Topher’s truck has been a godsend during this trip. She has taken us everywhere with all kinds of good stuff in the flatbed. We decide to give her a hairdo.
Wash
We take her to the local car hair saloon.
Shampoo
These places are amazing.
Rinse
Styling
Isn’t she pretty.
La belle truckette
Thanks truck.
The washing machine in the apartment is busted. It washes but does not spin thus leaving soaking wet clothes that take forever to dry and do not feel good. We thus determine to get a replacement. At this stage another demonstration of the joys of living in San Francisco kicks in. We look at Craigs List http://sfbay.craigslist.org/ find a selection of second-hand washers. A seller is contacted and we take Topher’s truck down to the Mission.
This guy is worth millions of dollars
Sweet Chinese guy who can barely speak English sells the washer, which looks immaculate, for $100. His wife gives us tea and they are generally happy, smiling, kind people who make us feel good. He explains that he worked as a cook in a restaurant for 28 years. I say he has a nice house – an Edwardian beauty in the most fashionable part of the Mission. He explains he bought it in 1991. It must be worth around $2 million now. He also has another house in the Sunset. He is a very wealthy man. That’s California for you. Good luck my friend.
New lamps for old
Polar vortex at the house in San Francisco
We heave the old machine into the truck and take it to Green Citizen. http://www.greencitizen.com/california_san_francisco_computer_electronic_recycling_center.php
This is a great place that takes anything that you want to get rid of for free, as long as it plugs into the wall. The staff are California emblematic,”Yay, no problem Brother, glad to help. A donation? No need man just tell people about us.” This is what I am doing.
A thing of beauty is a joy forever
The whole exercise was a delight.
When I first went to California I could not handle words with a little squiggle above the N. This symbol changes the pronunciation of Año Nuevo from Anno as in Latin to Anyo as in er, well, you know. Thus Cañada is not verbalized like the huge country with Mounties but is pronounced Canyada. I do not know why, but I always stumbled on such words indicating that I was a no good greenhorn. Now I can say them easily and it makes me feel Californian.
What do you mean, you don’t like sponge cake?
We go to Año Nuevo to watch Elephant Seals. I also used to think that Elephant Seals only hung out on remote islands in the extreme South Atlantic and could only be seen following a very strenuous sea voyage during which you wore wet clothes for weeks on end, developing terrible chaffing and skin fungi in intimate parts of the body. Here you can eat a late breakfast of Eggs Benedict on Haight, get in the truck, motor South, stopping off to get body lotion and be amongst the Elephant Seals at 12:00.
Is there any point building yet another neutrino experiment?
Mummy Elephant Seal suckling two newborn. Crow anticipates
Ben is not an Elephant Seal
Sailor James
Sun goes down on another perfect day in California
From Moss Landing we head to Monterey to go diving in the cold Pacific Ocean. The truck is small and we all squeeze across the front cab.
There are two bucket seats, which means James is sitting on the center console. Notice pained expression.
The water is cold and we need big thick wetsuits and hoods.
Good way to fill a pick-up flatbed. In addition to diving gear there is an outboard and an inflatable boat.
Whoa, this is not Okinawa. There are seals and sea-lions swimming around us, which fulfills a childhood dream cherished since watching seals from boats in Scotland. Orange giant jellyfish abound. What are those wierdo fish? They aren’t fish they are cormorants diving down and ripping food from the ocean floor. They come very very close and seem unconcerned by our presence. Truly amazing. All the wild life is calmer than in Okinawan seas, which I imagine has to do with slower metabolism due to cold water. Whatever; it makes for great diving as you can get very close to fish and er sea-lions.
Yay!
I so wish I had brought my underwater camera thing. We do 2 amazing dives, getting very cold and unco happy.
We borrow Topher’s truck and head south to Elkhorn Slough, which is pronounced slew as in, “As he was valiant, I honour him. But as he was ambitious, I slew him.” We have a boat, we have an outboard that works, what else do you need?
Pump up the volume
We go on a wildlife binge.
A congregation of Marbled Godwits
Sea lions snooze
Bufflehead beat it
We cruise up and down the Slough and out towards the ocean. The place is heaving with wild things.
A See You Jimmy Otter
Holy Mackerel – a Belted Kingfisher
Suffering Surf Scoters!
There are so many Sea Otters, which do not seem to mind you being there as long as you are polite.
Have we been introduced ?
Worried Harbor Seal
Eared Grebe
I feel like this most of the time.
A rookery of Sea Lions
This Western Grebe has a busted bill
“I say, I think that Froggy is croaking at me.”
An Englishwoman once said that to me on a ski slope upon being addressed by a Frenchman.
All good things must come to an end
Incredible day. We then went to Phil’s Fish Market http://www.philsfishmarket.com/menu.html where we ate amazing fish, drank Sierra Nevada and listened to bluegrass.
Kampai!!
Oh California I’m coming home
Oh make me feel good rock ‘n’ roll band
I’m your biggest fan
California I’m coming home
So, it is crab season in San Francisco. You can get them everywhere, not just from the toilet seat.
We buy a big live crab from a Chinese supermarket and eat it.
Eat now
Boiled beef and carrots,
Boiled beef and carrots,
That’s the stuff for your “Derby Kell”,
Makes you fit and keeps you well.
Don’t live like vegetarians
On food they give to parrots,
Blow out your kite, from Morn ’til night,
On boiled beef and carrots.
First we cook it. We boil it alive, cut it in chunks, then stir fry with garlic, ginger, spring onions and chili.
It is awesome with beer.
I am in San Francisco. Son James has a motorcycle. He lets me drive it. I ride around San Francisco on a motorcycle. I am 61 years old but nobody knows because I am wearing a full face helmet. I am careful where I park; in hidden corners, behind abandoned containers, deep in underground parking lots, so that nobody can see my transition from motorcycle outlaw to bald, fat old man.
He sort of smiled and kissed me goodbye
The tears were beginning to show
As he drove away on that rainy night
I begged him to go slow
But whether he heard, I’ll never know
Look out! Look out! Look out! Look out!
The weather is glorious. San Francisco has never looked more wonderful and I am with my boys.
Health food – check out the salad!
CCTV
Yay, CCTV mirror art
I roar off to watch birds on Chrissy Field. Quite tricky to find somewhere to do my Superman /Clark Kent switch and I think some people may have realized that the motorcycle outlaw is actually an aging birdwatcher – damn!
Pelican on the dock of the Bay
Snowy Plover! Desperately rare
White crowned Sparrow – not rare here but very rare as in non-existent in Okinawa.
Cattle Egret, wrong Snowy Egret
Xmas tree/house
I am blessed to have such great sons, who live in a great city and one of whom has a motorcycle! Ben has a scooter – I will try that tomorrow. Compliments of the season y’all.
I set off for California where I am to spend the festive season. Xmas day in Okinawa is grey, rainy and cold, well, er,you know 19 degrees. I am leaving my car at the airport, so that a student whose girlfriend is flying in at about the same time, can pick it up and use it while I am away. Discussing how he can find the car he says, ” Like, just send me some photos when you park.”
I do not like to admit that I have no idea how to do this. Anyway I have just been allotted a new iPhone and I take some photos. I feel so proud as I work out how to blast them through the ether into the other guy’s phone. He messages back saying he has found the car. It is so easy but I still find it conceptually difficult. I mean how do photos travel through the air and how do they find their way to another phone? Actually I think I could just about explain how, but I marvel.
Anyway, I sit in the lounge reading the Japan Times and sure enough on the front page there is the article outlining that yesterday the Abe cabinet doubled our university’s annual budget.
I celebrate budget increase with Santa’ helpers
Hooray! Nice end to a very satisfactory year in Okinawa. California here I come.
Happy Yuletide to all!
It is Winter in Okinawa.
Then, too, they say, thro’ all the burthen’d Air,
Long Groans are heard, shrill Sounds, and distant Sighs,
That, murmur’d by the Demon of the Night,
Warn the devoted Wretch of Woe, and Death!
Wild Uproar lords it wide: the Clouds commixt,
With Stars, swift-gliding, sweep along the Sky.
All Nature reels. — But hark! the Almighty speaks:
Instant, the chidden Storm begins to pant,
And dies, at once, into a noiseless Calm.
There have been storms. It is cold, I mean like 17 degrees. Japanese ladies sit at work with rugs over their knees. I wear my woolies.
The Spot -billed Duck returns
The Common Sandpiper bellows
Taro is harvested
It is freezing
There are lots of caterpillars
What I do not understand is why so much junk is thrown up onto my beaches. You would think the same volume of flotsam sort of hangs around in the East China Sea whether it is Summer or Winter. Notwithstanding, orders of magnitudes more beach garbage is thrown up during Winter.
Bag of beach garbage with big float
Plastic bottles load every rift
There are also millions of little blue jellyfish
Much of the jetsam is festooned with shellfish
Beach Boys
“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.”
Today was a very painful day. The morning was spent at the dentist having root canal treatment. This entails Mori sensei sticking red-hot wire into the nerves of your teeth, or something like that. He says, ” Hai!! much pain! This challenge, Neil san. You man, Neil san!! Wakarimashitanokitatanakagusuku!!”
There is something very Japanese about all this.
I can think of more than 5.
The pain is predictable. You know that when the spike hits the nerve there will be shocking pain but that the pain is very short-lived. Anticipation is the real problem. I think torturers must play a lot on anticipation rather than on pain itself. Anyway, as you sit under the spot light with the wire heating in the furnace you also know that there is an end in sight, er, like in lets say 40 minutes, all this will be over.
All said and done I prefer this to the other dental pain of continuous, sleep-depriving, unshut-outable, unfocused, throbbing pain. Sharp definition pain is better than soft, wilting, tired, exhausting ever-present pain. I thought you would like to know that.
Anyroadupwards, I get home feeling wrung.
My spirits are immediately lifted by the classiest Xmas card from old friends McGillivray. They live in a chateau in medieval France. I have spent many a happy time there, check: https://quietripple.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/st-dude-arthaud/
and
https://quietripple.wordpress.com/2012/11/26/vie-de-chateau/
Snowy Sothonod
1000 years!
What can you say? What is a little tooth pain compared to a 1000 years?
I felt uplifted.
Compliments of the season and thanks Mac Gillivrays
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