Life of Wry

We woke up to a chilly morning in Bear Valley. Which was just fine for Sally and me… sleeping in the warm cabin, as we did. But Kath…. being someone who can’t sleep indoors due to allergies, slept in her car where, as the temps dipped to the low 40s, it was mighty cold. No matter how many layers that girl put on–and she put on lots–she couldn’t get warm, so we decided to change venues. Headed down the hill, first to Sally’s mom’s in Mountain Ranch where we had a lovely lunch of appetizers on the patio, then to Sally’s in Railroad Flat where we ultimately ate dinner and stayed the night. Not quite the location we’d planned, but the main idea for the trip was to hang out with old friends, so the location didn’t matter so much as time to talk and compare notes about high school. Lol.

Some pics on the day….

Breakfast on the deck:

Buh Bye Bear Valley cabin…

Driving, caravan style, down the tiny mountain roads between Bear Valley and Mountain Ranch.

Sally’s mom, Sue, is 94, super able-bodied, sharp as a tack, and an utterly gracious host. Since her husband died a couple years ago, she’s been managing the house and property on her own (well, nearly daily visits from Sally and regular visits by a local handyman who assists with the heavier tasks). She’s very impressive! I’ve known her for 60 years! I was quite moved by the visit.

Sally’s place is a beautiful sanctuary among the towering trees.

I keep telling everyone I’m going camping… but turns out, instead of camping, we decided to go to Sally’s cabin in Bear Valley. It’s much better this way. I’m sitting on a comfy couch, with a mug of hot tea (well, water, actually), listening to music. There’s a real bathroom upstairs with warm running water and a shower and a mirror. We made a nice dinner, sat on the deck, then cleaned up in a kitchen with warm running water and, again, music to make the clean up job more fun.

See? Better.

Hanging this weekend with two of my oldest buds: Sally from the neighborhood, known her since she moved to PV in the second grade; and Kath who I ran track with in high school (and we ran against each other in college!).

Covered some great territory today.. both in the literal sense — hiking around Alpine Lake — and figurative.. as in, we talked about all kinds of things, like how can we be 67?!

It’s very pretty up here at approx 7000′, just shy of Ebbot’s Pass. Here are some pics from the day.

* Camping in air quotes.

We had a gathering at our house tonight of folks in town who were particularly close to David. It was an opportunity to share at a deeper level our experiences of knowing David and how we’re managing the loss. It was Jim and me, Maria and Sarah, Steve and Casey, David and Marina, Kristen and Elizabeth, Carrie and PJ and Robb.

We sat outside and talked until it was dark and the crickets came out. Kristen guided us through a series of movements that covered what we valued in our connection to David, laments and regrets, and finally how we expect to experience him and his message of compassion going forward. So grateful to Kristen for so skillfully leading us through the conversations. I learned a lot about the relationships David had with others. Millions of thoughts I’d like to write about.. it’s too late right now.

It was a potluck and that was great.. wonderful dishes.

I’m sorry I don’t have any pictures. I was aware that I wasn’t taking any… it seemed somehow like it would have interfered with the energy. Carrie gave me one that she had in her files.. I’d never seen this photo and really love it. Taken at the bench ceremony in 2013.

I’m quite taken with this photo that Alexis took of Magnolia…

As far as I can tell from afar, she’s been getting quite a number of modeling gigs with Vans Shoes. I’ve been seeing the shots posted on Alexis’s Insta. I am looking forward to hugging this little one next week, and getting caught up on all the news when meeting with Alexis, as well. Big changes down there.

A lot of the political ground game is tedious. It’s wandering around a campus, approaching strangers (usually young unsuspecting students), seeking out those who are unregistered, hoping to convince them to take five minutes to fill out a long form. Or it’s a marathon of calls made during an afternoon of phone banking to people silly enough to answer their phone, and hoping to convince them to vote for a fantastic progressive candidate. Or it’s meandering methodically through unfamiliar neighborhoods in some faraway town, knocking on dozens of doors on a Saturday afternoon, hoping for a meaningful conversation with someone unbothered by being interrupted from whatever they’re doing on a weekend, and willing to hear what you might have to say about registering or voting or…

It’s vital work, but none of it is super fun. Not being a victim here, I choose this. And that’s because I’m convinced that what the experts say is true: to make the ultimate difference in the outcome of an election (in our case, propelling progressive candidates into office because their votes on important policiy matters matter!), you have to make sure as many democrats vote as possible. To expand voter rolls, you have to register new voters… left leaning ones. As critically important, you have to work on the registered democrats you already have and make sure they vote… which means relentless GOTV efforts. They say it may take “seven touches” to compel a sometimes voter to become a regular voter. Touches are calls, postcards, conversations, texts. And here we are.

I’m glad to do this work. It’s my way of channelling my horrible sense of doom and anger around politics into something constructive. Gives me a touch of righteousness, like, I’m doing my part.. not just complaining or crying into my beer.

So… my effort today was postcards. These will be sent to registered democrats in District 13 in Virginia who are only occasional voters. The candidate, Lashrecse Aird, lost her seat in the last election by just 500 votes, thanks to a huge effort by reps to flip the VA Statehouse back to red. Sister District’s working on a whole bunch of races there, races that will be close, and which are winnable with some effort on the part of grassroots activists like us. Flipping Statehouses, or keeping them blue, is important work.. as Statehouses are where critical policy stuff happens.

May seem quaint, but it’s not. It’s a touch. Touches matter. Small part of an important whole. Someone’s gotta do it.

Tomorrow, I’ll be writing a fundraising appeal for Lashrecse. The election’s in two months.

Oh, here’s Lashrecse with a few of us at a local fundraiser a couple weeks ago.. she’s the one without a nametag:

Today’s haul. Will you look at those tomatoes! I turned about 7 of them into Penne All’ Arrabbiata.

Says the googles:

Penne all’arrabbiata (penne in a garlic and chili tomato sauce) is typical of Roman cuisine, but known everywhere in Italy and even further afield. By now, it’s become famous enough to join the ranks of classic pasta dishes such as spaghetti cacio e pepe, pasta alla puttanesca, and pasta alla carbonara.

Arrabbiata is more pepper and less sweet than a marinara. Modern arrabbiatas tend to have basil (our Chris Kimball version tonight did).

T’was yummy.

This was what I was trying to achieve last night with a set of four pics of the young Peter. I now know how I might have achieved such a quadrant, but I’m letting it go. Or… heh.. letting it be. (Ref: Beatles, Let it Be album cover.)

I am quite taken with this picture but can’t be sure — in fact I’m dubious — that these are actually the youth equivalents of each Beatle. but wow.. isn’t this cute?

Could John really have worn round wire-rimmed glasses as a youth?

I saw today a similar one of the Rolling Stones which was seriously disturbing… let’s see if I can find it.. hang on…

Yes, here it is:

Creepy, no?

Yesterday, my iPhone sent me a nice photo collage, set to music, as they do. Somehow, they review your entire photo archive, pick some sort of theme, gather a dozen or so photos, add music, and voila, you have a daily trip down memory lane to melt over (and when you’ve finished with that one, there is another waiting to be viewed).

It’s worth mentioning that I have 85,485 pictures (and counting) in my Photos Library. (Yeow!)

Some years ago, I set out on a massive photo reduction effort, culling unworthy photos from the archives (at the time, the archive totaled 75k-ish). It was a hugely satisfying process (and great fun) to go through my photos. I didn’t get all the way through, but did eliminate thousands, maybe tens of thousands. And now that number is back up to 85k.

I take a lot of pictures.

Anyway, I don’t know how Apple decides what photos to gather and gorgeously arrange in a montage, but yesterday it was a whole bunch of Peter photos from a particular era.. about 18 years old, judging from the settings. I loved them (of course), and screen captured a few of them. Then cropped down to headshots.

[Note: I just spent a very frustrating hour trying to get these to arrange in a quadrant.. the Beatles Let It Be – style, but failed. The resolution is pretty marginal but I still love these images.]

Boy, do I love this picture. Happy Jim, doing Jim things.

Right?

I think the number of people charged in the January 6 insurrection has now surpassed 1100. The damage to the capitol, the damage to our democracy.. it’s just tragic.

I heard someone (who??) say the other day that our trust in democracy and in the transition of power will never return to what it once was. Ever. He’s rocked the whole foundation.

All the lawsuits, all the money spent defending the idiots in all these lawsuits, all the time, all the grief, all the attention taken from more important news… ALL OF IT.

And what about the dirty, nasty grift perpetrated by the biggest con ever to walk the planet. People who can’t afford to, are giving that grifter their hard earned money to fund his numerous lawsuits and defend him in his hard-to-count court cases. He’s not paying a single penny of his own money on any of this.

All of this because he can’t handle being a loser.

I mean really.