The Instructions

I'm reading a mammoth(ly good) book right now that keeps sending me to my journal to write down excerpts as devotions. This year has been so full of change for me -- the first half, painful, and now, the second half, exciting -- and so I am thinking a lot of the plans I made for myself and how they have changed. When I read this on the fire escape yesterday, I immediately climbed back into my apartment to write it down.

The passage before is about how in the Torah, Avram looked to the stars and saw that Avram would not have children with Sarai. What he didn't know is that God would change both their names, that at 99- and 89-years-old they would begin bearing children and become the Uber Patriarch and Matriarch for the rest of time. (In church when I was a kid, we sang a song that had a bunch of accompanying movements that went like this: "Father Abraham had many sons. Many sons had father Abraham. And I am one of them. And so are you. So let's just praise the Lord.")

Anyway, the excerpt:

"One wonders why, if the stars tell true stories, Avram did not, in the stars, read the story of his new name. It was surely there, the story of Avram's name being changed, but Avram on the ground did not see it. And so bearing in mind that his story was available and that he was capable of reading it, one can only conclude that he didn't find that story because he wasn't looking for that story."

- Adam Levin, The Instructions

Hyperlocal

Earlier this year, our newspaper switched to a hyperlocal focus. As a writer, it can have its drawbacks. But for me, those drawbacks are equaled out by the opportunities. It frees me up to go to things that just sound fun to me -- regardless of a news peg. Because of it, I've toured the waste water treatment plant, hung out at a Water Department tailgate party and watched a bunch of brainiac kids discuss animal sounds. This is not at all a bad way to make money. Plus, I can write them in a way I can't write news stories destined for the print paper. I try to make them like Talk of the Towns, if Talk of the Town ever covered the Oregon suburbs. Anyway, this photo is from the animal sounds at the library day.

Flying saucers

Earlier this week, I covered a disc golf championship for work. They players are easily the most welcoming interviewees I've ever met.

We come on the sloop john b

Here's a video I shot for the Oregonian. Thanks to Rob Finch, who edited it.

Abstract, in lyrics

My current brain/heart state:

Things ain't always set in stone [that being known, let me know]


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So it's better my sweet that we hover like bees 'cause there's no sure footing

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Hello to the era of going to the store to buy more ice because we are running out. Hello to feelings that arrive unintroduced. Hello to the nonfunctional sprig of parsley and the game of finding meaning in coincidence.

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And do I really have a hand in my forgetting?

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Souvenirs only reminded you of buying them

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Strap your hands across my engines

Pickled cherries

Ryan, Randi and I pickled cherries Sunday morning. We'll know next weekend how they taste. For now, here's what they looked like in transit.












And if you truly just cannot get enough pickle processing, you can watch the little video I put together from mine and Ryan's footage:

I set out to get you with a fine-tooth comb

I miss my friends

I wanna hurry home to you, put on a slow, dumb show for you, crack you up, so you can put a blue ribbon on my brain.

Desert Hearts

We went to the desert in Eastern Oregon

Extremities