Paragraphs by Paul Miller
For a winter treat drive west in Marin on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard some really cold early morning. As you leave Fairfax, the countryside opens up to misty rolling hills and dark oaks. You have a good chance of seeing a resting hawk, crisply backlit by early sun, wild turkeys, and grazing deer even before you get to White's Hill that looks over a white, green, and still San Geronimo Valley.
The treat ends, however, way later down the chilly road.Along the road through the valley are all kinds of horses: black warm bloods, golden quarter horses, hard working Morgans. There are sensuous hills and black and white Holsteins and sometimes solid black Aberdeen Angus. At Spirit Rock's entrance, two or three horses are usually grazing in the retreat's large frosty pasture. Buzzards float high above the valley. Beyond, the road splits a golf course where you can eat an early breakfast or in the evening, have a wedding reception. The steam off the wet greens and water hazards can fool you into believing that you may be driving in Yellowstone National Park.
But farther down the road is Forest Knolls, where Jerry Garcia used to live and where the winter treat ends. It is here where you believe you have left Yellowstone and driven into a forest fire zone. Forest Knolls smells like it's been burned up. You can barely see the outlines of high trees through the smoke.
A lot of people who live there use mostly wood burning stoves and fireplaces to heat their homes. By the time you have driven past the post office, even with your vehicle's windows closed, your clothing smells like a fire jumper's. Pouring out of the houses' orifices and trapped in the narrow valley, the dirty stuff hangs around and owns the place every windless winter morning. The solution? Hold your breath to protect your body from lung disease and drive the hell out of there as fast as you legally can--30 miles per hour.-------------------------------------------------------------------
Long time Marinite Paul Miller
was editorial cartoonist for the Marin IJ, sports cartoonist for the
Novato Advance, a cover cartoonist for the Pacific Sun, and is
currently a cartoonist illustrator for The Ark. He's had cartoons
published in the San Francisco Chronicle and his surf paintings have
been published on the Surfriders Foundation website. He joins MoreMarin
as a contributing editorial cartoonist.
Miller, a former Marine
and UCLA graduate, taught a cartooning course in the art department at
the College of Marin. His paintings and drawings are in private
collections in California, Arizona, Washington, Hawaii, Texas, Florida
and Provence, France. Miller's book, A Cartoonist's Guide to Prostate Cancer, was described by Dr. Dean Edell as "a must for any man facing prostate cancer!"
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