Erosion, volcanic eruption, earthquakes, floods, tectonic grinding, landslides, and other natural forces act continuously on the earth’s crustal rock, creating various types of debris: gravel deposits, mudflats in the tidal estuaries of creeks, cobble terraces, and beaches of black lava sand. When chemical agents such as phosphorus and nitrogen infuse this debris, and biological entities including microbes and earthworms work material into it organic enough to support plants, it becomes soil. A soil that is chemically or organically exhausted, that has been pulverized or become deeply parched, that has been invaded by decomposing rock, or that has been fouled by sewage or industrial pollution to the point where it can not support plant life is called dirt. Barry Lopez in Home Ground /Language for an American Landscape, a very nice book of very short essays pretending to be definitions. Thanks JR ! 
Fremontia
This time of year, our backyard is dominated by our Fremontodendron californicum, known to Michele and myself as our Fremontia. It is a native of California but I don’t think that I have ever seen one in the wild (actually, I have not seen very many in captivity). The tree – bush? – is actually much more dominating than the pictures show, let me try again.
It is really rough and stickery up close and I am always amazed at how easily the squirrels negotiate it. Today, the bees were busy tending the Fremontia and
Precious Mae was busy at the watering hole.
A couple of thoughts on the Boston Marathon
Any event with multiple explosive devices – as this appears to be – is clearly an act of terror, and will be approached as an act of terror. White House
Sitting here, nice and safe – looking at my computer monitor – I realize that my only real relationship with this Boston massacre is what I read and see on the screen. There is blood and carnage everywhere and every shot of that carnage has a person helping (usually several people). Every shot of terror also is a shot of Love.
I know that it is smart not to jump to conclusions because any conclusion includes a direction which may be a misdirection – believing IS seeing afterall – and I want so much for there to be conclusions. I want answers, and not just any answers, I want this to be a terrorist act by a Timothy McVeigh, not some Muslim and that makes my thinking and conclusions pretty unreliable.
As I read that the bombs were made from pressure cookers filled with carpet nails and ball-bearings, I wonder how anybody can hate that much and hold that hate long enough to do this. Hold the hate long enough to plan it in detail: to buy daypacks and pressure cookers, hold the hate long enough to assemble everything, hold the hate long enough to bring it to the finish line and look around at the people who will be killed or maimed. It is easy for me to say that They must be nuts. because I want them to be nuts.
I also realize how lucky it is that Trooper Charlie Hanger stopped McVeigh. It is possible that he would never have been caught and it is possible that who ever did this will never be caught. I don’t think so – with all the resources being poured into this case – and I hope not, but it is possible.
What sticks with me is how small the bomb seemed on television and how much damage it did and I hope they catch the Sons of a Bitches.
Death Valley Easter Trip 2013: some other Views
JR on the Eureka Dunes by Coco Gonzo
Last Saturday, Michele and I joined JR at Gina and Courtney’s house for a spectacular dinner followed by their slide show of our Death Valley Easter Trip. Actually, I should say slides shows because we also saw JR’s shots and Michele’s pictures. The slide shows were about an hundred times more fun than it sounds.
First off everybody’s trip was slightly different, meaning that everybody’s point of view was both literally and figuratively different. I wasn’t where Courtney was to see the shot of JR and, if I had been, I might have been looking somewhere else. I know I was looking somewhere else when Gina was demonstrating how windy it was at the edge of Ubehebe Crater.
Gina leaning into the wind by Coco Gonzo
Second, nobody got much in the way of shots of themselves, I didn’t, and it was fun to see pictures of myself (some of them, some were pretty horrifying at how fat I have become).
Replacing the top radiator hose by JR
Steve leaving Red Wall canyon by JR
While I was fretting over the waning light as we crossed over the last Chance Range on our way to camp in North death Valley Wash, JR was looking at the great view down onto Crankshaft Junction.
Looking down at Crankshaft Junction from a pass in the Last Chance Range by JR
He got higher than anybody on the Eureka Dunes and caught the sinuous road leading down to the dunes from the North Death Valley Road.
From the highest ridge at Eureka Dunes by JR
And, on his early morning walks, JR saw and photoed every sunrise and even photoed himself seeing the sunrise.
JR from Lake Hill, Upper Panamint Valley by JR
Lastly, this was a special trip and it was fun to re-live it through the eyes of other people who were on the trip.
Death Valley Easter Trip 2013: Going Home
After coming down from Red Wall, we drove to Stove pipe Wells to pick up a couple of beers and then over Towne Pass – 4950, or so, feet – to the Panamint Valley and up the Lake Hill Road to camp in the dark. I’m only calling it Lake Hill Road because that is what the Park Offroad map calls it, but Michele and I used to call it the North Panamint Road and, for awhile, I favored the War Eagle Mine Road after the mine at the end. Anyway, it is an easy road to drive in a car, even in the dark, and offers lots of flat – if somewhat exposed – places to camp, so setting up in the dark is close to effortless. Our last dinner out was a crisp celery salad by Michele and Gina and hearty lentil stew by Courtney and JR (seen here heating the water before starting) .
I woke up the next morning about the same time as JR (6 AM, or so). JR went for a hike up Lake Hill for his morning constitutional and I sort of meanderingly packed the cars while Michele, Gina, and Courtney slept in.
We were on the road early, waiting until we got to Lone Pine – in the shadow of the Sierras, or what would have been the shadow except that it was morning and the Sierras were to our west – for breakfast.
Then we started north, driving along the Sierra Nevadas. Since we left Minden, Nevada, the elephant in the car – if that is possible with a car full of liberals – has been my poor, abandoned, Range Rover. When ever we had a cell phone signal – which was rarely – I tried calling the garage where it had been towed but all I got was an answering machine. Now that we were back in civilization, I was able to get through.
The poor baby was at Hollar’s Automotive And 4 Wheel Drive and Mr. Hollar said that he did not have good news. He had run a block test to see if I had exhaust gases leaking into the cooling system, which would indicate a blown head gasket, and the poor Rover failed. We are talking about $2,500 failed! I wasn’t really surprised, although I was shocked, three hose failures in a couple of miles indicated something serious is probably wrong. I asked him if it was even worth fixing and he said Well, it depends on how much you love it. My first thought was that anybody who would say that was a pretty good guy to work on a car I did, in fact, have real feelings for.
At some point during the trip, I think just after we abandoned the Rover, Courtney said something along the lines of That Rover put us all through this so it could get to a good repair shop and now it has found it. It reminded me of a similar comment by a fellow Obama campaign worker in 2008, while we were running tallies on voter contacts, I think God made us suffer through Bush so we could get Obama. Both sentiments seem improbable, but then I think of the quote of $4,000 to $7,000 I just got for the same work done here in the Bay Area; I think of how different our country has become under Obama than it was just ten years ago under Bush; I think of all the places the Rover could have blown a head gasket; and I think, Well, maybe they are right.
Part One: Here
Part Two: Here
Part Three: Here
Part Four: Here
Part Five: Here