Farewell: Hideaway, Sandy and Kung Pao

I had never met them before, until they were carried in cages down to the shoreline at Alicia Beach, in South Laguna.

Hayden is an honorary member of the Pacific Marine Mammal Center, and my pal, Judy, sent us the email announcing the ‘release’ of these Sea Lions from the hospital up on Laguna Canyon Road.

The day sun was hot, after several days of indecent rain and floods. We could see Catalina, appearing closer that usual. Hayden stopped at the top of the sand dune and said “Gammy, see the dolphins!”

There were dolphins waiting beyond the rise of the waves, as if they knew Hideaway, Sandy and Kung Pao would soon be joining them. The cages were lined up, the front opened simultaneously. Volunteers held up signs that said “Quiet”  . . . so we wouldn’t make the seals [all women] nervous.

One by one, they exited the cages and looked out at the sea, then back to the cages. I am not going to put words in these seals mouths, but it was as if they might be asking “Really?”

The humans, with black screens held in front, slowly shuffled toward the edge of the sea, The seals gave one last look at the sand behind them, and scurried [can a seal scurry?] into the receding waves.

They swam away, not out toward Catalina, but parallel with the shore, toward a rock outcropping at the far end of the beach. “Someone will stay behind to see if they make their way out into the ocean,” we were told.

That made me feel better, sharing their freedom.

Prospective Memory

Remembering things to do in the future. This would be great if I thought there was a future.

I am 74 years older than dinosaurs who skipped out at the end of the Jurassic Dynasty, So, I’m now about to give up on the end of the earth as we know it . . . the Trump-land era. What is the right word here? Era means about 25 years and that’s enough to make me wrench my hooves off. Will we survive? Will my country survive?

There’s the rub. My country was started by some guys trying to get out from under the insane rule of a king thousands of miles away. He sent soldiers with long guns and topcoats that would send a bull Into mating frenzy, which made it easy for us [well it took several years before we got the whole banana] but we ditched the king.

Now, 250 years later, we’ve come up with our own, a red-headed man [we think so, it’s hard to know whats real and what’s pasted on.] While the Brits were still roaming around our little villages and knocking out our forests, some moneyed people had an idea: Build a Wall. Throw the redcoats, pirates and Indians out. This didn’t keep the pirates out, just watch the daily stock market news to see why –  OR LOOK UP THE FALL OF LEHMAN BROTHERS ON SEPTEMBER 18, 2007.

A wall does not work, except to keep people in, not out. See Berlin, the wall that was built overnight, separating families, a government trying to recovered from a deadly war, and a political system based on free people thinking or one ruled by a corrupt government. The Chinese built a wall to keep the Mongolians out, but they came anyway. The wall was built of several materials, wood, sand, concrete, to control immigration, namely the Mongolians, but all it did was to keep the Chinese people in.

There are so many things one could say about a wall . . . The Wall of Tears, for starters. The last time he mentioned the wall, he said it would be slats. That’s closer to a wall of tears, or tears over a dam.

Instead of writing this morning . . .

. . . I decided that my keyboard wasn’t erect enough for me to type without thumb pain.

This is what I did.

I Googled Microsoft Wireless Keyboard 5000 for instructions. I found a video – the un-boxing instructions that have taken over the Internet YouTube channel – and slid the screen to when he turned the keyboard over and saw the four empty spaces, where legs would be placed.

“This is new,” the narrator said. He tipped the keyboard. “I guess I left the other pieces in the package,” he continued, saying that he would get to that later.

Later. He re-opened the package, and found two little black hedges [what else would these gadgets be called] tucked next to the mouse.

He then placed them in the top of the keyboard, noting that he’s never known anyone else who would want the front of a keyboard lifted [I don’t know anyone of that sort either; however, what would that mean?]

I purchased my keyboard three years ago. The box, and the hedges, and my sales receipt are buried somewhere in the landfill between San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano. I rummaged through my ‘don’t know what to do with this stuff’ box and found two unused pencil erasers. Stuck them in and voila . . . this is working. So far.

As for my writing, this is it.

Uber Tooth Fairy

 

The call came from Pacific Coast Highway, from a place that’s not so easy to pick up an Uber ride. “Nicky” was standing in the far-right lane, blocking cars from slamming into me.

He jumped into the passenger seat, announcing “Today is a perfect day. A good day. Want to know why?”

I slid the destination across my screen . . . Nicky was headed to Mission Viejo. He was just short of wired, in a natural way, looking as if he might jump out from his torn-off jeans.

“Why?” I asked. Sometimes I wonder why I do this. Oh, I’m a writer. Or just curious.

He leaned as far as he could, almost in front of my face, and said “To get new teeth.” He grinned, without teeth. Not one tooth peeked through his lips.

It was one of those cases that I hoped for a proper response. One came from experience. I am a Sharks Hockey fan. His smile looked like the shots of the team in the game program, with or without their smiles fixed. I had a crush on Mike Ricci . . . now in Arizona.

“You played hockey?” I love rhetorical questions. On medium Uber rides.

“I used to, when I was younger.” He couldn’t have been more than 30, but without teeth it was hard to nail a year, let alone a decade. “I’ve spent my life pushing the edge. The older I get, the more dangerous my quest. Boogie board, shredding into nothing, climbing up cliffs one isn’t supposed to, but I live.”

“Except without your teeth,” I said. “Maybe your teeth have gone to outer space and you’ll get them back when you visit that last place that takes your life,” I have no idea why I said this. The ‘wired’ was contagious.

“Ah, you know, then. I figured it out, you have an old soul.”

“No,” I said. “I think this is my first time on earth.”

“No. You’re 5,000 years old. Been here many times. I know. I think I saw you land. It was on a ship, just south of the nuclear power plants, San Onofre.”

“I didn’t land here. I arrived in Seattle.  I am certain,” I said. I was at the off-ramp, to a road taking us up to the medical building.

“You take care,” Nicky said. “I’ve had this dream about America. You will survive. Many won’t.”

I was going to ask him about what would happen to him, but he jumped out of the car and dashed across the parking lot. He turned, at the door, and pointed to his mouth. He was smiling.

I could swear he already had his teeth in.

Uber Tooth Fairy

The call came from Pacific Coast Highway, from a place that’s not so easy to pick up an Uber ride. “Nicky” was standing in the far-right lane, blocking cars from slamming into me.

He jumped into the passenger seat, announcing “Today is a perfect day. A good day. Want to know why?”

I slid the destination across my screen . . . Nicky was headed to Mission Viejo. He was just short of  wired, in a natural way, looking as if he might jump out from his torn-off jeans.

“Why?” I asked.

He leaned as far as he could, almost in front of my face, and said “To get new teeth.” He grinned, without teeth. Not one tooth peeked threw his lips.

It was one of those cases that I hoped for a proper response. I am a Sharks Hockey fan. His smile looked like the shots of the team, with or without their smiles fixed.

“You played hockey?’

“I used to, when I was younger.” He couldn’t have been more than 30, but without teeth it was hard to nail a year, let alone a decade. “I’ve spent my life pushing the edge. the older I get, the more dangerous event I will try. Boogie board, shredding into nothing, climbing up cliffs one isn’t supposed to, but I live.”

“Except without your teeth,” I said. “Maybe your teeth have gone to outer space and you’ll get them back when you visit that last place that takes your life,” I have no idea whyI said this.

“Ah, you know, then. I figured it out, you have an old soul.”

“No,” I said. “I think this is my first time on earth.”

“No. You’re 5,000 years old. Been here many times. I know. I think I saw you land. It was on a ship, just south of the nuclear power plants, San Onofre.”

“I didn’t land here, I am certain,” I said. I was at the offramp, to a road taking us op to the medical building.

“You take care,” Nicky said. “I’ve had this dream and you will survive.”

I was going to ask him about how he would be, but he jumped out of the car and dashed down the parking lot. He turned, at the door, and pointed to his mouth. He was smiling.

I could swear he already had his teeth in.

This Chair is Not Designed for a Child . . .

The vertical slats on the seat are digging into the back of my thigh, just above my knee. I pull up my socks to add some protection, but as soon as I bend my knee, the socks inch down my leg.

“Eat your egg, the bus is coming around the corner.”

I can’t see the bus, I can only hear my mother’s footsteps, high heels clicking with purpose on the hardwood floor. Back and forth, from refrigerator to the yellow-tiled counter with red and black roosters impaled every 12 inches on the back-splash, marching toward the sink and stove.

The egg. Its orange yolk has escaped the membrane and spread across the translucent mucous. It’s headed toward my toast, which is succumbing to the onslaught. I close my eyes, and swing my legs back and forth, so furiously that my black patent Mary Jane’s fly off my feet and scoot across the floor, hitting my mother’s ankles. The distraction works. She lifts me up, I can see the short van, through the sheer curtains.

“See, now you’ll have to run to catch it, in your socks.”
I escape. The bowl with the egg will be sitting on the chrome legged table when the bus brings me home from Miss Buckley’s School. I have all day to figure out where to slip the congealed formation into the bougainvillea that covers the kitchen window, like a magenta-tainted spy.

Sleeping Babies on 20 January

Uber encourages drivers to ‘get out there because riders do not want to be wet’ when it rains. This is a golden opportunity, as it’s been five years since the wet stuff fell from above. This …

Source: Sleeping Babies on 20 January

Sleeping Babies on 20 January

Uber encourages drivers to ‘get out there because riders do not want to be wet’ when it rains. This is a golden opportunity, as it’s been five years since the wet stuff fell from above. This was Inauguration Day, Friday and a great opportunity for me to keep my mouth shut.

Which I did not.

The $89,000 in my Checking Account . . .

I am sitting here, alone in my sparse bedroom, looking at the balance in my checking account.

It’s $89,000.

It’s not mine. More than $55,000 belongs to the Federal Government. The rest, about $35,000, goes to the State of California. Capital Gains, unmet by the discount for moving away and leasing my house for four years.

I needed the money, to survive. A part of my San Francisco life had come to an end, but not quite as long as I held onto the house. Now, it’s gone. I purchased the loft in 1995. About $250,000. Sold it for $995,000. Powerful investment, you say?

Not so much. I looked up how hard it would be to move to Ireland this morning. A bit hard, unless I had a job. Perhaps I could go onto an Irish Dating Site and meet someone, be whisked away to a grey-with-cool-mold and ivy covered castle perched on a cliff above the sea . . . Too Heathcliff.

Two things hurt my feelings this morning.

I loved my 30 years in San Francisco. And, while the move was a good idea at the moment, the selling is not so bad.  I didn’t end up in broke Oklahoma or Kansas [these places have become third world with Republicans in charge . . . ]

Republicans. Their new leader has not paid taxes since God threw the unworthy into the sea. He will lower taxes for those richer than Satan himself, all hot and groping with stringy fingers. He didn’t win the most votes. But, this doesn’t do me or the people I care about, any good.

This hurts. I would rather give the money to help people get educated . . . those steel workers, coal miners who only know how to dig the dirty stuff out of the ground. I’d send them to school to learn something  21st century . . . as fossil fuels are not going to last forever. And how much steel can you push in one day, as opposed to installing solar panels?  Or learning a new language? Or opening your own business?

I would rather give the money to set up wellness clinics, keep people healthy, as we are all about the loose the affordability of healthcare. Over the past 18 months, I didn’t have to pay for a mammogram, annual checkup, colonoscopy, about $3000 per year extra . . . but gone when Affordable becomes “Pay for it, you sucker.” If Social Security had been ‘private’ in 2008, we would all be poorer than peons in Mexico.

I would rather set up a quiet place, on a cliff overlooking the sea . . . which I would have, if $89,000 were to be mine. I would purchase. I would pay taxes. I would support a community and, best of all, give back.

Now, all I have to give is a link to places that have been set up to help people cope with the end-of-democracy as we know it . . .

I’m laughing. And will be until 2018, when – gerrymandering and voter suppression aside – we might have a chance to get America back from a disaster worse than what the Bush Depression left us with in 2008.

I’m laughing and want to shake Obama’s hand for pulling us out, in spite of Republican opposition from the first night of his inauguration. Obama didn’t go far enough, but I want to thank him anyway.

I am laughing as I shredded all my credit cards. I owe not a penny. I urge you to do the same, as the regulations set up to protect consumers from bank fraud and worse, this regulations will disappear faster than Affordable Healthcare.

Now, it will take some time to find the right pen – a fountain pen loaded with charcoal ink that stays on your hands for about a week after you’ve spilled it on the back of the checkbook.

Then off to the mailbox. Which one? The one down by the sea, not far from a little house that I could have put a down payment on, and finished my novel in the little office with a view.

Oh stop, I can write here. In my little room. Stay tuned.

Final 2016 Uber . . . Ohio and 1000 Steps

A BMX bike champion, to meet his pals at the Penguin Cafe in Laguna Beach. His best ride? Lake Louise, Banff

A couple from Vancouver, wanted to see 1000 Step beach – I warned them that it was, indeed, 1000 steps. “ We’re Canadian. We will have no problem.”

A father, two daughters, from San Clemente to Dave and Busters. “To catch the football game,” the papa said. “What game?”
He pointed to the oversized red jersey, emblazoned with OHIO.
“The celebration is all Ohio fans, there are about 1000 of them. Dave and Busters is the only place that will take us.”

Dave and Busters is in The Spectrum. I begin this last day of the year, hoping for a new sweater. Nordstrom was in front of me.

Happy Gnu Ear, people.

Me. At the Louvre.