Colder Than The North Pole Here...

It is, I'm not lying. It's so cold, I saw a Great Dane stuck to a fire hydrant. In the warm of my room here, I can complain about it, but I feel guilty for those who have to live in this ridiculous climate. Why oh why did I leave California??? As the "Governator" would say, "Isle be bach!" And I will, one day. The warm of the California wildfires nipping at my heels, the deafening roar of the planes at LAX, the traffic jambs even at 2 in the morning on a weekday, (doesn't anyone work a real job?) and of course, the carnival that 'is' California. Honestly, I do miss so much about it. I miss San Francisco. Golden Gate Park in the summertime is just magic, as is the city itself. I miss the hills, the view, the lights of Oakland from across the bay. I miss the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge, the Presidio, Coit Tower, Lombard Street, the cable cars, BART, and so much more. Oh, and the restaurants, and Fisherman's Wharf, Ghiardelli Square. I really did leave my heart there. My wife and I celebrated our 7th anniversary there. We had such fun. We rode around the lagoon on the electric boats drinking beers and probably smoking a joint. I know we drank beer. We celebrated with a bottle of champagne, and bought two glasses to drink it in. That will be 20 years ago next year. My how that time has flown.

She's more beautiful now than ever, and I love her more each day. It took me many years to realize what I had and have, and the time spent with her I wouldn't trade for Bill Gates and Warren Buffet's fortunes. It's amazing how, if you put up with someone long enough, as we have with each other, that you either run away, or it hits you that all your adventures were special not because of the adventure itself, but because you shared it with someone who you loved. That makes all the difference and makes it possible to face the toughest days, and to weather the worst of all Nor'easters, blizzards and floods. If you just have each other, the material things are just immaterial.

I remember our journey to California from Connecticut in 1984, the year after we married. Funny when I see someone's birth year on the net and it says "1983" and I just can't believe that we have been around that long, but we have. Anyway, we bought this old Airstream trailer; a 21 foot job that needed some tlc. We installed a new toilet (essential) and it needed a new 'furnace'. We also installed roof top air conditioning, something we later were so happy we did. We bought a brand new Chevy Suburban Silverado, loaded out with everything but 4WD, after all, we didn't need it where we were going. Our idea was to move all our 'stuff' out to California in the trailer, find a place to live and sell the trailer. Oh, we were moving out for me to go to Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, an accredited college for the art of photography and cinematography.

But I digress. We loaded up the trailer with everything, including our little cat Didlew Dudes, and hit the road. We said a tearful goodbye to our families, first at my parents house in Greenwich, where we had kept the trailer and had lived in it to 'test it out', then to Stamford to say goodbye to my wife's family. Sue's dad gave us a notebook to keep a journal in. He entered the first entry, something to the effect of the weather being ok, and the time and all that. His father was a newspaper reporter at the Boston Globe, and he himself was a teacher and probably that came from that. So we said goodbye and headed south on I-95 through New York, over the Washington Bridge and onto the infamous New Jersey Turnpike. It rained at one of our first rest stops, and we got gas, some stuff from the refrigerator and with Didlew Dudes tuckered out from meowing for about an hour settled on down the road with some serious rain and two-fisted driving.

We wanted to make it to Williamsburg Virginia, Colonial Williamsburg that is, (set a spell, take your shoes off, yall come back now hear? God, I so want to write, "now the first thing you know old Jed's a millionaire, kin folk said Jed move away from there, said Californey is the place you awt to be, so he loaded up the truck and moved to beverly...hills that is...swimmin' pools, movie stars...." but I won't.

So we stopped in Williamsburg for two reasons; 1 was to see the town, the second one was to go to Busch Gardens for rides and free beer. This place was a must. We alway's liked the various Busch Gardens, and this one, although not as interesting as the one in Tampa Florida still had the most important element....beer. Yes in those days, Budweiser actually was doable. Today I'd only drink it if had been walking miles in a desert and couldn't find a Fred Harvey something or other. Anyway, we rode the rides, whatever they were, and then we headed west.

More tomorrow....

Running On Empty

Gosh. A whole page of white. What do I write? There is so much, so very much. But much of it is nothing much. I don't know what to write. Should I write about my lack of an idea? Why don't I have something to write about? Dammit, this just plain sucks. Drugs or alcohol might help. I'll be right back. Nah, nothing. Now I'm having trouble even typing, or remaining upright. Now what? I could fall down and then write about zero gravity for that micro nanosecond. Ok, I'll try. BRB. Damn! It didn't work.

Actually, thinking about it, I should write about how I feel right now, but later. Oh yeah, that sounded dumb (SOUNDED DUMB, SOUNDED DUMB, SOUNDED DUMB, SOUNDED DUMB).

I'll have to leave this, my first and pitiful blog for later when I have more substance.