The Rainbow Family of Living Light: Live and Let LIve?

I just heard 30 to 50 Rainbow Family members are in the forest up by Red Feather Lakes in Colorado. They just had their annual July gathering in Utah with about 8,000 people in attendance. The group up at Red Feather Lakes has already had one stabbing when a guy with a knife attacked a guy with an ax. I've seen the kids panhandling in Boulder when the RF comes to the area, and they're rude and very aggressive. They carry knives and axes, for instance.

I decided to read a few webpages devoted to The Rainbow Family of Living Light. They look good on paper but their reality doesn't seem to match someone's good intentions.

Here's some of the vast amount written by members:

"Another interesting thing is that there is no formal organizational structure. There are no membership qualifications, no fees or dues, no leaders, and virtually no rules other than the one of 'peaceful respect.'
...Participation, communication, and cooperation are how things get done."

"Picture twenty thousand people in a sunlit meadow, standing silent in prayer, holding hands in one huge, unbroken circle. Picture a parade of children approaching, singing songs, their countenances bright with enthusiasm and face paint, balloons and banners waving in the breeze..."

 I'd say, "Sign me up," except I hate crowds and the Rainbow Family is famous for environmental damage. Medical facilities get stuck with unpaid bills, animal control was stiffed in 2006 after treating a parvovirus outbreak among the numerous dogs, trash is often left behind as well as human waste and compost, and there always seems to be some violence. The U.S. Forest Service in got stuck with a $573,000 expense after the gathering in Montana in 2013.

The area they are gathering in this time is next to where our horrific High Park Fire occurred two years ago. The mountainsides are still dangerous in many areas with flash floods and trees falling down. The land and the people are not healed, and monetary resources are stretched thin. The county doesn't need 8,000 wild cards building their campfires and damaging the fragile forests.

I am minutely encouraged to hear that an advance team of nonmembers arrive to organize kitchens, water treatment, latrines, first-aid, a children's area, and a place for the "troublesome" drinkers.

I don't know why these gatherings intrigue me. I am similarly fascinated by the Burning Man event that occurs regularly. Burning Man also pays its way with the local government and tries to get along. If anyone knows of someone who has written a book about the Rainbow Family, please send along the title. There is obviously a good, idealistic core to this cultural phenomena, but has it gotten to the point where it is attracting the wrong people? Is the destruction of the land is making it untenable?

I want to know more but, more importantly, I don't want to see hide nor hair of any Rainbows when I'm up at the cabin in August.

Spring is Tricky in Colorado

The big rule for gardeners in Colorado is to never plant a thing until Mother's Day. Nurseries do a huge business once that holiday comes along.  But, this year, Mother Nature  decided to give herself the gift of more wintertime. Maybe she overslept. Maybe she's feeling a little bitchy. (she's no spring chicken, after all) So she's snowing and freezing and bending branches, and crashing cars, and it's after Mother's Day. Saturday was warm and a beautiful spring day. Sunday was not.

Saturday

You Belong 2014: Words and Images from Longmont Area Residents

The Longmont Library Literary Festival ended yesterday. They published a nice-looking book containing a lot of local talent. There were 61 writers there, for the final event, to speak to the public, as well as to promote and sell their own books.

I was happy to have two of my short stories published in the anthology titled You Belong 2014: Words and Images from Longmont Area Residents. The perspectives on the Flood of 2013 were quite moving.

I submitted my two best, and favorite stories, to the anthology. Doing so limits my ability to get them published someplace else, but I needed to let them go so I could move on.

Now we're waiting to see what happens when Colorado's 150% snowpack melts off this year. It could be The Flood of 2013: Part 2. There has already been some basement flooding in Boulder and the warm weather hasn't really arrived yet.

Congratulations to all who were published and belong in Longmont. Many thanks to Steve Kenworthy for editing You Belong 2014, and kudos to The Friends of the Longmont Library for publishing the anthology and for everything else they do for us.

Ospreys in Longmont

I went to have coffee with three friends yesterday. We lamented, we learned, and we discussed the possibility of having a writing retreat of sorts up at the cabin.

Tired and hungry, I bought a sandwich on the way home and headed over the fairgrounds to park next to Cattail Pond. I went there last week to see if I could watch the nesting ospreys but only saw one goose. Not exactly a rare sighting around here. This time I saw both of the ospreys, and watched one hunting for quite a while. Finally it came back to the nest with a large snake dangling from its beak. I initially felt bad for the snake but, of course, this was good news for the birds. It was a good place to eat a sandwich.

I came home and looked up the live cam that faces their nest.  There is one chick so far, and I learned that it is very rare for an osprey to eat a snake. I'm sure last year's flooding has done a lot of damage to their hunting grounds.

The pole in the distance is where the nesting platform is.

AutoSocks?

I always feels so out of the loop. I can see how information-junkies get hooked on the internet with all the tantalizing subjects available with a stroke on the keyboard. So, this morning, I'm watching the news about the hours-long traffic jams on I-70, Colorado's main artery into the mountains and most of those ski resorts. CDOT is now going to sell AutoSocks at the chain-up stations alongside the freeway. I ask myself, "What are Autosocks"? Am I the only person who doesn't know about the existence of these "textile covers" that provide traction for your tires, en lieu of chains? You can own a pair of these safety wonders for $109.95. They're legal to use instead of chains in California, Washington, and Colorado. This is the limit of my information about AutoSocks because I'm a busy woman and have to head out the door to begin my crazy day. (They are all crazy, one way or another) I do want to point out that AutoSocks do not come in argyle.

Stuck in a Deep Freeze

I got a respite from our unusually frigid weather by going to Seattle for the weekend.  It was mostly overcast there but the hazards were from road construction instead of Colorado's ice and snow. When I made my reservations a while back, I wasn't thinking about the Superbowl. The airports were both packed with people in transit. Many Broncos fans were in evidence at DIA on Friday but I didn't see any blue and orange jerseys on my way home.

After a very enjoyable weekend with family in Seattle, I came home to a house that had undergone a huge transition in my absence. My daughter and her family found a lovely apartment here in Longmont and began moving out then in last Saturday in the snow. It has been very strange to wake up to a quiet, almost solemn, house without E's high energy ricocheting around the rooms. I came home on Monday in the late afternoon and began babysitting our 2-month old grandson the following morning.

The weather has been in a freeze-thaw cycle, more common in Minnesota than in Colorado. Tuesday was terribly cold with icy roads. Today, Wednesday, is even colder, but the main roads are good. The wind chill was between -16 and -24 this morning. The high today might be six, but it stands at 2 degrees right now.  We're short one car on top of the new living arrangements and additional babysitting duties. So this is turning out to be a crazy week.

I have a baby next to me, a 3-year-old doing yoga on the other side, Elmo telling a story on the CD player, my email is down, and I am going to do this all again tomorrow.

December's First Friday

Siberia's gift is still lingering in Colorado. It's an arctic blast, the likes of which were last felt here in 1972. The sun is out, making the roads clear and lifting spirits. I should be shoveling the sidewalk, but I'm going out to meet some friends for coffee. (How typical of me.) The cold takes my breath away whenever I go outside. I imagine that this is what Alaska is like. The Norwegians have a saying: There is no bad weather, just bad clothing.

I would love to be a winter bookbinder.

Summer will happen again, but sooner would be better than later.

Winter is Coming!

Winter is coming! The end is near...Save yourself. A garage would be such a civilized accoutrement for our house, but it will never come to pass given the historic nature of the property. Old and run-down, yes, but worth preserving. It's twenty degrees and dropping right now.

The roads cleared up by late morning, but the commute for the gainfully employed was bad. Some people coming from Broomfield had their 30 minute drive turn into almost a two-hour commute. Last year at this time I would have been out there on the road with the masses. One thing I liked about today's icy mess was looking out the window, knowing I didn't have to spend hours of my life driving in it. And UPS brought me a shiny new book to read. Life is good even if winter is coming.

Flights are delayed when it snows.

The calm before the snow last night.

Good reading weather.

A Roadside Attraction

I was about 20 when I went with my boyfriend and his mother to the Sacramento Delta region in California to buy asparagus. Asparagus was very much a seasonal treat back in the day and, every summer, his mother would buy and freeze as much of the vegetable as she could. We went to a roadside stand manned by an elderly, blind Japanese man. The mother said his asparagus was the best, and well-worth the drive from Turlock. I found out that the lush agricultural land behind the levees and the house had once belonged to the old man. The present owners were kind enough to let him live on the property when he  had returned. "Returned from where?" I asked. I was horrified to learn of the internment camps that had been created in 1942 for Japanese people living in the United States. Even the children who were born in the country were forced into camps, sometimes with only the clothes on their backs. The more questions I asked, the more annoyed the mother became. I don't know if she was shocked by my ignorance, (no surprise given my family dynamics and the Vallejo school system) or, as I strongly suspect, she was embarrassed by what our government and its citizens had done to our Japanese citizens.

After being locked up, the Japanese weren't given their lands and homes back. Some had been given the chance to sell off their homes and businesses with only a few days to do so. You can imagine how badly they were ripped off.

There are plenty of books that go into the subject. It's an important part of our country's history and shouldn't be hidden away.

 "Farewell to Manzanar" by Jeanne Wakatsuki is usually the first book read by young people.

Camp Amache in Colorado is now a National Historic Site. All that's there now is the cemetery, foundations of some buildings, and a sign.

Wyoming had the Heart Mountain Relocation Center. This camp now has an interpretive center.

Throughout all of this, the men were subject to being drafted into the military to fight for the U.S.

Catastrophic Flooding in Colorado 2013

2013 is still careening, wild and crazy, much like a 17-year-old driver in Daddy's SUV. We are watching history being made as Colorado gives itself a makeover with torrential rains, flash floods, and the accompanying destruction. The numerous fire-scarred mountains can't absorb the rain. The debris washes down the drainages and trees are uprooted along the creeks and rivers. Cottonwoods become nature's battering rams.

Longmont has declared a state of emergency. Lyons, next to the mountains, is severely flooded and cut-off. Five dams have been breached outside of Lyons. The National Guard is sending its high-clearance trucks to help out. In Jamestown, some buildings have collapsed as the area tries to absorb over 10 inches of rain, and the list goes on and the rain continues. A wall of water is heading down Four-Mile Canyon and authorities are frantically trying to get people out of harm's way. Boulder is already flooded in many places, filling basements with water, and closing roads. The flash flood watch stretches from Wyoming to New Mexico, and the rain is predicted to continue through Friday, and maybe through the weekend.

At our house, the rain has pretty much stopped for now. We walked down to LaBella Coffee and ran into a pretty lady who turned out to be bonkers. She was very nicely dressed with a smile full of perfect teeth. She seemed to know my daughter but that turned out not to be the case. She said she was a reporter. I asked the owner of LaBella if she had interviewed him and he rolled his eyes. Turns out she has a blog and is very unstable. She is posting on Facebook about every two minutes as she walks around town. A sampling: I'm in the light..The city is being destroyed. Pray that God sends his helicopter to the rescue. And: I will be reporting live from the Bella Vita Coffee House at around 10:00 AM....And: Just met. Man same as Jesus..He believes we can all be saved. He has sent an angel of the lord to deliver this message. Thise (sic) that have ears. Hear the Lord. Fear your fears...Let love prevail.

I kind of think the "Man same as Jesus" was Steve. She posted that as soon as she left the coffee house.

I'm worried about my horse, Cooper, who is boarded right by the foothills. But, despite that, I'm just riding out this weather event, wondering if the cabin will survive one more trauma. When the rain stops, we'll see if there's anything we can do to help out.

As I write this, the skies have darkened again and the trees are stirring in a new breeze. It would seem that another round of rain is about to make its appearance.

We wanted rain. We got it.

Don't ask me....

Pull the Weeds, Pay the Bills

There's a good book titled, "After the Ecstasy, the Laundry" by Jack Kornfield. In it, Kornfield quotes Zen Master Katagiri : "The important point of spiritual practice is not to try to escape your life, but to face it - exactly and completely." This sentiment occupied my mind as I began the transition from a visit to a place I hold deep in my heart, back into non-vacation mode at home. The two-day drive was a transition unto itself...a portal of necessity, and an example of just getting it done - a concept that seems to be woven into the fabric of day-to-day life.

The coastal area of Northern California is as beautiful as it is fragile. It's a spiritual place with an overwhelming number of gifts for the person seeking spiritual restoration. The grand sweep of the beach at Pt. Reyes National Seashore would be enough. The mighty Pacific Ocean always makes me feel like an atom within a speck. Feeling insignificant, while still intensely part of the universe, is a relief you can't understand until you've experienced it. For a brief time, watching the waves roll in, I  forgot all of my foibles and mistakes and could simply be present.

I remember going to Kauai once. I loved it there with the trade winds, beaches, and the exotic beauty of the coastline and river banks. But I also remember coming home and being depressed because my life felt mundane and mechanical. It set me to thinking and, over time, changes were made. Now I live in a house I enjoy, in a neighborhood and town that suits me. Colorado is home and I love its rugged beauty and the good people who inhabit my life. No depression these days, even after coming home from my personal Mecca.

In the town of Inverness

So many enticing roads

The clouds were magnificent 

Even the dreaded salt flats look good in the morning

A California resident

The Amish Family in Routt National Forest

It surprises me that things that didn't bother me in the least when I was younger, now bother me to the point of being almost phobic. Like going to the dentist. What's worse is that I'm going to the endodontist to have work done on an errant molar that already has a crown on it. Have you ever had a glued-on crown removed? All I can picture, while it's being done, is a giant troll with a claw hammer trying to pull a huge nail out of a board. In my mouth. While I want to freak out and run. But can't. That's going to be my morning.

So I'll go to my happy place for a while.

While in North Park, we drove up into the Routt National Forest to the west of Walden, and visited an area called Big Creek Lakes. The large lake is one of those bucolic mountain places that is at a high enough altitude that the weather can turn dramatic at any time. I can't wait to go camping there sometime.

We met a Mennonite couple who were camping there in a large RV. They had an Amish family of ten people with them. The couple takes the family on vacation, for money, and had already been to Kingman, Arizona and the Grand Canyon. They said they do this every year.

The father has hunted for elk in this area, and had a trail ride planned for himself and the two oldest children for the next day. I have to wonder how they discovered this beautiful, off the beaten path lake in the first place.

Later, Steve was sitting down the beach playing his guitar and I was sitting at a picnic table doing some writing. Because of the large cooler to my left, I didn't notice the family standing there until the father spoke. It's a bit startling to look up and find ten smiling faces checking you out. We had a pleasant chat, with Steve being the focus of their curiosity. 

The family had stood in the road earlier and listened to Steve play guitar for quite a while. I had resisted taking their picture because I was afraid it would seem rude. Then the father produced a large and expensive looking camera and took some pictures of Steve. Funny.

Then the skies starting booming and the lightning arrived so we packed up and meandered our way back to North Park. 

Now part of Amish legend.

North Park, Colorado

We decided it was a good weekend for some mountain time, so we headed up to North Park on Saturday. Stopped at the cabin on the Cache La Poudre River and found the vegetation growing back, and no more damage from flash flooding. The canyon itself has been having a lot of closures because of the rivers of mud and debris flowing across the road but, for now, the little cabin has been spared further indignities.

May 2013

July 2013

This is directly behind the cabin.

Saturday found us at the Verner State Wildlife Area in Walden, Colorado. Steve was determined to

scare the fish in the North Platte River, and it was a beautiful day to do so. I parked the truck, walked around the front and promptly stepped into a large burrow and fell down hard. Nothing important was broken. I'm going to start carrying a first aid kit from now on, and maybe get a walker, goggles, and a helmet. This proves I need to get out in nature more often. I was looking at the stunning vista of North Park instead of the ground. A rookie mistake.

The mosquitos and biting flies were terrible but we applied DEET, which is absolutely awful yet effective, so we could stay and enjoy the beauty.

The irritating line is part of a fence.

The town of Walden is very small but has some amazing views. Food is iffy, with the Moose Creek Cafe being the most dependable. Even the one grocery store is in bankruptcy, and the residents are a long way from any kind of market. We were able to get a good coffee at the combination coffee house/  feed store that opened last September in Walden. You just have to be patient and wait for the barista/owner/cowgirl to finish up talking on the phone.

Our hotel was fine except that our AC wouldn't work correctly at night. A little white noise might have been helpful until midnight or so with Highway 14 just three feet from out window. 

Something I've never seen in a hotel room before.

The wildflowers were at their peak. We saw abundant wildlife except for the moose who are responsible for making North Park the "Moose Capital of Colorado".

The life-sized moose at The Moose Visitor Center in Gould.

A Toasty Day Thinking About Creativity with Amy Tan

The plants outside have been well-watered this morning since they have to get through another day in the 90s.  It's going to cool off into the 80s this weekend, but we have a full slate of work to do at the other house. Manual labor. This labor will be the last big chunk of work before nudging the house into the marketplace.

Thursday is kind of a nowhere day for me. I love having the square on the calendar empty so I can clean up from days past, and prepare for the upcoming weekend. The job list is getting too long around here even though we all work every day. Must be like one of those Sedona energy vortexes, only in reverse...sucking the energy right out through the soles of my feet.

I am trying to do two things at once this morning. Actually three things if you count taking care of E, but taking care of her is just like an extension of caring for myself so I don't usually count it. I have my papers in order enough to do a rewrite on my beach story. Yesterday's rejection by Glimmer Train wasn't what I was hoping for but it does serve to motivate me a little bit. (and why would failure be a good thing? but somehow it is) And the second thing is to clean up the gigantic mess I've made in the parlor. Papers and detritus everywhere. The flotsam of a busy life.

It's already 78 degrees inside the sunroom and it's only 9:00 in the morning. I can usually cool off the house by opening doors and windows early in the day, then closing the blinds and doors to keep the heat out later. Not going to work today. Supposed to hit 98 again. Again. And again.

I was driving quite a bit yesterday so I tried to use my phone to listen to a TED talk by Amy Tan on creativity. I highly recommend this talk for writers and anyone interested in creativity. (should be just about every thinking soul on the planet) She's funny and smart and has some interesting stuff tossed into her talk.

<http://www.ted.com/talks/amy_tan_on_creativity.html>

I don't know if it's okay to put connections to other sites on a blog, but I really don't see why it wouldn't be okay.

Dream Ponies for the Birthday Girl!

Black Forest Burns

We aren't going to break any records for heat today thanks to the cloud cover that comes and goes. It's been fairly pleasant overall.

Today is my youngest child's 30th birthday. A house exploded in her neighborhood today because of a natural gas leak. This could be the universe being symbolic since she works for a company that gathers, processes, and transports natural gas. (gathers?) It would appear no lives were lost in the explosion, which is something to be grateful for.

Youngest child is pregnant so I was perusing maternity items for a birthday gift. I came across this:

"High End Baby Shield Maternity Camisole With Radiation Shield: 500 Hz to 12 GHz Frequency."
This can be yours, in silver of course, for a mere $162.87. I also wondered about the 87 cents part. Why not go wild and bump the price up to an entire $163?

Have we gone mad? If this is the type of thing you truly believe is necessary to protect your fetus, wouldn't you maybe take a giant leap and decide to eschew products that emit radiation? I don't know what you'll do about the sun, though. Buy a property with deep caverns? Put foil on all of your hats?

From one day to the next, the Black Forest Fire has become Colorado's most destructive fire. At least 360 homes have already been destroyed. It's hard for me to believe we've surpassed the catastrophic destruction of last year's fires. It's time for people to start taking fire mitigation seriously. Some of these homes had dry pine needles right up to the house, and inflammable roofs, decks, and sidings. However, I do understand why they are so reluctant to tamper with the natural beauty around Black Forest. It was a glowing example of one of my favorite ecosystems.

Black Forest is in a Montane Forest zone. Lots of pine trees, especially ponderosa pines, on the lower south-facing slopes, and Douglas firs on the northern exposures. It's the grasses, shrubs and wildflowers among the trees that make this ecosystem so attractive. Lots of wildlife. It's naturally hot and dry in the summer, but this fire was intensified by the ongoing drought and the beetle-killed trees.

We're Not Easily Fooled

It felt like summer today, but we Coloradans are not easily fooled. Despite knowing that more snow could dump on us, Steve put the canopy up on our south-facing patio, and set up my fountain. We sat outside soaking up the heat and sun for quite a while today.  "A" fired up the grills and made Indian food for dinner. I watered our battered tulips and the irises that were half-frozen when the snows hit earlier this month. Of course the weather prediction is for some more snow mid-week. I hope it isn't enough to cause problems with the shade canopy. We always rush the season even though it's almost a law in Colorado to not expect the snow to end until Mother's Day. (Sunday, May 12th) I looked up the weather expectations at the NOAA website for the week. There's a 50% chance of showers on Tuesday, with a rain/snow mix overnight. Wednesday brings a 70% chance of snow, with a 30% chance of snow continuing that night. We still love getting that precipitation in any form except hail. And so it goes in Colorado.

Drove by Carter Lake this morning and watched a large herd of elk.

Not sure why some were wearing the stylish green collars.

The tulips aren't as impressive this year, but they are trying hard to recover.

A Snowy March Evening

It's almost spring. We saw a bald eagle cruising above Longmont just yesterday. The art walks downtown will begin, along with the live music on Friday nights just three blocks from our house. We have parades and a good farmer's market here. I enjoy watching the many parachutes with crazy people attached to them as they jump out of a plane so high that you can't see it. You can only hear the drone of the engine as it circles higher and higher. You watch and watch then the specks appear, reminding me of tiny spiders hatching in the sky. I don't know where that image comes from but that's what I think of. Don't judge me.

The drive home from Denver was lovely today. There was a multitude of cloud types of all shapes and colors building up and moving fast as a cold front swept into the state. We have a lot of sky in Colorado, so there's room for lots of white and grey (and sometimes black) vaporous activity up there. However, the last thing I need, while driving 75 mph, is to be distracted by the sky.

Now, at 10:00, the rain has turned into a mucky snow. We're not expecting much precipitation out of this one, but it's all appreciated. I would love to see a news story proclaiming the drought to be over. The need for water in the West is a struggle we face all the time.

The preparation for our daughter and her family to move in with us continues. They are thinning out their possessions, throwing away stuff, donating, and packing. We have moved furniture around, decluttered, and packed away some fragile stuff since the soon-to-be resident granddaughter isn't quite three. You might think I fell out of my tree, but I'm looking forward to some change. It wasn't that long ago that three generations lived in one house and thought nothing of it. (god help the daughter-in-laws)

The back window reads: Funky Jesus Blazer.

Relative by Association

We are lucky to have a houseguest to help us finish off 2012 in a special way. He is a young man from Tokyo who has traveled quite a lot in his 23 years. We know him because he's a relative of a relative and, therefore, a relative of ours by association.

He was a young teenager the last time he visited. He rode horses and went sledding at Berthoud Pass.  Now he's a college graduate and ready to make his way in the world.

We're going to go shopping today, and will visit some of our family while in Denver. I love to be a tour guide but summer is when I like to show off Colorado. Winter feels very restricted. I feel less like hibernating when it's sunny and warm.