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!

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!

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.

friends, a good ol' murder and teabagging it in the land of teabags

this is the 3^rd of 3 miserable days in a row.

on saturday we rearranged the garage at the beach house and built a compound for the shitsus at the dollhouse.

spent most of sunday in bed with one of my headaches.

spent this morning recovering from the previous day’s headache, took lulu to the doctor, supervised the electrician back at the dollhouse, then went shopping for lulu’s sweet sixteen birthday party, which is tomorrow.

i know today doesn’t sound like much. but, i worked through most of it with half of my brain tied behind my back and the other half trying to catch up with the tied-off part.

i also didn’t get to eat dinner until 11pm.

so much for me doing a little writing every night to get back into the habit of writing on a regular basis.

i thought this was supposed to start getting easier after we wrapped up the painting?

well, it has been an interesting week, nonetheless:

i got an email from my first “real” girlfriend: gwen. what a trip! it’s been well over 30 years since i’ve seen her. sounds like she’s had a pretty tough time off and on. it appears that she in a good and stable relationship. i’m happy for her.

got a call from alan yesterday! it’s always good to talk to big al! my sense of humor has always been important to me. and alan’s sense of humor was important in shaping mine. i hope it works out that ron and i can meet up with him and ricky when we’re in socal the week after next (have alan and ricky really been married 30 years?).

oh, did i forget about going down to socal?

ron and i are going down to beverly hills to spend an evening at the playboy mansion for the playboy concours d’eligance!

“oh, oh, oh rabbit manor. up in rabbit manor!”

i guess it’s just another symbol of how my life is changing.

so, while we’re down there, we’re supposed to go sailing out of newport. that will be my opportunity to hook up with alan.

on the way down: we’re going to stop off at david heavener’s movie ranch. ron tells me that they’re shooting that day and i’ll have a quick part in a horror moving they’re shooting. maybe i’ll get to be murdered. how cool with that be? we’ll have to see if that pans out since we’re going to be on the run from the moment we leave the peninsula till we return.

i will, however, get a chance to talk to david about my screenplay.

the latest edition of octane magazine arrived today.

there is a picture from the latest goodwood of the redhead, the blue flame, al teague’s streamliner, flatfire and one of the nebulous cars. it’s always nice to see the redhead in a magazine. especially when it’s a teabag rag from a teabag event in the land of teabags.

the fog was the thickest tonight that i have ever seen! far too dangerous for mutant 17-year-olds to be driving in.

i think it’s been over a week since the sun has appeared in pebble beach!

my tan is gone!