Change of seasons

After a bout of much needed rain, we are getting an early preview of Spring here in Northern California. There is change and growth all around us, and a sunny day like today yields an opportunity to see what's going on in nature's theater.

There is something so poetic about a rose growing through the deer fence around our garden---is it escape, or merely the symbol of a blossom doomed to become deer food?

The transition between the Winter and Spring is time for a burn pile to dispose of debris from previous years.

The wood stack is showing the diminishment of a Winter's need for wood stove warmth.

A neighbor's offer of free wood in return for removing the results of a felled tree awaits the wood splitter.

A bit of a drag:

The thing that really sucks about politics in this country is that you have to either totally agree or totally disagree with people. And if they don't agree with you you have to hate them. And that takes a shitload of energy!!!

Olbermann on Healthcare

The Keithster talks calmly, reasonably, and clearly about the heathcare reform craziness in this country. He hits the nail on the emotional head: this is about death, and the fears and uncertainty we express are as much about that as about any political opinions..

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

I've heard some people criticize Keith for his righteous anger and soapbox oratory, but this avoids all that by making it personal. He cuts to the heart of the matter by opening his own. A real gem.

Leggo my ego!

For the nearly two years I was out of work, I thought that I'd been given this chance to begin living the dream I've had for most of my life. I have been going to voice over school, gotten an agent, and begun auditioning like mad. Surely, this is a gift from the Universe to clear the decks for my big break, right?

Well, now that I've returned to work to keep my head above water (no mean feat in these days of unemployment, downsizing, and dozens of applicants for each job), I'm reassessing my thoughts a bit. Oh, I'm grateful to have work, and at a good job with nice people. But that niggling little ego voice at the back of my head wants to jump up and down and scream "You'll never make it! I knew it wasn't going to happen!"

Well, shucks and pshaw! I'm not going to stop heading down the path of realized dreams, nor am I getting off at the exit of lowered expectations. But, I'm having to dredge a little deeper in the energy pool to work and make the dream happen. And that dream is going to come.

And my ego can just kiss my ass.

Colorful fella

My bird, Boomer, seems to be undergoing a bit of a change in his old age. At about 17 years old, his orange coloring on his cheeks is spreading a bit on his face. I don't know what is causing it, but when it first started happening, I thought he might be bleeding. Anyway, we may have to start calling him Orange Beard.

Takin' it on the road

We're getting ready to go see the kids (step daughter and grand daughter) in the HOT part of the state. It's always such a thrill to go see them, and it's amazing how quickly our grandaughter is growing. She's already 6 years old and in first grade!

Such a transition in six short years! From this:

to this:

Don't blink or you can miss something!

The wall comes down:

(Via The Valleywag)

Hope and change has come to Google Maps. The official residence of the vice president, obscured until Dick Cheney's last days in office and residence, now shines in satellite sunlight.

A reader tipped us off that Google Maps now showed a clear overhead image of One Observatory Circle (above), the address which has served as the home of the vice president since 1974. It's the first glimpse Google users have gotten of the place.

Kate Hurowitz, a Google spokeswoman, explained in an email:

Google Earth and Maps are regularly updated as new imagery becomes available. Our most recent update, which went live last week, included updated imagery of the Washington D.C. area from several providers. The imagery of the Naval Observatory comes from Digital Globe.

The changeover happened on January 18 in Google Earth, the search engine's 3D mapping service, and on Thursday in Google Maps. In other words, the vice president's house was revealed on Google the same week Cheney moved out and Joe Biden moved in.

What can you say?

Change I can believe in:

If anything shows how different things are going to be after January 20, it is this:

The lyrics Pete and the others sing towrds the end (which are usually censored, 'cause Woody was a real Socialist, don't cha know):

In the squares of the city
In the shadow of the steeple
At the relief office
I saw my people
As they stood there hungry
I stood there whistling

A big high wall
That tried to stop me
A great big sign read private property
On the other side it didn't say nothing
THAT side was made for you and me.

Here I am . . .

I know my posting has been rather spotty lately. This is due to a combination of my life being busy and a bit of a mood swing to the darker side. I've been working for some while to change my livlihood, and recently things have seemed rather bogged down. This, combined with a fear of the lack of an income for the last year have put me in a less that loquatious state of mind.

When a person moves to live their dreams, as I am doing, there are a lot of uncertainties that one must confront. This is a part of the cost of standing up and saying "this is who I will be." After a lifetime of selling my time to others, I am taking the action of making myself the arbiter of what I will earn and how I will make my living. In doing this, I am basically betting I have the talents and abilities to be of value to others, and that is both exhilerating and scary.

Anyway, due to the ups and downs of this moment, I haven't been putting much up here. But I will put up more as I can.

Autumn's foreshadowing

There's something about the afternoon sunlight as Autumn approaches that makes everything look a little special. The golden light makes me appreciate the days as the seasonal glow starts to be a little shorter each day. Winter is on its way . . . .

There are still some beans on the vines, and we've had quite a tasty harvest of them this year.

After yielding quite a few zukes, the squash plant is at least going to give us one more!

Sweet little strawberries ready for a bit o' nibblin'!

Even the tomato plant had some success this year, which is rare in our part of Northern California. By the way, these are cherry tomatoes, though they look huge in this close up.

We are ready for the cooler weather, having been offered some of the wood from our neighbor's tree falling (which we hauled, split, and stacked), as well as buying a cord of madrone for the better BTU yield. I feel warmer just looking at it!

It's about time!

While I do some occasional commentary on the political scene, I usually don't go into a lot of analysis of the news---I leave that to those more qualified than me and then reprint their stuff. But this recent flap over Obama's remarks concerning things we as individuals can do to alleviate some of the gas problems we have been facing seems to point to something quite obvious, but which I haven't seen in most of these commentaries about it.

The way McCain and the Republicans have been ridiculing Obama, using tire gauges and sarcasm, betrays a fundamental difference between the two men, and between the old politics and new politics. The McCains and Bushes of this country want us to feel helpless and scared---there is nothing we as individuals can do to change the dangerous and costly things of this world. We need Big Daddy (politicos, corporations, government) to save us from these things. Oh, don't worry about trying to take mass transit or getting a smaller car, we can solve it all with BIG SOLUTIONS (war, oil drilling, nuclear reactors.) This leaves the general populace feeling weak and impotent, and forces us to look for centralized solutions that cost more money and eventually are ineffective and lead to more problems.

Obama says "Yes, we need to look for some big solutions, but all of us must take part in this." Big Daddy has never saved us, and in fact Big Daddy is a drunken and abusive lout. Big Daddy IS THE PROBLEM!!! We all need to work together on this, and together we can solve it. By inflating our tires to a proper pressure and tuning our cars up, we can save more gas than drilling in this country will get us RIGHT NOW!!! Of course, no big companies make any money on that (in fact, they make less), but it's an immediate action all of us can take. And that is power to the people.

This difference is a difference that could change the whole dynamic of this country, from a corporate oligarchy to a participatory democracy. Make fun if you will, but the times they are a changin' . . . .

It's about time!

Uhhh . . . .

It almost is getting too easy to ridicule McCain. He seems oblivious to the appearances, and just as Obama conveys a newness and an aura of change, McCain looks more tired and ludicrous as the campaign grinds on. (Hey, we still have to get through the conventions yet!) His response to Obama's triumphant stop in Germany (pictured at left) is par for the course here. A stop at a German restaurant named "Fudge Haus"? WTF?!?!!

The only real surprise here would be if the restaurant actually turned out to be a German gay bar.

I'm still here!

My posts have been very sporadic (some might say spastic) lately, as life has been extremely busy. I an doing some work for a local film festival (having bee laid off from the local music festival), as well as web design for an art auction and ad sales for the local theater company. I gotta tell you, I am tired of working for non-profits! The name of the type of business they are ALONE is enough to tell you the problem, but underlying the facade of being a business (which is, after all, what non-profits are), there is an attitude of entitlement that extends to the people who are employed there that you should be willing to work like a slave even if you are paid a pittance.

I have said in the past that I'm taking training to change my career, and it seems to finally be bearing fruit. I am signing with an agent to be represented in the field of voice over work, and that is the next step into a new adventure for me. I am so grateful and amazed that after three years of classes and practice, I am going to be given the shot at this. It has been a dream of mine for a lot of my life, and to stand on the threshold of this change is exciting, scary, and awesome!

I am also experimenting with a new blog engine (WordPress). I'm not sure what advantages it has over blogger, but I'm checking it out. I may migrate at least some of my posting there in the near future, but for now whatever posting I do will be here.

Remote posting

I am down near the city to attend classes to move into a new field of endeavor as my career. Being here in a much more populated area does make me appreciate the place I live in so much more. I can see the attraction that a more urban environment has for people, and I do appreciate the offerings of the area I am in as I visit it. But I miss the redwoods and the ocean views that are a part of my daily experience at home.

Change is hard. It requires effort, focus, and hard work. I am going to make this change, and I am really, willing, and able to take the steps it is going to require of me. And as I walk forward into the change, I give thanks for all the strength and experience that has been given to me from my life along the way.

This is the great fact of change: it asks us to make the effort necessary, and rewards us with results. I may not know exactly where it may lead me, but I trust that it will be where I am supposed to be.