edelweiss pirate

I have been eating nuts and vegetables up in the cabin all week....

uberblond — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:55:33 -0400

I have been eating nuts and vegetables up in the cabin all week. Get in my mother effin’ belly!!!!

Big roads, big desert, big sky

uberblond — Thu, 23 May 2013 14:26:30 -0400

Big roads, big desert, big sky

daft punk + soul train footage. oh yes, this made my morning.

uberblond — Thu, 23 May 2013 11:43:00 -0400

daft punk + soul train footage.

oh yes, this made my morning.

the wind has been whipping for two days now. it’s persnickety - it rushes by, enraged, and...

uberblond — Wed, 22 May 2013 23:58:00 -0400

the wind has been whipping for two days now. it’s persnickety - it rushes by, enraged, and then backs off, on and off all day. it’s not driving me crazy… yet.

the marine helicopters are always buzzing back and forth. every once in a while there is a large distant roar, much too big to come from a helicopter, from the mountains behind the mountains in the distance. our military industrial complex in full effect I guess.

my hands and face and arms are turning brown like my father’s. no burns, no pinks or red, just brown onion skin layers piling up day after day. I don’t remember much of my Opa, but I do remember him lying in the sun for hours when I was young. this was an old German man that would never be so frivolous to change into swim trunks for these front yard sessions; instead he would lay shirtless in his everyday trousers, the waist cinched tight with a belt. he used to say in his German accent that the Vitamin D was good for you. his skin was so deeply pigmented, dark from those hours. if only he could see me now…

"today I took my Google Glass out today on my afternoon stroll. the next few posts are the fruits of..."

uberblond — Tue, 21 May 2013 21:18:00 -0400

“today I took my Google Glass out today on my afternoon stroll. the next few posts are the fruits of my Glass labor… or something like that.”

I’m such a Heidi.

uberblond — Tue, 21 May 2013 21:17:00 -0400

I’m such a Heidi.

abandonment in the desert. just a few things from my walk this...

uberblond — Tue, 21 May 2013 21:12:01 -0400

abandonment in the desert. just a few things from my walk this afternoon.

rocks rocks rocks

uberblond — Tue, 21 May 2013 21:00:54 -0400

rocks rocks rocks

the sandy, desert roads.

uberblond — Tue, 21 May 2013 20:47:00 -0400

the sandy, desert roads.

That little yellow CentUp button...

uberblond — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:39:23 -0400

My friend @LenKendall has an awesome idea, I’ve implemented it on this blog and would love for you to get inspired and use it.

Basically, the idea is this:

Bloggers are always trying to figure out how to make money off of their idea, time, writing and content. Personally, I think it’d be sweet to get some money from this blog but I would hate the idea of ads cluttering up this space so I’ve always just left it clean.

People like reading this stuff and if you like it, and want to toss some coin my way (I’ll gratefully use it for gas for the truck or the motorcycle), then I’d like to share that money with a charity. Because that’s a nice thing to do.

So at the bottom of my pages is a CentUp button. To use it you need to sign up at at the CentUp site and then anytime you read something on here that you think is dope and want to monetarily say “hell yeah” to, click it, give some coin and 45% goes to me, 45% goes to my charity of choice and 10% goes to the lovely people at CentUp.

In the spirit of honesty and love, I’m doing this not because I can’t feed the Black Wolf (the truck) or Brünnhilde (the moto), but because I am lucky to have two good groups of friends:

Len and company are thinking of more interesting and better ways for people on the web to interact with one another and with the charities they feel good about. And because there are bloggers that need the coin and I’m happy to help normalize a new way for them to get it.

Adam and company started my chosen charity, Pencils of Promise, a few years back and I’ve always been über-impressed with the work they’re doing around the world to get kids educated.

So show some CentUp love, whether it’s here or somewhere else.

Now back to the desert…

this has been my sunset song of the last few nights. dramatic,...

uberblond — Mon, 20 May 2013 22:50:41 -0400

this has been my sunset song of the last few nights. dramatic, emotional and no one sings it like Madame Callas. gets me every time.

The magic hour.

uberblond — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:38:50 -0400

The magic hour.

"i was in a store today and thought to myself, “man, the sun really beats people up..."

uberblond — Mon, 20 May 2013 15:55:06 -0400

“i was in a store today and thought to myself, “man, the sun really beats people up here.” and then five minutes later I caught my reflection in a mirror. pot, kettle and all that jazz.”

first light.

uberblond — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:06:18 -0400

first light.

my favorite time of day here is from late afternoon onwards, when the sun starts to relax and...

uberblond — Sun, 19 May 2013 23:42:00 -0400

my favorite time of day here is from late afternoon onwards, when the sun starts to relax and everything begins to exhale.

most afternoons I take a walk. I like that I can still feel the heat on my skin but I’m not getting fried, I like stopping to touch a hard shrub and turn stones over in my hand. I wander out, I usually sit on a rock or under a Joshua Tree, I watch meaty Marine military helicopters fly right over me, going to and fro from the base a few miles north. I see jack rabbits and birds, lizards swish through the sand.

besides the helicopters, which don’t feel very human to me, there are reminders of people everywhere - trash and cans, today I came across a turned over couch and a smashed out computer screen. but somehow, maybe because the sun has beat the color and life out of these objects, maybe because they’re turning the dull beige or burnt rust color of the rocks they sit among, they grotesquely belong - I oddly feel that they have suffered in the heat and therefore have earned their spot.

I love the sunsets here. Save for one night that a few wispy clouds made streaks of vibrant blood orange, the sunsets are clean, a simple dense orb descending through an empty sky. As the sun falls, the bushes and shrubs that have seemed so bleak all day in the direct light suddenly burst to life and glow bright greens and pinks. The surrounding mountains relax from the screaming browns of the daytime to their gentle milk blue colors of night.

The sun sets here at 7:30, 10:30 New York time. I think of New York cloaked in night but still electric buzzing. And I look around me and this pastel egg that I’m on the inside of I can hardly believe we’re on the same planet or country.

Today the wind blew most of the day but for the sunset everything quieted. It’s a relief when the winds dies down, it makes me stop worrying that I’m in danger of sharing the fate of the Plains homesteaders that went mad from the howling. I put on Maria Callas and let her be the soundtrack tonight. No sound save for her. It was a nice goodbye to the day.

Photo

uberblond — Sat, 18 May 2013 20:57:53 -0400

moto nation

uberblond — Sat, 18 May 2013 20:56:00 -0400

I’m learning one thing quite quickly out here: when you ride a moto, you have a army of eyes, hands and brains looking out for you.

four things today: as I posted about a moment ago, two fellow riders went out of their way to help me get the right tool today to fix my bike. then I ate breakfast at a diner where another rider took the time to give me some tips on riding in sand and a few routes to try while I’m in the area. off to the Harley dealership where the local HOG chapter leader helped my plot the best, most picturesque route home while keeping my limited gas tank (and the long desert stretches) in mind. 20 miles later I pulled over at an exit ramp on the interstate to latch down a saddlebag strap that came loose; a guy that was exiting rolled down his window to double check that I was okay and see if I needed any help.

I feel like increasingly we’re told that we should distrust people and that people aren’t good to one other. and no, I’m not saying we should be all pollyanna and stupid about strangers and situations. but these encounters weren’t because it was a special day or because I had signed up to the “help dumb Heidi as she learns the ropes of motorcycling” charity event, it’s just how these people operate. and I just had to be open to them in return and suddenly my whole day got bigger and better.

lordy lordy

uberblond — Sat, 18 May 2013 18:32:00 -0400

what a morning.

The cabin is about two miles, maybe a little less, from a paved road. Between that road and the cabin is a sand road. Not a dirt road, a sand road. And just to make it interesting, it’s a sand road that has hills and ruts and rocks and stuff. It’s totally awesome.

This morning I’m going down the hill, balancing gravity’s desire to play with Brünnhilde and the delicate balance of going fast but not too fast when I had the bike go too slow just as it hit a pile of sand (the sand kinda piles up around the edges of the ruts of the trucks that have gone before).

And the bike was down. Goddammit.

Miraculously, it landed on an upslope and I was able to get it up right away by myself. And because we weren’t going fast and landed in sand, it was fine.

But then I started the bike without putting it in neutral.

It bucked like bull and went down again. This time not so prettily. The position wasn’t as good, the handlebar took the weight (thank god I have saddlebags on right now - they act as cushions on the side so the engine and back of the bike don’t hit ground).

I strip down to my tank, boots and jeans and plant my ass in the sand and try the technique to get it up. But I’m on sand, on a slope and it’s not working. 15 minutes of me barking at myself “you can DO this” and trying, to no avail.

It’s hard to explain but I finally got it up by spinning the bike, using hill and lifting it using gravity and a squat while gripping the sissy bar. I’m not even sure how I did that but I did and that’s all I care about.

It’s up but now I have a twisted clutch that makes clutch control VERY difficult. And I didn’t have my tools. So down the hill I continued (I wasn’t even half way when I went down) twisting my wrist every which way to do the clutch thing. Not fun. Not safe.

I ride to Home Depot. It’s 7:30 in the morning. Thank god it’s open.

I go in and just stare at the tools. For like, 20 minutes. I can’t find anyone to help me. Finally I buy something that I think will loosen the bolts.

Of course it’s the wrong tool.

I go back in to return the tool and leave, thinking I need to drive 40 miles with a eff’ed up clutch to the dealership to get something fixed that is seriously elementary. I’m walking out, feeling tired and dejected, and these two olds guys stop me.

Them: “Hey is that your bike? You ride? It’s a great bike.”

Me: “Can you help me?”

Five minutes later I had the right tool. Ten minutes later the bike was fixed. Fifteen minutes later, as I looked at the mountains that I was roaring towards, I finally exhaled and thanked my lucky stars for giving me exactly what I needed when I needed it.

Feeling blessed today. (and tired)

There are angels in this world. (More on that later)

uberblond — Sat, 18 May 2013 11:16:07 -0400

There are angels in this world.
(More on that later)

"it seems entirely appropriate and yet entirely odd that the two groups that inhabit this kind of..."

uberblond — Fri, 17 May 2013 19:47:50 -0400

“it seems entirely appropriate and yet entirely odd that the two groups that inhabit this kind of world are hippies and the military.”