Event cleaner

I was talking to someone the other day and we got on the subject of house cleaning. I lamented that I wasn't very good at it, that I didn't like it and generally only really cleaned when someone was coming to visit.
"Oh!" she said. "You're an event cleaner!"
I smiled. 'Yes! That's it. An event cleaner!" I went away feeling whole and healthy. I love labels.
They're like stickers from places you've been, plastered all over your suitcase. Now I can add this one, like an accounting, just in case I'm stopped in the street.

To see a tree

I think I was one of the first people to see my grandson see a tree. He was born in the desert and there were no trees except the Joshuas rising stiff and unyielding as buildings to the brand new eye.
He came to visit me when he was a few months old. I took him outside and the two of us lay under our front yard tree. I watched him watch as the breeze moved the leaves. He followed the patterns of shadow and shade with such wonder, I knew he was giving me the gift of first sight.

Band of Brothers

My son's best friend died yesterday in a motorcycle accident. Tony Elfering, top left was part of the pack that made up this true band of brothers. They all roamed the desert, half feral, mostly sweet kids who lived lives of action and danger and swagger. Today we are stunned and saddened, wondering heavily how much sorrow any of us can absorb.

P*landers

Tony Elfering died yesterday on a motorcycle doing what he and all of the desert boys did all of their lives. Tony and my sons grew up together. They formed, along with a few others, a true Band of Brothers, inseparable, one family indisguisable from the other. My heart is breaking for all of them right now and for Tony's mom and sisters. My heart is breaking for all of us.

And the winner is....

A panel of critics and comedy fans evaluated thousands of jokes this year at the Edinberg Fringe Festival. Top prize went to Dan Antopolski. His joke?

"Hedgehogs--why can't they just share the hedge?"

We're gonna be in pictures...

A film crew is coming to Chloride, AZ to make a series of 'shoot-out' flicks. We're gonna be stars. Click on link below for details. Maybe you can be the tourists...

http://kingmandailyminer.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=33163

Crows seem to find me

Crows have a way of finding me. In emails and front yard powerlines, in the tops of my neighbor's cypress, they watch.
Yesterday via Canada Postes this image by Jacob Escobedo, an artist who grew up in a small desert town north of Las Vegas, cme to me.
Mr. Escobedo began creating animals for his friends and naming the animals after the people. This one definitely has my name.
(an early birthday present from Aaron, Wendy and Amado. Thanks you guys! The first piece of art for our desert casita!)

When I grow up I want to be an old woman...

Annie enjoys a day at the beach

Click on link to watch video of Miss Annie Bones at the beach. (Katie or Aaron: Please help me learn how to post youtube videos on my blog!)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16twTgYSt6I

Just another day in Santa Cruz

Woodstock Wanabee

This could have been me. But I was busy in LA living my own private Woodstock. I had two kids and if I remember correctly we did not have a car! Country Joe, (and the Fish) used to come to our house in ELA, lie on our kitchen floor and stare at the ceiling. When I saw him on TV news performing on the main Woodstock stage I was flabbergasted. I had no idea.

Welcome to Bulgaria

We have friends who live full time in their trailer, moving from place to place. The other night I had a dream: We were all at an RV park that was inside a WalMart and we spent our days pushing our shopping carts around the racks of clothes. We visited back and forth with our friends. We were all going separately to Bulgaria. At the end of the dream, we said to each other, "Good-bye. See you in Bulgaria."

What happened to the cardigans?

Town Hall Meeting, 2009.

It's time to clean again?

Really, I should have been born rich.

No Exit

Good Morning, Nevada

Sunrise, east of Mina, NV.

Remodel

In a rare display of optimism, Ethel sees only the potential.

Phone service

To get cell phone reception in Chloride, AZ you have to hike to the abandoned playground, climb to the top of the slide and pray for a sympathetic airwave.

West Texas

Man at the flea: I'm from West Texas, where you either learned to play music or you robbed banks.
Me: Which did you do?
Man: Both. I was in a band and everyone in the group went to prison for robbing banks except me.
Me: How'd you luck out?
Man: I was 13.

Something about a Sunday

Years ago we all sat in our desert bar listening to Johnny Cash sing, Sunday Morning Coming Down, and we'd wail along with him, feeling connected, feeling like we were all in this thing together. Johnny Cash though was moving on, becoming famous, had money while we were right where we started, on those plastic bar stools, moaning about Sunday, just as poor and messed up as we were the Sunday before.

Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

My grandkids, Cease and Ty were in town this week. So of course we went to the Boardwalk!

A work day...

...but the commute isn't too bad.

Thelma and Louise

We met this trucker in Leming, Nevada at a rest stop. She'd stopped to let her little dog, Moxi out to pee.
You traveling alone in this rig? I asked her.
Yep.
Where are you headed?
Kingman, she said.
Us too! You're driving there today? (I didn't want to tell her we were going to stop twice for the night before actually getting to Kingman.)
Yep.
Wow! I said, obviously impressed. Last night, I went on, We watched an old DVD of Thelma and Louise for the fourth time. Have you ever seen it?
She gave me a thumbs-up. My all time favorite, she said.
Ours too! I exclaimed.
Have a good one, she said, picking up Moxie and climbing into her rig.
You too, I said.
And I thought as she hit the road: Everyone better watch out. We've all seen Thelma and Lousie and we all loved it.

Pure joy is...

....knowing your recently purchased desert land has passed its perc test and is septic tank worthy!

One thing for sure

I'm standing on the deck this morning in the dark, watching the full moon with Venus hanging an arm's length away. In the quiet I hear the ocean rolling in near East Cliff Drive and it occurs to me: This waxing and waning will continue uninterrupted, whether we are here to witness it or not. A gentle reminder that it is NOT all about us.

Brindle

Musician, friend, neighbor, lived her life with incredible grace and spirit. Passed away 8-4-09.