Occupation of Independence

That does it -- from now on I will carry my smartphone along on all walks outdoors, just as I carry my bear spray.  Something interesting happens when you least expect, and then your "real camera" is back at home. Q.t.𝞹 and I make use of a well-graveled forest road for routine walks. We stay out of the mud that way.  The moisture content in the sky was amazing.  On the way back I saw the most impressive rainbow/halo around the noon-time sun.  It was a complete circle that would have circumscribed both of your palms held up at arm's length. I don't think I have ever seen something quite like that.  By the time I got back to the trailer and camera, the halo was gone. Imagine you were some shepherd in the high country of a drought-stricken land, and you saw this halo.  You would have considered it a divine sign of some kind.  Around the campfire that night, you might have tried to write a song or poem about it.  Let's hold on to the ability to imagine ourselves in

It is fun to look at things from her point of view: Remember that we came to the Inland Northwest in May to avoid forest fires, dry heat, and drought. She seems to think that we were perhaps  too successful. But you must remember that she is a Phoenix girl. I like to think of water as being the fundamental layer of the food chain in nature. And she certainly is enjoying that food chain. She saw her first wild turkey -- a big one -- the other day, and almost pulled me off the bicycle. Soon my first umbrella, in years, will arrive. And rubber-soled muck books. I am determined to get a grip on this situation. __________________________________ The favorite time of the day for me is dawn -- or even, just before dawn -- when birds in the forest engage in beautiful and spirited singing. Wikipedia would probably explain this. But I won't look it up. I prefer to wonder about it. You don't hear pre-dawn singing in the winter. It is one of the best things about summer.  

This summer is important to me. No more will I tolerate oppressive forest fires, dry heat, and drought. So I am spending early summer in the Northwest and late summer further south, when monsoons will hopefully put out the forest fires that already started in May. On the first real day of looking for a new campsite, I was shocked to learn that I was completely 'out of shape' for camping in dark, wet forests. Would my open-differential rear-wheel-drive van get stuck the first time it rained? Did I even own an umbrella? A rain suit? How would I walk my dog in the rain and keep the inside of the trailer clean? The forest was thick and dark. It almost seemed threatening. And here I was: a new ATT customer with a WeBoost amplifier. But was it going to do me any good? I am ashamed to admit it, but I felt sort of panicky. What happened to my mighty ideals and hopes? I thought of some music written by Patrick Doyle for the beginning of "Carlito's Way". Now if you listened

  Credulousness, credulity. 'Credulousness' is a longer word but it is easier to say. The war in Ukraine might seem like a topic that is so serious or sad that you might want to block it from your mind. But there is some good news, too: Ukrainian conscripts (aka, cannon fodder) are starting to disobey orders or surrender to the Russkies. Thus they have chosen to live. That is a rare development. Soldiers tend to follow orders even if it means near-certain death. When you read books about the Great War (World War I) it is hard to believe that officers would blow a whistle and the troops would go 'over the top', just to be caught up in the barb wire and slaughtered by machine guns. The exception was the French soldiers who partially rebelled against their officers. The soldiers would not go on offensive charges across no-man's-land in 1918, but they did stay in the trench and fight defensively. I think that is a true moment of glory for French culture. And now some Uk

When walking the dog this morning I chanced upon an unusually smooth section of gravel road. (Unlike New Mexico, Idaho puts gravel on its forest roads.) Skinny tracks criss-crossed this road 'all over the place.' It was earthworms. I can't even remember the last time I saw vermicular-Americans crawling out of the ground after a night of rain.  The loveable little app, Pocket Rain Gauge, says we got 0.27" of rain last night! Everybody has read that 'your skin is the largest organ in the human body.' Is it ever! My skin, nails, and hair are going through a resurrection these days. I am wearing a baseball cap! And I used to make fun of them as unmanly, nerdy, ugly, and ineffective. There really are some adjustments to camping with rain, but I am 'up' for the challenge. The most important issue is traction on dirt/gravel roads, or rather, right off of those roads.  It is important to camp by backing away uphill from those roads, thereby making an easy esc