5 June 2001
This is not the first cabin trip of the season. I came in late April and the fami-lee came and painted. This journal was misplaced and only recently surfaced. I pulled in at about 4:00. The air was warm & still. I unpacked my stuff, tidied up. I put the chairs outside, cut wood for a breakfast fire, filled the shower and now I am on the deck looking out across Cedar Breaks.
The clouds are backlit and stately and white.
Sailing from blue day to
Star spangled night
Conquistadors ships bearing
Rich Inca treasures
To decadent kings
With decadent pleasures
Since I have been inducted into the “pretty nearly dead poets society of St. George Utah” I have been thinking in metaphor. It is interesting and more fun than “really pretty” and “awesome”. These poets are old. I’m pushing 70 and they call me Gen X. I sat on the deck for a long time like Madame Butterfly behind the screen, waiting, watching. No sight no sound of beating wings no gobbles or chirps. Dark, darker, darkest nothing. Went to bed unhappy.
6th of June – A day of infamy:
I cannot believe that I did it again: I am calmer now and collected and ready to speak. This A.M. for my walk I steered away from the havoc of the machines of incredible destruction. The rape and pillage of my beloved forest made me cry. I took the high road. Up the Pacific Coast Highway where the earth as God made it.
Going along I saw a track that made me leap backwards. I thought it was Tyrannosaurus Rex. (Remember Jurassic Park) but upon closer scrutiny it turned out to be a turkey track, a big one, really big. It was near a little family enclave with rocking houses and play houses a place with children. Anyway, I saw a movemenet out of the corner of my eye so I crept down the drive. I didn’t see anything at first, but old Uncle has learned turkey ways. I saw him hunkered down in the brush. I tippy-toed a little closer, but I forgot the bells on my shoes. That bad boy burst out flapping and thrashing he flew straight over my head. He was so huge that he blanked out the sun for two minutes. All the birds began to to go to sleep. He could hard haul his massive self up and he glided down the gully and out of sight. That pumped me up and I hustled right along. Soon I came to the Observation Point gate. I looked around and then came out heading home. I went back as far as the “Nuckles” sign. Then I had to go the bathroom (this is news?) and I could see an empty tootie-wah in a camp just down the road. I knew the people wouldn’t care if I availed myself of the facilities. It was a cool place. It looked like a dutch windmill, eight sides with blue shingles and and windows on all sides. And toilet paper. I came back out to fir road. I knew fir road, it came out near coes so I went down past Nuckles. There were a lot of Nuckles. 4 trailers and 5th wheels and pickups. A clothesline and an accursed generator. No one was in sight. They were all in air conditioned comfort watching (probably unsuitable) television. A pox on this trailer trash. Why don’t they stay home and watch tv. We come here to hear the wendigo walk on whispering moccasins through the treetops, not NNNNNNNNNNNN of generators.
I kept on walking and there was much to see. A whole field of yellow tulip-like flowers that I had never seen before, yellow daisies and tons of blue lupin, this was a good road through beautiful country, a black and white snake sleeping in the dusty road, but I began to get this itchy feeling, there were no signs, no cabins, no nothing. But it was a good road going somewhere so I kept on. I was getting a little tired and thirsty.
After a l o n g time I came over a hill and saw something that I had never seen before. This place looks pretty much like this place all over the place so it is hard to know if you have been here before. Well, I knew that I had never been here. It was a large building fallen to ruin. It was made of wood, sawn wood, the big thick kind of boards from a long time ago. It had fallen in upon itself but I went down to look closely. The nails were square, all around the place were old rusty tin cans, and broken bottles, I brought a bottle home. I had never been here before I could not guess what the building had been used for. Now I am alarmed. I had started out at 8:00 according to my boy scout clock it was now 12:00 by my boy scout clock and I was thirsty and my feet hurt and I was LOST. I had not gone through the fence, I never had left the road. I had no idea where I was. However, this was a good road with tire tracks it must go somewhere, so I kept on for a while longer. The you can never guess what I saw, can you? No. A round-about. That is correct, a round-about. It went down the hill, around a very large ponderosa and right back up the road that I had just come down. My heart sank. I walked out through the trees away s and came to a huge, red cliff, which dropped about a hundred feet. There is no place like this near the Rocking R.
I had to go back up this road. I was very hot. No shirt, thirsty, no water and delusional. No drugs (that is another story). I thought Mother Nature mistook me for the jerk with the generator and led me out here to die. If I die, the generator dies, BIG WRONG MOM. Then I thought, if I die and the wild beasts drag my bones away I will still be identifiable because of my titanium steel knee which will survive until the galaxies flicker out and grow cold. Archealogists in the year 2525 will be perplexed by me. The prospect of immortality did not cheer me up. I was practically hysterical. Then I saw something that cleared my head. Turkey tracks. Big turkeys and all around and all over little turkey tracks. A family outing going down the road ahead of me. I knew I could go on. I was watching my own tracks in the dust so as not to wander off some dangerous byway. I looked up and there was Observation Point sign. I went the way from there that seemed entirely wrong to me and I ended up on the Pacific Coast highway.
I can do up and down, left and right are hard but I can figure them out. North, South, East and West are impossible. I got home at last. I drank all the water in the house, took off my heavy, sweaty boots, and everything else, drank more water, fell on the bed and slept until just now.
Some time has passed. I have now had a warm soapy shower and a cool rinse in the fabled shower with a view. I washed my hair and cleaned my teeth and I have a fresh clean lava lava. I am presently preparing my dinner. Food is a big item at the cabin.
Mi sie tonight we have sausage and cheese omelettes with catsup garnish and sourdough toast points (with the crusts cut off*). For dessert, cantaloupe chunks with peanut butter, honey and chocolate dipping sauce and a large flagon of cold milk.
“I have received of the Lord, that which I also delivered.” (Corinthians 11:23). I was lost and now I’m found. I’m well aware that my excellent life and the fact that I endure is due to the grace of God. I am eternally grateful.
I also know that due to circumstances I am also the weakest link.
Goodbye
*the four major food groups in real time are:
sugar
salt
chocolate
and grease
I’m gonna live forever!
Uncle Jim