Prescription-Mellow

Happy Hour Morro Bay, Ca

Halter Ranch Vineyard, Paso Robles appellation

      At risk of sounding self evident, everything is relative.

      I was sinking into depression as I read a favored blogger who lamented his approaching turn to 61. He reflected how quickly the last year passed and how in just a few more quick passes he will be 70 when he noted it will be "hard to ignore the reality," the reality of which he wrote are "the intimations of mortality!"  Gosh, thanks a lot pal!

      I raised it at coffee after a 90 minute tennis slug fest with another elder boomer and a couple of battlers a few years ahead. The gents in our circle on the coffee deck at Lily's are of a similar age. We noted village elders in their 90's who are dynamos of activity, including tennis and pickle ball and civic groups. The number of 80 somethings who run, play court games, lawn bowl, hike, kayak, bike, dance or find romance are too numerous to count. 70 year olds are like the 40-50 year old's back east, with full engagement in everything, including surfing that stretches the body in extraordinary ways. 60 year olds here are teeny boppers. 50 and below are the kids.
      Our "circle of wisdom" agreed that attitudes about age in our village on the Central California Coast are schematically different than those back east. Given the blessing of health, age is relative, and relatively younger here. Or so we have convinced ourselves. 

       You could argue that we are surrounded by beauty, without freeways, urban sprawl or high density humanity. True and that helps but one of the youngest people I know is our friend Tod, who lives in the heart of New York City. A dancer, choreographer, artist and renaissance thinker, Tod has mentored generations of creative spirits. He is north of 80 but his passion for life, learning and expression makes me think he has the fountain of youth on tap in his kitchen. It is a mind set, like so many of our friends here. 
      In Indianapolis I served on the board of an historical, Presidential Home and was surprised when two powerful and influential men, still fully engaged, needed to retire from the board when they reached 65. They had years of experience and yet had years of service to give, but "retirement age" was a custom, part of the cultural mores. 

        Relativity-age and vitality, creativity and passion, setting and culture. If fate smiles health upon you, the calendar need not imprison or limit. I wish my mid-western Geezer writing friend good recovery from a blown knee, success in his goal of walking every street in his city and 9 years to get younger so when he reaches 70 he won't be thinking of the end of things but rather the continuation of the sweetness and opportunity that comes with each sunrise. 

harvest is for grapes

    Grape growers and wine makers expect an earlier harvest this year. In some vineyards, that means soon.

          From the "captain of the watch," Cheers!

    See you down the trail.

WAITING A LIFE TIME TO SEE IT plus WHEEL TO WHEEL and WALL STREET WELFARE

Desert Blooms

    Lana said she had waited most of her life to see a saguaro cactus bloom.

   In the stretch from Phoenix to Prescott Valley and Sedona  the desert scrub is populated by the massive uprights and spears.

   Closer examination of these saguaro, that can age to 2 centuries, revealed blooms. Blossoms appear only when a cactus is at least 35 years. They grow their first arm at between 75 and 100 years.

   The blooms are short-lived and open at night during spring. The saguaro blossom is the state wildflower of Arizona.

  Other worldly and exotic they are native of the Sonoran desert in Mexico and Arizona, the Whipple Mountains and Imperial County area of California. In Arizona it is against the law to harm a saguaro.

Wheel to Wheel on the Pacific Coast Highway

    The Amgen Tour of California raced past Cambria in Stage 4-Morro Bay to Monterey-on the famed Highway 1.

   The lead of the pack as they approached the south edge of Cambria having just come up a long hill.

    Immediately the racers began to use the level stretch for changing positions.

    Just as rapidly they were past the first access to Cambria and on the way toward San Simeon, Ragged Point, Big Sur and Monterey at speeds of 25 to 35 mph. 

       Here they are just a few miles into a 133 mile stage.

    The Amgen Tour of California finishes in Sacramento.

WALL STREET WELFARE

    This may feel like a kick in the head. Oxfam America recently published a study that reveals for every dollar America's largest companies paid in federal taxes from 2008 to 2014 they got back $27 in loans, guarantees and bailout funds from the Federal Government. Once more--the top 50 American corporations pay a dollar in taxes and get back $27. Is that the kind of tax plan you are on?

      Oxfam reports that for every dollar spent on lobbying by the largest corporations they get $130 in tax breaks and $4,000 in federal loans and guarantees.

      Ray Offenheiser, President of Oxfam, says, "The global economic system is becoming increasingly rigged." Oxfam is a federation of groups working on poverty and economic disadvantage in some 90 nations. They've been a respected player since the 1940's.

      Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times writes that a recent study found that tax dodging by major corporations "costs the US Treasury up to $111 billion a year."  Imagine the infrastructure repair, increase in pay and benefits to police, fire and veterans and improvements to schools and teacher training and pay that could be accomplished.  Kristof notes that since 1952 the share of corporate taxation in federal revenue has declined from 32% to 11%, but as you know from your own paystubs the portion of payroll taxes has increased. 

      To paraphrase Shakespeare-Something is rotten and this time it is not in Denmark.

      See you down the trail.

"BUT YOU CAN NEVER LEAVE" and A WALK IN HARMONY

A PIECE OF HARMONY

    A long lens from Gail and David's captures the panorama of Cayucos and Morro Bay framed by the iconic Morro Rock, Hollister Peak and some of the other "Seven Sisters" peaks that spine the Central Coast toward San Luis Obispo.

      It was one of those spectacular days for a walk along the coast. 

     Hidden away on a quiet cove is a "Chinaman's house," a remnant of local history.

     There was a time when Chinese settlers lived in homes on the shore, often hanging over bluffs.  They harvested and dried kelp for export to China. Historical accounts say George Hearst, father of William Randolph Hearst, forced many of the Chinese to leave by pushing their homes into the sea after he purchased property where they had resided. 

      The current owner has improved the historical building as an isolated get away cabin.

       This stretch of coast offers pristine nature.

  There is a simple joy in an invigorating and mind clearing walk.

     Selfie ops for our eldest Kristin and her fiancé Richard.

  Or a quiet meditation and breather as evidenced by "Ducky," Gail's trusty companion.

THE FIRST NEW YEAR IN CALIFORNIA

Ours that is.

     It was our first Christmas season after being married in April. It was also my first trip to California. We arrived on the 29th or 30th, enough time to get in the swing of the "pickin" New Year's eve party. 

       

Photo Courtesy of Jim Cahill

On the Strand in Manhattan Beach California

      Setting the Scene:  We were lodged at the above house in Manhattan Beach, occupied by our friend Jim, who shared it with a few other guys. We got a room made empty by the travel of one of the musicians who lived there.

     It was directly on the beach and the sidewalk strand. This Indiana boy had never seen anything like it.  Bicyclists, skateboarders, runners, walkers, roller skaters, people on stilts, hand walkers and more and all in a continual parade.  The beach was a show unto itself.  Volleyball players, Frisbee fliers, boogie boarders, picnickers, and all of this in the glory and full tilt life you'd expect of 1969 California beach life. I was indeed a long way from home Toto!

     Some how we had survived the first day and were in the mode of setting up the house for a party. Jim had given Lana and I an assignment to walk to the grocery and liquor store to pick up a few supplies. We were heading up the hill away from the beach when we were stopped in our tracks by blood curdling screams and then a series of what can best be described as whoops and growls. In a flash, from an alley way came two figures running down the street. Both were nude males, that was obvious. Their identities were not.

     One of the lads was wearing a kind of Tasmanian devil mask and he was the creator of the screams. Behind him and in apparent pursuit was a fellow in a Richard Nixon mask, carrying a kind of spear and offering the war whoops. 

     "New Year's eve in California" I said to Lana who looked entirely confused.      

       It was an era when Jim, and our artist friend C.W. spent hours a day playing. Musicians drifted in and out of the house on the strand, and some of the folks in the neighborhood have gone on to stellar careers and fame. The party was to be a gathering of many of the players from the beach community. The music was indeed wonderful, the crowd was mind boggling and the best I could manage was to sit back, lean against a wall, be amazed and enjoy the whole scene.  

       During the course of the evening we met an older fellow who had done a "little singing and little acting" and said he had been "trying to leave LA" for more than ten years.  He said "it's impossible. You just can't get away." He told us he had "left 25 times" and was "always drawn back."

       Lana and I thought a lot over the years of how we might get to LA, particularly to the beach communities where friends lived.  We visited a couple of times a year for many years, but life's flow did not include a Southern California address. Of course we've all added a few orbits around the sun and many of the crowd have dispersed. Those funky beach communities have gentrified.

     Jim is still a SOCAL resident. He's the guy who opened the door on the Central Coast to us, all of those years ago when we made the first of many trips with him to Big Sur. We stopped for coffee and a snack in a little coastal village named Cambria. The seed was planted, the bait was set, the die was cast. 

     We are closing in on 8 years as Cambria residents. I think I'm like others who sometimes take offense at how quickly it is all passing. There are times when I wish my time machine was in working order, just to go back for a visit. 

Thank God the memory file still works and there are photos that now accuse us of youth but also remind us of how rich  life has been. 
      A variation of the California dream, inspired by that first trip, has come to fruition. We come to the end of the year in a place we consider beautiful, laid back, peaceful, full of creativity, wonderful people, eclecticism and eccentricity. Who knows, those Manhattan Beach revelers in masks could be fellow retirees up here. Another escapade like that might get the locals talking, but then again….

    See you down the trail.

      

SERVING TRUTH-TOPPING MORRO ROCK-EATING IN A BARN

WISDOM FROM A YOUNG MAN

   "The highest duty of the writer, the composer, the artist is to remain true to himself…In serving his vision of the truth, the artist best serves his nation."

                     John Kennedy October 25, 1963

MORRO BAY TOPPING

    Morro Rock is perpetually fascinating in an infinite variety of light or cloud.

     It is one of "seven sisters-" tectonic/volcanic mounts that ridge the central coast from Morro Bay to south of San Luis Obispo.

   On our first trip to this area in 1969 we stopped to pick up fish and oysters on the docks of the fishing port next to what we called "the big rock."

   The cars and people in the foreground give you a perspective to its size.

BLUE DUTY

BARN DINNER

     In coaxing brother John and I into the world of good manners Mom would offer "Mind your table manners. You're not eating in a barn" a variation of "Close the door, you weren't born in a barn" which made sense as she was a farm girl in her youth.

     Mom would get a delight in this. I relied on those manners, including which fork and knife for what course, recently in a barn!

   Hope you can read the menu, because the Halter Ranch Wine Club Ancestor Dinner was first class.

   The lemon-pine nut pot de creme' desert, that I failed to photograph, was served with vin de paille.  The frame below is vin de paille in the making. Vin de paille, or straw wine, is similar to ice wine.  The grapes are permitted to dry for an extended time, building up the sugar content.  

    Another Paso Robles wine maker uses a syrah grape, dried in the vineyard.  La Vigne's Amerone is a superb wine too. The Paso appellation is rich with creativity and great wine.

   Lest those of you in other climes come to think that Epicurean delights are all Cambrians pursue, here's an update.

    Sunday morning a group presented a personal account of a recent back packing adventure across an 11 thousand foot passage on the John Muir trail in the high Sierra.

     The trek was not without incident, some got lost which raised the very real thoughts of life's fragility. It all ended well and each of the team presented personal insights, observations and reflections. It was a meaningful and enlightening time.

                              HOME TOWN POLITICS

                                           

   A standing room only crowd filled the Unitarian Universalist Community meeting room to see the six candidates for the Community Service District board of directors election. Two of the incumbents are up reelection and face 4 challengers.

  The CCSD board serves as the government in this village where everyone has an at least one opinion and where everyone is correct and knows the absolute right way things should be. Just ask anyone!

   Water is a big issue in year three of a drought. So too is growth in this village, the last population of significance on the Pacific Coast Highway between here and Carmel. It's good of these neighbors-everyone is a neighbor in a village of this size-to put themselves out there.

    Stay tuned. In the meantime my favorite Cambria heroes are the artists in this enclave of originality.

   See you down the trail.

THE TREATMENT OF WOMEN-A CHEF-ON THE WATERFRONT

PROTECTING WOMEN

    I come at this with the bias of being the father of two daughters, a man who loves his wife, mother and have always been comfortable in the company of women. 
   Equality is an either or thing for me-either we all are equal or it does not exist. One of my cherished trophies is the Good Guy award from the Women's Political Caucus.   NOW spoke to me at a time when they rebuffed other journalists, not because of my views, but because I was fair. 

   I'm angered by much of what I see with regards to women, their safety, their reputation and their individual freedom, threatened by actions in places like India and the US Congress. You all know the stories and the sound bites. It is criminal how some things are allowed. The insensitivity demonstrated by men, often in power is wrong and stupid.

A SUBTEXT TO AN IMPORTANT FILM

THE IMMIGRANT

     Marion Cotillard and Joaquin Phoenix brilliantly lead an excellent cast in portraying this story of Polish immigrant sisters trying to pursue their dream in 1921 American. What happens is awful, but all too real. The treatment and exploitation of women is powerfully told. Cotillard's character however shows a strength of character, faith and dignity despite what is thrown at her. Some of it is thrown by Phoenix who delivers a nuanced and complex character who creates a masterpiece of acting in a scene where he rages at himself as he attempts to explain how he could do what he did to someone he loved. But he did, and men still do, though at least laws have changed.

     My father's mother and her sisters came through Ellis Island with their mother in their journey from England to join their father and brothers in America. The memories of the crossing and their reception, several years before the time depicted in the film, never left these women, who were strong, educated and from a family of means. 

    Mary Elizabeth, in the center, was educated though in her life, widowed with my father as her dependent, she worked as a char woman, but remained every bit the prim and proper Englishwoman. She had more dignity and gravitas about her than most of the reactionary politicians or any of the misogynists who crawl across history.

    She was strong, as was my mother and her mother. The elders were survivors.  My mother was a depression survivor and bride of a WWII combat soldier. She was a career woman and heaven only knows how many ceilings she had to crash or abuses she had to suffer as she assumed management roles. When I reflect on what these women in my life accomplished, and see the graphic and gritty portrayal of The Immigrant, anger rises for those with attitudes that belong in the caveman past, or in modern ridicule, scorn, rejection or even jail. 

     The Immigrant also tells of the extraordinary challenge faced by any and all who came, or come, to America, looking for a better life. Strong film. Wrenching. A story with modern implication.

SERVING UP SOMETHING DELICIOUS

 CHEF

   Jon Favreau's film draws many ooohs and aahhs and tons of laughter as the director actor ties together a charming and delicious yarn that prompts audiences to applaud. It's a great romp across America as an estranged father connects with his darling young son and man do they eat well along the way!  Foodies will love it. Chef's and food industry pros will relate, music fans will boogie in their seats and you'll leave ready to whip up a feast of your own.

    Favreau, known as a big budget action film director puts Scarlett Johannson, Sofia Vergara, John Leguziamo, Robert Downey Jr, Dustin Hoffman, Oliver Platt and Bobby Cannavale, through a great script and adventure.  Gary Clark Jr plays a great kitchen personality and little Emjay Anthony is wonderful as the son. Leguziamo is particularly good in his supporting and sous chef role. This is an entertaining  ride on a food truck that will leave you feeling good and hungry.

BAY WATCHING

 Closing up shop

 Bringing a bouquet?

 Not today

 Close to the bay and with a view

 Tried and true

Not today too

    See you down the trail.