Josh really loves this candle...

Sherlock Tim? 

do you like my pink backpack? 

...and move into my new place in Pasadena! 

just in time for me to leave Solstice...

the road... it's.... PAVED! 

Pasadena?

it looks like i may have found a place to live in Pasadena... we will see.

Everything is changing..

So, it seems like big things are happening to almost everyone i know right now. Julie B just moved, Julie C just got a new job, Dave has moved to so-cal for the time being, Rachel is in Equador, Eli has moved to Atlanta.. i could go on and on here. Well, now it is my turn to drastically change my life... i have been offered a job in the Angeles National Forest. It is a GS-9 position.. temporary but likely to be upgraded to term or possibly permanent over time. It is also a big change from what i have been doing, which is a good thing. But, unfortunately, this leaves me less than 2 weeks to find a new place to live... and i will be working most of that time. It will be interesting to say the least. Luckily, the duty station i am likely to have will be very close to Burbank and other areas with abundant apartments. I might just say hell with it and live right in the middle of that big glob of urbanity. You know.. up until recently i always said i disliked cities but really, i never have lived in one. Torrance is more of just a sprawling mess. Maybe i will like it.

In the least, it is centrally located and close to my friends. I will be able to do things on weeknights again. As for the job itself, i will be a general botanist, and will be roaming the area near Mt Wilson performing various surveys. There will be new plants, new canyons to explore, new people to talk to. It will be great.

So i have a new car, and will soon have a new apartment and a new job. New friends will be sure to follow as well... and i will also be closer to some old friends. All i have to do is find a new girl and i will have just about anything i need.

I am very excited about it all but also quite stressed. Well, i am sure it will work out.

On a side note, there are some indications it will be an early fall... and perhaps that there will be an early start to the rainy season as well. It is too early to say for sure, and most predictions of weather beyond 5 days or so tend to be wrong... But if these indications are right, it is likely that some of the 'dry' creeks will have been flowing all year, and some of the drought-deciduous plants will have never dropped their leaves.

Then again, another possibility is a mild early fall storm followed by a wicked santa ana and abundant fires.

Katrina Chaos

180 mph winds, tornados, 23 foot storm surges, and busting levees are pretty damned frightening. But unfortunately, even these things are not as disturbing as what we see when the hurricane blows away the covering of ignorance and denial surrounding our country... it is not pretty. Everyone is bringing politics into this, of course. I am not a big fan of Bush but in my opinion this stretches way beyond him. It is pathetic that in the most powerful country in the world, thousands of people are left to die in a storm experts have been predicting the eventual occurrence of for decades. And it's not too hard to see the demographics of who is being abandoned.

I just hope it all ends soon. This will turn out to be the worst US natural disaster in terms of human life and lost infastructure since the earthquake that utterly destroyed san francisco in 1906. The death toll and damage to the economy is likely to make september 11th, 2001 look like a pleasant sunny day.

As always, it is important to enjoy our lives because we are priveliged to not be faced with what these people have to deal with. I have a new job, a new car, and will soon have a new place to live as well. My family and friends are, for the most part, doing well. I just hope things get better for people on the Gulf Coast

Judy left the dorm this morning and will be moving to Seattle next week . This is the cover of the mix cd i made her. 

here's a picture of a thunderstorm over Arizona 

I doubt anyone who reads this lives on the Gulf Coast, but if you do... i wish you luck. This thing is one of the largest hurricanes on record and it is heading straight for New Orleans at the moment. Hopefully it will weaken a bit.. but even if it does, it will still be an incredibly strong storm. Sadly, there are lots of poor people in that city who can't even leave... 

so the other day i went on an eye- lazer shooting rampage in Malibu... 

driving home there were many happy cows in the unusually-green high desert grassland. This picture and the ones below it were all taken by Julie from her camera... mine from my camera will be posted later. 

Prescott 

our last campsite.. a free 'dispersed' campsite outside of Prescott... (basically a large turnout where we pulled off a dirt road to camp) 

the bark of an 'alligator juniper' 

cacti and a thunderstorm 

hug a cactus! 

if you look closely you can see water pouring down from the top of the bridge onto the rocks below.