Dirty World

Finally sitting at the breakfast nook in my minute kitchen enjoying a Red Truck IPA from Palisade (CO) Brewery, thanks to Boss T's tip, and some sweet chocolates from The Chocolate Cellar, thanks to the staff at ELS Laramie who said good-bye in style, I don't have a lot to say yet about the trip, except that it did not cure my penchant for run-on sentence construction.

OK, despite my enthrallment with drill rigs, cranes and other Amazing Machines, I don't like the way we are destroying this planet, our home. I don't mean to sound like some hippie-dippie (or as my ex-sister-in-law so appropriately termed the like, Plastic Baby Deadheads) tree hugging Julia Butterfly (sorry, hermano, but I really just never could get into her and her shtick) or whatever else is inspired in the mind of the reader of those words, but I have always felt a reverance for That Which Is Not Concrete, even though my second Matchbox car as a kid was a cement truck.

In Joshua Tree, we were treated to a blossoming desert, with more different kinds of flowers than I can count, including on the Joshua trees themselves. And then the first night we were there, the Future First Man (It's a good thing there is a car on Aubergine House lawn because we may need to use it, but that story comes later), went out to make pictures and came back with a little slideshow he could play in the tent, which was a first for me, and frowned about the green- looked yellow or brown to me, but I think we can shoot right over this frequently occurring hurdle of color disagreement with little effort- light that showed on the horizon. That was pollution, smog from LA and surrounding area flowing through the San Bernadino pass, and creating havoc with the photo- and with the lives of living creatures, including ourselves. I hope the FFM will share a photo with me so I can post it. I figure the photos can serve a purpose, even if he doesn't like them.

Anyway, that's my first thought about the trip: pollution. The sky was hazy in many places we went, but last Monday evening as we made our way to Page, AZ, by Lake Powell, there was an easily observable belt of blackish brown air suspended in with the rest, in an arc around the entire area, likely, I would figure, from the power plant right there.

Other thoughts are coming on, now, as the bottle empties, but it's after midnight and I think I may finally be able to get to sleep. Preface: A lot happened in the world while we were on the road, not the least of which was a storm surge related to a cyclone that has resulted in, thus far, 15,000 dead and twice as many missing in Myanmar- as if the people there haven't had enough challenge as it has been.

HIatus: Take II

I am going away again for another week: to Joshua Tree National Park and points in between. I have never been and am excited to go. It will be a much-needed hiatus for all of us, since all I seem to do these days is yipe about politics. At least I'm still thinking. If you don't hear from me before I leave or while I'm on the road, I will be back... when I get back.

Maybe I will shake some hands and kiss some babies along the way, or vice versa. We'll see. I'm sure there will be tales to be told. I know how fortunate I am to be able to take off again like this, when some people can't, and am grateful.