Not Cranky

because my car is - new $200 battery good. A last bit of laundry and I'm off. I hope.

Cranky

Because my car isn't. Cranking, that is. Dead battery. Grr. It's only 7 months old. But I have let it run down three times including last night, when I apparently left the light on in the trailer after packing. And that will pretty much kill it. Which is probably why it won't take a jump from my battery starter.

(I haven't left K's house yet, so no worries that I'm stranded on the road somewhere.)

So I need a new battery. AAA would probably bring (sell) me one, but not the top of the line super expensive extreme usage one I've now decided I need, given the rough roads, trailer, and various electronic devices that I keep charging from the car - laptop, iphone, ipod. I'm looking at the Diehard Platinum, since it seems to get good reviews from users and I can get it at Sears. Once K gets home from the vet and can give me a ride...

So much for my tearful farewells and grand and glorious exit. I suck at letting go of things.

On the bright side, I got an oil change yesterday and Monday had a proportional brake controller installed in the car to run the trailer brakes when the car brakes. It's awesome, braking going downhill with the trailer feels much more secure.

So now I get a little more puppy time with my Bessame.

Shunpiking West

Heading west today, shunpiking as much as feasible. Shunpiking is my new word, traveling by avoiding freeways as much as possible. 

Everything is packed, and I'm filling up my water jugs with filtered water. Tonight's stop is supposed to have wifi, so I will have the internet for a couple of days and then probably be out of range for a week or so. 

Hasta luego San Antonio, K, W, S, Alice, Dinah, and Bess, the best puppy ever. Gracias por todo.

Progress in a forward direction

Productive, if exhausting day. 

Hot weather and I don't agree. 

Funny for someone who loves the desert as much as I do. 

I just like cool deserts. 

Replaced the plug from the trailer to the car. Took way more effort than it should have. But it works.

Acquired an electrical access door that should work as a small baggage door on the trailer, big enough to grab a can of soup through it. 

Desanded and repacked the car. Tomorrow the trailer. 

The hottest day so far.  Where are my mountains?

Tomorrow I'm off to Austin to pick up a shade awning at REI (Austin is the closest REI) and make a day trip to Pedernales State Park (a magical place).

And in other news, my traveling companion feels at home in San Antonio, and will be staying here when I move on in a few days. I will miss him, but am also excited at continuing my adventure on my own. It feels like the trip is beginning all over again. I am grateful beyond words for his presence and gentle assistance these past 6 months in wrapping up my past life and getting me on the road. He is my spirit brother for all time, and I am privileged to have him in my life. 

Photo Walk in Eisenhower Park

A day of flowering prickly pear:

(click the slideshow to see larger versions at picasaweb)

Another Constructive Day

Today I built a set of custom shelves for Susan's gallery. And forgot to take pictures. Maybe in a few days. Lazed about the rest of the afternoon and evening practicing drawing and drinking berry smoothies. mmm.

It's way too easy to hang out here. Time to hit the road soon. 

The Dog Days of Spring

I watch entirely too much TV when it is readily available.

I did install the dog door today. Dinah and Alice are old hands paws at it and adapted immediately. 

Bess was dubious. She pawed at it tentatively, sat down and whimpered. With much coaxing (verbal and gustatory) and a hand to hold open the flap she went through, but it took most of the day for her to finally come through on her own. The last straw was seeing KJ tossing the ball for Dinah in the backyard. Whatever it takes...

 

Wet

Buckets of rain

on a cool tin roof

My car is very clean now

Once again, I am the bringer of rain.

Had a Skype date with my sweet boy S

my faux-nephew

the three-year-old little dictator

and reminder

of all that is good

Another day of rest

It rained today so I don't have to wash the car.

Caught up on blogging,

went to the Texas Pastel Society show

where a painting of KJ won first prize in portraiture.

Congratulations, Susan!

An evening of Bones,  and CSI doing a Star Trek episode - bliss.

Day of Rest

rested

read

caught up on TV shows

- Castle, Bones, Fringe - 

(Hulu is the greatest)

Got new glasses - they're red!

Gifts from the sea

This morning the tide gifted us with much bracken

and many jellyfish.

No swimming today. (They sting.)

How's that for a tentacle?

We've had our fill

of the wind and sea and sun

and sand

everywhere

(though never of beauty)

Back to the city

to finish installing the dog door for KJ

and make a few mods

to Alicia -

fix the plug

that I did not seat firmly

and dragged on the road

until a third of it was rubbed away,

add two more baggage doors -

so we don't have to lift the bed

to get at the food,

devise an awning

and rework the bed pad

again

On the beach

We're out on the shore away from the campground

Texas beaches are considered roads

you can drive all 60 miles of beach down the island.

At 10mph, we drove 10.5 miles and stopped.

Far enough, I hoped, to be out of sight of others

staying the night

so I could swim naked in the sea.

 

And camping on the beach is free. 

No bath but the ocean

no drinking water but what you bring 

and all the dunes for a litter box

and still the constant wind.

Today the sun, at last, blistering.

We need an awning.

Sand gets in everywhere. 

Sanderlings skitter along the shore 

spending as much time chasing each other away as pursuing 

the delicacies each wave reveals.

Crabs scuttle about, redigging their sand dens

every time the turtle patrol dune buggy

or another fisher truck bounces over them.

No sea turtles yet, though we keep hoping.

This day for the first time begins to feel like I imagined this trip would be

not driving

just being

thinking

sorting

ruminating

playing

exploring

drinking in the wonders 

of the world

(even through my old spare glasses

that make me feel cross-eyed)

I haven't painted yet

too windy here

- my shade umbrella took off down the beach

acting as a sail skidding along the water

we had to run at top speed to chase it down

before Poseidon made off with that, too -

but I take pictures 

all the time

and try to remember the names of all the new birds we learned

Of all the birds I have seen here

I could want to be a brown pelican

unlike the whites

they get to dive

for food, and fly in formation

in snaking rollercoaster patrols,

or hang out on their own

versatile

adventurous

graceful

Poseidon is a lousy boyfriend; or, How I lost my glasses at the beach

Oh so seductive

with his pounding surf

and come-hither waves

Once you're in

he tries to rip your clothes off

then he steals your stuff

then he throws you out.

(Never turn your back upon a wave.)

Now I imagine him 

riding along in his chariot

with my coolest glasses ever 

perched upon his nose

*shrug*

I needed new ones anyway...

Tern, Tern, Tern

We took the birding tour of Padre Island offered by two National Park volunteers, Mary and George. 

We saw 49 species that morning, a respectable start on a life list. 

(I think I just became a birder.) 

Caspian Tern

Sandwich Tern

Royal Tern

Laughing Gulls that sound like hyenas

Ring-billed Gulls

the return of the pinkies (the Franklin Gull migration)

herons and egrets and shore birds abounding

a scissors-tailed flycatcher

even a broken UFO

(an unidentified floating object)

actually escape pods for the oil rigs

the tide brings in astonishing amounts of large junk

from hurricane debris

ships that sank

waves sweeping over bows

and general trash

the dump was full so they piled it here

for now

oh, and pelicans!

white and brown, a self-appointed shore patrol

looking for fish guts to recycle.

Windy Afternoon

Later we nap, sunburnt, salty

then meet our chatty neighbors

their family and foreign exchange students

from Kyrgystan and Bangladesh

lend them a lighter for their stove

and try out KJ's stove with Mom's 

propane tank - works great!

ramen and fresh broccoli and baby corn for dinner.

towels and clothes still not dry

though they hung all afternoon 

in the constant wind

the wet salt wind

that plumps my skin and curls my hair

wildly

into tendrils

worthy of Medusa.

This wind, it almost drowns out

the generators on the other side of -

the tent? the Alite, the trailer - 

she needs a name, not a category

she is developing a personality.

The Jeep has a name - Norbert

our home needs a name too.

So we call her Alicia, with Spanish pronunciation, 

our treehouse, our fort, our shelter from the mist.

The Ocean!

Now I know

why horses pull

Poseidon's chariot

not dolphins

Dolphins are too smooth too sleek, slipping in and out of the water 

moving between earth and sky with ease and grace

These cresting waves carve out the fabric

of space

countless hooves sculpt

the water

slash the air

flatten the earth

to make way for their God

they crash over me

trampling past and future to 

sand and salt and spray

pounding eternity into one moment of

shock

and joy

I leap 

to meet the wave and hang

suspended 

between earth and air

entirely 

at the mercy

of the sea

entirely

at rest

Padre Island National Seashore

Late this morning

finally finished

the bed frame

the cut pads - 

jettisoning one

because the tape split

and I don't want to deal with it now.

Cans of food squirreled away

inventoried

waiting for KJ to come home

and tell us where the stove is.

Late now, the office

will be closed

by the time we get there.

We leave anyway

down to Corpus Christi

following the signs.

The hut is closed

the gate is open

we turn into the first campground we see

Bird Island Basin

pull up next to an RV bigger

than some apartments

I've had.

Late night run to the outhouse

the brilliant full moon

spills enough light

to read by. 

Repacking Redux

New bin has been acquired

and too much food

the spare trailer tire

fits nicely under

the propane tank

the latest repacking is close to done

I got too much sun today

and Padre Island beckons

tomorrow

Artful

Finished the decklet railing, and went to two museums today. (It was free day for both). 

We walked into the San Antonio Museum of Art and there was an organ concert going on - so we got to hear the Bach Toccata and Fugue and Liszt's variations on the notes B-A-C-H (H is B natural, as it turns out; B is B-flat). Gorgeous. 

And then lots of large scale contemporary paintings including some giant botanical paintings that redefine the genre, and a lot of contemporary Latin American paintings that I adored. My brain is full.

Really tired now. 

Drilling for snake oil

I almost bought a gallon of emu oil today. 

Reason prevailed, and I only ordered 4oz. 

Drilled three holes in the tongue of the trailer so I could attach the hitch platform. My cordless drill performed admirably with the aid of a new 7/16" titanium drill bit and a great deal of water. 

Also applied rust converter to various spots on the car, sanded the new boards for the beds in the trailer, and (gulp) cut the double giant thermarest in half and taped the edge with Gorilla Tape to seal it, to make two separate pads. 

Pix and further explanations tomorrow. Star Trek is on.

Sunday Culture

Free Day at the McNay

Art for the masses

towering spindly cypresses

Monet

sunprints

stairway to friendship

courtyard of dreams

electric medusa

faces of women in stone

in clay

in paint

an unknown flower

(more pix in this slideshow)

an excursion to the San Antonio Art League to see

a friend win an award for this painting

and two dozen more free sf books loaded into my iPhone...

a very fine day.

One in Tamillian

Where did the day go? 

sleeping late to make up

for the hours of heartburn

in the middle of the night

after ingesting an entire 

batch of brownie mix

(SO much better unbaked...)

then hours spent with head in internets

searching out the history 

of the Tamils 

in Southern India

fascinating

must find more

sidetracked into ogg

and Safari's refusal to play 

the sound files for the tutorials I found

*grr*

so courtesy of Amazon

Learn Tamil in 30 Days is on its way here

(I love the internet)

A constructive day

KJ now has most of a new back decklet and stairs, the first step to making the dog door a reality. I ran out of screws, and still need to trim the side and figure out the railing.  With some coaxing (bacon treats) the dogs were persuaded that this was an acceptable way of getting into the backyard. Bess promptly ate my carpenters pencil. It's a good thing for her she's so adorable. 

Construction with dogs is a balancing act. 

Throw the ball

drill some holes

throw the ball

set some screws

shut them in the house 

cut some wood

with the borrowed circular saw

(I knew I should have brought mine)

at least I have my drill

I can't imagine life

even on the road

without a cordless drill

Is a rose by any other name cultural appropriation?

I've been reading and thinking a lot about cultural appropriation lately, kicked off in particular by the - phenomenon? series of unfortunate events? interesting and ultimately productive discussion despite many derailments? - known as Racefail '09 over the last few months. Came across this article related to the Burning Man festival, an event I have considered attending. Much food for thought here. 

Only in the last few days have I realized level of cultural appropriation involved in my name, my last name in particular. Some 20 years ago when I was young, with a nascent feminist consciousness, a desire to separate myself from my past and my family, and a longstanding interest in ancient religions and a new interest in ancient goddesses in particular, I decided to change my name. Partly to create a new persona to replace the self I thought could not survive, and partly because I did not want to wear my father's name. (My family understood my reasons; that's a whole other story, for another day.) 

After much 'research' into books like The Dictionary of Goddesses and Heroines and The Women's Book of Myths and Secrets, I decided on the name I have now, Tanith Katja Korravai. (Hey, it was almost Maya Hekat). 

Tanith was the sky goddess of ancient Carthage. I have always loved the sky, and as a Classics major, with a particular fondness for the story of Dido and Aeneas, I felt that the historical name of Dido's goddess (referred to as Juno in the Aeneid) fit more than any other.  At the time, I was only aware of one other person named Tanith, the science fiction and fantasy author Tanith Lee. There are more now, including an Olympic ice dancer. The goddess Tanith (Tanit, Tanit pene Baal) has not been actively worshipped for upwards of 2 millennia to my knowledge, and I don't know of anyone who might be even vaguely offended by my use of it. (The brief summary of Carthaginian religion on Wikipedia is consistent with my knowledge from my long ago classical studies, for those who are interested.)

Katja is my mother's name.

Korravai is another story. At the time I found only one brief reference to her as a Dravidian warrior goddess. That's it. Pre-internet, finding information on obscure ancient goddesses was more difficult than now, and even with the resources of the UC Berkeley library available to me (via a friend who was actually enrolled; I was only ever a summer student there *sigh*; I loved that school...) I could find no other reference to her, not that I looked that hard. I wanted a name that was meaningful to me but obscure enough that no one else would be likely to have any associations with it. Korravai met those criteria and I liked the sound of it. And that was that. 

Until the concept of cultural appropriation came into my consciousness and I started thinking about my name. Unlike Tanith, I know nothing about the goddess Korravai or the culture in which she was significant. That now feels disrespectful, and thanks to the internet, I can begin to remedy this ignorance. (I've worn this name for over 25 years now, and I feel no desire to change it; if it actively offended anyone I know I'd consider it, but none of the (East) Indian people I've known have ever heard of the name. Then again, I've never been to Southern India, so I have no idea how Korravai figures in contemporary Indian culture, if at all.) 

Over the next year I will track down all the information I can reasonably access on the history and culture of the people who worshipped Korravai, her stories and their connections to other myths. It seems the least I can do to honor the goddess and her people for the meaning I've taken from that name for all of my adult life.

Script Frenzy

The Office of Letters and Light, who brings us the glorious madness known as NaNoWriMo each November, also gives rise to the dramatic equivalent Script Frenzy in the month of April. 

Which I have decided to try for the first time. So I am writing a screenplay. It is based on a vignette that I came up with a while back that still sticks in my mind, called The Hairbrush, though I don't know where it is going yet. But there seem to be aliens involved. Stay tuned. 

NaBloPoMo

KJ just told me about NaBloPoMo - National Blog Posting Month. 

All you have to do is post every day for a month. Maybe that will help keep me on track... anyone care to join me? Even if it does sound like mushy fruit...