Seems everyone in cities is hungry for country and Petalumans are no exception. A flood of our friends go to the Kate Wolf Festival year after year on Wavy Gravy's Black Oak Ranch in Mendocino and this year was our third immersion.

Walking in slow motion day two, I recall a Southern folk lady singer saying that's the way they get through the heat. Black Oak Ranch ran the thermometer up to a sock-it-to-you 111⁰ Sunday and I got a little punchy Saturday but I lived through Sunday more chipper due to strolling around in sopping wet clothes, a loose skirt and shirt soaked in Ten Mile Creek when I swam from time to time. How oddly romantic when partner, Wayne, misted the air I walked in. And I had a squirt fan Casey, two, didn't manage to break.

Camera shots from my mind, the dinosaur-head inch-long flying creature who tiptoed along my arm, stopping to drink a droplet of water, the tiny frog a tiny girl held in her little blue hat (photo attached). Glints of sunlight riffing through oak leaves; the music running from contemplative during a lazy afternoon to rockin' Railroad Earth in the way dark at the Arlo something stage back beyond the meadow stage toward the riverside camp where I shared a bit of, well you know.

Railroad Earth - so fast they felt like they'd lift US off! Arlo Gutherie and family - mellow, full of history, fine humans, his daughter and son-in-law singing harmony; sweet and solid good way to go. Utah Phillips salt of the earth with suspenders and corny old stories no one else is up to. Gospel group, the Campbell Singers, got hundreds dancing in place with Oh, Happy Day! energized by the rich, deep voice of Greg Brown.

Must never forget the joy of babes and this weekend was glorious for that. Camping across from the Live Oak kids, our site became a playground for hoola-hoopers where 3-4 lovely young ones were strapped by sis-in-law, Holly, in a camp chair, raising Wayne's comment "Is the home prison system sustainable?" They were so proud when they wriggled out.

Best pix: Casey, our nephew, 2, and his bro, Koben, 7, were hysterically funny in our broad hats, Casey running naked faster than he ever ran with the broadest grin I'd seen in years. Hundreds grinned back.

I did a bit of the acoustic workshop, singing Amazing Grace acapella. Next year I vow to actually take a guitar, sing at least 3 songs using 3 or more chords as opposed to this time just singing in the car with Bob Dylan and Judy Collins doing Leonard Cohen songs. Our friends who stayed up till 5am playing by the campfire got the whole entire Festival; I got a whole lot even crawling into our tent around midnight.

Was thinking I really need to get out in the sun more; seriously away from the computer that consumes my daylight hours and burns on into the night inside the warehouse we call home.

Then along came our friend Patty Charley, red-headed Brit with a great sense of the absurd and a very sweet heart, and of course I said I'd go dog walking in the country with her and Pepper, the Black Lab owned by former Sierra Club hikers Linda and Mary, now mostly armchair travelers. Sometimes Patty takes Pepper; sometimes I do; often we walk together, chatting it up continuously.

Dog walking on county land changed my pattern forever, I do hope. So now its City mostly and Country often and even a bit of cash along the way. I hang out with birds, sheep, chickens, cats, notice gopher holes and the occasional possum. My life has more oomph!

Occurs to me this kind of paid helpfulness (dogwalking, house cleaning, running errands) is most of what being a companion is about - and there will be lots more need in these parts and in every country where the larger population is the one getting past middle age...lots of small jobs for lots of loving people, hopefully. Dred the idea of nasty people taking care of the elderly! But that's another story...

Back to Pepper, a good girl and who greets me with great love and howling; maybe an 8 year-old Lab. She waggles her whole body when walking - and I've taught her a doggie dance. Labs have a sort of dance they do, especially with other Labs, I've found, so I capitalize on it and get her to jump back and forth around 21 times while I tease her with her toss toy. Works every time and then she runs, runs until she collapses into the grass, panting and we're ready to continue the walk. I had wanted a dog sort of, having had German Shepherds much of my life, but here is a chance to share the world with a dog without owning and I find that quite enjoyable.

The quiet country lane, Wilson, has a protected quality; somehow the clouds roll away and the sun comes peacefully out amid hawks, mocking birds, the sheep and lambs and horses along the road. Talk about bucolic! And just enough hills that your legs feel the stretch.

Pretty exciting for me is the chance to feed and pet 8 horses, usually apple slices, sometimes carrots and licorice. And one, AJ, a chestnut who shares a paddock with 2 dogs, seems more and more my horse lately. His owner, Lee, refers to me as AJ's part owner and says come out any time. I groom him and get him to go through a few paces. Sometimes he eats the apples slices and licks my fingers with his eyes closed. Wow!

Dear Reader:

Please go see Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth asap? If you go NOW, more theaters will show the film, an historic event you need to be part of. Now at the Rialto, SR, but we're gonna ask Boulevard to show it, too. Thanks, folks!

Must say I'm convinced we really are a lot like our close relatives the monkeys. We follow the leader even when he isn't making any sense. You DO know we're the greatest polluter on earth, right?

Viewing An Inconvenient Truth is helping me overcome my monkey mind yet again. I got partner, Wayne Morgenthaler (yes, the Jungle Guy), and friend, Patty (yes, the redhead Brit) to accompany me to the Rialto in Santa Rosa, since our 4-screen "art film" part of Cinema West hasn't taken on the film just yet. It covers what we know now about global warming. Had nightmares afterward, I admit, but I still VERY MUCH want you to go-

It's not just the CGI (computer generated image) of one of hundreds of polar bears drowning because there is no longer solid ice where he expects to climb out of the water 60 miles from where he started (sob!), but the baby birdies that don't get any caterpillars and die of hunger because we've upset Nature's schedule - these get me even worse. Did you realize these things are happening? Did you realize we're MAKING them happen? Did you realize your car is a major culprit and that Chinese cars get WAY better mileage? And someone you know now has asthma that wasn't there a few years ago.

What it IS is too many people on the planet getting the air way too dirty and we've got to clean up our playground/earth before we all die of typhoons or typhoid or whatever the rampant diseases and "natural" disasters that arise when nature's systems are overloaded.

Am I ranting? People really ought to, you know, when there's a Giant Bear at your door. You can't just stand there and say hello - you have to act - like send the monster away-

Change a light

Changing to ONE compact fluorescent saves
150 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.

Drive less

Walk, bike, carpool or take mass transit move often. You'll save
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Recycle more

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Check your tires

Keeping your tire inflated properly can improve gas mileage
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Use less hot water

It takes a lot of energy to heat water. Use less hot water by installing a low-flow showerhead (350 pounds of CO2 saved per year) and washing your clothes in cold or warm water (500 pounds saved per year).

Avoid products with a lot of packaging

You can save 1200 pounds of carbon dioxide if you cut your garbage by 10%

Adjust your thermostat

Moving your thermostat down just 2 degrees in winter and up 2 degrees in summer could save about 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide each year.

Plant a tree

A single tree will absorb 1 ton of carbon dioxide during its lifetime.

Be part of the solution

Learn more and get active at Climatecrisis.net (more great sites next time).

Did you ever get those manila surprise bags for a quarter (there were even 10 cent ones!) with the odd toys and even odder candies? Pure magic.

Sometimes the treats were non-edible and generally comic books, things I could trade with my favorite 3rd grade boys; Uncle Scrooge, Champion comics (liked horses already after my Mom told us tales of bravery from her own Nebraska past). I remember I made my Mom laugh when I told her I loved David Prater, a neighbor boy who I read Mad Magazine with, age 9, because he was so young at heart. Ok.

Now adays, it's Goodwill, Sachs, Alphabet Soup - and I know there are more I haven't found.
Often, it's Goodwill on Petaluma Blvd - It's on my way and I always think there's something special in there for me. Often true, especially videos ( lots of classic movies for $3.99!) Whatever; it's an excuse to dream. So I added an aqua plastic necklace, KITCHY! - to my usual video. Looks like tiny Christmas tree ornaments I used to think had upside down people inside - or elves.

Last night we rediscovered another Goodwill find, The Out of Towners, a Neil Simon film with Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn - a hoot! Truly fine comedy and just $3.99 if you can find another copy. Or borrow mine.

I also picked up the video, My Friend Flicka, horsey film with WAY TOO MANY VIOLINS,and remembered crying at my first drive-in when Flicka nearly died, probably age 9, with my family.
Reason I gave myself the ok to buy such a cornball flick? I still want to be like Roddy McDowell as a boy - with Flicka - and there's now a real live Flicka look-alike in my life, AJ, who I see 3x week out on Wilson Lane, a single lane road on county land. I think AJ is a Thoroughbred though his owners say Quarter Horse. Sometimes a young girl, Casey, rides him, but mainly they just walk him.

AJ's owner, Lee, get me up on AJ one day. I said I needed a ladder or a log and she said, no, just use my hands, which I did. But kinda knew I wouldn't be getting off so easy and sure enough slid pretty quick into some mud as my exit. Lee tells me AJ wouldn't mind if I got off over his head even, but I've just tried the one time - so far!