29 August 2013
A (Digital) Tintype
26 August 2013
The Cusp of Autumn
The air maintains a crisp quality, breezes are cool and speak of the winter to come. The sun seems to have taken a step back from us, no longer casting as warm a glow as she was just a month ago. No, now is the time for her to retreat, for her to retire, so that we can rest for awhile in the embrace of winter.
Outside the visitors are less numerous, their disruptions less frequent as I go about my day off. The window stays open, and their voices, if they do travel alongside my house, are increasingly foreign in nature. Which is just fine by me. For once I am glad not to understand them: ignorance is bliss.
With autumn, as with spring, comes the need to clean. Papers are sorted into three piles: keep, trash, and kindling. Soon we will be starting fires in the stove again, and I have no intention of running out of fire-starters. Everything off the floor! It's time to run the vacuum, shake out the rug, suck up the cobwebs from the floor runners. Make that four categories of paper: anything remotely interesting gets poster-puddied onto the wall. I've got a growing gallery there: postcards, phone numbers, Mom's little doodles on the back of which she sent me her most recent letter, a map of Sequoia and Kings Canyon with the Big Arroyo Trail highlighted. Someone I look forward to seeing again is out there right now. If patience pays off, they will be here soon enough. Feathers are collected from the corners they've blown to, tied down onto a length of hemp, strung from a push-pin in the wall along with my old dream catcher. Not the one I got free with a coupon at some gift shop in New Mexico, but the one that I made my first season here. Where I hiked up the canyon alongside Geiger and cut a willow, soaked it, debarked it, and fastened it into a circle with my trusty hemp, weaving the web from whose center I would dangle another hemp strand with swallow feathers I found in the basement of the toll house by the parking lot. This is the dream catcher that hung in my room in the J.S. Cain, which then became Eric's room, and which Eric returned to me when he moved out of that room at the beginning of this year so that Terra (now a permanent employee) could have the house along with her husband, dog, cat, bird, and brother-in-law. This dream catcher will stay here, a modern Bodie relic - it'd probably be bad luck to take it out of town anyway.
My hair grows long, barely grazing the tops of my shoulder blades. A single ponytail holder stands between me and cutting it short again, an unspoken promise that I'll let it continue to grow in spite of myself. Peppermint-soaked cotton balls find their way to the recently de-webbed corners of the room to disinterest further spider activity. Things find their places once more, slowly but surely, and the bed reappears. That quilt needs to be bagged for the quilt show. They said to describe it's story in 25 words or less. I did it in 47. Excess boxes clutter my space - do I recycle them, or are they good for something? It's the age-old question when you move every six months. Except that I move every 4. Since I graduated high school I have never been in one place for more than 4 months at a time. And yet here I am, honing in on that 4-month mark, and staring down the barrel of two more months in the same place.
But September is my favorite month here, when the days grow more introspective, the increasingly elderly visitors ask more insightful questions, and all is peace and quiet and crisp and clean. The aspens will start to change soon, you can feel it in the air, and I will be compelled to ride my bike up the Virginia Lakes road once more to engross myself in that decay-dent scent of autumnal detritus. Soup is on my mind - the duck soup that needs finishing in the fridge, the squash soup I gathered the ingredients for on my last trip to the west side, the chicken soup with the paprika that I love so much, the minestrone that I haven't made in over a year, Eric's chili cook-off which I darn well hope I will get to participate in this year. My visions shift from knitting tank tops to knitting sweaters, and I regret leaving so many of mine in Michigan. I sense a mail-order of sorts is forthcoming. In the meantime, my progressively threadbare flannel serves me just as well as it ever has, and I pull it close around me in the wake of the coming autumn chill. We've been through a lot of firsts together, that flannel and I, always making itself present in my life. There's no reason why it shouldn't do the same while I try to pin my beating wings down for a couple months longer than usual so I can enjoy one of my favorite places - possibly for the last time - in my favorite season.
The cusp of autumn is here, and I look forward to the season with placid joy.
Outside the visitors are less numerous, their disruptions less frequent as I go about my day off. The window stays open, and their voices, if they do travel alongside my house, are increasingly foreign in nature. Which is just fine by me. For once I am glad not to understand them: ignorance is bliss.
With autumn, as with spring, comes the need to clean. Papers are sorted into three piles: keep, trash, and kindling. Soon we will be starting fires in the stove again, and I have no intention of running out of fire-starters. Everything off the floor! It's time to run the vacuum, shake out the rug, suck up the cobwebs from the floor runners. Make that four categories of paper: anything remotely interesting gets poster-puddied onto the wall. I've got a growing gallery there: postcards, phone numbers, Mom's little doodles on the back of which she sent me her most recent letter, a map of Sequoia and Kings Canyon with the Big Arroyo Trail highlighted. Someone I look forward to seeing again is out there right now. If patience pays off, they will be here soon enough. Feathers are collected from the corners they've blown to, tied down onto a length of hemp, strung from a push-pin in the wall along with my old dream catcher. Not the one I got free with a coupon at some gift shop in New Mexico, but the one that I made my first season here. Where I hiked up the canyon alongside Geiger and cut a willow, soaked it, debarked it, and fastened it into a circle with my trusty hemp, weaving the web from whose center I would dangle another hemp strand with swallow feathers I found in the basement of the toll house by the parking lot. This is the dream catcher that hung in my room in the J.S. Cain, which then became Eric's room, and which Eric returned to me when he moved out of that room at the beginning of this year so that Terra (now a permanent employee) could have the house along with her husband, dog, cat, bird, and brother-in-law. This dream catcher will stay here, a modern Bodie relic - it'd probably be bad luck to take it out of town anyway.
My hair grows long, barely grazing the tops of my shoulder blades. A single ponytail holder stands between me and cutting it short again, an unspoken promise that I'll let it continue to grow in spite of myself. Peppermint-soaked cotton balls find their way to the recently de-webbed corners of the room to disinterest further spider activity. Things find their places once more, slowly but surely, and the bed reappears. That quilt needs to be bagged for the quilt show. They said to describe it's story in 25 words or less. I did it in 47. Excess boxes clutter my space - do I recycle them, or are they good for something? It's the age-old question when you move every six months. Except that I move every 4. Since I graduated high school I have never been in one place for more than 4 months at a time. And yet here I am, honing in on that 4-month mark, and staring down the barrel of two more months in the same place.
But September is my favorite month here, when the days grow more introspective, the increasingly elderly visitors ask more insightful questions, and all is peace and quiet and crisp and clean. The aspens will start to change soon, you can feel it in the air, and I will be compelled to ride my bike up the Virginia Lakes road once more to engross myself in that decay-dent scent of autumnal detritus. Soup is on my mind - the duck soup that needs finishing in the fridge, the squash soup I gathered the ingredients for on my last trip to the west side, the chicken soup with the paprika that I love so much, the minestrone that I haven't made in over a year, Eric's chili cook-off which I darn well hope I will get to participate in this year. My visions shift from knitting tank tops to knitting sweaters, and I regret leaving so many of mine in Michigan. I sense a mail-order of sorts is forthcoming. In the meantime, my progressively threadbare flannel serves me just as well as it ever has, and I pull it close around me in the wake of the coming autumn chill. We've been through a lot of firsts together, that flannel and I, always making itself present in my life. There's no reason why it shouldn't do the same while I try to pin my beating wings down for a couple months longer than usual so I can enjoy one of my favorite places - possibly for the last time - in my favorite season.
The cusp of autumn is here, and I look forward to the season with placid joy.
25 August 2013
I'm painting blue skies!
I painted this one last night - hadn't painted anything in awhile, so I thought I'd test out my new paint. Turns out it also does a good denim. Also tried to be real conscious about where the light was and where it was coming from in this painting. Can you tell? In the end I don't think the lighting was quite as dramatic as I was trying to get it to be, but I think it kind of showed up. I even did some pressing of lines with the flat tip on the other end of my brush for the trees in the foreground, as well as the delineation of the hood in the jacket. This whole person-in-the-landscape thing is inspired by a watercolor artist whose painting I bought at the 4th of July Booths in Bridgeport earlier this year - he includes a person in almost every single one of his landscapes to bring connection with the Nature. I liked that idea, and I think I'm going to try and start doing that more often, now.
I had a pleasant surprise when I got to church today: I found out that there was a church picnic afterwards! My poor bike rode all the way down the mountain with me, but I ended up not going for a ride because once the picnic was gone, the smoke from the Rim Fire had blown in and I wasn't prepared to develop sports-induced asthma today. A bit of a bugger. I left the bike in the car for the night and will try to take her out tomorrow morning, before the smoke rolls in. I also might be putting my quilt in the local Founders' Day Quilt Show, so that's exciting.
This weekend is the clean-the-house/do-the-laundry/unpack-from-my-trip weekend. Not a whole lot of fun, but I'm going to try and get a decent hike and a bike in, assuming that the smoke cooperates. It's also the cook-those-veggies-in-your-fridge-before-they-go-bad weekend which, with two monster zucchinis and two decent-sized zuc/squash hybrids, a giant beet, some corn cobs, overly-juicy plums, and other delicacies, should be fun! I'm going to be cooking up/baking a storm! Maybe I'll do a post on culinary creativity/activity.
Until next time!
21 August 2013
Weekend Adventures
So this weekend I went to Columbia SHP with a friend, but I didn't take a single picture in the state park. Oops. However, I did get a goofy shot of us in front of a storefront in the town of Bootjack, where we stopped because of the funny name.
We also stopped at the CA State Mining and Mineral Museum in Mariposa - where I geeked out for an hour or so. They've got an operational model of a stamp mill! How cool is that! Anyway, we made it up to Columbia, explored a bit, had ice cream, sarsaparilla, and chocolate, then went to Tuttletown Recreation Area to cool off because it was ludicrously hot! We swam for at least a couple hours, then had dinner and camped out. Overall, a very fun time.
The next morning I went to Stockton to visit my cousin Amanda. But first I stopped in at her winery in Acampo, where I got the Mr. Rogers tour - so cool!
It was fun catching up with her, meeting the addition to their family, swimming in their pool (again, it was REALLY hot and humid), and generally having fun. Then the next day it was off to Bodie again, where a 14,300 acre fire is burning a mere 3 miles away at 20% containment. I'm up and at 'em this morning, but word on the street is we might not be open again today. We'll see if they find anything worthwhile for me to do with myself for 10 hours if that's the case.
Until next time!
The next morning I went to Stockton to visit my cousin Amanda. But first I stopped in at her winery in Acampo, where I got the Mr. Rogers tour - so cool!
Until next time!
17 August 2013
Checkup on my Goals
Since I'm coming down the backside of my season now, I thought it might be good to reevaluate a bit. At the beginning of the season, I had three active goals, and one monetary goal. I wanted to amp up my hiking mileage and get out with my backpack more; to create a social life outside of Bodie; to read a lot; and to get my student loans down below $7,000. Well, it's been about 3.5 months now, and let's see how I'm doing:
1. Eight miles is now a pretty standard hiking distance for me, and my new record for a hike in a day is 23 miles. I haven't been hiking terribly regularly, but the hikes I have been doing are typically a bit longer. I've also gotten out and explored a couple places in the Bodie Hills that have been on my to-do list for awhile, like Mt. Biedeman and Beauty Peak. It would probably be good if I got in the habit of doing these hikes more frequently, but at least I am doing them. The only downside to emphasizing hiking this season is that my cycling really fell by the wayside - I've only taken my bike out about three times this season. Very sad. But I blame that on losing momentum because I had hoped to get a mountain bike and then I didn't get one, so I was waiting to start biking when I got one and then that didn't happen. But on that note, I've got a model picked out that I want to buy when I get around to it. However, I don't think it's going to happen this year, anymore. As for backpacking, I used my backpack only the one time in the Bodie Hills at the beginning of the season (my infamous mail hike), and I went backpacking once with Alyssa. So I suppose that I'm a bit lacking on that end of the goal.
2. I have one hiking buddy in Lee Vining who I have met for hikes on a handful of occasions. It's been nice to get out of town and meet new people. I also became somewhat of a regular at the local billiards and the postmaster knows me by name. New this past couple weeks, I started attending Bridgeport Christian Fellowship on occasional Sundays. That is, I don't drive into town every week on Sunday, because I don't like to drive into town more than once on my weekend, and sometimes I have to get weekday stuff done (like going to the library). I've also gotten out of town for some trips, and am planning some more for the future. I went to Sequoia and visited Alyssa; this weekend I'm going to the west side again to see Columbia SHP and visit my cousin in Stockton; in October I'm taking a couple days off to go to the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco. Overall, I think I've definitely broadened my social horizons from what they were in the past couple years here.
3. I've managed to read (and listen to) several books this season, which is several more than I have in the recent past (if you don't count textbook reading!). Since I arrived, I have read "Old Murders Never Die" (a goofy ghost town murder mystery thing), "The Secret Knowledge of Water" (which I HIGHLY recommend), "Zorro" by Isabel Allende, Edward Abbey's "Desert Solitaire", and am currently reading "The Last Season" by Eric Blehm. On audiobook I have listened to all three Hunger Games books and Pride & Prejudice, as well as a prequel and sequel short stories to accompany the Golden Compass series. That's a total of 4 (soon to be 5) books read, and 4 books listened to, 8 books (soon to be 9) altogether. So I would say that this goal is definitely being met with success!
4. My student loans are currently at about $8,700. I've been making payments around $200 twice a month, so at that rate, by the end of October when I make my month's-end payment and finish up my season here at Bodie, I should have achieved my goal of getting under $7,000 by the end of the season. I'm on track! Yipee!
So overall I think that my goals are being met fairly well. Hopefully the trend continues in the next two-and-a-half months!
Until next time!
1. Eight miles is now a pretty standard hiking distance for me, and my new record for a hike in a day is 23 miles. I haven't been hiking terribly regularly, but the hikes I have been doing are typically a bit longer. I've also gotten out and explored a couple places in the Bodie Hills that have been on my to-do list for awhile, like Mt. Biedeman and Beauty Peak. It would probably be good if I got in the habit of doing these hikes more frequently, but at least I am doing them. The only downside to emphasizing hiking this season is that my cycling really fell by the wayside - I've only taken my bike out about three times this season. Very sad. But I blame that on losing momentum because I had hoped to get a mountain bike and then I didn't get one, so I was waiting to start biking when I got one and then that didn't happen. But on that note, I've got a model picked out that I want to buy when I get around to it. However, I don't think it's going to happen this year, anymore. As for backpacking, I used my backpack only the one time in the Bodie Hills at the beginning of the season (my infamous mail hike), and I went backpacking once with Alyssa. So I suppose that I'm a bit lacking on that end of the goal.
2. I have one hiking buddy in Lee Vining who I have met for hikes on a handful of occasions. It's been nice to get out of town and meet new people. I also became somewhat of a regular at the local billiards and the postmaster knows me by name. New this past couple weeks, I started attending Bridgeport Christian Fellowship on occasional Sundays. That is, I don't drive into town every week on Sunday, because I don't like to drive into town more than once on my weekend, and sometimes I have to get weekday stuff done (like going to the library). I've also gotten out of town for some trips, and am planning some more for the future. I went to Sequoia and visited Alyssa; this weekend I'm going to the west side again to see Columbia SHP and visit my cousin in Stockton; in October I'm taking a couple days off to go to the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco. Overall, I think I've definitely broadened my social horizons from what they were in the past couple years here.
3. I've managed to read (and listen to) several books this season, which is several more than I have in the recent past (if you don't count textbook reading!). Since I arrived, I have read "Old Murders Never Die" (a goofy ghost town murder mystery thing), "The Secret Knowledge of Water" (which I HIGHLY recommend), "Zorro" by Isabel Allende, Edward Abbey's "Desert Solitaire", and am currently reading "The Last Season" by Eric Blehm. On audiobook I have listened to all three Hunger Games books and Pride & Prejudice, as well as a prequel and sequel short stories to accompany the Golden Compass series. That's a total of 4 (soon to be 5) books read, and 4 books listened to, 8 books (soon to be 9) altogether. So I would say that this goal is definitely being met with success!
4. My student loans are currently at about $8,700. I've been making payments around $200 twice a month, so at that rate, by the end of October when I make my month's-end payment and finish up my season here at Bodie, I should have achieved my goal of getting under $7,000 by the end of the season. I'm on track! Yipee!
So overall I think that my goals are being met fairly well. Hopefully the trend continues in the next two-and-a-half months!
Until next time!
12 August 2013
Post-FOB Pass-out
Well, we've survived Friends of Bodie Day once more, and in my opinion it went down pretty well. For those who haven't heard it yet, I did have the privilege of singing the National Anthem to open the parade on FOB Day:
It went alright, I suppose.
The park still seems to be busy, though I can't say for sure since I've been on my days off, and will be until Wednesday. I've slept in both mornings so far, and yesterday evening Betty and I stayed up late and laid out under the stars to watch the Perseids. Bodie is a pretty spectacular viewpoint for the annual meteor shower - in fact, I think the only thing Big Bend has on Bodie for Perseids-viewing is the fact that if I were watching them from my blacktop driveway in Big Bend I would be warm, and in Bodie I was bundled up and still quite chilly.
Evening temperatures continue to drop into the 20s here, and Autumn is definitely on its way. Our first park aide left for the season, and as time goes on there will be more to follow. Hopefully visitation will start to taper off a bit, too, though I wouldn't mind if it stayed busy for a couple more weeks, at least. Betty will be going back to San Francisco to do her tutoring thing and it'll just be John and me in the house once more.
I've decided to sort through my iPhoto library this weekend (or at least get a good start) and after going through 15 events I have put 800 photos in the trash. I'm going to wait 'til I get through all of them before I delete them, so I've got a final count. :) Mostly what I'm getting rid of is duplicates or really blurry shots of ???, but there's a few of people I don't know (or don't know anymore) and other random things that I feel I really don't need. It's very fulfilling. Betty thought my monologue while I was working on it this morning was so hilarious, she set up a camera and recorded it. I promised to do a goofy youtube video montage from the footage in the next couple weeks.
Tonight is the annual Bodie Luau, and I've got a coconut cream pie waiting for whipped cream in the fridge. Tomorrow Betty and I are going to go to town and play one last round of pool before she heads out to the big city once more. Now we're on the downhill side of the season, and I have to say it's a bit bittersweet. But as always, I am looking forward to my favorite season: Fall.
The park still seems to be busy, though I can't say for sure since I've been on my days off, and will be until Wednesday. I've slept in both mornings so far, and yesterday evening Betty and I stayed up late and laid out under the stars to watch the Perseids. Bodie is a pretty spectacular viewpoint for the annual meteor shower - in fact, I think the only thing Big Bend has on Bodie for Perseids-viewing is the fact that if I were watching them from my blacktop driveway in Big Bend I would be warm, and in Bodie I was bundled up and still quite chilly.
Evening temperatures continue to drop into the 20s here, and Autumn is definitely on its way. Our first park aide left for the season, and as time goes on there will be more to follow. Hopefully visitation will start to taper off a bit, too, though I wouldn't mind if it stayed busy for a couple more weeks, at least. Betty will be going back to San Francisco to do her tutoring thing and it'll just be John and me in the house once more.
I've decided to sort through my iPhoto library this weekend (or at least get a good start) and after going through 15 events I have put 800 photos in the trash. I'm going to wait 'til I get through all of them before I delete them, so I've got a final count. :) Mostly what I'm getting rid of is duplicates or really blurry shots of ???, but there's a few of people I don't know (or don't know anymore) and other random things that I feel I really don't need. It's very fulfilling. Betty thought my monologue while I was working on it this morning was so hilarious, she set up a camera and recorded it. I promised to do a goofy youtube video montage from the footage in the next couple weeks.
Tonight is the annual Bodie Luau, and I've got a coconut cream pie waiting for whipped cream in the fridge. Tomorrow Betty and I are going to go to town and play one last round of pool before she heads out to the big city once more. Now we're on the downhill side of the season, and I have to say it's a bit bittersweet. But as always, I am looking forward to my favorite season: Fall.
03 August 2013
Halfway through
 |
| Photo Credit: Shawn Biessel |
August has begun, and we are officially halfway through the season here at Bodie, with just three months left. Where has the time flown!? Things are definitely in a groove here, and I'm enjoying myself thoroughly, though starting to realize that I need to quickly make good on all those "one of these days I'm gonna..." statements I've been making about things to explore around here. Otherwise they might not happen at all.
Friends of Bodie Day is fast approaching. I'm hoping that my tartan that I ordered will come in with time enough for me to affix it to my costume in a pleasing manner. The weather has turned decidedly cool - a pleasant mid-70s in the day, and 20s at night. I've started keeping my window shut at night so that I don't wake up with too stuffy a nose, but I can't really complain. This is the kind of weather for which I love this place. I am definitely wearing out, tiring of the same ten questions, getting more and more perturbed when people peek at me in my house in spite of the modern curtains and multiple signs that say "Employee's Residence".
But even so, there are moments of wonder to be found throughout. Like the Trailer Trash party that was such a hit yesterday, after which Betty and I returned home to laugh outrageously for at least thirty minutes straight. Or the tour I gave today, which wasn't so remarkable in and of itself - I simplified it quite a bit because I had a French couple wherein the wife was translating for the husband and I didn't want them to miss anything too important. But when I finished, they stopped at the gate and chatted with me for a good fifteen minutes, first asking questions about Bodie, comparing it to their last visit - thirteen years ago - and then being very genuinely interested in my life working here. What brought me here? What do I do in winter? The usual questions. But their seemingly sincere concern for my well-being as a nomad was touching. "Isn't it hard for you?" they asked, "to always be going around and not have a family?" I assured them that, for now, it was alright, that it did make dating difficult, but that some day I would settle down and have a family.
At least, that's what I hope.
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