Upper Heaven

Every year we head down to Ojai for Thanksgiving dinner with my in-laws. Every year I drive to the top of Sulphur Mountain to visit Meher Mount, a retreat established by Meher Baba in the 1950s. It overlooks everything, including Larry Hagman's palatial home that he referred to as "Heaven". Obviously Meher Mount must be Upper Heaven. It sure feels that way.

Last Friday I announced that I was driving up the mountain to visit Larry Hagman (merely meaning that I was headed for Meher Mount). I only learned later in the day that Larry had just died. I can't vouch for any afterlife heaven...but I can tell you that Larry and I have shared a slice of it right here on Earth for a while.

Salmon chanted evening...

A rafting trip down the Yuba River was a real eye opener. The environmental damage from gold mining in the 1850s still haunts us today. We studied the life cycle of Chinook salmon and explored their habitat. We were blessed with glorious weather.

Those distant mountains are not mountains at all, but rather the tip of the iceberg when it comes to accumulated rocks from gold mining in the 19th Century that have washed down out of the mountains.

Amongst our salmon studies was the investigation of macro-organisms in the water, in order to gauge the river's health. It passed. 

 After salmon swim up river to spawn they die. Not much profit to be made here in online dating services.  Word of advice...I don't recommend picking up stinky dead salmon...but its a free country.