I like: watching an OSF performance of William Shakespeare in Ashland, Drinking really GOOD coffee (Thanksgiving Coffee, Peets or Starbucks), sipping on a cuppa tea (Earl Grey), playing with my grandkids, reading the newspaper, and taking youngest son William snowboarding.
Music
Rock and Roll Forever!!! (see "School of Rock" or "The Pick of Destiny" with rocker Jack Black-- he shares my philosophy!). Actually, I love country western (from a college girlfriend), classical, 50's jazz (Coltrane), Irish Folk (Chieftains), Broadway Musicals, acoustic guitar, 50's Rock, pop, Sixties Folk-Rock (Bob Dylan) and Adult Alternative... any music that's romantic or sad (when I'm in the mood). And let's not forget
John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Richard Ringo Starkey!
Movies
I love musicals: Across the Universe and Rent,Amélie (Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain), Finding Neverland, La Vie en Rose, Nightmare Before Christmas, Austin Powers, Pan's Labyrinth, Big Fish and Blazing Saddles, the one movie which explains the meaning of life! (along with Monty Python and the Holy Grail). Oh, and did I mention that I love dashing hero Sean Connery (as Indiana Jones' dad) and Secondhand Lions with brilliant actor Michael Caine? And old movies? Au Revoir les Enfants, Casablanca, Harold and Maude, MASH, When Harry Met Sally, It's A Wonderful Life, and any movie with Kevin Klein (French Kiss!). One more: every movie made by director Tim Burton!
"Evil will always triumph, because good is dumb."
- from the Mel Brooks movie Spaceballs
Television
Doctor Who, Travel Channel (Anthony Bourdain), Torchwood, Numbers and Psych (I'm a sucker for stories with two brothers or two buddies), History Channel, Sci Fi Channel, Eddie Izzard and Conan O'Brien (if I'm home that night, which usually I'm not). Also "Murder, She Wrote", HGTV, Mythbusters, The Comedy Channel and anything about ghosts or UFO's.
Books
Currently, I am reading the humorous travelogue by witty American author Bill Bryson "Notes From A Small Island". Before that, the last book I read was a biography of Howard Hughes. Other books which I like: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, His Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman, Wind Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, and anything written by clever Brit science fiction author Terry Pratchett (Side note: I am married to Granny Weatherwax, for those who aren't aware of it!).
Heroes
"My wife is hero number one, because she was with me, when I had cancer, and years later, when I was bleeding to death. Of course, all my kids are heroes to me, because they are living their own lives, and following their own stars."-- Jeffrey Zekas, 2007
Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici. By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe.
(aleister crowley)
Love of mine
someday you will die
But I'll be close behind
I'll follow you into the dark
No blinding light, or tunnels to gates of white
Just our hands clasped so tight
Waiting for the hint of a spark
If heaven and hell decide
That they both are satisfied
Illuminate the "no's" on their vacancy signs
If there's no one beside you
When your soul embarks
Then I'll follow you into the dark
"There are days when solitude is a heady wine that intoxicates you with freedom, others when it is a bitter tonic, and still others when it is a poison that makes you beat your head against the wall."
--Sidonie Gabrielle Colette
As soon as you're born they make you feel small
By giving you no time instead of it all
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all
A working class hero is something to be
They hurt you at home and they hit you at school
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool
Till you're so fucking crazy you can't follow their rules
A working class hero is something to be
When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can't really function you're so full of fear
A working class hero is something to be
Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV
And you think you're so clever and classless and free
But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see
A working class hero is something to be
There's room at the top they are telling you still
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill
A working class hero is something to be
If you want to be a hero well just follow me
--John Lennon
"Family always comes first..."
--Adam Sandler in the movie "Click"
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
Local earth in the holder, native plants in the incense-- this is the kind of bioregional magic that makes my head spin. I love it when things come from and evoke specific places-- otherwise, it's all Home Depots and freeways and the suburban blandness of no-place-in-particular. Which reminds me: you should dig into your place. Smell the plants around you-- don't be embarrassed, its your heritage. Rub your face against the mossy rock, crawl around in the bushes and find yourself at home.
Everything I found out, I want to forget.
(jason bourne/ jeff zekas)
...A guy calling loudly after a girl, chasing her into the river, laughing, both of them falling into the water, more laughing... Do they know how perfect it is here? How delicious and still the air is in this little slice of summertime heaven? They think it'll be like this forever, but I know you only get so many nights like this in one lifetime, so I'm just sitting here on my warm rock and soaking it all in. (Hall Newbegin)
I've had an incredible relationship with my husband, with my family. I know they've had problems of their own, but we have never wavered in our closeness as a family. I've had a hell of a life.
(angela lansbury)
Even in a world where people can
be superficial and stupid and selfish,
there's still hope.
JUST LIVING IS
NOT ENOUGH...
One must have
SUNSHINE
FREEDOM
and a little
FLOWER.
- hans christian andersen
Do you know? This has all been terribly interesting. I think the others may well remember it quite differently from me. It may well be we have to do this all over again...
- john cleese
"Il n'y a rien dans ce monde qui n'ait un moment decisif"
("There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment").
- Henri Cartier-Bresson
"And he lived happily ever after
'til the end of his days."
"Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing."
- Teddy Roosevelt.
I am a dad and a grandfather, which is amazing, since I told all my college girlfriends, "I am NEVER getting married and NEVER having kids!" After 20 years of surfing, I got a real job, living variously in Santa Barbara, Morro Bay, San Diego, and currently, Susanville. I've worked as: Park Ranger, Social Worker, Seasonal Firefighter, Caltrans Highway Worker, and currently I'm a supervisor with the state. When I'm not working sixteen hour days, I lounge in my front yard, sipping on Starbucks coffee (Americano, Venti, black, no cream) and reading magazines. Four of my five kids are grown... when the last one graduates in June 2010, I am retiring to Oregon with my beautiful wife, Linda ("Laume"). My motto: "Never give up." (I learned this, after surviving cancer in 2001).
"Wonderful how completely everything in wild nature fits into us, as if truly part and parent of us. The sun shines not on us but in us. The rivers flow not past, but through us, thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell of the substance of our bodies, making them glide and sing..."- John Muir
..
Who I'd like to meet:
"In this world, you must be oh so smart, or oh so pleasant. Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant."- Jimmy Stewart
On a personal level, I wish I could have met my maternal grandfather, civil engineer Paul Barr Wagner, and my great-grandfather, James Wallis, who was a teacher, theosophist and intellectual. Amongst strangers, I'd like to meet the amazing writer and physicist Michio Kaku, director Tim Burton, and the duo of John Stewart and Stephen Colbert, the world's two wittiest men. Oh, and if I could meet dead folks, then New England poet Walt Whitman, Nobel physicist Richard Feynman and Will Shakespeare would top the list. If I could meet fictional characters, I'd like to talk with Captain Jack Sparrow, and of course, Harry Potter!
"My dear fellow, life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent."- Sherlock Holmes
Most annoying folks: pushy Brits on the London Tube.
Biggest surprise: how civil and polite the French people were towards us, even in a city as big as Paris.
Scariest moment: when I lost my family at the top of the Eiffel Tower, surrounded by Chinese tourists, and with the sun going down, and neither Linda nor Sam nor Kyla in sight!
Most fun: taking a "ghost tour" of London, and seeing all the mysterious alleyways and nooks and crannies of the world's most diverse city.
Favorite spot: a small park across from Notre Dame cathedral, where I sat and did people watching, while Linda used the internet cafe.
Most beautiful people: French children! (oh, and of course, French women!).
Anyway, it's nice to be home, with my son and my dogs and my cats.
Hey papa, I was listening to the radio and heard a song the other day that made me think of you.
"He Didn't Have To Be" by Brad Paisley
When a single mom goes out on a date with somebody new It always winds up feeling more like a job interview My momma used to wonder if she'd ever meet someone Who wouldn't find out about me and then turn around and run
I met the man I call my dad when I was five years old He took my mom out to a movie and for once I got to go A few months later I remember lying there in bed I overheard him pop the question and prayed that she'd say yes
And then all of a sudden Oh, it seemed so strange to me How we went from something's missing To a family Lookin' back all I can say About all the things he did for me Is I hope I'm at least half the dad That he didn't have to be
I met the girl that's now my wife about three years ago We had the perfect marriage but we wanted somethin' more Now here I stand surrounded by our family and friends Crowded 'round the nursery window as they bring the baby in
And now all of a sudden It seemed so strange to me How we've gone from something's missing To a family Lookin' through the glass I think about the man That's standin' next to me And I hope I'm at least half the dad That he didn't have to be
Lookin' back all I can say About all the things he did for me Is I hope I'm at least half the dad That he didn't have to be
Yeah, I hope I'm at least half the dad That he didn't have to be Because he didn't have to be You know he didn't have to be
As I get older i realize more and more how hard it would be to jump in to a relationship with someone that already has kids. I just want to say i really appreciate the fact that you did and didnt show favoratism and took me in as your kid. I cant think of a better dad to have had or a better way to be
"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence... The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed."
"Life is difficult. That is the great truth, one of the greatest truths-- it is a great truth because once we see this truth, we transcend it."-- M. Scott Peck
Hi, Fourth of July was fun!!! William, Papa, Sam, Kyla, Luke and Erik went out on the lake... lots of wipe-outs by Sam and Will... Papa couldn't get up on the board (maybe next time, when there's no audience!), but we all had fun... And who was that blond at the docks? Well, the ice cream sandwiches were good!
hey papa.....everything is going great. i'm down in sacramento for garret's 2nd birthday, but i am heading down to slo to visit fred and then santa ana to see my grandma for a a week or so. i tried calling mom's cell a couple of days ago, but no one answered or called me back :-( call me on my cell if you have a min, i would love to talk to you and mom. also, i wanted to ask mom a question about trees. well, hope you are all doing well and having fun in sunny san diego. love you lots!
hey sorry i didnt call you back. i was at a buddys house and when i got home i fell asleep. well back to work just had to throw a shirt in the wash. tonight is our grand opening.we are gonna have about 7-800 people there so its gonna be crazy.
see ya
hey
yeah I'll be there for the weekends just not the weekdays. I'll be training. anyways I'm goin home on friday the 9th, hopefully. you really never know with military flights, they are really flakey.
