A second post in one day…

More and more I find that it is travel that inspires me to write for the blog… hence the 2^nd post.

T. and I continue to get ready for the latest trip… while waiting for the World Series to start… the Giants are playing, our Giants… I have dyed my beard black and am wearing orange and black…

We took a break and went over to the coast for lunch… For those of you not familiar with the location of Casa de Hees, we are in San Mateo on the San Francisco Peninsula, about 15 miles south of San Francisco. San Francisco Bay lays about 200 yards to the east, the Pacific Ocean lays about 6 miles to the west, across the local version of the Coast Range… a chain of low, 1,000 to 2,000 foot tall mountains protecting inland California from Pacific storms… of course, to the ocean its closer to 20 miles of two lane road. Directly across the hills is Half Moon Bay, a small, cute, rural town. Our target was further north, in Princeton, with its small boat harbor, and lots of restaurants… we favor two, the Half Moon Bay Brewing Co, and Sam’s Chowder House… today the Chowder House won. We sat outside… it was warm, almost hot… we both had lobster roll sandwiches, T had wine, I had beer…

Half Moon Bay and the coast side can be difficult in the month of October… Half Moon Bay is known for its pumpkin festival, and its pumpkins… getting there over the windy two lane roads can be difficult if not nearly impossible (I would say impossible, but officially, something like 250,000 folks make it each year… all in search of orange squash.) Today was different, there was no traffic, there was no wait at the Chowder House… there were still lots of pumpkins for sale, still ponies to be ridden, but apparently the folks who wanted pumpkins and pony rides had come on the previous weekends, and were now at home getting ready for the annual fall candy hunt (as opposed to the annual spring candy hunt, aka Easter).

Having eaten, and lounged in the sun, on the shores of the Pacific, we returned home to the planning and packing…

The suitcases are down from the rafters, Tina has set up the portable clothing rack, and has started to hang the chosen items… she has modeled several outfits and swim suits… decisions have been made.

I have much of the miscellaneous stuff piled on a chair. This is getting real.

The World Series coverage has started… Lyle Lovett signing the National Anthem, accompanied by a man on an acoustic string base… nothing fancy, just a wonderful rendition of our national song… followed by the former Presidents Bush throwing out the first pitch… I didn’t agree with their politics, but can respect the two men as our former leaders.

Back to the packing and planning… I am tracking a hurricane, Hurricane Tomas, as it builds in the Caribbean.

It is currently (Sunday Oct 31^st) a class 1 storm (wind speed currently 75 mph) roughly due south of Puerto Rico, headed west, but projected to stall, then hook north and reach Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic) Friday the 5^th. It’s not clear if it will strengthen or weaken (currently weakening, but expected to cross some warmer water and could strengthen.)

If it does hook, and then continues north, at predicted speed, it could be in the Bahamas or off South Florida on Sunday the 7^th. The water north of Hispaniola and north is cooler, so if it goes that way it will most likely be a weakening storm…

The commonly published storm track (aka the cone of unpredictability) does not extend beyond Friday the 5^th, so much is conjecture, although Host Terry has posted a weather underground chart on the first page of this discussion that suggest that it should be in the Atlantic, 5 degrees north of our path (or 300 knots, 350 miles) by Monday the 8th. The 10 day forecast for Ft Lauderdale shows Sunday the 7^th as broken clouds, temperatures in the 70’s…

I suspect that our cruise will not be affected, but it doesn’t hurt to keep an eye on the storm, and I continue to watch the Weather Channel, the National Weather Service and Weather Underground. This could become an obsession. I don’t expect it to impact our cruise, but I am worried about the impact on Hispaniola, particularly to Haiti and its many earthquake refugees.

Now the game has started… at the top of the 1^st, with our second batter up, we have a man on base… no outs and the game calls me more than the blog…

Goodnight…

Packing…

T. and I are off again… flying next Friday after work, off to Ft Lauderdale for a Caribbean cruise… This trip is a true escape, a vacation... we chose the sailing based on the date, not on the destination(s) Grand Turk, San Juan, San Martin, and the Bahamas.

Today is Sunday, our last day off before, and we have the extra bedroom, so packing is commencing…

Packing is more than just a chore; more than stuffing random clothing and stuff in a suitcase… it’s the first pre departure ritual… Well, not the first of the pre departure rituals… those start months before as Tina sends me emails about possible trips, we send each other links to information about ports and possible activities… but the packing is the first of the real physical acts…

The basic clothing is easy… so many socks, underwear, a bathing suit (it is the Caribbean after all) shorts, and flip-flops… Then it starts getting complicated… I take my tux (yes, I own one) and need to find all the accessories… studs, cuff links and cummerbund… the shoes are probably at work (I run a historic house, a Victorian house and occasionally wear tails at work…)

I need to gather the cameras, the memory cards, the batteries, make sure the laptop case is ready with cords and cables and such. We will need phone chargers, or cables to connect the phone to the computer… I take a GPS and a map… Tina claims that I want to tell the Captain where to steer, but I just like to know where I am. The GPS needs batteries, so I need to find those too. We are spending some time in Ft Lauderdale before, so I need that map too.

I need books… there is a pile at my feet of so far unread wonders… I need to decide which will accompany me.

We are likely to head over to the Coast for lunch… Sam’s Chowder House and a lobster roll sandwich are calling… and there is a baseball game tonight… The 4^th game of the World Series… Its kind of important… we have a dog in the fight this year… the Giants are ahead by one going into tonight’s game…

Pumpkins, a harbinger for the change of seasons… The coming of the cold time.

Here in the land of endless sun and no snow… we are experiencing the change of season… A week ago it was hot, very hot, three digit hot… not any more… Yesterday it gradually clouded up… It’s raining… It’s a soft rain, a warm rain… in the language of the Navajo it would be a female rain, a gentle nurturing rain, but it is rain, and we don’t do rain well.

It is harvest time… We had our Harvest Festival at Ardenwood Historic Farm last weekend… this weekend is Pumpkin Festival in Half Moon bay. Next weekend we do the Candle Light House tours at Patterson House… Halloween follows soon after, with the many children in search of candy. Elsewhere people, some family, are celebrating Oktoberfest… It is a time of celebrations and ceremonies to mark the change of weather.

Here in the land of no snow the leaves have only threatened to change color… most are still green… still healthy… still growing… I am hearing reports that elsewhere, in the Rockies, in the High Sierras, the Cotton Woods, the Aspen are now bright yellow… but so far not here yet.

It is a time of sports… Baseball’s season is ending… our Giants are in the playoffs… We are up one game in the National League Pennant race… the second game is this afternoon… Go Giants!

It is a time of pumpkins, corn stocks, and an all too fast descent into Thanksgiving and Christmas… Christmas is already for sale at the local chain hardware store… pushing Halloween out prematurely, at 30% off…

Oh, yes, Go Giants!

Random thoughts… and observations

AKA… The truth is truly stranger than anything we can create.

First observation….

My last post I was critical of the “Tea Party”…

Now, the Naked Cowboy, a street musician, usually found in New York’s Time Square, wearing tighty-whities, cowboy boots and hat…. Playing a guitar, has announced his candidacy for President in 2012, on the tea party ticket… really, I can’t make this stuff up… The Tea Party has become a public joke… and the clowns are piling on… (and to my knowledge he has never had a relationship with a pig… really)

Second observation…

The Giants… the San Francisco Giants, once, long ago the New York Giants, but now the San Francisco Giants are in the playoffs… into the second round… We play the Phillies next week… we have hopes… we have the rally corn… really… Saturday morning while getting ready for our Harvest Festival we (EBRPD staff) found an ear of Indian corn, colored black and orange… we true fans believe this is a sign… can hope…

Third observation…

There was a mining accident in Chile… miners have been trapped underground… their government rallied to the cause… this evening the last miner war brought to the surface, rescued… It is a wonderful event… men (including women) saving men. A celebration of life… A celebration of what we can do when we decide to… I congratulate and celebrate the rescue workers, the Chilean government, and most of all the miners who did so much to rescue themselves. T. and I visited Chile last January… we liked the country, the people… We share your joy.

Loving politics, and comic theater…

Apparently it’s the silly season…

For years, in car racing the “silly season” referred to the end of the racing season when drivers were leaving teams, looking for new teams, for new sponsorship deals… a time of rumor… of deal making…

At the risk of making fun of what is truly important, an election in which our legislators who will guide this country for the next several years are elected… I need to rant and rave…

I am reminded of an old story, a joke, but with a ring of truth…

Many years ago, in Texas, a much younger Lyndon Johnson was running for office… The story varies… in some instances he is running for a county judge. In other versions it is for an assembly seat. In all cases the race is a bare knuckles political fight, apparently once common in local Texas elections…

Texas politics and politicians have a reputation… not a good reputation… Political columnist Molly Ivans once stated that one Texas congressman “was so dumb that if he were any dumber, you'd have to water him twice a day” (this is not to say Lyndon Johnson was dumb, only that Texas politics have a reputation…) Molly found much to comment on in Texas politics…

So the story about Lyndon Johnson says that he asks a friend, his campaign manager to start a rumor that his “Distinguished opponent has had cardinal relations with his barn yard sows…”

According to the story, his friend, his campaign manager asked “do you expect the public to believe that he is a pig F%#ker????” to which Johnson said “no, but I want to hear the bastard deny it”

We are now experiencing an election which includes a divergent political movement… the Tea Party movement… Lead by the unknowing, the uneducated… making pronouncements… about history… (I am a historian… I know history… they don’t, and are getting it wrong…) The Tea Party thinks they are reliving our anti tax history, when patriots dumped English tea into Boston Harbor… One of their national leaders believes she can see Russia from her home near Anchorage, or was it the Governor’s mansion in Juneau, either many thousand miles away from the international boarder…

So their most successful national candidate… Christine O'Donnell, republican candidate for the Roade Island senate seat is now denying that she is … A Witch… Pointy hats, broom sticks, pentagrams and such, a witch…

Lyndon Johnson would be laughing his A@* off…

The back story is that in college, many years ago, she experimented with Wiccaism… As she says, she "began my first night touring a satanic altar. Blood on the altar and everything." But she isn’t a witch… that’s her story… (personally, I will go on record as saying “I strongly believe that Christine O'Donnell has never had a sexual relationship with a pig”… really. I believe…)

The last time witches in New England had national exposure, we were dunking folks in ponds, burning folks at the stake, and generally getting hysterical… maybe not this time… please…

It doesn’t help that the Tea Party is generally to the far right of center, a place shared by conservative Christians… not Wiccans… maybe the polar opposite of Wiccans… might that affect her political ambitions… no more than any number of conservative Christian evangelical preachers who are found to have relationships with gay prostitutes (this is not a reflection on gay prostitutes, but on conservative evangelist preachers…)

The sad part is I am probably more conservative than most… but can’t stand the Republican party and their Tea Party friends… I don’t find them conservative, just angry, cheap, and stupid… I would rather spend time in a Golden Gate park meadow with 300,000 of my closest friends… Some who might be liberals… very liberal…

I want to restart the Bull Moose party of Teddy Roosevelt… a real, constructive conservative movement… I believe Teddy was the best modern conservative to hold national office… really…

We can learn from history… but likely we won’t.

It’s all about the music, damn it…

I have been trying to figure out how many hours a day I listen to music… I think it’s close to 8 hours a day… more when driving. I drive a lot.

Last weekend I spent the weekend at Hardly Strictly Blue Grass… 12 or so hours on Saturday and again on Sunday… I was a volunteer… at least part of the time, at a free music festival… if you volunteer you get in free… Oh, that doesn’t work… but I got a tee-shirt (a good tee shirt) and a special key ring… and they fed me both days… and I had a good time, and gave back… if Warren Hellman can pay for the damn thing the least I can do is help point bikes towards the official places to park… I did my job well (at least I tell myself I did). Thank You Warren… really… Warren pays the bills that make this happen…

The Music was incredible… 6 stages… 87 acts… too many to see... too many to sample… I had friends there, close to where I was but we never saw each other… such is the reality when you are watching music with 300,000 of your closest friends…

I went mostly bluegrass… and song writers… Guy Clark… you can’t go wrong with Guy Clark… ever… I saw the Indigo Girls, Richard Thompson (electric with a band, really good, but I like him acoustic solo better… ) Earl Scrugs, Doc Watson, Del McCoury Band… and Emmy Lou Harris… my blessed Emmy Lou…

Around the edges… I saw http://www.marchfourthmarchingband.com/… really unexpected… really fun. See them if you can. They are Sergeant Peppers, with Yellow Submarine, crossed with a circus, on steroids. I enjoyed them.

The voluneer lunches included apples… both days… It was a bit of a “way back” moment… to early Fillmore concerts and the free apples… it weirdly made sense… too much of the whole event made sense… a free concert… street people, families, kids, dogs, young, old, heads, the chardonnay crowd… all together in a park, good music, sharing food, drink, smoke and space…

I am not a smoker… but if I wanted it, it was there, and free… Everything was about sharing…

Thank you Warren. Thank you Warren… You have created this most San Francisco of events.

T and I have more music coming up…

This weekend I will try to steal away and see Houston Jones at a free Nile Concert… They are my favorite band… stealing away will be difficult… but maybe… We will see.

Then, for sure, a concert at FAR-WEST, a folk music, singer song writer conference… with a concert, not well publicized… on a Thursday evening… Houston Jones, Blame Sally are the head liners… but there are others… Stevie Coyle… (Stevie sent me the link for tickets…) among others… its cheap… its under the radar… we are looking forward to it… Friends have recommended Blame Sally as a really incredible show…

In a couple of Sundays, there is the Bridge School Concert… Neil Young’s party to support a school for profoundly disabled kids… good cause… even better music… and they never forget why… the kids are there… they are part of the event… but the music is good…

On Sunday the 24^th when we are going the line up is; Buffalo Springfield (a reunion, with Neil!) Pearl Jam T-Bone Burnett’s Speaking Clock Revue featuring Elton John (Elton John!?) & Leon Russell, Elvis Costello, (I did see Elvis C at Hardly Strictly) Ralph Stanley, Neko Case and Jeff Bridges, Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson (We saw them earlier this summer in Saratoga) Modest Mouse and Grizzly Bear… Lots of music, some familiar, some not.. all expected to be good, some probably surprising.

The downside is we miss a house concert at Acoustic Tune-ups at Joe’s Garage… John McEuen from the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band…

In any event, I expect to enjoy the events…

The pot luck at Acoustic Tune-ups at Joe’s Garage will be really good… I will miss that pot luck…

But I will enjoy the music… all the music…