Some shameless promotion for a friend's new site.

Great premise...

Flee The Hive!

If you're an independent sort, get thee there and join. Heh.

Today's juxtapositions...

1. I fiiiinally got paid from those mo-fo's who now own Alternative Medicine magazine. w000t! $400 I've been waiting for since January. No more threatening phone calls do I have to make. :D nice to go to the bank to put something *in* the acct.

2. One of my best friend's dad died. I called her for a little chat today and found out. It was unexpected. He was my 7th grade English teacher...you always think those teachers will live forever. She's devastated, and I wish I could help, but they had to fly to Phoenix, where her folks live. Think I'll drive up to Morgan Hill for a few days when she's back--also offered to have her come down here, for some break-time. We're now heading into that time of our lives that the parents will be dying off. A bit of a brainfuck, that one.

3. We came home last night to Amnityville horror action on our dining room wall. Looked like someone had exploded a beer or a soda or creamy coffee across a very specific area of the wall. N and I took 409 to it, but didn't come off. Was sort of drippy, too. We noticed that it wasn't anywhere else, though, not on the pix on the wall, the table under the area etc. Called the pet sitter and he denied all involvement -- and I believe him, since it seems that the stuff is oooooozing from the inside out. WTF??? Cannot figure it out, and we painted it freshly in the last year... Inspected the outside wall (is the garden patio) and there's no clue there. Could be some oozy creature has set up shop between the outside stucco and the inside plaster, but, eh, doesn't make sense. We are going to use KILZ on the area, burn some sage, and repaint. Freakin' weird.

4. I made a kickass dinner tonight with many ingredients fresh from our garden! I harvested multi-colored chard, purple basil, broccoli and bok choy -- used it in a red beans and rice sort of concoction (was actually lentils and black soy beans with red rice). Garlicky and hot peppery and savory and hot damn, I am good. I love it when I make shit up and it is delicious. Mwah!

5. Had lunch with my last labor doula client -- the one who delivered amongst the crazy storms in January. Gotta say, Essau's diner in Carpenteria is mmmmmm. I'm also fond of their orange naughahyde booths. Had great catchup with client/friend and got in some good baby snuggling -- he's HUGE and cute and edible. I refrained from ordering up a side of sautee'd baby, but I did sniff & kiss on him bunches. I didn't even lick him. Heh.

Still have the touch, it seems. I was able to calm him in just moments when he started to get overtired. I like this capability. Yay for me.

I have newly discovered my love for apples. More particularly, Pink Ladies. Oh the tart and the sweet, the crispness and the crunch. The perfect heady scent and colors of yellow, red and green.

I love you, tasty little Pink Lady!

*crunch!*

Breathing in and out, just not too deeply. *g*

I smelled a gas leak in the house, night before last, just in the front entry. However, no one else did -- including friends who came to visit. Hm. However, N, being the good supportive guy he is, suggested I call the Gas Co. to get it checked out, "better safe than sorry."

After much testing with a little tool that goes "whirrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRRR!" when it detects gas, I was finally vindicated. Oven was leaking, and apparently, natural gas is lighter than air, so it will waft around the house in pockets, pushed by us moving around etc. Glad I gots the supersmeller.

The "fun" part is that the shutoff valve for the oven is buried behind the cabinet (who knew?!) and so the whole oven has to be removed to make the house safe. Which meant that the gas guy had to shut down the entire house. I thought, "eh, no biggie, so the stove and heater don't work." Then he reminded me that also the hot water heater would not work. NOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Ahem. Yes.

My dad also came to visit last night -- was working undercover in the area -- and was lucky enough to snag the last warm shower. All of 3 minutes long, but hey. My shower this morning was, invigorating, to say the least.

So, the repair folks just left-- the issue seems to be a former repair at the couplings. Former repair person had used a lubricant instead of a sealant. Jesus, even I know better, and I don't do that kind of work. Our repair folks tried to turn the gas back on for us, to no avail, so now I wait for another GasCo person to come and take care of the rest.

Ok, now he is here...Rick is the name. Same dude from the other day. Good guy. Tells me the leak is still there. *sigh!* I called the repair shop, and had Rick speak with them about the issues therein. Because of their "repair," the ignitor is now toast, and the place where the actual leak is wasn't touched. Oy vey.

Rick and I pulled the oven out, shut off the line to the oven, and he turned on the gas and pilot lights to the rest of the appliances. Yay for heaters and hot water.

Apparently, I'm not going anywhere today.

So mundane, this life.

On other, mundane, but happy life notes:

1. Had dinner with two new sets of friends this weekend -- action-packed social life, suddenly. And neither couple is from N's work, but from yoga class instead. Beauty of this is (beyond normal conversations) we now know some new places to eat. And, we like the friends.

2. Had a good meeting yesterday with a woman in Ojai who runs a family resource non-profit there. She and I have really clicked, and she wanted to discuss a couple of grants she's applying for, and how they may play out at the center. Aaaaand, she wanted to see how interested I'd be in part-time work there, creating some programs and teaching, should the money come thru. Yes, yes, and yes! We had discussed classes for pregnant teens and their support system previously, so we continued on that theme. Now it is a matter of applying and getting the monies, but she's quite good at it, so we shall see. Would prolly come to fruition closer to fall, I reckon, if at all. Just putting out good ju-ju and hoping this will be a good thing for all involved.

3. Also followed up on a connection with the local high school -- seems the woman who is in charge of the teen program there is also taking on the yearbook classes next year. Could be a 'nother lovely part-time possibility. My contact there also knows good people to talk to at other high schools, so she offered to introduce me around if that seemed like a good idea to me. It does.

4. Birds are nestin'. Love that. One place may be on our front porch. Stay tuned.

Vacation time in Monterey and northern climes

Arrived here -- after some fumbling about -- around 4 p.m. Gosby House is lovely and we're happy with the room. Went on a looooooooong walk; meandered really, to Cannery Row and thru neighborhoods, just familiarizing ourselves.

The colors here are impossibly more -- just cleaner and brighter and more hyperreal. I am so completely in love with this coastline and the water. I could take 1,000 photos of it and it still would not be enough. I want to swallow it whole -- to push the tidepools, the black & brown rocks, the lichen, the algae, the crystal white sand, the multi-hued starfish, the black & white murres, the sassy otters, the tangled kelp, the turquoise & indigo sea -- all of it into my gaping maw and let is slide, whole, into my gullet, to settle, so I can always *feel* its rush and glow and know its intimate vibration there in me, every waking moment.

ALIVE. This is what it means.

I cannot open my eyes enough. I cannot drink enough of the air. I am not a starving man, merely one consummed by a fire that is this seascape. I snap photos because I do not want to forget -- yet they fade already, and pale beside this overreality.

No smell of brine? No calling of plaintive gulls? No feel of moist wind? No warmth seeping from Lover's Point boulders into my skin? Bah!

What is the point of remembering one dimension? Yet, and still, I must shoot. And hope for the possibility of the trigger, much later, when I need to feel this alive again.