WhimsyLand

There's a large inflatable Santa in front of a lot of Xmas trees just outside of Salinas.  I've now seen it 5 times.  The first time was driving down on Thursday from San Jose to join my extended family for T-Day at Starry Nights, my sister's ranch outside of Arroyo Grande.  Using the intra-family network, I discovered from Cath, who had heard from Derek who had heard from Mom who had heard from Linda that her ranch's well had suddenly gone dry.  I picked up 10 gallons of drinking water, which helped in the fixing of everything that needed to be washed, boiled or liquefied (like coffee).  Friday included visiting the Monarch butterflies that end up at Pismo Beach after a long flight from the Sierra Nevadas (Monarchs east of the Rockies fly to Mexico).  Saturday morning, I drove up to SJ again to pick up Junie and turned around again for the 200-mile drive back to the ranch. Sunday, Junie and I installed Der and his friend Max (both visiting from Chicago) in the back seat for a drive up Big Sur.  Now, I know what Elaine felt like as she moaned and rolled her eyes during the showing of The English Patient.  I had always envisioned Big Sur as a piece of 101 that wandered through towering redwoods. That is about 5% of the drive.  The rest is THREE HOURS of unrelenting (and on this day, gray and foreboding) coastline, punctuated by the occasional guano-covered offshore rock.  I was so tired of looking at chaparral and coastline that by the time we got to Salinas, I was happy to drive, for a 3d time down 101. 

Junie and I were discussing the commercial prospects of a travel guide for lefties.  You know, the Liberal's Guide to Travel, or something including fun but socially relevant jaunts to Madison, Santa Cruz, Boulder, Yellow Springs and other liberal Meccas.  We decided to postpone that venture in favor of the Bah Humbug Travel Guide.  Big Sur would get 4 Bahs on a 5-point scale. 

After a wonderful meal of Silver Palate Crabcakes at Casa Paulsen, Junie and I got to bed early for our drive this morning to The City.  The day's activities included the same things we always do:  espresso at Ghirardelli Square, a long walk through Chinatown, lunch in North Beach, a cable car ride, and lots of hoofing between.  I'd never visited City Lights, but we managed to find Ferlinghetti's famous bookstore, where I found and bought a nice broadside by Dean Young.  Only The Cannery deserved entry into the Bah Humbug Guide.  The otherwise cool renovated Dole canning factory looked deserted on a Tuesday afternoon and none of the interesting shops were open. 

Tomorrow, it's back to San Jose for a quick client meeting and an obligatory visit to Fry's mega-tech store.  More from me tomorrow.

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My favorite comment of the month is from "rat's ass": "You have the poetic acumen of a sloth." I'm thinking that I got off pretty easy.