beyond the shattered outlook

This picture hopefully is self explanatory. But if not...

Even though the bleak outlook of logging seems to have shattered the hopes for a sustainable future, there is still hope for life, as the flower symbolizes.

It's actually the shattered window of my car, last year when it got broken into. I was taking this picture for insurance purposes (my deductable was more expensive then the cost of just replacing the darned window!). I edited out the car interoir and put in the stump and the flower growing next to it.


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Adrien is loving her job! Which means I am happy! I am so glad to be able to spend more time with her. We drove to Davis last night to visit my old college buddy, Donny who is there for a few days for some new job training (he's the new UC Davis rep in the LA/San Diego area. It was freshman orientation week, so it was fun reliving the good old college days with orientation parties in the streets and recent high school graduates roaming the town in gangs. I missed Davis for the first time in many years. What a wonderful, peaceful, mellow, and freindly town. Adrien loved it too, which made me love her so much more...for appreciating a huge part of my formative years.

As we were leaving we passed by a huge group of diverse students who looked starry eyed, and were putting their hands in the center of their circle for a group motivational shout. As we passed by we yelled good luck to them (as they were obviously freshman) and the leader yelled back...hey these guys are freshman...come join them in a welcoming shout. We said...hey why not, so all three of us put our hands in the middle and shouted for joy with them! As we introduced ourselves, as two old alumni, they were full of questions. We asked them what dorm they lived in and it turned out it was Rienda...my freshman year dorm building. I asked them if they knew of my mural on the third floor of the building next to my old room 308. They said YES we know that mural! I was shocked that it was still there (as the murals are normally painted over every 2 years or so...it has been there for 10 years now!!. Maybe it's the policital correctness of it. I painted two hands holding the earth and one hand is a guy and one hand is a girl, and one skin tone is light and the other is dark. Very similar to the picture on the cover of my website (1thinlayer.com)They invited us to go back with them and check it out...we said...no...go have a good time, but maybe we will stop by on our own. So we did, and by golly the mural was still there...a little defaced, but still there! I had never signed it...out of some silly humbleness phase I was in...and have now realized that I just missed out on 10 years of connections with people passing it by potentially recognizing my name on it, and menioning it to me. So I pulled out a sharpie that Adrien had on her, and I signed it! Finally...redeemed for not signing it!