Travels with The Rayman

We drove from Thorny Brassieres to Brassieres (Besiers). Besiers is the city with a lot of one way, narrow streets. After the grand search for a place to park to visit the tourist info bureau, we found underground parking. I’m surprised they don’t require you to have sunroofs here on all vehicles for easy access. Because they park so close, its is almost impossible to squeeze in and out of a car. It would be easier to climb thru a roof. When we emerged from the garage, we didn’t know where we were. We walked around a park that was being set up with games, amusement rides (for instance, we exited the garage by the bumper cars). I looked and Ray and said, “where are we going?”. He said, “back to the car”. We did go back. Cheapest parking yet!! Then we saw the locks.  I filmed it since I have no desire to do the Panama…especially in the days of Coronavirus!!  Just click on the link below.

 

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Do you wonder what lurks in the crevices of your garage? or attic? or basement? CA doesn’t do basements too much but I had the good fortune of having grandparents that had a basement. It was dank, dark, foreboding. And I loved it in a dangerous kind of way. The steps were steep and one lone lightbulb illuminated the entire terrain. The wood that held the house up above the basement was pristine redwood that I once managed to lodge across the palm of my hand. A giant splinter of redwood. Yikes. Did that hurt.

Once down in the abyss of the concrete reinforced (I hope) room, were located shelves. And on the shelves were unopened boxes. White boxes. And they had ribbon around them. Silver ribbons. Along with those boxes were a myriad of plates, cups, glasses, piles of clothes. Thinking of it now, it is not too far removed from what the Rayman and I just found in our garage as we embarked on our “spring clean”. However, the basement had much more character. It also had a vent to the outside which was useful for light and air. Uncle Dodo, the architect of my grandparents house was no slouch. He thought of everything, apparently.

But I digress.

Our neighbor, the Jordan family had a basement too. As far as I know, these were the only two basements on our block but then I never did a census, and I didn’t snoop. Surmising is the best I can do. Johnny Jordan was an entrepreneur in the entertainment business. He entertained people in his bars and liquor stores. And because of this perhaps, he made the basement of his house into an elaborate bar. It had red tiles on the floor and a small bar, complete with sink, mirrors, glasses, booze. And it had a closet. That is where we changed our clothes when we were putting on a “floor show” for the adults. The water heater may have been in it. Not sure. Memories have faded over time. But that basement was high class. It was a hidden gem. Perhaps it was a speakeasy!! I think it is fair to say that their basement had far less spiders than ours did. Oh, and how can I forget. It had a jukebox. With records. OMG. It was so cool. And it also had a vent to the outside for air and light.

So, today Rayman and I started cleaning the garage and it brought all these memories back when I stopped to take a water break and sit down to cool down.

Our garage is not nearly as interesting. And it’s full of stuff that I wonder what ever possessed us to buy. Oh, I’m sure we had our reasons but really. There must have been located 10 tubes of silicon stuff. Putty. 30 cans of opened paint, mostly mysterious as to the application they were intended for. Many from the previous owner so they must match our walls. Forty two cloth bags for lugging stuff home. Wine bags. You know the kind that have 6 compartments. Bags from Whole Foods, New Frontiers, Albertsons, Morro Bay Golf Course. Bags up the ying yang. Old tire chains that do not fit on presently owned automobiles. Hats which we plan to keep but hats galore. Baseball caps, my floppy golf hats. And pictures. OMG. Family pictures. And many of them framed. So, I took the pictures out of the frames and they now the frames rest in the back of the Prius. Off to the Goodwill truck with the frames, old tools, clothes that don’t fit anymore. A major clean up.

But back to the boxes those boxes in the basement. When I got old enough to reach the shelves, I opened one of the boxes. It had a white small card attached. Dear Donna. Congratulations on your marriage. Love, Whomever. The boxes were unopened wedding presents filled with Fostoria glasses and plates. Cups and saucers. Never opened. The vestige of a broken marriage. How sad, really. My parents were only married for a few years, not long enough, apparently, to open the wedding gifts. Not long enough to set up house.

Well, some of those dishes are in my kitchen today. I use them for desserts and salads. Quite useful to the homemaker. Take that to mean what you wish. I will spoil your fun by telling you that my mother was completely uninterested in making a home. Her favorite meal to make was fish sticks, at the dawn of the frozen dinner era. She was also quite fond of cream tuna on toast. So, I guess she didn’t need salad and dessert plates for that, now did she?

Well, I had my rest. The garage beckons. And I found an old box of my grandmother’s recipes (she was a good cook and homemaker). So, perhaps, I will share a few of them with you later on. But first, I must plow through that box and see what i can find.

Hope there aren’t any spiders in there.

I’m visualizing the Pope washing feet while donned in protective gear aka PPE.  That is how far I’ve come in my imagination during the pandemic of the day.  

So what, dear reader, do you think of all this?  As bad news swirls, the President refuses to free up ventilators from the defense production stockpile.  What on earth is wrong with this man?  

But I digress.

Took a ride yesterday.  It was a blustery March day and the wind whipped off the ocean as though Mother Nature was angry and letting us all know about it.  We drove down to the small burg of Guadalupe named after the Patroness of  All the Americas, Our Lady of Guadalupe.  She is the Mexican version of Mary, mother of Jesus.  I’ve always like the little town.  Its’ residents are mainly Mexicans that work for big Ag in the fertile Santa Maria valley.  Located in Santa Barbara county, the town has always looked like it has fallen on hard times.  And so an artist in Santa Barbara created some art to locate in this tiny town for what reason I do not know but I am glad he did it.

It was while looking for these sculptures that we turned down the road by the cemetery which is across the street from the school Rayman once taught an elementary school class.  Having never been on this street before, I asked Rayman to keep driving on the road to see where it led.  Wow.  We were so delighted to end up at the ocean after driving through the towering dunes that lined the road.  What a fabulous place.  And it is actually a place.  Here are some pictures.

 

 

 

 

We stopped at our friends home, the Bucks, and picked up our pizza stone that we left there a couple of weeks ago after a pizza making party.  They live in Nipomo which is north of Guadalupe.  Things were fine at their house and they were dressed in street clothes.  I say that because it is about 9 a.m. on Friday, March 27th and I’m still in my bed clothes. 

Earlier in the day we worked on our new headphone that I ordered on advice of our friends, Tomas and Ruthie.  Couldn’t get them working the night before so we went at it again and discovered that working during the day is more illuminating…Rayman could actually see the back of the TV to see where the jacks were.  So, now the headset works and I’ve ordered another pair because the one we had from Dish is pitiful compared to these new ones.  They are awesome.

Took our lives in our hands by stopping by Whole Foods on the way home and buying lots of chicken, ribs, lamb shanks so we can continue to, well, eat.  Rayman had to use the restroom so he ventured in.  We carry hand sanitizer with us for protection…armed, so to speak, for grocery shopping.  I made a point of thanking the workers for braving the virus to come to work.  Without them, no food.  

Work continues on the front of the house.  The painter and his sidekick that looks like James Crowell, stood on their ladders buzzing the building to erase the effects of the vine tendrils that has been removed.  This is going to be the world’s most expensive paint job is all I’m saying.  

And we started a new series on Apple + (plus) that is a riff on the race to the moon.  Highly entertaining.  

More from the ride.

My hands are bleached, dry, winkley not to mentioned a bit deformed.  So there is that.

And how was your day?  

Stayed home today.  Deep cleaned the kitchen, we did.  It was Tuesday which is the normal day for our housekeeper, Bertha.  Not today.  Not for awhile.  So, Rayman and I did a deep dive into the land of knives, mixers, blenders, ovens, stoves, refrigerator.  The work is so boring I’m not going to continue on this subject.  Our new habit is going to be to clean one room a day.  And when we are done with them all, we will begin again.  I dread the den.  Papers, albums, papers, stationery, paper, and everything we don’t know where else to put it.  Le den.  It make take a few days.  

Watched a movie tonight.  JoJo Rabbit.  Did you see it?  If not, check it out.  Very good entertainment about nazi Germany.  I know.  How is that a thing?  Trust me.  It is good.

Finished my book about a young woman that rode in a horse race across the steppes of Mongolia.  If you are a horse person, or a woman, or an overachiever, or Mr. Ed, you would like this book.  Reach out if you want to know the name…of the book.

 

Watched Gov. Cuomo this a.m.  He is doing an update on the status of NYC.  He makes Trump look like a cheap suit.  He is facing a huge crisis of not enough ventilators.  CDC is sending like 400.  He needs 40,000.  Just think how you would feel if you were in his shoes.  What Trump is doing is reckless and irresponsible.  Never in my life have I seen such negligence in governing.  We may be screwed.  Now he has disappeared Dr. Fauci.  He says churches will be filled on Easter.  He wants to just ignore the reality so he can give to the CEOs of all his favorite companies huge amounts of our money (read taxpayers) to save their businesses rather than peoples’ lives.  Naked opportunism for the wealthy.  Screw the rest of us.   He lies to us every day with his mealy mouth presentations.

Listen, people, I like to make my blogs fun and he is undermining my efforts here.  It is all his fault.  But as a canny individual, I will not fall in the trap.

So, I digressed.

Spoke to a neighbor today.  That felt good.

The disaster of the day was the bread I baked.  Somehow my baking is eluding me so this is a serious situation.  I measured out the flours on my kitchen scale.  I measured everything precisely and yet…when the first rising rose, there was residual water in the bowl.  That’s never happened before.  So, I threw flour at the problem.  Didn’t want to throw all the flour and yeast away.  Then I placed the sticky dough on the towel as instructed, folded the towel around the dough and waited for the second rise.  When I went to throw the dough into the heated pan, the dough stuck to the towel (yes, I floured the towel).  So there I was, elbow deep in long strands of clingy wet dough, furiously trying to get a majority of it into the hot dutch oven.  Thank goodness the filming crew wasn’t here to capture the scene!!  It looked, well, pathetic.  We are now eating a weird loaf of bread, soft instead hard.  Geez.

Made a fresh green salad with avocado from the local avocado ranch here in Morro Bay, red onion, hot house cherry tomatoes from Mexico…just because I was desperate for a tomato, organic lettuce (Romaine from the area), and a great homemade dressing.  So there was that.

Did some laundry. Cut my nails.  Installed some batteries in a new headphone for the Rayman.  We had one headphone we had never used (don’t ask).  My works on bluetooth.  His new one that was delivered today from Amazon are plugged into audio in and audio out jacks on our Smart TV.  Tomorrow night is our test run to see if they will both work simultaneously.  

As an aside, it just took me four attempts to spell simultaneously.  I still don’t now if it is spelled right.  But do you ever do that?  Just forget about how something is spelled?  And it doesn’t have to be a long word.  It could be short…cleeve.  You know the word, you know how to spell the word but the word won’t come.  Poof.  

Have you been having bizarre dreams lately?  Yeah,me too.  

You know the other thing I’m not looking forward to is dusting that chandelier over the dining room table.  What was I thinking when I bought that thing?

Hang in there everyone…it’s going to get worse.  Maybe I will get to the point of dying my hair purple.  Great time to experiment!!

Hi peeps,

The last 24 hours or so have been, dare I say, fun…in new ways unforeseen in these days of societal upheaval.

Rather than keeping you, dear reader, on pins and needles, let’s review.

We were hunkering down for leftover Butter Chicken when we received a FaceTime call.  It was FAMILY calling from Portland.  What a hoot.  Cenk (my cousin’s son-in-law) instigated the folly, I think.  He was sitting in the SHIP with a bottle of Corona (not virus) beer.  He had my cousin (Sue and her husband, Larry) on the line.  Additionally, he had his family, Kristen and their three kids on line.  He also added eldest daughter of my cousin (Ali and her hubby, Bernat).  Then he taught me how to turn Rayman and me into cows.  It was uproareous. 

We had a cheer as most adults had wine or Corona beer in hand!!  Best FaceTime ever.  I loved being a cow.  Although, I must say…I wanted to change to a mokney but the “effects” eluded me.  More practice is needed.  So if anyone wants to try it, call someone who knows how it works.  Right now, I’m in early training.  

After the frivolity we hung up and watched Parasite.  Anyone seen it?  I need help.  Was the parasitic family that wormed their way into the Parks’ home the parasites?  Or were the Parks the parasites, or was the guy in the basement the parasite.  Or were they all parasites?  Inquiring minds want to know.  Rayman was not amused that the film captured Best Picture.  Just sayin.

Today, Sunday, we took Beau to the Rock for a walk.  While there I noticed bubbles in the bay.  Several creatures emerged.  Divers.  They seem to have been trying to maintain that elusive 6-foot distance.  There were plenty of people on land and they were extremely happy to see us, apparently.  Lots of hi’s were exchanged.  Actually, starved for human interaction may have been the reason but I prefer to think they were just thrilled to see US!!

On the way to the walk, I ducked into our very small health food store extending my search for clam juice.  Nada.  However, I did find black quinoa and gourmet pinto beans.  Oh, and vinegar for Neta that was only $5.99.  Snapped those things up and felt victorious.  The little things.  

After the walk, I called Neta with the good vinegar news.  Drove by and delivered it and we visited from afar, she in the house, me half way down her entrance way.  It left me feeling good to be useful and Neta was thrilled to get the vinegar.  She left the payment on a bench in an envelop, under a rock.  

After returning home, we had breakfast, worked on our puzzles and then headed out to north Paso to pick up our wine shipment.  Here are some pics of our wondrous ride.  

Graveyard Vineyard is owned by Paula and she was there to greet her only visitors of the day.  She assured us that had disinfected everything so we went in.  And what a great time was had by all.  She was offering wine on sale at a 40% discount.  Seems that this was their biggest money making event…the Zin Festival weekend of the year.  The festival was cancelled.  She was very disappointed as would we all be, I’m sure.  However, we laughed a lot anyway.  The winery is one of the most creative.  Their labels feature skeletons, ghosts and the like.  They also have some great merc.   Rayman spotted a wall hanging that was hanging with a bunch of other wall hangings.  It said, “I wanted to have a battle of the wits but you seem to be completely unarmed”.  We bought a few extra bottles and one sign with a saying that I cannot disclose because the recipient might read this and it would spoil the surprise…it is very funny too.  

 

After fond adieus, we visited the graveyard shown below.  Very sweet place.  If I hadn’t opted for fire, this would be a good choice.  We were in such a good mood, we didn’t stop to think that people might actually end up there.  

 

When we drove off toward Paso, I informed Rayman that he was lucky to have me because I am looking for fun, not misery.  In this time of trying events, I firmly believe we must do what we can to laugh.  And try to stay positive.  I am guessing that my declaration may have been a bit presumptive but, what the heck.

To that end I am going to organize some fun.  A lip syching contest on-line.   Rayman and I will start it off…throw down the gauntlet, if you will.  So start preparing your “act”.  More info to followr!!!

 

 

But I digress.

As if things weren’t bad enough, we watched Contagion tonight.  Interesting and a bit prothetic but comes close to matching Trump’s presser today.  Someone shut him up.  Whenever he talks, the markets tanks.  Futures took a hit today when he spoke.  There is a correlation between words spoken by this numbskull and stocks losing value.  Don’t believe it?  Check it out somewhere.  I know not where.  Nor do I care.  I can’t prove it but I just know it is truth ala Bill Maher.  He has a segment in some shows that is entitled just that.  And it is funnier than I am.  Guess that’s why he has a show and I have a blog!!

I suggested to a friend today that I wish Trump would just resign and go to FL.  That, however, would leave Pence in charge.  But Pence is so far up Trump’s ass, it will take major surgery to remove him and since we have a shortage of hospital beds…

Rayman picked up a pizza tonight and we feasted as we watched TV.  I’ll continue my clam juice search tomorrow so I can make my famous clam chowder.  It is amazing to me that people buy the stuff.  I really thought I was the only one.  

Today, it was time to grocery shop again.  The delivery service that I tried out was a bust.  Only a fraction of things I ordered were delivered because the store’s shelves were bare.  Very disappointing, however, this is a disappointing time.

We ran to Ralph’s in Los Osos and were thrilled to see veggies and fruit…lots of it!!  I bought all organic.  Though, with people mauling the merch, organic may be a moot point.  However, someday this will pass and I want those farmers that go to the trouble of not dousing everything in poison to still be standing.  So there is that.

A few things were missing…like flour (the staff of life) and clam juice (who knew people really bought that stuff).  So, after we left, we headed to the vet for Beau’s appointment.  The people at the Animal Care Clinic in SLO came out to the car, took our baby in, shot him, and returned him to the car.  From there, I called the office and commenced the payment for services via the telephone.  Pretty darn safe, I’m guessing, and hoping…and all that razmatazz.

Then we drove to the medical marijuana store in Grover Beach and there we found two guys and their computers sitting under a rectangular umbrella to take orders like a drive thru.  Cool.  Got our stuff and joked with them quite a bit.  So impressive and dare I say,  entrepreneurial.  

My friend, Neta, asked if I needed rice based on an email I sent out to our Sideways wine tasting group.  Since I planned to prowl the aisles of numerous grocery establishments, I demurred but then asked her if she needed anything.  Yes.  She did.  Braggs Organic unfiltered cider vinegar.  Okay, I told her I would pick her up a bottle.  

When we arrive arrived at Whole Foods, I asked Rayman to stay in the car.  He is more susceptible that I.  So I ran in to make a quick visit.  Vinegar.  Check, Cheese crackers.  Check.  A few other items and out I dashed.  Then we drove over to BevMo.  It was opened but closed.  Had to download their app and buy the stuff (aperol) on line.  Then I had to wait for someone to deliver it to the door.  There was a man there with a keg waiting to get in.  So, I started a chat.  He thought the virus was way overblown.  I asked him if he watched Fox.  He said he didn’t watch anything which is just as bad (sorry Fox watchers).  So, he is ignoring directives and doing his own thing.  I wished him good luck.  

And off we drove.  

When we arrived home, I brough everything in and wiped the groceries with Clorox wipes.  Put the groceries away.  Then I looked the WF bill.  The vinegar was $17.  WHAT?  It had additives and wasn’t plain vinegar.  Treacherous marketing.  I didn’t notice because I was trying to get out of the store unscathed by the microbes.  So, I emailed Neta and gave her the bad news.  So now I need to back to WF and return it and get the right stuff.  Darn it.  Haste makes waste.  

The news was dreadful tonight.  A lack of PPE (personal protective equipment) for the health care workers.  Lack of respirating equipment.  CA has been ordered to stay at home as has NY and Illinois.  It falls to the governors and mayors to run this emergency response while the President blunders his way through news conferences with happy talk that does not at a reflect reality (he lies as does his VP) and a total lack of concern or empathy for people on the front lines or the poor infected souls.  How is this a thing?  It is a national nightmare.  The President says hospital ships are coming but they are weeks away.  Test kits are here.  They aren’t.  There is a new drug.  No there isn’t.  We are living in very dangerous times now.

A great segue to what we, Rayman and I, are doing.  We are drinking, getting high, and walking.  We are eatiing every meal at home.  I even gave up my crown as Miss Gourmet Cook and made butter chicken in my Instapot, and jasmine rice in my rice cooker while I showered for the evenings festivities.  It was delicious and easy.  The chicken was skinless breast that lacked flavor but in these times, one must be happy to even find chicken (there wasn’t any last night at Albertsons).  The sauce was great (Indian curry kind of flavors).  Frozen peas are new in my repertoire.  Bought a giant bag of them (organic of course) at Costco last weekend.  Served them too.  Oh, and a good light white wine to wash it all down.  Yummy.  

The news made us sick so we are in bed.  I’m blogging.  Rayman is reading Sapiens.  I’m going to turn this machine off and read now….I think having the lights on may be bothering Beau as he is wedged between us.  He is offering a great deal of joy during this madness.  His affect on us is calming which is a good thing.  Oh, how we love our dog.

And with that, the week ends in a much worse place than it started and I fear for our future.