6 July 2021 – Carole King’s song “Tapestry” always makes me think of California. I think it is the colorful imagery that makes me think of bright sunshiny days. I have been in California since Saturday, and I have not yet seen a sunrise or sunset. Not because I haven’t tried, but because it’s been foggy or overcast. Very different from the perfect, sunshiny weather we tend to see in California movies or television shows. The gloom hasn’t bothered me too much because it is easier to drive when it’s overcast. Despite everything, the coast has been gorgeous. It’s amazing that every day of my travels, I experience new topography that I’ve not seen before. I have found the most fantastic thing on the west coast. The rough cliffs and rocks on the ocean are unlike any rocks I’ve seen. Everything is grooved. On the east coast and in the Appalachians, the rocks and even cliffs are rounded and smooth. In the Rockies, the rocks and cliffs are angular, but they are smooth since most cutting is caused by ice and snow. California is gorgeous. I’ve especially loved putting my two favorites topographies together, the ocean and the mountains. I love it. I have another day in the Redwoods tomorrow, and the California Tapestry will be complete.

My life has been a tapestry
Of rich and royal hue
An everlasting vision
Of the ever-changing view
A wond'rous woven magic
In bits of blue and gold
A tapestry to feel and see
Impossible to hold. . .

Carole King, "Tapestry"

There’s a trend on social media about how we are all a Mosaic made up of all the other people we’ve encountered. A person records a short video of their mosaic. After having “Tapestry” on my radio and my mind all day, I’ve decided to do a tapestry instead of a mosaic. A mosaic is made of many pieces with spaces between them. It is rough and brittle, and easily broken. A tapestry is many different fibers woven tightly together, becoming sturdy and soft and warm. A tapestry sounds more like me than a mosaic. The following is part of my tapestry.

• I don’t let the gas tank get below 1/4 of a tank because Dave always told me that.
• I always make sure I talk to the janitors or similar workers because, at my first job interview, I was asked what I had noticed about the janitor I passed on the way into the office.
• I drink my Tang warm because that’s how my grandmother made it.
• I always keep my house at 68 degrees because that’s how my dad always did it.
• I love cinnamon candy because that was the kind my mom always got when we went to the Jolly Rancher factory in Denver.
• I always count as I come up to stoplights and try to time them so that I never run a red light because that was how Coach Baggett taught me on my first driver’s ed road trip right before we hit the car turning left in front of us (other driver’s fault).
• I always make sure I have lots of pens because when I was growing up, we could never find a pen in our house.
• I eat Mexican at least once a week because that’s what we always did growing up.
• Orange is my favorite color because I will always be a Tabb Tiger
• It will always be Mary Washington College because that is how I remember it.
• I wash out Ziploc bags and reuse them because my grandmother always did.
• I call every soda a Coke because my parents did