TRAVELS WITH MATTIE

These nights in the mountains, I still dream about Grandma Donna. She died when I was four. Three? Five? Some age before I knew how to keep concrete and discrete memories. There are only glimpses through a quarter-century of haze and new files that scramble the important ones from Way-Back-When. I need to defrag. The impressions are there, if screened. A hurt arm. Sitting in her lap with a book in a house of dark wood and children everywhere. An uncle lifting me over a bed to give her a kiss as she lay dying of cancer in the Santa Monica home where I learned to swim. A home filled by aunts and uncles and Mom and Dad and my brothers and cousins, and someone – Aunt Val, I think? – telling me “It’s okay to be sad.” A home filled with her generations. My dreams with Grandma Donna started almost six months ago. I was neck deep in the last throes of my Ph.D. program, with the final daunting stretch ahead: a four-month dash from March to June in which I had to finish experiments, ...

TWO POSTS IN TWO DAYS. GET REAL. Mattie and I had a little breakfast in Markleeville yesterday, then headed up to Hope/Charity Valleys for some painting and stuff. We camped right on the edge of a great meadow with mountain views, did a short sketch, started reading "A River Runs Through It," and went on a little hike around the meadow then up into the hills for sunset views. Fashion is important in the mountains. We ate some cheese sandwiches and bananas for dinner (Mattie mostly had cheese), and the sunset was awesome. Late light on Raymond Peak. I think. We slept out under a million trillion stars, watched for satellites and shooting stars for a while, got scared by (probably) bears roaming around the valley a few times - which Mattie bravely scared off with some warning growls and barks, and woke up early this morning both with awesome camping hair. Mattie's won. Bed head award. What a mess. Then we headed east, stopped for breakfast at the Carso...

Our first little hiccup this summer - took the sweet truck in to see why it was slipping out of fourth gear, and yada yada yada...we're getting a new transmission. Apparently it's expensive. But Uncle Dan is letting us use the Jeep again (apparently getting a new transmission is also slow), so we're still out playing in the mountains while we wait for the truck to get better. You easily forget about car problems when you head up into the hills, find worked flakes of obsidian, read about Edmond Dantes until you fall asleep to the sound of quaking aspens, then wake up to this sunrise: Somewhere near Monitor Pass, a girl and her dog find another laughing place. Today we're headed back up to Hope Valley, or Charity Valley, or somewhere else awesome up Highway 88 to get some painting (or spacing out, and camping, and reading and hiking and artifact finding) done. Mattie is the best, she loves it out here, and she says "HI" to all h...

Hi everybody! Mattie and I had a great week in Reno, followed by three amazing days back at the Kaffer cabin near Markleeville. First, some good days in Reno at Scott, Tiff, Sid and Anni's house. Grandma and Grandpa stopped by on their way to the Shakespeare festival in Ashland, so we had a good afternoon at the Truckee.  Sid and Anni with their Great Grandma and Great Grandpa. Then we headed south, where we picked peaches and apples with Uncle Dan and Selena. Uncle Dan and Sid pick peaches for days. That afternoon, we went west from Markleeville to the cabin for three great days of fishing, walking, spacing out, cabin painting, games, beers and brandy, rainstorms, and a great sight-seeing drive with Uncle Dan to the edge of Pleasant Valley and up towards Poor Boy Mine. We walked around a great dry pond and meadow (Uncle Dan has named it "Allie's Meadow") and looked for flakes (didn't find any), before a good dinner and a night under the stars. W...

I spent last week in Portland with Christopher (see previous post), Bruce (Queen Jenkins) and Scotty (Flipflop) doing some serious spacing out with the Olympics (I love Tomas Gonzalez and his stupid little mustache), camping, biking and beer tasting around the city. We spent the first days relaxing, catching up on sleep, and enjoying the chickens and hospitality. We spent a night camped along the Clackamas River near Bagby Hot Springs, and after a great dinner around the campfire, spent a few hours in the springs before a quick hike back to the car. Mattie even went, but didn't feel like doing much hot-tubbing. Chris and Scott. Cozy. Campfire on the Clackamas. Mattie the Road Dog.  That night we slept under more beautiful skies and pine trees, then got up early and headed back to Portland. A quick nap and we were on our way to ride bikes through the city with Bruce, stopping at a few breweries (Hopworks, Rogue, something else I can't remember...), playing some...

Another incredible week on the road, this one full of friends, family, farming, and a great road trip into Oregon. It started when we left Nevada a week and a half ago, heading over the 88 to Gold Country where I met 17 of my very best friends for a weekend post-PhD celebration at the El Dorado Ranch. There aren't words to describe the fun that we had. We danced, we DANCED, we had a *few* beers, we made a puppet out of a unicorn mask and talked under a caribou and elk head in the ranch lodge. We ate delicious food and hung out in the pool all day, and sat on FUNNOODLES, and read in the sun for three amazing days in Mountain Ranch. I cried when Mattie and I got in the car, just after the last people drove out on Sunday, because I can't even believe that I'm lucky enough to have friends like those. I LOVE YOU EVERYONE. And a huge thank you to my Mom and Dad, the best. I love you. Here are just a few (of many) pictures from the weekend (haven't yet found a really good ...

Hi everyone! We're back on the grid for the evening. The past five days have been relaxing and beautiful and delicious and productive and incredible. I left Reno after a great visit with Scott, Tiff, and the girls, following a short final trip to the Nevada Discovery Museum - which is the most awesome kids' museum anywhere, I think - where we did arts and crafts, made pinwheels, "fished" with magnets, and raced miniature sailboats in a model river. You're even allowed to paint on the windows. I KNOW. Anni paints on windows in the Discovery Museum.  Scott had to work that night, so Mattie and I took a walk with Sid, Anni, Tiff and Zoey (their new dog) around the trails behind their house. Sid took this picture of us during a little break from chasing jackrabbits and poking each other with sagebrush sticks.  Little buddy.  The next day I headed south - not far in miles, but still a long lesson in patience, thanks to the complete mess dubbed ...