The End of June

And like the end of all things, it's exhausting.

The Summer Solstice is here

Get excited.

An Ode to Fathers Day

  You've got the nerves of steel to help get the family thru those tense moments.  Good Work Dad!  Keep getting out there and adventuring and showing off the world to your kids.

All the stars are coming into alignment.

Should I pull the trigger on Pioneertown? I hired a writer and then had to fire a writer.  Enjoy the last days of Spring while they last....

June 17th

Yes.

Max is gonna die

Still enough time to get in a post about how Max fell and broke some ribs but won't admit it and is still drinking and partying with Erin and he hasn't even gone to see a doctor.

Tonight is the night

Thanks 4 the fun.

Dangit

We missed posting on the 27th

Viva Prince

Wheels get locked in place
Stupid look on my face
When it comes to making a pass, pretty mama
I just can't win a race

I'm Delirious

The Cult to End All Cults

The Cult leader will practice modern socialist agendas, like free school, free health care and sharing the wealth.  There will be festivals and work projects that will benefit everyone.

We will also have really cool club jackets made out of denim.

The Council of 8 shall deliberate on all items of interest.

Once a week there will be a battle of the bands where you get to show your artistic merit.

Starting a Cult story isn't easy

I don't know where to start.

Well. We went up to Tiki Camp

Out past Garths
Out past the Atomic Ranch
Grows the Tiki Camp

Tonight at Midnight: Gemini in full effect.

In the midnight hour, she cried more more more ~ Billy Idol.

We're excited to be working it out over here and moving into the Gemini of things.

The 19th of May.

Nothing but good times coming down the pipe.

We are 2 days until Gemini.

The Story of the Constellation "Gemini"

Alright.

So we have Zeus turning into a Swan and seducing Leda, who was the Queen of Sparta, married to King Tyndareus at the time.  She had 4 Children in 2 eggs.  Castor & Polydeuces who would later become the constellation Gemini were her boys.  Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra were the daughters.

It occurs sometime between  1300 BC and 1100 BC.  It happened so far back in time and the Battle of Troy was the last great Mythological thing that happened and is also the beginning of the Historical text in Western Civilization, so it's mired in Myth and Fact and that's how they told their stories back then.

There aren't many texts to compare it with, but the Hittites and the Egyptians have some texts that talk about it.  

Well, here's the rest of the story about the Twins, who died before a dozen years before the Battle of Troy:

Twins, Castor and Polydeuces ; were the most famous Spartan heroes. Some recorded them both as sons of Tyndareüs (Tyndareus) and Leda, daughter of Thestius, while others say that they were sons of Zeus, thus they were called Dioscuri.  But most writers say that Castor with his sister Clytemnestra were Tyndareüs' children, while Polydeuces and Helen were Zeus', by Leda. Zeus visited and seduced Leda in the form of swan. So Castor was mortal, while his twin was immortal. The mother of Helen was quite often said to be Nemesis, the goddess of retribution, whom Zeus had seduced in the form of a swan. According to the Homeric Hymna, to the Dioscuri, Leda bore the twins on the peak of Mount Taygetus, but it doesn't state that their sister, Helen was born there too.

Castor became renowned as a horseman, and was given a title of Tamer of Horses. While Polydeuces was renown for his skills in boxing. The Dioscuri were identified riding a pair of white horses.

Castor had trained the youth Heracles in fencing. They sailed with the Argonauts, where Polydeuces killed Amycus, king of the Bebrycians, when challenging the crew in boxing match. They also joined with several members of the Argonauts in the Calydonian boar hunt. The Dioscuri and Jason also helped Peleus in capturing Iolcus from Acastus.

When Theseus and Peirithoüs (Peirithous) abducted their sister Helen, the Dioscuri captured Athens and returning Helen to Sparta, with Theseus' mother held as captive. Theseus also lost the throne to another Athenian named Menestheus whom the Dioscuri install as king of Athens. (Menestheus was later a suitor of Helen. He led fifty ships to Troy.)

Their main rival and enemies were their cousins: Idas and Lynceus, sons of Aphareus. When Idas and Lynceus were going to married their cousins, Phoebe and Hilaera, daughters of Leucippus, the Dioscuri abducted them and married the girls themselves. Hilaera bore Anogon to Castor, while Phoebe bore Mnesilus to Polydeuces.

When they raided some cattle with Idas and Lynceus, they decided on the contest of who get all of the cattle. Idas and Lynceus won the contest and drove their prize back to Messene. Castor and Polydeuces decided to take the cattle back in a raid. Lynceus warned Idas of their approach and ambushed the Spartan twins. In the fighting that followed Polydeuces killed Lynceus, but was felled by rock hurled by Idas. Zeus protecting his son killed Idas with a thunderbolt.

Polydeuces was grief-stricken by death of Castor at Idas' hand. The immortal Polydeuces wanted to die with his brother. Taking pity on his mourning son, Zeus decided that the twins would share their immortality: they would spend their days living alternately both (or separately) in Olympus and the Underworld.

Zeus placed them as constellation, Gemini, in the heaven. They became gods in Sparta, where they were patrons of warlike youths and sailors in the stormy sea.

According to Homer in the Iliad, Helen wondered where her brothers were, because she did not see them among the Greeks fighting in the war, not realising that they had already died. This suggested that her brothers, Castor and Polydeuces, had died after she ran off with Paris to Troy.

Almost Gemini, what does it mean and what it's like to live for May 21st to June 21st

     This zodiacal constellation represents the twins Castor and Polydeuces (Pollux to the Romans). These were born from an egg after their mother, Leda, Queen of Sparta, had been seduced by Zeus, disguised as a swan. Although only half brothers, Castor, the mortal son of Leda's husband, King Tyndareus, and Polydeuces, immortal son of Zeus, were extremely close and together took part in many adventures. Sadly, on one of these Castor was killed. Polydeuces avenged Castor's murder, but was so overcome with grief that he begged to be allowed to be with his brother in the underworld. Zeus, knowing the strength of their feelings, and for once showing some compassion, granted this request. He placed the twins side by side in the heavens so that they could alternate their time together between Hades and the home of the gods.

"A Modern Utopia" by HG Wells

     The existence of our blond bare-footed friend was evidence enough that in a modern Utopia a man will be free to be just as idle or uselessly busy as it pleases him, after he has earned the minimum wage.  He must do that, of course, to pay for his keep, to pay his assurance tax against ill-health or old age, and any charge or debt paternity may have brought upon him.  The World State of modern Utopist is no state of moral compulsions.  If, for example, under the restricted Utopian scheme of inheritance, a man inherited sufficient money to release him from the need to toil, he would be free to go where he pleased and do what he liked.  A certain proportion of men at ease is good for the world; work as a moral obligation is the morality of slaves, and so long as no one is overworked there is no need to worry because some few are under-worked.  Utopia does not exist as a solace for envy.  From leisure, in a good moral and intellectual atmosphere, come experiments, come philosophy and the new departures.
    In any modern Utopia there must be many leisurely people.  We are all too obsessed in the real world by the strenuous ideal, by the idea that the vehement incessant fool is the only righteous man.  Nothing done in a hurry, nothing done under strain, is really well done.  A state where all are working hard, where none go to and fro, easily and freely, loses touch with the purpose of freedom.

HG Wells "A Modern Utopia" takes us to PLANET UTOPIA

     One last note on T. Mores' "Utopia" before we move on to H.G. Wells "A Modern Utopia". Slavery, War and a lack of love for the Atheist make it seem like a strange "Utopia," although living in balance and sustainability almost make up for it.
     Now this next book takes into account most if not ALL of Utopian literature written up until it's time. 1905. Make no mistake I will be making a trip back in time to revisit the greats like Francis Bacon "New Atlantis" and "The Commonwealth of Oceana" by Harrington, "Isle of Pines" by H. Neville and "Robinson Crusoe" by D. Defoe and as Darwin finds Evolution we see the narrative change with "A Crystal Age" by W.H. Hudson and "News from Nowhere" by W. Morris are the most notable, although there are dozens.
     H.G. Wells also tries to work out the bad plot points of most of these books, but also should not discourage the reader from reading them; for they have nuggets of wisdom here and there. He proposes a PLANET UTOPIA and so far as page 20 things look interesting. Here's planet Utopia and it looks just like Earth, because it is just like Earth.
     "Out Beyond Sirius, far in the deeps of space, beyond the flight of a cannon-ball flying for a billion years, beyond the range of unaided vision, blazes the star that is our Utopia's sun" - HG Wells

We've made it to May 8th, 2016

     Finished reading Utopia.  Sounds like a bunch of barbarians took over Switzerland.  Let's see what HG Wells has to add to an update of the classic story with "A Modern Utopia" ~ Just from reading the first few chapters it's interesting to see that he already agrees with me as Darwins discovery has thrown the Utopian dream askew.

More thoughts on "Utopia"

     Spoiler. Every family has 2 slaves in Utopia per page like 28 or whatever in "Utopia" by Thomas More as explained by the fictional character Raphael Hythloday. The slaves are used to kill and clean the meat and do the things that are otherwise deemed "unclean" for the Utopians. How are the slaves living the Utopian dream?  If we can replace the slaves with robots, then we're onto something. also All you fashionistas might not appreciate Utopia. Apparently, according to Raphael Htyhloday, everyone wears the same piece of clothing for 2 years, and the only difference between the clothing between families in Utopia is the color. They never want for more as they know that the more shit you want, the more you have to work for it, and they try to lead a balanced life

My thoughts on Utopia

Stella? Where are my literary canons? So Utopia, written in 1516 is about how Thomas More is sent to Flanders on King Henry VIIIs' watch to discuss a treaty with Spain. I think he got drunk in Antwerp with a sailor and hatched this story. Could he distribute more copies if people thought it existed. Maybe some medieval marketing? Utopia is nowhere.

Researching a new novel.

Getting a feel for what I need to move forward with the new novel.

Working title:
"Walden 3.0 or Living in a High Desert Cult"

Books to read and memorize.

Thomas More "Utopia" in 1516 translated from it's original Latin

Henry David Thoreau "Walden or Life in the Woods" in 1854

BF Skinner "Walden Two" in 1948

I will include the synopsis of each book here in chronological order

.

UTOPIA             Thomas More's best known and most controversial work, Utopia is a novel written in Latin. More completed and Erasmus published the book in Leuven in 1516, but it was only translated into English and published in his native land in 1551 (long after More's execution), and the 1684 translation became the most commonly cited. More (also a character in the book) and the narrator/traveller, Raphael Hythlodaeus (whose name alludes both to the healer archangel Raphael, and 'speaker of nonsense', the surname's Greek meaning), discuss modern ills in Antwerp, as well as describe the political arrangements of the imaginary island country of Utopia (Greek pun on 'ou-topos' [no place], 'eu-topos' [good place]) among themselves as well as to Pieter Gillis and Hieronymus van Busleyden. Utopia's original edition included a symmetrical "Utopian alphabet" omitted by later editions, but which may have been an early attempt at cryptography or precursor of shorthand.

                       Utopia contrasts the contentious social life of European states with the perfectly orderly, reasonable social arrangements of Utopia and its environs (Tallstoria, Nolandia, and Aircastle). In Utopia, there are no lawyers because of the laws' simplicity and because social gatherings are in public view (encouraging participants to behave well), communal ownership supplants private property, men and women are educated alike, and there is almost complete religious toleration (except for atheists, who are allowed but despised). More may have used monastic communalism (rather than the biblical communalism in the Acts of the Apostles) as his model, although other concepts such as legalizingeuthanasia remain far outside Church doctrine. Hythlodaeus asserts that a man who refuses to believe in a god or an afterlife could never be trusted, because he would not acknowledge any authority or principle outside himself. Some take the novel's principal message to be the social need for order and discipline rather than liberty. Ironically, Hythlodaeus, who believes philosophers should not get involved in politics, addresses More's ultimate conflict between his humanistic beliefs and courtly duties as the King's servant, pointing out that one day those morals will come into conflict with the political reality.

                    Utopia gave rise to a literary genre, Utopian and dystopian fiction, which features ideal societies or perfect cities, or their opposite. Early works influenced by Utopia included New Atlantis by Francis Bacon, Erewhon by Samuel Butler, and Candide by Voltaire. Although Utopianism combined classical concepts of perfect societies (Plato and Aristotle) with Roman rhetorical finesse (cf. Cicero, Quintilian, epideictic oratory), the Renaissance genre continued into the Age of Enlightenment and survives in modern science fiction.

WALDEN or LIFE IN THE WOODS         Part memoir and part spiritual quest, Walden opens with the announcement that Thoreau spent two years at Walden Pond living a simple life without support of any kind. Readers are reminded that at the time of publication, Thoreau is back to living among the civilized again. The book is separated into specific chapters that each focus on specific themes:

Economy: In this first and longest chapter, Thoreau outlines his project: a two-year, two-month, and two-day stay at a cozy, "tightly shingled and plastered", English-style 10' × 15' cottage in the woods near Walden Pond. He does this, he says, to illustrate the spiritual benefits of a simplified lifestyle. He easily supplies the four necessities of life (food, shelter, clothing, and fuel) with the help of family and friends, particularly his mother, his best friend, and Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Waldo Emerson. The latter provided Thoreau with a work exchange – he could build a small house and plant a garden if he cleared some land on the woodlot and did other chores while there. Thoreau meticulously records his expenditures and earnings, demonstrating his understanding of "economy", as he builds his house and buys and grows food. For a home and freedom, he spent a mere $28.12½, in 1845 (about $863 in today's money). At the end of this chapter, Thoreau inserts a poem, "The Pretensions of Poverty", by seventeenth-century English poetThomas Carew. The poem criticizes those who think that their poverty gives them unearned moral and intellectual superiority. The chapter is filled with figures of practical advice, facts, big ideas about individualism versus social existence...manifesto of social thought and meditations on domestic management. Much attention is devoted to the skepticism and wonderment with which townspeople greeted both him and his project as he tries to protect his views from those of the townspeople who seem to view society as the only place to live. He recounts the reasons for his move to Walden Pond along with detailed steps back to the construction of his new home (methods, support, etc.).

Henry David Thoreau

Where I Lived, and What I Lived For: Thoreau recollects thoughts of places he stayed at before selecting Walden Pond. Quotes Roman Philosopher Cato's advice "consider buying a farm very carefully before signing the papers". His possibilities included a nearby Hollowell farm (where the "wife" unexpectedly decided she wanted to keep the farm). Thoreau takes to the woods dreaming of an existence free of obligations and full of leisure. He announces that he resides far from social relationships that mail represents (post office) and the majority of the chapter focuses on his thoughts while constructing and living in his new home at Walden.

Reading: Thoreau discusses the benefits of classical literature, preferably in the original Greek or Latin, and bemoans the lack of sophistication in Concord evident in the popularity of unsophisticated literature. He also loved to read books by world travelers. He yearns for a time when each New England village supports "wise men" to educate and thereby ennoble the population.

Sounds: Thoreau encourages the reader to be “forever on the alert” and “looking always at what is to be seen.” Although truth can be found in literature, it can equally be found in nature. In addition to self-development, an advantage of developing one’s perceptiveness is its tendency to alleviate boredom. Rather than “look abroad for amusement, to society and the theatre,” Thoreau’s own life, including supposedly dull pastimes like housework, becomes a source of amusement that “never ceases to be novel.” Likewise, he obtains pleasure in the sounds that ring around his cabin: church bells ringing, carriages rattling and rumbling, cows lowing, whip-poor-willssinging, owls hooting, frogs croaking, and cockerels crowing. “All sound heard at the greatest possible distance,” he contends “produces one and the same effect.” Likening the train’s cloud of steam to a comet tail and its commotion to “the scream of a hawk,” the train becomes homologous with nature and Thoreau praises its associated commerce for its enterprise, bravery, and cosmopolitanism, proclaiming: “I watch the passage of the morning cars with the same feeling that I do the rising of the sun.”

Solitude: Thoreau reflects on the feeling of solitude. He explains how loneliness can occur even amid companions if one's heart is not open to them. Thoreau meditates on the pleasures of escaping society and the petty things that society entails (gossip, fights, etc.). He also reflects on his new companion, an old settler who arrives nearby and an old woman with great memory ("memory runs back farther than mythology"). Thoreau repeatedly reflects on the benefits of nature and of his deep communion with it and states that the only "medicine he needs is a draught of morning air".

Visitors: Thoreau talks about how he enjoys companionship (despite his love for solitude) and always leaves three chairs ready for visitors. The entire chapter focuses on the coming and going of visitors, and how he has more comers in Walden than he did in the city. He receives visits from those living or working nearby and gives special attention to a French Canadian born woodsman named Alec Thérien. Unlike Thoreau, Thérien cannot read or write and is described as leading an "animal life". He compares Thérien to Walden Pond itself. Thoreau then reflects on the women and children who seem to enjoy the pond more than men...and how men are limited because their lives are taken up.

The Bean-Field: Reflection on Thoreau's planting and his enjoyment of this new job/hobby. He touches upon the joys of his environment, the sights and sounds of nature, but also on the military sounds nearby. The rest of the chapter focuses on his earnings and his cultivation of crops (including how he spends just under fifteen dollars on this).

The Village: The chapter focuses on Thoreau's second bath and on his reflections on the journeys he takes several times a week to Concord, where he gathers the latest gossip and meets with townsmen. On one of his journeys into Concord, Thoreau is detained and jailed for his refusal to pay a poll tax to the "state that buys and sells men, women, and children, like cattle at the door of its senate-house".

Walden Pond discussed extensively in chapter, The Ponds

The Ponds: In autumn, Thoreau discusses the countryside and writes down his observations about the geography of Walden Pond and its neighbors: Flint's Pond (or Sandy Pond), White Pond, and Goose Pond. Although Flint's is the largest, Thoreau's favorites are Walden and White ponds, which he describes as lovelier than diamonds.

Baker Farm: While on an afternoon ramble in the woods, Thoreau gets caught in a rainstorm and takes shelter in the dirty, dismal hut of John Field, a penniless but hard-working Irish farmhand, and his wife and children. Thoreau urges Field to live a simple but independent and fulfilling life in the woods, thereby freeing himself of employers and creditors. But the Irishman won't give up his aspirations of luxury and the quest for the American dream.

Higher Laws: Thoreau discusses whether hunting wild animals and eating meat is necessary. He concludes that the primitive, carnal sensuality of humans drives them to kill and eat animals, and that a person who transcends this propensity is superior to those who cannot. (Thoreau eats fish and occasionally salt pork and woodchuck.) In addition to vegetarianism, he lauds chastity, work, andteetotalism. He also recognizes that Native Americans need to hunt and kill moose for survival in "The Maine Woods", and ate moose on a trip to Maine while he was living at Walden. Here is a list of the laws that he mentions:

One must love that of the wild just as much as one loves that of the good.

What men already know instinctively is true humanity.

The hunter is the greatest friend of the animal which is hunted.

No human older than an adolescent would wantonly murder any creature which reveres its own life as much as the killer.

If the day and the night make one joyful, one is successful.

The highest form of self-restraint is when one can subsist not on other animals, but of plants and crops cultivated from the earth.

Brute Neighbors: is a simplified version of one of Thoreau's conversations with William Ellery Channing, who sometimes accompanied Thoreau on fishing trips when Channing had come up from Concord. The conversation is about a hermit (himself) and a poet (Channing) and how the poet is absorbed in the clouds while the hermit is occupied with the more practical task of getting fish for dinner and how in the end, the poet regrets his failure to catch fish. The chapter also mentions Thoreau's interaction with a mouse that he lives with, the scene in which an ant battles a smaller ant, and his frequent encounters with cats.

House-Warming: After picking November berries in the woods, Thoreau adds a chimney, and finally plasters the walls of his sturdy house to stave off the cold of the oncoming winter. He also lays in a good supply of firewood, and expresses affection for wood and fire.

Former Inhabitants; and Winter Visitors: Thoreau relates the stories of people who formerly lived in the vicinity of Walden Pond. Then he talks about a few of the visitors he receives during the winter: a farmer, a woodchopper, and his best friend, the poet Ellery Channing.

Winter Animals: Thoreau amuses himself by watching wildlife during the winter. He relates his observations of owls, hares, red squirrels, mice, and various birds as they hunt, sing, and eat the scraps and corn he put out for them. He also describes a fox hunt that passes by.

The Pond in Winter: Thoreau describes Walden Pond as it appears during the winter. He claims to have sounded its depths and located an underground outlet. Then he recounts how 100 laborers came to cut great blocks of ice from the pond, the ice to be shipped to the Carolinas.

Spring: As spring arrives, Walden and the other ponds melt with powerful thundering and rumbling. Thoreau enjoys watching the thaw, and grows ecstatic as he witnesses the green rebirth of nature. He watches the geese winging their way north, and a hawk playing by itself in the sky. As nature is reborn, the narrator implies, so is he. He departs Walden on September 6, 1847.

Conclusion: This final chapter is more passionate and urgent than its predecessors. In it, he criticizes conformity: "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away", By doing so, men may find happiness and self-fulfillment.

I do not say that John or Jonathan will realize all this; but such is the character of that morrow which mere lapse of time can never make to dawn. The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.

     WALDEN TWO                            The first-person narrator and protagonist, Professor Burris, is a university instructor of psychology, who is approached by a former student, Rogers, and Rogers's friend, Steve Jamnik, sometime in the late 1940s. The young men are recent veterans of World War IIand, intrigued by utopianism, mention an old acquaintance of Burris, T. E. Frazier, who in the 1930s started an intentional communitythat still exists. Burris agrees to contact Frazier, who invites them all to stay for several days to experience life in the supposedly utopian community. Rogers brings along his girlfriend, Barbra, Steve brings his, Mary, and Burris brings a colleague named Professor Castle, who teaches philosophy and ethics.

     The rest of the book proceeds largely as a novel of ideas, mostly involving Frazier, a talkative and colorful character, guiding his new visitors around the properties of the community—called Walden Two—and proudly explaining its socio-politico-economic structures and collectivist achievements, including sometimes radically new and bizarre, but apparently effective, customs mandated by the community's individually self-enforced "Walden Code." A wide range of intellectual topics such as behavioral modification, political ethics, educational philosophy, sexual equality (specifically, advocacy for women in the workforce), the common good, historiography, freedom and free will, the dilemma of determinism, American democracy, Soviet communism, and fascism are discussed and often debated among the self-satisfied Frazier, the skeptical Castle, and the intrigued Burris.

     In effect, Walden Two operates using a flexible design, by continually testing the most successful, evidence-based strategies in order to organize the community. Frazier argues that Walden Two thus avoids the way that most societies collapse or grow dysfunctional: by remaining dogmatically rigid in their politics and social structure. He verifies Walden Two's success by pointing to its members' overall sense of happiness and freedom—thanks in part to a program of "behavioral engineering" begun at birth. Though the people of Walden Two are encouraged to credit all individual and group achievements to the larger community, they indeed appear to live legitimately peaceful, pleasant, and fulfilling lives.

     Frazier boasts that Walden Two's decision-making system is not authoritarian, anarchic, or even democratic. Except for a small fluctuating committee of Planners, temporarily including Frazier, Walden Two has no real governing body that could or would exercise violent force to motivate its members, a feature that Frazier often praises. The members are apparently self-motivated, following a relaxed schedule of only four hours of work a day on average (with the freedom to select a new place to work each day); they use the large remainder of their time to happily engage in creative efforts or leisure activities of their own choosing.

     Excitedly, Steve and Mary sign up and are soon admitted as permanent members. Meanwhile, Castle has fostered a growing hunch that Frazier is somehow presenting a sham society or is in fact a tyrannical dictator. Castle, a strong proponent of democracy, finally confronts Frazier, accusing him of despotism, though he has no definitive proof. Frazier rebuts, on the contrary, that his vision for Walden Two is as a place free of all forms of despotism, even the "despotism of democracy." Frazier and Burris sometimes talk in private, with Frazier revealing that other communities loosely associated with Walden Two have now cropped up, the most recent being Walden Six. During one conversation, Frazier correctly intuits that Burris is wary of his self-righteous personality, but urges Burris to look past this and not let this influence his opinion of Walden Two and its success as a peaceful, functional society.

     By the end, the remaining visitors depart the community in a mostly impressed state of wonder, except for Castle, who has smugly settled on the truth of his conspiracy theories. During Burris's trip back to the university, he ultimately decides in an inspired moment that he wishes to fully embrace the Walden Two lifestyle. Abandoning his professorial post, Burris travels once more to Walden Two and, after a long and solitary journey of spiritual self-discovery to Walden Two on foot, he is welcomed back with open arms.

That's a brief synopsis on each one.

Now to get to work....

May is here

Wow.  We love it.

The fort at the end of the world

Some kind of map in Grandpa's shed.  Hidden behind all the Christmas tree lights and gardening tools.  It's been there for years.  It tells you how to get to the fort at the end of the world.

The beginning of Summer

It's a bright blue sunny day.  Not a could in the sky.  Not one single cloud.  The sun starts to burn early in the morning and wakes most of the residents in the cove.  The old ones, the hard workers, the grandmothers and mothers and the children they watch all get up early with the sun and start stirring.  The sun can't wake the late night burners and dopers.  They stay asleep until the middle of the day and their yards are full of weeds, beer cans and old cars.  Hours before they even wake up, the legions of dog walkers stroll the neighborhood and judge everyone by the front yard.

Although I don't get up as early as the dog walkers, I rake the front yard sand and make it look like a zen garden.  Those judgy bitches will never have to worry about my front yard as long as it's my watch.  They carefully position their dog shit to add to the Zen Garden.  That's the dog walking crew, being all judgy and leaving shit all over the place.  What can you do?  I just rake and pick up the poo.  I'm sure the dog would just piss on a "Don't Shit Here" sign.

So there it is.  The sun burns across the sky.  Illuminating all.  If only I had the time to write it all down.

Reckless

It's seasonable cool this time of the year.  Within the next 2 months it will reach over 100 degrees and then stay there for several months.  We've still got some time and we might as well enjoy the present.  I open the french doors and walk out onto the courtyard and take a deep breath.  The air is fresh and crisp.  The neighborhood is super quiet.  It's mostly second homes or nice quiet couples.  It being located on a quiet street in a quiet neighborhood was the reason we moved here.  Los Angeles was too much for too little.  The moon is coming up and my dog wanders around sniffing the air.  She wanders off around the corner towards the pool.

The property is large, so I wander around it.  Strange desert weeds grow out of the wall and I light fire to them to prune them back.  It's not the optimal way to take care of these things, but it works.  It also makes for a nice fire display in the dark.

I hear the neighbors laughing and talking now.  It's been so long since the noise of Los Angeles that I actually miss it.  It's fun to hear people having a good time, and I even dream a little bit that I'm there with them.  Instead of just me and my dog in the courtyard, I'm hanging with smiles and listening to stories and then telling my own stories.  I laugh at funny things and boo at bad things and make new friends.   Soon, my laughing neighbors get in a car and drive off and I'm left by myself again.  Wandering the courtyard.

Trying to figure out the next move.  

What am I going to do with my life?  I need a profession.  I need something that will make the people that have signed up for my bullshit, something that will make them proud to have signed up for it.  I need to figure something out fast.

I wander about the yard, unconsciously following my dog around as I stare up into the stars.  Orion stands right up on the horizon of the St. Jacinto Mnts. as if protecting the Coachella Valley.   Leo is racing into space as the Twins are taking a more central role.  Taurus and Libra sparkle.  The Big Dipper spills it's contents all over the rest of this galactic arm.  Things are so clear out here.  

Not as clear as things in Pioneertown, but they're pretty clear.

I think I know what I have to do.

It's a beautiful day.

Thinking about America and it's place in the rest of the modern world.  Is it now more dangerous than ever to be alive with multiple threats? or has that dogma been preached to us throughout the centuries just to get us to move our asses a little faster.  The Atomic clock hangs over us at 3 minutes to midnight and still everyone is playing out their games without any real hurry as if there is plenty of time to work things out.

It's all fear mongering for one thing.  Don't believe the hype. 

We've got another 4 billion years until the sun explodes and takes the inner solar system with it.  Plenty of time to figure out how to explore the next level.