A new year...

“Truth is the beginning of every good thing, both in heaven and on earth; and he who would be blessed and happy should be from the first a partaker of truth, for then he can be trusted”

~ Plato
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Man... its cold. Its going to be between 15º - 20º in the morning. I know for many of you that is a heat wave this time of year, but here in Oregon... thats cold! (unless you live on the east side of the Cascades...)

So Happy New Year. For what its worth. Not much special for me anymore about the rolling over of the calendar, adding a digit... yawn... but what it does mean is that spring is around the corner. Spring means longer days, warmer weather and daffodils popping their yellow blooms open in about 3 - 4 weeks or so and daffodils are the harbinger of more flowers to come.

The other thing about the new year is that it does act as a sign of change and as a metaphor for all those beginnings that take place throughout our lives. We sluff off the old and pick up the new, adapting as we go. This blog is no different. I had no idea really what I would discover as I began this exercise in public musing. Its very much a philosophical exposing of the inner self to anyone who drops by, as well as a revelation to me personally. Its something I've thoroughly enjoyed and by the steady flow of readers I can see that there is some interest in what I post here. I try, I really do. I've had some great experiences in my life, met many interesting folks and done things I know few others have or ever will. I've found niches of nature that are not the grand vistas but the small and fantastically beautiful, isolated places that remain much as they've been for millenia.

One of the purposes in writing this blog is to bring people some of the story about Opal Creek and my friend Paul Flores. Pablo is an icon at Opal Creek. The caretakers caretaker. When Pablo discovered his place there, it was for him a match made in heaven. And Opal Creek is -- if I have any clue at all -- heavenly. It has a beauty that literally does change people and I know it changed Paul (I will use his name as Paul and Pablo both, sometimes as Tincup, depending on the context of referencing him) probably more than any other experience in his life. It was the compass point around which his life revolved for all his years after first arriving there in 1989. And it was Paul and Hoos nahil that got me there. Over the years I have provided them both with job leads and a better reciprocation from them... I can't imagine.

As this is this beginning of a new year, so too will this be a new beginning for the blog. I've taken on a new full-time job that will keep me busy, so I may not post as regularly, but the regular income will allow me to afford to start scanning a lot of my old slides to digital format, a task I've been hoping to accomplish the last couple of years. Also this year I'll be writing more about Pablo and intertwining the twists and turns that lead to that meeting and the years after. So... bear with me and keep me posted about your thoughts on what I post here.

You'll notice one new feature I've added is the ClustrMap at the bottom of the left hand column of the webpage. I really like seeing where all of you are reading this from. It updates with every 10% jump in visitors so as it gets older it will update less frequently. Google's Blogger has some other features I may add after a bit... my fellow blogger Rain, who blogs at Rainy Day Thoughts has a wonderful, thoughtful blog and she has added a couple of features I like. Rain is another Oregonian and I thoroughly enjoy her writing and her photos and recommend you all give her a visit as well.

I'm preparing a new blog entry, kind of about how and where I first met Paul. I've just found a couple of things on the wwweb I had been looking for so I just have to get them collected and I should be posting again very soon. So until then... kay sh'nuk sh'ma.