Just Read: The Brothers K by David James Duncan

www.betterworld.com

It's been awhile since I've gotten so into a book that I couldn't put it down. It's been awhile since I really let myself enjoy a work of fiction. It's been a long while since I read a book over 500 pages.

The Brothers K flew well over my high bar. I have read David James Duncan’s book The River Why many years ago, I think when I used to actually go to the library. It was a nature book, something more typically up my alley, and it overflowed with beautiful words.

So I decided to venture into his other works, even though this particular book is fiction. (And I had no idea how many pages it was when I ordered it online. Tricky internet!) The chapters follow one family, the Chance’s, from when some of the children are yet to be born until the children are having kids themselves. “K” references strikeouts mainly, and some other things found in a definition in the middle of the book, and at least the first half of the book focuses heavily on baseball. The second half has a Russian lit flair, so you can see where the title comes from. Although I admit to not having read the original, The Brothers Karamazov, even though I adore Dostoevsky.

The book also features an excellent discussion on religion and spirituality, war and peace (not Tolstoy), mental illness, and some darker corners I will not reveal here. The beginning, when the children are young, really drew me in and kept me reading late into the night. I felt the middle lacked a bit of the simple beauty of words, but maybe I had just read too long. But the story picked back up towards the end, and I eagerly finished. And believe me, I am not one afraid of quitting books I don’t like. I don’t believe in that kind of suffering.

I highly recommend this book. It made me laugh, cry, grimace, smile, and everything in between. And although it is 600 pages or so, it reads easily, no struggle at all. I will certainly seek out more of his work.

Point Reyes...

...is absolutely beautiful. I don't have much else to say about that.






Also, the lighthouse keepers used to harvest rainwater. How cool is that?

A Vulture of a Morning

en.wikipedia.org

~sorry about the formatting, HTML is fighting with me over hard returns~

I spent last night in Point Reyes, at the research house on Tomales Bay. I got in too late to see much of anything, but this morning I sat on the couch in front of the huge bay windows and watched pelicans and other sea birds flying and diving in the sunrise.

Suddenly, I heard and saw a large bird take off from the house, swoop out to the Bay, and swoop around straight back at the house. While I was sitting there wondering what he was going to land on, I heard a big thwack and looked over at two of my housemates stunned in disbelief.

The turkey vulture had not landed on anything, he had run smack into the house windows and tumbled down into a bush, where he rested, upside down. Not only had he run into a window, but from the giant wing marks left there, we could tell that his head had run smack into the wood divider between the windows. He obviously hadn't even been seeing glass.

We all stood at the window and watched the vulture struggle below us. No one wanted to help him for fear that he might be sick. After a long while, he managed to upright himself and hop out of the thicket toward the beach. Where he tried to fly and ran into the only thing standing on the beach: a metal pole.

After shaking himself off, the vulture tried to fly again, but this time he landed smack dab in the Bay. I think we were all convinced that we would witness the instant drowing death of a turkey vuture, but surprisingly he floated. And slowly

but surely

he kicked his way toward shore. Or as one of the housemates recounted to another who had been sleeping, the vulture "swam ashore." I'm pretty sure that's not quite what happened.

When I left for work, the vulture was standing on shore where he'd emerged from the water. Just hanging out. Although as I was leaving, a housemate announced that the vulture had just puked. I did not look.

Some things are best left to the imagination.

A Wine Wedding

This past weekend, JD and I trekked down to San Diego and Temecula for the latest hydrology wedding. Where the temperature was under 50 degrees. Where I had to wear a Harley Davidson jacket. However, the wedding was absolutely beautiful.

Since everyone I knew was in the wedding, after dropping them off I went wine tasting with CR's husband. This was my first wine tasting experience ever, but I survived. And had some fun. Although apparently tastings in Temecula are not free. At any rate, of the three wineries we went to, Filsinger was my favorite. KR thought it was terrible, but then he was drinking reds and I was drinking whites. Despite the fact that the lady at Hart made fun of me for liking fruity wines (apparently she thinks all whites are fruity), I especially liked the fact that the whites at Filsinger were a bit spicy rather than fruity. After all, in general, I am a beer drinker.

The vintner himself was pouring our wines, and KR could not stand the history he gave me about each one. He was German. At one point he offered me a free bottle of wine if I could guess what music was playing, but unfortunately Bernie wasn't with me, so the classical music escaped me.

Maybe, just maybe, I will drink wine again in the future.

Miniature Adventures

In the midst of all my thinking about moving and deciding to move and actually moving, I got rather far behind on my SWH writing. So with some deadlines coming up next week, I have had to put in a lot of hours in my spare time and haven’t really explored yet. But I have seen a couple things.



Friday afternoon I headed to Muir Woods for an educators’ symposium, so I arrived about an hour early to have a little look-see. I did a two mile loop hike, apparently with everybody else in the world. I cannot remember ever being in a National Park that was so crowded. Also, as it turns out, being high up in the hills in the Bay area smothers you in fog and you can’t actually tell what time of day it is. Although I showed up at 2:30, I spent the whole evening thinking that it must be getting late. And let me tell you, the fog is rather disconcerting when you are driving home in the actual night and see absolutely nothing on the side of the road. Just one massive abyss.

Anyway, one of my favorite people, John Muir, once had this to say about the Monument named after him:

“This is the best tree-lover’s monument that could possibly be found in all the forests of the world.”

As Matt will happily tell you, probably more than once, I am not so much a tree lover. I am a mountain lover, a broad vista lover, a rocky coastline lover. Yes the redwoods are impressive, but what with the people and the dimness, I’d really rather be here at Golden Gate.

Also I had heard that the road to Muir Woods is terrible and, from more than one person, that you might actually get sick while driving yourself. I was relieved to find out that although a small part of it was comparable to the “scenic highway” to Silver City, at least it wasn’t 30 miles long.



Today I went for a walk by my office. Well, I meant it to be a walk, and I was dressed for and prepared for a walk, but it turned into a hike. Because of course if I see something tall in front of me, I have to get to the top of it. (Unless that something is, say, over 12,000 feet. Luckily this one was probably less than 1,000.) In around 5 miles, I didn’t even finish my water bottle! I tried to make myself drink, but I guess it’s just not the desert here.

The hike featured a better view of the stunning scene in which I work:



As well as views of the city, as displayed above. (Sorry about the terrible picture.)

And some extreme creepiness:



Usually I make fun of Matt for being scared of abandoned buildings, but this was freaky. The trail led up between two rows of barbed wire fence and into a gate, which I’m not sure was supposed to be open. I can’t imagine the Park Service thinks it’s a good idea to let tourists wander around in falling down buildings.

The wind was blowing remnants of building pieces around, the gate was swinging back and forth and squeaking, and a lone raven was hopping on and off one of the most decrepit structures.

Of course I went in anyway, because I had to get to the top of the hill. And there is something intriguing about the juxtaposition of nature and war.

Transportation Troubles

Yesterday morning I rode my bike downhill to work, which took about 7 minutes, and resulted in my inner ears being in pain for nearly an hour. I need to go spend my REI gift card on those ear warmer things that I can wear with a bicycle helmet.

Yesterday evening I rode my bike uphill to my house, which took about 18 minutes, including the time spent on the side of the rode when, in the midst of shifting, my chain popped off and took the plastic thing with it, smashed into pieces along the road. Luckily I managed to get the chain back on, but I was in the middle of a very steep hill, so I decided to walk to the top rather than having shifting issues in the middle of the hill. I felt like such a wuss, as all the other bikers passed me and stared. So I also need to go to find a bike shop and purchase some Tri Flow to get my bike working properly, since I managed to leave mine in Albuquerque.

Finally, since my bike is in need of some minor maintenance and it was raining this morning, I decided to drive to work. My car wouldn't start. Luckily my roommate was home and had a jumper cable and he started me right up. However, he didn't know where any auto shops were, but I figured I should go to one right away or I might need another jump. So I decided to call somebody with internet access while I headed down to Sausalito to look for a shop. Matt was prepping for an overnight shift and I didn't want to wake him up, so I tried my sister who was apparently still asleep. So I had to turn to my mother, who is not terribly good at internet research. By the time she figured it out, I had already found a gas station with a service bay right on the main drag. I rolled in right as they were opening (8:10 AM!), and had my car back, with a brand new battery, in 30 minutes. It only cost me everything I have made in my first three days here...

I might just walk everywhere, but there aren't any pedestrians allowed in my tunnel.

Isolation in view of the City

Apparently it’s a feature of Park Service housing – the lack of land lines, cell phone reception, and of course internet. I have been a bit cut off from the world, as I was at Bryce.

But I can’t complain; it is amazingly beautiful here. I remember being in the city and staring across the Golden Gate at the bright green Marin headlands and thinking it must be nice over there. For some reason I never went. I was not one of the intrepid souls who pedal rented bikes over the bridge and down into Sausalito, or occasionally into the park. Luckily, I have been given a second chance, and now I can look across the bridge at the city, draped in fog, lit up at night, or maybe, one day, in full sun.

Here is my World War II era military housing set in the hills:

Here is my World War II era office building (the one in the back) that was supposed to be temporary:

And here is the view from the office:

Not bad, eh?

I still don’t have any pictures of the bridge and the city, as my camera died at an inopportune time. But I’m pretty sure my house is only slightly over a mile from the bridge. I had no idea I was that close.

I’ve also been to parts of Point Reyes as well, which is beautiful in a completely different way. I will try to get the camera out there in the near future as well.

Anyway, if you ever want to reach me I do have the internet and text messaging capability at my office. I am a 1-mile bike ride through a scary tunnel to the nearest location of cell phone service, so phone calls require planning ahead.

My housing is quite dirty, but my roommate is moving out, and if people want to come visit, I will think about cleaning it. Although I’m pretty sure most of the yuck is permanent…

I know New Mexico is beautiful and all, but if I had to choose…I think you know. And hopefully I’ll get my husband back soon!