First Leg of a Week Long Mini-break: Ukiah

Yeah! Onto day one of a week touring and camping with my high school buddy, Diane who is down for a week from Yakima Washington. I picked her up at the airport and bright and early we were driving alongside Clear Lake on Hwy 20. Know what I found out? That I drove through Clear Lake, once or twice a year over more than a decade and NOT notice the flippin' volcano sitting next to the lake! If there was a T-Rex on the route, I wonder if I would have noticed it? Well, never mind.

Mount Konocti beneath which eyeless fishes creep
While I drove, Diane also told methat long ago the Pomo Indians told the local Whites about large caverns hidden beneath the mountain, in which there dwell fish without eyes. No one but the Indians took the stories about the underground caverns as anything but 'Indian Legends'. Hum... eyeless fish in dark underground caverns... haven't I heard of such a thing before? Diane and I suspect the Pomo tales are fact and as usual, it will take latter day Whites another century or three to catch up with the Pomo.

The existence of a volcano was just the first bit of info Diane shared. A bit later she pointed out a State landmark I've driven past at least a dozen times, without bothering to stop for a look-see. On this day however, prompted by Diane, I stopped and here is what I saw.



Details of Dreadful Events in California History
Like other lands of European 'discovery', California has a ghastly history of murder of native men, women and children. Diane knows of such historical happenings, not because she completed her K - 12 education in California, as there is residual denial of the gawdawful treatment of Indians, but because she's keen on history. Driving about with Diane was having my own personal historian at hand. I am not going into it all here, look it up for yourself. Really. Do so.

Now, the last thing you see as you drive from Hwy 50 through Lake County a lazy herd of bison on the south side of Hwy 20 - a sure sign you are about to intersect Hwy 101. For once, I did not take the 101 dead north, headed for Eureka or Crescent City. Instead I drove us south a bit to Ukiah.

Ukiah is a special place to me. When I graduated high school, I was gifted by friends & relatives with a grand sum that approached $100. I decided to use the money to fly north - on PSA, an airline no longer existing - to visit Diane, her mother and sisters, who left San Diego and returned to Northern California where Diane, Aveeda and Heidi were raised. I'll never forget what a great time I had when Eunice, Diane's Mom, picked me up in San Francisco and spent several days driving up hill and over dale sight seeing in California. To this day, Aveeda & Diane told me when they see California Quail they think of the first time I ever saw the birds. I pretty much pitched a happy fit at the sight of the up tight little fowl, marching along, then scrambled into the rural shrubbery. On that trip I also saw my first wild California Mule Deer as well as the magnificent redwood trees of Montgomery Woods State Reserve. Nineteen-seventy was when I fell in love with Northern California and developing a wish to live here.

Enough hisherstory! As I said, Diane once called Ukiah home, and we began our visit, driving around the town in search of placed Diane once called home.

First up was a beautiful yellow Victorian, where Diane, her Mom and sisters lived for a short while. As soon as Diane told me the place was haunted, other interesting info about the place mostly flew out of my head! The family heard steps and other noises from the upstairs, which was entirely devoid of people/things. Cool!

The buttercup yellow haunted Victorian
Diane's parents bought this house, at one time shaded by a humongous Horse Chestnut tree. The house was only a couple of blocks from Diane's high school so she could come home for lunch every day.

Diane's former family home still retains a welcoming look.
This is the house I remember - sort of - as it's the one I visited in 1970. The only visual memory I have of the house itself was Diane and her sisters playing with their two Siamese kittens.


After the house tour, we did a little downtown strolling and light shopping, then were on for a great lunch at the Ukiah Brewing Company.

It was Diane handled the details of this trip, arranging for us to rent an adorable little home, nestled among wine vineyards in the country for a couple of days. The house is very pretty and my first thought on seeing it, was that it shows potential for future hen parties. The inside was prettily decorated and the stats was a bedroom for each of us and a living room with fireplace & comfy chairs. The kitchen had a cute & funky old stove, and was fully outfitted with microwave, fridge, coffee maker and BONUS! An expresso maker which I didn’t know how to work, damn it. But my favorite thing about the house was the back porch. Every time I stepped onto it, I had to say, or at least whisper, "I had a farm in Africa...!"


View from the porch, showing the walk down past the vineyards to a rushing river

I couldn't look at the porch view, without expecting giraffes gracefully striding past

Chili on an August Evening

The first Tuesday every August is my neighborhood’s Block Party potluck. It's held conveniently held just outside my front door. Un-conveniently, today it was my second potluck for the day. The first was at my office for lunch for which I took the easy way out opting to pay $5 and not having to bring a thing to the event other than my amazing appetite. But for the evening potluck I showed with a cast-iron pot full o’ homemade chili.

Local sheriffs and Neighborhood Watch crew start the ball rolling
Now here’s a first – I totally enjoyed myself. At first I sat hunkered down like I usually do, the fat deer in the headlights, tragically alone and feeling like a pariah. Eventually neighbors began to seat themselves at my table. All were, like me, disgruntled State Workers. We chatted all about what the hell is being done to us as State workers and what was going to happen to us, depending on which gubernatorial candidate wins. I’d explain our conclusions but you really don’t want to hear the kind of swearing necessary to complete our collective thoughts. Anyway, in short, we had a ball.

As the sheriff explains how to stay safe, a neighborhood garage band gets ready to get down
While we chatted a rock band was laying down a beat & was actually pretty good. Their playing was rather better than their singing voices, but with enough great chow in your mouth, you don’t really feel like fussing. And anyway, they played Rock & Roll from my era, i.e., when dinosaurs ruled the earth, so while we chowed down potluck fair, we grooved to the mood.

♪♫Play that funky music white boy! Play that funky music rig-ht!♪♫
Two fire trucks attended the gathering and we had the local sheriff & Neighborhood Watch people give us all the bad news that every year our police protection shrinks a bit. We just lost our Sheriffi’s station that was about a mile from my house. Now there is only one station to serve numerous neighborhoods and it’s quite a drive’s distance from my house. Hopefully we're all to po' to rob now anyway.

♪♫Lay down that boogie and play that funky music till you die! ♪♫

Enough speechifying, TIME TO EAT!
I was told by lots of people were curious what was the dish I brought, saying it was delicious but no one knew what it was. THAT my dears, is the first sign your chili recipe might need adjustments. Someone told me they were puzzled because my beefy dish tasted like mild chili, but wasn’t red. It was like an hour later before I realized the ‘problem’ was that I don’t use pinto or kidney beans. Making chili for myself I use mung beans, quinoa and/or black beans. I use ‘all-of-the-above because those are tastier and healthy grains. For the potluck attended by 'normal' people, I just used Black Beans – my compromise - and the usual ground beef. I cooked mung beans too, but then changed my mind at the last second. Black beans do not cook up red and though I use numerous cans of diced tomatoes with jalapenos. My chili was tasty, but not red. Who cares! They ate it up and that made me feel just grand.

Chow down time - my house is the one in the background

Right outside my front door around 8:30, when I was off to bed.

HONK IF YOU LOVE YOUR CAR!

10, 9, 8...
Sitting at a red light this morning on the way to the Light Rail station, I noticed my dearest, my darling, my best-beloved Honda was only 2 miles off our 100K anniversary. So 2 miles later, I pulled to the side of the road and recorded the moment.

BINGO - 100 Thousand Miles!
Happy Anniversary Honda! I always drive my Hondas until they keel over dead, their wheels waving in the air, like a dead parakeet on the bottom of the cage. This Honda will 'go' the same way, driven until either the wheels fall off there is some other unforgiveable car event.

Hum... for now, think I'll take my the Honda out to dinner tonight for a full tank of premium gas and maybe some engine oil for dessert. Then maybe a trip to the car spa - that is, a car wash. Nice rubdown with shea butter wax up, followed by a brand spanking new lavender deodorant tree thingmabob. No expense spared. Unless the total comes to more than $15.75; then all bets will be off.