Despite.

Anyway, it was way windy

which didn’t deter me, encouraged after Saturday night’s possibly deranged ravings from an enthusiastic if certifiably inebriated friend ancillary to her birthday, from delving into

my Deep Past.

Also in there we had a fine little dinner down the street at Gaby’s celebratory of nothing

in particular while the mud continued to wash down from the foothills, the winds blew on and

on and also there occurred a couple of BBQ opportunities out back before

I headed out of range, finding it strange to spot Sierra snowpack west of Sacramento on the

way to the Crocker, an excellent not-so-little museum with many wonders.  Being there for

a talk by an acquaintance of L.’s we got the kale salads out of the way first thing and then toured the California galleries [below, “Night Watch”, 2011, by Roger Shimomura], always

revelatory and often strong in Landscapes…early twentieth century being ever interesting to me

as are the Californians [above, George R. Hinkle, “Palm Canyon”, N.D.; below, Maynard Dixon, “Post Office, Lone Pine”, 1919] particularly as a lead-in to Sandra Mendelsohn Rubin’s

observational tours de force, of which we saw a panoply as she took us through her singular career and remarkably focused work, which emerged pretty much fully formed right out of grad school with determination and a precocious technical accomplishment unusual in those times.

Many of her early views of L.A., as above, were painted directly from the van she used as a mobile studio before relocating to Booneville in the late eighties, which I, who makes everything up, found fascinating.  Once the lecture wound to a close L. and I paid our respects and went our separate ways; L. towards Benicia, I belatedly over the hill to Truckee, Sierra Valley and east

to temporarily escape spring by Hallelujah Junction.   Lower Honey Lake showed a hint of green

though at Sand Pass, RR detritus remaining, the architecture has finally succumbed

to erasure and it was pretty brown.  From there the road led up the Smoke Creek to Wall Spring

just before the moon was full…

Full enough to keep a person wakeful, though tired…