Still looking up...

“Nobody of any real culture, for instance, ever talks nowadays about the beauty of sunset. Sunsets are quite old fashioned. To admire them is a distinct sign of provincialism of temperament. Upon the other hand they go on.”

~ Oscar Wilde
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I felt a little neglectful in my last post. I found myself with little time and a bit tongue-tied knowing I couldn't just sit and ponder. I also wanted to post more of these sunsets. A good sunset of course can tie a tongue. Hmmm... more tongue oil perhaps.




But sunsets... wow, every day we get a different one. And I'm blessed with having the house I do. I can see from the east face of the coast range foothills to the west face of the Cascades which, here in north Eugene is the Coburg Hills and our sunsets are the whole spectrum, from sublime to psychedelic and spectacular. And I love to shoot sunsets. To take chunks of the sky, where the colors and the complexity, the depth and arrangement, the shadows and highlights - or the simplicity - of the clouds painted in their sunset colors makes a pleasing image to my eye. All of the above were shot from here at my home.

I've been thinking too that I need to tell another tall Paul tale. Word is George is back from his Latin meanderings and I need to get together with him again. One of the great things about getting older with George is that now -- a decade and a half since I last worked at Opal Creek -- I don't need to wear such high boots around him. The shit's not quite so deep (and George... I'm grinnin' whilst I say this). Plenty of it to still go around tho', don't get me wrong. I suspect that when I pass from this earth there were still be plenty for my kids to muck from the great barn of life. And I guess, in a way, that might be why I encourage kids to be kids. It ends soon enough and there is no way (except for dying)(and no guarantees there!) to avoid it, except as kids. And I firmly believe the happier we get to be as kids the more healthy our minds are as adults. Happiness can be a relative term and a good childhood can provide a wonderful frame of reference.

Because really? What do we have if we aren't happy? Or at least have a fair portion of it once in a while. I know I'm feeling due. The last deacde has been kind of weird. Losing a good job, the best I'd had working for someone else, and folks dying... divorce and poverty... a bit like the Old Commander Cody classic:

Well my dog died just yesterday and left me all alone.
The finance company dropped by today and repossessed my home.
That's just a drop in the bucket compared to losing you,
And I'm down to seeds and stems again, too.

~ Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen
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