Cabin day 1

Day 1, monday, september 22nd, 9:40 am:


Hello all,
I am here at the cabin. I left last night at 9ish. There was a lot of traffic, and stupid traffic at that, people driving really fast and almost crashing as they switched lanes at the last minute. The car was packed tightly and there wasn’t much visibility. My blind spots were blind and my left and right signals were more like left and right tentative meanderings as I waited for a horn from somebody who was next to me, if they were there at all. But I played it safe and went 65 the whole way and waited until most people were gone and the road was empty to change lanes.

I arrived at 11:30 and unpacked the perishables and my boyos, Riley and Mijit (male rex rats). By the time I finished unpacking food it was midnight. I was a little scared about coming up here in the dark, and being alone. Because if I got stuck or something I couldn’t call for help, I’d have to depend on myself. It also meant if I screwed up with something I could only blame myself. Also last night my mind was not favoring me and brought up thoughts of the movie SIGNS (which scared me on a deep level...I can't explain it). The night was silent except for snapping twigs and nocturnal animals. I thought aliens were hiding in shadows some of the time. And with that frame to look and think through the creaking cabin and dripping drains did not help in the slightest. Before I fell asleep I looked at the boyos, and they were already asleep, so I figured if they were asleep, than I could do so as well. I hid under the cover and turned out the light
I set the alarm for 8:30 am and woke up at 8:11 and waited for the alarm to go off. The morning was quite a contrast to the evening. First of all the animals were awake and making their presence known. Right outside my window a female woodpecker, male blue jay and large squirrel foraged in the pine needles while a male woodpecker drilled the side of the cabin. It was quiet and beautiful with the sun shining through the spectacularly clean windows (thank you mom). When I woke up it was a bit chilly, because I hadn’t turned the gas heater on, just the water. But it was only 65, so I put some clothes on and unpacked the rest of the food, the boxes and cans and stuff. I wrote down what was there. I had a cup of coffee, and I think it is time for breakfast.
I plan: to eat breakfast, shower and head down the mountain to the campus to talk to the department secretary for a degree check, to find out how much more I have left to do, and also to check the credential information, because someone said I have to be “accepted” into the program, I can’t just take the courses willy nilly. Also I have to buy some rat food, some coffee creamer, lunch meats, cheeses, dish soap, and a dish scrubbie. When I get back I should look through the recipes and unpack my clothes. Its a busy day. And in summation, I think I am going to be OK, even though I miss you all.
Love
~Brian. 10:10am
ps: The time moves slower up here, so that should help with the homework, and hinder when there is nothing to do.

transitions

It's been a while since my last post. So an update: I continue to attend UCR this quarter. For course, I have advanced fiction, religious myths and rituals, and renaissance revolutions.

More interesting than that is that I had to move. For two academic years I resided within the religiose household of my aunt and uncle. And while I do not share their religious/ political convictions in the slightest, I assumed I could get along long enough to graduate. You know when you assume you make an ass out of... yeah.

It did not work. The problem was given the title, "differences in our world views" which is a polite way of saying they hate my philosophical, sinful, selfish, atheistic guts. It is worth noting here that I am intrigued by the many masks they wear. Let me explain.

They have a social mask, and wear the visage of a good christian man and woman with an ideal home life. They do not express affection towards one another, nor show anger at any subject.

At family gatherings they wear their family mask, one of care and concern. Obviously overdone, because such care and concern would have led to communication between bi annual family gatherings. Once they return home they take off all of their masks and the real people show themselves.

The unmasked people say and think some disgusting things I could not agree with, though they asked me to (kill the gays among them). My opinions were from a lowly atheist (that makes me a pagan right?), and therefore worth very little, which led to childlike treatment of me.

Even this I tolerated for two years because it was free living. And while monetarily that is true, I was taxed in other ways; ways in which had I known I would have had to pay, I would have stayed away and skipped the whole situation.

Some good things developed from those two years however. My tolerance for religion in all its forms has multiplied a hundred-thousand fold. It will never daunt me again. Not that I was afraid, but you know how phobias are cured by prolonged exposure to the cause of the phobia? Like letting a hydrophobic person stand in water and gradually step deeper and deeper until they are no longer afraid of water. It was similar to that.

I had a concealable disdain for religion as a whole, but now it does not effect me as it once did. I could go to church every week with them with no effect-- other than losing the time in a day for something else, like reading (or flossing the cat, har har). I can see things from the religiose perspective now that I could not before.

When the Reverend Falwel said that homosexuals were an abomination to God, I could see how and why he would think that, and how and why he would be surprised when people tried to disagree. The Bible clearly says it is unacceptable, why is there even a discussion?

Perspective and Point of View are writing skills I have acquired over the years at college. It is much easier for me to put myself in their shoes, so to speak, than I could two years ago. For that I am thankful because it allowed me to wear the masks they carry.

But I will never forget how I was treated, what was said and the true nature of these masked people.

On a totally different note, I now live alone at the family cabin in running springs. I still communicate with my friends and family when I come down the mountain. (The cabin is without phone reception or internet access.) I will compile my writings up there, and when I arrive on Campus I will post them. I already have one: Day 1 at the cabin to be posted shortly after this one.

My Fiancee, hereto referred to as Loo, is joining me this weekend. It has been one week since I saw her, and I am very excited to see her, though I don't know what we will do to keep busy...

Horse power

I like horses. I know very little about them, but I like them a lot. I especially like it when horses can do things that machines can't. It seems to make everyone smile because of the old ways undertone. "See where technology has failed? See where the old ways triumph!"

So I found this video of a truck that got stuck in the snow. They tried to pull it out with another truck, and that one got stuck. As it turns out, they got stuck near a farm, and on that farm they had some horses E-I-E-I-O.

A pair of these heavy draft horses (Percheron maybe?) came down and were hooked to the truck. Than they were given the "Giddyup!" command and they pulled it from the snow with ease. The truck weighs around 2 tons, which is around 4000 pounds.

Here is the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq5dd7JLk1s&feature=related

I continued looking and found a video of heavy draft horses in a competition pulling 11, 000 pounds or five and a half tons. So a piddly little 2 ton truck was hardly a warm up.

I started doing some research to see just how much they could pull. Instead I found (ignorant) people talking about the horrible sport that is heavy draft horse pulling. Saying it isn't right to force them to a life of pulling stuff, and it isn't right to work them so hard etc. etc.

They like to pull. And for centuries they have been bred to do just that. Like a Retriever loves to retrieve, over and over and over, and a Pointer like to point, heavy draft horses like to pull. In fact if you watch some videos of these heavy horse pulls you can see them prance and dance before a pull because they are so excited.

I would watch a show that has an old school vs new skool technology vs horse kind of thing. Pulling stuff, carrying things etc. I think that would be fun. I find that people are drawn to that sort of thing and enjoy watching it. If I were a network exec. I would look into that because it strikes a chord with most people.