October

Views of Tacoma


The Puget Sound from 30th Street hill (looking North towards Seattle.)





Ruston Way in the Spring.





The Tacoma Narrows.




The 'Tilted Cone' at the Museum of Glass.





Inside the cone (a hot shop for glass blowing.)





Sunrise over Commencement Bay.

Muriel (my mother)



Born: June 25 1919, San Francisco
Died: May 15, 2009, Medford, Oregon

'Grandfather Cuts Loose the Ponies'

That's the name of the sculpture of 15 wild horses atop a small hill overlooking the Columbia river in Washington that I came upon on my trip last year to attend a wedding in Omak. David Govedare meant to capture the spirit of a time when horses freely roamed the West, and from near or far, these rusting steel ponies testify to his success.

old joe running with the horses.

Jeffrey Cobb Ewing

Jeffrey Cobb Ewing



Born - February 10, 1974 Carmel, CA

Died - May 10, 1990 Santa Cruz, CA



Cobb’s Solo

After finding the clarinet much too difficult an instrument to play, Cobb settled on the crash cymbals, an appropriate choice for the lad, as his simplicity and straightforwardness belied the impact he made on all who had the good fortune to know him. At the age of twelve he was in his junior high school band, and as we were getting dressed for the annual concert the children were giving that evening, he came to me and said that he was very nervous about performing.

"Don't worry, son, you'll do great".

"But I have a solo!"

I didn't understand.  He played the crash cymbals.

"A solo?" 

"Well", he said, "It's only one note."

I've been lucky in my career as a draftsman to have worked on some interesting projects, and not the least of which was the Carmel Mission Basilica in Carmel, California. In preparation of Pope John Paul II's visit in 1987, when he said Mass and laid a wreath at the grave of Father Junipero Serra, a loft was designed at the rear of the church to support an organ, and I had the distinction of drawing the structural plans for same. It was fascinating working with very old plans--24" thick adobe walls are something I usually don't deal with.

Coincidently, until about 1964, when I was a practicing Catholic and prior to becomming a Baha'i, I used to attend Mass there, and more often than not, I stood at the back of the Basilica beneath the spot the loft would eventually occupy.

Dance Hall at Arles

*

Dance Hall at Arles –Vincent Van Gogh

The last dance at the Mountaineers Club, just down the street from the Space Needle in Seattle was held on Halloween, and I’m sure by now the wrecking ball has leveled the place to make way for the tower of condominiums planned for the site.


Last Dance in the Cascade Room

The place had a special significance for me, as I spent many hours on that hardwood floor dancing West Coast Swing.

Can you guess what this is?

I'm not sure whether it's the beauty of the machine, or the adventure I had every time I fired up my '84 FLH, but I want this Softail Deluxe.

All things considered, it aint gonna happen!

A Good Place to Start. *
This is a wonderful painting by S.C. Yuan of the Monterey Bay as seen from Carmel Hill. The significance of the place and the artist to my experience is extraordinary. Certainly most important to me is the fact that both my children were born on that hill near that spot. It is also the place where I officially declared myself a Bahá'í in the year 1968.

Coincidentally, in 1966, I was taking a geology class at Monterey Peninsula College, and when returning from a field trip to Point Lobos, one little man in the car proclaimed, as we crested the hill, "This looks exactly like my homeland!" I asked where that was, and he replied that it was Haifa, Israel.

How could I possibly know that 24 years later, on my Bahá'í pilgrimage, when standing atop Mount Carmel in Haifa, I would exclaim: "this looks exactly like my homeland!"













Haifa, Israel