I’m an admitted collectiholic, but there is no 12 step program for one such as me. It may be from having depression era parents who were savers and never threw anything out that had a hint of future usefulness. It is a philosophy that suits me, and spills over into everything I do.
If I have two of something, it begins to look like a collection and I end up with 15 t-pots, or 5,000 magazines. (You think I’m kidding.)
The problem comes when you run out of room. I have a wall of shelves in by office. Every picture album, every vacation scrapbook, albums of the features I had published, souvenirs, nick-knacks. Then over the albums, I place wall hangings because there is no room left on the walls to hang anything. I have 15 pieces, paintings and artifacts of some type hanging on the wall of my office.

No matter how narrow a wall might be, it has something on it, like these beaded rings from my trip to Africa.

If there is a wall, it is filled from floor to ceiling. And, I love and enjoy my treasures. And for many years, with growing children, I resorted to easier to store items made of paper. Just yesterday, while assembling  several different stamp collections to go to the thrift store, I found  notes that made me laugh:
HANZOFF!  Or I’ll sic my dirty P.E. clothes on you-they walk under their own power.

and:  Mary kenny hitted me   sally and kris wont play with me.
Silly stuff.

And, I’ve kept my mother’s name collection. She would sit with her cup of coffee in the morning and read the paper. Her rule was to only collect names of people whose last name was an adjective, verb or noun. Like Earl Silver, Rita House, Cathleen Clinker, Susanne Doubled. It had to be spelled correctly.  Then she expanded it to humorous name juxtapositions like: Mrs. Rum divorced her husband and assumed her maiden name, of Selma Sober. Warren Nipple married Carla Breast. Jean Sucker married Roscoe Candybar.  Dr. Michael Fox is an animal psychologist. I put it out for the thrift store, but took it back. Who would want something like that? She has a couple thousand names in her book. I finally decided nobody would want it and I loved her beautiful writing and took it back. See?  Downsizing is tough for some of us.

My entire brick wall has pictures of birds on it.

My son, Doug, built me five floor to ceiling cases to hold my magazine collection. I had to take a pick-up load of magazines to the dump. I’ve had guests who remove and examine every magazine.

I have plenty offers of help. People who say, I’ll help you. If you haven’t used it in a year, its time to get rid of it. OMIGOD. I shudder and quake at the thought. But, I know it is freeing and that my kids have warned me, “we are just gonna toss this stuff.”

It is painful and conversely freeing to get rid of  “stuff”. Jim estimates 5 years. I’m hoping for two.
It is something I have to do and can enjoy my stuff one last time before it gets tossed

OUR LOCAL TREASURE.

A week ago, Friday, a group of us  met at Murphys Pizza Plus to celebrate Paul Moeller. While there are many things to treasure here, Paul  is considered by the community to be “Our Local Treasure.”  Like a blogger, he always has his camera and takes pictures wherever he goes, a lifelong habit.  But his major accomplishment, among many, since retiring here in 1964, is having founded Public Access Television in 1983.  Our Board of Supervisors didn’t know what Public Access was. He had to educate  them before we could get consideration in the cable contract for channel access.  Paul  got a studio built in 1992 when we had no money.  And he produced over 3,000 shows for Calaveras Community Television, Public Access.  Except for studio equipment, those shows have been shot and edited on his own equipment.  I’m proud to say, I am one of the founding members of CCTV.

I wrote the reason for our celebration on the Pizza Parlor’s blackboard.  The mortgage on our  studio, named for him, has been paid off.  None of the counties around, Amador, Tuolumne, not the big cities closest to us, Modesto or Stockton, have a studio.  Only Sacramento has a studio. Our studio is considered the Jewel of the Mother Lode. We’ve had offers to rent it from Reno, Tahoe, Lodi and other entities. Claveras High School, and Columbia College at one time held video classes there. It is an exclusive and valuable asset to our community, just like Paul.

In 1992, Paul went to the carpentry class at Calaveras High and asked if our non-profit, CCTV raised the money, could the class build us a studio? Yes!  The class started the foundation upon Paul’s design and volunteer Betty Deakin’s professional drawing.  But then, school was out, and the kids and teachers all went home. Did I mention that Paul has a fierce work ethic, he is impatient and likes to get things done now?

Paul spoke to local Supervisor Dick Gorden and he said, “You know, we need a studio. Do you know anyone who could help us?”  Gorden knew Contractor Gary Hensley, who was trying to keep his crew working when work was slow. Hensley’s first question was:  “How much do you pay your people?”  Paul told him, we are all volunteers,  we pay nothing. “How about programs, and  mileage and gas and stuff like that”  Paul repeated, nothing, we don’t get mileage or gas, or video tapes. Everyone volunteers and pays for everything including their own cameras and equipment.  We pay nobody. Hensley was in.  With promise of help, the bank gave us a loan for $84,000 for materials, at 12% interest, secured by the County from funds from the Cable Company designated for Public Access.  Hensley is the guy in the center in the white shirt with his crew around him taking a break. Paul is videotaping.

The crew would come in at 6 a.m. and work half a day for us, then go to their paid job for the rest of the day. Our only cost was to bring a load of volunteers to unload lumber, have it ready for them, provide water and bring a picnic lunch for everyone before they left.  In three weeks, we had the shell of our building finished.  By the way, it sits on leased land belonging to the Calaveras County Water District with a very generous lease of $1 per year guaranteed for over 25 years.

Local contractors did work, and many of them donated their time. Even PG&E returned our check for a permit to hook up.

Paul called the sheet-rockers on stilts, acrobats. Once the electrician, plumber, air conditioning and window guys were gone, the rest was up to the volunteers.

Paul installed the many spotlights. We painted and got donated pieces of used carpet that we taped to the floor like a patchwork quilt.  Spray painted egg cartons became sound proofing on the ceiling. Paul found a second hand studio curtain for $700. ($5,000 new).  He built a stage and sets.

None of this would have happened if the Supervisors, the local business people, the water company and the community did not believe it could be done under Paul’s tenacious and unrelenting work habits. Always punctual. Always there, wherever and whenever needed or asked.  We’ve shared a lot of productive years together volunteering in this county. On Thursday, our “local treasure”  was in a serious car accident.  Somehow, he failed to see a red light and T boned another car at the intersection.
Paul was seriously injured and taken to Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. But, before they took him away in an ambulance, he took pictures-OF COURSE.

Before I got to his house yesterday afternoon,  he had already developed and printed pictures  for me to see.

Both cars were totaled. The wheel sitting in the middle of the intersection is from his car.
He had two shoots arranged for today, and was willing to cancel one, but the other he must do, he told me on the phone. Our Studio manager, Ed Lark, convinced him he would take over his  shoot and Paul could edit it. Paul  reluctantly agreed. He has another show on the 22nd that he expects to do.

He is soon to be 85 years old. His sternum and back have suffered major trauma. He can barely get up and down from a chair. It is even more painful to lie down and rest. He is walking with difficulty and is on major pain medications. He can lift nothing with his left arm. Could I find someone to help him with the shoot? I told him I would hire some-one to set up his camera and unload his van that he uses for location shoots. I then called his anchor person, Mearl Lucken, and asked him if HE could talk Paul into resting and let somebody else do his programs for a couple of weeks. Whatta ya’ gonna do with a guy like that? But, now you know why we have a jewel in the Motherlode, because our “local treasure” is a hard working, trusted and admired individual who never gives up.

Paul lost his wife of 65 years two years ago. He named his driveway, Martha Lane. He told me he pats her pillow every night and says goodnight to her. Now it is our turn to take care of  our “Local Treasure”, if he will let us.

HOLIDAY RITUALS

One year, about age six, my favorite Christmas gift was a Christmas card. I take great pleasure from them now and have a tendency to keep them forever, much to my kids dismay.  It’s harmless enough.

The yearly ritual of a Christmas letter for me began in 1988. It was disconcerting to have distant friendships from the past reduced to a Christmas card each year.  Sending a short personal message in each card wasn’t enough. Besides,  my penmanship is practically unreadable.

Friends often send a family photo, or a personal work of art made into a card. Mine are pretty dull, without photos. My parents had twenty siblings, thus cousins number over one  hundred. Now I can send Christmas greetings  on-line.

Internet cards, or a simple message has replaced cards for many of us. I treasure my email as much as I miss the cards.

My new ritual is to read last year’s Christmas letters, and cards, then put them away in a box. Then as Christmas approaches,  I take out old cards,  from any year,   to enjoy the beauty and sentiments.

Or the whimsy as in Happy Moo Year.

Lechuguilla, Planet Earth, Young Friend From Murphys

The Planet Earth video showed the most pristine cave in the world, right in our own backyard near Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. Discovered and discarded as a nothing place it's true scope came to light in the 1980's. Travis Deem of Murphys, Ca., at age seventeen was one of a lucky group of cavers who were allowed the privilege of joining an exploration team. In a recent letter to me he talks about that experience and how it shaped his life.

"It is hard to believe that it has been almost 20 years since my first trip to Lechuguilla. I have also seen the footage from the Planet Earth series and it is spectacular, almost like being there.

I have not been to the cave since the early 1990's. Despite all the time that has passed there is seldom a day that goes by that I do not think about the early days of exploration at Lechuguilla and the amazing privilege that I, and several others from our caving group have had as part of it.

The article you wrote had several pictures to accompany it, one of which has two of my teenage friends Greg Stock and Kyle Fedderly entering a cave. Both of them went on to become world-class cavers, not only participating in numerous expeditions to Lech (Greg was there this spring) but also to Europe and Borneo. I spoke with Greg ( whom I had not seen except in pictures from caving magazines since we were in college) just about two weeks ago. He is now the first ever park geologist for Yosemite National Park. During our brief phone conversation he remarked about how those days were instrumental in shaping his life and I have to agree the same is true for mine. In an age were every surface of this planet (and several other planets) has been mapped, I take heart in knowing that common people can still venture into the unknown and make discoveries that can astonish the world. Those who have been blessed with the opportunity to enter Lech have all, in at least some small way, taken their place with the great explorers of other ages. I know that sounds a little melodramatic, but I believe it is true. I asked Greg if Lech has paled in comparison to the other adventures he has had caving all over the world and he assured me that both for himself and other Lech veterans it still stands out as the jewel in the crown of speleology.

As I get older I sometimes find myself wondering if it all really happened, did a bunch of kids really get to engage in exploring the most significant cave discovery of the 20th century? Did I really walk through those rooms filled with forests of crystal and sleep over 1,000 feet below the New Mexico desert? I recall very well waking up on Christmas morning 1989 along with Greg and Kyle in an area called the Western Borehole where all the floors were covered with snow white gypsum, that is one white Christmas I will never forget. I cannot overemphasize the grandeur and beauty of that place. As you can probably suspect, I would go again in a heartbeat.

The exploration that occurs now is much more regulated than in the old days. Although that probably means I will never return I believe it is for the best. Some past practices did real harm to certain areas of the cave and, once damaged, the cave has no means of healing itself. Exploration will go on but now the groups are small and their activities are limited.

I do still cave, now with my own children. I hope that their own experiences will shape them to appreciate the natural world, to be brave, but not foolhardy, and to treasure the fact that they live in a world where there is still a frontier to explore.

Travis Deem

Thank you Travis for enlightening us once again with your experience at Lechuguilla.

Metallic Riches, Bakugans and Red Ants

What a fool, me, that I would buy a metal detector for this meander!! It clicked, I dug, and voila! Treasures! Look at them. A 1/2 inch rusted bolt, a rusty nail, two aluminum pop top can pieces and a bit of rusty wire, and a broken chunk of unidentifiable metal. Hey, laughter is healing.
And have you ever heard of bakugans? The things we learn from our grandchildren. Owen is posting at http://Quakeworm.wordpress.com. where bakugans live!
It rained here in Jamul and red ants swarm during the day over a pile of rocks. The detector didn't pick them up and I've always considered that anything used as a food source becomes scarce. Hmmmm! I've eaten ants before, they looked pretty tasty. Picked one up, popped it in my mouth, it bit my tongue, tasted like nothing, but hey, good protein shouldn't go to waste. Right? Besides, could have been gross.
Howard Hoyt, whom I've known forever, likes Jumpin' Jack Flash, just another thing we have in common besides 48 years of friendship. Check in to Planet Earth tomorrow.