they really should have a series, these two :)

summertime

...and the living is easy...

after james's dental surgery

before james's dental surgery

-thought there were no songs about summer i really like, but that one is a real keeper, tho its melancholy does NOT reflect my summer. because of my age, when thinking of summer songs what jumped to mind was "in the summertime," which was by a guy named mungo jerry (!), & of course eddie cochran's tune, with its infectious hammer but lyrics to which i do not relate.

thomas & i in texas

-this summer mostly has been a staycation at casa di page, tho did take a trip to texas (so many, many pictures to upload!! my phone has been broken for months, i have a perfectly good one waiting to use, why don't i just upload the dang pix??? it's stumping me, the perverse procrastination bug that slugs my gourd, my life in pix stuck in a busted little phone for no good reason...) we got a swamp cooler, i built a backyard covered patio, so the house has been nothing

dad at his 1st book signing :)

but comfy, & the mountain breezes, well, i often writes about them, they is so wonderful. makes it hard to do much, tho!!!

my shady patio oasis

henri herbert in austin at continental club.
henri looks just like dad when he was 25.

-yes, it's an easy, lazy, overcast day up here. yesterday i chauffeured mom & dad to dad's first book signing at the museum of african-american art in south LA. the week before, i was in austin for my 24th sober bd at a convention, goofing around at thrift stores, nearly dying on lady bird trail running in the scorching heat, listening to music, eating lotsa good food, then visiting cousin tushi & family in granbury, sleeping, eating, running in a swampy drizzle... the week before that? who knows; don't remember. horror movies on tv, laying around, runs with the dog, reading, i tell ya, it's just been a lazy, lazy summer.

where i almost died from the heat on
the lady bird trail in austin

here are some pix i already had uploaded elsewhere & therefore easily can plop down here. i hope soon i'll resume chronicling more often because... my memory's not so good. i will just lose track of my life if i don't put it down here or on social media someplace.

me & my friend tjarko in austin 

mama & i at dad's book signing

this book is at dollar tree! run out & get one!

rae, eric, thomas, tushi, me at babe's

-there's lots to do planning for school since i'm gonna have a combination class, but it's in a back cabinet of my mind for now waiting for the home stretch of summer when i'll be forced to devote all attention to it... hope i'll do a not just good, but great job this year at school & be a real asset to the kids and to el tejon... i want to do well for them & to help my dear friend corey: she's gonna be our principal!! we can affect some positive change all together with hard work, heart, dedication. :)
just adulted some, paid all the bills, so now's time to go outside & work in the giant yard some more, which is so much fun... this week's family vacation, so gotta get the pad tidy inside & out for pet sitter,







 and that's about it for now.

blablablablablablablabla

no exciting or even boring pix to post, just feel like writing. need to uncramp my fingers. been putting stairs in on the east side of the house & indulging in other projects, so've been abusing my fingers for about a week now. got a fantastic massage several days ago from a secret masseuse here in town (she gets so much business that she doesn't advertise & in fact keeps her successful healing operation on the down-low... shhhh) -- it really was one of the best massages i've had ever, & at one point she said, "have you heard of CBD?" and i almost shrieked with excitement. you might know CBD is the component of cannabis that is non-psychoactive. it's used for pain relief. so she rubbed some on my back and thumbs. and the pain was abated! for some hours!
of course i bought a little can of the stuff & really should apply some right now. i've been on the CBD trail for some time but am too much of a cheapskate to have ever bought much. it seems to be pretty effective, & i have a dear friend who's lost A TON of weight on the stuff, which is likely another reason i've not bought much, being wary of triggering eating disorders. no need to chase that old gong around.
so back to the stairs, on one of the dirt trails i jog someone had dumped a buttload of bricks. james helped me get some one time, but we didn't finish the job & it's been bugging me for a while, so last week i went & got ALL of the remaining bricks, about 100 of them, because i'm insane that way & love little more than working furiously until i can't move. (used to love to do that when i had my own band. and if i ever front a band again, i will love it again!!! some blues express shows have been like that, but it happened A LOT when i had my buddy-guitarist phil hickerson playing & we were like the dynamic duo before my band blew up in my face because i was a selfish stupid f**ing moron at that time...) anyways, exercise & yardwork & furious building projects & certain other activities all bring this wonderful release of sore, aching muscles & tired, drained brain. and don't know about you, but i'm just better all around when my brain is drained. then the god feeling can come in...
so for the last week i've been working on all kinds of house stuff with mostly found stuff & my lack of expertise but love for trouble-shooting & macgyvering... for today i spend many hours trying to hang faux wrought iron pieces in a strip along the east wall but the dang masonry nails kept popping out & the pieces were heavier than i thought & kept crashing 10 feet down to the dirt & going up & down up & down the ladders was getting wearying, but i managed to get some pieces framing the bottom of a window after much trial & error; then added more fencing on a curiously short area of the back fence (did the earth sink there? dunno) then another enormous wooden piece to the "new" gate & busted up some old chairs & used fragments to make decorative end pieces for the gate & found an old shower curtain ring for a latch & then decided i think i'll paint! so mixed some old nasty green paint that had had a bunch of blue poured in it, but after painting my "new" deck & brick stairs for a while, listening to sister rosetta tharpe & old-timey delta blues from pandora (yesterday was charlie feathers, the day before a blaster concert), the paint started to mix back into its original dusky-oaky green, which was nice.
then i cleaned up the mess i made, having learned from my dear father that that's what a person ALWAYS should do before relaxing, & after admiring everything for a minute came inside to eat but don't feel like cooking so here i type away. i think i promised the dog i would run her at the high school (this time with a spare key so i don't lose it like i did last week with the cross country team, but thanks to my friends christy & corey, who lent me a jeep & a metal detector, i was able to find the key after an hour of sweeping the bushes). anyways, yes, i think that'll be a terrific way to ensure that by bedtime i can hardly lift a limb from physical exhaustion.
ah... the luxuries of being a middle-class american. (am i? my friends think i'm poor.)
on top of all this fun, on the way back from the HS, doggy & i can now go to the DRIVE THROUGH down at the truck stop & get a 99 cent frosty!!!!
"that [wo]man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest." (thoreau)

not such a good blablablabla day...

it's been one of those weird days. i spoke to one my oldest, closest friends & was shocked to find that person significantly altered -- i hope just for now -- by illness & medication. damned evil bigpharma! damned over-medication!!!! i got off the phone just shook up. my brilliant, brusque friend: so changed right now. i pray just for right now! it was dizzying.
for comfort, i started reading about a book i've long-loved, man's search for meaning, then ended up on jstor reading a scholarly article that shook me to my core. when the author started linking frankl to a relative of a head nazi scum, i stopped reading. it was just too much. couldn't read one word more. so i called my sister to see how she was. she took something i asked wrong & was snippy. rather than stand up for myself, i got my little feelings hurt.
it's just been one of those days!

so i said a prayer & realized i should be outside on such a gorgeous day. yes, a move from magnifying mind to body was in order: grabbing tools, digging, raking, trouble-shooting, i ended up working on a few projects i've been thinking about using found objects bc it's really no fun to create & make projects using new stuff right out of the box (exception: our new swamp cooler).
one project came out really neat, a patio shade made from an enormous piece of pretty early-'70s stripey plasticky-canvas i got from a yard sale. i think it might been a tent cover, but it looks really swell set up as it is, like a bedouin hideaway, i was imagining, & provides such nice expanse of shade, transforming the back patio into something seemingly larger & definitely more comfortable. after erecting it i just sat there for a while, admiring the funky aesthetic & enjoying the breezes, feeling happy, satisfied...
hungry, i came in to sit under lovely swamp cooler, eat lunch, & enjoy a horror film i'd heard described as a throwback to john carpenter/david cronenberg -- now that i think of it, directors who don't have much in common. the movie quickly was engrossing, but took a sour turn, becoming quite misanthropic,  leaving me depressed again.
after this let-down, the only sensible action was to get back outside, so i toiled some more in the gorgeous day, digging & measuring & moving rocks & bricks & huge, heavy tiles & laboring  til i hardly could move, so organized all the tools & pieces of wood & fencing & paint for tomorrow & was about to crawl to the shower when penny plopped in front of me, looking plaintively patient. she hadn't had her daily walk/jog.
we only did a mile, but i'm so glad i took her. she has no clue i've had a weird day, & she doesn't need to. as angie used to say, dogs are proof of god. they can re-center a soul, no matter how sideways.
to close this weird day in the right way -- that is, with a more positive & grateful spirit--, here is a beautiful picture from father's day of three of my very favorite humans on this earth. the fourth should be here later tonight, & i can't wait to see my dear husband.
here's to the end of this weird day. as i hear all the time, this, too, shall pass. thank goodness.

dad's book!!! ... and practicing patience & powerlessness

amazing & wonderful children (many of my faves here)

dad's book finally got published!!!! here is the link: race, sports, and black unity ... yay, dad!!!!!!!
here is a wonderful pic mama took last monday of an act from our end of year elective show. we had dancing, singing, music-playing, puppets, art work, acrobatics, comedy. mama & madeline made the drive up the hill to catch the 1st show; the 2nd was postponed when killer bees decided to swarm near the art room where the kids were performing. by wednesday, the swarm had

james's early music biz years were with the chad watson band,
which also featured dale watson (no relation)

mister handsome and i

moved so  we had the 2nd show, but i was so sick i really didn't know what was up. i believe the 1st show went better tho at the 2nd, my dear little samuel (yellow sweatshirt) was able to play his horn on "saints go marching in" & "going to mardi gras."... then after end of school, last weekend's blues express show & helping corey at school, things turned weird. all was well, happy happy, but around here, happy can turn to waaaaaay too happy which can lead to myriad storming emotional states, so one night last week found me driving & searching, then returning home to experience total powerlessness -- to practice the world being beyond my control. in other words, to be realistic. the situation righted itself, so we went to bakersfield as planned, where it was blazing hot but we were with loving mom & dad & got great meals & i had nice trots in the heat with penny the dog. james had 2 doc appts which we (miraculously) made. at one i received emphatic lecture to take care of urgent james bidness & at 2nd james had allergic reaction & was laid up & monitored for several hours while  i practiced patience & powerlessness some more. as a result, we ended up staying with the gias one more night, which was fortunate; it's a safe & pleasant place to be, &, as dad said, "it's good sometimes to come home to the roost."
last night we had dinner out then drove to maui sugar saloon in reseda to meet chad watson, who helped bring james into the business. chad's a hugely tall, friendly, winning, generous performer; accompanying him was harry orlov & house drummer i did not know. along the way i practiced patience & powerlessness again as we thought james was having a relapse of allergic reaction, but the eve ended up just fine tho challenging to endure when (in my rarefied american-music snob opinion) much of the music just flat sucked (tho not that of chad, james, & harry). as james said, "open mics are tough, but they pay the bills." chad, grinning gently, pleasantly, did a bada** bass solo (!!) on "cowcow boogie," demonstrating a skill level of different realm than most musicians we know. james's shout-singing & showmanship got a big reaction from the audience in his 3 short songs. harry orlov, whom i know primarily from the elvis shows, then called me up sing. surprised,  i complied with "mean mean man," & it was another experience under the belt, not my best singing (hard to perform without piano barrier), not my worst, just another moment.
time for a nap before school board meeting in support of corey's principal-ship.

the next indicated step

peewee looking like he just did something to penny

feeling tired & grateful. school is out. my dear friend will be our principal. friday we worked, did new teacher interviews, then headed down the grapevine where i was introduced to pieology, a place where you can get a brick-oven baked pie that though small has all the toppings you want: delicious! today i helped her some more, my sharp, generous, wild friend, "a force of nature," dad calls her, & her lovely little funny daughter.  our next year at school looks so bright; i hope i can rise to the challenge because i always have been a talented teacher (it being genetic, i think), but now i will need to attempt Mama and Corey (my friend) level: master teacher. she gifted me today with all kinds of materials for next year, dashing off all kinds of brilliant ideas, causing me to realize my increased responsibility to do this job to my best. i hope i will be worthy because if i am, i will get to be part of achieving great things next year at school.

i won first place in my age group recently at a run along bakersfield's
kern river on the bike path that i still so miss. the event was a fundraiser for
HALT animal rescue, which reminds me: you should watch the
documentary "Life in the Doghouse" on Netflix.

last night i played with james & the band in north long beach. i realized on the drive i haven't been South since our new orleans trip two months ago, & that was just to drop the car at LAX! fun riding with james there & back. he was so entertaining, sweet, warm, silly, my dear husband. we had a fun show though the PA blew out my right ear by end of set two. i also should've brought a snack like steve kida always does; all were exhausted except steve by end of night. yesterday was a books day, too: got five or 6 in the early afternoon when james & i hit our local thrift store, where we got to see our favorite white-haired little southern lady, then before the gig i walked down the street in the breezy early eve to see what was in the $1 racks outside
the used bookstore, returning to the club loaded up with great titles for friends, loved ones, meself.
i have no active addictions anymore, so buying too many books or scavenging for neat items for home, others, or my brain: it's a worthwhile obsession that i'm blessed to have the time & ability to pursue.
...
...i was in a bad mind-space earlier, likely due to fatigue (3 am is waaaaaaay too late for me at this stage of my life), & for the first time in many years i used earbuds while exercising, walking penny to lake of the woods & back on evening trails while listening to a speaker meeting recording. the speaker described being yucky, selfish, shameful, arrogant & baffled before being awakened to the presence of god, spirit, higher power. i especially enjoyed how he talked about his sponsor & his wife. his ultimate message was one i needed to hear: i should be ever-grateful for the life i get to lead & remain in action by asking all the time, what is my next step to be?
the lovely walk & the speaker's words got me right-sized again. it's a wonderful life i get to have. good evening to anybody reading this.

blablablablablablablabla

-it snowed this morning. on may 22. freaky!
-school was not cancelled because it was a "warm" snow, so the roads weren't at all icy.
-no climate change, huh? dump can suck an egg. i can't wait til he is imprisoned!!!!
-on mother's day while grocery shopping with mom and dad for their big bash (mama's day + dad's birthday), i got some discount foccaccia breads, so now i'm baking one topped with pasta sauce, green bell peppers, mushrooms, garlic salt, basil, & some canned roast "beast," as my paternal aunts have called it. the animal flesh came from a yard sale last weekend that turned out to be an awesome thing: out off darling road, driving in past stables with quarter horses, "million dollar horses," said james, to a ranch property plateau featuring a partially-built, 10,00 square foot buried house resembling an earth ship but made of concrete. also at this sale were trailer after shipping container after trailer after shipping container of machining tools; bumper-car-looking vehicles that likely were vintage golf carts; classic vehicles from model A to lincoln continental; a silver airstream trailer; all kinds of heavy machinery from cement truck to excavator to bull dozer; industrial fans; boxes of canned butter (i took home three because the cans were beautiful); scores of office chairs; rebar; camp fridges; more vehicles; tools of all kinds; &, inside the uncompleted house, cool as a cave, table after table of endless items; the list went on & on & on & on. this was the estate of a man who passed a few years ago; his son-in-law said that building this gigantic house, his life dream, likely had shortened his life; he worked endlessly on the project, year after year, obsessively. i thought, predictably, of quixote.
- james shared friendly chatter with the young man, who has a stray cats tribute band back home in indiana & was fascinated by james's talk of a working musician's experiences. james brought home, among other things, a high school-style locker, diamond-head tools, & a full box of canned food, the good kind from cost-co. i got bird houses, another bird fountain, some little bakelite-looking fixtures for the trailer, & other stuff...

here are some pix from the most recent, "electrifying" bakersfield show with whiteboy james & the blues express. i met maureen & phil c, independently, in 1995, the year my life had to change, & was so very delighted to see both as well as a few others i've not seen in years! i hope you can see the delight on everyone's faces. what a great time that evening was! if only my health would have stayed with me... i've just been off & on sick before & since.
- just got home from the meditation meeting & am filled up with this fortunate feeling of being alive, loving others, being loved, & having only golden problems anymore.
-think i have adenoiditis, but hope it's only sinusitis, which is familiar. this mercurial weather is dramatic & beautiful, but NOT good when one's head is a barometer!
- well, the timer just went off, so once james is back from walking the penny, time for pizza.

coco montoya

the pages, may 2019

last night i got off my deathbed to get to play with james & band, opening for coco montoya, who is a gentlemanly blues-rocker whom james of course has known for years. the venue was world records downtown bakersfield; james was ultra-triple-level raunchy & funny; the audience roared with shock & laughter & concluded his set with standing ovation. mom & dad were highly complimentary of james & the band, & a bunch of my friends of bill i've not seen in years were there! afterward, we drove the country route, stopping at sonic so we could sit in the car in the nighttime together & enjoy the evening a little longer... today we're waiting to sell some stuff, & i need to pull weeds. so glad allergy near-death seems to be abating... i have over 400 pix in my phone, & since i don't think i'll be uploading them anytime soon, nor making any photo albums, here are some from last night. this is a wonderful life.

antknee, me, blake, james in background, steve off camera

i like this pic of coco, which resembles manuel

instead of loading out, james dances out

maureen and i!

eric robert, or maybe fox mulder, pro keyboardist

eating greasy food at sonic drive-in

a lovely evening

Bed Dos Post

My trend seems to be to post not much, and when I do, post from bed. I am sick. James is sick. Gorgeous weather, tho. Earlier a tiny, tawny bunny hopped out into the middle of the back yard & munched on grass as I rested here on the bed w James and animals, looking out on the greatest view in the world, sez Mama, that is, this mountain of forest that stretches beyond the yard. So lovely. Been doing little, plowing thru New Yorkers, stopping when headaches overwhelm. One long article was about the difficulty of getting off psych meds, how they're overprescribed & kicking them is a whole new hell. Only time I faced that was when I left my 1st marriage, had a 2 yr nervous breakdown, then was misdiagnosed & put on 2 inappropriate meds when the real problem was

a yucky relationship I was ruined enough to have been in. Reading the article made me think I should taper off my current pill, a low dose appropriately prescribed one, but in my bones I know I should not since I've had depression/anxiety since age 8 & reading an article will not make that disappear. For instance, last night I received a pic of my former dog son, GusGus, who in canine years is now 91, & found out he is now deaf and blind, & the sight of that precious dear in old age threw me into a maelstrom of grief. Life, life, life is flying by. Oh woe is me. (My balloon of suffering, to cite Frankl, is indeed small.)  Later, I wondered if that had been a "normal" reaction to a photo of a former pet... Could've been caused in part by being sick, so today I did not teach & got little done but cleaned house went to store just had fun reading a fashion mag been getting free & now we're eating delicious paletas, Mayan chocolate flavor, as the sun lowers & the mountains cool. (And now, just like that, James is again snoring oh so softly beside me.) My primary hope  right now is that I can muster strength to walk little Penny, who is nowhere as handsome/beautiful as GusGus, but is quite adorable, our funny dear girl, "unusually attached to her people," says Dad, & very deserving of some exercise.

We went to Baton Rouge & New Orleans recently, HAD A GREAT TIME. (oops; god of hyperbole  hit the cap button there.) Tapping finger tired, so  I will post phone pix &  more later.
Ps, may Sunday bring us a '63 Lil Loafer... We'll see.

Bed Post

arrrrrrrggggggggggghhh!!!

I am posting from bed using speech to text. I will talk slowly and clearly to avoid embarrassing, even sometimes treacherous misspellings that occur when I talk too quickly. (A recent one I sent without checking said I'd be running with my nipples dragging me, not running with my puppy dragging me & in WHAT POSSIBLE PHONETIC UNIVERSE COULD THAT HAVE OCCURRED EXCEPT ONE GOVERNED BY THE HILARIOUS GOD OF HUMILIATION???) Can't do much about usage and grammar errors that occur, such as in the last sentence when speech to text believed to to have one o, not two. Just now when I said one o, and it just did it again, speech to text enter the numeral 100. It doesn't understand context, such as the differences between forms of there, in that way being like many of my dear little students. Lately speech-to-text seems to be less accurate, and maybe that's because its algorithm actually has worsened more as ensuing millions of people with different accents use it and confuse it. I dunno. Parentheses had to type that one. Close parentheses. Haha
Last night I was thinking about my husband and did something I haven't done in a long while which was write some songs. The trick is 2 just let them roll out, see what happens . One came out pretty funny and cool. I wonder if I'll ever be able to record it or play it with others. I love teaching, but I miss playing music.
Right now doggy's laying on my sore hip stretching it out, my canine chiropractic traction device. We are supposed to run at the park. Zzzzzzzz.
Here's a picture Corey sent from two weeks ago when I had to carry most of the show because James was egregiously late. You can see the stress on my face, but in the end I remembered, although grimly, that I can be a band leader when needed. I wish I'd known he wouldn't be there so that I could have practiced and also that we could have had a sound system for the first 1.5 sets when Anthony was late arriving as well. Oh well. It is what it is. Corey told me she had to leave shortly after taking this pic, but reality was she was stressed out someone was going to get mad or say something to me and so bailed out. "I told Christy I gotta go or I'm going to have to punch somebody in the face if they say something mean to Jenny," she told me. She is a great friend. And apparently when she taught off the hill, a barroom brawler. Yet another thing she and James have in common.
Spring is in the air and my students are feeling  it. The bed is soft and warm, the light soft and golden through the curtains, but it's time to get up and start another day.

"soul and swagger: the complete '5' royales, 1951-1967"

gray haired me with the prettiest box set ever

i got this in the mail this afternoon & am so excited, i only can read it a little at a time -- like the first blooms of love: too much just kills you, too much is overwhelming!!! it is a beautiful, beautiful hard-bound, full-color, 109-page book that also contains all session personnel/details & record labels for ALL the 5Rs' 45 releases & their 4 LP covers... plus FIVE CDs!!!!
it was hard to meditate at the meeting. i just kept thinking about the gorgeous, tough, funny, brilliant music of lowman pauling, the genius of the "5" royales. i hope we get to go out to north carolina to see the dedication to be made there in upcoming months of LP's home, where the band used to rehearse... well, time to do some exercises before putting the 1st disc on... or i might wait til tomorrow & just read the book tonight. the music can be too stirring! i need to sleep to get to school bright & shiny tomorry.

blablablablablablablablabla

just took the most beautiful hike up to 5944 ft., a path i've never explored bc i thought it too remote, but it was not at all. at that elevation, there was snow & an expansive view of the canyon that contains our town. the ground also was muddy & the sun was lowering. the path had crested & i could see ahead was going to descend for a while before heading back up to a summit that was somewhere out of sight. it was time to head back, so sled dog & i slid all the way back down along switchbacks & slopes.
another gem discovered! so nice to walk out the front door, trek a mile, & find a new place to labor up into the big trees!
other than that, been fighting a sinus infection all week, but nothing like what james, then my friend corey got. what each of them went through was super-frightening!!! so grateful both are back on the path to wellness... so grateful for james's sister for having been there to help when he was struck suddenly very ill in so-cal...
in a different vein, just discovered you can slow the speed of youtube videos, so i've been practicing amos's boogie by amos milburn, learning a new left hand boogie pattern using the gene taylor method: practice the left hand while reading, while eating, while talking on the phone... it's very effective, as you'd guess, since gene taylor's the best boogie-woogie piano player of this age!
it's the weekend, but i gotta do saturday school tomorrow. i prefer never to do extra duties unless it's my idea but was kind a put in a can't-say-no-or-look-like-jerk spot. sister angie (who came up here & got her 1st degree black belt tuesday!! she is a bada*s!!!) sent me some art lesson plans, so i think the kids will be happy tomorrow with what we do. thank you, angie!!!
today a kid was careless & knocked me hard onto the classroom floor when she shoved the legs of her chair out as i walked by. her little eyes bugged & she clasped her mouth & the class gave a collective shudder as i slammed into the ground: and i couldn't get up, having landed full-weight on my kneecaps!!
sh*t!! thought i, i just got over the hip injury!! it was one of those hurts that knock the breath out of you tho it was no place near my breathing organs, so i crouched there til i could get up without crying or cussing... my student's lesson was to be more careful; mine was to be more cautious when near a hyper child, or when around children in general. as i hiked & sometimes broke into a jog & felt stabs in my knees, i thought of all the teachers i've known who've been injured over the years just being around kids...
well, it's foggy out & i hope i can go run behind the high school tomorrow... and maybe james will go, too. that is another really beautiful trail that is really close by! can't wait to get to wind wolves, too: that nature preserve, located just below us in the southern san joaquin valley off the 166 headed for taft, is supposed to be quite gorgeous!!
time for some peanut butter dinner. my favorite food! so happy that nuts, tho fat bombs, are nutritious. remember the words of hippocrates: "let food be thy medicine & medicine be they food."

snowbound!

haven't blablablogged for a bit. we've been hit hard with snow storms! in the month of february, we had two holidays & i was at professional development once... then there were FIVE SNOW DAYS and two or three late starts due to icy roads! that's a lot of lost academic time for the kids. we've all lost our momentum, i think: i'm looking forward to getting back to work in march, uninterrupted by mother nature's beautiful, tempestuous vagaries...
snow patches still sit in small & large banks on our property & the mountains that surround still are speckled white (the lingering snowiness has made me think lately of when i used to go to colorado, of boulder, of denver, of my dear departed brother-in-law paul briggs). i saw streams of snow bunnies coming in today, a steady traffic stream from the cities to see snow. many locals complain about them, but as corey said, "why do they think WE all moved here???" we agree that much of the complaining likely is racist: most of the visiting families are hispanic.
the biggest problem is trash, but if local agencies had a better system in place to deal with these bunnies, who come each & every single mother loving year like clockwork, locals could have no complaints of broken sleds & food garbage left behind.
we haven't been able to do much this past month. my fingers have been too cold to play piano much or type. we ran out of firewood, & in the brief spells between storms, foraged some from here & there. the fireplace, loaded with blazing timber, was wondrous every time, bringing life & comfort. we had a particularly nice time one day sitting like two old folks by the welcoming blaze, reading our books to  the gentle snaps, crackles, & pops from the hearth. we made soup, we watched movies, i read books & jogged & took penny for many icy, snowy hikes (& today, six miles with christy z, finally to the snow-covered summit of "edison"!)...
as for much else, james said it: "you can't do SH*T when it's cold like that!!"
the other day we drove out to lancaster to get some warmth & enjoy that funky little desert town. we love the drive, too, out along the wide-open valley through podunk towns like neenach & fairmont (there's no town, just a sign), singing along with bob wills & loving life. we walked the boulevard, happened onto a TERRIFIC art exhibit (catherine coan's exhibit in particular was brilliant, mad, funny... just smashing!), got a coffee jolt while grinning at an impossibly cute little man-baby in red & black hunting vest, went to our favorite grocery store, winco, & bought prizes for my students, lugged what firewood we could find from a felled tree at the end of the old road at 138, found dad some ultra-thick socks in a chinese restaurant-trinket shop.
tomorrow will be 51 degrees. life is back on! we got a real winter this past year, but spring's approaching & we can't wait!!!
link to lancaster art museum: exhibit we saw was called "peace on earth," as good or better than any exhibit i've seen anyplace in the world!
taxidermist, artist, writer, gorgeous madwoman catherine coan
ps, her installation was a small drawing room filled with her pieces, & the series that really caught my eye caused me to exclaim, "look! the birds have died doing stupid things humans do!!" this part of the exhibit was called "canary suicides."
!!
effortlessly cool, urbane, strange, & brilliant,"word jazz"king ken nordine left this earth last week, his visit to this planet having lasted 98 years young. rest in peace, oh hipster voice of god, oh great & powerful one!!!
flibberty jib, flibberty jab!

twiddle twiddle twiddle...

mapmyrun! what a terrific app/site! we stop every
single time penny wants to, which is 2% of the
reason for my slow times... :)

looking out at I-5

-last night i finally got to schoolwork planning & it got interesting, then i had to go to bed. i'd been fretting & procrastinating bc there's a storm supposed to come in, & when that happens, teachers & students (& parents, likely) hold their collective breath waiting for those magic words: "snow day." this morn it was coming down pretty cold & sleety-looking. i know that when that happens, brave patrice, head of MO in our district, gets up at buttcrack-thirty, boards a bus, & hammers out to the PMC road. (our bus drivers are kinda like mad max that way. one once told me, mimicking a downward gearbox shove, when the snow comes & they gotta get the kids home, "we just drop the chains & GO!!") the steep, windy PMC road, leading to the alpine village known as pine mtn club, is what makes or breaks the school day: it's notorious for hiding black ice patches that wipe out unsuspecting drivers...
- patrice called it. no school today. i type that as i look at a heartbreakingly-blue sky. that's how our weather is up here: screwy, fickle, mercurial. (that reminds me: how do i get rid of this queen earworm i've had going for some weeks? every time i relax my thoughts, i hear freddie mercury's soaring, plaintive voice & rock anthems in my noggin... oh well; it could be so, so much worse as far as earworms go...)

this looks like little in the pic, but was so steep, i had to
ascend in a crouch, using my hands, near the top!

- i was all ready for school, already had talked/texted/facetimed with all my loved ones & dear friends, eaten breakfast, cleaned house yesterday, so my thumbs started twiddling, twiddling, twiddling. yes, this weekend i got all the little things fixed that needed it, did all the chores... all that was left was... bills.
- must find diversion quick! by 9 am i was messaging a local antique dealer who is giving a bunch of stuff away. i'm trying to collect little gifts for my students to give their moms on dia de las madres. i want it all! i was just realizing how overbearing i was becoming to the poor woman (free things!! must have!! drool!!!! slaver!!) when a sponsee called & broke the obsession. i meet with her soon, but earlier, with hours to go, i took penny on a hike on a beautiful fire road i've been thinking a lot about since i started reading the wonderful reverie the man who walked through time by colin fletcher, which scott jurek had recommended in his wonderful eat and run. (i highly recommend both titles! wow! great writing & topics!)

the tiny town of frazier park looked even tinier from edison

- christy z told me last summer this road is called "edison," as in, "wanna go up edison?" ... sounds so cool... but edison is steep! windy! removed from civilization! penny & i went just 2 miles in; past that, though i could see the summit, i decided i shouldn't go without company.
- next time! it was quite a wonderful hike/jog as-was, up in the billowing clouds & wide sky looking down, down, down upon our toy-sized town/village & the tiny interstate, rounding a curve & being braced by the most invigorating mountain breeze, slogging & huffing & pounding up, then wheeee!! downhill all the way back...!

happy dog sniffed all kinds of new things today

- my thighs haven't been worked this much, so high on the quad muscle, in some time. i'll be sore, but boy, it was sure fun. :) after that, home again, lots of water, some soda, & an everything bagel with butter: nothing else could have tasted as good!




- better prep to go try to be of some good use... snow day!

Happy happy happy happy happy happy happy

I really couldn't be happier right now (unless I weighed 10 lbs less). Am under the covers on our bed looking straight out at the snow falling on the beautiful mountains around listening to James singing to himself downstairs, just booked us another trip to New Orleans, one of our very favorite places in the world, and while I did that we  listened to Sam Chatmon, whom James had never heard! And he played some Scrapper Blackwell and we agreed this country might have some big problems these days, but nothing beats our American music!... Here's a picture from the Elvis show and one of our kitty this morning looking out at the snow. Needed to record this memory since if I don't, all soon will be gone... sooner than it will be eventually, anyhow! Thank you, labor unions, because without you, I would have no weekend to enjoy this beautiful day!

Wonderful

just had the most wonderful chat with my parents about their fulfilling lives as retired creative do-gooders and my fulfilling life living in the mountains, working with children, playing music. am mentioning that conversation here so that i'll remember it... am burrowed under blankets now with doggy awaiting the hunter home from the hills, the sailor home from the sea. weather report says snow all week, but i'll believe it when i see it! meanwhile, we again are having wind gusts like a busy airfield is just up the hill. it's been like that off and on all week! never thought weather would become so important in my life! it's a huge factor in what one does or doesn't do day by day around here..

happy birthday to EAP tomorrow, on being vain, & WBJ late at night

- i wonder if elvis was vain.
- i mean, how could he have looked like he did & NOT have been?!? how could he not have gazed in the mirror & thought, "i am the most angelically handsome man ever born" or "i have the face of a greek god, the voice of a rockin' caruso & the charisma of 1000 men; i am the most blessed-by-god human creature ever created"???
- i mean, he HAD to know what he possessed, even if he was known to be basically shy, a humble country boy...
- i'm basically shy, too -- and having said that, will now exhaust my commonalities with that god placed on earth, elvis aron presley. let's see: dark hair; love of blues, gospel, western music, play a little piano, 7 syllables in our full names... &... uh... both homo sapiens... &... &... well, that's really all.
- last night i drove in torrential rain to the elvis birthday bash at joe's, sang a few songs, hung out a little, saw in a short hour at least 15 people "from the old days" (art fein! long time, no see! thank you for letting me be there!), met many  swell others, then headed home, again in torrential rain, hydroplaning, grateful for my little car's "intelligent all-wheel drive." the show was packed & big fun, but i couldn't stay bc the dog-girl was at home alone.
-ok, this next part is going to sound really nutty, but here goes:
i took a lot of photos in that short time, & these ones came back with me not looking so bad, so i got in this weird mind-state, obsessed with how i didn't look ugly, even checking back at the photos many times to see if they were real, thinking, "is that ME? that can't be me." (see? i'm a pioneer, having been a narcissist long before selfies.)
- then today mister paul body, who's always so gentlemanly, dressed to the nines, posted a video of my song & eeeeeep.... i looked & sounded really super ugly... horrifyingly so... :( so then i started to plunge into that other weird mind-state -- not the dreamy rapture that whispers, "hey, you look like an attractive female... you look like other human women... hey, maybe you're OK!" -- but the plummeting shame-fueled one: "you're  a monster!! an impostor!!! you're a beast!!! there's no hope!!"
- jeez!!!!
- these flareups of dysmorphia & my continuing, lurking addict thinking are so sick. i know the dysmorphia comes from malfunctioning neurochemicals that receive incorrect visual info. then my stupid addict mind, in continual search of a higher power, will replace it w/just about anything if i'm not careful -- in this case, physical appearance ("human suit," calls it james). i hate these stupid episodes of vanity!!!!!!
- thank goodness jani & i are working the steps again... THANK G.O.D.!!!
- luck or divine intervention caused us to have a fog delay at school, so we all got to go in 2 hours late, which was good bc last night was a late one!! the kids were happy & i was so glad to see them as well as corey & lucy & a few others!! a package came at the post office, then, the sun lingering longer in the sky,  dog-girl & i had a nice jog/hike in the nearby hills, the light & air pure loveliness. my dinner quesadilla with chipotle sauce was tasty.
- finally, here is the front & back cover of james's upcoming CD-EP. it should be completed by week's end, & then we will get it printed. it's a very well-performed piece, evidencing what a critic wrote of james, that tho bawdy & tough, he "wears his heart on his sleeve" and is "a throwback to early blue performers." his vocals & playing came out so pure & solid. the other day when he recorded the last cut, him at his computer & me, adjacent, at mine, his voice was so plaintive & powerful, i burst into tears.
- dang talented james!!!! he can really move a soul!! he, too, is truly blessed by god, the universe, the great cosmic stew. some folks just got it! the rest of us can watch in wonder. :) that's ok with me! :D