Big Day! - Thursday 3/6/2008

Started out the day with a little excitement. One of the other patrons of Sitton's Diner was outside having a smoke when he saw a trash truck come around the corner, smoking. The driver (wisely) dumped the whole smoldering load onto Tujunga Boulevard where it quickly achieved true flamedom!

A little passel of us left our coffee to ooh and ah. One of the servers called 911 on her cell phone. There seems to have been a lot of fire in my life in the past year. I'm more of an earth-type.



Some of you are aware that I started at Taking the Reins today with my own class, once a week for the next eight weeks. Another challenging experience.

Of course it's challenging, I don't know anything about 13 year old girls and I don't know anything about teaching!

The first half of the class went very well. We talked about them and their experiences of the day, etc. The best part was when one of the girls said she'd written a haiku, and we made one up on the spur of the moment. First line was about horses, second was about the weather, and the third was about horses and the weather...we actually wrote about 4 good last lines because they were all calling out ideas and counting syllables.

I sort of crashed in the last half of the class, having run out of stuff for them to do. The main skill I need to work on is getting them to talk more about the questions I bring up. Also need to figure out how to build from simple to something more complex that feels like a satisfying little project for the class period. I have great notes from Mags, but I need to relax a little, too, I think.

An unexpected challenge is that 3 of the 8 girls have done the program before. So their answers to questions like "What did you expect today?" and "How was the experience different than you expected?" were "I expected what happened and it happened."

I think they have a dampening effect on the other girls talking about their fears about dealing with these huge horses, because they're very comfortable. Also very energetic. Did have to separate two of them at one point.

The class was bored toward the end and could probably sense I didn't know what to do with them. I had them draw pictures of what they did. Didn't realize till I was telling about this later, but many of them drew the river, the ducks and the mountains. But they all left out the 20 feet of concrete on either side of the L.A. River (the bed is at least natural at this point with rocks and algae clumps and reeds) and the busy 5 freeway between the river and the mountains.

As my sister pointed out, they've already begun using their imaginations to change the way they represent the world and this is part of what we do in writing. I'll be sure and bring this up next week.

They were all disappointed that they only led horses and didn't get to ride. Hmm, see, there's an opportunity missed. I could have asked them to write about that and about something else they were disappointed about in their lives.

Skills I need to build:

-listening and being more spontaneous within the general framework

-creating my own class plan (even if it riffs heavily off of Mags's plan) so that I don't feel I have to refer to notes etc.

My mom, sister, Mags and other friends have been so helpful in listening and providing ideas for future exercises!!

In all honesty, I did go home and have myself a little cry because it was stressful and I want to do this well, and I am SO uncomfortable not knowing what I'm doing. But I'm glad I had myself a cathartic little private boo-hoo because I woke up feeling more clear-headed this morning for it. (Big Baby!!)

Last Day of Freedom - Friday 2/22/2008

Okay, yeah, the title may be a bit dramatic. The good news is that work is picking up enough at last, post WGA strike, that we've all been called in to work the full week next week. Bad news is, I have to give up my chair by the window five days a week and actually do something I get paid for.


May I just say that this is my absolute favorite type of weather in Acton? Cool, not too windy, with clouds playing through the mountains. Each breath of air on my little hike around the neighborhood was like a peppermint landing on my tongue.



The hill behind our house is responding well to the rain. This was blackened by fire last March.



My foot wanted to get into the picture and show you the teensy purple flowers that are blooming on the hillside.

Post Apocalyptic Pastels - Friday 10/26/2007

Another shot over the neighbor's house. Braveheart says they're getting gorgeous sunsets from the smoky skies down in Los Angeles proper. We're getting these soft dawns.

In all the hubbub of going down to the hospital in Panorama City again yesterday for my post-op appointment, I forgot to take a photograph. Harumph. Ah, the stories I could tell. The queasiness I could invoke....

I will just say now that I am through it, the Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Panorama City doesn't engender a lot of confidence by its level of cleanliness. The patients bathroom in the pre-op area was FILTHY and I'm going to let them know what a bad impression that makes. Really, overflowing wastebasket, absolutely dirty floor. Shocking.

And the operating room... About the last thing I thought after I scootched onto the table was that this looked like a set from a hospital movie set in the sixties. They're building a whole new hospital right there, but the old facilities are really pretty barren and primitive looking.

I was crying. The nurse asked what was wrong.

"Just scared." I said.

She told me to think of something nice, so I imagined a beach scene. Running into the waves with Tomasina and Braveheart and Marian just a couple of weeks ago, feeling so alive.

While I was out, I dreamed that the surgeon was there on the beach with us, in full surgery garb. He buried my gall bladder in the sand, just below the high tide line.


Perhaps TMI regarding gall bladder surgery recovery. Stop here if you wish. (This means you, Dix.)

The disconnect between what the doc says the after effects are and what I learned on 43Things (and seems to be the truth) is fairly broad. He kept saying, "no known post-operation symptoms" and all foods are okay "as tolerated." This is apparently a very subtle real world code for stay close to a bathroom once you start eating again.

Zero appetite. Eating fresh fruits, crackers, and broth.

Fire In Acton - Tuesday 10/23/2007

I got up long enough to snap this shot from our back yard, over the neighbor's roof. A little fire flared up, but was quickly doused. Seemed to be done by some of the same fire planes we saw on Sunday, along with helicopters.

Hydra's route to work was closed due to fires on Vasquez Canyon Road, Bouquet Canyon Road, and Sierra Highway, so he stayed home with me again, along with Mom. Nice, really.

Watched some of the coverage of the fires, etc., then gave in to the Vicodin.

Flowers - Monday 10/22/2007

Thanks for the flowers from Tomasina and Braveheart and from my wonderful co-workers. They were delivered in the afternoon. Mom noticed the handy barf bin from the hospital between the bouquets, but we decided to leave the photo as is.

I think I was still feeling the effects of the morphine from the gall bladder operation I had this morning when I took this.

We saw fires in Canyon Country along our drive down the 14 toward the hospital early in the morning. They were moving away from our area. Pretty dramatic lines of orange tracing the hilltops, and smoke lit from below in the otherwise dark. (Arrived at the hospital at 5:15, left by about 1pm, sans gall bladder.)

The Big Scoop - Sunday 10/21/2007

We decided to take Sierra Highway back from our grocery shopping trip to Palmdale today because the wind through the pass on the 14 between us and town was very high. On the way back, we saw this water scooping plane at Lake Palmdale (a reservoir.) It and another plane were taking water to the fires in Agua Dulce and Canyon Country.


Never underestimate the strength of having a good driver/partner if you're getting into photography. Hydra drove us right into the hunting club on the edge of Lake Palmdale even though it said it was for members only. We parked and got out and just stood there waiting for the planes to come back!

I kind of doubt I would have had the nerve to drive in myself.



Agua Dulce and Canyon Country are 10-15 miles west of us. We're watching it on the news right now. Hydra drives right through the area they are talking about burning. Sierra Highway at Vasquez (which is also where our favorite veggie stand is), Plum Canyon, Bouquet Canyon.

Clearly, he wouldn't be going to work tomorrow even if he weren't taking it off to accompany me to the hospital.



Taking off to go help. About a 5-minute turn-around Amazing. As I was writing this, we saw footage of these same scoopers diving low over the flames and dumping their water.

Be careful, guys!

I can't imagine how hard it is for the firefighters and their spouses. All these fires--something like a dozen--started today. If you are hearing about the Santiago Canyon fire in Orange County, that's not near us at all, though Santiago Road, Los Angeles County is.



Back at home, there were several big limbs like this down in the yard. They're about 5 inches wide at the thickest part where they broke.

We saw a big branch down in the neighbor's yard, and Hydra and I thought it might be from our tree. He went over to offer to drag it out (good man!) but it turned out to be from one of their trees.

Now we're watching fire coverage. There was a story on Sixty Minutes about how fires are getting bigger and bigger. One firefighter said that there are no doubters regarding climate change on a wester fire fighting force.

North Fire - Sunday 9/9/2007

We took Soledad Canyon Road home from having the birds groomed in Santa Clarita on Sunday. More charred hills, this time from the North Fire you may have heard about in the past week or so.

This will be especially green after the winter rains if other burns in our area are any indication.

The North Fire Still Burns - Tuesday 9/4/2007

See the fire line at the peak in the distance to the left? This was taken from where Escondido Canyon crosses the freeway. This is about 6 miles from my house and heading away from us.

Heads Up! - Monday 9/2/2007

So I was messing around on line Sunday afternoon, when Liz emailed to ask if we were okay. She'd heard there was a fire in Acton. Huh? Oh, yeah, not to worry.

But look at the view from the driveway! The fire's down along Soledad Canyon, but it looks like it's right over the hill we climbed this morning.


The sun was an eerie red ball.


Ravens pass the smoky sun.

Some one took a time lapse video.

Fire After Effects - Thursday 4/12/2007

Hondista helped me drop off the Tahoe at our mechanic's shop. Winds were very high--like up to 55 mph in the San Fernandro Valley--and ashes were being blown up from the canyons in the hills. It looked pretty hellish as we drove back on Hollywood Way.

There was a lot of ash in the air and some clunky junk hit Hondista's window.

Start of the Fire - Thursday 3/22/2007

This is where the van that started the fire went off the freeway just before the exit sign to Santiago Road. This is the far side of Hydra's mountain from our house.

You're Going to Have to Bear With Me - Wednesday 3/21/2007

Well. Or actually you can choose not to bear with me. Between working way too hard, trying to book rooms in France, and problems with Blogger, I haven't been posting as frequently as I mean to.

And when I do, I'm likely to show you stuff like this because, frankly, I'm still a bit obsessed with the recent fire. The sky was so gorgeous Wednesday afternoon that it called me out for a hike. You can see our brick step at the bottom of this shot.


Meanwhile, elsewhere in the yard, spring is right on schedule. Oh, the salad dressings and beverages I'll make with this mint later.

I adore fresh mint. Where I grew up, it was a major crop a generation earlier. Mint and onions. It grew wild in the ditches and hedgerows when I was a kid. When my dad was a pre-teen he and friends would be hired to "stomp mint." Kind of like stomping grapes, but the mint had been boiled and they were pressing the liquour out of it.

Baby Don't Mind - Thursday 3/15/2007

Another shot from my day of evacuation. That's running from my house in front of the flames, not a medical description.


This baby's mama got her out of harm's way, on the grass down by Santiago Road. She is about to have an in-depth encounter with her toes.



As Hydra and I walked back down to the road where we parked our vehicles after seeing that the house was okay, I had to think... if things had gone differently, our Tahoe and Echo might have held just about everything we own.

Whew!

Oh, on a kind of cool note, I wrote a letter to the editor of our local newspaper The Country Journal to thank the firefighters , homeowners' association and neighbors, and they published three of my photos, too!

Sunday Morning Fire 12/4/2005

I love building a fire in the fireplace on a chilly Sunday morning. It's conducive to reading...the newspaper, a book of poetry, a novel.

Burnt some of the wood that we cut from our own trees earlier this fall. It gives me great pleasure to use things we grow in our yard. We harvest a few apricots, peaches and apples, as well as a variety of herbs. It makes me feel connected to the earth and to other people who do this same thing.

The Restorative Powers of Firelight Mon. 11/28/2005

I was feeling low about progress on my novel rewrite. I lit this circle of friends candle last night. When the room is dark, it throws the shadows of the figures against the wall.

I realize that even a simple candle can feel like a companion sometimes. I’ve written a lot by candlelight, especially when working on the 1820s diary that makes up about 1/2 of my novel. I image that those little flames meant an awful lot to people in the vast darkness at the center of this country in the 19th century.

Response to Arlo's Bus

My friend K in NYC sent me this amazing response. (Since allowing comments means getting meaningless ads from people I turned that feature off; she sent this to my e-mail and granted me permission to post it here.)

"I discovered this truth through personal experience and I thought I would share the story with you:

"A year after I moved to New York my apartment burned. I lost everything except one cat (black of course). A former work friend, R, who was touring with a dance company heard about it the next day and, because she had been involved with a fire 4 years before, called where I was staying and offered her apartment which was sitting empty while she was on the road. Then she told me who to contact and what to do to get Red Cross and city and all those things rolling to help me get a new apartment. This was fabulous. I stayed at her place for a month, went to the Red Cross and got clothes and a voucher for help with apartment rent, etc. I moved into my new place and really didn’t see R very much. Years later I had moved into the apartment I’m now in and it’s across the street from R. New York being New York I never see her.

"One day I was walking past her building thinking about what a wonderful thing she had done all those years ago, without being a close friend or asking for money or any of that, and how I really should just call her up and thank her. Then, low and behold, there’s R coming out of the subway right in front of me. I stopped her. She looked very distracted, maybe even upset, but she recognized me and stopped for a moment. So all I said was, “I was just thinking about everything you did when my apartment burned back in the 70’s and how I never would have made it without you. You letting me stay in your apartment and everything you told me to do. I don’t think I ever thanked you half as much as you deserved.” She looked at me weirdly, sort of humphed, thanked me for thanking her, and walked away. I thought, “Well, at least I thanked her, which makes ME feel better, even though she doesn’t seem to care.”

"That night when I got home there was a message from R on my phone machine. She apologized for the way she acted on the street. She’d simply been stunned by synchronicity. She had been coming from the bedside of a dying friend who was passed talking. She had sat next to him thinking, “I can’t do anything for him. I’ve never been able to do anything for any body. What the hell have I ever done to help anything in this life….” And on and on—and was still thinking that when she got out of the subway, only to be hit in the face with old time gratitude for something she didn’t even remember doing because she’d been on the road and had never seen me in her apartment, or had to deal with any of the stuff that had happened around my fire. To her it was a forgotten phone conversation, over in less than 5 minutes, before she had to get back to work.

"Anyway, sorry to go on this long, but there you have my story…well, R’s story. I somehow felt forced to share.

"I LOVE your blog and will make it a regular web stop! The pictures are great—loved the pumpkin!"

Photo is from the Internet...a copy of the New York Street set at Paramount Studios. Why use the real thing when you can use a set?