Deer Park Monastery, Escondido, CA
Lazy Day. It’s been a while since I rode into town with my computer to use the wireless connection at the public library. First of all, repeated trips with a laptop on my back and it starts getting heavy, and my back isn’t all that strong. Second of all, even with weather still unseasonably cool, riding in the afternoon heat is a near workout. The six miles into town is easy, all downhill and I’m in the heart of Escondido in less than a half hour. Riding back, though, usually happens when the sun is hot in the afternoon, and the 500-600 foot climb up the mountain the last mile has some pretty steep pitches. Today I was dripping by the time I got back up to Solidity Hamlet.

But I really wanted to get on the internet without being self-conscious, as I have to be when I’m at the monastery. Even when I’m using the wireless hotspot Hanna found in Clarity Hamlet during the Winter, I’m self-conscious because guys shouldn’t get too comfortable in the nun’s hamlet. I only use that hotspot on the days when the whole community goes down to practice in the nun’s hamlet, and between activities I sneak into one of the public rooms where I can use my laptop. I don’t really hide, though. I leave my shoes outside the door so people know I'm there, and anyway, I think it’s alright. No one is going to admonish me for using my computer in a public room. People have poked their heads in the door and have seen me. Although there was the time I missed formal lunch because I was on the internet wasn't hungry, and for some reason they noticed I was absent.

I went to research the Nagasaki option for the 3-5 months that I’m not going to Plum Village, but I ended up scouring the library’s CD section and ripping them onto my computer to put onto my iPod. Pretty un-monk-like behavior. I found Ani DiFranco’s “To The Teeth” and “Evolve”, but “Evolve” didn’t rip successfully, David Bowie’s “Reality” and “Heathen”, both of which got good reviews, but his 20 year refusal to record good music has put me off from buying anything until I’ve heard it, an Aimee Mann CD, a Neil Young CD, a Britney Spears CD, a Stevie Ray Vaughn CD, and Stephen Sondheim’s “Pacific Overtures”, “Passion”, and “Bounce”.

And, of course, as long as I was downtown, I did my obligatory stop for Mexican food and Jamba Juice.