A "MIRACLE", BRACKET RE DO's & OLD VINES

A MINOR MIRACLE

     You may find this hard to believe during this time of acrimony, division and rancor.  Yesterday a group of about 50 Cambrians with enormously divergent political and philosophical views sat together in a moderated discussion on American Health Care.  It was a time of fellowship and social mixing, but the agenda was a discussion of what to do about American Health Care.  I can not state emphatically enough how divergent were the views.  Well, after a couple of hours this group agreed to ten basic principals. There was discussion, debate, soul searching and these people from the right, left, republican, democrat, Christian, objectivist, agnostic, libertarian and Buddhist  agreed on ten principals.  It gave this old boomer a sense of optimism.

FOR TRUE BASKETBALL JUNKIES

     Don't you think there should be some way to re-do your brackets, now that Syracuse star Fab Melo has been declared ineligible?  The 7 foot Brazilian is a key weapon for the Orangemen and with him out, the highly rated, and in some cases favored, Syracuse will likely not be as strong.  I know

I wish I could re-do my bracket.

DAY BOOK
CENTRAL COAST SCENES

              Some of the oldest vines in California are Zinfandel vines in Paso Robles and these are among the oldest in the region. They some of the old Pesenti vines, on  the west side of the 101 above and on the east side below.  

Though we remain well below our average rain this year,
the passes along the Green Valley remain green.

See you down the trail.

HOOPS TO GO & WRITE ON + SPRING PINK & MOON

BETTER THAN IT USED TO BE

     If you enjoy March Madness as much as I do, you have to love the way you can now stay connected with your phone

or tablet. The NCAA and CBS provide mobile links to all of the action.

      Oh how that could have made life easier a few years ago!

When the girls were in school, we'd take an annual spring break tonic of sun and beach on beautiful Sanibel Island.  As its was, that day of air travel conflicted with key games in

the big dance.  Having a couple of Indiana teams, or more,

that I was passionate about, it was torture to be in the air or car and away from seeing the tourney. 

      There were many years I'd ask the ATA flight attendant to ask the pilot to keep us up to date on scores.  Since the Indianapolis based flight crew and the plane full of passengers, for the most part, had the same basketball jones, they did a great job.  Still nothing like being able to

watch it on your phone.  Somethings in the good old days

weren't so good as they are now eh?! 

LOTS OF COMPANY AS WE WRITE ON

      I caught an amazing statistic in this blog. What you are reading now is one of 181 million blogs in the world!  Mind boggling.  As we used to say in television news, "Thanks for tuning in here. We know you have choices." And the number keeps growing.

DAY BOOK

SPRING PINK

&

FULL MOON

       An afternoon glass of wine and picnic.

       Full moon rising over the Santa Lucias.
       See you down the trail.

MYSTICAL MESSAGES THRU TIME?

AMERICAN CAVE PAINTINGS

ON THE CARRIZO PLAIN

      Extraordinary occurrences have taken place here in Painted Rock on the exotic Carrizo plain in San Luis Obispo County. Some look at this formation and see lizards or turtles.

          Pictographs, like the frame above fill the inner chamber of what is a sacred site for Chumash and Yokut Indians.

      The Carrizo Plain is a ten mile wide and almost 50 mile long valley in the eastern portion of San Luis Obispo County between the Temblor and Caliente mountain ranges.  In the 
middle of the northern plain lays Soda Lake, the remains of a prehistoric sea.

      In the rare rainy season the lake becomes 3000 acres of water and a winter home for Sandhill Cranes, but most of the year it is a salt bed.
      Nestled on the western edge of plain is Painted Rock, a curved bowl, not unlike an amphitheater. It is a religious site.  

      It is inside the Painted Rock that shamans and holy men 
of Chumash and Yokut people and perhaps other tribes, have held rituals and left traces of visions.

      The walls are rich with pictographs that are some of the most valuable and rare native paintings in the world.  These
are said to have been made 500 to 2000 years ago.

      The red pigments were made with ochre, the white by shale and gypsum and the black by charcoal.

      Look carefully and you see layers of history and earlier ages speaking through time. 

     Earlier visitors desecrated the ancient paintings, so now
the Painted Rock is open only by appointment.

   

      Imagine the time when a native shaman conducted sacred ritual or activity amidst these stones that were said to resemble specific shapes or powers.

    Ancient California history is visible on the Carrizo Plain national monument, just 90 minutes from Cambria.

     See you down the trail.

THE WEEKENDER :) HANGIN' OUT WITH PAPA

THE CUBA FILE
THE AUTHOR'S PAD

     Finca Vigia, Ernest Hemingway's home in Cuba.  Our latest
post in the Cuba File series takes us inside what few have seen.

        The author lived here with his third wife Martha Gellhorn.
He left here to cover WWII and returned to live and write until he left in 1960 after the Cuban Revolution.
     The previous posts in The Cuba File are linked here:
     A visit with Hemingway's boat Captain and the Pilar
         Cuban Street Scenes
          The healing shrine of St. Lazaro

     Inside tours of the home are rarely permitted.  Most often tourists and groups are kept outside the home.  Below is
a collection of Hemingway artifacts on one of his desks.

    Hemingway often wrote standing up, because of a back injury sustained in an African plane crash.  He wrote in both longhand and on this Royal typewriter.

     I was told he often stood at this book shelf to create his
prized literature.  

     His bedroom was a light and airy place.

PROBABLY HAVE NEVER SEEN THIS BEFORE

This is a weigh in log he kept on his bathroom wall.  

     The scale, bidet and partial log of Hemingway.  

This blogger's self portrait in Hemingway's mirror.

   One of the beautiful views near San Francisco De Paula,
the small village near his home.

     One of my concerns, and that of other Hemingway fans and
the serious scholars is the condition of his own book collection.  Many of the bound volumes are beginning to 
deteriorate. 

     Hemingway's private china and silver.

      One of his famous trophies. 

   Photographer and friend Jon Christopher Hughes, on the left, was my ticket for the exclusive look inside.  Jon is an 
old Cuba hand.  He's been shooting there since the '70s.
He presides over the journalism school at the University of Cincinnati and remains one of the most talented active 
photographers in the US.

MORE HEMINGWAY FUN AND LINKS
RARE FILM OF HEMINGWAY

A SHORT SPANISH LANGUAGE CLIP WITH GOOD IMAGES

HEMINGWAY AND OTHER CORRESPONDENTS,
INCLUDING EDWARD G. ROBINSON AT
MT. SAINT MICHEL

By the way-this location figures
prominently in my first novel
THE SANIBEL ARCANUM.

A HEMINGWAY SPOOF, FROM MIDNIGHT IN PARIS

MY OWN HEMINGWAY COLLECTION

The first photograph is by Jon of Gregirio Fuentes
the captain of Hemingway's Pilar.  He was 101 the
day Jon and I visited with him.  The second
photo, intentionally over exposed in this clip,
is of Hemingway and Fidel Castro, the day Hemingway left
the island.  The signed and numbered copy was 
taken by the late Oswaldo Salas. Salas was a
remarkable photographer and the father of one of the famous Roberto Salas.
Someday I'll post about how we got the 
picture out of Cuba.




HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND. MAYBE READ A LITTLE
HEMINGWAY.
See you down the trail.

HERE COMES THE SUN & THE MYSTERY FLIGHT

SUN STORMS

Photo from Solar Dynamics Observatory

     The solar flare depicted above is striking Earth today and is the largest flare in 5 years.  Power grids and communication could be affected.  We are in he midst of a period of increased sun storm.
      In February 2011 I posted an extraordinary video of a solar flare and detailed potential problems. 

Photo from NASA Satellite

       Most nations have been slow in developing contingency

plans.  So, as the old saying goes, we have to just wait and see.

SEEING FROM ABOVE

Photo from US Air Force

      This is the Air Force space plane the X-37B before launch.
W.J. Hennigan of the Los Angeles Times reports that after a year in space, the drone continues its mystery mission.
       The X-37B it was scheduled to land before the end of 2011.  The craft is only 9 feet tall, 29 feet long with a wing span of about 125 feet.

Image from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center

        There is a lot of speculation about the nature of its mission.  The Pentagon says only it is a "test bed" for technology.  It was built by Boeings Phantom Works in Southern California-the Space and Intelligence Systems Division in Huntington Beach.

DAY BOOK

CATCHING THE SUN
AND SHADOW PLAY 

See you down the trail.