Thank you Craigslist. I asked for something to build a back yard planter with and you delivered. Tons of free moss rock were there for the taking. Man, was it heavy. The sad-ish part about it was that they were demolishing a sweet little home on 5th Street and a huge mansion will probably take its place. But, anyway, we scored.

Nice downpour, eh? Well, I went outside to enjoy the rain from the porch and now there's a Fox News truck out in the street.

Before the rain, a smokey smell was in the air, then the drenching began. I looked east and saw orange flames coming out of the 2nd story of the house behind my neighbors' across the street. Called the neighbors, Marilyn and Jeff, who didn't have a clue what was going on. Then 911. Then, Honey ran over to get people out of the house, neighbor Jeff started knocking it down. Fire trucks showed up en masse; 2 police cars blocked off the street, an ambulance appeared. The fire was out in minutes. No one was home; the gerbil was saved.

The firefighters thought the flames were lightening induced and said if it had gone for 5 more minutes, the whole side would be burned. The flame was exciting, but short lived. Interesting to see what makes the news trucks come out.

High summer. Tending the grass, cleaning out the ditch but leave the chicory and poppies and those gummy ball plants that are native to the area. Water and cut, water and cut, gnats flying around. We took apart a funky grocery store fountain that never made the right sound and set up a little burbling water feature by the back porch. The sounds is so compelling and all that is going on is water is piping out of a little hose propped on some rocks in a container. We are almost finished with our patio under the elm. The fence just needs painting and trimming. Work, sweat, smell, breathe, listen, then ease into an empty pool to cool off and then read. Great summer days.

It is so Hot. The porch thermometer in the shade reads 95º so I have to wonder what it's like in the sunshine. I've been using the dogs as my role models - find a cool place and don't move very much. Good thing we managed to finish the living room make-over before this temp spike. One thing nice about an empty nest is that every room is clothing optional.

Sugar wanted the carpets cleaned for real so the carpet cleaners came and went. With Honey's move-out and all our furniture off the carpet, I'm getting a sense of space in this house that I've been craving - but not knowing I've been craving. With the furniture gone, there's no excuse for not changing the wall colors in some rooms so I've been working on that. The paint only goes as far as I can reach, though, since I insist that Sug has to do the high parts.

When Sweetie moved out a couple of years ago, we moved into the east bedroom and I love the sunrise and the garden view. The little burble from the solar fountain makes it's way up there. All I want to put back in that room is my big maroon chair over by the window.

We've been sleeping in the living room on the futon which is a nice change but it's a little too eccentric to last. The dogs like it.

I love summer. Raining now outside. Nighttime. Windows open and the fans running. Marvin Gaye on I-Tunes.

This morning we had to get the Subi's tire repaired, get the rental truck back, get all the guys off to work, finish moving furniture & vacuuming for the carpet cleaners, feed and walk the dogs, and help 2 translators for an hour. Sugar and Sweetie went off to work and then Honey went missing "By the subscriber's request, this phone is not accepting incoming calls." Phone calls kept coming in, the carpet cleaners arrived and I entertained the dogs outside by weeding the front walk.

The afternoon was quite a bit calmer.

I love Ed Greene. I never really forgave Larry Green for taking Sam Allred's job at Channel 4. Sure, it was time to learn to point to the blank screen and Sam didn't want to do that, but - really. Larry was O. K. but he got complacent so fast. Ed still seems to enjoy the job and enjoy the people he is working with. Hard to believe I can't find any images to post - he is such a public person. Hope he stays for a long time.

Flip the page and welcome July. 62 more days of my summer and I hope it lingers after that.

This is the first summer in years that I haven't worked somewhere else and I have time to keep up with the yard. We've just about finished the homemade concrete patio under the big elm. The little branches are brittle so there is litter there, but I love the privacy of the place. I've been decorating it - my laughing elephant Buddha, a bird bath and other odds and ends.

Sug and I finished the Mother's Day project that he and Sweetie started before we left for LA. After 20 years with a metal post & wire driveway fence, the wooden one is pretty fancy.

arrggh!

What an incredible storm! 3" in my rain gauge. Hail everywhere! Now it's a beautiful sunset shining on dark purple clouds in the east.

Maybe having 2 kinds of salt shakers next to the computer is an indicator of something?

I'm considering how I want my house, now that we have one less roommate. It seems sort of ruthless to turn Honey's room into a gym or entertainment room, since he may want to come back after the lease is up. But when Sweetie moved out, suddenly, his room was our office, filled with books and tapes and the filing cabinet. When he slept over, he was on the floor or on the couch. Roxie decided to pee on the big empty floor but Hansel still doesn't venture in there. Maybe I'll make it into a guest room, something we've never had.

First there's work to be done - clean up the vestiges of Honey's stay here, take his motley collection of furniture that he left behind over to the dump, paint the walls an adult vanilla shade of white, and then move into the new phase. I think it will include cable somehow.

There is something about summer that brings all sorts of projects to light. So much to do before the equinox!

Back from East Hollywood: a week of June Gloom, some glorious days, then heat, lots of green and flowers, fern filled canyons, Fatburger, and Vermont Ave. Great train rides out and back, passed this huge fire near Walsenburg then home to windy dry Boulder. Good to be back.

My time spent blogging has been handed over to Asian translators in Australia and Thailand - interesting work via Skype. Completely absorbing.

Honey is moving out today. Once I Got It that nothing was ever going to be the same, things began to make sense (somewhat). I'm all for this move at the moment. The dogs got their summer shaves - no more skirt/kilt till cool weather comes around again. I'm preparing for a 2 week trip to LA, staying near Los Feliz again. I'm caught between 'can't wait" and 'not now!'. It's so beautiful in Boulder this time of year.
Went to get the tickets. I love the promise of Union Station. Sweetie's coming with me on the trip out .

Can you guess where I was on Memorial Day?

We've been taking the dogs out and away for walks on the weekends. We tried Teller Trail but no dogs allowed where we wanted to go, so went to Walden Ponds in East Boulder. This is a place that took me several visits to really appreciate. It's basically some holes in the ground that were strip mined, then allowed to filll with water to make a wetland area. In the dry winter, it can seem pretty desolate. During drought, it's downright sad. But right now, the ponds are full and lots of birds are visiting. The most noticeable ones are the big white pelicans with those black tips. They look like swans but their beaks give them away. There are lots of duck families, too - we counted 4 sets of parents and ducklings just at the Wally Toevs pond. The Continental Divide views are always breathtaking but this time of year, there is more to see that is close to hand that entertains.

The birds woke me up at 5am this morning just as the sun began to lighten the sky - just barely. Just a few birds, not enough to inspire me to get out of bed. The real inspiration came at 6am when the whole avian chorus arrived. This has to be the best time of year, when the days are getting warmer but there is no threat of overwhelming heat.

For our 25th anniversary last year, we went to Cambria, CA and stayed at the Cambria Shores Inn. We found it at this Dog Friendly website though we didn't take ours. It's a beautiful area that I don't hear about very much. I did hear a passing mention of it on an old episode of Six Feet Under.

Now I'm collecting gentile acknowledgements.

"My pleasure"
"The pleasure is mine."
"Pleasure"

Stuff like that.

I can attest:

It's a sobering experience for your baby to receive his registration card from the Selective Service System. Honey turned 18.

Daisy came over and then back over and then over once again so we asked her to spend the day with us.

Boulder Daily Camera

Mum's the word for mom
Scientologists promote 'silent births'

By Aimee Heckel
April 22, 2006

When Morgan Kemmerlin entered the world, it was quiet.

Her mother was not screaming in pain. She wasn't firing profanities at the doctors or her husband, like in the movies. No one so much as announced, "It's a girl."


Morgan, now 10, experienced a "silent birth," a Scientology practice that has recently come under the spotlight with the birth of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' baby. The baby, a girl named Suri, was born this week.

Like the Kemmerlins, of Louisville, the Hollywood couple believes a silent birth limits the negative subconscious reactions people have during painful experiences.

By eliminating spoken words, you eliminate subconscious and illogical triggers that may pop up later in life, Scientologists say.

But people unfamiliar with the concept call it mysterious or weird. Others call it unnecessary. The Web site, Marriage.about.com, says a silent birth is not recommended by medical experts because, if taken too far, it can hinder family bonding and intimacy.

The Web site defines it as giving birth with no sounds, including music or expressions of pain. Some people don't speak to their child for a week, the site says.

Scientologist Rev. Patty Allread, of Englewood, says those are some of the biggest misconceptions. Allread says a silent birth only refers to spoken words.

"Believe me, the mother's going to moan, but maybe they try not to scream really loud and startle the baby," she said. "It's been long known babies have awareness inside the womb, and that's not strictly a Scientology idea. You just try to have as calm and as peaceful of an environment as possible."

She cites the "Dianetics" book, by L. Ron Hubbard, the foundation of Scientology: "Maintain silence in the presence of birth to save both the sanity of the mother and the child and safeguard the home to which they will go."

Scientology, which bills itself as a "practical religion," has five Colorado branches, including one on Pearl Street in Boulder. Allread said 13,000 people are on the state's mailing list and about 1,000 statewide are active members.

She said Scientology topics, such as silent birth, hit the mainstream media, churches are flooded with curious calls. The religion is young, founded in the 1950s.

Allread has three children, all who experienced natural, but not silent, births. She said she didn't know about it then or she would have chosen silence.

Doctors find ways to accommodate a silent birth. Instead of talking, they write or sign. And in an emergency, she said, no one would expect a doctor to risk the patients' welfare.

"It's a very personal and individual thing, giving birth, and a big tradition of mothers choosing what kind of birth they want to have," Allread said. "A peaceful and calm environment benefits the mother and child."

Cathy Kemmerlin, Morgan's mother, agrees. She compared her first traditional birth with her second two, which were silent with minimal drugs.

Scientology has no stance on whether a mother should use pain relievers.

Instead of speaking, Kemmerlin wrote and made gestures. She said she felt more aware, and her midwives seemed "in tune" with each other.

"I could relax in childbirth," Kemmerlin said. "It's a very different thing than having people coming in, they're chit-chatting and you're sitting there in pain."

Still, Mallory Mensah, a Louisville doula, frowns upon a totally silent labor and delivery. She said deep moaning helps the woman cope and helps her body open up.

"You'd be surprised how many noises you hear from women they'd never even think would come from them," Mensah said. "I encourage that, because it's important to get into an instinctual, primal state to really surrender to what your body needs to do."

And words can be encouraging and comforting, she said.

"I don't think it's very realistic to not talk," Mensah said. "When you're really at a birth, and you can see a woman is needing some help, words tend to be a way to help."

A smooth birth comes down to whatever the mother needs to keep her relaxed and feeling safe, Mensah said. A woman shouldn't feel restricted or guilty if she needs to talk, she said.

When she gave birth, Mensah said she wanted the lights dimmed and minimal talking. The first words her son heard were her Islamic husband whispering a prayer in his ear.

But she said she's attended other births with "hooting and hollering and cheering, and that's beautiful, too."

"If a woman feels safe and comfortable and supported, it's amazing what she can do," Mensah said.

I joined the "Nat'l Assn of Railroad Passengers'" in order to add my voice to the pleas to keep national train service available. Bush was going to cut Amtrak funding altogether but then decided to re-instate it minus a huge chunk of what was there. I read that dining car cooks and waiters have been protesting in Chicago since they likely be loosing their jobs.

I like to take long road trips but would like to have the option of train service when I become a senior citizen.

This is what I like to see:

"Drug firms 'hype up diseases to boost sales'".

Sometimes it takes a while for the media to hop on the Real News wagon since celebrities demand so much attention but they get around to it, bless their little hearts.

The gist:

Drug companies are inventing diseases to sell more of their products, it has been claimed. Scientists have accused major pharmaceutical firms of "medicalising" problems like high cholesterol or the symptoms of the menopause in a bid to increase profits.
Experts from around the world will meet in Australia today to discuss what they have labelled "disease-mongering".

The group, which includes experts from Britain, will gather in Newcastle, New South Wales, where researchers have been examining the issue. David Henry and Ray Moynihan, of Newcastle University, claim the industry is exaggerating conditions and turning them into something more serious.

Female sexual dysfunction, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and "restless legs" syndrome have all been promoted by the pharmaceutical industry in the hope of selling more drugs, they say....

Even shyness is routinely presented as a "social anxiety disorder" resulting in the person being prescribed anti-depressants.

Spring finally arrived.

When I think about going to Hollywood, I forget to imagine the pressure and the masses; the constant flow of people; the steady sound of traffic; the ease with which someone will lay on his car horn at 6:45am; the look and feel of dirt and grime that is part of lower income city life. No one scrubs the sidewalks and catches the spills as they happen.

But all those things take a back seat to the flowers everywhere and the view of the Griffith Park Observatory from the top floor of the apartment on Edgemont; the full moon above the palm trees; the golden sunsets blazing toward the east on Sunset Boulevard; the panorama from Barnsdall Park; the interesting array of ethnic food at Jon's; the buzz of the Los Feliz neighborhood; standing on the Santa Monica Pier waiting for that Asian guy to start his act; walking around Union Station and the downtown area.

Ashes and Snow exhibit in a temporary museum in the Pier parking lot.

Great trip.

The ride turned out to be delightful and quick. We got the sleeper, the good side of the train, tasty meals included in the upgrade, beautiful weather. Now we are experiencing true cold weather in Hollywood, rain, some sleet and a tiny bit of snow in the western mountain peaks. In spite of that, the birds are singing, azaleas, camellias, and all sort of other plants are blooming. Nice to be here.

Amtrak :::sigh:::

I love to travel by train but Amtrak is so uneven in its presentation. Sometimes it's a great trip and sometimes it's dirty, stinky and slow as molasses. If someone has a heart attack in the middle of nowhere, the train stops and waits a couple of hours for an ambulance. Some of the back country scenery is staggeringly beautiful. The food is way overpriced. The club car has terrific 360º views. The seats are nice and wide but if you have a crabby old lady from Back East next to you complaining all the way, well, that's no fun. You have to remember to take a jacket or a blanket because it gets chilly at night.

I roped Sugar into travelling with me to LA by train for this trip. Looking forward to it. We were offered a cheap upgrade to a sleeper with meals included so this trip should great!

LA, here we come.

There is a lot to be said for not having upsetting people in your life. It's easy to step into the "I'll handle them" trap, but inevitably, the bright and shiny person will be darkened, even if just to the degree of getting annoyed or angry. Bright and shiny is worth protecting, even if you have to turn your back and start walking.

Finally, I cut the tether to a small and meaningless job that I've been staying with for no really good reason. It was time and the conditions ripened so that the decision was clear.

Big sigh of relief, lot of space in front of me and a surprising lack of concern about replacing the paltry sum of pocket cash I was making.

And a glorious early Spring day to boot.

Very nice.

After dropping Honey and Sugar at DIA, I saw a coyote running along the median.

Yesterday, dinner at the Med. Never fails to please. Presents included a new skillet, Godiva chocolate, flowers and some CDs from Wild Bird Center.

All in all, a very good day.

Notable natural views of late:

Driving east from Longmont to I-25, seeing a large flock of birds flying west in undulating currents of air. The surprise that the flock kept going and going and going for at least 5 miles, criss crossing the road we were on.

A great blue heron standing in east Boulder creek. Still, alone.