The Daily News

1  Made it on a visit to Burney Falls and took a nice little hike to see it from different angles yesterday. Despite the drought, it looked absolutely stunning. Great day, nice little hike around the lower part of the Falls.

2  I didn't take the above picture, btw. We are leaving for home today, so I didn't want to go into the camera and play around with pictures. This place makes the pictures for you.

3  I need more time to get all the pictures organized and all, so the one posted is one I found on the net. It looked like where we visited, and I chose a photo that looked  like the ones on my iPhone. My second trip to the magnificent Burney Falls went through McCloud,  a quiet town that brings its own charm to anyone who enjoys non-mainstream simplicity.

4  Fun trip to McCloud area, and I had forgotten how breathtaking this short hike around he Falls is.

5  I loved this entire trip up north. Despite the fires and red-eyes, we still managed to enjoy laughs, and nature shining through, despite all. 

6   Peaceful place, a meeting between melting snow and water from below causing a crack, splitting the stream into two splashingly wondrous waterfalls, with sidekicks trickling down moss-covered crags of  pumice. Just lovely. 

7   Moving On, Part One: It's harder to report this stuff while on a constant move, so sometimes I feel I'm sending letters home from a foreign country.

8   My laptop begins acting up as well. Sometimes it hops online, other times it keeps posting that goofy picture of a dinosaur. 

9   It usually says something to the effect of, "You are not connected to the internet."

10  The entrepreneur in my was pleased to see that some guy is already selling hoodies for $44.93 a pop. Here go:

11  Well then.

12  Bleh with you. 

13  I'm having tons of fun despite artificial intelligence, thank you veddy much.

14  My laptop sometimes becomes a lost kid. I'll be working and it will suddenly start popping letters up or down randomly, or throwing this pink stripe across the top telling me that it has gone insane and that it will blow up in about four seconds. 

15  

16  And it gives me a "dismiss" option.

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18   

19   

20   Really dude?

21   Dismiss this. # makesuniversalhandgestureknowninmost partsoftheworld> <# has second thoughts due to high moral fortitude><# admitsthisisallabunchofbalogna>

22   Anyway, it's tough telling people you are really happy and enjoying things more than perhaps ever before because they think you are bragging, or that you are trying to be obnoxious.

23   Actually...

24   No.

25   Believe it or not, the pink line across the top just showed up, like an annoying person at work who wants you to do certain tasks when you are plenty busy already. 

26   Fortunately I guess, I never experienced that in the field of teaching. 

27  Education doesn't house gadflies. 

28  

29  I know, right?

30  So...can we go back to the Mt. Shasta area? 

31   Ahem. You have no choice. I have to report that the entire area up here is absolutely spiritual and cosmic. 

32   They have this crystal store that sells these crystal bowls that you can use with this mystical wand made of mystical pvc pipe and velvet to create chakra sounds.

33   I never knew chakra to be a verb but it works here. It translates roughly to "cosmic" I think, although the pink line once again appeared like an executive assistant with horribly bad lipstick to correct me. 

34   Excuse me while I push the "dismiss" button. 

35   These chakra sounds begin at a low level but soon magnify to a thundering sound that vibrates an entire room. 

36   The guy helping us in this store looked like an American version of a classic alien: triangle head, huge eyes, and cosmic wisdom. 

37  The guy was other worldly, but not in a bad way. He was a male Tinker Bell in many respects. He had us sitting on the floor of the shop moving these spiritual wands around the rims of crystal bowls, and they did this.

38  AND each bowl defined its own key, meaning one would be shaped into a B flat, another an A minor, and if you know anything about music, you could take two different notes and create harmony.

39  And this stuff was LOUD. You know how you try to do that trick with small crystal glasses? You wet the top of the glass with water and then you move your finger across the top?

40  Same concept, only brought to a spiritual level. The shop had three or four different rooms, but the bowl rooms boomed through the entire building, which looks like a house transferred into a wooden sherpa. The name of the place is The Crystal Room. It is in Mt. Shasta City and it is one of the most spiritual places I've ever visited. Here are a few pictures to allow you to see what I mean:

41   The third one was a bit exaggerated, but I'm pretty sure it is a legit picture. They never black-lit us or anything, but the sounds were astonishingly loud, and astonishingly cleansing.

42   As we all gathered our things and left the store, the guy said quite gently, "Enjoy your journey."

43   Ironically, John and I next headed to Ace Hardware to find a lightbulb with a mogul base. 

44   The guy in Ace seemed a bit crazy. He was excited to see a mogul-based lamp. They are the ones that have huge bases. I purchased many over the years, as a lot of theatre lamps have mogul bases, or at least had. 

45  We found one and moved a few doors down to this coffee-house/bookstore place, completely local and spiritual also. 

46  I immediately headed for a book by Dr. Wayne Dyer, a guy who has supported my theories about the cosmic meanings of coincidences. 

47  This was a GREAT coincidence since all three occurrences seemed somehow connected. John wore a Boston Red Sox hat and shirt, and some guy instantly insulted him.

48  Here's the thing about John: he is a baseball fan who possibly knows more about the game than anyone walking around. He was our baseball guru when I was ten. 

49  This guy made a snide remark about the Red Sox, but John countered, and within seconds the two realized that they both knew the game better than most. 

50  They exchanged pleasantries about Casey Stengel and Mickey Mantle, and soon were conversing like old friends. 

51  So there were no REAL coincidences here, nothing like some of the stuff I've experienced over the years, but it was certainly some. 

52   I didn't come up here for coincidences and in fact never really had time to consider the ones that happen to me on a daily basis.

53  What a way to close out these past two months. Once I moved away from education, I guess I did begin a new spiritual journey. Spiritual place, fires in the sky, mountains disappearing in the haze, yet a mean sense of traveling on and discovering still more about what it all means and where it is all headed. 

Are the stars out tonight? I don't know if its cloudy or bright...

56  Isn't that supposed to happen when you are around twenty?

57  Well, yes. And it did. But then I had to spend endless decades finishing college, getting married, having children, getting careers, paying mortgages, going through crises, preparing for grandchildren,nurturing parents, saying good-bye to them, ending careers, streaming tears, and finally meeting with old friends going through much the same. 

58   Before you cross the street, take my hand. Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans...

                                                            

                                                           ---John Lennon

59   I guess it's all more like that. 

60   Enjoy your journey.

61   Gottago.

62   See you again.

63   Peace.

~H~

fin.