first mate monty?

i have a very unique audition tomorrow.

i’m going out on monterey bay with a friend of ron’s to help him with his 45ft. sailboat.

if i pass the audition this is what i may be traveling on from oakland, ca to cabo san lucas, baja cal in late september.

it is a 65ft. marquis yacht. you can check out the details here: http://www.marquisyachts.com/65-marquis.aspx

as you can see it is quite a vessel!

i’ll be first mate and in charge of the galley.

ron is willing to loan me out to his friend, the pose, who is a certified sea captain. he's licensed to skipper boats up to 100 feet (he’s required to wear his captain’s uniform: epaulets, cap and all) and transports yachts like this all the time. if it works out, this could be a very groovy sideline.

i just looked at my gps mapping software. i don't even have maps to go all the way down to cabo; mapsource ends about 200 miles north of cabo and the road maps end at the border.

i have no idea how long it will take us. but, according to mapsource, it is about 1300 linear miles from san francisco to cabo. so, between going in and out of port (i guess we'll have to do that once or twice, and around points of land, it would end up being around 1400 miles or so. i'm not even sure if we sleep at sea or come into port at night. whatever we do it's gonna be cool.

we will fly back to san francisco from cabo.

being hurricane season could add to the adventure. not that i've ever shied away from an adventure.

i hope i have the chance to look for a geocache while (if) i’m there. i have no cache logs from out of the country, so if i can find an easy one near port or the airport i would like to snag one while i’m there.

i never thought the most interesting part of my life would be this end of it!

tales to tell: the infamous goiter incident #2

WARNING: do not take any of the links on this page if you have difficulty looking at anatomical images. they are not pictures of me, parts of me, or former parts removed from me.

i tell this particular story only to wrap up the “infamous goiter incidents”.

several years ago, apparently overnight, i had a growth appear on my left shoulder.

it was perfectly round, did not hurt and had no color to it.

fearing, however, that it may be a tumor, and since i was due to visit dr. tim anyway, i scheduled an appointment to have it evaluated.

once again, dr. tim put me at ease that i did not have a tumor.

he told me it was a sebaceous cyst, it was not cancerous and only needed to be excised if i wanted to have it surgically removed. unless, however, it began to grow, change color or cause pain.

since “surgically removed” equates to a big bill, even when i did have semi-adequate insurance, i decided, since it was below my collar, i could live with it.

it was only obvious when i had my shirt off. which was most of the time i was in the desert during the spring, summer and fall when i lived in nevada and as soon as i got home from work, no matter what time of year; i really do hate clothing and take any and every opportunity to remove them; another great thing about the desert!

occasionally i would get asked about it and would, laughingly call it my twin cyster who never developed past the embryonic-stage. rarely did anyone get it. i think it works better in print than aurally.

at any rate: my twin cyster and i lived harmoniously for a few years until my friend, jim, one of two jims i call the best of my friends, couldn't resist himself.

from the first time jim noticed it, he could not keep his hands off of it.

now, one of the cool things about jim is that he gives a great massage, which i was more than happy for him to perform on me, especially after my brother and i took a rollover in his land rover at 75 mph.

so, he always had his fingers near it.

he was totally fascinated with it!

and, eventually, it happened: he couldn't keep his hands off of it and popped it just before i moved to the coast.

from that night on it didn't feel quite right.

eventually, it began to burn, was irregular in shape and the skin around it turned red.

ron, being the squeamish guy he is (and me being the nudist that i am) immediately ordered me to the doctor to have, what ron began calling, my new goiter, removed. susie, on the other hand, wanted to look at it every chance she got.

by the time i could get an appointment, the cyst had come to a head and began to slowly excrete fluids.

so, i paid a visit to ron’s family doctor, an indian woman by the name of dr. mohandas, a very pleasant woman, about 5’1” with hands the size of a child, whom i also found to be very personable.

dr. mohandas told me how lucky i was that it had come to a head, as it would really be painful if she needed to lance it.

lucky me!

she grabbed a stack of gauze and went to work on me, squeezing the growth like it was a giant zit! (ok, this link is funny!)

i’m going to try not to be too graphic here. this part of the story is also better told aurally than in print as you miss the accent, which ron tells me, i do quite well.

i can still hear her (phonetically spelled here): “oh my gode, moe-nty, you should see all… oh my gode it’s… oh my gode!” as the diminutive doctor continued to brutalize me, reminding me how lucky i was that she didn’t have to lance it.

lucky me!

she sent me home with a prescription for keflex and told me to return the next day to be brutalized again.

the ensuing episode was not nearly as purging, but it sho’ was painful.

my cyster is a shadow of her former-self – only noticeable because of the slight discoloration where the lump used to reside, and ron even lets me walk around the house without a shirt; a victory in itself.

it no longer offers any pain and only occasionally itches as it continues to heal.

i have, just tonight, finally taken the last of the keflex i have been taking.

i say finally because it has a not-so-pleasant side-effect: the damn things have been causing me the worst gas in my life!

when i say worst i don’t mean painful, if you get my drift! and if you do: please, stand upwind and accept my apology!

i couldn't even stand myself!

even the empty bottle reeks with the lid tightly closed!

well, at least that is over. or, will soon be over.

and so is the final episode of the “infamous goiter incident.”

you can now return your chairs to the full upright position.

concouring the elegantless

i added a new element to the blog today: a playlist of some of the music that has influenced me over the years.

some may find “bobby brown” by frank zappa offensive. but, you need to keep in mind that frank wasn’t singing about his own sexual experiences; this is supposed to be a parody of… well… i don’t know whom. the important things to remember are: frank didn’t care if he offended anyone and i think the song is funny. listen with an open mind and you too may feel the same.

# # # # #

finally had a chance to hook-up with my old friend gary peterson today. we never could come up with a year that we last saw each other; mid-70s was as close as we could get.

i’m very happy to see that gary has done quite well for himself. way to go, dude!

he drove his ferrari 355 berlinetta (forgot to ask what year) and shipped his lamborghini (not sure if he said what model) up from san diego.

he still looks like the gary i used to know, except (like myself), 35 years older!

for a while i wasn’t sure if we were ever going to be able to get together: if he was free i was busy and if i was free he was busy.

i ran around the polo grounds and golf course yesterday, but never made it out today for concours. i woke up with a headache, tried to get inspired with a couple of triple-lattes and went back to bed for a couple of hours. by the time i got up, i only had time to visit with gary.

oh well! it wasn’t like missing a king crimson concert and i did get a chance to hang with gary for a while and that, in itself, was more important than the cars!

i did get to see a couple of cool cars yesterday.

finally had a chance to see a ford gt up close. also got to see a new mustang concept car.

don’t know if ford’s gonna do anything with any of the concepts, but it looked pretty spiff. i did see an old flathead powered (champ?) car. too big to be a sprinter and not big enough for indy. i saw some people pushing it onto the grounds the other day and could tell from the exhaust that it was a flathead and not an offy since it had pipes on both sides of the boat tail. i haven’t had the pics developed (we’re still using the antiquated film-method-of-photography around here) so i don’t know what shots came out and what didn’t. i tried to get shots of some bronze pieces that were on display: the goldenrod and a few other bonneville/lakes-type vehicles. also took a pic of a piece (not sure of the medium) that was a highboy being pushed out of a 1940s style pit by three guys with a leather helmet-clad driver; the base looked like the surface of el mirage.

speaking of taking pictures: it was so difficult to get a picture of the cars without somebody (usually some synthetic-beauty – which means she was far from beautiful) trying to get in the shot. every time i would frame the shot, somebody would slip in and pose. i guess it was the “media badge” around my neck. since i was shooting on film i didn’t want to waste the shot, so i’d lower the camera, walk around the car, wait for the would-be-model to move, re-frame the shot and she’d be back in the picture. this happened several times.

my patience with pretension was shot by the time i got out of that place.

i overheard a woman ask (i presume) her husband how much a car was worth. he told her: “about 3, or 4-hundred thousand!” without sarcasm, she replied: “oh, is that all?” she was quite serious. like ron would say: “not good enough! you got that?” i’m surprised she didn’t gag onto the asphalt, like she was just told she was eating goat, from having to stand so close to such a classless car. it was a bentley of some sort.

ron’s event last night was, i would have to say, a smashing success! the place was packed and everyone seemed to have a great time. i hope waj gets some new members out of it!

i made some new friends last night, too: maneesh reddy, a very friendly man who sat at our table, and david ray who drives for nissan, who sat next to me. david was driving the pace car this weekend for the monterey historics. i announced that “the cool people” were sitting at our table.

my new friend, jane, came as my guest and looked quite resplendent. she was gracious enough to stick around to give me a ride back to the beach house after i tore-down the paparazzi-backdrop, the projector and the dvd player.

i’d have to say that the meal was the best banquet meal i’ve ever had. i ate filet mignon, medium-rare. it was so tender i wish i had ordered it rare, but didn’t want to take a chance since they were serving about 50 of us. they also served a chicken dish of-some-sort, mushroom ravioli and the most un-edible item the world has ever known: salmon!

a couple of years ago, teri’s mom asked, while we were visiting her up at tahoe, if we’d like to stay for dinner. “we’re having salmon!” she proudly announced. i told her i couldn’t stay but she said they’d throw a steak on the barbecue for me. unfortunately for me, the steak was grilled right next to the salmon. so, i had salmon-flavored steak. i gagged-down a few bites and couldn’t force anymore passed my teeth. we hit burger king (only slightly better than salmon) on the way home; insuring that, not only did i taste salmon for the next 4-hours, but i had heartburn from the burger.

the greatest fear i have is that i’ll be stranded in the wilderness with only salmon to eat!

mm-mmm!

clearing up and catching up

my posts regarding certain members of the board of directors of gbes caused quite a stir!

as a result, it also drew out the comments of biggeekjimbeau and his girlfriend, blocko1000, in the guise of other “real” geocachers. i have, therefore, deleted their erroneous comments and my original posts from this blog. i have made my point with those i intended the point be made, so there is no reason to drag it on any further. as far as bgj and b1k: i guess stealing my fst caches wasn’t enough for them! they are children in overgrown bodies and will always be children! so, i’m sorry to say, the reno caching community can expect childish games from them from time to time.

it’s been a busy week around the melrose media center! it’s car week on the monterey peninsula, with the focal point being concours d’elegance here in pebble beach.

my old friend gary peterson is in town for the festivities. i spoke to him yesterday. i hope i get to hook up with him before the weekend ends’ it’s been over 30 years since i last saw gary.

we ran into jay leno yesterday in carmel for the end of the concours tour. not sure what he was driving as we were in a hurry to get to il fornaio for lunch and a meeting with the special events director. we’re staging an event there tomorrow evening.

sometime during the craziness of yesterday, i lost my glasses. i had to use my sunglass through the night, which are quite dark.

fortunately, i was able to get a new pair today. i’ve been intending on buying new glasses anyway as my prescription was a couple of years out-dated. but, i really didn’t want to get them in a panic. but, i love it that i can see things up close again. the correction brings me back to 20/15 vision. not the 20/10 i used to have back in the 1970s and ‘80s. but, it’ll do. i have no idea what the style is called. ron calls them buddy holly glasses. the frames are not that broad, but i can see a resemblance. my new wayfarer sunglasses won’t be ready for another week or so. they’re the first the lenscrafter in monterey has sold; they just came in this morning and they don’t have all lenses in stock yet. looks like i’m gonna be the first on the block for this new style. like it really matters to me.

before visiting the optician, ron and i ran down to the lodge at pebble beach to get our media passes for concours d’elegance. but, i had no chance to use mine today between getting new glasses and errands.

today, alone, i did see while running around the peninsula, no exaggeration: at least 40 lamborghinis; 80 ferraris of various models; 200 porsches (yawn) and two of the 1.3 million dollar bugatti veyrons. what a beauty that thing is. well, for $1,300,000, plus tax, license and dealer preparation charges it should be. the bugatti veyron 16.4 is the fastest, most powerful, and most expensive street-legal full production car in the world. the w-16 engine is a sixteen cylinder piston engine in a w configuration with four banks of four cylinders (two juxtaposed v8 engine blocks), coupled to a single crankshaft displacing 8 liters (480 cubic inches, for those who still think in cid – like me), sporting 4 turbochargers and 9 radiators driving a 7-speed transmission putting out 1001 horsepower and an actual top speed of 252 mph. it’s built by volkswagen ag subsidiary bugatti automobiles in france and is sold under the italian/french bugatti marque. it’s named after french racing driver pierre veyron, who won the 24 hours of le mans in 1939 while racing for the original bugatti firm.

the car we are evaluating this week is a 2008 acura mdx turbocharged suv. compared to the veyron, it only puts out a paltry 300 horsepower. but, when that boost kicks in you’d better be hanging on.

took a short drive down to the ocean early this evening. the waves were the highest i have yet to see. i really can’t wait for the winter storms.

wait! what the hell am i saying? it’s not yet summer here.

well, maybe.

today could have been the first day of summer. don’t know what the high was here in pebble beach. but, it was the first day that i actually ran the a/c while out here. i’ve had to use it in seaside and marina and our trip to sfo last weekend. but, pebble is like a rainforest that doesn’t seem to heat-up, according to the locals, until september and october.

i got an email from my friend willy (of the infamous “adventures of monty & willy). glad to see that he’s back in action! he’s living back in prescott, az with his daughter dawn. i guess shelly, perhaps the worst person in the world, besides other things, bagged his computer, digi cam and leather furniture.

hey shelly: “can you say karma? there’s not enough medication in the world to keep you safe from karma because of what you have done! i suggest overdosing now to get it over with!”

and bea thought i could only be vicious about her.

i put up some new pics on my picasa page. i hope to have the chance to get some more car shots tomorrow.

np: the california guitar trio/an internet broadcast of their performance at nearfest back in (2003?) featuring tony levin (of king crimson) on chapman stick and basses. willy and i got to see them, sans tony, in may 2006 in carson city.

that’s me in the 4^th row on the right leaning around the guy in the black t-shirt and willy behind the woman with her hands in the air (from hideyo’s roadcam). what a treat that was to see these fine musicians in cartoon city. if you hear of them coming to a city near, or far from you go, at all costs. there are few musicians who play on this level and in intimate settings such as comma coffee, which is located across the street from the nevada state assembly building and my “fighting clowns” cache. learn more about burt, paul and hideyo at http://www.cgtrio.com

turst me on this!

they are on tour now. actually, i think they are always on tour!

tales to tell: the infamous goiter incident #1

in august, 1999 i ran up to winnemucca, nevada to help my girlfriend, joann, and the company she worked for, roadshows, with the first event i would work for the special event organizer.

this particular event was at the model t inn. coincidentally, i would eventually come to work for radio station kptl, which was owned by the casino group, holder hospitality group, which owned the model t.

on this weekend, roadshows was setting up in the casino’s parking lot for an oldies concert featuring “lil’ elmo and the cosmos.”

not yet known by roadshows for my ability to work on-stage, i was working on the stage; building backdrops, taping cables, hanging lights and stacking speakers.

the heat in northern nevada in august can sometimes be quite oppressive and this day was no exception. but the setup went fairly well. it didn’t take all that long to get the stage ready for the sound crew, which arrived just about the time we were ready for them.

this is when the problems became apparent: there was only one power source!

well, after several hours of blowing circuits in the middle of the band’s performances and dragging miles of extension cords from every corner of the casino, joann and i were finally able to make it into the coffee shop for dinner at around 2300 hours (11pm).

i had pork chops and eggs and i have no idea what joann had.

before too long, i started to feel a tugging in my right cheek: much like having a sweetart tucked between my cheek and gum.

well, since i was eating pork chops and eggs, i didn’t think this was right and put my hand to my jaw. my neck was distended way beyond my jaw.

nervously, i said to joann: “what’s wrong with my neck?”

“oh my god!” she replied. “what’s wrong with your neck?”

well, i did my best to ignore it by continuing to eat. but, it only got bigger.

i also began to get a queasy feeling and a little light-headed – even for me!

after a few more bites and not being successful at ignoring the growing growth on the side of my face (i was sure i was having an aneurysm) i told joann i thought she should take me back to the room.

she got up and said she was going to pay the bill and would be right back to help me.

well, as i sat there, continuing to think i was about to die from an aneurysm, i decided i’d better start walking back to the room. since i was certainly going to be moving at a very slow rate of speed, joann would have no trouble catching up with me to open the door for me.

i didn’t get that far.

i didn’t even get outside the coffee shop before i fell to the floor, my head hitting the tile like, according to joann and the hostess, a watermelon hitting the ground.

i had no idea i was going down until i saw the two of them over me.

at this point i was sure i was going to die.

the strange thing: i was ok with it. except for the fact that i was going to die on the floor of a casino coffee shop, i was just fine with departing this world.

i felt wonderful; never better.

i was sure i was going to die and i was happy to know that the dying part, not the cause of death but death itself, was as beautiful is i’d hoped it would be. i’d never felt so euphoric in my life.

the manager called the ambulance and, before too long, they came and carted me away to the hospital.

by this time my euphoria had subsided, but not the bulge on my neck or my concern over what it was.

when they took me into the emergency room i was greeted by a doctor who gave me a cursory exam and said: “i don’t want you to worry about what i’m about to tell you. . .”

that certainly calmed me down. about like being told by an airline pilot: “ah, this is your captains speaking. now, ah, look, ah, i don’t want any of you to panic. but, ah, they forgot to fuel the, ah, aircraft and, ah, well, we’ve, ah, got to ditch!”

the doctor continues: “. . . but, i think you have a tumor!”

oh, great!

“i don’t see a need in admitting you. but, i suggest you see your doctor back in fallon as soon as you get home!”

now, still not all that stable on my feet, and almost wishing i had died on the floor of a casino coffee shop instead of dying over a long period of time from the tumor, joann walked me out to the car and drove me back to the model-t.

needless to say, it was quite a while before i drifted off to a restless sleep.

the next morning, i awoke without the lump and starved since i had only been successful at eating a small portion of my pork chops and eggs before hitting the floor.

so, we went straight to the coffee shop for breakfast.

two bites into the meal and my neck began to bulge again.

oh-oh. i was ready to lie down on the floor so my head didn’t hit it like a watermelon again.

then, it went down almost immediately. no bulge, no euphoria, no light-headedness.

i was fine the rest of the day and the next time i ate there was no accompanying bulge.

doctor tim was able to get me in on monday afternoon so i didn’t have too long to freak about dying on somebody else’s floor.

i explained the incident and the symptoms and told him what the winnemucca doctor told me.

“well, first of all,” he began. “you don’t have a tumor!”

which wasn’t much of a relief as i still had no clue what i was going to die from.

“what you had was a stone in your parotid gland!”

he continuted: “saliva, like urine or any other body fluid, contains minerals. what you had was a stone much like a gallstone or kidney stone. only this one was in a duct leading from your salivary gland to your mouth.”

he explained that, as we masticate, we create saliva in much greater volume that we’re aware of. and the stone was blocking the saliva from leaving my gland. but, as i continued to chew, i just kept creating more of the fluid with no place for it to go.

he told me that it may have been there for weeks and it hadn’t dislodged until that night.

eating breakfast on sunday morning was enough to purge the gland as i passed it into my mouth and swallowed it along with my omelet and saliva.

“yeah, but why did i pass out?” i asked.

“you didn’t pass out.” dr. tim said with a wry smile. “you fainted!”

“no!” i said defiantly. “you don’t understand. i’ve picked up pieces of fiends off of race tracks; i’ve seen dead bodies; i don’t faint!”

he went on to re-describe the symptoms i had as i sat in the booth trying to ignore the growing bulge in my neck, and subsequently collapsing onto the floor of the casino coffee shop.

all, according to dr. tim, classic symptoms of fainting.

“but, why would i have fainted?” i timidly asked, now not sure if i was as sturdy as i thought i’d been all these year.

“you thought you were suffering from an aneurysm and was sure you were going to die.” he said continuing to smile. “your imagination (i barely have one, you know!) took over and you thought you were going to die in a casino coffee shop!”

he told me that since it happened once it may happen again.

it has not!

so, it became another episode in my life that has become a tale to tell.

it became “the infamous goiter incident” only after i first met ron in 2003 and told him the story before heading up to winnemucca and the model-t for a (very) remote broadcast.

it is ron who gave it the title.

which, has recently become known as “the infamous goiter incident #1” because of something that has recently occurred.

but, that’s another tale to tell.

95% and rising

just returned from my first date in i don’t know how long.

it went very well, i thought. i think jane feels the same.

we both ordered spicy chinese, water – no ice, ate with chopsticks; several other coincidences ensued throughout the evening.

i don’t know how we were able to eat as the conversation never lagged.

i had a very enjoyable evening!

today was ron’s birthday.

happy birthday ron!

ran him over to carmel so he could have dinner with susie.

while we waited for her to get off work we roamed around the carmel plaza, listening to live jazz and i sipped a cappuccino.

the band was ok. the guitarist had his moments! some of his licks were really hot. but, at other times he played clumsily, certainly much better than i could play! i doubt anybody else there, except maybe any musicians in the crowd, perceived that. the bass player was the real standout in my opinion. the keyboard player was adequate but nothing that really flashed-out at me. the drummer was very tasty; his sticks were so huge cozy powell would have been comfortable with them; they were practically the size of tree limbs.

i told ron and susie that i was not sure of how to get back to pb. they suggested i just get on rt. 1 and head north. but, i felt like i could remember the way back. or, at least close enough to get me to the carmel 17-mile drive gate.

after a few minutes i got a call and it was susie asking me if i was lost. i told her no. she replied that i was going the wrong way. they were a couple of cars behind me. retracing our ingress, i turned at il fornaio. susie then told me i took another wrong turn. but, all the roads looked familiar. in less then a minute, we met at an intersection and both heading toward the 17-mile drive gate. i guess i am getting to know this area after all.

picked up my new sport coat from the tailor this afternoon. that thing fits me like it’s an outer layer of skin! for $125, it had better! pari is quite a seamstress! it felt nice walking around all the beautiful people, and at dinner with jane, with custom threads. i caught several heads turning as i walked passed them amidst the jazz, wine and cheeses. i only wish they had been women’s heads and not men’s. i don’t think they were gay. maybe just envious of my silver hair. “don’t dye your hair and yours might look as good!”

whatever!

speaking of seamstresses: i got a text message from kathy today. she was driving through wisconsin with john on their way to st. paul, minn. i’ve been thinking a lot about her this passed week. partly inspired by the fallen bridge in minnesotta; we drove over that bridge together about 15 months ago. i have also been thinking a lot about the haiku i wrote for her. it’s in my other computer back in fallon. i need to get that out of there and file it online. it is one of my favorite short-pieces.

i guess i’m finally over whatever it was that was ailing me this week. no idea what that was about; i had a headache that was not my “regular” tmj headache. no, i don’t think it was a stroke; the headache started gradually on tuesday; faded away to a faint pain that night, only to return to full-gale-force on wednesday. i was nauseous for most of the time and my bones were very achy; i spent most of wednesday asleep. i was about 85% on thursday and 95% today.

ron just returned to inform me that we have to take lulu, the forehead and devil-child to the airport so devil child can go back home to north carolina; so much for sleeping-in.

bearding a woman for travel and fun

i just returned from a walk down to the beach to miss the sunset; my gps said the sunset was 8:11 pm, which was the time i arrived at the beach. i’ll have to look into that a little better.

the walk was pleasant, however.

on the way down i encountered a raccoon peeking its head out of the culvert. cute little sucker! no doubt one of the culprits that vandalizes our trash on a nightly basis. i talked to it as i passed by so as not to anger it into attacking me. ron tells me they attack dogs all the time and have attacked humans on occasion. why did they always look so cute and adorable on walt disney’s wonderful world of color?

also watched a harrier hunting for small rodents in the rough around the golf course. if you’ve ever wondered how the harrier jump-jet got its name you won’t after seeing one of these raptors hover over its prey. they are amazing flyers!

also encountered a few long-eared bats as they patrolled the twilight sky looking for a meal.

i do not feel threatened by bats and enjoy watching them snatch up insects on the wing.

i’d put up a bat house, but ron doesn’t like them, despite them eating their weight in insects every night.

hung out at the monterey peninsula country club’s 11^th tee for a while on the walk back to the pad. if i could swing a golf club (my shoulders won’t permit it), this would be my favorite tee. the above picture is taken from the farthest tee (i’m sure there is a correct name for being the farthest tee from the green), looking across the street to the easier tees and toward the green. if you look closely at the image you will see the 17-mile drive snaking between the cypress trees to the right. as it goes out of sight there is a turnout. this is where we hold our morning meetings. i drive between the two upper tees and the two lower tees every day and live a brief 3-minute walk from here.

had a real day off today. well, we did have a few errands to run, but they were non-laborious and included a “pretty woman” trip for a couple of dress shirts and slacks and a pair of giorgio brutini shoes.

also had the bmw washed. what a beautiful car!

speaking of beautiful cars: the sun came out today and so did the cool cars. we must have seen 8 ferraris this afternoon.

we also ran up to moss landing to get invitations for the western automotive journalists cocktail party during councours d’eligance from “the pose’s” boat; a 45 foot sailing vessel-of-some-sort. the pose is a certified marine captain, uniform and all. our schedules keep conflicting, but now that we are wrapped up with painting, i assume it won’t be long before we’re out on monterey bay with the great white sharks.

while we were at moss landing, to keep up our quasi-gay couple image, we stopped by a very cool antiques shop. i could have spent a few thousand bucks there in about 3-minutes!

on the way back to the peninsula, we stopped to pay tribute marilyn monroe at a produce mart in castroville, where in 1947 the young norma jean mortenson was crowned the very first “artichoke queen” in the self-proclaimed “artichoke capitol of the world!”

i bought no artichokes as they are more expensive here than they were back in carson city. and all of them were beyond fresh.

it was in castroville that ron came up with the idea that we need to travel with a woman (preferably a marilyn look-a-like) to act as a “beard” when we are on our escapades so we are not perceived as a gay couple. which, in my opinion, would just make us look even more gay.

while ron was out this early this evening with susie, i finally found my first two caches since becoming a peninsula resident. i’ve been feeling guilty for not offing the travel bugs i’ve had in my bag for the past month, or so.

one was hidden (not so well) under an oak tree surrounded by poison oak (in nevada the only thing i had to worry about was the occasional rattlesnake) and the other was right off of cannery row in the midst of all the tourists. the latter requiring me to tie my shoe a couple of times to retrieve and re-hide the cache.

now, i feel like a california cacher!

1/2 dozen oysters and nothing to celebrate!

i paid another visit to dr. homy this week – spent almost 2 hours in the chair! my mouth is still a little tender.

now, i have to get used to smiling again with an opened-mouth and not covering it up with my hand.

i still have to wonder: what happened to that tooth cap, anyway?

i do not know if i will ever be able to eat vietnamese food again just from the association of what i was doing when it left my mouth.

i never realized those things have a life expectancy of 30-years.

i guess that means the new work is good until i’m in my 80s.

we wrestled some more today with the dragon; we only have a few doors and holidays left to paint and we’re done.

but, before we could thrust the blade into the beast, it reared it’s ugly head: the swivel joint on the spray gun exploded and shot paint all over the room and up my armpit.

but, ron’s story of buying the last of the paint changed my mood.

the woman the paint-genius was helping at home depot (have you ever noticed that there is no customer service department at home depot? there’s a reason for that! lowe’s is just as bad!) secure the lid of the magenta paint he was mixing and sent the pigmented liquid flying all over the paint department.

then the woman asked if she could buy just half a can.

that would have been worth having to come into the store!

i barbecued t-bones last night up at the dollhouse for susie, ron and myself, replete with sautéed mushrooms and maui onions. not as good as the 1 ½” steaks we bought a couple of weeks ago at costco (who knew the meat was so good there?), but they were still pretty tasty!

on our way back to the beach house, driving the new lincoln mkx crossdresser (almost-suv) that we are evaluating this week we noticed that the stars were shining through the moonroof, and took the long way home, via the 17-mile drive. by the time we reached the bottom of huckleberry hill, however, the fog was too thick to see much more than a few feet above the car. we could barely see the turnout to our morning meeting location as we drove by.

# # # # #

ron and i just returned from cannery row, where we had drinks and oysters at some loud, trendy restaurant/martini bar. being the unfashionable-guy i am: i had jack daniels, neat.

hanging out at the bar while we waited for our table was kind of interesting: ron gave the bartender a 50% tip and the two little-hotties we were standing behind immediately became interested in us and offered us seats.

money talks!

they were without working brain cells so i quickly lost interest. the cleavage was nice, however.

we didn’t stay long as the table we were sat at was next to the window, which meant that every cigarette-smoker within a mile was perched just on the other side of said window. despite it being closed, the smoke wafted in like it was the incoming tide. we quickly sucked down the oysters, had them box-up the quesadilla and split.

i wonder if john steinbeck ever envisioned cannery row to be what it has become?

the sun's hello

the sun appeared today, albeit briefly!

that's first time in over a week that the sun has burned through the fog in pebble beach.

i hope this is a sign of things to come!

i made my presence known to the local geocaching group, ccgc, and i've received several very warm emails welcoming me to the coast. they have made up for the lack of sunshine.

ron and i had a dinner meeting a couple of weeks ago with a very talented italian artist by the name of marietta, in addition to santa cruz bill and another of his friends. her work is very picasoesque and some of it is pretty erotic!

it seems i sent her an email to the wrong address. or, at least, not to the right address.

she replied today.

i'm a sucker for italian women!

artistic italian women: whew!

glad i got my smile fixed!

gonna try to talk ron into cruising by santa cruz on our way back from shopping for a truck for the loganator; she's exposing (her words, not mine) her work at a festival this weekend.

she is quite beautiful.

the measuring begins.

tales to tell: the court street apartment

around 1987 i moved into an old building on court street in auburn, maine, which used to house the radio station wcou, which happened to be the former call letters of the radio station i was currently working for: wxgl.

to bring the radio thing full circle, the building was owned by the sports announcer (george somebodyorantother) for wlam/kiss 100, another radio station i used to work for.

when i first moved in, the building was empty.

the first floor – all retail/business space – was unoccupied, as well as the other 2 floors, which were apartments.

my apartment was on the top floor in the rear of the building and had no view. at the time, isolation suited me just fine.

it was a strange little pad!

since the business spaces on the first floor were deserted, the front door was always locked. and there was no doorbell.

the only way i could receive guest, or anything else for that matter, was for them to come up the rickety, unlighted staircase on the rear of the building. as i remember: you also had to bushwhack through the neighbor’s yard to get to the stairs.

at some point in my residency wxgl hired a night dj from virginia by the name of bob wells.

well, since he needed a place to live, i contacted george somebodyorantother on bob’s behalf and george rented the front, 3^rd floor to bob.

bob had a view of the bank and maybe some of the park near the (middle) bridge that connects auburn with lewiston.

a peculiarity of maine apartments is: they sometimes have windows that led to hallways. i guess it was a way to air out the place on those humid maine summers.

instead of the apartments being mirrored images of each other, bob’s bathroom was right on the other side of the wall from by bedroom. so, whenever bob took a shower, i could hear the water beating against the wall behind my bed.

would bob vila have approved of such a design?

at this point in my radio career i had graduated beyond working 6 days a week to working just monday through friday with remotes (spelled “talent pay”) on the weekends.

bob had not reached that lofty position and was, besides his 6 to midnight shift, working sunday mornings from 6 to noon.

on sunday morning, as per usual, i could hear bob in the shower somewhere around 0515 hours before leaving for work and drifted back to sleep.

after a period of time, i awoke once again to the sound of bob leaving his apartment and passing under the window that led to the hallway as he walked/stumbled (bob was anything but graceful) down the stairs.

eventually, i drifted back to sleep.

until, i was awakened by the sound of water running in bob’s apartment. since the shower was right behind my bed i could, not only hear him in the shower, but also hear whenever he was using water.

i listened for a moment to determine if i was hearing things.

i was!

not only did i hear water running, i also heard footsteps in the apartment.

“somebody’s in the building!” i thought.

i sat up on the side of the bed, reached out to the wall switch next to the bed to turn on the bathroom light and the light didn’t come on.

this added a little bit to the panic i was already feeling over the intruder/s in bob’s place.

i stood up, walked to the center of the room, grabbed the cord for the ceiling light and it didn’t come on either.

i reached for my pants and i awoke still in my bed.

it was a just a dream.

but, as i began to relax so i could fall back to sleep, i noticed that the water was running in bob’s apartment and there was somebody walking around in there.

i sat up, reached out to the bathroom light switch and it failed to glow.

deja vu all over again!

i stood up, walked to the center of the room, grabbed the string falling from the switch on the ceiling light and it too failed to burn.

now i was really in a panic!

i opened my bedroom door to let in a little light, since the only window in the bedroom led to the hallway, so i could get dressed; there was no way i was going to hang around while i’m having a de javu of a robbery.

i grabbed up a pair of jeans, shirt, socks, and my ll bean hunting boots and headed for the couch to get dressed.

my daughter, nicole, had spent friday night with me and some of here bedding was still on the couch, draped over the arm, and hanging onto the floor.

after pulling up my pants, i sat down next to her pillow and began to slip on a boot when i looked down and noticed that the blanket was moving around, like a cat was underneath it, trying to get out.

instead of slipping on the boot, i swung it onto the moving mass and i awoke, once again in my bed.

i instantly sat up, flipped on the bathroom light switch and the light came on.

i stood up, walked to the center of the room, tugged on the string for the ceiling light and, it too, came on!

just to make sure i wasn’t still dreaming, i walked into the living room to see if nicole’s blanket was still writhing on the floor.

it wasn’t even there!

bob’s apartment was quiet as can be: no water; no footsteps.

well, by this time i was wide-awake and i don’t think i could have gone back to sleep if i had been sedated.

let’s recap:

i was dreaming that i was dreaming!

i grabbed my clothing, put on my ll bean hunting boots and walked up to mac’s variety for breakfast.