Notes: Waiting For Godot Or Kaiser Or Whatever The Hell It Is We're Waiting For, Endlessly, Endlessly...

To Go, To Do

Thursday 12 June 2003, Volcano CA

Stomping around the Ridge, trying to activate my bowels, got to squeeze out another stool sample, then another run down to Kaiser Folsom, O fun. We had hoped to go to Carson City this weekend for the Rendezvous, but at this point I'll have to stay around here at least until tomorrow to see if we get any lab results, any prescriptions. Bother.

(Why the stool sample? Oh, didn't I mention the Guatemalan intestinal parasites? How careless of me...)

Meanwhile we've been talking about future journeys. In the immediate future, depending on how long all the medical stuff takes. If it's finished fairly quickly we can try our Northern Rockies trip - if not we can just go up to the Olympic Peninsula & Vancouver Island. And we're thinking about the other possible trips - Costa Rica and Machu Picchu and Great Slave Lake and Bali-Lombok and of course all around Europe. And see the great pungent descrip­tions on the Amer­ican­Girls­Are­Easy website, especially the inter­esting country-capsules in the How to Find a Man in Europe and Leave Him There book and the equally spicy city-region guides.

Assuming we find medical reasons to delay our summer-fall journey, we've already planning a little landscaping around the storage container. Picnic area on one side, Guatemalan-style workshop on the other side. We have a little terraforming of the cleared section of our lot to do. Spread some gravel and grade some gradients, line some watercourses... So we need to get out and survey that terrain, sketch out the plans, work up a, develop a working map.

Other things to do: Grab the list of subject areas from my recent restructuring rough-notes page, add as Guides & Games to a COMING SOON promissary page. And get the scanner running on the Monorail computer (well actually it already is), scan those Desert Rat-related pages-covers, then get the Monorail set up in Maureen's office area so she can go surfing with it. And of course, process the Guatemala pictures.

And here's a meta-thing to-do: get the Casio PDA interface set up again and onto the PDA load not song lyrics but put TO-DO lists. Go through my last few journals, find everyplace I put a list of stuff to-do, transfer all that to the PDA so I can look at it and be reminded as I walk through the world.

Ah yeah, stuff to do. Get down with the Spanish language tapes. And we want to acquire some technical gear, have to do some research on these. A small computer for Maureen, a new digital camera, and a digital weather-location station, which I guess would be GPS with altimeter and weather stuff, something small, cigaret-pack sized. And that's really about ALL the tech stuff we can think of for awhile... although I do have to put together antennas and adaptors for the Icom receiver. Oh yeah, and probably a small color printer.

Ah, my intensive little stroll here is nearly over, let's see if I can squeeze something out, then we can proceed with a day in Folsom. Ciao.

Friday 13 June 2003, Amador County CA

To Jackson for PT; to Folsom to deliver the foul fetid sample and to shop. At Ross, bought a cheap copy of Rand McNally's THE ROAD ATLAS Road Travel Software. It really really sucks. Microwave the CD. Had another great lunch at the PickUpStix fresh Chinese fastfood franchise, our regular stop. A stroll through the 'factory outlet stores', same as all the other factory outlets. McShopping. I'd rather be haggling in a Guatemalan mercado. Ah well...

RENDEZVOUS Etc

Saturday 14 June 2003, Carson City NV

Saturday the 14th of June, Carson City. I was afraid we wouldn't make it to the Rendezvous today, but here we are! And a right strange thing it is too, lots of cottonwood pollen fuzz floating through the air as we walk over to the camel ride, yup, real live camels. When they tilt their heads back, they're about to spit on you... The cottonwood pollen here is so thick, it looks like a snowstorm on this desert summer afternoon.

Yeah, lots of fun here at this Rendezvous. There's people doing Indian dances and western miners' dances - there's people ridin' horses around and there's people shootin' guns and wearing swords and throwing knives. Fun for all.

So ya gots yer Civil War reenactors and yer Wild West reenactors and yer Celtic clans, a good excuse for guys to go around wearin' skirts. Ya gots yer clowing musicians and yer serious musicians. There's a dozen kinds of Barbeque and Indian tacos and fry bread, sasparilla, vintage lemonade...

Here at Cactus Jack's we caught the tail end of a rope-twirlin' show, now it looks like it's about time for the regularly scheduled bank robbery and shootout. [sounds of show and train horn] And a little train come a runnin' through... And while this little Wild West show is going on, the Confederate Army's marching by...

Moving along, there's little costumed Hispanic dancing girls doing a salsa jig as the train rolls by, and off in the distance the Union cavalry and somebody's artillery are whooping it up. So much smoke in the air from the artillery firing, y'd think the bomberos, the fire squad would come around. Oh yeah, the cavalry is right next to the in-use skateboard park, so we have an interesting cultural juxtaposition there. Not to mention the golf carts shooting past. Talk about a cultural collision...

And then there's all the vendors, with the Western stuff and Indian stuff, the NewAge stuff and World stuff and cute stuff and stupid stuff, and Celtic stuff and Civil War stuff. Ironmongery and woodmongery and plasticmongery and clothmongery. And sheep skulls with horns, rams' skulls - I think they're part of the plasticmongery. Jewelmongery of all sorts, and one seller of Ross and Costco paintings. A few vendors of Indian flutes. Books on Western history, Indian history, Civil War history... [sounds of salsa music]

Half a day of this was just about enough, so now (after refueling) we bid a fond farewell to Carson and go back across the Pacific Crest, back to Amador County.

At Peddler Hill: Good thing we didn't sidetrack down to the Mokelumne River, Salt Springs Resevoir, there's a large plume of smoke rising from there.

Home - Retrospective

Back home: My take on the Rendezvous, ha ha, is that it was: a large chunk of Civil War reenactors; a small chunk of Mountain Man reenactors; a taste of Wild West show, studio version; a taste of PowWow; and a lot of vendors. A bit of old-timey music. I think I'd be more interested in seeing a lot more of Mountain Man and Wild West stuff and a bit less of Civil War stuff, but apparently that's the demographic that gets drawn to participate in these events.

I imagine that if one went to PowWows and town festivals and such throughout the West, one would run in to many of these same people and exhibitors. Just a hunch, there. And I imagine that we WILL find ourselves visiting a number of these small-town exhibitions and PowWows and such, as time allows.

As the afternoon went on there in Mills Park, a large park in Carson City with many cottonwood trees providing much shade, it got very pleasant - a cool breeze coming through, which as soon as one left the shade of the trees became a dry desert wind sucking all the juice out of one. Dessication central, with amenities.

But because of the mixed light and shadow and the way that people were mixed and stirred, it was not really a suitable place for using my little digital camera to any good effect. For that I really do need a digital camera... or to be wandering through a colorful town or city. Jackson and Sutter Creek are adequate, Antigua was wonderful. We'll have to search out more colorful old towns of the West, especially at times when many people are out strolling the streets. That seems to be where I do well with photography.

And that's how things look this evening of Saturday June 14th 2003, one month 'til Bastille Day, a month-and-a-half maybe until we can start wandering the West.

And in that direction lies the future. All roads lead to the future, past the pitfalls and the windfalls and the deadfalls, a torturous hazardous path where nothing is known for sure, nothing is guaranteed, just like Real Life almost.

Retro- And Pro-Spective Etc

Sunday 15 June 2003, Volcano CA

Now it's Sunday morning, the 15th of June, at home. Perhaps I should describe the drive yesterday. Much warmer, much more melted, but there's still plenty of snow at the higher elevations of the Sierras. Less dripping that the last ride over, many fewer cascades and falls. More bicycles on the road, including one guy with a 'bent, a tubular 'bent, not a BikeE, and dragging a little trailer.

The sky was pretty gray, lots of haze from the Central Valley blowing up into the peaks. In days past the temperature and humidity differentials caused lots of heat-clouds to boil up over the desert, above the Sierras as seen from the west. None of that yesterday, very few clouds. The Pacific High must have moved in.

Enough snowmelt to keep the Carson River going at a pretty frothy clip.

Meanwhile it's Sunday, we SHOULD go down to Jackson today for some shopping, but is not possible. Won't be able to leave tomorrow 'cause we're do to have some repairs done to the house. Tuesday night Mom and Phil should show up. In between there, well Tuesday we should be able to deliver the toilets to B&B and store some furniture at Bobby's, get Maureen down to Jackson for PT and do the shopping, and straighten up the appearance of the house a bit.

Meanwhile I await word from Kaiser as to my health status, just what the hell's going on with my guts & heart & etc. (The dead zone on my left thigh is apparently local nerve damage, nothing to be done about it.) So we have this indeterminate waiting pattern we'll be flying in for the next few weeks. I hope we get things resolved quickly.

Meanwhile we go for a short drive to buy produce and pick up mail - what, ANOTHER jury summons? I just had that a couple weeks ago! And this is scheduled for Maureen's next Sonoma County medical visit. Must call the courthouse tomorrow, straighten it out...

In Defence: George Harrison

Monday 16 June 2003, Volcano CA

This is something I meant to write many months ago, never got around to it. Better late than never.

Not long after George Harrison died, the estimable sound-sculptor and music technician Bernie Krause wrote a piece that circulated in the alternative press, denouncing the late ex-Beatle as a mediocre guitarist and musician. George wasn't respected by studio musicians, Krause wrote, because he just didn't have adequate technical chops. An amateur git-picker, that's all George was, sez Bernie.

Besides having ratty timing - I mean c'mon, the guy's DEAD already - Kraus's argument is rather irrelevant. I could get nasty and ask Bernie how many Top-40 hits HE'D had. People from the 60's onward weren't humming Bernie Krause tunes, near as I can recall. (Of course, anyone who can remember the 60's wasn't there, as Robin Williams sez.)

But that simple guitar figure on HERE COMES THE SUN, the theme lines of MY SWEET LORD (which George DIDN'T plagiarize, despite what a moronic judge was convinced to rule) and WHAT IS LIFE, the rattling guitar assault opening SERGEANT PEPPER -- THOSE are memorable music.

There are various ways to create music, and sheer technical virtuosity will likely be forgotten long before solid tunesmithing drifts into the clouds of history. How to find out? Wait 20 or 50 years, see what people are listening to then. Place yer bets, spin the wheel, see how it rolls.

OK, so George may not have had the technical prowess of Steve Vai or others, although his recorded solos have always been non-trivial - but that's irrelevant. George created memorable music, music that millions have listened to daily for decades, which is rather more than can be said for Bernie Krause.

I still like Bernie's music, and his wild-habitat preservation efforts. But it's otherwise difficult to respect him as a human being any more. Pity.

Mom & Phil, Come & Gone

Wednesday 18 June 2003, Jackson CA

Mom and Phil have come and gone. We cleaned everything yesterday and dashed around taking care of business, shopping, and they only stayed overnight, heading down to Santa Barbara. Now we're free until [chuckle] Friday midday, and again until Monday afternoon. And who knows, we might get some word from Kaiser Medical somewhere along here, or might not. So we can't get too far yet. But soon...

Meanwhile we drove around Jackson and Mokelumne Hill and San Andreas looking for furniture, a chair for Maureen's room, didn't find one. Had a nice drive though. I sussed out information on events, upcoming this weekend, this is a big weekend for little festivals and soires in local towns. We'll just be farting around.

Sunday 22 June 2003, Volcano CA

Ah, Sunday! Laid around. Then went out to West Point to ART IN THE GARDEN at a beautiful locale, bought a nice basket. Then went out thru Railroad Flat and Mountain Ranch, didn't see the town in Mountain Ranch, the Ice Cream Social, 'cause it cost too much. Didn't want to pay $15 each to suck vanilla and listen to local glee clubs.

Instead we rolled down Whiskey Slide Road and then traversed northward on Ponderosa Road, ah Ponderosa Road! That was a real BOOGER! A dirt track winding around the mountains and crawling down into the canyon of the South Fork Calaveras River. Be sure to write up a description of that, that was a monstrous road. Sliding along sandy and stony alluvium, then through rocky metamorphic gates, up and down in several life zones in just a very few slow miles, and finally back to Highway 26 spinning back to West Point. Don't forget to write that up. After researching the geology and botany, of course.

Wednesday 25 June 2003, Volcano CA

Maureen went down to Jackson for stuff (women's group lunch and PT) by herself so I'm at home today. So, just assembling web pages on a nice bright day. Well, just a little of that webpage-building - lots of running around the house shooting solarized-posterized and other experimental digital photographic shots. Ah, easy day.

So I haven't had any luck with this new cellphone, this is really getting aggravating, have to look for an amplified antenna. Meanwhile I should note that I REALLY have to do some Desert Rat stuff - scan covers, respond to emails, that kinda thing. I'm getting really laggardly about that. Oh well.

Saturday 28 June 2003, Buckhorn CA

Up in Buckhorn at Beth and Brad's, attending a little barbeque and party here, celebrating Gavin's 13th birthday. Gotta jump into their pool some hot-hot-hot day soon. Friday, yesterday, processed more pictures and then we went over to the Volcano Theatre Company amphitheatre to see a splendid rendition of BORN YESTERDAY and have a pre-show birthday party for Ginny's 76th birthday. Folding chairs on the grassy terraces for a festive picnic dinner, then the entertainment. Huzzah! And in the next couple weeks, a party for Beth's and Bobby's b'days. So it's party season. And very hot up here too. A good excuse to stay indoors and process pictures during the day, then evening festivities. Heh.

YADBAJ: Yet Another Damn Bay Area Jaunt

Monday 30 June 2003, Fairfield California

Driving back to the Bay Area. This morning it was Kaiser (Folsom) for a consultation, then some footwear shopping at the Nike outlet. And we're now heading towards the Bay, to Ikea at this point, then to waste some time in Emeryville, then probably camp out in San Rafael tonight, get to Kaiser (San Rafael) early in the morning for a blood-fasting test for Maureen, then waste some time around San Rafael until mid-afternoon when she has a Workers Comp medical appointment in Novato. And then head back homeward.

It turns out that Maureen's medical evaluations will probably take some weeks further, and we have no idea when the process will end. We just might be stuck around here until the end of summer. Bother.

But for now, it's a not-overwhelmingly-hot day, getting cooler as we head towards the Bay. We're just now passing the Napa-Sonoma turnoff from I-80, a route we've been on so many hundreds of times before. The grasslands and hills have turned bright gold as the vegetation dries out. Dark grey-green clumps of oaks nestled in the hollows on the hills. The sky getting dirties as we approach civilization. Gawrsh, what color was the sky back around Sacramento? I hardly remember - who dares to look at the sky there? Maureen sez it was bluer than this and I think she's right.

I am SO bored with driving this same route again, it's very hard to keep a travel journal when the only places we travel to are places we've been to a thousand times before.

LATER: An uneventful trip to Emeryville, interrupted only by strawberries. We ran thru Ikea, dreaming. Had some nice MidEastern food. Came across the Bay to San Rafael. Poked around, looking at digital cameras at CompUSA. Then camped out in McGinnis Park, which we haven't done for quite awhile. G'night.

Tuesday 1 July 2003, San Rafael California

Now it's fairly early in the morning, we're at Kaiser (San Rafael), Maureen's gonna get some blood drawn. Then we can go have breakfast and do other things today. More shopping, looking for more shoes to alleviate Maureen's foot pain, then buy a little food, then her medical appointment, and then we're back to the mountains.

So it looks the upcoming schedule is: Wednesday, tomorrow, lay around, do more computer stuff. Thursday, the repair guy(s) from Skyline come(s) out and hopefully do some repair work on the house. And then it's July Fourth and I guess we try to look for fireworks in some place that's not too hot. And ... proceed.

Meanwhile, I should write up the webpage on HOW TO OVERTHROW THE GOV'T AND INSTALL A LIBERTARIAN REGIME WITHOUT BREAKING A SWEAT. The gist of which is, don't break any laws and don't attack the country, and convince everybody else to act the same. Do that, there's no excuse to have a gov't. Ha ha.

Meanwhile I'm sitting out here in the Kaiser (San Rafael) parking lot dictating these notes, 'cause the line into the lab is very long and Maureen told be to not bother standing around waiting for her. So here I am, reading the current issue of the BAY GUARDIAN which... well, this is a special GAY PRIDE issue, and I guess they had enough ads from other places, they didn't need to run any travel ads, because there are NO travel ads AT ALL in here.

There's a TEMPTING advertisement for an Italian motor scooter the ItalJet Torpedo 52T, $1500 shipped from New York. Oh wouldn't that be fun, having little motor scooters to zip around on. See their website! -- (dictate in Italian accent:) made in Italy, automatic transmission, electric start, 50cc Piaggio 4-stroke engine, no motorcycle licence required. Close-out sale while supply lasts. (end Italian accent).

But in the competition for our consumer dollars are digital cameras, a new computer for Maureen which she can't use for awhile because her hands don't work so there's no rush on that, and maybe a new camcorder. (Not much else in the way of electronic goodies - we've got'em all! I have to tie together some of what we have - networking, boy I haven't done the networking, I haven't built the music studio. Oh, one of these days.) And of course a carport...

Things to do: Write songs about maps. And look at UNLIKELY BOOK TITLES, and use some of those titles as song titles and/or subjects. Especially the children's books, heh heh heh. And songs about sex. Sex and maps!

Tuesday evening, 1 July 2003, home

A straightforward day but still a long and tiring drive. All the medical stuff done, some more shopping done, a few more tasks done, I get to rest tomorrow, and then more to to, more to do, and Maureen's medical stuff might be going on for another 8 weeks at least, I don't know, that's July, August, we'll be here almost all goddam summer. Ugh.

GIG2BBHA:   G'z It's Good To Be Back Home Again   (No Matter How Tedious The Place Normally Seems)

Wednesday, 2 July 2003, Volcano California

Heading down the Ridge, strolling below home. It's good to be back from that excursion Down Below. I gotta say that the 2-day 1-night RV trip down to the Bay Area, even at a fairly relaxed pace, still seems more onerous than the longer week-long journey. Maybe 'cause there's not enough time to adapt to the road life. Nothing but road food, no chance to cook anything or lay around in the RV or outside it and otherwise adapt to the envorinment. I'm getting real tired of driving those same roads,

I'm also getting real tired of staying here in the house for a day or two, then driving somewhere, then coming back, staying around for a day or two, repeat endlessly. Maureen suggested I take the RV out by myself for a week or two at times, says she can handle the drives down to Jackson and back for PT twice a week. I just may do that. Either go somewheres, go ranging for a couple weeks; or get someplace on the far side of the Sierras, somewhere between the Sierras and Hwy 395, and hang out for some time,

A third option of course would be to plop in a campsite by one of the lakes up off Hwy 88, generally around Carson Pass. Maureen could then spend days at the house when she wants to, days at the camp when she wants to, drive herself down to Jackson when necessary. Or I could drive her down to the house, do email and websurfing whilst she's doing the PT thang.

I kinda like the prospect of going off by myself for a week or two, maybe out to Area 51 again! A little phototour of Tonopah and Rachel and Tempiute. So I should maybe do some online research of events in central Nevada. But I haven't heard much about Rachel or Area 51 lately. They dropped off the radar, or it's gotten too dangerous to approach the closed zone, The fun'n'games level seems to have diminished greatly in the last coupla years, since 9-11. And I sure don't wanna go to Las Vegas!

Before rolling down the road I've got to do a coupla things [see the To-Do List]. And when I go, what'll I concentrate on conceptually? Maybe music. I'll probably want to take the little Zoom digital recording studio, gotta find its handbook. Take along one or two instruments. Take the Spanish language materials, hell the Italian materials too, teach myself two languages at once, right? Naw, one at a time is enough.

And look for Events. Not because the Events are any fun but because I can wander around surreptitiously taking pictures of other people who are wandering around. Hopefully in quaint towns, hopefully not out in direct sunlight or in the shadows thereof.

So, things to work on besides processing Guatemala and Jackson and other pictures: still do a KITRA display website, YahooGroups/Kitra maybe. And work on HTML frame-driven, frame-loaded animated slide-shows. Be clever, have the frames with four windows, with display times of 5-7-11-13 seconds, all prime numbers so they wouldn't be transitioning at the same time. Use fades and wipes for the transitions. Burn CDs of the photo albums, the slideshows would be used to display those images, otherwise it's gonna be Web-based and I'll have to figure out where to store stuff. Hmm. Might start a YahooGroups/JacksonCa site also, for all the Jackson pictures.

Sunday evening, 6 July 2003, Volcano California

Cool evening, walking down the Ridge. Holiday weekend just about over, mostly we've been hanging out. Took a drive Thursday to take care of business, had to go DOWNhill to Jackson and Ione. Tried going UPhill on a hard back byway to Pollock Pines and the Old Mormon Emigrant Trail but the roads were too bumpy for Maureen's painful arm on the route we were taking.

Friday the 4th we laid around. Yesterday, Saturday afternoon we drove UPhill, cooled off, went all the way to Carson Pass, stopped at most of the resorts along the way to check'em out, they're all packed. Today we laid around, a little home decorating, plus more image processing. The Guatemala processing is coming along but I'm only up to, oh not quite the end of the second week. Still in Antigua yet.

And I think I have a workable frame-based slideshow display system. A small square frame in the upper left. A stretched-portrait frame below it. A stretched-landscape frame beside it. And at the diagonal, a big window for everything: squares, landscapes, or pairs of portraits. See below.

		S L I D E S H O W

For sorting purposes I can disregard the size of the pictures, just be concerned with their aspect. Cycle ALL the squares & portraits & landscapes through their small respective windows, and then cycle ALL pictures thru the big window.

To write a script to generate the code for all that, I'll just have to make up file lists for each aspect - square, portrait or landscape - the script for the small windows will be easy - the script for the big window will be a little trickier, just because it has to select pairs of portraits. Maybe do it all in JavaScript? Yeah, learn enough JavaScript for that... And then there's the sticky matter of generating titles. Oh boy. I could just get real lazy, a date-based system - the "if this is the 4th Friday then it must be Chichi" model. Easier than text-entry...

But enough of that. A beautiful evening, another shitty evening in paradise, but not the town. The last light of the Sun is high in the treetops, the air is cool, the forest absorbs most of the sounds of this exurb. Yeah it's nice enough up here at times but I sure would like to get away.

July 2003 North Coast etc Jaunt - click here