Day 2, 10:37 AM;
Foggy, cool, and damp this morning. 38 degrees. The fog constricts the ambient sounds and brings a welcome calm to the ‘campsite’. (This weekend I am camping at home to save money and gasoline.)
Today I plan to breakout the keyboard and limber up my mind and fingers by adding some parts to the latest recording projects. ( I also need to condense a couple of rhythm guitar tracks with a single replacement track. )
It’s 68 degrees here inside my “tent”, and the Ethiopian shade grown, fair trade, organic coffee tastes smooth and earthy from my favorite cup.
I appreciate the blessed quiet of this morning on my camping weekend, here in the north state. In the distance I hear a happy hyena, or is that one of the ladies going to bingo? Transposing the sound of the refrigerator into the key of campsite natural, is a little tricky right now, I think I will have another cup of exotic imported coffee and hear what comes to mind.
A couple of days ago, I went up to the lake to take some Mount Shasta pictures with the Lumix TZ1. I saw an old guy with a camera, hiking up the the left side of the road. He was almost to the top where I was going to stop, so I didn’t offer him a ride.
While I was taking pictures, I watched him slowly approaching, and I called to him, but he was still too far away for him to hear, so I smiled and waved. He waved back.
I was done with my camera shoot, but I waited by the Buick as he slowly moved into hearing range, (about 5 feet). He was wearing a pair of hearing aids, which explained the need to be relatively close to converse. I asked him if he had been hiking up the hill for exercise, or just to get to the top where he could take Shasta Lake pictures. He said, “Both”. I noticed he had an older Lumix digital camera around his neck and we talked the merits of the Leica lenses.
It turned out that we both had been photography enthusiasts for most of our lives and had boxes and boxes of slides and negatives left over from the days of film. (Thank you Marian for letting me store that footlocker full of negatives and tape recordings at your house.)
We stood there talking and admiring the magnificent surroundings. I was due to do some recording at Johns shop, but I don’t often take time to chat with an old-timer, overlooking Lake Shasta, the mountains, and Mount Shasta, so I lingered and listened as he told me about his history with the area.
He spoke of relatives who lived in Sacramento and Placer county, that would come to visit on their vacations. His dad would write them a list of supplies to bring and give the letter to the forest service to mail. He spoke wistfully of fishing from his dads boat, and how even today, fishing is his favorite thing to do.
I didn’t get his name, or give him mine, as this was not that kind of exchange. This was just a point in time and space where two people shared a cordial moment and went on their merry way knowing at least one other person shared their appreciation of natures grand beauty and how it shaped a mans life.
12:11 PM
Time to whip up some grub and get busy enjoying my camping weekend. The refrigerator still sounds like an example of cost saving manufacturing, rather than the result of efficient engineering, but it does keep the food I eat from spoiling, so I will keep trying to hear it in some natural context.
Natural Breakfast
Okay, time to make some music.
7:52 PM
The music went fine and I had a 6 min 30 second track with a slide show of January Sunsets. I uploaded it to youtube and it became a 2 min 17 second slide show. Oh well, no biggie. At least you can see and hear ⅓ of the video, and that in itself is truly amazing when I think of how thrilled I was 3 years ago just to get anything up on youtube.
It’s raining now outside my shelter here where I am camping, but I am warm and dry. That is a luxury that many others in this world do not have, and I am acutely aware of my good fortune to be who, what, and where I am.
Today’s Relatively Appropriate Song;
Nature Is Beautiful
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