Morning Routine

I was up just after dawn this morning, not my usual rising time but when a large black critter decides he wants breakfast and you are the only one with an open bedroom door. Well let's just say I pulled on a few pieces of cotton clothing and fed the cat. Then I was standing at the porch door still blurry eyed when I noticed the hummingbird feeder was a block of ice, so I put on a few more layers of garments and switched out the frozen feeder for the warm one from the kitchen counter.

That's when I noticed.

We have been having some deep fog layers the last few nights. In the frozen morning that translates to every branch, leaf, needle and stalk being hoarfrosted in the early morning. Lovely, beautiful, enchanting - pick your adjective. But something else happens if the morning dawns with direct sunlight as it did this morning. The ice crystals get dislodged and fall towards the earth catching the sunlight in all their facets as they do.

First one or two small motes of sparkle drift down. Then as the sun hits the trees more and more twinkles, flashes and sparks fly. Finally I walked out among a nestle of scrub pines and stood in a tinkerbelle fall of fairy dust.

I would tell you fair readers that I then rushed to my keyboard to share with you this bit of magical winter wonder but I did instead go back to my warm bed for another hour or so of blissfully cozy sleep.

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photo credit: Cyndy's shot of last evenings alpine glow on Mt. Shasta

I'm Back

Well at least "I'm back" to blogging if not back to Berkeley quite yet. The remodel on my apartment back in the Bay Area is going as slow as expected, so I will be up here in Weed/Mt. Shasta for a continuing indefinite period of time.

As for the hiatus from this here blog, I must admit for the first week or so I was queueing up a goodly number of posts for the new year but more recently I have been happy to just not think about blogging at all. We will have to see how that all plays out over the next weeks and months. I will admit to having twenty-one blog post topics all dated for January or February, again let's see how that goes.

I have been working on my current writing project, a novel. I am close to having a large chunk of pages to offer to my victims kind volunteer readers. I will talk about that when the time comes in the next few weeks.

The other issues of life and limb continue in a miasma of yet mysterious origin. I sense that 2011 will be a period of exploration unlike anywhere I have personally ventured in the past. I anticipate being moved to provide you with footnotes and references along the way; crystal clarity will be optional.
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photo: Me & Midnight

Penultimate Post

Time to travel a bit before the calendar turns another notch in our collective lives. I am off to Las Vegas in a few days for some time with a mini-quorum of my poker buddies. Will also be catching up with a lot of former poker media friends at the WPBT Winter Classic. All-in-all a week to ten days in the desert.

After Vegas I will not be immediately returning to the Berkeley apartment because a major remodeling process will begin while I am in Las Vegas; considering the holidays the entire project will take about a month and then I will be re-inhabiting a very upgraded living space. I have been packing and moving out for the last week or so; yet another opportunity to divest myself of accumulated stuff.

So after the time in the desert, I suspect I will return to the Bay area, check on the state of the construction in the apartment and then do some holiday visitations. Weather will be a big determining factor for where I will be mid-month, I really want to position myself for a clear view of the solstice lunar eclipse on the 21st.

Also my friends in Mt Shasta will be heading off to visit relatives and I am once again the house/cat-sitter designee. So at some point I will make the northern trek to Siskiyou County where I will remain until after the new year hath dawned on what I suspect will be a very fluid 2011.
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photo: another NASA moon

Twenty-Six Hummers Humming

One of my harshest blog critics really enjoyed my last hummingbird post, so I felt justified in writing one more, if anything new happened. Well, here it is. Last evening just before dusk, when the major swarming goes on, I was sure there were more than seventeen hummers at the feeder (17 being the old record). Now they are difficult to count even when ten of them sit sipping on the nectar dispenser. But with a little spacial geometry I was fairly confident of a minimum count of twenty-one. I even called my friends the homeowners to boast of my new record bird count.

Shortly after the call, I was sure even more birdlets had come in but how to tell, my quantitative needs were beginning to overwhelm my qualitative delight at being three feet from this quiver of hummers. Then it struck me, there used to be two feeders hanging on the deck, so I could install a second hook the next day and maybe tomorrow night.... wait! and even better idea!!

I filled the second feeder, I had the sugary brew ready for a post-dusk refill anyway. Then I just slide the screen door half way open and stuck my hand and arm out with the feeder in my palm. It took about ten seconds for the first hungry hummer to check it out, once he landed on the far side of the feeder, the side away from the big white tree it was hanging on, the hummer gates opened and soon I had five, then six, the seven birds feeding from the feeder in the palm of my hand.

With both feeders having static birds and one fluttering queue for each I was able to count first twenty then twenty-two and finally twenty-six verified hummingbirds at one time. With the math done, I was able to simply wonder at the tiny birds landing nearly in my hand. It was then that one of them decided that feeding slots eight, nine and ten (where my arm connected to the wrist bone), well those feeding stations were open too. He landed on my thumb and hopped up to the feeder perch. Again, hummer see hummer do. One than more would land on parts of my wrist and hand and make their way to the perch.

Eventually one of the hummers landed on my forearm and sat there staring up at the big white tree. I wonder what was going through her bird brain? I know what was going through mine -- avian ecstasy.

My Life As A Perch

The hummers are now going through a full feeder (3 cups of water, 1 1/2 of sugar) every day, so this morning I was out filling up the sugary snack when one of the little fellows buzzed me. Now in the past I have had them drink out of the 4 cup glass container while I was pouring and many times I have gotten a chirpy lecture while I did the refill, but today was different. While I was up on the one-step to rehang the feeder, one brave bird came in to have a taste even before I had it rehung. He clearly emboldened the others because very quickly with my head six inches from the feeder there were six, then ten, then thirteen hummers all buzzing and slurping.

I figured they could care less about me, so I stayed in place and soon they were whirling around my head completely ignoring me. Not sure if you can imagine what that many buzzing wings sounds like but it is quite invigorating. For a few moments one of the queued hummers was so close to my ear that I was ever so lightly brushed by each rapid flap of her wings.

I was engrossed, fascinated and honored to be so close to the critters and then it happened. With a full baker dozen volleying for a place at the trough, there were always waiters. I have seen as many as eight settled on the rail drinking but there just isn't any more room. Generally four to six are actually drinking and another 3 or 4 are buzzing about waiting for a slot of open up. Sort of like the four o'clock change planes scramble at O'Hara.

Well there was one hummer hovering just at my right temple when he apparently decided he needed a rest but didn't want to retreat to the nearest pine tree. So he landed on the eyepiece of my glasses. A magical moment if there ever was one and he made sure I would be forever honored by his presence when he squirted some hummer guano on my shoulder as he flew off.

[Addendum]: I won't write another entire blog post on the hummers that would set off my more serious minded readers but I must add that this morning I was up around dawn to feed a demanding cat. I noticed that the hummers were out in full force and that the early morning sunlight shown directly on the nectar dispenser which meant in additional to just the sheer pleasure of watching and hearing the hummers, now there was an added light show as their wings picked up the early morning sunlight. I was watching fascinated when suddenly they exploded like a star going nova, the cat had jumped up on the deck. The entire charm of hummers had zipped up to a height of about 15 feet, forming a shell of birdlets. It took about a half a moment, for them to ID the cat as belonging and not a threat then they were back at the feeder. Interesting how "we" adapt, amazing what we take for granted.

Weed Again

The hummingbirds are swarming, the deer and raccoons make their daily visits. I got a clear dark sky view of the Venus, Mars, Jupiter conjunction the other night and the Perseids will be peaking in just a few nights. Add to that my friends have left on a two week vacation, taking the dog but leaving the cat and you can see why visiting Mt. Shasta this time of year is perfectly timed.

OK, technically I am in Weed, even more precisely I am visiting the Lake Shastina Golf Resort. The point is that I am not in Berkeley for a couple of weeks and will be periodically commenting on the set and setting of my travels (again).

Once again I have friends with the decency to invite me to visit them and then up after a brief visit they up and leave. So I have a nice big house with a view of the mountain, a big black affectionate cat, a sparkling hot tub plus heaps & gobs of peace and quiet. You can't get better friends than these. I may even stay around a few days when they return, just to be friendly.

I brought a small load of summer reading material, there is a year's worth of Discovery and National Geographic here to catch up on. Being a modern nest, I have a great wi-fi connection, dish television and their great music collection. I stopped at a roadside stand on the drive up, so I have fresh white peaches, dapple dandy pluots,  fantasia nectarines and a bottle of Amaretto for a never-ending crock of fruit salad.

The hummingbirds swarm around a feeder that is about five feet from where I write. At the moment about half a dozen are jockeying for landing rights at breakfast. I can go out on the deck and stand quietly and become part of the landscape. Aside from one or two agitated chirping in-my-face lectures, I am ignored and the feeding frenzy goes on. This happens late summer each year as the local population fattens up for the southern migration. During the spring and summer there are only two or three hummers around but now as many as a dozen live in the pine trees on the property and sip as much nectar as we provide from early morning until late twilight.

Speaking a nectar, a beaker of apricot velvet nectar awaits me, before I launch into some serious writing for the day.

Whether Fall Weather

No time for a summer friend

No time for the love you send

Seasons change and so do I

You need not wonder why

. . . Guess Who

Seasons change at different times for all of us. Geography makes

a difference, other times it's our own internal clock. Here in north

central California where I have been hanging out we have been

hitting 90 degrees nearly every day and even though it cools off

into the 40s at night, it still has not felt like fall, no matter what

the calendar or equinox says. Today as promised we just reached

80 and tomorrow the prediction is for a high of barely 60.

Overnight Tuesday could even bring the first frost. The slightly

higher elevations on Mt. Shasta will definitely be freezing as

soon as tonight.

Fall has locally arrived. I checked the national weather for my

northern route across the U.S. and found this headline: "Fall

Blows In Nationwide." It appears to be getting very close to

my time to wander on. Distant roads are calling me.

Interesting today has also been windy. I didn't have to close the

house up against the heat, so the wind snapping through the high

pines has been a foregrounded presence all day. It's just warm

enough today to put some electricity in the air. A good day for

domestic disputes and the ruby throated avians have been

chasing each other away from the feeder most of the afternoon.

I was having some problems with my writing, so a took a walk

and got in touch with the changing atmosphere. Its unsettled, a

bit hyper and twitchy jumpy. So when I got back I shifted to

working on several of the meth scenes in the Check Raising the

Devil screenplay. Gotta go with what the elementals give you.

Amy will probably have to round off some of the barbs in what

I create today, but she has lots of experience leveling out my

writing. You should have read the sex scenes from the book

before she got to them!

An edgy, high-strung, restless day calls for a long, slow, mellow

evening, I have the perfect plan. Therewill be a hot tub, perhaps

a cocktail and even some natural enhancements.

A solitary salute to autumn.

When in Weed

Today my stop here in Weed technically becomes the second longest stay on my meandering caravan. In January of this year I gave up the last vestiges of a domicile when I moved from the Vegas condo to my friend's cottage in Sebastopol. I was there for over three months while she was off chasing high desert gnomes in the Southwest. I guess actually the next major stopping point was longer than here in Weed, but I paid for my seven weeks at the Extended Stay in Las Vegas to cover the World Series, so I am not counting that as part of my moochers road trip. I will devulge that my current book project begins with a scene on my last day at the Extended Stay Hotel and the story probably will end at the finale of this trip. Unless, of course, I go down one of these rabbit holes that keep appearing in my peripheral visions.

Meanwhile back in Weed: Fall arrived in a rush of wind yesterday. The temperature dropped the pine needles rained down and hopes for some fall color on the next leg of my next journey increased. Also with the advent of cooler weather there is the hope that the hummingbird swarm will appear before I leave Weed. The feeder right outside the window where I write is visited all day long by the local hummers. But once fall is clearly here, there is often a day or two of intense feeding to prep the little birds for their long flight south. In past years the swarm as seen a dozen or more buzzing hummers queuing up for a nectar blast. I promise a picture if the hummers grace us with a fall feeding frenzy.

The indoor creatures seem calm today. Over the last week we have been trying to integrate a new dog with an older and very territorial cat. The relationship gets fractured about once a day with a loud yelp, a running dog, and a too satisfied look on the cat's face. But peace shall reign eventually, there was been a dog in Midnight's life in the past without daily incidents; this is a just a period of territorial statements being made and the cat wants to be clearly understood before agreeing to any truce terms.

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photo credit: epodunk.com

On the Radio Road Again

Today was traveling day as I shifted my location from San Francisco to Weed. For those who have not been keeping up, Weed is just slightly northwest of Mt. Shasta in north central California about 50 miles south of the Oregon border. I have been coming up here to visit my friends since 1989. From San Francisco to Weed is almost exactly 300 miles and also today about 30 degrees Fahrenheit from cool, moist 55 to bright, sunny and too damn hot. I know, I know; how the hell did I live in Vegas.

I forgot to restock my books on tape catalog, so I decided to try the trip with just radio. NPR got me through the first hour but then the mid central station drifted away. I usually travel with favorite music CDs and recently have done some longer trips with easy to follow semi-mindless books on tape; the auto equivalent of beach books. So it has been a very long time since I have experienced AM talk radio. Those people are raving maniacs and thems is just the hosts.

I got Sean Hannity first. Now I consider most political commentators right or left to be pond scum but this guy not only is right of right but he likes to have liberal dustheads on to pummel like its the first night of American Idol. I really was hoping to find Glen Beck because he must be so far round the bend on his show that he could be channeling Torquemada.

Second stop along the raving loon airways as Dr. Laura Schlessinger. Now I have heard the good doctor before (by the way, she still is not an actual Dr. but then Kermit wasn't really a frog; but you know -- show biz). On this day, amongst the wilds and hinterlands of talk radio, Dr. Laura was a ray of rationality. No, she has not changed but the competition has gotten so low that she appears to be nearly normal. Appearances can, of course, be deceiving particularly with my limited sampling. She did get on some subversive point about a judgmental attitude being good when in the service of the sacred.

Then I ran into a phenomenon, I did not in my limited view comprehend -- Christian talk radio. Not a preachin' show but social commentary with a twist of bible. Apparently, in answering his health reform critics, President Barack has said that some of them were: "Bearing false witness." The Christian host was offended by the use of "religious language" in the service of a social or political agenda. This, of course, coming from someone who has a Christian talk show that advocates for, well not to put too fine of a point on it but a political and social agenda. That double standard nearly sent me back down the dial to Dr. Laura, when I stumbled onto this next missive of right thinking on another faith based show.

Seems Bob Bookee's wife is spending too much time on the internet. Bob thinks good Christians should "get of the facebook and get off the twitter." 

Upon questioning about his wife's social networking tastes; Bob said she was at it one or two hours a day! When asked what she was talking about.... Bob replied and I quote:

"All those people are talking about this and that to each other."

The host probed for more juice and asked Bob, if there was profanity or perhaps sexual overtones to the conversation. Bob was flabbergasted by this suggestion and said:

"No these people are just talking about their lives and trying to use the internet to be friends with strangers."

Imagine that -- being friends with strangers. Which of the seven deadlies does that fall under?

"She should be talking with her husband about those things," Bob went on.

"So you want your wife to share her day with you in conversation?" the host asked.

Bob appeared appalled by that suggestion: "No, I want to watch my tv shows at night. I just don't think she should be wasting her time on the computer."

Just when I thought the host was with me in our analysis of this high functioning marriage; he suggested: "Have the two of you considered a bible study class for couples?"

Bob was speechless, not a good situation on a radio talk show. I was laughing so hard my eyes started to tear up, not a good situation for freeway travel. So I went back to FM, you know there is some real high quality static you can get in the lower bandwidths.

Where's Waldo?

[Content Disclosure: Travels, Mt. Shasta and Some Poker]

I should be drifting back down to Sonoma in the next couple of days after a week in Weed. Actually I am getting close to my homeless date, my friend will be back to reclaim her cottage in Sebastopol in early May. With the WSOP starting at the end of May, I guess I should start looking for a summer rental in Las Vegas.

We now know the Matusow book will officially hit the stores on May 12th. I wish I could be enthused about that, but the final editing process ground a lot of the joy of accomplishment out of the whole process. But over a month to recover should help a bit.

The ever so slow scramble for WSOP media positions is in full crawl. The Shrink will be there for the entire Series again this year; stay tuned for assignment disclosure. I would like to predict that the planned twitter projects are overkill. Too much information for too small an audience. But then again, I didn't buy Google stock.

Finally, in the "All Good Things" category filed under 'Kittens I Have Known." Smokey has gotten very old since I last visited and I expect she will not be here next time I venture up to the Mt. Shasta area. We shared the bed as always and she remains in fine if subdued spirits. It has been over a decade of visits that I have shared with Smokey and she will be missed and warmly remembered.