Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Existence or "The God Thing"

Merlin, who knew it all.


Okay, all the talk about quantum existences is beginning to get to me. This blog has long been known to be “off the wall”, and all over the place, but if you notice the header up there on the top, you will see that it has a little bit to do with “The Eel River Valley, and the wisdom of the people that live there.” So Suzy Blah Blah and Spyrock have got me going again. Intelligent people always look beyond the boundaries of the accepted norm. They look for reasons that we are here, where we came from, and where we are likely to head. It is a reasonable thing to do. It is part of assuring ourselves that we can survive if it all turns to the worst.

We always look for the simple quick answers first. For some, the simple quick answer is-- “God, did it, and we are not to question God”.-- For some of us the question of-- “what is it all about”-- goes far beyond what the average mind wants to pursue. Albert Einstein came the closest to understanding the physical world that we live in. He felt that there was a universal formula that would explain everything, time, distance, future, past, mass, matter, and so on. He said that for the most part he could see and understand how it all worked and fit together, but the hard part was explaining it. He agonized over the one-universal-formula that would explain it all. He died before he could do that. Such is life. We are all inevitably bound the physical rules of the universe. Whether we understand them or not.

I was raised in a church, and attended Sunday School regularly. We used to get the little funny-book like things that explained all of the Jesus stories. I always wondered how much of it was true, because funny-books to me always meant make-believe. Most of the stuff that happened in the books seemed a little fantastic, even to my young mind. I hadn't seen any of them happen myself, so I was deeply suspicious that you could walk on water and that kind of stuff. I tried jumping off a six foot high porch, using an umbrella one time after watching a Mr. Magoo cartoon, where he easily floated down four stories without being hurt. So, I knew all about some stories being true and some being false. Don't try this at home kids, jumping off porches with an umbrella hurts!


I've learned the hard way to not believe anything, until I've learned it to be true. I can give you many examples of foolishly believing in something, only to end up wounded, or much smarter. I learned the hard way that in most all cases, things were exactly what they seemed to be, and no amount of hoping, or praying, ever changed anything for me. I was given very little in the way of explanation in matters of a spiritual nature. I discovered that it wasn't cool to ask the minister questions like; “Where did God come from”. being the inquizitive lad that I was, I knew that I was "In God's House" so I started to look around for him. When I got stuck in the piano, the minister suggested that maybe I was a little too young to understand church things. So, I resigned myself to asking myself questions, like; “If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is around, does it make a noise?” I knew that I could touch a tree and it was real. I knew that I could touch the ground and it was real. I knew that if I jumped in the air that I always came down, gravity was real to me. I knew from having seen trees fall, that they make a noise when they hit the ground. So, if I leave the forest one day with a tree standing, and come back the next and it had fallen, that it made a noise. These things are all real and tangible to me, because I have faith in things that are real.

If I returned to the tree a year later, the leaves would be gone, and things would be starting rot. So, living in a real world, I knew that time changes the things around us. I knew that the tree had fallen a year ago, and that hadn't changed at all. Therefore, I know that the past never changes, it becomes fixed in place and time, by flowing through the present. The future is infinitely variable and subject to many changes. If I go to work and get hit by a truck on my way, it is what it is. If I had stopped to get my hat, I would have missed the truck and been saved. But, it may have been that if I stopped to get my hat it would have changed things to the point that I may have been hit by the truck anyway.

Some things are unpredictable and unchangeable. Some things we can do, and know. Like; if I stay home all day, I know that I better my chances of not being hit by a truck, but who really knows? Maybe a truck would come careening off the highway and burst through my house. So you have some affect on the probable outcome, but you can never be really sure. I only believe in the real world and I don't think that praying will change a thing. Some people do think that, so that's where I part with most people.

I had a physics teacher one time that said, “Tangibles are those things that you can hit with a hammer.” But science has taught me that on a molecular level, nothing really touches. The molecules come very close together until they are repulsed by the strong forces that surround atomic structures. So nothing really touches. That thought is amazing if you really think about it. Does anything touch in a black hole? Where universes are squeezed into such tiny particles that they become infinitely small? Do they become so small that they come out the other side of the black hole and into another parallel universe, equal and opposite, where the positive becomes the negative?

I had another professor in college explain that nothing really touches, but “just like two lovers making a child, they get close enough together for all practical purposes.” You see that I only believe in tangibles the things that you can hit with a hammer, and the other stuff I know are things that may never have answers. I'm happy living in a world that works for me, even if reality is brutal sometimes.

I deeply envy people like Einstein, who knew, or thought that he knew, how it all worked. Did Einstein believe in God? Or, did he not believe in God, and just felt it was best to say he did, to keep people comfortable? I've often wondered how many things that I'm not allowed to know by my limited grasp of the physical things around us. What did Einstein really see, and how much did he feel uncomfortable with sharing it with us. In our not too distant past, we would kill people like Einstein as a witch, because he couldn't possibly know that much with out having the magical powers.

Anyway, it always makes me wonder what people like Suzy Blah Blah and Spyrock see that I can't. If they were able to figure it all out, would they tell us? Or would they realize that it would scare us too badly for us to know the real truth of the universe. A chill just went up and down my spine, what was that all about?

72 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whew! Ernie, all I can say is, don't let yourself become awestruck by some of the gibberish entries posted recently, for there’s an old saying: “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.” Let those who speak so eloquently of the metaphysical come forward to enlighten us with observations more substantive and quantifiable, lest we become skeptical of their Einstein-like intelligence.
What say you, Suzy, Spyrock, et al? Regale us with your astute insights of more rational and foundational matters that can be measured by science. But first, if we are to limit our discussions to the occult - and there is no other name for it - let’s begin with Suzy’s penchant for referring to herself in the “3rd person“.
According to Freud (heard of him?), “ … it is precisely at this point that the “3rd person” comes in: that is, enters the scene as the intrapsychic instance or agency that is also the repository of the metaphysic values that constitute a culture: the superego. This superego is heir to the ambivalence that characterizes the narcissism of the ego from the very first: from its refusal to accept another that would be radically different from itself (that is, from its self-image) …”
See? Anyone with copy-paste skills can be the next guru! So let’s finish with a timeless perplexity to ponder, shall we? “If a man expresses his opinion when his wife is not around, is he still wrong?”

Ernie Branscomb said...

My superego is impressed with your cut and paste!

Q: “If a man expresses his opinion when his wife is not around, is he still wrong?"
A: Only if she finds out about it.

Ernie Branscomb said...

We all accept and understand the first three dimensions, highth, breadth, and depth, and some accept time as the fourth dimension, but how do you visualize or understand the twelfth dimension? twelfth dimension

Anonymous said...

Freud was a cocaine tooting neurotic himself... and if there is a more narcissistic drug than cocaine...let me know. Could you pick a healthier psychologist please...our culture has suffered enough from that one man's thoughts.
When one reads a book where the third person voice is used do you automatically think "narcissist"?
Dime store blog anal-ysts are a dime a dozen, embrace your id and climb down out of that shabby ego structure your proud mind hides behind.

Anonymous said...

Tom Hansen? Is that you anonymously posting so early in the morn from the midwest?
Are you eating that GM cereal while you write? Post Toasties perhaps?
Did you get your tattoos yet?

D. Lewis Kirby..SPCA. said...

Post Toasties are a Kraft foods product. Which brings to mind the Rigelski theory. The universe is actually shaped like a cereal bowl. The Milky Way and neighboring galaxies are actually a microscopic corn flake stuck to the rim of the bowl waiting to be rinsed off in the cosmic dishwasher of time. "He's not heavy, he's my brother.".... Pinky Lee.

Anonymous said...

Genetically Modified is the usage of GM that I did not make clear in my unneccessary digs at Mr. Hansen. Tom should live close to a university to keep his mind near like company.

Anonymous said...

Onetime Lodgepole referred to himself in the 3rd person, when his id was dryhumping his superego.

Robin Shelley said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
\ said...

What say you, Suzy, Spyrock, et al? Regale us with your astute insights of more rational and foundational matters that can be measured by science. But first, if we are to limit our discussions to the occult - and there is no other name for it - let’s begin with Suzy’s penchant for referring to herself in the “3rd person“.

Suzy will pass your first concern to another member of our assteamed panel. Suzy belives that the discussion broke off with a modification on the theory of The Locality of Suonds in the Universe (and trees etc.) ie are they real? or just in Suzys head? And if theyre just in Suzys head, and she has 3 purses --then which shell is the pea under? --you wanna take that one Spy?

Now as for the question of Dr Fried and the 3rd person, or the 11th dimension whichever... (or you may prefer to call it the occult - and there is no other name for it --LOL!!) But your answer is --Suzy doesnt use the 3rd person, she prefers the 3rd peep =its a chick thing LOL!

Ok now, lets, just for the fun of it, turn Narcissism's mirror around and see what it looks like from your side of the medicine cabinet... shall we? * * * o yes! a vision!!! And just exactly what IS that Suzy sees? oh oh its a little itty bitty baby, just born a few hundred years ago, and isnt he cute? hes called Modern Science. Hes at that stage of development where he thinks that he is "God's' (LOL!) gift to the universe, (or in scientifuc terminology --Gawd hisself --the one who looked in the poolhall window and saw his reflection and mistook it for Gertrude Stein's portrait of Einstein) ... Fried called it the Narcisstic stage, and it is precisely where our good little boy is at right now, he loves himself but cannot see anything else as being outside of his own image of reality... (its the stage in normal infant-hood where one experiences the unconditional love and feelings of security that cocaine addicts attempt to regain, or a strong cup of coffee can get you there, btw could you please warm this up a little, thanks. etc.) and of course at this immature age he belives that hes always right and he has proof too right there in his focused little hand,

see that rattle...
and that snot...
thats real
and you cant prove its knot


any other qeustions?

keepin on scratchin on,
peep peep peep..
s

spyrock said...

i've been thinking a lot about the forest lately and i even made a commitment about it. i was reading a book by tom brown called grandfather which explains tom's view of the forest among other things. then ernie put in percy's story and with that and all the other logging people's stories of the past and what is the best way to see the forest and then with the contrast of the tree huggers showing up with their view, i was struck by how many different ways one can see the same forest. so the next book i read. quantum physics, seemed to explain why there were so many different ways that people saw the forest. but i thought that suz would be the only one who might understand what this lady was saying so i entitled it, for suz. and she responded in perfect english, don't ya know. but who would have guessed there were so many men out there named suz. maybe johnny cash.
the only title i'm accepting these days is elder. i'm too young to be an old timer. as an elder its not my job to teach you anything, i'm retired. i'm just sitting on the beach with a beer in my hand. as far as i'm concerned you can believe in anything you want. and i promise to try to show you the same respect i show everyone else.
i learned from my 98 year old dad that ones man's bullshit is another man's treasure. so i agree with the basic tenet of your argument.

Bunny said...

OMR where are you??????

Anonymous said...

I am Emerald Tech Bunny, why do you ask?

Omr anon said...

Actually I was deep in forest thought...I am trying to figure out whether a blog commenter exists if he only thinks his comments and doesn't write them; and what is the sound of lame jokes falling to the ground without laughter?
Until I get my occultition to adjust my third eye prescription I better not muddy the stream of thought here.

Anonymous said...

No I am Emerald Tech Bunny!

Anonymous said...

Lose a preposition and risk calumnry and castigation and teasing dude!

Ernie Branscomb said...

I guess it’s okay to use big words on this blog in the vein of good humor, but if you’re going to lose a preposition, then misspell -Calumny-, you are still subject to great castigation. Thank all that’s Holy you spelled -castigation- correctly. Had you not spelled it correctly, or even with one minor slip of the pen, I could have lost half of my readers from being overcome by the willies.

\ said...

Regale us with your astute insights of more rational and foundational matters

when the Blue Moon is opposite the House of Burgess
And the Wooden Rose aligns with Emerald T
Then the Great Bear shall dwell in the Boot Leg
And love shall guide the CHP...

huggles from the 5th dimension
s

Chills Happen said...

Sorry, calumnery was whot I meaned to say. TypO blood is my eggscuse.

Omr said...

a fifth will set off my dementia everytime suz...

\ said...

try an eighth instead ..

oxoxo

omr with a short telomere complex said...

'Let the Sunshine In' is certainly a refreshing reminder of the tender idealism of those times, but today, too much sun is getting in.
With a quiet sun comes a smaller magnetosphere and less blocking of those littlest pieces of sunshine and other cosmic rays.(not to mention the thinning upper atmospheres' ray blocking losses)
As a senior citizen I am quite confident in saying that 99% of my preposition loss and spelling fox paws (i translated from the french original) can be attributed to bad, or randumb gamma rays, (and other invisible x, and hidden y rays) slicing through my skull, synapses, and self-esteem. Getting my synapses up to speed in the AM after the previous days slaughter is getting to be a greater and greater challenge. This is my theory.

"Those who know do not say, and those who say do not know"...
Some rancheria elders recently gave me some pretty good hints about stuff that they have experienced that they don't want talked about. You have to respect it. Interviewers, like Penny, know what not to say.

Like you said Ernie...it is amazing that material stuff is made of tiny little protons, and negatrons and neuticles that never touch making what we perceive as solid mostly empty space.

For decades the military has explored and used with accuracy the skills of remote-viewers while acadamicians debate its very possibility. That is a fun and easy google search.

Percy Epshun said...

Some months ago a seedy character was going store to store in downtown Garberville enticing store workers and owners to share a little mushroom with him. I was startled by how many went there with him. He had a round disc with a spiral pattern that he would spin and have the individual stare at for 10-30 seconds. They were then directed to look at a little red plastic mushroom standing nearby and, depending upon the direction of the spin, the mushroom would appear to either grow larger or smaller. Most would see rays of "light" coming off the mushroom (of course any object would do, he was a weirdo known to be into gnomes). Person after person would erupt with a visceral vocal response as spinning the spiral made them hallucinate. Even those with the firmest rational grasp gasped. So how does watching a spinning spiral disc make objects change size and "glow". One wise man reacted to the hallucination by saying "We are our neurology".

And what is reality?

Steve Lewis said...

The Gospel of Humanity will explain everything to you; Who and what God is and our role in Creation. Those without noticeable spiritual reception ability can only look to those who have it to find the truth. Otherwise, the spiritually blind think like people born blind to colors thinking that the world is only black and white.

Omr said...

Hey Stephen, you might be pleased to know that a number of boxes of books from Wendy's collection went to the Cahto tribe rancheria for their new little library. My sympathies to you and Bless her soul!

\ said...

Some rancheria elders recently gave me some pretty good hints about stuff that they have experienced that they don't want talked about. You have to respect it.

LOL!!!

\ said...

The Gospel of Humanity will explain everything to you; Who and what God is and our role in Creation.

hey Suzy already knows all about who and what God is and what our role in craetion is and all that good stuff and everything, but what about the tree --does it make a sound if nobody hears if fall?

\ said...

One wise man reacted to the hallucination by saying "We are our neurology".

thats what Suzy calls a knee jerk reaction.

spyrock said...

For power conversion engineers it should be humbling to look at the near-100% efficiency with which plants convert sunlight into chemical energy – after all, the conversion efficiency of commercially available solar cells is only about 16-18%.

Photosynthesis/quantum linkHowever, no one knows how photosynthesis works, despite its potential for solving much of the world’s energy problems. So it’s good news that researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, working with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Berkeley Lab have started to break photosynthesis’ code.

Photosynthesis’ secret sauce seems to be the speed with which it occurs -- the transfer is so fast - virtually instantaneous -- that energy isn't wasted as heat. " Virtually instantaneous" sounds like a quantum relationship, and indeed, the researchers found the answer to the mechanism in quantum mechanics.

“We have obtained the first direct evidence that remarkably long-lived wavelike electronic quantum coherence plays an important part in energy transfer processes during photosynthesis,” said Graham Fleming, the principal investigator for the study. “This wavelike characteristic can explain the extreme efficiency of the energy transfer because it enables the system to simultaneously sample all the potential energy pathways and choose the most efficient one.”

This all sounds so familiar to followers of quantum computing. I’m getting the feeling that within 5 years quantum mechanics will be taught in engineering classes rather than – or in addition to – physics classes. It will be just another technology tool. (Albeit an incredibly cool one.) i cut and pasted this for you since at least some of you seem interested in the latest science has to offer. the rest of you should put your hands over your ears so you won't hear what i'm saying

Steve Lewis said...

Wendy's books to the Cahto tribe..in northern Mendocino? How'd that happen? ..do I even want to know..Wendy's strange legacy with her worldly possessions has not been good for our kid's peace of mind, that's for sure. Wish I could report otherwise but there it is..

But getting back to the GofH, are hydrogen atoms born and spewed forth in the Big Bang after stars are reprocessed through their Black Hole annihilation in a continuous cycle that we humans, being part and parcel of this space-time event, see as our universe or Creation? In other words, is the compression of stars during Black Hole annihilation the way atomic binding energy is formed? God told me this was the case 30 years ago when I experienced the world as illusion, as "maya" during my original religious conversion experience 30 years ago. Any updates on where atomic binding energy comes from?

\ said...

we create our own reality etc. blah blah blah...

So how does watching a spinning spiral disc make objects change size and "glow".


Neuroscience says that a mere 30% of respective mental impressions -- visual, auditive, tactile, etc. results from sensual input, the rest is memory. But alas controlled access of memory is out of our reach. The limbic system, so the sages say, decides by itself what is consequent, and what is irrelevant and acts accordingly adding input from memory. So in other words, mechanically, if you can control the limbic system, then you can assemble any reality you like.

Quantum Engineer (Quark Monkey) said...

You are gonna have to sign up for my weekend seminar "Let's Get Some Enlightenment" before I 'splain all these mysteries.
No way am I gonna share secrets of neuro-perception, creation, big bong theory, and hollow but graphic universes on a blog for free.
However,I will have a blanket on the ground at reggae on the river today where you can all buy an overpriced crystal and sign up for advanced Gnowing classes.

(After the closing act, Lucy in the Sky with Mighty Diamonds, we will all wave our limBics in the air for Michael and Walter)

Indie said...

Oh for heaven's sake...

Robin Shelley said...

I agree, Indie... good Lord!

Ben said...

Now Ernie... That's a great string!

Steve Lewis said...

Existence is a Good Thing..

Quark Monkey said...

Wonderful Reggae fest, very family feeling...though I didn't sell a single copy of my book, "Know it All", where all secrets of the universe are explained for only $9.99 (use your credit card and I will throw in a DVD of Angel Babes Gone Wild for an additional $9.99!).
At one point a feeble older hippie hobbled over and gave me the eye. You know, the one older hippies use on us dreaded newcomer types sitting peacefully selling hippie jewels and baubles. He looked my book over and said I should change the price to $99.99 and people would be throwing their credit cards at me. He said when you give your good stuff away too cheap people don't respect the gift given. He turned and wobbled off.

After that I didn't want to sell my book anymore. I hope I didn't miss any of you who might have been looking for me. I should stop here, satisfied that I got both Indie and Robin to talk about "heavenly matters"....
But I ran into him later and asked him what he knew. This is what he said:
"I have met men who can sit in blissful silence for 20 hours out of a day. I have met men who fly their astral bodies for the military. I have studied the separation of consciousness from the material body via near death experiences, drug experiences, conscious OOBE's, shamanic flight, meditation practices, and nightly dreamtravel (which everyone does).
I have hooked up to EEG's and dropped my brainwaves into the magical slower ranges. I have linked up to the Mother's Earth's brainwave (Schumann Resonance)back when it was closer to 7.8 cycles a second. I have traveled out of my body. There is an experiential knowing that many have had that those who have not had it can only listen about. For those who have had such an experience of a reality beyond the culturally defined box reality, there is no taking it away such a knowing.
Study your mystics,saints, healers, medecine men, psychonauts, shamans, zen meditators, etc... consciousness is their area of expertise."

And then a cute young woman with a short skirt walked by and he followed her away crying out "Are you Suzy Blah Blah?". It was a little pathetic, and now that I see that she was blogging on Saturday, even more pitiful.

\ said...

did you get Tanya's autograph? i'll trade for a Penny C.

Omr said...

I don't know if that quarky fella got Tanya's autograph or not, but I don't want to hear about Penny C. anymore. Ever since she trolloped around in that "faux bump inducing" dress I have lost interest. She is practically saying "Bump me, I want your baby" to everyone. Tragic.
Beside I am sorta getting tired of those cease and desist letters from her lawyers. Mr Handsome Oregon can have her too.
But I hear she has a sister who is a flamenco dancer!

Robin Shelley said...

I didn't get the Penny C. reference. At first, I thought you were referring to Penny Comer of the "Through The Eyes of the Elders..." infamy & I thought I was going to have to rip OMR up one side & down the other - LOL! Especially since Penny Ccomer is Oregon's cousin...I just didn't know what the heck was being inferred here! Sorry for that little hot flash of anger, OMR.

Then I thought you might be referring to 100 pennies... oh, forget it!

Just so you know, Oregon is still in Oregon... for now but not for long. And he probably would go for that flamenco dancer... he's cheap, Suzy. Cheap & easy.

And, OMR, my man Redford (who is 71 years old, by the way) married his longtime live-in love the other day... & she's 51! Beautiful, of course, but that's beside the point.
^&*%$!!!!

Omr said...

Whew! I felt that "hot flash" Robin, it was kinda exciting, but I am glad you spared me the tongue-lashing. Even I know a Penny Comer autograph is worth way more than a Penny Cruz Sanchez.

My sincere condolences on that Redford news, sounds like he is a real cradle robber.

\ said...

i'll trade two Wavy Gravys and a Derril Cherney for a Penny Comer.

\ said...

Oregon? how cheap? I may have a Penny soon.

Robin Shelley said...

If you haven't got a penny then a half-penny'll do... la, la, la!

Robin Shelley said...

Also, if you keep Darryl Cherney, you've got a deal!

Robin Shelley said...

Although... he's probably worth a pretty penny now... ooooooo *groan*!

Omr said...

How come when folks ask for my two cents worth, they only end up giving me a penny for my thoughts?

\ said...

when they offer a penny for your thoughts make sure they give you the link to the cruz in for a bruisin site. btw, i have a Suzy Blah Blah autograph, i'll let it go for an Angel Babes Gone Wild dvd, an I Know Everything book, a spining spiral, one lame joke falling, an emerald techbunny, a random gamma, a faux bump, 2 crystals 3 baubles and a jewel, a red plastic mushroom, a culturally defined box, some castigates (or whatever those things are that flamenco dancers click with their fingers), and some hints that somebody gave somebody some hints about something somebody experienced...

omr said...

Hey, this daze turning out all right! Yahoo news tried to warn me astrologers were warning us about some kind of eclipse and new moon doom.
First some dreaded newcomer outs me as a Suzstalker (BTW, I have only gotten slapped twice so far for asking youthful womens if they are the Suzy Blah Blah), and he gives my business advice and stories away for free.
Then I almost incur the wrath of the "Long Valley cousin clan" for seeming like I was dragging one of their finest through the dirt. I thought I was going to have to rip OMR up one side & down the other... She don't know how ripped I am. Gorgeous Oregon may be handsome, but I have six pack abs... under just enough bubble wrap to keep 'em cewl.
And now a chance for a Suzy Blah Blah autograph... for cheap, when you think about it. And a new site to check out. And we are not even to the day I had around all this stuff.
Suz you may not want to do the trade as I am about to give the hints of a hint of a story away to everbody...let's renegotiate later.

red-river road said...

The redroad took me south to drop off a great batch of Native American childrens books and pursuant to their request…a number of the Harry Potter books. It was a busy day there but I got to talk and share with one of the locals for quite awhile. I ran into a few family trees that were perhaps even more thickly branched than the Long Valley oldtimer families’ trees. While we were chatting, a van pulled up and two women introduced themselves to my new friend and said that they were-- yes you might have guessed it—cousins.
I learned a lot, and am sending him the Curtis link on the Kato, and the Kroeber chapter on the fighting between the Cahto and Yukis (and others) that started partly because of disputes over the obsidian deposit at Black Rock. He shared back the Cahto name None(e) chun shin and what that meant. Thars the hint Suz.
After a brief stop at the Free Internet coffee café in Laytonville to check Ernies' Place, I asked my arrowhead if I should visit the Medecine Tree again. The yes answer took me back up and over the Cahto trail . At one driveway I saw someone bucking hay off a wagon so I pulled in to ask if I was seeing Black Rock from there (we were on a ridge to the east of BR). It was a very nice woman who interrupted her midday work for my many questions. She has worked in the schools to help the Indian children do basketweaving, and gave me encouragement about the younger generations at the Rancheria. She confirmed that I was looking at Black Rock, and answered my question of why there is obsidian there…it is the west side of a volcanic caldera. Didn’t know that. We talked history for an hour. Her place had been a stage stop. The stages carried bells, with one for going east and a different one for going west as they had to sound out around the many blind corners . Shortly before her driveway, I had gone past a promontory that made my “spideysenses” (reference to Spiderman) tingle. When I ran the stories of Bloody Run by her, she added that she had been told that the slaughter occurred on that promontory which we could see from her home. When she had first moved there, the neighbors had asked her how she could live there where such an incident had occurred, but she had felt no ill effects. I told her that one of the Elder stories said that the pioneer vigilantes had shot the Indians off a bluff at Bloody Run, which fit the description of her place. (from what I recall she said there wasn’t such a bluff at the creeksite---we need to confirm this) I asked how the Indians could have come over the hill from the Bloody Run Creek, and she replied that there was a known bear and mountain lion trail. So to add to our versions of what happened 150 years ago at Bloody Run, there is her addition. Is this a second part of the same massacre or a different incident. Her Poonkinny location was the site of many many Yukis villages. One historian said there were rancherias almost every 200 yards along the river which made for easy slaughtering. Perhaps this was a different massacre that time has obscured.
I also asked her why ranchers don't make smaller senior citizen size bales of high, they have seemed stuck on that one ton size for a long time.
After a few hugs and a sharing of emails and phone numbers I parted ways and went to thank my favorite new tree before riding home northwards through the purtiest valley…locals call it Long Valley, but I want to learn the Indian name… it probably means “valley of the cousins”.

omred river said...

Doh! How could I ferget to mention that whilst I was history schmoozing with that Poonkinny woman, I name-dropped the famous Branscomb name. Which led to her sharing a story about being on some car racing adventure in eastern Wyoming when a man came up to her in one of the towns. Having spied a Branscomb sticker on her vehicle he asked if that was from Branscomb, California. When she replied in the affirmative, sure enough, he was a Branscomb who had moved away and never returned. She was going to see if she still had the name written down somewhere.
They are everywhere it seems!

Robin Shelley said...

Ever hear any stories about the singing monks at Dos Rios, OMR? I've been told a bell still exists there & that the monks can still be heard some evenings.

Robin Shelley said...

BTW, you're not hauling my sister-in-law around with you, are you?
(-: You don't want to suddenly find yourself being called Cousin!

\ said...

omg! no, omr youre not gonna hint about the Secret about how angel babe went wild are you??? don't do it, Billy will really really really be pissed, and when Billy gets really really etc. --never mind. i'll meet you at Reggea Rising next weekend and we'll renegotiate about the position of my moon, you can arrange my chart any way you like and you can put my moon anywhere ... anywhere, that means yuo can arrange even an eclipse conjunct your crystal wand... so look for Suzy, I'll flick my limbic at you *** and i'll bring the autograph and an extra little Treat ;o)

\ said...

but omr, if you think im gonna be bad again and wear a black cowboy hat --well, maybe and maybe not, we'll negotiate about it...

omr said...

hey Robin... never heard of the Dos Rios monks and bells?...another mystery to pursue...

Your sister-in-law gets a story update every month or so, but is not in tow. They recently passed onto me one of his artfilled books...which I loved of course.

I like to think I am a probationary honorary cousin of the Long Valley clans.

where are my nitroglycerin pills said...

dang, the best offer i have had all year and it is a tricksy...you might have gotten me when i was younger, but i have been led astray before and learned my lesson. poor olmanriver sitting in a deserted field waiting for a lunar eclipse, re-arranging his crystal wand this way and that in nervous anticipation ... i'll meet you at Reggea Rising next weekend... running through his mind...poor olmanriver.
RR is two weekends from now!the coyotes howling outside just told me this is a coyote appointment creation myth (i didnt just make this up out of nothing). nice try goddess, but i didn't just fall off the rutabaga truck yesterday.
please don't tell billy i called you a goddess!

Anonymous said...

What a ripoff, Suzi's link is a scene from the original Angel Babes Gone Wild movie that was stolen and commercialized for big corporate bucks.

omr's editor said...

senior citizen size bales of high ---You people shouldn't let that one go by...I think he originally meant hay.

omr said...

Still quite the day...now someone at Heraldo's clues me into some corporation stealing MY image for some mudflap profiteering. Please don't look here before Reggae Risen suz!?!

Robin Shelley said...

I heard that story years ago, OMR... then read about it later - possibly in one of Rena Lynn's books or articles. I haven't met very many people who do know about it.
Ernie, did you know Heiny Bonson? I may have his first name wrong.

Anonymous said...

"If you can't dazzle them with baffle, bullshit them with brilliant"... Thanks for the inspiration Anonymous 4:48!

thread hogger said...

Robin--that sounds interesting. I keep waiting for Ernie to start the ghostpost...maybe we need to come back to earth for awhile. Thanks for the tip.

suz...i won't tell anyone...are you a black hat hacker? wiki sez:"Black Hat Hackers (also called "crackers"), are hackers who specialize in unauthorized penetration" whereas white hats are:"A white hat is the hero or good guy, especially in computing slang, where it refers to an ethical hacker or penetration tester.."
naturally i am only interested in seeing that i wear a complementary ensemble for our negotiations.

Omr said...

now i know folks are gonna think that is another gratuitous lewdicrusty comment from this olfella, but really, the color of the hat Is important. according to the de Bono hat system, also known as the sex thinking hat system, white hats are for looking at the facts and black hats are for critical judgement. so you can see why this matter to me.

omr said...

gosh, sorry... meant to say six thinking hats! what was i thinking... better go drink some coffee for my forebrain!

dirty river said...

Sorry, sorry, sorry suz...just saw the video... a black hat will be fine...in fact, many of my beast friends were bras, panties and black hats. Got no problem with that. Still negotiating...

Robin Shelley said...

These negotiations that you are setting up with The Suz may well draw a crowd, OMR.

weary negotiator said...

i meant to say ...many of my best friends wear....

probably right Robin, but there is some confusion over the date (poor choice of words, sorry billy)of the transaction, and after all this hard bargaining i may need a rest. maybe i should just steal that autograph she left in garberville back in her parking sign period, as we art collectors refer to it.

Anonymous said...

I like to go to Treats. It's a nice relaxing place to have a cup of coffee. The murals are lovely, even the bathroom walls are part of the mural. But this morning after coffee I visited the bathroom and saw the signiture SUZI scrawled across the mural. This is going too far.

Anonymous said...

Did you put a piece of paper on top of it and trace it?

Eric V. Kirk said...

Einstein actually didn't think he knew how it all worked. He understood some fundamentals of physics, but he wrote something about how learning is like an expanding island of knowledge, where the shore against the ocean of what you don't know becomes larger as you learn, basically the more you learn the more you realize you don't know.

Ernie Branscomb said...

Thanks Eric, Einstein's Island was considerably bigger than mine. So there is a whole lot less that I don't know that I don't know.

So, I'm less smart and less dumb than Einstein. I think that I'll just leave it at less dumb.