tv guide

it was a gorgeous day here today; sunny; warm; no wind; dead calm on the water!

the best day of summer!

ron and i met the daughter of one of our accounts from our days in the old country. we took her to lunch in carmel and i ran her around the peninsula being a tour guide.

lindsey, who has now been christened chanequa (pron. shu-nee-kwa), seemed to enjoy being on the pacific coast as opposed to the shores of lake michigan. can you blame her? she’s hoping to find a job in radio or a record label on the west cost; preferably in san francisco. can you blame her?

how chanequa, got her name is a very long story. but, when you hang around me and ron and/or the secret obelisk society, you will inevitably get a nickname. one day i will write about nicknames.

she’s now in san jose and will be on her way to sfo in a day or two.

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i was poking around youtube last night and found some lsr-related videos that i want to share.

in 1996 my parents, john sprenger, kit catterlin and i were on the black rock desert to, hopefully, witness craig breedlove, once again, break the land speed record. back in the 60s, craig was the first person to set average speeds of over 400, 500 and 600 mph. he was hoping to be the first person to set an average speed of over 700 mph.

contrary to what you may have heard: the budweiser rocket car, driven by stan barrett, did not set a record and may not have even broken the speed of sound as alleged. we will never know for sure as the owner of the car (hal needham, a professional stuntman, which tells the story right there) did not want to run the car according to fia rules. so, what it amounted to was a stunt and not a record attempt. i’m sure the car reached a speed of 700 mph, but it was not an average speed and it was a terminal velocity speed not recorded over a “flying mile” like every other land speed record. their terminal velocity was supposed to be around 730 mph, which is not fast enough for them to have gone faster than the speed of sound at the elevation of muroc (now known as rogers) dry lake. they have been crying over not being recognized for breaking the record since the stunt took place back in the 70s. but, they have only themselves to blame. so, screw ‘em!

but that’s not why i brought you here.

in 1996, craig was trying to break the record before the british car, the trust ssc, was completed so he could claim 700 mph before them.

there were several things that did not go right on his last run of 1996: badly designed aerodynamics on the rear of the car, a faulty afterburner and a crosswind of about 15 mph.

the following video shows the results of this ill-fated attempt at the record.

craig was not injured, but i’m sure he needed a new firesuit when they got him out of the car!

the car’s onboard computer, which the team says was consistent with the timing clocks, claims the car was traveling 675 mph when it lifted off of the ground. if it was not going 675 it was very close.

kit and i were the first people on the course after the run. you could see where his wheels left the ground and came back down twice and a fraction of a second later was in a locked slide like a sprint car. the kevlar tire on the right rear came apart on impact with the ground and we gathered several pieces of it.

the following year, the brits arrived and methodically took their monster of a car up and over the record... and the speed of sound.

i missed the supersonic runs, but my parents, john, kit and my friend, willy, and i were there for the first lsr over 700 mph.

the first wheel driven vehicle to break a land speed record was the summers brothers’ super-sleek streamliner: the goldenrod. i have never seen the following film, which is in 3 parts.

this final video is a little silly, but has some very cool shots in it. it was shot about the time i was born and is full of bad acting, but it is well worth viewing.

tales to tell: who let the cats out?

in 1979, while living in maine, i met a man who trained wild cats for a living. his name was, and still is to the best of my knowledge, alan gold. at this time he had 4 african lions and 3 tigers (2 siberian males and one bengal female) and was performing at one of the animal parks in the area. my ex-wife, carol, and i used to go to the park on sunday afternoons in time to catch his last show and hang out for a few hours after the park closed.

part of alan’s job, besides performing shows throughout the day, was feeding the other animals in the park. which meant that when i was there, i was feeding the other animals in the park.

i really enjoyed hanging out with alan and his big cats and seeing them work together.

i have never been around animal trainers before, but alan appeared to be very competent and surely loved his cats.

i was always amazed at how well he worked with them and the comfort level he had achieved with the big critters.

alan’s, back was a mess of scars from having the animals claws on him (one of the bits he and the cats did was one of them would put their paws on his shoulders and he would walk around with the cat’s upper body-weight on him while they walked in tandem around the arena). being a circus-type entertainer, alan wore a leather vest with no shirt and the scars were quite visible, even from a distance.

but, as he explained it, it was just a hazard of the job and not any intention of the cat to harm him; they just happen to have really sharp, long claws.

another thing i learned from alan about the cats is that performing cats cannot be treated like zoo cats; they have to retain more of their wild-edge, as any performer might. so, hanging out with alan’s cats was closer to the real thing than just going to the zoo.

when he was preparing to feed his cats their wild nature was quite apparent by their attitudes: growling, pacing and pouncing as they impatiently awaited their meals.

i found it quite exhilarating and exciting!

despite the cats being a little on the wild side, it did not take long for them to become acquainted with carol and me.

i had, in fact, been in the cage with two of his young lions and had my hand in one of his adult lion’s mouths. that was a moment i will never forget.

the tigers were a different story altogether: tigers, as alan explained it, are big and bad and they know they are big and bad and like to remind you that they are big and bad. while the lions were kept behind barred cages, the tigers were retained in cages made of expansion metal (mesh), so we could only get so close to the tigers.

not that 125/thousandths is a great distance, but it kept me from touching them and them from killing me.

queenie, his bengal tiger, however, did everything she could to lessen that distance. she was a real sweetheart and wanted to love us long before we got near her. she would even notice us sitting in the crowd during the show, which didn’t always make for a good show. when we would arrive at his compound after the show she would start to growl (affectionately?) and rub against the cage in anticipation of us visiting, 100 feet before we got near her.

bengal tiger

she may have only been a small tiger (about 350 pounds), but she still had that tiger attitude that alan told us of. she may be sedate and loving one minute, then remember she’s a tiger and slap me just to remind me that she’s the bigger of the two. not meaning to kill me, just reminding me that she’s the superior one. but, with claws backed by legs with all the muscle, she could have surely killed me just by a quick wipe of here massive paw. i believe this is how roy horn received his wounds, which almost brought about his death a few years ago; it wasn’t anger on the cat’s part; it was only a reminder that the cat was really the boss.

still, it was always such a treat to have queenie rub up against me, even through the mesh, and poost (i have also heard it called pooft), a kind of voluntary purr, as i blew my breath into her face and wished, that just for a second, the mesh was not between us and i could wrap my arms around her massive neck and hold her like a child hugging the family pet.

after he fed his cats, we would feed the other animals in the park: beginning with the park’s big cats.

the park’s lions were my favorites of the cats that were not alan's!

it was the park’s male lion that i had my finger wrapped around its tooth; i was scratching him on the chin and couldn’t help but pull up his lip and do it. this while the enclosure was wide open and nothing between us but air and alan was collecting their meat from the cart.

moments later, alan passed me a pile of horsemeat, while the two lions stood there patiently waiting for us to feed them; far from the frenzy only minutes before when we were feeding his cats, who would have taken us down just to get to their food. nope! these two stood there as if to say: “are we going to have to stand here all day before you feed us? ‘cause... well... we’ll just stand here all day if we need to!”

the cat in the next enclosure, a male jaguar, would not get the same intimate feeding. we carefully slid it into a narrow slit between the floor of the cage and the cage itself. the cat never moved from its perch high in the corner of its enclosure, but not even alan would get near that cat.

there were other instances at the park with other animals that stand out in my memory: being licked by a full-grown male brown bear and being hugged by a baby black bear are just a couple of the standout moments.

i also had some pretty cool cat experiences at the sierra safari zoo when i was working for radio station koh in reno. periodically, i would go up there to do live remotes from the zoo, and to bring back a story for the next day. i got a great recording of a mountain lion purring while i stroked it’s back. a white tiger also licked me, which is a lot like being licked by a cheese grater! and the liger, who died just last year, tried to piss on me. but, the coolest of the cat experiences at the reno zoo was having two baby leopards play on my lap and fall asleep, one on my lap and the other on my shoulder while i sat thinking that in another year, they could have me for lunch.

coatamundi

i became friends with many of the animals at sierra safari zoo: wallabies; sloths; camels (i’ve been friends with a lot of camels, being the announcer of the international camel races in virginia city and riding one during the tournament of roses parade in 2000); coatamundis that ran over and around me like i was their long lost father and a ring-tailed lemur, named maya, who sat upon my head, tugging at the antenna on my cell phone while i called-in my remote. at one point, after the remote, laurie, the zookeeper said: “oh monty, i wish could see this! she’s grooming you! she must really love you!” laurie explained that lemurs have serrated teeth and she was pulling my hair, which was quite long at the time, through them. i wanted to take her home with me the moment i saw her and hearing laurie tell me of the grooming put me over the edge with the desire to have her as my own.

female lemur and twins

in the habitat, along with maya, was the real reason why i was there in the first place: a mama lemur and her baby clinging tightly to hear chest, which maya was quite proud of in her midwifery-self.

i could have taken them all home!

we were lucky because of luciano

r.i.p. luciano pavorotti

take the above link to hear his greatest!

i have added some pics to my photo album (in almost all of the public albums) and my blog for september 2^nd.

oh, it is my birthday today!

travels made and yet to be made

as i begin to write this, i’m in the regency lounge of the hyatt hotel in sacramento, looking out at the capitol dome, which is about 500 feet from where i now sit with a double jack daniels sitting next to me. our room is almost directly above me, on the 11^th floor. i cannot see the sun, but it is about to set. it is a beautiful sight.

our room was up there

ron’s taking a shower and we’re going to old town sacto for dinner.

we’re up here after a very hot day in marysville to watch the loganator play in his first college game against the yuba college 49er’s. the monterey peninsula college lobos did not play well and lost 17 to 28, or something like that. not being into any sport that has participants with fewer than 1000 horsepower, i have to admit, i was just a casual spectator and there just for ron and logan (and melrose media secret weapon, eddie, who was warming the bench because he missed a practice session). the loganatator played well until he sprained his left ankle in the first quarter. he limped his way through the second quarter and sat-out the rest of the game.

it was a very hot day out in the sun, after living in pebble beach for the past couple of months where it rarely gets over 70°, let alone receives much sunshine. i’m not used to 100° like when i was still living in nevada and being dropped into it all-of-a-sudden was a real shock to me.

i got a little bit of a sunburn on my face and a little less on the tops of my feet, which i was mostly concerned with since i no longer have my sandals-tan.

the ride up was pretty uneventful; ron drove the first 50 miles or so to “johnnie” cochran, and i drove from there. the biggest issue is that ron cannot let me just drive; he has to interject advise every ½ mile or so: “don’t use the cruise control” (yeah right!); “don’t use the cruise control and drive in the fast lane“; “don’t drive in the fast lane when others are driving faster than you” (this when i was passing drivers who were on my right); “make sure you’re in the right lane here“; “not that right lane, this right lane!”

the press car we have this week – one of two (we left the audi tt convertible at home since it has such a small trunk and uncomfortable seats) is a nissan altima hybrid. the only thing i was looking forward to was seeing us get the alleged 42 mpg. but, i have to admit: i really enjoyed driving it. like the honda hybrid we had a few weeks ago, it was a little sluggish from a dead start. but, unlike the honda, this one really got with the program once you had a little momentum. we were stuck behind some kind of farming vehicle on route 113 at about 20 mph and i was just going to take him, let the oncoming cars pass us, and go for the pickup that was pacing him. but, when i stepped on the throttle, it came alive with far more horsepower than i expected! it really laid me back into the seat!

speaking of route 113: as we were heading east on i-80 through dixon, we passed a sign that said “113 dixon”, with an arrow to the right and “113 north” with an arrow pointing straight ahead with no indication where that exit might be.

ron chastised me for missing the exit (113 dixon) and insisted i pull off at the next exit, which had no numerical designation. i could see there was another exit about a mile beyond that looked like it was more like a highway intersection than just another road. i could also see on the onboard gps that there was a road with a highway-looking red line as its indicator.

we traveled north on the unnamed road for about 5-miles before i elected to turn right, even though ron insisted 113 was to our left. after we made the turn, and the admonishments increased, i pointed out that the gps now showed that 113 was slightly less than 1 mile to our east.

i’m used to people not trusting my skills as a navigator. for most people, navigating is a matter of knowledge of the roads they regularly travel, or luck. for me: it is a matter of instinct. i truly believe that had i been around 200 years ago, i would have been a scout.

i’m now back in pebble beach as i continue this entry.

ron and i took a cab down to old town sacramento to check things out. as it turned out, there was an event taking place: “gold rush days”. they brought in dirt and spread it around the streets. this was the first time i’d been to old town sacto. in fact: this was the first time i’d been in downtown sacramento since i was about 11 when, on our way to clear lake to visit my great uncle and aunt lyle and helen, we took one of the few diversions ever taken by my father; driving past the capitol so we could see it out the side and rear window as we passed.

old town sacto at night

ron and i strolled along the streets and boarded the “delta king” paddlewheeler to check out the river and see if we wanted to stay for dinner. we did not. not because it didn’t seem like the right place; we just didn’t.

we headed over to the embassy suites (this is where we were going to stay, but they were out of two-bed suites when i called to make reservations) so ron could use the atm and had the front desk call us another cab.

from there, we took the cab back to within about 4 blocks of the hyatt for dinner at frank fat’s, a legendary chinese restaurant frequented by lobbyists and politicos who come to the capitol city. ron had cashew and macadamia chicken and i had kung pao shrimp. the peanuts were prepared a little differently than i had tasted before: they were roasted in 5-spice powder.

a panoramic view of the dining room in frank fat's
clicking on the image will begin the panoramic pan

after dinner we walked back to the hotel.

this morning we drove up to carmichael to meet ron’s mom, genie, and her boyfriend, max, aka: the colonel.

genie, whom i have spoken to on the phone several times over the past 5-years met me with a warm hug, and max and i immediately began to gab!

the colonel drove b-17s, b-24s and b-25s in ww-2. so, we had a love of aviation in common. max seemed to be impressed that i could keep up with the conversation and i was able to add my knowledge of the aircraft of which we spoke. he is a true american hero and has more stories than i could ever tell; and i have more stories to tell than the average person!

while max and i went on about warbirds and historic aircraft, ron and genie carried on their conversation.

at one point, ron disappeared and genie came over to join our conversation.

after a few minutes, genie, sounding a lot like ron, said: “monty! you know, i’ve always got some deal going on (now i know where he got it). max and i are going to hawaii in december.”

now, at this point, i thought she was asking me to housesit for either, or both of them. i never expected what followed.

“and i want you to come over with us!”

i’m still blown away!

i have no idea exactly when we’re going or to what island we are going, but i have never been to hawaii so it doesn’t really matter.

max said he likes maui, sounding like we are not going there, and genie said she likes honolulu for its nightlife. so, i assume that means we’re going to oahu.

i also do not know when in december. but, i’ll be near pearl harbor near the 66^th anniversary of the fateful attack with a genuine world war 2 hero. he may have been in europe, but max is sure to add a lot of detail and insight into that experience!

it looks like i’ll be the chauffer for the trip, like that’s going to be difficult to take!

i need to add that ron was completely taken by surprise by this upon his return to the room. so, he had nothing to do with sponsoring the trip!

as we left, it was apparent that i had made two new friends. when genie hugged me, she pointed out that the pats on my back that she added made “it real!”

on our way back to pebble beach i continued my day of ww-2 history by stopping in alameda to visit the uss hornet! what a great experience that was!

the uss hornet

i had been on the dock, looking up at the great ship back in 1993 when i was with john sprenger and again in 1996 when jim isbister and i were there to declare items for the nas fallon club system when i worked for the navy. but, this was the first time i had been onboard.

ron was assigned to one of the hornet’s sister-ships:, the Ticonderoga, back in the early days of vietnam, so it was interesting to hear what he had to say about this similar, essex-class vessel. we also had a wonderful tour guide who really enjoyed what he was doing.

skipper ron at the con of the hornet!

we got to tour the hanger and flight decks and climbed up into the island to check out the bridge. we also got to see neil armstong’s (replicated) footprints, the mobile quarantine facility used for apollo 14, an apollo capsule used for water-egress training and some kind of soyuz return capsule.

there is still much work to be done to this floating museum, but it was an experience i will not forget!

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!