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TUESDAY, JULY 5, 2016

  

Hooray hooray, the Fourth of July is gone away but it will be back another day.



SATURDAY, JULY 2, 2016

          PLAQUE IN SAN FRANCISCO



            



SATURDAY, JUNE 25, 2016



For those of you who haven't heard, after 45 years, we are no longer doing
the Fourth of July party and BBQ, so please make other plans. Thanks.



MONDAY, JUNE 20, 2016
   FULL MOON AND SOLTICE BOTH

            

Went to the Jug Grass Jamboree and had good time with friends and some family.

 

        Michael and Simon ooohing over the turbo engine.                                         With granddaughter, Celia.

   

                         

  

                              Here's a funky vidie of a song I did with the pickup jug band, Lovelight story of the bus and Pigpen.

 https://www.facebook.com/simon.babbs/videos/vb.574967569/10154185673407570/?type=2&theater&notif_t=video_processed&notif_id=1466362527710919



SATURDAY, MAY 28, 2016

Hard to believe it's been over a month since I last put anything on the webpage. Been
trying to write my book and also ramroding a big job putting our electrical power line
underground so the power company quits coming in and cutting down the trees to keep
them from toppling the lines some perhaps day in the unknown future.


SUNDAY, APRIL 24, 2016

Deep into writing, been ignoring the website, laying off of Facebook and the other time
wasters on the internet, and, yes, getting some work done but  a long road ahead one slow
letter, word, sentence, paragraph, page at a time. Here's some pics, they are  quickies so don't
make me guilty of being a work wastrel.



Reaching for a match with which to start a fire in the wood stove, nice to have
a helping hand.



Calf, reaching through the wire for a handout of alfalfa. Rope around his face
is a halter to use for training him but no one seems to have much time for that,
including the calf.



SUNDAY, APRIL 3, 2016



                 Fve months after crushing my elbow, back on the bike again.

       

                                                Roadies and Rhodies.



MONDAY, MARCH 29, 2016

LITHUANIAN GOULASH


A second cousin to Hungarian goulash which was my favorite meal in my high school
cafeteria. I would always go through the line again to get seconds. Hungarian goulash
is made with elbow macaroni whereas Lithuanian goulash is made with egg noodles.
Otherwise everything else is the same.

Save your leftover spaghetti sauce or make some from scratch.
Warm the sauce on the stove.
Boil water and dump in the egg noodles and boil for ten minutes.
Drain noodles, put in oven dish and scoop sauce on top.
Mix thoroughly.
Grate cheese on top.
Bake at 450 degrees in oven for fifteen minutes.
Dig in and enjoy.



MONDAY, MARCH 21, 2016

I got thrown a curve ball about Passover and Easter. They are not on the
same week this year. Passover is next month. Passover is figured on a lunar
calendar and every few years they have to have a leap year and add
another month and that's happening this year and that's why Passover is
a month later. Most of the time Easter is the first Sunday after Passover,
on Sun and Lunar calendars alike.


SUNDAY, MARCH 20, 2016



Why does the date Easter falls on vary so much every year, falling in either March
and April? It’s because Easter is always the first Sunday after Passover, and Passover
always falls on the first full moon after the spring equinox.

         Today is the spring equinox. Wednesday is the full moon. This year, as only
happens occasionally, the week lines up the same as it did in Biblical times, with
Passover on Wednesday (or whatever they called the days of the week in those times).

         Today is also Palm Sunday, the same day that Jesus (against the wishes of his
followers who said the Sanhedrin, the Jewish leaders, would kill him if he did) went
into Jerusalem to celebrate the high days surrounding Passover.

         He rode on an ass and the people threw palm leaves on the road so the donkey’s
feet didn’t touch the ground.




SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2016

Last night we went to the U of O ducks versus OSU beavers basketball game in
Eugene and afterwards went to dinner with old friend, Bill Walton, who was doing the TV
broadcast of the game.

 

                                                                            The well kown selfie.             Bill checking email, Eileen watching.

  

                                             First, Bill with Eileen and me.                           Next, Bill with Eileen and our daughter, Liz.

  

                                                      Mountain Girl and Bill.                                    Add George Wallker at the right.



SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016

SO MUCH FOR JANUARY

KESEY FILM from a few years back, shown again a few
nights ago is STREAMING ON OPB


KESEY FILM




Oregon Experience offers a fresh look at this tie-dyed-in-the-wool Oregonian.
“Ken Kesey” presents rare interviews with Kesey family members, including
his son Zane, daughter Sunshine, granddaughter Kate Smith, widow Faye
Kesey McMurtry and his 97-year-old mother Geneva Jolley. Additionally,
several authors weigh in on Kesey’s writings and antics: Michael Strelow,
professor of literature at Willamette University; Robert Faggen, professor
 of literature at Claremont McKenna College and Kesey’s biographer; and
 Ken Babbs, a Kesey friend, writer and lifelong Merry Prankster.


For the whole story, go to:

KESEY ON OPB





It's blowing up a storm out there, time to sit in the after cabin look out the rear window and
watch the blustery wind. The sound of branches and cones falling on the roof make bangs
that bounce on the house and the fire is going good in the woodstove. Oh what a nice snack,
bread and beer, hey wait a minute what happened to the bread looks like I didn't get a rise
out of it, oh well it will be good soaked in the beer.





MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2016
MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY

REFLECTIONS ON TURNING 80



 

         80 is the new 70. We know how to live longer now: lots of veggies, little red meat, Nancy’s
yogurt from the Springfield Creamery, bicycling (oops), naps and cordyceps mushroom powders
from fungi.com. Stay fit by working on strength, balance, agility and endurance. Stay away from
the four killer drugs: alcohol, tobacco, sugar and pork.

         I was born at a very early age and grew up being imprinted by all the values of the world
and thought the game was rigged but I was smart enough to beat it and that lasted until the
Sixties when thanks to lsd and psylocibin and peyote mushrooms which enabled me to trip
up and down the dna ladder. I realized past and present and future were happening all at
once and we put it in a chronological order to think we understand it but that’s a laugh, it’s
too big and vast to understand, but we are blessed to have been given a glimpse of the underlying
truths that are important and try to live up to them and pass them on to others.

So I'm awake but barely on my 2nd cup of coffee and something in my head says put
some whiskey in it and I think where in the world did that come from, is that some kind of
thing lurking inside me and it pops up like those ads on the side of Facebook? I tell it to shut
up and go away just like I never read those ads.

Just like we have dual personalities, one which we think of as the real us, the kind, competent
person; and the other is the role we play to impress the boss, we have dual voices in our heads,
the good decent righteous thoughts and the getting even doing something different in our pasts;
just like the cartoons showing the person with the devil on one shoulder and the guardian angel
on the other, both imploring the person, do this do that.

         Trick is to make room for the good thoughts, don’t deal with the bad. As Cassady said,
“Went through life a balanced man at last.”

Kesey said the most important currency is that of the spirit; be upbeat and of good cheer
no matter the situation, you will come through it in fine shape, but be aware there are also spirits
at work looking down on us and wanting to get into the game on the material plane and the only
way they can do it is to get into a person’s head and be one of the voices, like the one telling me
to have a shot of whiskey in my coffee.

I see them as malevolent spirits and I’ve named their leader, Mal. There are also benevolent
spirits working on us and they are led by Bene. The trick is to recognize which one is working on you,
tell Mal to take a hike and let Bene give us the goods.

So the battle goes on, not only in the material world, but inside our heads. We only get one trip
on the material world so we want to make the best of it. Realize we are not perfect beings, we are
going to fuckup but we can’t let the fuckup be a hangup. Someone asked Kesey if he had any regrets
and he said, “Anyone who says he has no regrets is either lying or an idiot.”

So we go for success in terms of completion and getting our works out into the world, but we
never caught the golden ring and as Kesey said, this was our saving grace – to always fail and return
home to our family and friends and community. We are rubes, but we are God’s own rubes, born to
be duped, striving for success, destined to fail as we romp through life all in our places with smiles
on our faces what a wonderful way to start each day, our feet on the ground our heads in the stars
our bellies in the kitchen give us each day our daily bread.

Another good Keseyism is when he said his best advice on marriage is, “Don’t say it,” speaking
of when you get into it with your other half, for words once released cannot be sucked back in. One
time Paige Browning came over to Kesey’s when I was there. Paige was all in a dither. “I’ve finally
figured it out,” he said, “A woman’s job is to give men shit.”

         Kesey said, “Yeah, but it’s a man’s job to eat it.”

         I added, “And the enlightened man likes the taste.”

         Paige shook his head. “I’m not there yet.”

         Paige saved our asses one time. We read about the scientists in Holland opening the third eye
in a guy’s head by cutting a hole through his forehead, thereby letting previously unknown thoughts
and revelations in. Kesey and I decided to try it. We got out the electric drill, flipped to see who would
go first, Kesey lay down on the table, I aimed in with drill and the power went off. We were surprised
but found out quick when Paige came in and said, “Did you think I was going to let you dumb fucks
drill holes in your heads?” We didn’t go overboard thanking him but were nevertheless relieved.

         Neal Cassady was the bridge between the Beat Generation and the Psychedelic Revolution, a
foot in each one.

         Kesey and I fell in the crack between the Beats and the Hippies; too young for one and too old
for the other.

         But we were revolutionaries then and revolutionaries now. Under the asphalt. Plant the seed,
grow some weed.

         We work for the good, that’s understood, but we don’t seek protection and we don’t run for
election.

         We’ll be what we’ll be and what we’ll be is be free.

         When Kesey was giving a talk one time some guy in the audience yelled, “What ever happened
to the revolution, Kesey?”

         Kesey thought for a minute and then began to sing:

         When you walk the streets you will have no cares

         If you walk the lines and not the squares

         As you go through life make this your goal

         Watch the donut not the hole.

         “This is where the revolution’s at,” he said. “Where people in the know are optimistic.
They sincerely believe the carrot is better than the stick, that mercy comes before justice, and
that love is the only thing you can trust to guide you down the mean mainstreets of moneymad America.”






THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 2016

Spoke at my wife's two A.P. English classes yesterday at South Eugene High School.
They are reading Ken Kesey's Sometimes A Great Notion, and I talked about Kesey and my
relationship with him over the years, including the time he was writing the book.



Last weekend, three of my wife's A.P. Lit students from last year -- now college students -- came
by. First we checked out the cow and her new calf, and then they  helped me spread gravel on the
potholes in the driveway; afterwards they split up a big pile of wood that was sitting under a tarp
all fall and winter. We rewarded them with ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch.

Quincy Gill, Amrit Nam Singh Khalsa and Liam. Thanks, guys.

 





SUNDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2015


Best holiday album, been playing it constantly.



Best holiday present. On Christmas eve our milk cow, Bunny, had a baby calf, a boy named Frankie



        



SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2015

                   

Oct 27th, Eileen and I went to Portland and the hotel we stayed at had free bikes so we
went for a ride along the river on a concrete path. My handle grip came off of my bike
and I fell ass over teacups and hurt myself bad:: my elbow and my head and I haven't
been able to type or do anything since.

            The accident happened on Tuesday morning, We drove home. I went to my doctor
Wednesday morning. He took x-rays, sent me to the orthopedic surgeon who decided to
operate the next day on Thursday, Oct 29.. He put a big plate in my elbow, grafted in some
bone, put in 8 screws, cleaned out all the broken pieces of bones and put my arm in a big
splint and I've been recovering very slowly.


       






 








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