Philip Robert

Last night I took a visit to Jackson Wellsprings to take the waters. The Wellsprings as they're known locally is sort of a funky place. It's an RV park/tent campground with cabins and teepees. The patrons of this little place just north of Ashland are an interesting bunch of people. Many of them would be called hippies I suppose. They've got the requisite dredlocks, tattoos, and piercings you would expect of today's hippies. There are some families who come in attracted by the big swimming pool and the hot springs. There are people who are living here because at $15 a night it is a pretty cheap place to stay.

I was having a good conversation with the girl at the counter when her friend brought over a home made smoothie for her, and the girls decided to take a break. They invited me outside into the cool evening air. We sat down on the grass and the conversation drifted around a bit and we got onto the subject of people who didn't understand why they couldn't just camp at the wellsprings for free. The concept that it was private property and this was the owner's business just seemed to escape their logic.

Counter girl had to go back into the office to take care of some customers. Smoothie girl and I continued talking. The subject of homelessness came up. For most people in this country the homeless are those dirty, ragged looking people pushing around an old shopping cart piled high with all the possessions they own. They live in a shadow world constantly shuffling around panhandleing, and probably wondering where they would sleep for the night. Doesn't seem like a life one would choose, but I suppose they are reasons.

Smoothie girl and I started talking about other kinds of homelessness. She told me that for the past year her family had been living in a tent at the wellsprings, and for a long time she said that she felt like they were homeless. Then she said one night sitting out under the stars with her kids she began to take stock of how they were living. She had a large tent with electricity. She had a microwave and a television. Her and her children had access to all the amenities that the wellsprings had to offer which included the spa and the pool. It wasn't a nice two bedroom house with a white picket fence, but she came to the realization that she was pretty far from homeless. She realized that it didn't matter where they slept as long as it was the same place each night. Her kids were happy, well fed, and she was taking care of them the best way she could while working at the local Wal-Mart.

It's coming up on three years since Tracy threw me out of her life, and I've certainly felt like I've been homeless ever since. I've managed to live in some nice places since then, but what I know for certain is that having a house or an apartment doesn't make a home. When I was with Tracy, for the first time in my adult life I knew what having a home was like. It was her house. It was a small two bedroom one bath place in a nice little neighborhood. Being with her if felt like a palace. That break up is one of the most crushing experiences of my life. The wounds have taken a long time to heal and the scars run deep. I've learned from this that it's not the bricks and mortar of a house that make a home, its the ties of the heart. Love is a powerful force, given a chance it will change the way you look at the world.

Being a guy there's something about things with engines and wheels (or wings) that just gets me going. The other night I pulled up to the Black Sheep Pub in Ashland and sitting out front was a gorgeous Lamborghini VT. The guy had picked out a great vanity license plate. It said IPHL-YA. He told me it was a reference to the cars color, and here I was thinking he was being empathetic to all the guys on the road with Lambo envy...

Meanwhile I'm happy with Eleanor my black 2001 Mitsubishi Montero Sport. I keep threatening to sell her off to get something with working AC, but the truth is she's almost paid for and keeps on running reliably even with 160K + miles.

Recently a company in California has produced a very green car. Zero emmissions, amazing power and handling, and killer good looks. It's going to get the kind of stares that the Lambo gets. Of course I'm talking about the Tesla Roadster. All electric, you can charge it up anywhere, and it gets off the line like a bat out of hell. I'm not too clear on this, but I think Jay Leno may have purchased production model #1 from Tesla. Here he is in a video giving it a review. Happy Driving.

Happy Driving thoughts brought to you by Jay Leno's garage and Philip Robert.

Being healthy is one of the essentials of Happiness. It's important to always be active, to watch what we eat, to really take care of this temple called our body. Something I'm finding out through my yoga practice is how important it is to take care of our feet.

Our feet are made up of numerous tiny bones held together by a network of muscles, tendons, nerves, and blood vessels. Our feet are designed to be flexible, to be sensitive, to hold up our bodies. When we don't take the time to give our feet a good workout they become like clubs that we stand on. At this point it seems like they're always sore and aching. Barking dogs they're sometimes called.

Over the past two months as I've been practicing yoga three or four times a week I've discovered how weak my feet are. The pain from just standing in savasana was often too much and I'd drop down to the mat to relieve this incredible pain I was feeling in my feet. What is going on? Why are my feet so sore? It's because they're not used to being barefoot. They're not used to flexing and supporting the weight of my body as I work out. That's what a good pair of shoes is supposed to do.

Shoes may protect our feet in some ways, like preventing you from feeling the thorns in your lawn, but in other ways they prevent our feet from working the way that they should. Imagine having to wear a stiff leather or plastic jacket which limited the movement of your arms and shoulders. If you wore this all the time for years upon years how fit do you think the muscles, tendons, and joints of your torso would be? Take away the support and start moving, and I'd bet that your entire upper body would be screaming with pain. That's what we do when we encase our feet in shoes.

Will I stop wearing shoes? Not a chance. It's just not appropriate in our society to walk around unshod in lots of places. Will I be going barefoot a lot more? You can bet on it. Especially some of the places that I'll be visiting this summer. Remember how happy you were when summer time came when you were a kid? Besides no school for three months it also meant getting to run around barefoot. Those were happy times in my life, and I had happy feet. This summer I'm looking forward to having many happy moments and having happy feet with them as well.

Surely you've noticed the strange looking shoes up in the picture. They're called Vibram Five Fingers, and I'm planning to get a hold of a pair as I drive through Bend, Oregon next week. They might look a little weird, sort of like toe socks on steroids, but I bet they're great for knocking around rivers, swimming holes, and hot springs.

Take some time for yourself this summer and walk around barefoot. Get your feet moving, flexing, and gripping. Get a foot massage. Dance the Tango in the kitchen in your socks. Have fun! Have Happy Feet!

brought to you by Philip Robert.

Few things are more satisfying to me than cooking with my friends. I'll admit that I'm a decent cook. It comes from my Grandmother who was a magnificent cook. Lately I've been getting into pastries. My favorite are Rustic Apple Tarts from a recipe in last autumn's Cook's Illustrated entertaining issue. I've also been getting a ton of ideas from a few food blogs that I regularly read.

• The Skinny Gourmet
• Smitten Kitchen
• Cooking for Engineers

These are just a few of the food blogs out there, and I look at a lot of others. These three just have really great recipes. Skinny Gourmet has a recipe for cinnamon rolls that I've yet to try. I think that they'll debut at next month's family reunion. Smitten Kitchen has a pizza dough recipe that I've had great success with, and Cooking for Engineers taught me how to cook bacon. My favorite method of these is baking at low heat. I actually bake the bacon at 350 degrees for 20 minutes unless I need the bacon grease for something. Cooking it at 200 degrees like Cooking for Engineers does takes hours, the bacon needs just a little extra heat at the end to crisp it, but the fat renders out beautifully!

One of the greatest things about cooking this way is that you have an opportunity to know exactly what you're putting into your food. I try to get down to the core ingredients of the recipes preferring to cook biscuits or pancakes from scratch for example. Instead of using someone else's biscuit mix or pancake mix, I mix up my own to much better results. It takes a little extra effort sometimes, but having a pantry stocked with staples usually results in meals that are much more exciting than the fare that you get at most restaurants. Happy cooking everyone!

Written by Philip Robert

Once upon a time I read that there are three things that are important. Where you lived, where you worked, and your love. The premise was that if you were very lucky then you were very happy with all three, but most of would have only two of the three. Is this true? I don't know. I have experienced having two of the three a few times in my life. Of the three which is the most important? That is an easy question. Find someone that you are happy with who is happy with you, and I believe that the other two will fall into line. On the other hand no matter how nice your house or how fulfilling your work, without someone significant in your life... what's point? That's what I believe.

That being said here's a very cool hobbit hole that looks like it would make a wonderful place to live with your love.

This article on having a happy home and the simondale house brought to you by Philip Robert

What is love? How many people have asked that question? How many authors have immortalized themselves putting this question in poems, plays, movies, or novels. Does anyone care? My guess would be that most of us care. Especially if we've found love and lost it. It'll drive us all crazy. It drives me crazy. There have been many times when I was in a relationship and I wondered if I was in love. Then there was one relationship where I knew without a doubt that I was. My heart was crushed when that relationship ended. It was crushed and sometimes I wonder if it'll ever be whole again.

What was it about that relationship that made me know that I was in love? Part of it was that my happiness came from making her happy. We did things together that we both enjoyed. We found pleasure in being in the same room together no matter what we were doing. Our sense of each other's humor was finely honed. With a look we could crack ourselves up. We had a routine that worked for us. In the morning I would get up to fix coffee, and then we would go through a little work out together. I swear it was only ten minutes, and I was in the best shape of my life. Then time to shower and get ready for the day. We would always talk about what we were planning to accomplish that day. What were we going to do? Sort of a little plan of action. Then in the afternoon we could discuss what we had planned to do and what we had actually done.

I found the intimacy addictive. Never was there a companion to whom I could reveal everything the way I could to her. Of everything that was lost this more than anything else hurt the most. One minute she cared and then... nothing.

Now it's like she never existed. No one I know has any idea where she is. It's just as well because the last time we talked she made it very clear that it was over. Still I find that my heart has love for her yet.

Do you have a love? Tell them tonight how much they mean to you. Let them know that you care for them above all else. Make sure that they'll never forget the love in your heart.

Happiness is an attitude. It's a gift of choice that we give to ourselves. How can you do this? How is this possible? First you must recognize that you are the only person in the world responsible for your own happiness. There is no other anywhere on this planet that can make you happy. Second, you must recognize the things that happen every day that are things to be happy about. Sometimes it would be something obvious like spending time with a good friend, or seeing the sun shine after a week of rain. Other times it won't be so obvious. The main point is that you are responsible for your own happiness and every day there are many things to be happy about.

These are things that made me happy today.

• My yoga practice this morning. For the energy and good things it does for my body
• Bacon for breakfast
• Meeting my friend Meghan in the park and taking a hike up to the reservoir.
• Talking to my friend Rich (Meghan's boyfriend) about IRONMAN.
• Getting a friend request from Heide on Myspace
• The chance of hearing news about my ex
• Fresh juicy organic peaches from Ashland's Food Co-Op
• The Tango community in Ashland
• Getting home before the rain begins

When we look we can find many many things to be happy about. Look into your life and find your happiness every day.

Although it may still get a little cool at nighttime, spring time has clearly established it's dominance over winter here in Ashland, Oregon. The sun shone brightly all weekend kissing faces and bare shoulders all over town. Students from Southern Oregon University held a Peace parade, the local Library hosted a May Day activity for the children, Unicorns and Griffins pranced together in the town plaza, and the mighty PUCK was seen skipping about in his combat boots and blue tutu muttering about the foolishness of mortals.

If all fools we mortals be, then I am a fool for spring. Most of my activities today seemed to be focused indoors. There was church, followed by breakfast, then I went on a mission to organize all of March's receipts before rushing off to the afternoon Tango lessons. Sitting inside while the sun glittered overhead putting pretty shadows on the puffy clouds my mind drifted off to this blog, the Rogue River, kayaking, pretty girls in bikinis... I'm sorry Father, what were you saying? I forgot I was at Mass.

The sun is out, it is time to break out the shorts and flipflops, time to go discover Oregon's famous whitewater rivers. I tell you I cannot wait to do my first eskimo roll. Now I wonder where I might find a kayak...

UK phycisist Brian Cox talks about the Large Hadron Collider on Ted. When I started watching this video my first thought was that this guy was somebody that Central Casting sent over to TED to read a script. It is unlikely that TED works this way so Brian Cox is obviously a very serious scientist. What do you suppose that given the right exposure this guy could inspire millions of teenage girls to want to study physics? So is he a scientist? or a stamp collector? Enjoy the video.

For the past couple of weeks I've been looking for an apartment in Ashland, Oregon. There was a room in a house that I thought would be a great place to live. The people who lived there seemed to be great people. The house was great with a beautiful, functional kitchen. An expansive dining and living area. A wonderful back yard with a garden, and it was right around the corner from the Bikram Studio. This would have been a nice place to call home for a while. Unfortunately, they decided that they didn't like me, or at least they didn't like me as much as they liked some of the other people who were looking to live there.

Perhaps I just needed my own place. It's been sometime since I've lived without a room mate, and it would make things easier. If the kitchen is clean when I leave... it'll be clean when I get home. Of course if it's dirty then I'll know it.

There are three ways to find an apartment here:

• Classified Ads
• Bulletin Boards
• For Rent signs

I've looked at places found using all three, but my favorite is driving around town. You must must must carry a notebook and pen with you when you're driving around. When you find a likely place write down all the information and make a phone call. This way you can keep track of where you've been, what's available, and who you've talked to. Otherwise you'll just scramble it all up in your head.

There was a very cool one bedroom apartment in the railroad district of Ashland that would've been great. The owner is holding it for her niece who is going to spend the summer here. No sign on this one. No classified ad, and no bulletin board posting. I was driving by and I saw one of the tenants carrying boxes out to her car so I stopped and asked if she was moving. She wasn't. Then she told me about the open apartment and gave me the owner's phone number.

Yesterday I found a great studio on craigslist. The owner calls it a studio, but I would say that it was a one bedroom apartment. There is a partial wall dividing the sleeping area from the kitchen/dining/living area. The other studios looked like closets with kitchens by comparison. I was really hoping for this one. The views were incredible. It was in a quiet neighborhood halfway between downtown and the yoga studio. Being close to the yoga studio is important to me I would have been moving into this one this week except that the owner's wife had already rented it to a lady she works with.

School lets out this month so I suspect that there will be plenty of places opening up soon. Internet please send me a large affordable apartment close to downtown Ashland, above the blvd or in the railroad district, with a big kitchen with a gas stove...