on way home now. back to smokey Northern CA. No end in sight with 100+ degrees..no heavy food today.

heading up to Seattle today to see some freinds and family....what no smoke in air up there? Hmmm...

today's smoke and fire update. Continued hot and smokey..expect the same for remainder of week. Smoke drifting north to Columbia River (700 miles).

Just back from Sonora where I ran trains all weekend with freinds. Smoke better here. Hope we don't get more lightening.

visibility only 1/2 mile due to wildfire smoke with no end in site. Like a war zone here. Stay inside. I am going south to get out of it.

Staying inside today mostly due to smokey outside.

Fire season here. Lightning strikes over weekend not only knocked out power for a while, but also caused almost 4,000 fires throughout Northern CA. Sunday was pleasantly warm and windy. Monday now is smoke filled. More like an August day, than June.




Feels quiet, subdued, almost eery outside.

glad to be home tonight watching the US Open...and eating ice cream! Go Rocco!

in bay area for weekend to run trains, oh yeah, might eat some good food and sleep also...

iPhone, the day after...Now what?
At least the skunks are gone, thanks to 90000 BTU cayenne, and just about all the other mammels too.

listening to WWDC Steve Jobs Keynote

Just returned from Palo Alto where we held video conference with Seattle. Bandwidth problems forced us to use plan S....this after 40 manhours of work.

Mother Miracle Visit

Had dinner with friends of Ananda last thursday. Patrick and Shahla from Mother Miracle school in Rishikesh, India. They brought 2 little girls, Mamta and Kusuma with them. Inspiring stuff. They have over 100 little poor kids in their 2 room school. The littlest kids are outside and as they grow older they get to go inside. 3 different classes in one room. This fall, they move into a 10 room building. We are sponsoring a child, Pooja Giri, who is 10 yrs old and just learning to speak English. Her teacher for past year was Kusuma (the 14 yr old girl whom we met). Think about that.

This is inspiring work. http://www.mothermiracle.org

Rats, The Battle still rages. Spent 2 hours closing up ways Mr. Skunk can get into back yard, AND more cayenne..Mr. Skunk still ate the birdseed on the ground..sigh

Putting out cayanne pepper to discourage skunks...hope to see some trains this weekend

been trying to figure out how skunk gets into our fenced back yard. tonight there are 2 of them. double yikes!!

what is that in back yard? Skunk? Yikes!!

spring yardwork completed, 4 squirrels relocated, Leo had 5000 viewers yesterday..how much better can it get?

Zeroing in on completion of mowing. Got the blisters to prove it too.

Hummingbirds in back yard

We go through about 1 gallon of "joy juice" per day feeding these hummingbirds. This is just a snap shot from Monday morning hummer feeding. Sometimes it is a frenzy with 60-70 of them out there. We have a few steady customers over winter but mainly spring and fall when they cannot find other food around. Really a never-ending source of joy.

Recipe for "joy juice"
1 - gallon fresh cool water
4 cups white sugar
bring water to a boil. add sugar, stir to dissolve, cool before serving.

Monday in the rural foothills can be busy. Today it, yet again raining so I will catch up on inside chores while the weeds continue to grow. Hope the wildfire threat is reduced a little.

Curve ball of rain this weekend curtailed mowing. Soft and moist is nice but I am chomping at the bit to complete the fire clearing work.

Front "yard" is mowed (all one acre) and snipped. Back yard (2 acres) on Saturday. We only mow once per year when the grass is 3 feet high and dying. Don't need a tractor. Going to new Indiana Jones movie now for a treat.

Mowing season once again here, albeit earlier than past 2 years. Good news is how cool it is outside, bad news is that it might rain..

Think I will go to office today and see what trouble I can cause.

Well, fun time to have a little bronchitis isn't it? Need to NOT work in yard for a couple days...darn...

Why am I coughing up blood?

Whew..DSL line performed flawlessly. Video conference live broadcast to 3 continents. Really incredible...now if we can just get the mic adjusted next time

Got the video conference system working with broadcast. Now if the DSL line holds up it might actually work on Monday...

catching up on Battlestar Galactica this morning. Season 4!!! Great way to spend too hot day while sick

Mexican dinner at Meditation retreat last night with play about Turkeys. Did you know Nabha can speak Gobble?

Whew! Just received email from my friends in Jaipur India to say they personally are well and not affected by bombings. I am sure it is not easy though.

Getting warm here in foothills. Expect +90 on Thursday. Guess I will get to finally wear shorts.

This sore throat is hanging in there for over a week. Woke up middle of night coughing fit..Ugly...what to do...

In town tuning errands. Nice to have library for wifi. Now onward

Thunderstorms last night Lightening was great!! More today.

Watching really cool documentary on that great American 20th century icon: History of Lionel Trains

First Saturday in May is Rajarsi Day where all of the community spends the day on community work projects. Always fun.--I am weed eating and painting

Fridays are technically my day off...I am going into office

Yes!!! VPN is restored. Now I can resume sitting in my Lazy boy chair while remaining connected to the world!!! (no iPhone yet though)

Hopefully VPN will come back up soon. My man is on the hunt!!! More for domestic tranquility than for me anyway.

time to get the shorts out as it will be warm today. Going to the big city to see some freinds!!

Great day with friends today. Tomorrow we rum trains all day.

Worked most of day on getting owNry layout ready for next weekend's guest. 8 guys coming down from Portland...should be fun

If you want an all body exercise that is quite aerobic, then try pulling scotch broom, the scourge of the sierra foothills. watch out for the poison oak

our local community clinic looking for providers

www.sierraclinic.org
Looking for providers. Please view

Blog it application

Just added Blog it application which enables me to post a blog to multiple sites at same time while updating my microblogs- Twitter and tumblr. Wonder if anyone actually reads this stuff. http://www.typepad.com/features/blogit.html

Crystal Hermitage Gardens

Spring has been kind to the Crystal Hermitage gardens this year at Ananda Village. More photos here. Video here

Gardens at Crystal Hermitage today http://ping.fm/GBw8v

not a cute post here. But effective: Round-up Rendezvous at 7:30 AM on the road. let's spray those thistles before the neighbors wake up. Ah Sunday!!

Watching Master's Golf tournament. Saturday is "moving day" as it is called in golf lore

Yeah!!, finally got Dave's SMD82 devices programmed so now his staging tracks all work!. Satisfaction.. Long trip though. Late night

United Way visit went well at clinic. Still have the financial review next week....

today, United Way visits our clinic. Sierra Family Medical Clinic (sierraclinic.org). Hope they want to support our community clinic for low income patients

At the market having burgers and fries

No iPhone yet so practicing on iPod touch

Cold this morning. fire roaring. starting to warm up. Little cabin in the woods... Ha!

Be Restful in your heart

Be restful in your heart” is one of the daily sayings from Swami Kriyananda writing in his small book called “Do It Now“

Upon reflection, during this past weeks seclusion, it seemed that as I have been less caught up in daily “to do’s” and requests, I noticed that as the week has progressed, the mind has relaxed since it had little to do externally all week (walks, and chores notwithstanding) and also my heart seemed to relax.

Seven years ago, while shoveling snow on February morning outside our home here at Ananda Village, I experienced a mild heart attack. I had only lived at Ananda Village for 18 months or so, having left a career which involved a tremendous amount of stress. This lead to the inevitable trip to ICU, etc yet I was home shortly thereafter, more deeply committed to recuperation and changing some lifestyle habits. Thirty pounds later and as I learned more about these teachings, I discovered that the heart chakra resides behind the physical heart but there is also a tie in. As I relaxed and rested my heart chakra, my physical heart seemed more rested. This is not to suggest substituting meditation for exercise because moderate exercise each day can help keep most of us, not only in better physical shape but it helps our meditations because the body wants to then relax and we usually find ourselves more calm during meditation.

Yogananda urges us to practice energization exercises daily prior to meditation. This subtle tension and relaxation techniques often helps calm the body, energize the nervous system in a calming way and thereby I find my body and heart more relaxed yet awake. Ananda Yoga is also about preparing the body for meditation but that is another story told by authors much more understanding so I will not dwell on this.

When we relax or rest our heart, we also open up to new energies within. I often almost naturally feel more loving towards others for instance. More willing to listen within to the sounds of the Divine.

Yogananda, in one of his prayers says: “Father, teach me to be calmly active and actively calm…”

All this is fairly easy to accomplish as we progress in seclusion with concentrated effort to relax our hearts. It almost sounds almost contradictory to make an effort to relax but it is also good practice for daily lives. Recently at work, I was running late to an appointment and didn’t feel very relaxed. As I was rushing out the door, a co-worker wanted to ask me to do something for him and it couldn’t wait until later to discuss it. I was not very relaxed at this point feeling a lot of tension in my body as I didn’t want to deal with this issue right then. Upon reflection later, I saw that, while the issue was important then tension was not.

So for this next year, as we progress into celebrating Ananda Village’s 40th anniversary, my goal is to remember this prayer: “Father, teach me to be calmly active and actively calm” and be more restful in my heart.

Seclusion

As part of our spiritual practice here at Ananda Village, we are urged to take seclusions regularly, perhaps just a day here and there) and at least annually, take a week seclusion, as a balance to all of our busy outward service activities. In fact, employees like me, who work for Ananda Businesses here at Ananda Village, are offered a week long seclusion time in addition to our standard vacation time. Since it is not cumulative, I didn’t schedule the time and consequently didn’t “take seclusion” and really missed it.

In the Bhagavad Gita it says: “Free from the hopes (engendered by) desire, and untouched by any craving for possession, the (waves of feeling in his) heart controlled (by yoga concentration), the yogi, retiring alone to a quiet place, should try to unite his little self with the Supreme Self.” (Chapter 6 verse 10). (Commentary in “The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita” Page 255 in chapter 18)

This week I am taking seclusion for seven days. Well it is really only six because I had company over weekend and then had to prepare on Monday, etc. What I plan to do is not speak with anyone, no work related activities at IT, or clinic, or solar, stay quiet, walk, meditate, chant, read books, listen to inspiring music, in essence, focus inward, attempting to go deeper into the quiet spaces of the soul and each little bit helps. Will chop wood and carry water, but with the Divine on my mind, not just the mundane.

This is an opportunity for longer meditation and to release, at least for a few days each year, my mind from the outward push and pull of daily life. Some people’s seclusions are very deep, others aren’t. I’ve had mixed results upon first impression, but always feel renewed. I don’t claim to be even conversant with how to seclude. Sort of “just do it”. One recommendation I have heard is to maintain silence. For this seclusion, I interpret that to be not speaking or hopefully interacting with anyone. But, as mentioned, I am listening to certain music with deep spirit vibration and with deep (a relative term) concentration on some talks by those souls whom I feel have a deeper understanding of the infinite than I in hopes of gleaning some inspiration towards my own goal of self realization.

Seclusion location is up the individual. I am taking seclusion at home because my spouse is visiting and volunteering some time in Ananda LA during this week. The challenge, for me here, is to not get too wrapped up in all the little home projects. The advantage is low cost and I get to sleep in my own bed. Plus our home is in a quiet, isolated part of village (whole village is pretty quiet really) so I don’t see neighbors and can walk into the woods pretty far without seeing anyone. Other’s go to meditation retreat. Lots of options. More later.

February Sunset

After a month of snow, wind, rain cold, we are blessed with a streak warmer clear days. Last Sunday evening Sraddha and I drove up to Rajarsi ridge to see an artist freind of hers and I walked out to the west side to watch our famous sunsets. We get so busy here in our various activities, it is always nice to appreciate Divine Mother's natural ever changing art of Maya.

winter at St. Francis Pond

Down below our house is St Francis pond. Beautiful little walk up from village center on fire road.

Have a little faith: Ananda

found this article posted January 28 on the Palo Alto High School online newspaper:
Very good
Have a little faith: Ananda

Steve Jobs Macworld address in 60 seconds

I attended this keynote last week in San Francisco and here are the highlights. Actually kinda funny.

Macworld Video

I took some little video snippets last week during Macworld. 4 minutes long and will give you a flavor of the event. 50,000 exhibit attendees (up 10,000 from last year). Pretty cool. I even added music. Just click on arrow in video to play.

Macworld Tuesday 2008

Got in line at 7:30 AM which was 90 minutes early and there were 1000 people in front and 1000 behind.

Really incredible.Ended up in a conference room watching a live broadcast of keynote by Steve Jobs.

Sraddha joined me at 11 AM and we walked the exhibit floor for 7 hours. Forgot to take photos but late in the day, on the far corner of exhibits we found this cool electric car








She wanted to drive it home.

There's something in the air!

Macworld 2008
Originally uploaded by gary ryan

Just arrived at MacWorld in San Francisco this afternoon. Anticipation growing. Stopped by Moscone upon arrival to pick up badge before going to hotel. Could be loads of fun. This photo taken by someone who posted it to the MacWorld Flickr site and I have linked up to blog and post with ease!! Really cool...Something in the Air

Day 7 without power

Power just came on at 7:20 PM tonight. after 7 days. Oh the peace and quiet is so nice but so is turning on a light when I get up in the middle of the night. We will definitely be making plans for back up systems and actually already are for work since we can probably count on this happening again. Power to the people!!!

Power still out

Interesting how fragile the wider infrastructure actually seems now.

It is now Tuesday night (5 days later) and power remains off at our house and about 15 others here at Ananda Village. Expected back by Thursday. We are pretty quiet anyway here, however even more quiet and dark with no lights. Solar batteries continue to give us personally a little electricity to cook by and I can access internet.

Most of us have propane for heat and at least one room in homes can be warmed up although fans don't run to circulate air to other parts of homes. Still we have warmth amidst the 30 degree outside and we are all dry.

Glad I meditate and live here.

Wind storm in Sierra's

Friday we got pounded by wild 40 mph winds, gusting to 70. Power out since Friday AM. and still out here at Village for everyone except a couple of homes. We are fortunate in that we use oak/madron wood for heat so are warm and have the remnants of (expensive) solar system with (expensive) batteries so have a little power if we conserve by turning everything off unless absolutely necessary. I say remnants because solar panels 15 years old, but we have inverter and 6 year old batteries we had purchased when first moving into this home. Needless to say it was absolutely necessary to turn on TV yesterday and satellite dish system to watch Seahawk football game . Phone system/DSL system central has generator backup so I actually have internet and you emailed the correct address whcih still works. All that to say we are fine although inconvenienced. got some snow. 2 inches twice but a bit slushy as temp hovering around 32.5-33 do it doesn't quite get frozen. Pretty out and also very quiet. and we are enjoyning it.
Expecting more snow tonight.