Tule Blues

My dog howls. I've never heard it before, but I heard it over the phone last night when Carma called after I'd dropped Tule off for an overnight playdate. Carma and her daughter are interested in adopting Tule. Seems Tule doesn't feel she's ready to be adopted. I ended up spending the night with them. We'll try again on Saturday. What can I say? I feel like howling too. Except this is my decision.

And in the meantime, while I'm waiting out word from the Peace Corps, I've taken a work detail in Hawaii for up to 4 months starting on or around November 10th. I'm hoping to segue smoothly into the Corps, but we'll see. My work detail will be at the USS Arizona assisting with new exhibits. I expect to be doing research, editing, that sort of thing. Huge project in the NPS right now and I'm excited to be a part of it, even if the subject matter isn't really my thing.

Playdate for the cat coming up in a few days. Not sure how that will go as cats don't really do playdates. I expect he'll pop out of his cat carrier and find a bed to hide under for three days. OK, he's your cat now!

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.

Tule on the Road

While in limbo, Tule and I took the opportunity this week to go on the road and visit some friends. We had lunch with Marilyn from Death Valley one day in Vegas where she is recouperating from an injury. Marilyn is Emma's mom and Emma is the lovely black great dane who helped raise Tucki when he was a pup. Emma didn't come to lunch, but Tule got to join us as we spent time at a swanky outdoor mall that was very dog friendly. Good to catch up with Marilyn. Ugh, she need some good change in her life too. I'm sending her lots of sunbeams.

Then we headed out into the Mojave to catch up with Michael and Angela from ELEDP class. Great spot to live on the Cima Dome with a heavenly moonrise and a ridiculously smart little girl. I think when your stay-at-home-for-now-mom has a PhD it's kind of inevitable. She enjoyed touching Tule; elicited all kinds of happy squeals. And I enjoyed watching the debate with like minded people. Good luck to you guys as well, making it work out in the middle of nowhere. I called it the National Park Service Housing for Introverts. Just my thing, natch.

As such, another great aspect of the quick trip was hours of driving through the desert in perfect October weather. Always the same, always different. I do love the desert. Making friends and getting kisses

Change

Friday was a stormy day. The 49 mph wind gusts matched the frustration of my Peace Corps news. I found out that a fellow ranger whom I slightly knew and wholly admired was killed in an accident. And I was heading home to watch the last movie by a murdered filmmaker/actress whom I slightly knew and wholly admired.

This was all countered, fortunately, by the news on Friday that the Connecticut state supreme court overturned a ban on same-sex marriage. And today I voted for a black man for president (we have permanent absentee balloting). Gives me hope that we can, in fact, respect and perhaps even love each other. And that good people have not lived in vain.

The Bobcat Knows

This morning Tule and I saw a bobcat out on our walk. We saw two bobcats the week before the flood. I read that they are reminders to be patient and alert. So I got to work and had an email from the Peace Corps letting me know that I did not make the cut for November and December. Next possible placement could be January through March, or April through September (yikes!). I'm attempting to channel my inner bobcat. Because I thought the flood was a horrible thing, but turns out it wasn't at all. So today I am feeling quite low about the Peace Corps news. How do I hang on to my enthusiasm and not ditch it for an exciting new job? But the universe has a schedule and I mustn't complain because really I don't know squat. Which is not to say I'm going to sit here at Manzanar waiting month after month for the Peace Corps to come through. But I also can't go too crazy over what may turn out to be a sweet silver lining. Rob Bresny's rope ladder has just come in an unexpected form.

The Band

I've been singing with a Brad and Kirk since my creek neighbor Claiborne had a rockin' 50th birthday party back in May and I did an impromptu number with the band. Alas, this week we said goodbye to C. as she prepares to move to Lima, Peru. You know, why not? So we played some songs at her party. These days I'm calling us the Oak Creek Evacuation Chorus. Brad and his family were displaced by the flood as were Claiborne and I. Kirk helped a lot in the aftermath.

Our set consisted of Lucinda, Loretta, Iris, and some rolicking Old Crow. We were a hit. And yes, Tule got to be a part of the band. Although she needs to work on harmonizing a little more.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Oak Creek Evacuation Chorus.

From the Horse's Mouth

Here's this week's horoscope from the delightful Rob Brezsny. Keep breathing...

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): "Dear Rob Brezsny: I am Chandra Gupti, born May 16, 1979 in New Delhi. Right now I am not well settled due to searing problems and swampy hurt. Day by day my position goes down lower and darker, with no lantern or rope ladder. So please tell me how long this foolish suffering period will further corrode my hope. Give me at least a thousand answers that will heal every test and trial as soon as possible. I will lie in bed until you reply. Thank you. - Unraveled Taurus." Dear Unraveled Taurus: I love you with all my heart and soul and mind. I have adored you since the beginning of time and will worship your gorgeous genius until eternity changes into infinity. Dear All the Other Tauruses in the World: Everything I just told Unraveled Taurus I now say to you as well. (P.S. A divine tinkerer will offer you a lantern and rope ladder within ten days. Hold on.)

High Country

As I'm waiting what I hope is the last week for Peace Corps news, I've entered into a new land of impotent stress. I have been told recently that I am still on track for November and might be getting an invitation in the near future. With all the things to do before I go, however, there is not a lot that I want to tackle without a firm date in my hand. Therefore, I am self-medicating. Not with cigarettes, alcohol, or crystal meth. Not even with sugar. Rather with Nevada Barr books. For those not in the know, Barr writes engaging mystery novels about Park Ranger Anna Pigeon and all the mayhem that goes on in National Parks. OK, poetic license. Anyway, I'd not gotten absorbed in these book til now. And now I can't get enough. There are about 12 of them, and I'm pretty much reading them in order. Except that last night I started High Country, about Yosemite, which represents jumping ahead a few.

The reason I was willing to jump ahead a few (besides the fact that I'm not in current possession of the next three books that come before High Country) is that yesterday I had a picture perfect day in the high country of Yosemite. I had lunch at the base of Lembert Dome in the Tuolumne Meadows area with my dear friend Loretta. She and I worked together at Bryce Canyon my first NPS summer eight years ago. She lives on the other side of Yosemite and did work in the park for a number of years. We try to have a late summer picnic somewhere every year. This year she brought one of her daughters. Loretta had been on a trip to Italy, Greece, and Turkey this summer. I had a little flood. We had lots to catch up on.

I have always appreciated Loretta's encouragement to trust the universe. We've had some good times. When we were at Bryce, her husband had sent her there with this little 4wd pick-up truck that he thought would be helpful to have. It was, frankly, a piece of crap. When I bought my '82 F250, Loretta joked that now we could go places together, each driving, so if a truck broke down we'd have a spare.

Our picnic was accompanied by the glorious odor of Jeffrey pine trees and their friends. Stellars jays entertained. And the drive up the treacherous Tioga Road was made bearable by aspens in orange and gold and a shrubby thing decked in red. Couldn't ID it as I was trying not to go sailing off the road's edge to oblivion.

So today doing laundry, getting the windshield replaced in my car, going through more stuff to give away. Waiting. And getting lost in Yosemite with Anna Pigeon.