time flies, but is it fun?!?!

and many say, if it isn't fun, why do it?!? why, indeed =) last weekend, i spent my first weekend working for "high rock security". it was quite an interesting and fun experience. i got to work the "harmony festival", in santa rosa california. i got to spend the ride down with a good friend, and the ride home with a new friend. this was my little camping space, at our compound at harmony:

now, lest you not appreciate the enormity of this, let me just say it's probably been more than ten years since i've slept on the ground, so this was quite a challenge to me. we later had very nice RV's i got to sleep in the last night, but mostly, i wanted to stay in this tent to see if i could do it. i am happy to report that i could and i did, and with no sore muscles or aching old bodies, either. pretty decent for a chubby old lady =) here's our compound:

and finally, this was the harmony festival before thousands more than we saw friday descended on this urban hippy fest:

i will say only that i am inspired and amused at the various and sundry ways in which urban hippies will try to get out of paying for said urban hippy fest and still enjoy the festivities. it was an educational and amazing experience for me on a lot of different levels. soon, i shall be a california licensed security guard. i am not sure if i should feel proud of afraid =)

in the ensuing week, times are a-changing for me and mine. i am almost experiencing empty nest now. chris is in afghanistan, and looking forward to his liberty soon in columbia. it's a part of the world he's never seen before and neither have i. i can't wait to hear of his adventures. he's busy out living life, but i sure wish he was more cerebral in recording it...mostly so i can live vicariously through him...wishes for safe travels are definitely being sent his way....

about a week ago now, bri moved out again, too. i am very proud of her. she moved back down to where she lived before, with corey. this was her choice, and i think a good thing for her. sometimes i think it's good to shake people up and make sure they are still on their toes =) and in anticipation of our lives changing drastically due to dan's military retirement, we now have no one living in our house who isn't contributing financially. we couldn't do it anymore. there's a part of me that feels guilty about asking people to leave when i know they were depending on me to "take care of them"...but then another part of me feels colossally relieved, the atmosphere in my house seems much lighter, the house is LOADS cleaner, and in general, i feel very good about what has happened. other adults shouldn't have to take care of each other, except for the normal ebb and flow that occurs when partners lives change and evolve.

this weekend that just passed, was spent experiencing ranger love, in various forms. ranger training was attended, ranger friends not seen for awhile seen and loved up on, gifts given, gifts received, and a whole lot of goodness going on! i heart my khaki clan!

that's about it for the moment. just about a month to compression. holy crap!

peace!

Black Rock Rendezvous...

so, this desert. owns a piece of my soul. so much has happened there. joy fear release creativity art mine and others. being in or on the desert when no one else is there is amazing. a friend recently shared that she had heard "absolute silence" for the first time. that sensation and feeling is like a comfortable old pair of shoes for me, but slipping back into them is always amazing, like a hug to your spirit. this weekend was special, though. this group of amazing people have this organization to help preserve and protect this amazing desert and area, and they had a shindig. we showed up early and the above picture is the weather we encountered. we huddled down in our little tent trailer, and existed. we chatted, read, spent time together, laughed, joked, and had a great time. we listened to the rain hit the canvas of the trailer. it always seemed louder on the canvas than it did when you had to walk out in it. it probably rained for near eight hours before there was any standing water on the playa, but once there was, it pretty much hung around all weekend...seeing the rivulets and wash outs where the desert chooses to put it's water as it snakes out into the playa is a beautiful thing to watch. here's the water collected in a tarp in the back of our truck at one point:

at some point before the rain started, we found a little lizard, a horned toad, i've heard from a couple of people. he was so cute and man was he cold! i don't think i would like to be a reptile:

at one point, we did seem like the only people on the planet. visibility across the playa was minimal, you couldn't see the mountains on the far side, and there was a feeling of being marooned. here's my sister, loving life in the middle of all this expanse:

later, more people came. this was both a blessing and a curse =) it was amazing to see friends, make new friends, reacquaint with those not seen for awhile, and get to know better those we had seen, but perhaps not known as well. some very awesome friends, eric and lynn, brought some amazing fire toys. the illumishrooms:

this takes creativity! i want to build something like this! with my own design, but this isn't complicated, at least not the design, but it works very well together. eric did this. he's the man. here's his little mini poofer too:

and those are all the pictures. sometimes i wish we could have one of those sieve things like they have in harry potter...where you can wisp out all your favorite memories and put them somewhere for safe-keeping and then string them out and "reinstall" them to relive them again whenever you need a pick-me-up. somehow, i think some folks, however, would become addicted to this. i might even be one of them =) this was definitely one of those weekends! caught up with the major things, at least those i am willing to write about at this moment =) there's always stuff on the horizon, but i need to think about things for awhile first before i share them with folks. i hope you understand.

 ~peace

Adventures in Insanity...

ahhh....i still marvel all the time at how lucky i am, to have the life i do =) in my last post, i mentioned the fire weekend, and graduation. before any of THAT happened, our local food coop was having a local seedling sale. i really wanted plants that were proven locally, and that real people had raised and had luck with, so tomatoes and peppers were gotten, various varieties of each.  then was graduation. here is a pic of my surrogate daughter, yurie and her mom after graduation:

i was so proud of her! i know i had nothing to do with raising her, her mom did a fantastic job of that, but since she's been here, and the entire time she's dated and been friends with my son, i have come to love this girl! i think she graduated with a double major, one was accounting and maybe international business. she was a mad woman with the taking of the classes, and dealt with all the stuff she had to do to support my son being in Afghanistan too. yes, i cried! it's likely the only time i will get to meet her mom, and while it wasn't a long moment, it was a good one... then, we were finishing up the yard, so we needed to plant and get out to the fire gathering. THAT, too, was amazing. i was worried about going ALL THE WAY out to gardnerville, but it was a quick trip, and as soon as we got there, i knew it was going to be a good time. here's some of the crowd, just chillin':

then, a few of my favorite people were there. cody, his brother cory, and cory's fiance' chelsea among them. here's cody :

and here's another of my favorite people, grin:

finally, later that night, things began to light up. here's a pic of the giant ex-propane tank that was 

converted into an amazing piece of art:

and while there was fire spinning that night, i did not personally indulge. i was having a bit of a sore back from all the yard work. cory is a kick-ass staff spinner, but in a rare moment, was caught on film spinning poi:

i was going to write about the black rock rendezvous in this post too, but i think that deserves it's own post, so that will be next. the fire gathering was ostensibly to build fire barrels and other artwork and for a variety of reasons, not much on THAT front was accomplished, but our progress in friend-making, merry-making, visiting, sharing, and general camaraderie went beyond anything i hoped for! this was a GREAT time! one of the best things about the weekend was the fact that dan came out with me. i am pretty used to doing these sorts of things alone, but it was sure nice that he was there. gosh, i love that guy =) until the rednezvous post....

 ~peace