A magical young singer songwriter and fabulous pianist rolled in like a tumbleweed and landed at my piano. Great guy. Great music in shades of Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright and Freddie Mercury. (Nathan is pictured far left).

Here’s the video:

You can hear and purchase recordings of Nathan’s music here:

http://www.myspace.com/nathanduprey

Oh the hilarity of it all…

But I’ll let the governor speak for herself. From her interview with Katie Couric:

” . . . where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the healthcare reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. Um, helping, oh — it’s got to be all about job creation too. Shoring up our economy, and putting it back on the right track. So healthcare reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions, and tax relief for Americans, and trade, we’ve got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive, um, scary thing, but 1 in 5 jobs being created in the trade sector today. We’ve got to look at that as more opportunity. All of those things under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout is a part of that.”

You can’t win for trying. You stay thin and healthy and you get penalized for it. You ride your bike and you get a ticket. You call and get a quote and then it’s more than 4 times the quote. The American health care nightmare story of how the middle class fall through the cracks. Here’s my story…

Just going through some old photos I shot and came across this one that reminds me of some of George Platt Lynes’ work. I shot it on the beach in Hawaii near my house in 2005. The sand is ground up lava.

Saw this woman at the Desert Museum members’ breakfast. Couldn’t believe someone would go out with her hair in curlers. Good for her.

My friend Larry Hermsen sent me this photo from Alberta Street in Portland.

Tucson’s summer goes on and on and on like some guy at a bus stop. But, I’m not complaining, really. I’ve been away most of the summer. I have not been here for an August in 6 years, and honestly, I kinda like it.

The mornings are soft and easy. The bees buzz around the small purple flowers of the Texas rangers. The mountains are green as the trees are all leafed-out. I spend hours each day in the pool - at dawn and in the evening with my beer. I nap behind sealed blinds in the afternoons with the air conditioner and the fan doing overtime — the white noise puts me right down. At dusk, the monsoons rumble in black and blue bruised clouds, dragging their droopy brushes of rain across the valley. The rivers run like normal rivers and for a moment you forget you’re in the desert.

But all this natural beauty can drive a tortoise away…

Night biking is the best! It’s as if the air isn’t even there. Not cold. Not hot. It’s like the unclimate. I ride downtown each evening on my bike to Epic Café for the 54 cent seltzer water with ice and lemon slices. Icy drinks in summer are like good sex. In fact, it’s too hot for sex. I’d much rather have a seltzer with ice. (The heat has gotten to me!) Then on the way home, I sit at the empty UofA campus and look at the cotton ball moon and dream of being in Paris. (Click to enlarge)…

Hey, who needs a swimming pool when you have your dad’s truck and a hose?

OH! OOPS! I forgot to upload this photo from the train trip home. This was in the Emeryville Amtrak station. The little lady in pink is not sitting or kneeling. She was a volunteer — a woman who loves trains (what IS it with trains??) — who would help answer questions for travelers. She was paired up with a colossal guy. The two made quite a stature-divergent duo.

Brace yourself, darlings. McCain will beat Obama. It will be close and in fact Obama will likely win the popular vote but McCain will win the office.

Why? Because we have an antiquated and unfair electoral system. A close election in the US always comes down to the swing states. And this year, the swing states are MI, NH, NV, CO, NM, MO, VA, NC and the big cache FL with 27 delegates and Ohio with 20.

Look at this website. It maps out the electoral leanings of all the states.

If you look back at the 2004 elections, at a time when there was WIDESPREAD discontent with Bush, AND a white guy was running on the Democratic ticket, the ONLY swing states listed above that went Demo were the following: MN, MI, NH. IF you add those delegate counts to Obama’s current delegate lead of 228, you come up with a total of 259 delegates. IF you add the delegates that swung Republican in the swing states from 2004, to McCain’s current tally of 163, you come up with 275.

270 electoral votes are required for the presidency.

The swing states will make the election. And if the ones that typically swing RED do as predicted, McCain will be sitting pretty. It will be a close election. My prediction is that FL will do as it usually does - go red. That will require that Obama pick up Ohio. If both Ohio and Florida go red, Obama’s goose is cooked.

So, if you are campaigning, do your work in the battleground states, ESPECIALLY Florida and Ohio.

Last night Twinkles and I went out into the desert to play some volleyball and realized we were surrounded by lightning and we were the highest points in the field. We bolted home and the sky opened up just as we shut the door. The river today is flooded, Internet and power were out last night and a number of trees are down in the neighborhood.

Watch the video:

I cling to my life,
Only in the mornings
In the afternoons I go about the business of living,
In the evenings I sing and laugh and love

But at dawn, when the first beam of light
Crosses my room to pull me from a dream,
Delivering me to the starkness of a life unfinished

It is this time,
alone as I ever am
That I am still with the fear
That just in time to know for certain
Who I am and what I have accomplished,
These things as all things
Will one day be taken away.