I churned out most of the July newsletter for International Medical Outreach this evening. I'm thinking about posting the articles here once I am satisfied with the final form. Why not? I am still trying to figure out what a weblog is really good for.

We returned from a week of medical missions work in and near Iquitos, Peru a couple of weeks ago. I seem to be the official spokesman, since no one else seems to be interested in participating in writing up the report, or contributing articles to the newsletter.

Just as well ;-P

A news story about Summerhaven rebuilding plans: 6-30 azstarnet

Too late for thoughts...spent all my time this evening reformatting my blog page. Nothing worse to me than to have to use a template that everyone's uncle is using. So it's ugly. At least it's unique. And it's a start.

And if by some wild hairy chance you should happen to stumble upon this drivel, now there is a link to tell me about it.


Na Pali Coast, from our recent trip to Kaua'i

There's a pall across Tucson this morning. Like Mt. Doom casting it's shadow across Middle Earth.

Looking at the fire map, it appears that virtually everything that didn't burn in last year's Bullock Fire has now been burned. The only thing left is a strip from the vicinity of Spencer Canyon, to Palisades. They are talking about how forest thinning efforts slowed or minimized damage to certain areas of the mountain.

Funny how they can come up with tens of millions to fight the fire, but could't come up with a million or so to finish the thinning job they started around Summerhaven.


Updated Tucson Citizen gallery

Well I have been licked!

Quite thoroughly, I must say...or at least my beard.

My little cat Jasmine, annoyed again that I take such poor care of my fur (by her standards anyway), felt compelled to attempt to lick it back into order again.

It does seem to be sticking in odd directions lately. I wonder why...

Weblogs?
Where did this concept come from? The net keeps getting vaster and somehow I miss big pieces of it, almost right under my nose. Books have been written and somehow I was only peripherally aware. I suppose that's a consequence of not living online, though there have been times when it seemed like I did. I've been a forum lizard a few times, for months at a time. Somehow I manage to pull out and return to reality.

But this weblog concept? I'm too lazy to research, so I'll speculate instead. It seems to be based on the idea of news pages designed for specific content, such as a particular software title, or some specific subject matter, extended to the specific subject matter of one's own mundane existence. Just browsing a few random blogs, many of them strike me somewhat akin to masturbating in the window (like, "do we really need to see this...?") My God, how banal!

Or is that, somehow, the idea?

It does seem to be a form of exhibitionism. Despite my reticent nature, I am also paradoxically something of an egotist and exhibitionist. So maybe that explains the odd attraction.

So out of the blue comes the thought, "I need to start my own weblog." What the...? Where did that come from? And why? But here it is. Post numero uno. Now the rest of the world gets the joy of being subjected to my random musings, not just my lovely and longsuffering esposa.

So what's on my mind? The Aspen fire. Burned one of my favorite places. I am sick at heart. The photos are almost too much to bear. I used to go up there at least a couple times a year, and the Cookies and Cabins snack shop and Living Rainbow Gift Shop were the highlight. The last time was shortly after the Bullock Fire last year. We sat on the patio outside Cookies and Cabins, snarfing a fresh plate-sized chocolate chip cookie, enjoying some musicians playing on the patio. It was an absolutely beautiful summer afternoon. Later we browsed the gift shop. I liked their incense selection; it's like nothing I had seen available down here in the valley. Now it's all an ashen wasteland.



I comfort myself with the thought that the forest should begin to renew itself in a few years, with aspens replacing the stands of pine at first. And everyone talks about rebuilding. But will the quaintness return? How long before gorgeous summer afternoons on the patio outside Cookies and Cabins return? Will the gift shop rebuild? If so, how do you rebuild character that took decades to develop?

It makes me ill at heart. Where was the aggressive forest thinning program after the Bullock Fire? Excuses excuses is all I hear. Damn the enviros anyway. Supposedly had nothing to do with delaying this project, but how many Forest Service resources are tied up, used up in dealing with litigation from those idiots anyway? Maybe some of those millions could have been better spent to save Summerhaven.

Extreme late update: article here