FORWARD WITH CHALLENGE-BACKWARD WITH WONDER

AT THE EDGE

    One of the great signs in our locker room was the bromide WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, THE TOUGH GET GOING. 

     It's one of those things you never forget and it's advice many seek to follow, especially western citizens living through historic drought. Published reports indicate sections of the central valley, America's key agricultural zone, are sinking two inches a month because water is being pumped from aquifers in such volume. 

     We study maps, satellite images and thermographic interpretations, like reading tea leaves hoping to find something that assures us El Nino will bring rain to parched earth and concerned taxpayers. 

        The Santa Lucia range coastal slopes are hazy. The usually pristine and cobalt blue sky, thickened by wild fires including one in our county. Thousands of firefighters and national guard troops  are at war with burning nature. It's that way in Washington, Oregon and around the globe. 

      The misery is indeed global. Possibly the greatest refugee migration in history continues, while Muslims war with each other. Tom Friedman recently put it in plain terms that I paraphrase-while they fight about to whom did God give the holy land, mother nature is at work.  She doesn't do politics, only physics, biology and chemistry.  Friedman noted it isn't Sunnism, Shiaism, Whabism or fundamentalism that counts. The only ism that matters is environmentalism. Muslim fighting is destroying nature as well as humanity and political regimes are being turned on their ear as people demand electricity and air conditioning. Hot areas are getting hotter.

       China's recent explosion underscores how that giant, and lesser nations are doing their worst to despoil the planet, ruin water and foul the air. 

      Tough going on this blue marble. Business as normal ain't working. Even meddlesome good intentions fall short. Serious science now addresses prospects of an extinction. Don't you think it's time to think as planetary citizens, doing our best to overcome those old and artificial boundaries of nation, sect, tribe and race. Your problem is my problem. Solutions are to be shared. Even the most wealthy and powerful cannot live without clean air, water, food that be can trust and inhabitable space. It is as Fuller said, spaceship earth.  It's the only one we've got.

 THROWING IT BACK-OUT WEST.

   Your blogger and the intrepid Catalyst blogger in 1985 somewhere on a ledge.  30 years ago we'd go the edge in moccasins and sandals and nearly bare legs. 

    And on that Arizona adventure we had more tranquil moments. Left to right, SWMBO, young Kristin, Lana and Bruce, AKA Catalyst.  Long time ago with long time friends.

   Mid 80's first visit to California for Katherine. Something must have clicked. She's now a California RN and still loves the Pacific.

   See you down the trail.

BIG WATER-BIG WASTE

BIG WATER

  A riled Pacific leads a wind and rain storm into the Central Coast.

AFTERWARDS

   As you have probably seen or read, California is getting soaked by the "Pineapple Express."  Though the rain has created problems it is a beginning to make up the deficits of three years of drought.  There is still a long way to go.

   I wonder why communities who have been plagued by water shortages do not take more seriously the idea of rainwater capture or harvest.  Many of our Cambria neighbors have done so on a personal basis. Still, hundreds of thousands of gallons are washing away. These photos were taken hours after the last rain.

  Just in this one half block water flows away from the Pacific, down hill and away from potential use in a gray water system.  A French drain, perimeter drain and/or system of storm drain cisterns could harvest millions of gallons to be pumped for treatment or re-injection into the new multi-million dollar brackish water desalination plant.

  Living through drought ought to sensitize us to a more prudent utilization of a precious resource-don't you think?

   See you down the trail.

PRECIOUS AND COURAGEOUS

THE PRECIOUS

   Whenever in high country, as here in the Sierra Nevada,
I am forever like a kid on Christmas morning when I spot water.

   A pristine alpine lake or meadow is magical.

   Streams or babbling brooks evoke an undeniable joy.

   I tried not to intrude on the exquisite solitude of this fly fisherman working his line above 10 thousand feet on the Morgan Pass in the Muir Wilderness. But I wondered what was it about this particular spot?

   Why not in that pool to the north?  Up here you read nature in your own way.

    In a season of drought the gentle flow of a stream is a lift for the heart.

   Even the smallest trickle or eddy is a giggle and a wonder.

    These next three frames, taken on the Tioga Pass in Yosemite, display a victorious spirit of life. Notice the dome in the lower left-center just above the distant lake.

   In this zoom you can see trees, growing out of granite.

   As I continued the zoom I grew increasingly amazed at how determined and persistent life can be. Roots that penetrate rock, on a mountain dome, at high altitude in  an inhospitable environment. 

PERSISTENT COURAGE

   Our younger daughter Katherine, a second year nursing student tells us the medical community is trying to raise consciousness about precautions and care in the wake of the Ebola outbreak. Doctors, nurses, staff are better aware and more prepared since news of its jump to the US. There are posters and information packets on hazardous attire, protocol, what to look for, questions to ask and procedures. All of this in the last few weeks.

     Doesn't it seem we are always caught unprepared, for almost any eventuality?  The US was without a Navy, Army and Air Force capable of waging WWII, but responded in short order as American industry and awareness focused on the need and waged a transformation that should still be a matter of pride. Life is messier, more complicated, too political and cranky now, but some have jumped into the breach in this medical crisis and legions more now realize that on any given day, they too could be thrust into a medical outbreak with frightening potential.

     As a father I am of course hopeful my daughter is spared such a reality, though she trains for a profession that is long on courage, mercy and selflessness. We should have the utmost admiration for those doctors, nurses, technicians and logicians who are on the front line.  And a dose of encouragement and/or prayer for lab scientists and researchers who seek medicines and treatments.

     Like that tree up on the dome in the Sierra, persistence, determination and a striving for life can be powerful.

     See you down the trail.

MOMENTS THAT MATTER

THE REACH

Solitary fisherman on Moonstone Beach, Cambria Ca.

REEL THOUGHTS

WATERMARK

    WATERMARK is an extraordinary 92 minute visual odyssey that spans the globe and reminds us in every image how inextricably linked humans are to water.  

     Canadian documentary filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal and Edward Burtynsky have created an extraordinary work that is captivating. It is stunning in its scope and beautiful. Scenes are majestic or powerful and so well captured they prompt audible gasps from the audience. WATERMARK is a film to see, either in the theatre or at home on a good screen.

JUST BEING PRESENT

   A public expression of gratitude to Lana for her artist's palette creation on our back slope.

   Frequent readers are familiar with the work. She has created a space filled with a couple dozen variety of blooms, drought tolerant too, that is an aerial playground for butterflies, bees, hummingbirds, beetles and other airborne denizens of the California coast. Orchestrated with wind chimes it is a perfect retreat for being present in the moment. It is a place of beauty, nature and transcendence.  

SCENES OF A STROLL

 A recent late morning stroll along San Luis Obispo County's Bob Jones "city to sea" trail was picture perfect.

 A FIRST EFFORT

   Bruce, aka The Catalyst, likes to experiment with recipes.

A few weeks ago he published his adventure with a coconut cream pie.  It "spoke to me," enough so to compel me to bake my very first pie. I'll do a couple of things differently next time, but it got nice reviews, none-the-less. Thanks Mr. T! Who'd ever think I would bake a pie?

   See you down the trail.

COULDN'T BELIEVE OUR EYES, TRANSCENDENCE, PRECIOUS WATER AND WHAT ARE THEY?

A TRANSCENDENT MOMENT

     Something extraordinary happened in an awful moment on Easter Sunday.

     Louisville player Kevin Ware who had jumped to block a shot, came down horribly wrong, splintering his leg in a compound fracture that is as bad as any sports injury most of us have ever seen.

     Players collapsed on the floor, nearby fans were sickened and the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis was silenced, stunned and of a single mind, worried about the young athlete writhing in pain.

     His coach, Rick Pitino, is quoted as saying he fought nausea, others have said so as well.

     Clark Kellogg, who is great guy and a caring compassionate man was barely able to compose himself as he performed his CBS Sports broadcast role.  His partner Jim Nantz, another class act, also battled back tears, as did the fiercely competitive Coach K, Mike Krzyzewski.  

      For almost ten minutes cultural icons like Pitino, Krzyzewski, Kellogg and Nantz, wiped tears and worked on. The broadcasters evinced great concern for Ware and for his team mates who were in shock.  Even as Pitino and Coach K looked shaken, ashen and blinked tears, they were concerned for their charges and their well being.  We look at Division 1 athletes as men, as competitive stallions, but they are young men, some just out of high school.

      You could see people pray, the broadcasters said they were praying, later even the colorful Charles Barkley said he too was praying for Ware.

      In a moment, a highly charged and superb athletic ritual is dashed.  A young man lay seriously injured, on a playing floor, not a battle field.  The uniform he wore was that of a basketball player, not a soldier, cop or firefighter.  A terrible and ugly reality crashed into a cultural celebration.

Fans, players, coaches, commentators, in this framed world of hyper play, responded to their shock and dismay with an almost automatic response of care, concern and prayer.

      Young Kevin Ware, his bone protruding from his skin, who dreams of playing professional ball, in excruciating pain, uncertain of his future, continued to tell his panic stricken team mates, "Don't worry about me.  Just win the game.  Win the game."

      The thousands in the stadium and the millions of us watching television, have never seen anything like that before.  In the midst of a game, a horrible event prompts an almost universal concern and thousands or millions of prayers.  Something extraordinary, in an awful moment, on an Easter Sunday.

      

CLAY PLAY
wherein a new ceramic project from Lana provides an
interesting photo opportunity.

SAN SIMEON CREEK

    Our rainy season has been almost 50% deficient this year.

We are experiencing a couple of days of light rain and hoping the system slows to deliver more.  

    The photos were shot last week on San Simeon Creek, one of the two primary water sources for municipal wells. In a good year, the creek runs with a swifter current and the gravel bars are not visible, until late in the summer.  

     Talk of lifting a building moratorium to permit a "few" new construction permits a year seems ill advised in a drought year and at a time when some climatologists say we are in a drought cycle.  I understand the frustration of property owners who have been waiting years to build, but still, water is a precious resource and this year it is even more precious.

    See you down the trail.