In September 2018 I started a limited run of full moon celebrations. I wasn’t sure in the first few months that I would maintain the ritual for an entire year, but like anything, my drive to think of new activities each month fell right into my natural creative cycle which begins with the new moon and peaks with the full moon, crashes, then rebuilds.
Month after month, year after year.
No astrology here, it is just a fact I noticed in middle age. It has always been true. I am just learning to harness it.
Last month I thought the run was complete. I went out for coffee and photography at 1 am with my daughter who has since started High School. It wasn’t my greatest planned full moon effort of the year, but she was tired from soccer practice and I was busted up from deadlines of working on the remodel of the Bungalow at Cafe Irie. My construction career has left me essentially disabled by the standard of who I once was, so when I get on a push to complete a section it gets pretty painful. Re-plumbing the Bungalow was one of those sections. I got it done, and now I have a chiropractor for the first time in 15 years too.
Kids…spine health is very important. Take care of yours or else.
When we returned from our Instagram quest for a Klamath Falls night-time skyline photo (Eulalona trailhead is a good one for this), I was feeling pretty fun about night time captures so I set up the tripod in my driveway and messed around with long exposures. My daughter abandoned me to go do whatever it is that teenagers do in their phone world all night.
Just me and the moon.
I got some compelling images, and a place to continue from as I develop my skills as a novice photographer. In the morning I woke up feeling a bit empty. My year of lunacy was complete, and the last task was not more interesting than the one before it.
July was so epic that it gets a long form essay some time down the road. I promise. Perhaps the most fun I have had in…well, I don’t know. Maybe ever.
It was a high bar to top, and left me feeling like I had failed to find the fun. The fun was there, I just didn’t have the right filters on. I did not have the creative surge in August that had charged my drive in the previous 11 months.
Why? What could be done about it? It felt like it was getting worse. By the start of School I was beginning to worry. I’ve never built a website before. I had the deadline of trying to launch this site sitting in piles of every media I work in on my desktop, and too many loose ends in the Bungalow.
Claustrophobic clutter.
It is hard to find a creative space with your crawlspace opened up. Winter is coming. That has a lot of deadlines of it’s own attached to it.
I want to be tidy so I can enjoy it. Winter might not be around much longer.
Ski while you can.
Every year in September there are two organized rides on the Rim Road of Crater Lake. The events attract several thousand riders, and is a fun Autumn destination for tourism in our region. If you ever get the opportunity to do this ride or even a part of it you will never regret it. Rain or shine.
I did the ride in a previous year. This year I am all about new experiences and challenging my comfort zones, so I volunteered to help with whatever is needed for the day to go smoothly. I have been operating in near complete seclusion for a long time, and have begun to think that if I do not reintegrate with the population soon I might not ever be able to again. I am probably about 20 years too young to go that route, so I will be perched at the Cleetwood Cove rest station all day on the 21st.
Wish me luck. It will be more than I have talked in the totality of the last four years.
In committing to the ride I also decided to create the deadline of having this website published before I had to talk to anyone.
It has all worked out well. Tonight is the full moon and the battery for my Nikon is charging, waiting for me to finish writing so the Bakers Dozen of Full Moon expansion can become tonight’s reality and exercise.
It is hard to make major change in a life, especially for busted up old men like me, but I have the heart of a child and a desire to see a better world for the future, or at least work toward slowing the destruction.
I work to be the best husband and father I can, and if that means going public with my skills, then I have no other choice. Hopefully someone finds value or just fun in the content of Cafe Irie Design.
I am grateful to have a choice. I am blessed to offer this website to you.
Thank you.
Thank you to everyone in my life positive, negative and neutral for helping me get to this exact moment.
Future Entries…
Will come sporadically as this site develops.
Most of my effort in the next month will be focused on organizing the portfolio and gallery pages. Also, I need to start generating some product to put in the gallery, so hopefully most of what is needed to start this experiment is here and working.
I am looking forward to the digital chapter of my life.
Resistance was futile.
I should have embraced this years ago, but I never expected to decline so quickly.
Hindsight.
Peace.