Welcome to Dullsville

Earthquakes

Living in California comes with certain risks, much like anywhere else I suppose. Lately fires have been plentiful. The dry weather and lots of fuel, in combination with some very sick people who like to play with fire, make for a volatile situation. We have been very fortunate in that the fires have not gotten close enough to us to cause damage. Oh, we have seen them, make no mistake about that. In October of 2003, a huge fire swept through the hills above our house. We have moved since then but have already seen fires in the mountains above our current home. These pictures show the '03 fire and the satellite pictures of the smoke plume. The fires, of course, are bad enough, but the days of thick smoke-filled air afterward are just awful. Believe it or not, but I've actually seen folks out jogging in air so bad that it makes your lungs hurt just sitting still.

After the fires, come the rains and the flooding that takes place where the fires have burned. We are currently in that mode, having had three storms in three weeks.

But while these seasons are predictable, and run their course and finally end, earthquakes are a possibility in any season, weather or time of day. I was reminded of this at about 4 AM today when we got hit with a nice little shaker. I was already awake, pondering whether I wanted to go work outside in the pouring rain, when the rumbling started. The bed shook for a bit and then BANG, a short hard shake, followed by some more rumbling slowly tapering off.  First good quake for this house since it was built. Seems to have survived okay. I was most worried about the concrete tile roof. While this roof provides excellent fire protection, it is very heavy. I need to go outside and slog around in the rain and see if any dislodged. Maybe later.

My kids (no longer little ones at 18 and 19) take the quakes in stride. I remember my daughter being wide eyed at her first one, then smiling and saying, "Make the earth shake again, Daddy." From that day on she referred to them as "earth shakes". It was almost as if it was a ride at Disneyland. On the other hand, during a visit to the northeast (where I grew up), she was quite terrified of the frequent electrical storms.

I have a strange, fatalistic feeling about earthquakes. I mean, with a fire, maybe you could stop it by hosing down your roof, or at the very least loading up your valuables in your car and hightailing it out of there. With an earthquake there just isn't much you can do. It's usually over before you can even get moving to protect yourself. So you just sit there and ride it out and hope for the best.

Very strange.

So Guess Who Has a Blog?

My wife!

She has started working on her Masters Degree in Educational Technology. As part of the curriculum, she had to create a blog and use it to write reports on the topics covered in class. The students are encouraged to read each others blogs and comment.

She hates it.

She has always felt that blogs were self-indulgent and pointless, and for the most part, I agree. But I do find the purpose for which she is using it, to be quite intriguing. Not to mention the fact that I find her writing to be incredibly articulate and brilliant!

I'm definitely not kidding. Just go take a look  for yourself.

Of course I've added her to my links.

So, you're thinking, why do I blog if I think it is self-indulgent and pointless? I've been trying to figure that out myself ever since I started. There are times when I enjoy putting my thoughts into words and trying out my writing skills. There was a time in my life when I thought that I would be a writer. But life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans. (can't remember who that quote is from. Vonnegut?)

I also would like to record some of my adventures for my kids to read some day. But I've really made a poor show of that. I mean, I post a story about drinking tequila in Vermont, but neglect writing about riding my bicycle across the United States, or going to Alaska when I was 19 with $50.00 in my pocket, or being a subject in a medical study done by Harvard Medical School. I really need to apply myself.

The posts that I really enjoy, and actually go back and read, are the ones on my dad, my grandmother, and Francisco Cuevas. In fact, the one on Francisco has become the number one Google hit when you search for him. I've gotten lots of comments and personal e-mails on that one. That's kinda cool, don't you think?

Anyway, that's some of my thoughts for today. The next post i would like to do is on my current reading list. I've been reading some really exciting non-fiction lately, as well as some mind candy, all of which I'd like to comment on. Stay tuned!  (Yeah, right)

Tequila part 2

That last post was not finished. I had started out to make a simple point and got completely sidetracked on that story. Then it was time for dinner and I couldn't figure out how to save as a draft, so I just published it. I had intended to come back to it sooner, but, well, I didn't. So let's get this thing finished so that I can go on to some other things that have been on my mind.

So when we last saw me, I was lying on the second floor of my friend's house in the middle of the night, puzzling over how I got there. Even feeling as badly as I did, I eventually got bored just sitting there and very carefully made my way down the spiral staircase. There was one of the group still sitting there, mostly conscious. He started chuckling after raising his head and peering at me as I approached. I sat down and listened to him tell me how I had decided after a lot of tequila to go upstairs and flop in our hosts' bed. I wondered how much was "a lot" of tequila and picked up the tally sheet we'd been keeping. Looked like I hit the wall at 17 shots, this in a relatively short period of time (maybe 2 to 3 hours). Now, apparently the wife of the couple whose house we were in had gone up to bed an hour or so before I decided to do the same. None of the other guys were concerned about my decision, since none of them thought I would make it up the spiral staircase. They were almost right. According to my friend, about halfway up the stairs I looked over at them and smiled as I started to topple off the side. But they were amazed as I casually reached up and caught the floor above me, steadied myself, and continued up the stairs and into the bedroom. There followed the shriek of my friend's wife, at which point the others stumbled up the stairs themselves to find me completely unconscious on the bed. They picked me up and unceremoniously dumped me in the spare bedroom amidst the piles of stored junk that I later struggled with.

The amazing part of this, for me, was that I had not even the most vague recollection of any of what he told me. In fact, I was inclined not to believe him until I had it confirmed by the others at our little party. I had never had a blackout like that in my life, and I don't believe that I have ever had one since.

I managed to find my way across the meadow to the house I was living in, and went to bed. The next morning was, as you might expect, horrible. No amount of food, showers, coffee, aspirin or anything else helped me feel any better. But what was really scary was that I was still sick and hung over the second morning after the debacle. I started to think that I had permanently damaged myself. Naturally, I started feeling better after a few days, but I stayed away from alcohol for some time after that experience.

I got started on this story one evening as I was sitting at the computer with a delicious draft beer ( there's a keg of  Shiner Bock in the kegerator) and about a half an ounce of really good tequila in a little balloon glass that I would normally use for single malt scotch. I was reflecting on how much my opinion of tequila has changed over the past few years.

I think the first "good" tequila I tasted was some Patron silver. Then the Patron anejo. From there I went on to try Cazadores, Tezon, Corralejo, Don Julio and others. These were completely unlike anything I had tried before. No salt and lime here, wouldn't want to spoil the taste. Wow, tequila that doesn't taste like gasoline. I still can't drink too much of  it, an ounce or so is my limit, but that can last me for hours.

Then, while I was in Fort Worth in August, I tried Don Julio 1942 in a bar down in the stockyard section of town. Like most anejo style tequila it is aged in oak barrels. The flavor and aroma are fantastic. When you put your nose in it, you would swear the glass had vanilla extract swishing around in it. Like wine and scotch, the oak aging adds complexity to the flavor that is just amazing.

And at $30.00 a shot it's unlikely that anyone is going to start keeping score on who has had the most.

Tequila

I don't know about you, but I always considered drinking tequila to be a bit of a chore. Oh, I mean, it had the desired end result, no problems there, but there were drawbacks. The main one was having to drink something that tasted to me like gasoline. Or, that is, what I imagined gasoline would taste like if I ever got that desperate. Yes, I know, there are hard core guys that will actually drink Sterno. Wow! What a bummer to need a drink that badly and be that poor (or stupid).

But in my younger days (back when the earth was still cooling) I enjoyed getting obliterated now and then. There was one experience when I was about 22 and living up in the woods in Vermont that was particularly memorable. There were 5 of us, 4 guys and one young woman who was married to one of the guys. We were without anything to do on a beautiful summer's day, when someone (not me!) came up with the brilliant suggestion that we purchase a quantity of tequila and keep score to see who could drink the most. To this day, I am amazed that all involved survived. We went shopping and came home with two large bottles of the cheapest tequila we could find. I think it was Cuervo, but my memory is still a bit hazy. We proceeded to the house of the married couple, sat down around a large table, got a pen and notepad and started passing the bottle and a shot glass around, with one person (can't remember who) keeping score.

Why do we do things like this when we are young? You didn't? Hmmmmm, I don't know whether to admire or pity you. But things like this are such bad ideas that it almost seems as if we must try them. And it's not as if this was the last bad idea I ever tried. Oh no, I still had years of bad ideas to go. This was just one in a veritable litany of bad ideas.

Anyway, things got blurry after the first hour or so. I remember the second bottle being opened. The next thing I remember is waking up in the most absolute darkness I had ever experienced. Needless to say, I felt very bad. I lay there for a while wondering why I could not see anything at all. The room we had been drinking in had one wall that was mostly glass, so even if it was the middle of the night, some light from the stars or something would have been visible. I thought that it was possible that I had gone blind, it seemed the only logical explanantion. This, of course, made me feel even worse. I had a very difficult time forming a plan as to what I should do next. Finally I started to move very gingerly, exploring my surroundings. Moving was not pleasant. I immediately ran into objects all around me. It appeared that I had been dumped in a pile of stuff. It took a while to find my way around the room, looking for walls, or anything that felt remotely familiar. Although I did this on my hands and knees, I stumbled and crashed over numerous objects before finding a wall, and eventually a door.

Upon opening the door, I was amazed. I was on the second floor of my friend's house. The reason that this was remarkable, is that the only way here was up a s spiral staircase with no railing. It was difficult to negotiate this staircase when absolutely sober. It was certain that no one carried me up here. I spent quite a while sitting outside the room marvelling at where I was, while down below, I could see the one lone survivor of our drinking contest, still seated at the table.  Our friend from down the road was still there and conscious. Everyone else was gone.

Burrel's World

Well, I'm on vacation for a month. Yep, a month. No pay, because that's the way my union contract works. But still, four blissful weeks away from the job.

This is the last week, I go back the day after Labor Day. So, I know that my hundreds of readers (HA!!) are asking, "So what have you done with all that time?"

As always, click on the pictures to see them full size.

Well, the first week my wife and I went up to Sonoma County north of San Francisco and stayed at a beautiful little inn right on the cliffs called The Timber Cove Inn.  We dropped our son George off in Berkeley to stay with a friend and look at schools. We spent 4 incredibly relaxing days driving around Sonoma County visiting little wineries and asking questions about growing grapes and, of course, tasting the wines. Brought home 3 cases of different wines.  I rarely sleep well when away from home and my own bed, but I had no problems in the quiet surroundings. At night we would drink a bottle of wine and look at and listen to the ocean and feed the raccoons that came to visit.

The little vineyard we planted in the back yard is really taking off. This year we will cut the new growth way back and next year put up a trellis system and start to train the plants. We are still about 3 years away from having enough grapes to start making wine. So we had lots of questions for the folks at the vineyards we saw. Once they understand it's just a back yard hobby, they are quite friendly and helpful.

The day after we got home, Emilie came home on leave. She is done with her advanced training and on her way to her first assigned base. Looks as if she will be there 2 to 3 years, but who knows. So I spent the last part of that week cooking some of her favorite foods, and catching up with the girl. It is wonderful to see her again, and see the change that a year away has made.

The next Monday, I went traveling to see some old friends in Washington, D. C. and Fort Worth, Texas. My buddy in D. C. took me bass fishing on the Potomac, we did some hiking on the C & O Canal, and I reminisced about how it was almost exactly 30 years ago that I left from there on my bicycle to ride across the US. In Fort Worth, my other old friend took me eating and drinking around the city. Had some fantastic barbecue, and the best tequila I have ever tasted (Don Julio 1942). Both these couples were extremely hospitable, and made my stays totally enjoyable.

But getting home is always wonderful, and I was reminded once again that we have the best weather in the world here in southern CA. Cool evenings, hot but very dry days, and , best of all, NO MOSQUITOES. How do all you folks stand those dang things? I was getting eaten alive. Those bugs must have a thing for California blood. Must be a delicacy or something. My legs looked like I had leprosy for days.

The following Thursday was our 21st wedding anniversary. Great day! I told my wife that we can now drink together legally. She laughed. Spent the rest of that week cooking more stuff for the daughter to take with her.

But the reason for this post is that I spent last Friday helping a friend set up his blog.  Burrel is in his mid 70's and is a retired newspaper man. He still writes for the local senior paper, a humor column. He's an interesting guy, originally from Oklahoma, a veteran of Korea, and very involved in the community. His blog is called Burrel's World , and will be mostly his homespun Okie humor. I've been encouraging him to use the blog to record some of the more serious experiences he has had. He has some great stories he tells the group that meets at the local coffee shop. If you get a chance, check it out. Good luck Burrel!

4th of July

I awoke in the middle of the night, as July 3rd became July 4th, with this in my head:

Barbara Frietchie

 

Up from the meadows rich with corn,

Clear in the cool September morn,

 

The clustered spires of Frederick stand

Green-walled by the hills of Maryland.

 

Round about them orchards sweep,

Apple and peach trees fruited deep,

 

Fair as the garden of the Lord

To the eyes of the famished rebel horde,

 

On that pleasant morn of the early fall

When Lee marched o'er the mountain-wall;

 

Over the mountains winding down,

Horse and foot, into Frederick town.

 

Forty flags with their silver stars,

Forty flags with their crimson bars,

 

Flapped in the morning wind: the sun

Of noon looked down, and saw not one.

 

Up rose old Barbara Frietchie then,

Bowed with her fourscore years and ten;

 

Bravest of all in Frederick town,

She took up the flag the men hauled down;

 

In her attic window the staff she set,

To show that one heart was loyal yet.

 

Up the street came the rebel tread,

Stonewall Jackson riding ahead.

 

Under his slouched hat left and right

He glanced; the old flag met his sight.

 

"Halt!" - the dust-brown ranks stood fast.

"Fire!" - out blazed the rifle-blast.

 

It shivered the window, pane and sash;

It rent the banner with seam and gash.

 

Quick, as it fell, from the broken staff

Dame Barbara snatched the silken scarf.

 

She leaned far out on the window-sill,

And shook it forth with a royal will.

 

"Shoot, if you must, this old gray head,

But spare your country's flag," she said.

 

A shade of sadness, a blush of shame,

Over the face of the leader came;

 

The nobler nature within him stirred

To life at that woman's deed and word;

 

"Who touches a hair of yon gray head

Dies like a dog! March on!" he said.

 

All day long through Frederick street

Sounded the tread of marching feet:

 

All day long that free flag tost

Over the heads of the rebel host.

 

Ever its torn folds rose and fell

On the loyal winds that loved it well;

 

And through the hillgaps sunset light

Shone over it with a warm good-night.

 

Barbara Frietchie's work is o'er,

And the Rebel rides on his raids no more.

 

Honor to her! and let a tear

Fall, for her sake, on Stonewall's bier.

 

Over Barbara Frietchie's grave,

Flag of Freedom and Union, wave!

 

Peace and order and beauty draw

Round thy symbol of light and law;

 

And ever the stars above look down

On thy stars below in Frederick town!



John Greenleaf Whittier

Yes, I'm Still Here

I went a whole year without posting! Quite an accomplishment.

The last post was for last years Iris Festival Garden Tour, and this years just took place this past Sunday. We didn't go. We had planned to, but I worked something like 14 hours on Saturday and so had a bunch of chores to do, so it just didn't happen.

Lots of stuff has happened in the last year. In July we went to Cape May for a final vacation with all four of us. Cape May was beautiful, and I got to see two very good old friends that I had not seen in years.

Our daughter went off and joined the Air Force, she made a 6 year commitment. She is currently in training in a classified field that she is not supposed to talk about, and neither are we. I'm proud of her. She turned 19 in February and is making the typical mistakes that 19 year olds make, but there is not much that I can do about that. I am hopeful that the coming 5 years will see many changes and maturing in my little girl.

We went down to Lackland AFB to see her graduate from basic training. It was a moving experience. Seeing all those great young people committing themselves to defending this wonderful country was fantastic.  It made me appreciate how much I love my country, and how lucky I am to live here, and how lucky we all are that there are people willing to put their lives on the line to defend our freedom. She graduated on the weekend of Veteran's Day, so I had thoughts of my father fighting in Normandy going through my head.

We are still working on the new house. The backyard is going very slowly, it will be years in the making. Still love this town, we have made many new friends, and have a social life beyond anything we have ever had before. Makes me wish I hadn't wasted 18 years in the last place.

We threw a New Year's party for a bunch of folks and got invited to a couple of great Christmas parties. In March we hosted a professional bike team that competed in the Redlands Bicycle Classic, a local 4 day stage race. It was the women's Wachovia team. The race organizers ask for local families to provide housing for some of the teams. It was an interesting experience, given my love of cycling. I had never had an inside look at bike racing before, it was intriguing and a bit disillusioning. Perhaps I'll elaborate on that another time.

Went to the Grand Canyon for my birthday a couple of weeks ago and tried out my new camera. I have lived in southern California now for 30 years and never visited the Grand Canyon before. Quite spectacular.

I need to post some of these events with the pictures that accompany them.

Who knows, maybe I'll actually do it.

Iris Festival

The big deal this weekend is the Iris Festival. It's fairly typical small town stuff, with crafts, music, flower show, chili cook off etc. This is something like the 5th year, and apparently it's growing.

One of our new local friends invited us to the Kiwanis breakfast this morning. Nice people.

There have been numerous events leading up to this weekend's shindig. Two weekends ago there was a Garden Tour. For $5.00 you got a map to 7 homes scattered around town. The homes had been picked for their unusual or particularly nice gardens. This post is mainly to show some pictures I took at the various gardens. As usual, clicking on the pictures will bring them up to full size.

The gardens were most interesting in that they were far from perfect. A couple were most definitely works in progress. Some of the funky ones were my favorites.

I have always enjoyed taking pictures of flowers. Among the over 400 color slides I took while riding my bicycle across the US are many photos of wildflowers.

Anyway, hope you like them.

Yes Virginia, It Snows In Southern California

Wow, three in a row. Making up for lost time here!

Thought it was time to post some pictures of the new house.

Have I said that we love it here? Love the house, the town, the neighborhood, the new folks we've met.

And it snows here! We had several snowstorms in February, March and early April. Now I'm not saying that I'm about to buy a snow blower or anything. It never amounted to more than 3 inches or so, but it was cool. Here are some pictures of the tree across the street and the yard.

Looking out at that tree is due east. The picture on the left is looking slightly towards the north. Behind that house is a mountain that forms the foothills of the larger mountain, San Gorgonio (11,500 ft.), right behind it. Very interesting rock formations in the ridge, you can see where one slab has ridden up over another. No surprise there, it's very seismically active around here, the San Andreas Fault is just down the hill from us. We are at about 3,500 ft. elevation, which is the reason for the occasional snowfalls.

But the best views are out the back, looking west. Some hills below us, and in the distance, the LA Basin. On hot days, we can see the layer of smog hovering like an ugly smudge down there. I have noticed a big difference in the air quality up here and a corresponding difference in my breathing. Definitely better for my health.

The sunsets are the best. Here are some shots taken from the big room. To the left is the kitchen, to the right the living room or family room. It's just one big open area, with mostly glass along the west wall. There are still some pictures on the floor in these shots. We've made a lot of progress since then. We are setting up the formal dining room as a sort of game room, with bookshelves around the walls, a pool table and a TV in the nook that would normally be for a china cabinet. Still a little work to be done in that room. Haven't found a pool table yet.

We had a big, sort of rustic wooden mantel fashioned for the fireplace. No pictures of that yet. We've been using that fireplace a lot. In our last place we did not have one, although we did have a pool. Given the choice, I'll take a fireplace over a pool. A few of our neighbors are getting bids to have pools built, at outrageous cost. I'm sure they will be beautiful, but I'll pass. 17 years taking care of a pool was enough for me. It was great when the kids were little, but during the last couple of years in that house, no one was using it.

We have had a landscape designer put together a plan for low maintenance, low water backyard landscaping. However, one large section will be dug out and soil amended for wine grape vines. I hope to grow 35 to 45 vines in order to make my own wine. According to the reading I've been doing, it will take 3 to 4 years for them to produce the grapes I will need. By that time I'll be getting close to retirement and looking for a hobby. Sounds to me like an enjoyable way to pass the time.

So there you have it, 3 posts in one night. I'm trying to break this writer's block. Who knows, maybe that story from the Tetons will be next.

Music Reviews

Have I mentioned that I love music?

I play no instruments, but both my children do.

My great grandfather came here from Sicily. According to family stories, he was a classical music conductor and composer who worked with Arturo Toscanini. Supposedly, he wrote the music for the song, "Yes, We Have No Bananas". Every time my grandmother would tell that story, she would adamantly state that he had nothing to do with the lyrics. Whatever. I do remember seeing Vittorio's conducting baton, which is in the possession of someone else in the family.

I have always had music around me from the time I was very little. I remember the songs my folks would play on their old record player, and I remember how my mom would sing around the house all the time. As a result, I know all the words and melodies from the music of my parents' generation.

I setting up the new house, I have been working diligently to set up the sound system I have always wanted. So far, I've pulled over 300 feet of speaker cable through the walls and attic. The main room has 6 speakers, 4 of them flush mounted in the ceiling and walls, and two on top of the cabinets in the kitchen area. The result is the sensation that no matter where you move in the room, the music follows you.

I have set up the coat closet as a media center, with shelving for all the components, and the connecting cables exiting through the ceiling into the attic. Still lots of work to be done, but it's starting to shape up.

One of the new components is a 400 disc CD player. I've loaded and named about 80 discs so far and have purchased a number of new Cd's. This is meant to be a review of some that are really worth hearing.

"Pay The Devil" by Van Morrison.

Do you like Van? I do, but I've never purchased one of his recordings. I love hearing his old hits like "Moondance" on the radio, but that's about it. But when I heard a piece on NPR about his new one, it caught my attention. All the songs are covers of old country favorites from way back. Some familiar ones like "Cheatin' Heart" and "My Bucket's Got a Hole In It", as well as some others I had not heard before. Now, I'm a big fan of older country music, but I was a little worried when I ordered this one. No need, because Morrison's voice and delivery is perfect for these songs. Just about every song on the CD knocks me out. He's got great musicians backing him up and it just sounds like they are having a great time. I hear hints of Bob Wills in the fiddles on one song, and a touch of very early Bonnie Raitt in the instrumentation on another. Not to be missed are the songs, "There Stands the Glass" and "This Has Got to Stop". Those are just the highest points on an album with many highs.

"The Seeger Sessions" by Bruce Springsteen

Being a New York boy, I feel like I grew up with Springsteen. I always thought his blue collar ballads rang true. Success, however, has led him away from that. I have tired of his political statements, as I have with many of my old rock favorites. The fact is, I would really prefer not to know the political opinions of celebrities. It affects the way I feel about the artist (usually negatively). If you have something to tell me, do it with your particular art form, it's much more likely to make an impression. Between his need to share his opinions and his separation from his roots due to being fabulously wealthy, my feelings about old Brucie have cooled. And his last CD "Diamonds and Dust" bored me to tears. So I almost didn't buy this new one, but I am so glad I did. Again, here is an artist covering some very old songs, most of them traditional, and backing himself up with terrific musicians. It's a collection of songs that had been recorded in the past by Pete Seeger. The message on many of them is way more liberal than would normally appeal to me, but I just can't resist them. I love the way he just shouts "Old Dan Tucker" and if you are going to feed me an anti-war song, you couldn't do it any better than "Mrs. McGrath". Just the fact that a modern artist recorded one of my all time favorites "Erie Canal" will bring me back to buy the next CD. The high point on this recording, for me, is "My Oklahoma Home", just fantastic. The musicians and the instruments are the best. Here's violins, tuba, accordion, mandolin, banjo, stand up bass, pump organ, piano, sax, trumpet all played with obvious joy and reckless abandon. Not just good stuff, but great stuff. Just one little request Mr. S : drop the Dual Disc stuff, just give me the music.

"All The Road Running" by Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris

Not too much going on here. I had high hopes after Knopfler's last CD "Shangri-La". Not a bad cut on that one, but this one drags. The great guitar playing that Knopfler has done since the Dire Straits days is there, but not enough of it. And there is something about Emmylou's voice and his that doesn't work for me. To be completely fair, I haven't listened to this one enough yet, I've been too hung up on the previous two. Maybe it will grow on me.

Other recent purchases have been "Mob Hits", yep, that's right, all of them 1, 2 and 3. Many of these songs are the ones I used to listen to my mom sing around the house. The musical equivalent of comfort food. I also found the CD reissues of both Duane Allman Anthologies. I had these long ago on vinyl (still have them, in fact). What a pleasure to hear them again after all these years. What a shame he died when he did. I am convinced he would have been the American version of Eric Clapton had he lived. I would have enjoyed hearing how they would have followed up their collaboration on "Layla".

Thank all gods for music.

I sure have needed it lately.