Audrey in Love

Change is upon us. Audrey is in love...head over heels as it is when you first meet a soulmate thriller guy. He has her, full on...HAS her heart, soul and being. She is NOT who she was a few weeks ago. No...she has fallen BIG TIME and it's thrilling and familiar to watch. She deserves IT. She wants IT. She needs it. A deep and dear friend, a person to give to, to take from, to exchange with, to give the day and night meaning. She found him.

The thicket at the Swamphouse is being attacked, not daily as I thought I would do...it turns out my back couldn't do what my mind wanted it to do. So I work along, today but maybe not tomorrow, the next day the same. Slowly it is uncoverred like it hasn't been in years. A real thicket it is too with not a few accidentally copst pear trees forming the most of it. The ancient cactus that I planted there shortly after it was ground to pieces in 1994 when the City of Suisun took down the old WW2 era apartments and IT. It has grown in stature over the years and is a character with cactus pears too! I love the thing though Kelly does not and our friend Marsha who knows everything about plants ever known...says it will spread and take over the place...it has been in my backyard for 16 years and just grown UP and UP and out but no new cactus has sprouted. Maybe one day but not up til today. I pruned away a couple of arms as they had grown overly much, so be it.

I tried installing a 500GB Sata HD in this machine and had no easy time of it, took days of retries and reinstalls of Windows 7 til I backed off yesterday and put the thing on Ollie the scientific machine as extra storage. Oh well. See you later.

The Fourth of July, Indepenence Day, Whoopee!

The 4th is a stupendous celebration throughout the United States. It commemorates our intention to become independent of our good ol' friend England in 1776. It goes off in a bang everywhere there are citizens of the US. We love it generally and only the grumps hold back. It's always been a favorite of mine coming at the height of the summer months amidst plentiful sunshine and warm (if not downright HOT!) weather. When my kids were little I held the biggest, baldest fireworks display ion our entire block and hardly ever set fire to anyone's house or cars. Incidents did happen from time to time with minor burns to hands and paint and once even a roof (my own!), otherwise it was just good fun thanks to my connections in Chinatown in San Francisco. You could buy any and everything you wanted for not a whole lot of money too. Then the work would begin to rig up whirly gigs and series of fuses so things went off almost certainly in sequence. Terrific for my kids and their friends on the block. I loved it. My favorite things were a firework called "Ground Bloom Flowers", some of these were small and spun like the wild things they were bouncing up and down totally out of control and lots of scary moments occurred when one ventured under a neighbor's car or truck or our own fireworks! Yes sir, great fun! The I found a dealer in The City that had these things in LARGER sizes weighing not mere ounces but a full pound or more! Whoopee! They were downright dangerous and had long leashes of 25 -50 feet which allowed them to bounce high and fast and fill the sky with sparks and fury. I LOVED these things!

Now I live with Kelly and Furry and our daughter Audrey (nearby) in Suisun and we have the biggest, baddest most amazing Independence Day in the whole county of Solano! Bands play, singers sing, flags fly, food is served and copious amounts of beer and wine are served. It is a scene! At the end of the day just as nightfall happens the fireworks begin and thousands of people come here to see them up close over our waterway and turning basin. Fantastic they are and they far outdo anything I did...ever! It is a great day indeed for our nation and for our citizens and visitors. Come one, come all to Suisun City tomorrow to enjoy the day and watch the fireworks show. Free Parking EVERYWHERE about town!

The South 40

Yes, We now are sharecroppers...lot#21 at the Suisun City Public Gardens is ours. I landed lot 21 as it was right next door to Ms. P who is OUR resident (well...almost) plant expert. Her patch of flowering sweetpeas is the wall that separates our little patch (100 sq. ft) of parched desert-like and weed infested soil from hers.
I framed the 10 X 10 ft space in with 2 X 6 inch pressure-treated fir yesterday morning. Then I went to our old house across town and brought over a shovel without a handle, a rake in similar condition, a broken hoe, a plug planter device and our ancient rusted but still serviceable wheelbarrow with the rotted handles. So we are set, sort of. Then this morning I ventured out to the plot to find a large cadre of church folks (mostly men) cultivating, digging, spreading manure and having a generally boistrus time of being mini-farmers on about 10 plots the church had leased from the city of Suisun. I spent the next hour and a half pulling remaining weeds, and hauling sand/soil mix to my plot to prepare it for planting...maybe Monday. So what am I going to plant? Tomatoes are my number one crop, I use many tomatoes in my cooking and your own fresh, just picked are better than anything you can get at a conventional grocery store hereabouts. Most come from Mexico this time of year, hot house raised and green as grass so you have several days to wait until they age-ripen to a bright red. No...they aren't terrific...but I only buy Roma type as they sauce better anyway and aren't ever watery.
___
I'm back from the Plot, put down a layer of newspaper (helps retain water) and then 10 large wheelbarrow loads of compost. The bed is about 7" deep now with a clay base underneigh. Forecast is for rain on Tuesday so I'd like to get my first seeds in before hand. I orderred some Roma tomatoe plants, some eggplant and basil as seedlings from Territorial Seed Co. in Oregon. I've used their seeds before and have been quite pleased with their vitality. Should be here in a few days according to the web site.

Moved!

Last Thursday was THE DAY! Now we are here adjusting ourselves and various objects of necessity to our new home. Do I like it? Yes,given we don't cram all the stuff we have in the old place into this place. I don't miss anything now...until I need it! Hard to cook without spices, pots and pans, oils, vinegars etc. We now assault the old place daily and remove to our new home whatever objects it seems we can,t live without. Fur-Kat seems to love the new digs. She spent the first couple of days investigating every nook and cranny, then has spent long hours bedded down on the couch and chair in the Living Room. She ventures tentatively outdoors once or twice a day, tail all bushed up and rerady to run back inside at the slightest noise or movement. Life is good. The train noises are louder and the raccoon actvity is higher. Last night was a wet, windy stormy night punctuated with the loud chatter and clammor of the raccoon family on the roof above the bedrooms. After some 30 minutes of activity off they went backing chattering raccoon talk down the tree only 2 feet from the bedroom window. I rolled over and greeted the dark abyss of sleep again.

A Brighter Light / A Shorter Tunnel

So we WILL be moving into 311 Thursday, THIS Thursday! Hooray! It's been 3 1/2 months since we began the renewal of the old girl, all 1700 sq. feet of her. The floors are done, the kitchen is nearly so, the back bathroom is complete now except for paint and one bedroom is ready as is the upstairs office. The cat, Furry, is ready too...she has been without us during the daytime this whole time too and is staying close lest we disappear again for a time longer or to a place further away.
She has been ill, throwing up, cat style, for the last couple of weeks as we get closer to having this house's contents across town...not in their familiar locations as she would like it. The BIG jobs left are the moving of our refrigerator, the breakfront, and our beds and some of our clothes. Paul, my brother-in-law, is coming over Thursday to give me a hand with the heavy things and whatever else we can cram into the back of the pickups. I have yet a lot of tools in the garage that will be moved afterwards as I don't need them right away and we will need some here to complete the tiling work here upstairs and down as well as other miscellany, new lights, removal of odd bookcases etc. though we may leave some for the new renters.
Ah life goes on.

We visited Dimitri's Lounge as has been our habit since they openned in January, great blues, good drinks and great people watching. Had us bouncing in our seats again and again, great musicians come in from all over the Bay area and Sacramento to play on Sunday evenings, such a great scene! We love Dimitri's! I sent Catfish Keith, (the travelling blues musician we met years ago) (1996 I think) in Scotland at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh Dimitri's web site so he could schedule an appearance on his next California Tour. Hope he can make it! One fabulous show he does! http://www.catfishkeith.com/ is his web site, go listen and pick up some of his fab CD's! And by the way, here's some REAL Blues for you to study. Take care!

Mr. R. L. Burnside's delicious version of "Long Way From Home" 1984 Session

A Dim Light At The End Of A very Long, Dark Tunnel

Today was supposed to de dedicated to finishing the grouting of the countertops and backsplashes...supposed is the key word here. Instead I visited ACE Hardware in Suisun City for the 4th time yesterday...yes...4 times! AND...got the final (I thought) 1/2 inch compression pipe fittings for the installation of the dishwasher next to the big sink. I got as far as moving the dishwasher back out from the cabinet and attempting to install the pipe fitting it needed to hook up the intake water. Sure...not a fit this attempt 3/8th's inch compression was NOT the RIGHT one. So back to ACE and got a 1/2" pipe thread fitting and sure enough...wrong again! Then Bob of Bob and Marsha fame came by to see how we were progressing (me..NOT!) and he pronounced the fitting on the dishwasher as a 3/8ths pipe thread. So back to ACE once again (!) and exchanged the error pieces (hose was wrong too!) for the correct (according to Bob...and he was RIGHT!) So I took everything to the house and began the installation in earnest. After installing the CORRECT fitting and the CORRECT connecting hose I plumbed in the new coppy 1/2" T fitting and the old valve that I saved from the 15 yr old installation from this same kitchen. The dishwasher was pushed back into it's cabinet space and fastened to the countertop. Of course doing this unceremoniously removed by force the 4 face tiles in the 24" wide cabinet due to interferance with the top of the dishwasher. Shit! I'll put them back when I've determined this whole install is not leaking or failing in some other way. 'Til then it is IN without the tiles in place.

I was done at 311 for the day. Then I went next door to Audrey's house and repaired the fallen down clothing rod in her closet. Then home to watch "Street Thief" on Netflix online. Riveting!

Then we ate dinner...I made a Beef stew with carrots, camerlized mushrooms, veal stock, red wine, roasted potatoes. Delicious if I do say so myself. Then we were off to Dinitri's Lounge for the Sunday night Blues jam sessions that start at 6. What a show! Terrific bunch of musicians and a friendly, lively crowd all anxious to dance, dance, dance. It was great fun as always and made we want more! Dimitri's does a great job! Here's three videos to show you what I mean! You may need quicktime from Apple to play these, get it, it's free! http://www.apple.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVDUKkF4yLg

Home Sweet Home(s)

Up at 7, drink coffee, read the daily rag and then about 9 or 10 if we are particularly slow that day, off across town to the Big House and our duty day.
She who paints...paints, he who lays tile in funny patterns, lays tile. She cuts his tile to the dimensions so marked in red grease pencil. He facilitates her painting by removing objects from the woodwork such as curtain hangers and various nail and other fasteners and turning heavy objects over, like doors. Those are his functions. Thus it goes, day after day into the interminable future. When will we go back to our dear France? Who knows, finishing there just opens us up to working here in the Swamphouse to make it rentable for some strangers we do not even know.
What, you may ask, has to be done to facilitate the Swamphouse becoming a rental?
Well, all the stuff that furnishes this place has to be either used in the Big House or sold, or given away or put into storage. Then the floor in the Office has to be taken up..it is carpet and waaay worn out and shoddy, and new Saltillo tile installed. New paint here, there and everywhere. Pool has to be cleaned and chemicals placed there in. The yards watering system has to be repaired from the annual winter's destruction. All extraneous "crap" removed from the side yard(s) including heavily overgrown trees and bushes. The garage has to be emptied of tools, lumber, paint and paint supplied, a huge electric kiln and tile roller and drying box to match. Much, much to be done...and all of that AFTER we move into the Big House. Yea gads. We will get it done eventually. But both of us are weary and though we champion each other on it is difficult to get up in the morning sometimes.
It's only us who are doing it too...Audrey works during the week and though she helps us on the weekends we need a dozen more like her to move this project along at a more brisk pace. Alas...it will be done!

Oh...and then there's the hallucinations. I almost forgot...
Don't ask...but Kelly and I have been treated with Prozac for many years now. I can only speak for me and my observations of myself and incidently of Kelly that it has been a net positive in our lives. My awful rages that I had for many years just vanished and Kelly became a more enjoyable and pleasant person to me, not that she wasn't BEFORE Prozac but with me throwing fits and tirades galore she eventually became under the influence of this wonderful drug. We suffered few if any noticeable side effects, some tiredness, some lack of motivation but largely life was and still is better for us both. Then recently as her prescription ran out she began to use my supply (same mild dosage) and I watched my prescription disappear pill by pill, day after day. Then she got a new prescription from her new doctor...twice the dosage it was, thus when I finally ran out she gave me HERS to take until I could get mine renewed. Shit. Soooo...I went on an every other day Prozac taking adventure that wound up with my waking up about 2 or 3 am in the morning to amazingly life-like hallucinations! Wowee! Who need illegal drugs?! But these events are quite realistic, flowers that look real rotating right in front of my eyes that I can feel and touch before they quickly disappear. Teddy bears that crawl on my bed and react to my grabbing at them. Huge shiny beetles with lighted antennae and small pixie-like creatures sitting on my bookcase watching. Yes,
these and more, all at night, all the night AFTER having taken the double dose of Prozac. All pleasant, no frightening apparitions or feelings of fear, some shock and amazement but for the most part pleasant and non worrisome. Such is life these days. Full of surprises, huh?

A Great Music Scene! The Beginning of...

First...The Blood Pressure Drug...Metoprolol is back in my stable of drugs-that-keep-me-here. Finally thru great effort Kaiser FINALLY got the mess around my prescription sorted out and I have a three month supply in hand. BP is looking VASTLY better these last few days. Enough.
___
The Kitchen in the Big House that we are going to move into real-soon-now has now it's first coat of Min Wax Polyurethane water-based gloss top coat over Pecan Stain on the old vertical-grained fir...it is supposed to cure/dry/be ready for another coat/can be walked upon...in 2 hours. Sure...at what temp? Humidity? Application thickness? So though it was done at 1pm today I will wait til I get our Duck Confit dinner well underway before I venture back there to check the floor.
___
On the 15th...the evening of...we attended a music evening at Dimitri's Lounge By The Bay in downtown Suisun. 22 bucks brought a night of great music supplied by Tony Lindsay, Santana's Lead Singer. He brought the house down! People dancing, bouncing in their chairs, singing along, he was spectacularly talented and his band was equal to the task as well. We won't miss ANY of the events at Dimitri's agter that demonstration, that's for sure. In fact...we went back Sunday for an Open Mike Blues session that wound up going overtime! 4pm to 7pm...they close Sunday's at 8pm.
5 bands formed from the audience full of Blues men and women just ready to jam. Soooo very good! We drank our beers and enjoyed watching the audience and dancing in our chairs. One fantastic good time was had by all! Dimitri's is The Place for Blues! Tomorrow we go back to the Jam Session at 4pm, come join us! Great fun to be had by all! Here's their great web site...turn down your speakers first!
http://www.dimitrislounge.com

So Much To Do

The last WHILE has been busy as all get out. My friend of some 42 years came to help me pull the BMW diesel from Zulu's hull last Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Heavy and dirty and, at times, dangerous work. The engine weighed some 300 kg/660 lbs and was NOT an easy thing to get off its mounts. Once loosened by disconnecting electrical, hydralic, steering, fuel lines, it had to lifted off using a hoist, only three inches to get it off the mounts but it took us over an hour to do the job. Then we waited for the owner of the yard to clearify how we were going to lift the engine from the engine room and place it on the bed of my truck. Smallish problem, he wasn't there. Yes, we worked in the yard alone. Not enough business to keep a staff either, times are hard in the boat maintenance business. People are more likely to want their boat pulled from the water but then to do the repairs, maintenance themselves instead of having Mr. Walton and his able crew do the work for them. Tough times indeed! Mr. C and I accomplished our deed in the same manner except that I've had Zulu up on blocks with a major hull repair for three years now. Eventually we completed the engine placement below the large deck openning and decided to call Tuesday a day, then as we drove north out of Rio Vista S saw a grouping of CRANES, not the birds, the giant winches (not wenches either!) and had me pull into the yard and stop in front of the office. Once inside we addressed our little job to the secretary who promptly forwarded our request for a price to another individual over the phone who quoted $650 at first then after S balked at the price, asked S how long did he think it would take...S replied 20 minutes and then the price went down to $50!!! Wow, what a deal! So back to Zulu we went to remove the rear roof and prep for the giant lift exercize. We completed the removal and positioned ourselves opposite Zulu on the other side of the fence. About 1/2 an hour later here came The Beast...a HUGE 35 foot long firetruck-like vehicle with a long hydralic powerred crane mounted thereon. This thing was huge! Capable of lifting Zulu herself if need be! Within 20 minutes it had lifted the diesel and placed it gently on my truck's bed. Then the travesty, upon going to pay the driver for the lift of the engine S gave him the 50 dollars, the driver BALKED...he wanted MORE, much more...550 USD! S Balked, the driver babbled about how much the rig normally charged for such a job then said $350. S balked again, "The guy said $50 dollars", another exchange and he called the BOSS. He reiterated the 550 dollar amount and finally S offered all he had on him...$120. They accepted and the deed was done. It was still a bargain. Steve and I spent Wednesday morning cleaning up around Zulu then came back to put both of the diesels in his van in preparation for his trip to NC in a couple of weeks. The van nearly touched the ground with the Farymann and BMW tied within. What a job that was. What a job. Thanks S!!

Ice on Laurel Creek and Other Matters

Ice, yes...ice on the surface of Laurel Creek. No waves, no ripples, no patterns of wind nor fish or the otters as they cross and weave thier ways. Just cold, dense and most of all, rare. This is, afterall California. Ice on open water here is virtually unknown. The last time I can remember such an event was about 1995 when on a boating trip on our vintage boat Zulu we ran into the ice sheet as it extended from Suisun out into Suisun Marsh just past the old boat ramp. It damaged her bow a bit but Zulu became an icebreaker that day as we plowed through the thin crust to dock at the dock behind our house. Today it was 27 degrees here, brrrr. But as we drank our coffee and suited up for the days work at the little house we watched as Audrey threw rocks skidding across the ice towards the opposite bank. Wonderful!
___
The little house proceeds, Audrey and Kelly spent the day painting the laundry room and the dining room to be (was a bedroom). I, wisely I might add, kept my mouth shut about the color selection. Med do NOT make such choices if they have a brain. It's one of lifes little lessons. Fabric colors either unless you are gay and prone to clothing design. It's just not wise. Creates conflict when it wasn't necessary.
Anyway, they chose a light yellwish cream color for the entire house interior. Nice, light and sunny. In a <1000 sq. ft house it will certainly help the place feel larger. The trip is a bright gloss white, which shows every bump and crevis and paint drip from the last hundred years. It looks very good. I got called into service doing the difficult-to-reach areas high up on the 10 foot ceilings. I like the painting chore, it's fairly mindless and the end result is always worth the effort...IF you got the colors right!
___
Israel's invasion of the Gaza strip is totally understandable given that Hamas apparently (a hot word I know) broke the cease fire some months ago with the multiple rocket barrages upon towns within 20 miles of northern Gaza. I'm no fan of the heavy handedness of the Israelis but what possibly does Hamas and thier Palestinian fellows expect after all these years and all these battles?! It's been proven...the Israelis kick ass to protect thier people and protect thier right to exist in Palestine. Those that don't like it can continue to harrass and harrang them but the outcome surely is understood by the world at large...Israel will strike back and the innocent and the guilty will shed blood. Nothing new is going on here this time. Hamas will be weakened by the killings of thier leaders and that is that.
New ones will sprout up and maybe, oh maybe another course except violence will be created between these war-like nations. Maybe. Nonetheless, while the world awaits another cease fire...pay attention to this now...Syria, Jordan, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt have NOT joined the battle. They know...they know what I've just said is true and they won't. I've watched the middle east and studied the action and reactions between the various societies over the many years since Israel's inception and often wonderred why the US didn't carve out a homeland for the jews in our country? Have Disney do a Jewish Epcot Center in the middle of the Mohave Desert with all the attributes of Jurusalem, 3/4 size of course, and be done with it. Give Palestine back to the Palestinians and walk away pleased. Know thins...it wouldn't work.

The Quiet Before 2009

After Christmas...what? Currently the scene in the US is everyone has quit buying anything but food and gas to get to work. Christmas sales were a bust according to the newspapers and CNN and the Black Friday of two days ago came and went similarly.
The average American has no where to go but up now, as we live in DOWN. Kelly and I are working on the little house, putting it back to a decent condition in order to rent it again. We were going to move in it but that was nixed by our ever thoughful Audrey who said to us "How will you fit?" She was right of course, it has about 1000 sq, ft maximum and we live almost within the confines here in The Swamphouse of 2500 sq. ft. with furniture to match. What with storage fees for the excess and stuff we won't/can't/shouldn't sell there's no payoff that's positive that she could see and she's right. Thus we are hard at work scraping off layers of paint, patching nail holes and caulking tub and showers and sinks. Next comes painting of the woodwork and the walls to suit her...yes...Audrey wants to live in it! How the heck did this come about?! I dunno but that's the way it looks today. I think she'd really like it too, she'd be surrounded by our friends Jane and Wayne, Bob and Marsha and the denizen's of the Olde Town area such as they are. The date? 1 February, a bit over a month off. Meanwhile...work goes on.
___
My bread was a hit wherever it found itself, people really liked the nuttiness and crunch of Lute's Nut and Whole Wheat Bread. I delivered 5 loaves on Christmas Eve and heard nothing but praise afterwards. Amazingly simple this bread for something that tastes so complex. Today I made an Oat Bread for our neighbors across the street and for Jane. The second one is in the bread machine now on dough cycle. It takes a couple of hours to go thruogh 2 rises and the kneading it requires before I can turn it out, shape it and pop it lovingly in a 5X9 tin for baking. It is good bread. I've ordered some high gluten bread flour online and will have that to experiment with someday real-soon-now.

The Dredges Are Coming! The Dredges Are Coming!

Yes they...rather IT is. Soon to a cul-de-sac near you...really near us, our cul-de-sac of water and mud and birds and docks is to be dredged sometime between now and the weekend. The dredge and a mile of pipe behind it is roaring away a watery cul-de-sac away from ours back towards Pierce Island where the dredge tailings are being pumped onto. What a project this is, this time is our third since first being dredged some 12 years ago, seems like yesterday. You see whomever dreamed up these 43 homes on this island-become-peninsula had no plan to keep the water feature created by their fine earthworks from becoming clogged with the inevitable silt from a creek that flows into the bay nearby. That was in 1978 or so, the same year most of these houses were built in the Marina district of Suisun City. Of course, the silt came and by the time we bought this place in 1988, some 20 years ago, the water that makes up it's backyard was ever so much shallower (is that a word? Well you know what I mean) than it started out to be some 10 years before. We enjoyed it then too as the herons, egrets, ducks, geese, sandpipers all came at low tide to fish and gambol at the tide line twice a day. It was quite a sight. High water then was a barely adequate for boats of 3 feet (1 meter) or so. At this same time (1988 fall) our fair city began to contemplate a huge renewal project that would encompass not only many features of the buildings of our little gem of a city but also its watery front step in Suisun Slough.

Because our subdivision (The Marina District) was on private property (the 43 home owners) we had to convince the City of Suisun of the necessity of dredging our backyards when they dredged their waters. Kelly and a neighbor, Jim took on the many interested agencies, the EPA, The Army Corps of Engineers, The State Lands Commission, The Bay Conservation and Development Commission et al. It took them literally YEARS to obtain all the necessary permissions and then there was the ongoing difficulty of keeping Suisun's own government interested in our plight as well. Needless to say Kelly and Jim were a force to reckon with, the timing was set and the first dredging took place in the fall of 1996. There was a second dredging 6 years ago that further cleaned out the cul-de-sacs of the accumulations and now, once agian it is underway and about to do ours. Here's Suisun's Home Page:
http://www.ci.suisun-city.ca.us/About/Profile/CommunityProfile.html