October 1, 2008 by David.

Ok, ok. I confess. I’ve never been a beer lover. I know that makes me ”un-American” but usually it was all I could do to down an entire glass. Perhaps it was because I didn’t touch alcohol until I was in my 30’s (you might say I was raised in a conservative family - and fully bought into it for three decades). Since I went down that slippery slope to Hell, my drink of choice has been primarily Captain Morgan’s and coke with Vodka and Tonic as a close second the last few years. I’ve always gotten along fine with a wide variety of mixed drinks. They suit me fine and that is what I order when I’m out and have quite a wide collection of hard liquor at home. Along the way I even mostly avoided wine, but marrying a Napa Valley gal and eventually moving to the Valley, I have become more acquainted with it and even like some of it. Wine tasting events have been great fun. However, I continued to shun beer, having probably had less than ten beers during the last twenty years.

Today Sharlet and I toured the Anchor Steam Brewery, just a couple blocks from where we are currently house sitting in San Francisco’s Potrero Hills. Two years ago we toured Guinness in Ireland and I can’t say their sample afterward did anything to make me more interested in beer. I figured this tour would be an interesting deviation from our regular schedule but didn’t expect any different outcome. Boy was I in for a surprise. Each of the five beers we tried we liked. Not just tolerated, but actually liked. For the first time in my life I’m actually wanting to go out and buy some beer!

Anchor Brewery has all of one brewery and has a relatively small production run with old school methods. However, I used to live in Portland, OR, where microbreweries abound, yet I never tasted a beer there that I cared for. Ok, maybe that was because I would like as not have hard cider or my good old rum and coke when I went to a bar with friends instead of trying the local brews.

Now, I can’t say that a connoisseur of beer would necessarily rank Anchor at the top of the beer pile, but I can say that I finally found something that I like and I’ll actually buy and enjoy. I have no doubt it is at least partly due to their care in production. Quite possibly my palet has adjusted over the years that the timing was right for me to find a beer that I enjoyed and admittedly have noticed myself disliking beer less and less. This time, however, I have moved from disliking it less to actually liking it. Now when I’m out and about I’ll be asking if they have any “Anchor” brews.

Next ‘ya know I’ll be eating pizza and watching football. Did I mention the slippery slope?

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September 24, 2008 by David.

CNN ran an article on a guy who figured out how to make shipping containers into affordable housing. I say HATS OFF to the creative thinking of Brian McCarthy and his three partners, Pablo Nava, Kyle Annen, and Mackenzie Bishop. I love it when an entrepreneur dreams up a way to make a viable business based on providing a real service to the underprivileged.

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February 23, 2008 by David.

Completely by “accident” we ran into the DVD What the Bleep do we Know? It was at a house we are house sitting. I’m frankly surprised I haven’t run into it before (heck, it was even filmed in Portland, OR when I was there). If you like The Secret, you’ll like this. It will give me stuff to ponder and reflect upon for quite a while.

Here’s a thought from the movie: If you find yourself “stuck” in an emotion, you are addicted to it.

Another concept: Each morning envision how the day will go - create your day at the start of it. Now, I’ve long been a proponent of visualizing, having proven its direct results to myself, but this is a little different twist. What I’ve done before is either visualize an exact event (say, talking to an employee about their performance and having them thank me at the end) or my “ideal” _____ (fill in the blank - career/home/life/whatever). Visualizing how just today will unfold - creating my “today” - brings home visualizing in a very practical manner and I will add it to my life skills tool kit.

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February 20, 2008 by David.

Martha Beck wrote a terrific article about love and the loss of love.

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October 17, 2007 by David.

CNN has an obesity map showing the states with population in obesity catagories.

In 1985 there were 13 states with obesity rates below 10% - and that is with a number or states with no data reported, so it is probably higher.  8 states had 10-14% of their population obese, with no states above 15%.

You can track the increase in obesity ever few years up to 2006 where NO states have an obesity rate below 15%, only Colorado is in the 15-19% range, and over half are above 25%.

I’m amazed. I knew as a nation “we” were getting more overweight. I had no idea how pervasive.

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June 18, 2007 by David.

I’m signing in to write this here post and I notice that my last blog entry was June 8.  Where the Hell did time go?  I hear the older one gets, the faster time moves.  Actually, nothing is moving faster, say I.  Rather as one gets older, one moves more slowly and thus everything else seems to be moving faster, not just time.  But then, have you noticed how older people, like really old people, say one of the things they wish they’d done when younger was slow down sooner?  Like, slow-down-and-smell-the-roses slow down.

…and smell the fresh air and sunshine.  Did I mention I love living in California?  One of Sharlet and my favorite things to do is eat outside, whether at home or a restaurant.  Just something about it that refreshes the soul.  Much easier to do here in the land of sunshine and hot cars than it was in, say, …aw, I’ll let up on that previous Land-o-Rain that I used to live in.  If you live there you already are more than aware of the “mist that surrounds [continuously, forever and ever, amen].”  For me, it is dang hard to beat working for yourself, seated on an outdoor balcony, short sleeve shirt, gentle warm breeze, laptop in, um, your lap, and a grin that keeps curling up the corners of your mouth for no apparent reason.  I try so hard to be a grumpy old fart and this fucking sunshine makes it real work to keep that whole bitched-out, the-world-hates-me state of mind going. 

Then to top it off, my daughter Jill ups and calls me from “ya-all” land just to tell me what an awesome Dad I am - and how she got into this arguement about who had the best Dad and she won.  Talk about a spirt lifter; that girl can give ‘ya a real boost.  Not that I’d admit it to anyone.  Hell no.  I’m hard at work perfecting the fine art of Grumping.  Meanwhile, let me kick back a few minutes in this here chair.  The temperature is God-given perfect.  Maybe Jill will call again…  DANG.  There I go again.  See, how hard it is to be a hard core grump around this neck of the woods?  Focus, man.  Focus.

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May 19, 2007 by David.

When I left my previous employer last year, one of the items received was a Staples “Easy” button.  You press it and it says, “That was easy.”  It was meant as more of a party filler, but it has found a significant tool in my life.  I like to press it when I accomplish something, particularly a task either difficult or something I’ve been avoiding.  Often it sums up the fact that what I’d thought difficult or unenjoyable was actually easy.  But even when it truly was not easy, I still like to press the button.  Somehow it makes me feel better, almost like an affirmation.  Sometimes I just press it for the fun of it.  Who’d have thought such a simple device, even a blatent advertising tool, could be so useful as a positive reinforcement device?

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May 13, 2007 by David.

Let’s see.  I was born and raised in a suburb of Seattle and other than a year Wyoming and a few months in Memphis, have spent my entire [long and lengthy] life in the Pacific Northwest, namely Portland.  Now, I do like hills, mountains, and trees.  However, with over 50 years in the NW, I never adjusted to rain.  Ok, not so much the rain as the cloud cover.  And cover.  And cover some more.  A good part of the year in Wyoming was to escape the Portland weather.  Let’s just say that “experiment” didn’t work out and I returned to Portland.  When I took up water and snow skiing at least when it rained I knew it was “helping” my sports, but that still left me wishing for more sunny days.  When I got married, neither Sharlet nor the kids got along well with Portland’s weather.  Big surprise, them being from the Napa Valley.  Then, to top it off, my previous employer’s corporate office was in Roseville, CA and I went there from one to three times every month, not to mention I would often go early or stay late to go Harley riding with Gary.  While a couple decades back I wouldn’t have considered living in California, over the years I had enough trips there to leave me wishing I could stay every time I went there.

Well, here I am, exactly one month from moving into our apartment in the Sonoma Valley, and what a wonderful month it has been.  As much as I’ve wanted to live here and as much as I’ve pined after just a few rays of sun, I’ve found it a funny adjustment.  Not that I don’t like it.  Hardly!  It’s just that after all these decades (…and decades) of clouds and dampness, my mind still hasn’t fully wrapped itself around the concept that I can get up pretty much every morning and have a beautiful, sunny day.  I wake up, look out, and, wow, another georgeous day.  Go riding, walking, sit outside at a restaurant, whatever.  It is just wonderful.  Dependably sunny days.  What a novel concept.  Why the Hell didn’t I move here about, oh, say, four decades ago?

Oh, and for the record, today we went to wine and food pairing at Kendal Jackson for Mother’s Day.  Nice, but SL Cellars was way more fun.  Kenday Jackson has a two acre garden that is pretty cool.  My Mom would would have loved it.  And did I mention that it was a georgeous sunny day and we sat outside for the wine tasting?  As we were sipping wine, tasting the foods paired with each, and generally having a dang wonderful time, I said to Sharlet, “You know what really sucks about this?  Not only do are we sitting outside in the sun, but we had to ride here in a convertable BMW.”

Like I tell people around here regularly, I have a really tough life, but somebody’s got to do it.  Meanwhile, you’ll have to excuse me.  I just saw a curvy road with my name on it.  Oh, and did I mention the sun is out and there’s a little restaurant around the corner?  And just beyond that is a small winery.  Ummmm.  I hear there are lots of those around here.  Gee, I just might have stick around this neck of the woods for a while…  Say, till I’m dead, give or take a couple years.

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May 9, 2007 by David.

The first Friday of each month, Simon Levi Cellars winery in the Sonoma Valley has “Wine 101″.  This isn’t your normal wine tasting.  It is an event to educate you on wine and paring with food.  It is an absolute hoot.  They limit the class size to about two dozen and in the summer months hold the tasting on the back lawn.  The Girl and the Fig restaurant prepares the food - and it is absolutely excellent.  You can get a discount on what you buy at the event.  The folks hosting it are lots of fun and it is held in an converted 1890’s school house.

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April 22, 2007 by David.

We and and all our crap are under one roof for the first time in about two years.  A “little” roof, about a third the size of the house we were in two years ago, but all together, none-the-less.  The double garage is packed so full one can scarcely get to even what is right at the door, so we may rent a storage unit to spread out a bit, but all in good time, aye?

Most of our stuff was moved in the 13th with the two U-Hauls, so Wednesday I flew back to Memphis to get the rest, arriving a little after 11 pm local time.  By minutes after midnight I was on the road with my pickup, flatbed trailer and Harleys, heading to California with the last load of our stuff.  Friday evening, fourty-four hours later, with thirty-five hours driving, I arrived.  Slept in the truck, snacked in the cab as I drove, and only stopped for gas.  Ok, maybe, I pushed it a little too hard, but I made it, safe and sound - and exhausted.

We’re the one with the yellow flowers on the balcony:

The view of the hills from our balcony:
 

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April 12, 2007 by David.

…but she’s my Mother Truckin’ wife.  And that is a good thing.  With the help of four guys, we packed up two 26′ U-Hauls and started driving at 7 pm Monday evening.  Sharlet drove one of the trucks and I drove the other.  Just after we left, she called me on the cell phone and said, “This is the Mother Trucker…”.  Gotta love the gal.  Ok, she did have a 32′ motorhome she drove quite a bit a few years back, including a trip from California to Alaska.  Still, ya gotta hand it to the gal.  We drove four hours that night, 16 hours the next day and 18 1/2 hours yesterday, arriving at a friend’s at 12:30 am last night.

Sharlet is the best traveling companion ever.  No bitching, whining, complaining.  Always a positive, upbeat attitude in any and every circumstance.  In fact, that is just how Sharlet is.  I’ve never met a person who flat NEVER brings up the negative like her.  It is one of her enduring qualities that make her the best woman in the entire world.  And, did I mention, she’s all mine?

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March 31, 2007 by David.

Here I am in the San Francisco Bay area, having just arranged to rent a temporary apartment while we look for a house.  We’ll be move into the apartment in two weeks.  Can’t wait.  Imagine:  Living with my wife.  Novel concept, that.  Heck, we even got a license to do that whole live together thing some four years ago, but alas, for various reasons, she or I are either traveling a lot or she moves ahead of me to an area while I finish up business where we had been living.  So, soon I’ll be a Californian for the first time and Sharlet will be back in her beloved state.  We are in the Sonoma Valley with good access to Hwy 101 and San Francisco.  Sharlet lived in the Napa Valley for 18 years, up until 2001, so it does put us close to many friends and lots of fun stuff like riding Harleys on the back roads.  Heck, I’ve even picked out the HOG chapter I’ll join, Redwood Empire, sponsored by Michael’s HD in Cotati.  Not a fancy  or huge store, but it is the most friendly dealership I’ve ever walked into, and I’ve walked into my share of Harley Dealerships.

Now, I’ve never been a team sport fan.  Ever.  I never followed the Portland Trailblazers when living there, I rarely watch team sports on TV (with the exception of the super bowl), and I certainly don’t know much about any team’s roster.  However, a few years back in the 49ers glory days, I did watch football occasionally just to see them play.  I will never forget a game where near the end of the 4th quarter, Joe Montana methodically marched the football up the field at a calculated speed.  Although the 49ers were ahead, if he went up the field and quickly made a goal, the opposing team would have had time to possibly make a return and the point spread was close enough that if they did, they would have won.  He got a first down each time he needed to and mixed plays so that they ended up with a goal right before the end of the game, leaving the opposing team without time to make a return.  I was amazed at a team that could be so methodical and calcualated, not to mention, confident.  After all, a mere mortal team would have run a high liklihood of having to punt from a bad position because they didn’t push hard and fast enough.

Yesterday I was in downtown San Francisco and we walked by a sports shop. I had to stop in and get a 49ers hat and tee shirt.  Yes, for the first time in my life I’m going to actually support and root for a team!  Guess I’ll have to get busy and start figuring out who’s on the roster and following their games.  Dang, I believe life will be good in this here state of California!  Can’t wait for the next two weeks to slip by and actually be living here!

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February 19, 2007 by David.

I can’t boil water. I can’t even kill the teakettle. However, I can melt a kitchen sink drain.

Last night I put the teakettle on to boil water for tea and forgot about it until I smelled something hot. I jumped up from the couch and ran to the kitchen, feeling quite relieved the teakettle wasn’t ruined. Caught it just in time. Thinking a burst of water to cool it down might cause the hot metal to warp, I set it in the stainless steel sink to cool and went back to the couch. A few minutes later I realized the folly of that move when I detected a new odor - scorching rubber. Once again I raced to the kitchen, pulled the teakettle out of the sink and placed it on a cold burner, where, God knows, anyone with half a brain would have put it in the first place. Now the bottom of the sink was discolored, the rubber seal was smoldering, and the plastic drain had melted, almost falling off the bottom of the sink. It was a proud moment.

This morning I rummaged through plumbing supplies and found a new drain. Less than two minutes of sanding with an orbital sander took away the discoloration and in about 15 minutes the sink drain was back to doing what it was supposed to be doing – with an shiny new drain to boot.

Out of all of this I realized the reason a teakettle has a whistle on it isn’t so you know the instant it starts boiling. God made teakettle whistles so you don’t forget the teakettle is boiling. Mental note to self: Put the damn whistle in the teakettle!

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February 2, 2007 by David.

It’s snowing in Graceland.  Well, it is snowing across the state line in Mississippi where I live and the local TV stations claim it is snowing even more in Memphis than it is here.  No matter where you live, an inch or two of fresh snow is a beautiful sight.

While I did expect hot and humid summers when I moved to the mid-south (now there is a term I hadn’t even noticed before I moved here), I didn’t expect the winters to be colder than I’d experienced in Portland, Oregon.  Not a lot, but definately is colder here.  More days in the twentys and teens than I had in pretty much any winter in thirty years in Portland, or eighteen years in Auburn, Washington, for that matter.

So, I took a walk this morning around the neighborhood, taking pictures of nearby log cabins on the lake, nestled in the trees under a blanket of snow.  Had a nice chat with the neighbor who is rebuilding a fire-damaged cabin.  He has the same first name, works in IT like I did for 22 years, has two Harley’s (one a running 1932) and does real estate renovations on the side.  If we were staying in this area we might become good friends.  Certainly we have a lot in common.  We even share the same first name.  …Just a little slice of life in the mid-south.  Good stuff.

This is a picture of our dock, where I love to sit at dusk and watch the sun as it sets over the trees directly across the lake.  It actually is prettier in the winter with leaves off the trees.  You get to watch the sun longer, plus the added visual intrigue of the sunset behind the stark outlines of the leafless trees.  Then there is the pink, red, and gray reflections in the water.  Did I mention the good life in the mid-south?

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February 2, 2007 by David.

Ok, I haven’t read Sarah’s new book, Leap! What Will We Do with the Rest of Our Lives? because it isn’t published for another 18 days, but I like what I’m seeing about it - probably because it is a book about right where I am in my life right now. It is about one’s choices and opportunities as he or she gets older and the non-trivial process of both moving into the new phase of getting older and making it through transistions in life, whether chosen or not, such as a complete change in career.  Those are exactly the two issues I’m dealing with currently.

Here are the topics, as decriobed on her webpage:

1. Coming Apart - Losing your identity. We’ve raised our kids, made a mark in our field. Why are we still here?
2. Trying to hang on - Having your face lifted and other ways to say it ain’t so.
3. Facing facts - Dealing with your kids leaving home. Becoming a “master” - the p.c. word for older.
4. Stepping out of the Box - Taking risks, leaving your comfort zone. As Crosby, Stills & Nash sang: “What have you got to lose?”
5. Giving Back - You marched when you were young? How can you help make the world better now?
6. The Inner journey - In the East, this time of life is reserved for intense spiritual work. Will we pursue that?
7. Actresses, Supermodels and Musicians - Stories of women who had the great bodies, and musicians who had the great chops. Can they still rock ‘n roll?
8. Expansion of love and sex - Do we end up with a partner or alone? Joan Hotchkiss, the actress who gave a one-woman show in L.A. about sex after fifty, said: “I refuse to go unfucked to my grave!”
9. Moving - Why and where do we move? Some do it to live more simply, some to build a dream house, some to form a community and grow old with a little help from our friends.
10. Surrender - Do we rage against it or do we accept: we’re not in control?
11. Rituals - Some do it with prayers, some with red thong panties and the Rolling Stones. How do we start this excursion to the unknown?

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