Travel Days Today and Tomorrow -- Then Again Wednesday and Thursday Next Week

On the Road to Santa Fe

The whirlwind continues.

With gasoline approaching (and in some cases surpassing) $5.00 a gallon in California, with predictions of much higher prices before the month is out, it's prolly a good thing that I'm making a trip out to New Mexico today and tomorrow transporting a load of stuff to our place out there (meaning there will be less to transport when the Big Move happens) before it's just altogether too expensive.

It'll be hard coming back. But there's still a lot to do in CA before our final departure toward the end of the month.

There were times when we were mucking out the garage that we were nearly convinced it would never be done. There were several lifetimes of stuff in there, most of which we hadn't even been conscious of for years, had not looked at for decades. There's still one section of the garage that needs attention, along the south wall where there are shelves with boxes of who-knows-what from however-many-years-before.

So much of this project has been like an archaeological dig. For example, I came across this in a pile of random sweepings:

Post Card c. 1967

It's a postcard from the Summer of Love titled "The Hippies" published by Sea Cliff Press in 1967. The legend surrounding The Hippies may be hard to read for modern eyes, so I'll translate: "San Francisco Loves You." Of course. What else would it say?

I found this Polaroid snap of my father taken sometime in the late 1950's or early 1960's:

RJC at Dinner, c. 1950's-early '60's

It strikes me as highly characteristic and quite sad, for he is dressed impeccably, probably reading the evening papers, having his dinner in a hotel restaurant... all by himself. It was his way. And he was always nice to the waitresses.

Then there was this:

Iowa Landscape c. 1911

It's a watercolor done by my uncle Vincent. It's dated on the back August 26, 1911, when Vincent was 11 years old. The frame and glass were broken and it looked like animals had walked over part of the picture (the image above was too large for my scanner so I had to seam it, thus the line down the center.) But apart from some dust and dirt and discoloration, it's in OK shape. Surprisingly enough. I don't know whether it represents an actual farmstead or not. At the time, the family farm was still being operated, so it could be... then again, it seems vaguely imaginary.

I came across a number of my old paintings and renderings, a surprising number of them, since I thought they had almost all been given away or destroyed years ago.

In fact, there was so much history -- not just our personal history, but much family stuff from ages past. There was jewelry, there were hundreds -- probably thousands -- of photos, there were items of remembrance, there were odds and many ends, some of which made no sense at all, some of which were instantly evocative of people, places or interests from a lifetime, or several lifetimes. Lots of it we had no idea was there...

But enough reverie. Must pack and be on my way.