in the wake

we are still without power at the castle and it looks like it will be days before we get it back; the power pole that was brought down by the wind near us is just one small example of what pebble beach looks like as there are lines and poles down all over the peninsula.

i took a couple of walks around the neighborhood today, to survey the damages, and learned more than i expected: the pole that fell next to the castle was brought down by a falling monterey pine of about 150 feet in height. but, it brought down more than just one pole; i took two poles with it. and that is just one small incident. it is like that all over pebble.

many of the roads are still closed as crews cut and remove fallen trees, power poles and other debris.

most of the scenic turnouts on the coastal section of the 17-mile drive have been cleared of the tons of rocks, driftwood and sand brought up by the wild surf. but, several miles of the famous drive have been barricaded because of the damage described above.

it appears that most of monterey has power back up, but there are many dark sections; same with pacific grove. carmel seems to be in only slightly better shape than pebble beach.

at least the golf courses are open and busy. although, one of the holes of the monterey peninsula looks like it may no longer exist.

as far as internet access goes: i'm still living in the 1990s with dial-up instead of high-speed. so, it will be a few days before i'm able to post any pictures.

life is an adventure!

cypress coast storm damage

just a quick update on conditions here on the central california coast.

i'm on dial up. i'll not be posting pics until we get power back up. i have around 100 pics, so far, and they say the tidal surge is going to be sever. so. i hope to have more dramatic wave pics, in addition to the ones i already have.

we have no damage, here at the castle. but, there is much around us. a power pole, about feet from us, snapped in half; many trees are down, a wall at a home on the 18th-hole of the pebble beach golf links was completely crushed from an oak tree - just missing the house; not only kelp and driftwood are being tossed up onto the 17-mile drive (1/4-mile from where i not type this, dear friend), but rocks the size of rocks are strewn across the road and scenic turnouts; the waters just off downtown monterey and cannery row is full up floating debris..

power lines are down everywhere. pg&e is nowhere in sight. it could be days before we get power back. at least it is not cold here; high of 55; low of 45; not much cooler than summer.
a few surfers and powered-surfers (whatever they call riding waves in a jetski) are braving (or is that stupiding?) the giant waves.

when i left here this morning i was treated to the sight of a 40 foot wave.

they are supposed to get bigger as the tide comes in.

mother nature is so cool even with her violence!

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.

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?

ain't no desert

went down to the beach this evening.

not to watch the sunset.

i think the last time the sun actually set here was two days ago.

i got back from the farmers’ market, barbecued sandwich in hand (soon to be “in mouth”), and i could hear the waves pounding against the shore.

the houses between here and the beach usually dulls the surf to just a distant resonance that could easily be mistaken for the wind in the trees.

not this evening!

this evening the sound was tremendous!

i quickly ate the meal, dumped the berries in the colander and made for the beach.

“surf city, here we come!”

the waves were far from being those massive winter storm waves that, i’m told, come up to the asphalt on the 17-mile drive. but, it was, what spalding would have called, “a perfect moment!”

there were no palm trees ripping in the wind.

my perfect moment was accentuated by cypress trees shaped by years (centuries?) of winds.

quite beautiful.

i stood up above the surf for a while before the chill of the july evening drove me back to the car.

but, i was entranced with the ever so slightly waning tide as it drove the waves over the rocks and up onto the beach.

it is not the solitude that i find in the stark beauty of the desert.

but, it’ll do just fine.

i wish spalding could have seen it.

spalding gray 1941-2004

hazards of peninsula life

after returning from the store this evening, as i drove through the country club gate, one of 5 gates allowing me access onto the area of the peninsula on which i live, i saw what appeared to be a pack of marauding dogs coming out of the fog. it was a scene from a bad horror movie come true.

it wasn’t until i got closer that i realized what i was looking at was a heard of black tail deer with several little fawns making their way through the del monte forest; probably to go graze on the grasses of one of the golf courses.

these deer are so cute! they’re much smaller than mule deer or white tail deer. the little fawns weren’t much bigger than medium sized dogs.

there are so many of them out here, and they have become so docile being around all of the homes, golfers and tourists that they are always getting hit my drivers. very sad!

all of the roads out here are narrow and circuitous. that coupled with the fog and you’ve really got to keep your eyes on the road or you’ll collect one in the grill. and that’s nothing like a quail.

just trying to drive these roads without getting lost is a challenge in itself.

when i first got here i was getting everywhere by using my gps map and following the breadcrumbs i’d left when i was running around in ron’s car. however, i’ve been leaving it at home so as not to get to reliant upon it.

3 or 4 nights ago ron and i were at the dollhouse getting susie’s computer dialed-in. since we came in separate cars, i left as soon as the ‘puter was up and running. even up on top of huckleberry hill, where the dollhouse is, the fog was incredibly thick. so, by the time i got off of the hill, it was like the proverbial pea soup.

“should i have turned right there?”

“ah. no big deal. i’ll find my way back to the beach eventually.”

“hmmm? i should have reached the beach by now?”

“ah. here’s the 17-mile drive. i’ll just take it around cypress point and home from there.”

i ended up at the complete opposite end of pebble at the carmel gate.

i gave up and followed the 17-mile drive back to the route 1 gate, which is about ¼ mile from the dollhouse and took hwy. 68 back to the country club gate and took the easy way, albeit much longer, way back.