Travelin' Man

Are you a Bob Seger or a Ricky Nelson fan? They both have lyrics about a travelin' man. Not coincidentally, they both focus on women they had known and left. I have traveled a lot, lived many places, some more than once. But my wandering had a lot more to do with periodically changing my life than it did with running to or from various women. Some might disagree.

Here is a laundry list of where I have done my laundry over the decades.

1948 Detroit, MI.
1949-65 Dexter, MI.
1965-69 Kalamazoo, MI.
1970-71 Somerville, MA.
1971-72 Ann Arbor, MI.
1973-75 Hell, MI.
1975-78 Hermosa Beach, CA.
1979-80 Palos Verdes, CA.
1981-82 Redondo Beach, CA.
1983-1990 Hermosa Beach, CA.
1991-1999 San Francisco, CA.
2000-2005 Ann Arbor, MI.
2005-2009 Las Vegas, NV.
2010-2015 Berkeley, CA
2016-2020 The Villages, FL. & Ann Arbor, MI. (semi-snowbirding)

Starting in the late 90s, there were several periods of undomiciled living where I gave up my condo, house or apartment and traveled to and from friends and family. Since 2015, undomiciled has been my permanent condition. Everything I own fits into my car with room to spare. After all what does a writer need except a laptop and some place to be or to be leaving.

I have even written a book about my meandering ways - Undomiciled: How to be the Perfect Long-Term Houseguest. Seeking a publisher.

Artichokes, Rain & California

Non-Californians might want (need) to read this post more than anyone who lives out here on the western edge of civilization.

I've been back in California for a week now, one big storm was moving through as I arrived and another is just beginning to pour over us today. This is the wet season here and for the first time in four years it's wet, really wet. 

Like many out here I check the snowpack levels as the storms roll through. Much of our water comes out of the snow that accumulates in the Sierra Nevada. Right now we are at somewhere around 115% of normal for this date and 65% of normal for the end of the rainy season in April. Several reservoirs have risen 50 feet or more in the last month. The small catchments are full and are releasing excess water downstream, much to the delight of spawning fish, snail darters and kayakers.

Those in the known tell us that we would need about 150% of April normal to really put a big dent in the drought. Sure the reservoirs will fill and refill with an above average amount of spring snow. Unfortunately and short-sightedly we've been draining the deep underground aquifers to support agriculture and the snow won't replenish those any time soon (meaning not for several hundred years).

So why is this of concern for those of you in the rest of the country?

"The Calfornia Cental Valley, which stretches 450 miles between the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Coastal Range, might be the single most productive tract of land in the world. From its soil springs over 240 varieties of crops so diverse that their places of botanical origin range from Southeast Asia to Mexico. It produces two thirds of the nation's produce. If you've eaten anything made with canned tomatoes, there's a 94% chance that they were planted and picked in the Central Valley." [thinkprogress.org]

Add 51% of all fruit produced in the United States, 81% of carrots, 91% of strawberries and 99% of artichokes. Estimates go as high as 70% of all 'home grown' produce that hits American tables.

In the future this production will need to shift away from here to more locally grown food. The fields of cotton in the water rich South, will be converted from that outdated and less profitable white fluff to edible crops. Smaller, local food farms will need to be encouraged and tax incentivized, just like Big Oil and Big Coal.

But for now, watch the skies. Those deep, grey clouds hanging over our heads out here, mean you get to have extra sauce on your pizza tonight. 

Oh and one more thing -- the El Nino weather pattern that is soaking the West Coast this winter is historically followed by a dry LA Nina period, which might well mean no artichoke dip in the future for you.

A Long and Winding Road

With apologies to my several New Mexico, desert and Los Angeles friends, I got road weary and certain pressing personal items beckoned to me for an early return to Berkeley. I'm back in the Bay Area. Holiday order placed with Whole Foods. Friends here to be visited and many, many, so many words to write.

Many thanks to those who put me up in places all over the Midwest, South and Southwest. Purrs and pets to all the felines who welcomed me, official pictorial recognition is coming.

Again, apologies to my missed friends, hope to see you all soon.

Total trip Sept. 8 to Dec. 15th - 6700 miles

photo credit: National Geographic

Road Trip #2 -- Elko, Nevada

View Larger Map

Day 14 (Sept. 26th): 500 miles (trip to date: 875 miles)


On the road again after two weeks near Mt. Shasta. A most interesting visit with a fire evacuation, a flood via melting glacier and finally the first rain of the season. I arrived to 90+ degrees and the barest Mt. Shasta anyone has seen in many years, hence the melting glaciers. But on my final day the rain clouds cleared to reveal snow down to the tree line. More white than locals have seen in three years. Hopefully, a beginning to a wet winter.

To avoid more interstate time, I meandered through the high desert of Eastern Oregon. Morning temperatures hovered in the high 30s with lots of tule fog in the low valleys. But tonight I find myself back on the interstate. Ah well, this too shall pass. Somewhere in Utah or perhaps Wyoming tomorrow evening before arriving in Colorado on Sunday.

On a slightly sour note. I have abandoned my plans to drive the Northern I-90 route to Minnesota. New medical information requires a stopover in Colorado. So I am once again traversing I-80, a highway I have driven too many times and had hoped to avoid. I will get to see my friend Tina in Boulder, so there are compensations.

Halloween in the Wine Country

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Earthquake Prevention

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$150 Million Dollar Governor

California politics are always interesting. They do things bigger, better, dumb and dumber out here on the edge. Right now for instance the former governor ('75-'83) and frequent presidential candidate ('76, '80, '92) Jerry Brown is running for one of his old jobs again. Jerry wants to be the Once and Future Governor. He is currently the Attorney General of California and has been the Mayor of Oakland, the chairman of the California Democratic Party and a candidate for U.S. Senate. He is remembered fondly and otherwise as "Governor Moonbeam", which had something to do with proposing a state owned communications satellite and dating Linda Ronstadt. 

So you might say this election is Moonbeam vs. Moneybags. You see Brown's opponent is former CEO of eBay, Meg Whitman. Last week Ms. Whitman became the highest personally financed candidate in U.S. history. She has now officially spent $119 million dollars on her own campaign. Extrapolated through the November election, she will easily top $150,000,000 in out-of-pocket expenses in her attempt to become the governor of California.

Now I acknowledge that all politicians have fairly hefty egos. The psychological factors behind running for public office would make Sigmund spin in his coffin, but what on earth would make someone want to be the head of a bankrupt state with a shrinking population, failing schools.... well you know the laundry list. On top of that, not only is Meg Whitman running to head up this disaster, she is spending one hundred and fifty million dollars of her own money to get the job.

Yes there is another argument to be made about internet multi-millionaires. Did eBay actually need to give her hundreds of millions of dollars for merely staying out of the way of that internet juggernaut, they did - well actually as CEO, she did. Now she wants to spend part of that cyber-wealth to be governor, I mean make a list of all the things you would or could do with a couple of hundred million dollars, where does politician fall in your rankings? Doesn't wanting to buy this office make you supremely unqualified to manage the California State budget?

Ah well, it is nice being back in California. You just have to be really quick with the mute button or you might actually have to listen to these egomaniacal millionaires tell you that they really care. Well that really isn't fair because her ads are not about her accomplishments or her proposed programs, nope -- the Meg Whitman ads are all attacks on Jerry Brown, including one where she uses a '92 Bill Clinton clip from a presidential debate with Brown. Such dirty politics in California may be the single largest drain on the State's water supply because every time they run an ad, we all want to take a shower. My solution - bring back the 'None of the Above' voting option.

By the way the the book cover up top is a parody, she really did co-author a book called: The Power of Money with the subtitle: Values for Success in Business and in Life. Values something else Meg Whitman and I do not share, that and a hundred and fifty million dollars worth of hot, dirty air.

Not My Fault

For all of you flat-landers that is a picture of the San Andreas Fault, upon which I am resting tonight and which I have crossed and will recross several more times in the next 24 hours. I am putting all of that L.A. nonsense behind me as I have passed through the maws of the City of Angles and am now firmly pointed towards the City by the Bay.

I will say as my final word on L.A. 2010 - - - I was right. I spent many happy and productive years in the South Bay of Los Angeles but of all the places I have lived, this is clearly the one I cannot go home to. I felt out of touch and out of spirit both anticipating and actualizing the L.A. experience. I now remember feeling the same the several previous times I have been back since my move from Hermosa Beach to San Francisco in 1991.

Ah well, what's the loss of one megalopolis when there are so many. Besides we will be making the movie in Las Vegas not on a back lot in Burbank. So what's one little monster from L.A. amidst all the splendor that has been this journey so far. A few more days and I can unpack somewhere with a view of the Bay. And... I will turn my attention to posts with a bit more heft as some have requested; enough of this wallowing in the muck and mire of decades past.

You know... now that I ponder the lay of the land, maybe it is My fault.

The Western Turn

After many months traveling to points north, than east and further east and recently to the south... our wanderings have now taken a final directional change, my head has turned back to the west. The return has begun but not without several more interesting stops along the way.

A quorum of the PokerBoyz have assembled at the Beau Rivage here in Biloxi, Mississippi for several days of camaraderie, story telling and yes, even some poker. Amy is in from Austin, Mike is down from Minneapolis; Randy and I made the drive from Satellite Beach yesterday. For absent members of the gang, we as a group want to wish you well and to announce that last evening we did share a meal and a far amount of ridicule with Zippy. Yes, he lives and breaths and was here in all his flesh. He has not been playing much of the game, but will be joining us for several evening events this week.

Apparently, despite the check-in line last night, occupancy at the Beau is down; so we have all been upgraded to the Gulf view rooms. A pleasant site this morning to watch a sunrise over the water. Temperatures will be a bit nippy while we are here, however, except to drive to another casino for a tournament, there was not a lot of outside activity planned for the week. On today's agenda -- poker. Those seeking meaningful insight into the universe should stop back next week.

Who ordered the fried cat fish?

Green Valley, CA.

I don't know what actually was the first stop on this current journey of mine. I suppose when I gave up the condo in Las Vegas back in January was as good a place to begin as any. But the plan then was to house-sit in Sonoma for three months and then to meander back to Las Vegas for the World Series. Mission accomplished. Then the story went that I would put down roots somewhere or at least pretend by putting my name on a lease. Well the best laid plans and all that...

Instead I am going to mooch and leech off of my cadre of friends and family for another four or five months until I actually decide where to settle or until I can think of another reason not to buy a sofa and just invade another group of friends. Truth be told, I really enjoy the intimacy of friendship over several days or even weeks. In addition, I will get to have some lengthy conversations with several of my potential co-authors on future projects. The new writing goals for the remainder of 2009 are to produce one complete book proposal, ready to submit to my agent and to have a first draft of my current fiction piece ready for my gaggle of critics to peruse. 

Right now I am at Matthew's in Green Valley, doing a short cat-sit. Matthew has a great collection of house and feral cats, who have adopted him and the GV place is very peaceful. One of my pet peeves is assumptive references, like mentioning a place that most people cannot place on a map. So geographically I will be a bit more detailed than just saying: "I am here" when here is not as well known as say San Francisco or Minneapolis.

Green Valley is an area (without zipcode) between Sebastopol and Forestville in Sonoma County. Sonoma is one of the renown wine valleys of Northern California. When you leave San Francisco across the Golden Gate bridge you enter first Marin and then Sonoma County. So for now I am about 60 miles north of SF in Green Valley focused on writing and packing a car for five months on the road. Will I need mittens?

Tis Good to be Back

[Content Disclosure: 13%-19% Poker, 87% Northern California]

Let me get it out of the way right up front, I have not been to the 101 Casino (formerly Sonoma Joe's) for any poker yet, but soon I promise. I have been to several Indian and one Burmese restaurant, one herbal apothecary and an acupuncturist in Forestville. I have hung out with at least a dozen cats (pictures soon) and am slowly dealing with the deteris of life and in particular the leftover flotsom and jetsom of this last year of the voyage.

Personal economy-wise there is work being done both on spec and on the clock/cash register. Otherwise, I have several long time friends here in Sonoma and many more down in the City. I am meanderingly getting to see all of them in a slow flourish of reconnection. Planning for this summer and beyond is beginning, although like so many others, a bit of the future is in the hands of the Washington politicians and in my case, in particular, Barney Frank.

The question is: If online poker comes back completely in the US, will it matter now that the dollars are not flowing so freely in this wretched economy. Like my friend Dr. Pauly, I am working on my non-poker book, while awaiting the decision on poker as a writing source going forward. And like my co-author Amy Calistri, I am taking some time to be blog reflective.

Here in the green, damp Northern California environs, it is very easy to look at all the balls you have in the air and just decide to let a couple of them drop and slowly roll away. Things look and feel different. Perhaps just a matter of perspective but more likely a product of long gestation and an ill fit with certain aspects of life.

But then again, it is Northern California:

Sonoma Valley

[Content Disclosure: Arrival 93%; looking forward 12%]

I am, at least temporarily, residing in the Sonoma Valley north of San Francisco. Specifically, I am living for a time in Tina's Hut, while she spends time in the desert southwest. I have already encountered five of my neighborhood cats; always a good sign. Having been told by a very close friend that I always sound happier when I am in California, this seems another good omen. From her lips to the ears of local spirits and sprites.

Chaos and confusion have been drifting about my world lately, I expect some of that was just the twitterings of the move but so much more seems just jiggering out of reach. Perhaps I will explore some of those sinkholes here soon, but for now I am going to enjoy a glorious sunny day in Sonoma and see how many more of the feline pack I can encounter. Followed by a long, leisurely evening of fiction.