Texas Music (aka Listening Mistake #134)

On the way home from rehearsal tonight, I just couldn't help myself and started listening to my Gary P. Nunn collection. It was all okay until he started singing "What I Like About Texas". Up until then, I was tooling along singing my song about Luckenbach, and feeling like I was ready to go slap on the Tony Lamas and go two-stepping (I'll have to find a honky-tonk out here to do that in).

Anyway... "What I Like About Texas" kind of pulls at me I guess, and within no time I had a huge lump in my throat and was damned near tears. There's just something about the words... kind of like a good dose of "Southern Cross" I guess. Fact is, there's a LOT I like about Texas. All this touristy stuff we're doing here I also did in Texas, so I knew the area I lived in, I knew the history of the state, and in some cases better than a lot of the natives.

That song also reminds me of Eric. I don't know why, other than maybe he was always playing Gary P. when I went over to his house. That leads me to think about Lisa, then Miles, then Rob, Lynn, Darin, Janna, Jeff, Meghan, Nancy, the Stall Crawl, Robin (and me at the Stall Crawl), Krista, New Orleans beads, crawfish boils, and then that reminds me of Eric (and on and on and on).

As if that wasn't weird enough, I got an email from Robin about 3p my time asking if I wanted to meet her at Mesa Rosa, just like I hadn't ever left. I was thinking "did she forget?", but no... she was having one of those days too.

How many Licks does it take to get to the top?

On Monday we drove from Livermore down a very long back-road up to the top of Mount Hamilton, the Bay Area's highest peak. Mt. Hamilton is on the eastern edge of San Jose, and it's a 44 mile (from Livermore to the top) scenic and very curvy road. On top of the mountain is the world's first mountain-top observatory, Lick Observatory.



James Lick was the rich guy that built the telescope, and at the time (1888), it was the largest refractory telescope in the world with 36 inch lenses and 58 feet in length. Since construction of the observatory was finished after Lick died, he is buried at the base of the telescope underneath the floor. Lick is even more famous for bringing 600 pounds of chocolate from Lima Peru and sold it on commission from a man named Domingo Ghirardelli. Lick sold all the chocolate (of course), and on recommendation, Domingo moved to San Francisco and Ghirardelli Chocolate was born.

It was very pretty at the top, with a great view of Silicon Valley (albeit hazy from the fires that have burning in the south). On a clear day, you can see the entire bay, all the way up to Mt. Tamalpais.

On the drive up, we pulled over because Chris saw the biggest pinecones he has ever seen (if you ran into one of these, it would probably dent your car). Each weighed 3+ pounds, about the size of a coconut!

Little Fish in a Big Pond

As you may well know, Kim and I had an opportunity to go sailing yesterday on the Bay on a Catalina 25 no less. Last weekend, we were walking around the docks in Sausalito, and we (Kim) struck up a conversation with some people that were just putting away their boat, a Santana 22. They had just gotten back from racing, and the fog had cancelled their last race. Anyway, we chatted with one of the guys for about 10 minutes, and when he found out that Kim used to have a Catalina 25, he invited us to go sailing with him "some time". In an ongoing effort to hit the ground running, so to speak, Kim did her usual and pinged him a few days later about going sailing. He happened to be going this Sunday, and invited us. His wife, Melissa, although an avid and somewhat extreme outdoorsperson, is still a little squeamish about heeling, so we thought Kim might make her more comfortable, and probably distract her with conversation.

We drove up to their marina just north of Sausalito, and were pleasantly surprised to see a very nice little market in the parking lot of the marina. We saw about 20 MacGregor 26's in the dry slip area. We hooked up with our hosts and went down to their boat. It was a pretty serious case of deja vu. Slight differences in design and rigging were pretty much the only difference between Joli and Tipsy Gypsy, and the lack of bugs all over the boat. We got the tour of the boat and shoved off. Evidently, the sides of the Bay are shallow, so factor in a few feet of tide, and you have to putter out of the marina along a carefully chosen path, with one eye on the depth finder. We motored out between the channel markers while the wind picked up, shut the motor off and raised the main and hanked on the 110. By this time we were out in one of the many slots in the Bay where wind comes whistling down a valley in the surrounding hillsides. It was blowing 15 at least as we turned off the OB. Several minutes later, I went down below to get our inflatables because it was getting pretty rambunctious, and it also completed our West Marine ensembles. We donned the PFD's as we drove under the Richmond/San Rafael (pronounced "San Rafell") bridge and entered the Bay proper.

Curtis told us that Red Rock is for sale by a slimy businessman for the price of $12M. Evidently, you can build your dream home with un unparalleled view of the bay on the big boulder sticking out of the water 100 yards from the bridge.


Curtis confessed to us that in the last year, he had never quite made it to Angel Island as asked if we were up to it. The strong, steady wind had gotten us to the island's vicinity an hour or two ahead of their usual schedule. We actually even thought about sailing around the island and running down Racoon Strait, but decided to try another first. Curtis was new to anchoring, so we found and nice, calm pocket in the lee of Angel Island and dropped a lunch hook. We could clearly see the windlines on either side of us, but we just swung back and forth, within a few dozen feet of the shoreline. Angel Island used to be the "Ellis Island" of SF, and Kim's grandpa has firsthand experience with hanging out there during WWII.

While we popped open a few oat sodas and dug into some sandwiches, we saw a sailboat with a website address on it for boat graphics, which included two dolphins leaping on the bow. Kim and I recognized the boat from last year's trip on the Swan 41 out of the Alameda Estuary. The dolphin boat was on the same dock as the Swan. Several minutes later, a SailTime Hunter 380 showed up and almost motored over our anchor line. As we were making acerbic comments about the level of seamanship the average SailTime member exhibits, they dropped their anchor. We were foolishly concerned that by the time they had a 7:1 scope, they would be right on top of us, due to poor positioning. Once their anchor touched bottom, the guy at the bow promptly went aft for lunch. At that point their anchor rode was perfectly plumb and had no scope, which solved our intial concern, but added a new one: what if they drag and drift into us. Sigh... At that point, we all decided that it was time to go, so we hauled in our anchor and shot out from the island once we hit the wind line. We hit 8 knots several times on our way home, helped in part by a flood tide. I braced myself against the weather helm and shot between the legs of the aforementioned bridge. As we were approaching the Marin Islands in front of our marina, I was very carefully avoiding the lee shore when Curtis asked me to alter course. I was a little confused as to why he would want me to sail toward the islands when he pointed out the depth to me. We were at least a mile from shore and we were in 6 feet of water. So much for my local knowledge. After thanking Curtis for correcting me, we got into the slot and followed the markers home.

On the way into the marina, Kim spotted a Catalina 30 for sale that we had inquired about several months ago. Last year, when we e-mailed the seller, he had forgotten he had the boat for sale, as he lived several hours away from the marina. We agreed it was a huge coincidence, that may very well play an integral part in our immediate future.

We helped put the boat away, said our goodbyes and our hundredth thanks, and drove home. Seriously jazzed about the daysail, we started talking about sailing options. If/when we come to a resolution, I'm sure you'll all be the first to know.

On the way home, I also realized a few things. We've been trying to go sailing on much larger boats than we're used to on Lake Travis because we thought it would be an educational experience for us. What I realized is that when you're on a new boat (to you), you spend most of your attention on getting to know the boat. If you're on a boat you already know, you can spare much more brain bandwidth on things like your surroundings, the wind, weather, other boats, etc., so you can learn as much, if not more on a relatively smaller boat than the 30-40 footers that tend to populate the Bay. Thanks again to Curtis and Melissa for the kindness and generosity. We hope to see you soon after you get back from your honeymoon in Bali.

Bottle Yer Own Whine

Today Cathi and I went to one of my favorite wineries, Thomas Coyne Winery, and bottled our own cases of wine for $5/bottle.



This is a hell of a deal, since his "giveaway" wine is a great drinking wine, especially for the price. I've been going to Coyne's since before I moved to Texas and always tried to have a couple of bottles in my rack in Texas (I was extremely judicious about when and who I shared it with).

	The bottling process was quite a bit of fun. It was in an old building that I'd never been in at the winery. There was an assembly line type of setup.
	The first step was using a nozzle that shot carbon dioxide into the bottle to rid the bottle of any oxygen. This keeps the wine from become oxygenated and going bad post-corking.
	Once all the bottles had been filled with the CO2, it was time to attach them to the filling machine, which automatically filled the bottles with the wine.
	This machine corked the bottles after they were full. You just stick the full bottle of wine in the center and press down on the paddle, and your wine bottle was corked.
	Of course you cannot forget the labeling process. As you can see, I ended up getting creative with affixing the labels. Next year, I'll bring my own!

Blowing My Own Horn

I did find a new group to play clarinet with here. Back in November, I contacted every group in the Bay Area knowing that most of them weren't going to be all that good. I tried to find a group to play in 10 years ago when I lived in Fremont. I visited 3 of them, and they all were so bad I couldn't even consider wasting my time.

Anyway, I'm playing first clarinet with the Contra Costa Wind Symphony. It's an audition-only group, so the chair shifting stuff that happened in the last group I played in just doesn't happen in this one. Where you are is where you are, and because of this the group doesn't appear to have some of the "morale" issues that go along with feeling jilted because you never get to play a particular part. Everyone in my section is a good player, so if someone did ask me to play a lower part, I would happily play it, because it's not indicative of my playing ability. People are actually sharing parts in this group.

We had a rehearsal last night for the concert on June 1. The music we're playing is difficult and true wind ensemble music. So if you are in the area and see this flyer, stop by.

RE: Cost of Gas

What Kim forgot to mention is that just before I filled up the tank for $57 on Alameda, I made the same amount of money by working for 5.5 hours at West Marine. Sigh... At least corn on the cob here is 4/$1!

Cost of Living Increase

Chris filled his tank up this morning after his West Marine gig. Just as a reminder, he drives a 1999 Toyota Tacoma (4 cylinder vehicle). It cost him $57 to fill his tank.

The news tonight posted the cost of oil up over $130/barrel.

When we arrived here over a week ago, we could find gas for $3.89/gallon (still higher than Austin, but not that much higher). It's now averaging over $4/gallon and going up.

On the other hand, you can buy 16 ears of corn for the price of one gallon of gas. Good thing we like corn.

Guide to Bay Sailing

Note: the following was completely ganked from Latitude 38:

Chill Pill:
Sailing on San Francisco Bay is the summer is not warm. We don't care if it's 100F in San Rafael, it will always be cold on the Bay. So you need to dress for the occasion, but leave the Levis at home. The correct method is "layering" with modern synthetics, which not only isulate better, but also wick moisture away from the skin. So go for undergarments of polypropylene, then polyester, and a top layer of quality foul weather gear (those made with Gore-Tex are best if you can afford them). Too warm? Remove a layer. Not warm enough? Add a layer - this isn't rocket science. As with most things, the more you spend on quality gear, the more comfortable and dry you will remain. We also strongly urge all boaters to wear flotation . If you fall in our cold local waters without a lifejacket, all the layering in the world won't keep you from going hypothermic quickly. And it's all downhill from there.

Flat Water Sailing:
The main Bay offers great sailing, but you're going to get wet doing it. If you want some of the best flat-water, stay-dry (well, dryer, anyway) sailing of your life, head down the Oakland/Alameda Estuary. Again, it's best to beat to windward early in the day, then downwind sail back, perhaps stopping at one of the may waterfront restaurants that has a dock out front. Short of being kidnapped by the Swedish Bikini Team, there is simply no better way to rejuvenate your soul after a tough day at the office - even if it was the unemployment office.

Counterclockwise for Comfort:
If your plan of the day calls for a grand tour of the Bay, always do it in a counterclockwise direction. It makes no difference if you start from the Estuary, Pier 39, Berkeley or Sausalito - and it's doubly applicable if you start in the afternoon roather than in the morning.

Fogbound:
One of the weather phenomena most associated with San Francisco is our famous fog. We once brought an out-of-towner to the Marin Headlands who was actually disappointed because he could see the Golden Gate Bridge.

A couple of things sailors should know about fog:
1) The classic Bay stuff comes through the Golden Gate and streams down the Slot toward Berkeley. It pretty much stays right there, so all you have to do to get out of it is sail perpendicular to the flow.

2) Even when the fog is in, you can sail most of the Bay in perfect visibility if you just avoid the Slot. In fact , one of the most spectacular sails you can ever make is in the early evening between sunny Sausalito and Angel Island as the thick carpet of fog streams over the Marin hills and through the Gate. A true Kodak moment.

That's Easy for You to Say:
"If you can sail in San Francisco," the saying goes, "you can sail anywhere in the world." While that may be a bit of a stretch, the reverse is certainly true: "You can sail anywhere in the world on San Francisco Bay." We're speaking figuratively of course. Check it out:

Caribbean - Reaching back and forth behind the Tiburon Peninsula on a hot September afternoon feels an awful lot like the Caribbean.

Mediterranean - A few passes from Richardson Bay to Hurricane Gulch and back are just like the Med: There's either way too much wind or practically none, and it comes from all directions.

Roaring Forties - Sail out to the Farallones and back on one of those 40-knot days. Cape Horn will seem like a piece of cake.

South Pacific - Sail up to the Delta around July and you'll get a taste of what sailing the tradewinds is like. When the wind shuts off, you'll also get a good idea of what the South Pacific bugs and humidity are like.

Little/Big Boats:
We hate to burst anyone's bubble, but in our opinon, boats under 20 feet are too small for sailing the open Bay. There are exceptions, of course, notably organized races sailed by properly attired small boat sailors where "crash boats" hover nearby to help anyone who gets into trouble.

On the other end of the scale, San Francisco is a vibrant maritme port, and all manner of commercial shipping comes in and out at all hours. The main thing to remember is that big ships ALWAYS have the right of way. If one of them gives you more than four blasts of its horn, it means, "I don't understand what you're doing and it's worrying me." It's probably time to tack and go the other way.

Cruising:
Whether you have a week or a weekend, there are plenty of cruising destinations in and around San Francisco Bay. For the weekenders: Angel Island, the Petaluma or Napa Rivers, or even across the Bay to the Oakland Estuary or Sausalito. For those with more time: the Delta, or perhaps out the Gate and south to Half Moon Bay, Santa Cruz or Monterey.

Dreams and Nightmares:
Two scenarious: 1) You want to introduce the man/woman (circle one) of your dreams to go sailing; or 2) Your incredibly irritating mother-in-law has been whining for a year because you've never taken her sailing. Here's the best way to deal with them both. For the boy/girlfriend, follow the advice under "Counterclockwise for Comfort," ending with a quiet anchorage behind Angel Island. Break out some crackers, cheese and a bottle of vintage Merlot and he/she will be putty in your hands.

Now for the mother-in law. Leave Berkely at 2 p.m. and head for the South Tower. DON'T REEF! Plan to be there at max ebb. Then reach back and forth across the Golden Gate until she begs for mecy. If that doesn't work, sail her out to the Potato Patch via scenic Point Bonita. When she feels the need to "call Ralph on the porcelain telephone" make sure she does so over the leeward side - just as you punch through another breaking wave.

If you're somewhere between these two extremes, say out for an afternoon with the boys from work or your daughter and a few of her friends, just take things slow and easy. As soon as you perceive the slightest fear or hint of seasickness, crack off and head downwind to a less windy area.

One more thing: for any newcomer to the Bay, make it a point to sail under the Golden Gate. They'll remember it for a lifetime.

CL: I can honestly say that sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge is one of the coolest things I've ever done in my life. Even our limited experience on the Bay makes the above excerpt extremely relevant.

BTW, the image I posted above shows the Bay, with the oil spill tracks from the container ship we saw last Fall in Alameda. It had a 100' gash that was 20' above the water line. Reportedly, 68,000 gallons of oil was spilled. We also sailed past the bridge pillar/tower and saw a HUGE skidmark where it hit.

On a lighter note, the Estuary mentioned above is a delightful place for sheltered sailing. Unfortunately, the tides are pretty severe, and the wind is quite sheltered. I've also been reading about right of way issues between sailboats in the Estuary, since the area is so restricted. While driving along 880, Alameda looks like a five mile long marina.

BRRR!!!

Besides adapting to the cooler air temps out here, I found another wonderful thing about CA: the water temperature. Kim and I are thinking about getting a catamaran to putter around with when not taking "Tempus Fugit" or accepting an invitation to go sailing with someone else. After a bit of research, I realized that the water temp in San Francisco Bay is currently 49F. While comparing that to the 73F of Lake Travis, I experienced significant shrinkage. Also, there are several bodies of water just a few minutes from our abode. However, they are all reservoirs and are not open to public recreation (i.e. sailing a catamaran). It looks like if we want a Lake Travis experience, we're limited to Del Valle Regional Park. Considering it's 15 minutes away, I'm not complaining. As previously posted, it's a wonderful park with dramatic, pristine hillsides surrounding it. It's worth the entry fee, and wasn't at all crowded on what should've been a bustling evening for the park. If (or hopefully when) we get the cat, we'll have even more stuff to blog about.

Bay Crawfish

We were at Bent Creek Winery in Livermore this weekend. I'm a member of their wine club (one of the two wine clubs I belong to). They are having a crawfish boil in July. I'm excited we have a place to wear our cowboy hats. In fact, I'm going to use Darin as a model for how to dress at a crawfish boil!

A Few Ways CA is Different than TX

You can only run electrical appliances before 2pm or after 4pm. Evidently air conditioners max out between 2 and 4. This avoids nasty things like rolling brown-outs, which make you have to reset all the clocks in the house. On the other hand, we just found an alarm clock that synchronizes itself automatically to the atomic clock signal. Nice.

Everything is recycled here. For example, the banana peel goes into the green waste container, but the Chiquita sticker goes into the paper products bin. Parking is a pain when it's trash day because of all of the various bins out on the street. Don't even ask me what to do with a pizza box with cheese stuck to it. Sigh...

It's been 100F for the last several days, but since the humidity is only 20%, it feels great (at least to us, everybody here is dying).

We started stacking crap into our storage unit, then wondered how much stuff would get screwed up if an earthquake made all of our stuff fall. Sigh...

People are so self-absorbed that when we wave to someone in traffic for letting us in, or say "Hello" to someone at a grocery store, they're taken aback and look at us funny.

Driving out here is kind of like playing "Grand Theft Auto", except when you die, you really die, and there's no reset button. I don't think anyone out here realizes that. When someone gets in an accident out here, it screws up every highway in the entire city. Sigh...

We found a winery that's doing a crawfish boil because it's part of their cajun theme, instead of just something to do on a Saturday.

We leave the windows open 24/7. It sometimes gets into the upper 80's in the house. Beemer's fur is full of static electricity when you pet her.

The gas stations have TV's over the pumps that show the local weather, news and of course commercials for the gas station. Speaking of gas stations, some of the older ones can't go over $4/gal so when it does, they have to shut down. HA!

We now have to add 2 hours when thinking Austin time. I guess that's a "no-duh".

We now have to take current into account when sailing on the Bay. There's a Corps of Engineers model of the Bay that we're going to check out ASAP. San Francisco is called "The City", not "San Fran". "Driving While Asian" is considered a public safety hazard. Bad weather out here is when you can see a cloud.

America's Amalfi Coast

We went back up the city on Saturday. It was a glorious day, warm and sunny, and as we crossed the Bay Bridge, looking north towards Alcatraz Island, you could see what looked like gazillions of sailboats all over the bay. Lots of racing and beautiful spinnakers out, and some serious wind (I read on someone else's blog it was blowing 25-30).

It's been hot for the last week (100+), but we've really enjoyed it. I looked at the weather before we went into the city, and it said it was going to be 80+, so we didn't take jackets. Note to selves: do not EVER go to San Francisco without a jacket. We froze our ASSes off down on Hyde Street Pier when we were checking out the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. This pier used to be the San Fran side of the ferry that came from the North Bay in Sausalito, and was considered part of Highway 101 before they built the Golden Gate Bridge. We saw a bunch of historic boats, including a square-rigger, a schooner, and a scow schooner. But, we were so cold, we were in a hurry to get back to where the wind chill factor wasn't an issue.

Then, the fog rolled in, and we saw sailboats heading INTO it (you'll have to blow the picture up to really see what we saw in the fog):


We also took a video of a Beneteau racing out of St. Francis Yacht Club
(just for our friend Rob):


After that, we drove north across Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito, which looks like the Amalfi Coast in Italy (homes all over the hillside, looking out over a gorgeous bay full of sailboats).

We walked the public marina in downtown Sausalito and met a nice guy just coming in for the day. He has a Catalina 25, I said I used to have one, and he got really excited, handed us his card, and said he'd like to have us come out to sail with him.

We saw the perfect pirate plate.

And lest you think I was falling down on the job, we had to round out the day taking a picture of Sausalito's West Marine (Chris made me take the picture).

Once a Lake Sailor, Always a Lake Sailor?

We finally arrived here last Saturday, and took our stuff off the truck on Monday. Still settling some of the boxes, but for the most part, everything is done. The 6 weeks prior to our leaving was a lot of work, so we've done a little bit of programming work this week around here, but for the most part we're just hanging out, driving around and seeing things, and getting to know the lay of the land (for me, again, for him, first time). So, work does start on Monday!


Friday we went to Palo Alto and finally found West Marine store #1.

It looks like an old chandlery in the middle of posh Palo Alto. Chris says it used to be the headquarters of New England Ropes, which was consumed by West Marine when someone on the WM side married someone on the NER side. Anyway, rumor has it that WM owns the land that this building lives on (must be worth multi-millions), and has sold it, possibly to the Jewish Community Center being built across the street, and will be moving this store somewhere else. I think we've now seen our share of WM's. I feel like those people that travel across the country to see McDonald's wherever they go.

After that, we started to head home, but saw a sign next to the road and had to pull in to scout it out:

They have Pirates here! Well, of course they do... we now have plans to go to the Nor Cal Pirate Festival over June 14/15 (more about this later). But, this store we happened upon was a new (to me) store in Fremont called Seawolf Trading Company, and they have pirate everything in there. Check out the site if you need more pirate stuff.

It's been very hot here the last couple of days, so we packed up a picnic dinner and head over to our local lake, about 15 minutes from where we live. Lake Del Valle is on the small side, but we can still swim in it and sail a smaller boat in it. It is really a beautiful lake, with some really high hills around it. Will make a nice substitute when we just need to go to a lake for the afternoon/sunset.

I was pissed... literally...

For a couple of years now, I've had this nifty Key Buoy attached to my keyring, just in case I dropped my keys in the lake. Supposedly, once it hit water it was supposed to open and deploy a bag that fills with air and keeps my keys floating at the top of the water. LOTS of people have asked me over the last few years if this Key Buoy really works.

Yesterday, I was in Fry's in the restroom. As I stood up to prepare to flush the toilet, I hear a "kerplunk" from behind me. I turned around, and my keys fell in the toilet (yes, pre-flush). YUCK. Anyway, I did what I had to do, and then took the keys out to wash them off (practically immersed them in water). It was then that I noticed Key Buoy had in fact opened up, but the airbag had failed to deploy. It hadn't even managed to unravel. Note to my sailor friends: just don't drop your keys in the water. They will more than likely sink.

Things I Learned Living in Texas

Forwarded from my dad:

1. A possum is a flat animal that sleeps in the middle of the road.
2. There are 5,000 types of snakes and 4,998 of them live in Texas.
3. There are 10,000 types of spiders. All 10,000 of them live in Texas.
4. If it grows, it'll stick ya. If it crawls, it'll bite cha.
5.'Onced' and 'Twiced' are words.
6. It is not a shopping cart, it's a buggy.
7.'Jaw-P?' means, 'Did y'all go to the bathroom?
8. People actually grow and eat okra.
9.'Fixinto' is one word.
10. There is no such thing as 'lunch.' There is only dinner and then there is supper.
11. Iced tea is appropriate for all meals, and you start drinking it when you're two. We do like a little tea with our sugar.
12. Backwards and forwards means, 'I know everything about you.'
13. The word 'jeet' is actually a phrase meaning, 'Did you eat?'
14. You don't have to wear a watch, because it doesn't matter what time it is. You work until you're done or it's too dark to see.
15. You don't PUSH buttons, you MASH EM.
16. 'No.Jew?' is a common response to the question, 'Did you bring any beer?'
17. You measure distance in minutes.
18. You switch from heat to A/C in the same day.
19. All the festivals across the state are named after a fruit, vegetable, grain, insect or animal.
20. You know what a 'DAWG' is.
21. You carry jumper cables in your car --- for your OWN car.
22. You only own five spices: salt, pepper, Texas Pete, Tabasco and Ketchup.
23. The localpapers cover national and international news on one page, but require 6 pages for local gossip and high school football.
24. You think that the first day of deer season is a national holiday.
25. You find 100 degrees Fahrenheit 'a bit warm.'
26. You know all four seasons: Almost summer, summer, still summer, and Christmas.
27. Going to Wal-Mart is a favorite past time known as 'goin' Wal-Martin' or 'off to Wally World.'
28. You describe the first cool snap (below 70 degrees) as good stew weather.
29. Fried catfish is the other white meat.
30. We don't need no dang driver's ed. If our mama says we can drive, we can drive, dag-nabbit.
31. You understand these jokes and forward them to your Texas friends and those who just wish they were from Texas.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

We've recently told somebody we were "fixin' to go wine tasting". We're also freezing our ASSes off out here, even though it's in the low 80's (over 100 today, and it feels good to us). The swimming pool is at 72 degrees right now, warmer than Lake Travis is when we finally decide it's fixin' to be time to go swimming. Yes, we both have a love of Texas, so don't y'all think we're dissin' it or anything.

The Weather is Here...

Super Sailing Center

Chris had his first day at the Alameda West Marine today, and came back with a bunch of cool stories. First off, the Alameda store is one of two "super sailing" centers in the entire chain. The other one is in Annapolis. This accounts for why this store is crazy amazing, like a sailor's heaven. Instead of the end caps stocking stacks of batteries, they have Lewmar winch displays (for example). 85% of the store is sailing equipment, unlike the WM's in Austin which are 85% for power boaters. There is no fishing equipment at all. Vendors do their own setups, so Ronstan, Lewmar, Forespar, Gill all come into the store on a regular basis. This store has WM's only rigging shop, and the manager has told Chris that while the shop is fully staffed now, when there's an opening, Chris can be transferred into there. These guys don't always work in the store - sometimes they work on rigging right on the boat. According to the manager there, it's quite difficult to get a gig in this store, but Chris came with glowing recommendations and a desire to be there.

I think when we're done with Livermore in a year, we're going to move to Alameda. I wanted to live there when I lived here before, but went to Austin instead. Alameda is a nice compact island full of cute little antique houses, and you can ride your bike everywhere. So, I definitely think that's where we're headed.

Any of our sailing friends from Austin that come visit us will be subject to the Larsenoster Bay Area Tour, which will include the West Marine Alameda store!

Helicopter Karma

In news from Austin, during the summer there are a few small helicopters that fly around the lake during the day at low altitudes, causing irritations to sailors. These helicopters are there just to take pictures of all the power boaters wanting to look like bad asses.

THIS was in the news in the last couple of days.

RIP BoatPix.

Technology Five Years Ahead of It's Time

I've always said that technology in Silicon Valley is 5 years ahead of the middle of the country (this does include Austin). Today, I went to the ATM to deposit some checks I had sitting around from clients. I had 1 choice for deposit: "Deposit with No Envelope". I thought, "how am I supposed to deposit something without an envelope?" So, I take the checks out of the envelope, and shove the whole stack into the slot. It doesn't even ask me for the amount I'm depositing. It scans the checks one at a time, then tells me how much I'm depositing (which was correct of course). After that, I was able to get a receipt with a scan of the checks I deposited. It made me think of all the trash Wells Fargo must have been generating by discarding all those envelopes people were using to deposit checks. Regardless, I'm just glad I don't have more paper to junk up my car with!

When Lisa Fell in Love...

We took today off and did more driving, showing Lisa around the Bay Area. Cathi didn't go, because she did Kim's tour last time we were in the Bay Area. Lisa was seriously considering moving to the Bay Area, so wanted to see the cute island of Alameda first (where she would live if she moved here). After driving all around the island, her mind was pretty much made up that she would be here in a few short weeks.

I drove down to the USS Hornet to show Chris, and right across from the huge carrier is a yacht shipyard. There were some HUGE boats in there, and the gate was open, so we walked through and walked amongst these amazing boats. The catamaran above was approximately 140 feet long (see Chris standing in front of this massive boat). The rudders were a mere 3-4 feet long though. WHY??? Does anyone know? Please post if you know the answer to this crazy huge boat with teensy weeny rudders. We also saw the Oracle racing sailboats next to this behemoth.

Shortly after that, we stopped by the West Marine in Alameda. This store is the only rigging shop that West Marine has and it truly is a sailor's paradise. There isn't much power boating stuff in there at all. The rigging shop is amazing, with almost every kind of line imaginable. They have a huge amount of clothes (great for me... Nautica, Columbia, Gill, Henry Lloyd). Best of all, Chris talked to the manager and was able to secure a one-day-a-week 4-hour position without having to deal with commuting problems. So, we're all good with the West Marine/sailboat connection!

After that, we crossed the Bay Bridge and drove up the shoreline towards Fort Point, a Civil War fort built to guard the entrance to the bay. Not only does this place quench my thirst for history, but it's also right under the Golden Gate Bridge, so you get a phenomenal view of a bridge that most people just drive over. We did stop and check out the St. Francis Yacht Club too, but it was entirely too expensive for our tastes (lots of nice boats though).

Inside of the Fort, there hangs a map showing Shipwrecks outside of the point. There were a whole bunch of wrecks out there. This is not really surprising, as this entrance to the bay is extremely windy (it was blowing about 30 knots, and the water was really rough for any sailboats entering the bay from the Pacific).

We drove Lisa down the famed Lombard Street, and then ate pot stickers at our favorite Chinese place in Chinatown.

To finish off our day, we drove down Pacific Coast Highway south of SFO, then west towards Livermore. All the way home, Lisa kept saying "I fell in love today, I love it here." I think we are going to have an old friend that's new in town in the next few weeks.

As always, more pictures are here. Love to all.

California Dreamin'

Hi there,

I kind of thought this morning while we were lazing around that I should send a final note out letting everyone know we're here with some pics of where we ended up.

As always, new pics are here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/kpaternoster/RamadaInnRegatta200802

We pulled out of Barstow on Friday morning and after a long drive up the state, finally stopped at my brothers in Manteca around 4:30 that evening. We pulled the boat off the FJ and left it in a covered warehouse for the next month (thank you Jon for letting us do that).

What we saw on Friday:

* We drove across the Mojave Desert. There's nothing out there other than Edwards AFB. Just as a reminder, Edwards AFB is where all that "Right Stuff" stuff took place. We also drove past the Hyundai/Kia "proving ground", which left me wondering if that's the place where they blow up Hyundai's (and that's when Chris said "if it's not, that's where it should be").

* We saw the large plane graveyard in western Mojave, where airlines can retire their huge planes.

* The golden rolling hills of California. Lisa kept saying "this is not what I thought California would look like at all." Wait until she sees San Francisco today.

* We saw Buck Owens Blvd, Merle Haggard Drive, Kimberlina Road, and exited Hwy 99 on Austin Road. Irony at it's finest.

* I listened to Gary P. Nunn's "What I Like About Texas" on the way up 99, at which point I started to cry, so I think I'm going to have to be judicious about what I listen to for a while here. On the other hand, we did finally chow down on the 3 pounds of Rudy's we transported across state lines, so that was a great way to round out the fun.

* We started to get to know my nephew, Haydon, again. He's about double the size he was the last time we saw him. Has more personality. Is louder. Just basically way more fun than the last time we saw him.

On Saturday morning, we went the additional hour to Cathi's house and finally got rid of the car dolly and spent the afternoon wine tasting at a couple of my favorite wineries in Livermore. Lisa has never been wine tasting either, so this was also a new experience for her.

Today, we'll take her into San Fran, down the coast, etc... do the tourist thing I've done a million times, and if you come visit us, you will also get to do it.

I've found a new marina to dry slip Tempus Fugit. $106/month (cheaper than Travis), and up in Suisun Bay, so protected. Only 45 mins away from us. Chris did point out that Tempus Fugit would actually fit in the pool in the backyard, but in the event of the earthquake, the pool would drain and then the boat would be on the hard. Heh. After that tornado, I think it would be kind of fun to have an earthquake, don't you? :)

I've posted lots of pics of our new home and area on Picasa, just in case anyone is really interested.

And there you have it and there you are. Those of you in Austin, plan on us coming to visit annually around ED's Crawfish Boil time. Also, your invitation to come visit us is always there (cheap way to visit a really cool place). If you are one of our sailor friends, we'll charter a big boat if we don't already have one. We'll have big backyard BBQ's, smoke up some Texas brisket, have some Mexican Martinis, and float in the pool.

Miss all of you and love to all of you ~

kim

Ramada Inn Regatta 2008

Parking lot sailing at it's finest. We finally snapped our picture of the 2008 Ramada Inn Regatta. The mast would have been up except that it would have taken 2 hours to get going yesterday.

New pics are uploaded here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/kpaternoster/RamadaInnRegatta200802

We had another uneventful day yesterday. We are currently in Barstow California, home of nothing. Actually that's not really fair. They do have a Harvey House here (Wikipedia that one if you don't know what it is).

Things that we did yesterday include:

* We drove through Flagstaff. This is a very pretty place. I highly recommend getting there someday.

* We stopped at the Grand Canyon Harley Davidson store.

* We tied up to "RV Island" before entering California for our last-ditch gas, knowing that it was going to be extremely expensive upon crossing the border.

* We were inspected at the agricultural checkpoint for Quagga Mussels (usually they just ask if you have produce, and then wave you on). Quagga Mussels apparently attach themselves to the bottom of boats and lay dormant until you drop them into another body of water. At that point they multiply faster than rabbits and clog up everything they can find to clog. So, typical of California, no Quagga Mussels, fruit flies, or abandoned dogs are allowed.

* I won the last fruit Mentos when aforementioned inspector said "hi" as his first word instead of any other word. Lisa is fun to travel with.

* Lisa stepped foot for the first time in California. She kept saying "this is not what I expected it would look like at all, I thought it would be super crowded." Well, we are in the Mojave Desert part of it right now, where most of California's toothless wonders live (my apologies to anyone that is from Barstow, but we went grocery shopping last night, and I'm telling ya...).

* We had shrimp cocktail in the hotel room during happy hour, then settled in the hotel courtyard and grilled up our steak. For you wine lovers out there, we still haven't opened up the Opus One. I couldn't bring myself to do it after I had slogged down a plastic cup of the Black Box.
We have a short day today. We're headed to my brother's in Manteca, just southeast of Stockton, and we'll stay there tonight. Jon has graciously offered to let us store the boat in his huge warehouse for a month or so while we figure out what to do and settle in. I'm also anxious to see my brother and his family.

Tomorrow morning, we'll head over to Livermore, do what we have to do there, and show Lisa the Bay Area/SFO/tourist thing Sunday. Monday we unload, then we're freaking done donE doNE dONE DONE. This 6-8 week ordeal will finally be over, and we can start on another phase of our lives, at least for the next year while we figure out what we're going to do after that.
So, this will more than likely be the final update (I know some of you are thinking THANK GOD for small favors). I'll send emails occasionally, or better yet, I'll probably just reactivate my blog and post to there.

We miss all of our people in Texas (I woke up thinking about Miles this morning). Take care, and love to all ~

kim

All Water Runs West From Here

We stopped last night in Holbrook Arizona. There really isn't much around this little town, other than a bunch of Hopi Indian Reservations. At our last gas stop they had clocks hanging on the wall showing Arizona time, China time, etc... Arizona showed an hour earlier by my estimation. I asked a nice girl if we really were in PST, and she said she thought we were but she was heading back to the reservation where they were still in MST. I thought to myself, "wow, a real live Indian." I know... a little retarded... but you have to remember, it's just me.

After our first exciting day of travel, not much eventful happened yesterday:

As we went north out of Roswell in the middle of nowhere, a bird hit the windshield, bounced over the top of the boat, and landed dead behind us.

Crossed the Continental Divide.

Beemer had an encounter with a dinosaur.

Barbecued some Elgin sausage outside the front door of the hotel room, and had a nice Texas dinner with some green beans, my stepmom's brisket, and that sausage.

Things are getting really really dry out here. We all feel like every spare ounce of humidity is being sucked out of us.

From here, we'll drive through Needles California (home of Snoopy's cousin Cactus Joe), and stop in Barstow tonight, grill up our steaks and celebrate our entry into California. We'll finally opening our bottle of 1994 Opus One (yes, I actually brought some good glasses to drink this in).

More later, and love to all ~

Kim

PS - Watching CNN this morning. They are talking about tornado warnings in Mississippi and the sirens, and we all got chills thinking about it. I guess this will last for a while...

It's Like Revelations Only Different

Greeting from Roswell New Mexico! We came through Roswell last year if you recall, and I never thought I'd see this lovely flat alien city again. But, here we are. Yes, we'll be visiting the Wal-Mart t-shirt section again, and picking up some "You are here" souvenirs.

The day started yesterday packing the truck, getting the motorcycle into the pickup, hooking up all the trailers to the trucks, and getting the dog into the FJ. As soon as the bike was up into the truck, Chris realized he didn't have the appropriate straps, so I had to sit on the bike IN the truck while he went to Lowe's to get the straps. This was during commute hour and when all the kids were going to school, so you can imagine the sight of a chick on a cruiser reading a National Geo drinking some coffee.

Just to make sure you get the extent of our convoy, I am pulling the sailboat with the FJ, Chris is driving a 26' moving truck, and he's got a dolly attached to that with his Tacoma on that. The bike is in the bed of the Tacoma. We're long.

Shortly after that, my father called to say that he saw the weather and there was a huge band of serious storms in western TX. I checked the 'net, and sure enough there were, but they covered the entire western part of the state. So, regardless of what way we went, we were going to get smacked. We opted to go the way we wanted to (northwest towards Albuquerque) rather than drive the remote and miserable IH-10.

Tony Casati stopped by to bid us farewell, so we immediately put him to work (heh - thanks for everything Tony!!!!). Lisa Chapin, our other road tripper/sailor/wanderluster showed up shortly after that, and we finally finished up everything we needed to do. So, by 9:30a we were on the road.

We drove past Inks Lake for our final goodbye to Hill Country, and then head towards San Angelo (for those of you non-Texans, this is the town where they are doing the FLDS split up with all the moms and kids right now). Somewhere around here, we drove through about 3000 locust-sized bugs. It looked like Star Wars. The front of the FJ was covered (more than likely the boat is too... haven't looked yet).

It was just past Big Spring was when we first saw the blackest storm I've ever seen. The wind started picking up then we drove right into a dust storm, where visibility went to nothing for about 3 minutes. It was at that point we started calling our friends. Peter from West Marine has a background in meteorology, so he was VERY helpful to Chris in figuring out which way this storm was going in relation to which way we were headed. I also called Rob, because of all the people that know weather, Rob knows a lot about all of that stuff, and he was able to help me out from his happy hour/meeting in Nashville. This storm was heading northeast, and we were heading northwest, so basically we were on a collision course.

We made it to the intersection where we were to turn to the left to head to Roswell, and decided at that point to pull into a gas station and take cover in case of large hail. Just as we pulled into the abandoned gas station, the tornado sirens went off, and we saw a fairly large funnel cloud hitting the ground about 1 mile northwest of us. I turned to look at Chris in the truck behind me, and he had a stunned look on his face while he was staring at the tornado. Lisa was in the car with me, shoved the camera in my hand and said "take a picture" (thank GOD for Lisa being so cool about these things, because I wasn't sure at that point what to do... was a little stunned). The funnel abated shortly after that, but we sat and watched the storm get way out of our way before we finally moved on.

But, don't think this is over yet. On our way to Roswell, we got into the middle of hell once again in Tatum NM. There were major lightning storms, lots of rain, very dark clouds, and this time it was dark. We left the gas station there just when a huge lightning bolt hit the road in front of us, causing the gas station lights to go completely out. I asked a few people in Tatum (the ones with teeth), and they said the forecast had bad weather into early morning the next day. The only thing we could do was drive west to get out of this mess. THAT was probably the best decision we made all day, because 15 minutes later, we were on clear roads, no rain, heading for Roswell finally.

I think we used some karma points yesterday. I happened to be on the phone with Nancy when we were driving through her hometown of Lamesa, and missed the turn to go towards Brownfield. If we had made that turn, we would have been in the middle of the big bad storm a LOT worse than we were. Time to start building up those good karma points again.

Pics are here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/kpaternoster/RamadaInnRegatta200802

HUGE THANKS to Dad, Peter, Rob and Nancy for being our storm watchers... I think we would have been more freaked out had we not known what we were dealing with.

Love to all, and more tonight (hopefully uneventful) ~

kim