Archives: July 2008
Thu Jul 31, 2008
Ireland
Next month, I'm visiting my friend TR in Dublin. He's from Santa Cruz, and living abroad for a while. This month in Dublin. T and I travel well together, and since he has friends and family there this trip is pretty much unscheduled. No need for advance tour or hotel reservations. There are a few pagan sites to visit, like Brigit's Well but I'm looking forward to unscheduled time. So rare for me.
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Divorce
I rarely talk about my personal life in the blog, and lately I rarely post in it. But I thought I'd add an entry about my divorce, for those few random people who may read it and don't speak with me regularly. So, yes, I'm recently divorced. We didn't get around to doing the paperwork until recently, but the households are split up and the money is divided and the hard parts are likely past us. It won't be final for a few months, because breaking up a domestic partnership is legally the same as breaking up a marriage. One of the most important rights that legal marriage gives gay couples is recourse to the court system when we break up. We haven't used it it, but access to court justice is a right that none of us want, until we need it.
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Basin Fire Contained
The Basin Fire was contained 7/27. It burned 160,000 acres and cost $77 million to contain. I visited my friends on Partington Ridge on Saturday. Still as magical as ever, their little house in a green island, surrounded by a dozer line, and fire hoses still stacked on the porch. After a delightful picnic, we went down the mountain to a local's only party/fundraiser at Loma Vista, where I got to visit the paintings in Del Campo Gallery. More...
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Sat Jul 19, 2008
Santa Cruz is Still the Same
The Sentinel reports that a naked lady walked down Pacific last week and no one care.
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Wed Jul 09, 2008
Cooling Off
The Big Sur fire has turned the corner--at least on the populated western front. But it looks like most of the "back country" east of Big Sur village will burn. It will be a very different forest--for our lifetimes anyway. My friends have been able to return to their Partington Ridge home, but I haven't heard details yet.
The Boston Globe collected some amazing photographs of the California fires.
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Thu Jul 03, 2008
Summer of Fire
We've been able to keep track of the fire in Big Sur using internet tools we never dreamed of before. Google earth, combined with recreation map overlays, combined with twice-daily infrared satellite data.... wow. The story is horrible, but it is better to know what's happening. This way I don't need to bother my friends for news updates. More...
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Wed Jul 02, 2008
Circumperabulation of the Monterey Bay part 2
Previously, I posted about my walk from Capitola to Moss Landing. Last Sunday, the class continued, and we walked from Moss Landing to...well, we were supposed to walk to Monterey, but we only made it as far as Seaside. Why? Because the sand south of Moss Landing is completely different from the sand north of Moss Landing. Since geologist Gary Griggs, was one of the teachers, I know exactly why that is. More...
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Tue Jul 01, 2008
How Not to Do Tech Support
I love stories of poor support techs and ridiculous end users. "The Website is down" is a hilarious video that illustrates both.
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