Sunday at the Aquarium

Caroline Wise at Red House Café in Pacific Grove, California

Breakfast was at the Red House Cafe just up the street from our hotel and around the corner from the glimmering sun shining on the bay. It was a good thing we showed up when we did as only about 15 later, the wait for people showing up went from “seated immediately,” like we were, to approximately 45 minutes. My frittata with avocado and a side of bacon and Caroline’s breakfast sandwich were both great, and while tempted to stick with what we know for tomorrow’s breakfast, we will be trying a place called Toasties Café.

Pacific Grove, California

The ulterior motive for finding places within walking distance of our hotel is that we have a parking place nearly in front of our door, and the aquarium is only a little more than a mile away, so we can walk nearly everywhere we need to be. And what’s not to love about these kinds of views?

Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey Bay, California

This is the second day the Monterey Bay Aquarium has been open in more than a year, and here we are on opening weekend. Capacity has been greatly reduced, and the first two weeks are open exclusively to members only; lucky us. From more than 17,000 people on busy days, operations have been scaled down to only 1,700 as they experiment with what will work to keep staff and visitors safe. We’re in line and couldn’t be more excited, even if we were 5-year-olds going into Disneyland for the first time. As a matter of fact, this might as well be any theme park on Earth right now, making dreams come true.

During the first hour, only 200 visitors were let in. I can’t emphasize how perfect this is as we’ve been here on busy days that only discouraged the idea of ever wanting to return.

Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey Bay, California

Our first stop was at the Kelp Forest, wherewith the pulse and sway of so much beauty, Caroline’s tears joined in the flow with the oh-so-familiar music, guaranteeing her emotions would go sailing. This is where the mandatory mask policy came in handy as not only do they hide the emotional outbreak on the lower half of her face, but the top of the mask can also be used to mop up tears that escape her eyes.

Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey Bay, California

Like our drive at 18mph up the coast yesterday, we are trying to maintain a velocity that might confuse others into believing we are chitons, moving imperceptibly. We couldn’t tell you if anything has ever changed in the Kelp Forest over the years; for all we know, these are the exact same fish that were here on our very first visit back in 1991. We continue to sit right here, enchanted that there isn’t a massive crowd forming, just us and the sway reminiscent of the tide pushing things to and fro.

Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey Bay, California

The elusive octopus remained so and spurred Caroline into wondering if a donation of sufficient bribery size might get us into a behind-the-scenes opportunity to have a close encounter with one of these fascinating creatures. I think we’ll likely inquire with management tomorrow how something like this could come to pass.

Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey Bay, California

We are not competing with others to gain close-up views of the fish; we don’t have to allow small children to step through to have their moment, as everyone is following social distancing guidelines and remaining appropriately separated.

Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey Bay, California

While hard to see, I’m posting these skeleton shrimp today because tomorrow I may not get one even this good, if this can be considered that. These guys or gals are tiny, and how a guide we had years ago while kayaking the Strait of Juan de Fuca saw one in some kelp at the surface still remains a mystery to me.

Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey Bay, California

You might think we’ve grown tired of seeing anemones due to the numbers of them seen in tidepools and snorkeling over the many years we’ve been exploring coastal waters, but you’d be wrong, as all anemones are special in our eyes. Should you ever be so lucky to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium, you’ll see hundreds of these creatures on display and will likely be inclined to start naming them just as we do. This particular specimen is named Ganymede Jones.

Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey Bay, California

I took a really nice photo of this American Avocet head-on, but you can’t see the curve in its beak, so I chose my second favorite. The other 72 pictures I took of this bird didn’t make the cut. Seriously though, I didn’t take quite that many.

Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey Bay, California

If you are familiar with the aquarium, you’ll know that we are upstairs in the Splash Zone, where the tropical fish and penguins reside.

Caroline Wise at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey Bay, California

This is probably for kids, but Caroline fit so back into the egg she went. Back, you ask? Caroline was once an egg found under a cabbage leaf many years ago. Click here for proof.

Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey Bay, California

Steve the Eel was happy to welcome us back after our four-year absence. That he still remembered us was a big surprise, but seeing his smile again warmed our hearts just as it did on our first encounter.

Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey Bay, California

If you, too, are thinking I should consider starting a side business in fish portraiture, I’m inclined to believe there’s an opportunity here going untapped.

Caroline Wise at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey Bay, California

While it was already lunchtime when I started writing this, our meal was done, and Caroline was nearly finished with her can of Alvarado Street Pils she mixed with a bottle of Lemon Seltzer. We need to get walking again as we only have about three hours left here. It’ll be evening by the time I get to transfer the hundreds of photos I shot today with hopes of reducing the count to a mere couple of dozen, maybe three dozen, but seriously, no more than that.

Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey Bay, California

We know our way around the aquarium, and while on one hand, the beautiful weather here in the Monterey Bay begs us to be out there listening to the shorebirds and crashing surf right now, we’ll have plenty of opportunities to linger out here in the next few days.

Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey Bay, California

With two days available to visit the aquarium, there is no rush. If we feel like lingering, we have all the luxury in the world to do just that.

Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey Bay, California

It was just about here that Caroline gasped in the horror of recognizing that having salmon poke for lunch with a beer produces burps that back-flow from the mask right into the nose and they aren’t pretty. Hopefully, my wife doesn’t edit out this bit of too-much-info [I was sorely tempted – Caroline].

Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey Bay, California

If I had to wager, I’d say that the jellies and the otters are the two most popular exhibits, and for good reason. The otters look cuddly and sweet, though if you saw one of them captured, you’d be rightfully afraid of them. Otters are big and pry open clams with their bare paws, so while their images are sold as a loving plushy, just ask the last bird that was pulled into its maw how cute these creatures are. Jellies, on the other hand, excluding the Portuguese Man o’ War, are non-aggressive angelic floating sea clouds that pose on command, showing the wonders of the universe in their psychedelic inner folds where time dissolves into the sea.

Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey Bay, California

The nemesis tank is how I refer to this giant window on the deeper ocean. While always entertaining with its tuna darting around and a couple of turtles swimming around above them, it is notoriously difficult to photograph those things that ply the waters of the Open Ocean.

Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey Bay, California

Every visit to the aquarium we’ve ever made has always introduced us to creatures we’ve never seen before but there are consequences that come with that.

Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey Bay, California

Certain animals on display you might hope to see on a subsequent visit might be replaced and so it was with the missing nautiloids that disappeared years ago and the giant cuttlefish that change colors. Well, at least there are these squids that are obviously from an alien dimension theorized to exist by Michio Kaku in his landmark book, “Squids Are Smarter Than You And Are Aliens.”

Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey Bay, California

Mini cuttlefish were better than no cuttlefish. I’m asking Caroline to have this engraved on the tombstone I won’t have, as my instructions are to be cremated upon death so this is a non-starter for deeper conversations that might include anybody else’s opinions for what is appropriate.

Staring at this photo, hopelessly lost for something witty to write about it, I got to thinking about cloning and splicing DNA, especially in human genetics, and realized that cuttlefish or squid DNA responsible for the wild gyrations in color would be conducive to offering future generations of people some truly unique appearance characteristics.

Caroline Wise at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey Bay, California

Well, here it is at 4:00 p.m. with an hour to go before the aquarium closes, and it’s time for a coffee and a large glass of water. For while we are surrounded by water, I find very few fountains to slake my thirst; that or I’m too focused on taking 1000s of photos. (Okay, it’s only 609 so far). Actually, I don’t really want to write anything at the moment, as watching the waves roll in while sipping my coffee is mesmerizing. It’s almost strange how soothing the ocean is on a calm sunny day when one stops to think of the roiling abyss that, to a human lost in the middle of it, would appear to be an inescapable infinity. But there it is in all of its mystery, somehow talking to me, reassuring my senses that everything is fine.

In forty-five minutes, the aquarium will close, and while we have all day here tomorrow, we are considering asking for passes for a 3:00 p.m. entry on…nope, I was just reminded that this place is closed on Tuesday and Wednesday for cleaning and evaluating how the first few days of being open are going. And after learning that, we now have about 30 minutes to race through the kelp exhibit. Time to run, but I’ll return.

Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey Bay, California

The lights are being turned off, and the fish are snuggling up as they pair off to head to sleepy land, or would that be a watery world?

As for us, we headed over to Wonju Restaurant, a Korean place we ate at the last time we were in Monterey. After the carnage of a year without tourism, the other Korean restaurants shut down and this one is hopeful to survive after being at the same location for 27 years now. Do we have recommendations here? Well, I’ll vouch for the Bibimbap being a solid and hearty dish; while Caroline’s flounder and tofu soup was great, I know it was great because I tried it.

Pacific Grove, California

The temperature was dropping fast as the sun dipped out of the sky. While both of us would have enjoyed staying out for another hour or two, I’m trying my best not to fall too far behind in blogging about our experience before we’ve collected even more impressions further down the road.

Up The Coast We Go

How is it we’d never explored Carpenteria before? It’s a nice little town by the ocean that’s every bit as beautiful as Santa Barbara. We started the morning at the Carpenteria State Beach next to the Santa Cruz campground. With a little breeze and some serious humidity, the temperature felt a lot colder than in Arizona. After a short walk along the shore, we started our long drive north that, instead of the 4-hour jaunt it should take, might turn into a 10-hour meander for us.

We are on Highway 101, and if we’re not careful, we’ll pass out on the road due to the deep breaths we take, trying to savor every hint of the eucalyptus that permeates the air and interior of the car. That is, until a skunk makes itself known and has us wondering if it’s hitching a ride. And no, it isn’t the smell of weed, though we smelled plenty of that last night at Motel 6.

Our next stop was at the Glen Annie / Storke Road offramp in Goleta, where instead of turning right, which would have brought us to our great aunt and uncle who used to live here just north of Santa Barbara, we turned left to go have breakfast at Cajun Kitchen, an old favorite of theirs. Keeping up the tradition of my aunt Ann, Caroline is having a side order of toast with coffee, though when we are done here; we’ll backtrack a few miles so she can indulge in a healthier breakfast at Backyard Bowls on Calle Real.

A note about yesterday: we played semi-truck bingo as we passed so many familiar shipping company brands hauling stuff back and forth across the desert. From Old Dominion and Covenant to Swift and Werner, we ticked them off the list. Sadly, Sweet Simon with the skunk logo wasn’t seen, but then again, it’s been years since one of those trucks was seen on an American highway.

And what about breakfast at Cajun Kitchen? You can’t go back; it’s not the same without our family members. Nostalgia is a bittersweet dish that prods us to realize we should move on and away from things that can never be the same again, especially those places that are so intertwined with others.

Out of shared experiences with others and on to adventures shared by the two of us. We’ve been up this road plenty of times to be quite familiar with the golden rolling hills of the Central California Coast, but only rarely have we been here in Spring, when things are vibrantly green with bursts of color splashed upon the landscape. Yellow flowers appear and then quickly disappear. Getting a photo of them is difficult, with few places to pull over on this road and most everyone moving along at nearly 80mph. The photo I wanted remained elusive, while the one I took failed to show the grandeur.

Let’s Knit in Grover Beach was our first yarn store visit of the day. Caroline is holding one of my next pairs of socks in her hand. In her right hand is her mask, which I asked her to take off so I can capture her smile. California is remaining vigilant about masks and hand sanitizer. Some locations still have mask mandates in place outdoors, although the CDC has backed off of that necessity. Yes, maybe we’ve drunk the Kool-Aid, but things feel better here with people being aware compared to the Wild West circus we are going through in Arizona. But enough about COVID; we are here for yarn, coast, fish, and great weather.

From Grover Beach up to SLO, as it’s known up this way, or San Luis Obispo, we stopped at the old Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa only because of its location across the street from, guess what?

Yarns…At The Adobe. While I grabbed another skein of fingering weight yarn for yet more socks, Caroline went hunting for some locally dyed crimped yarn that would find its way into a shawl. With no other business in SLO and 137 miles remaining on our SLOW drive north on Highway 1, well, that and the fact that we only paid for 24 minutes of parking meter time, we left town in search of more yarn and our next encounter with the ocean.

Great day for a drive.

Our first stop to take in the ocean is at a place we’ve never been before, Estero Bluffs, just north of Cayucos.

I learned as I’m writing this up that there’s also an Estero Bluffs State Park, but that’s further north up by San Simeon, another 20 miles up the highway. How these two locations share the same name is a puzzle I’m not solving here. By the way, the crowds heading up the coast today I was anticipating due to the road south of Big Sur being reopened never really materialized.

When we reached Cambria, where we were staying the next weekend, we were hungry for lunch and, of course, more yarn. We got the important stuff out of the way first with a visit to Ball & Skein & More. While it should have taken us 2 hours to cover the stretch of road we’ve traveled so far, we are now 5 hours into this journey with no intention of speeding up.

Outdoor seating in springtime has its advantages, and here at Robin’s Restaurant, it comes in a beautiful garden setting with properly socially distanced tables. It seems the kitchen got behind, but how could we care about that when we are enjoying the nearly cold breeze coming in off the coast?

There’s a section of road here in Cambria we’ve never traveled that runs along the ocean, and across the street from the hotel we will be checking into on Friday. We’ll have more time along this stretch of the sea soon enough.

Flowers are blooming everywhere, and if wasn’t for the fact that I already have 28 photos included in this post, I could have included more of everything from rolling hills to the ocean. Considering I feel inclined to write something with each photo, I only create more pressure on myself when I get carried away with showing the nicer aspects of our travels.

If I’ve never stated it before, it is my goal with these travel posts to share the arc of the day and what others can experience if they are NOT in a hurry to get somewhere. You see, years and years ago, there was a magazine called Giant Robot, and one of their features was called something like “My Perfect Day.” In those articles, they asked artists, musicians, and other creative types to describe a perfect day for themselves in the city they were living in, such as Tokyo, Edinburgh, San Francisco, or Sao Paolo. It was always a treat to read how a graffiti artist in Brazil might wake up for breakfast at their favorite little cafe, go record shopping, walk through a shopping district, stop to meet up with friends for a beer, and close out their day with activities that made them happy such as painting or whatever. With that in mind, I try to show a perfect travel day where Caroline and I are fully experiencing every moment of the day.

I mean, what’s the alternative? Lay around in the sun, fart, and go for a swim like these elephant seals? Well, I suppose, in some ways, that’s exactly what we are doing today.

The colony of elephant seals out here at Piedras Blancas is huge, and this was just the northern side of their on-land home.

Posting images of this place is an exercise of my obsessive-compulsive nature because we’ve stayed here once, years ago, and loved it. It’s been closed for many years now, and we thought it was supposed to be destroyed by the State, but instead, nature is taking its long, slow hand to remove it from its perch on the sea.

I’m telling you, I could have posted dozens of photos of flowers today.

I could have also shared dozens of photos of twisty, winding roads clinging precariously to the edges of mountains that drop precipitously down to the ocean.

With hairpin turns and vistas that beg us to pull over and linger in such impressively beautiful sights.

And then get out of the car again and fight the winds that work so hard to trigger my vertigo as we get close to the edge for photos that will remind us forever of the places we’ve been.

You are looking at a couple of miles of road that snake along the foot of these mountains. While it might be difficult to see in this smaller version of the photo, the road is out there as a thin tan line cut into the slope. Should you be wondering why I’m not waxing about the aquamarine color of the ocean and the silvery sheen where the sun is reflecting off the Pacific, it’s because my treasury of descriptive language has limits, especially when reduced to oohs and aahs, as we stand, astonished that we are once again in such a gorgeous place.

Nope, there’s no yarn out there, but we are starting to see some shifting in the weather.

Where’d this come from? Have we seen it before? Did I photograph this on a previous road trip up Highway 1? Well, it’s new to us today and looks remarkable from our perspective.

The waterfall is missing in action here at the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. I can’t say we’ve ever seen a situation where it was absolutely dry.

While things look beautiful here at the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, California, like Arizona, is experiencing drought conditions. Oh, we’ve finally reached Big Sur.

As we expected, the Big Sur Bakery was closed when we arrived, and our hunt for eucalyptus soap also came up empty-handed, but we did get this sweet photo of an amazing flower.

One minute later, we drove into this wall of clouds, and for the rest of the late afternoon, we were in drizzle and gray. That earlier estimate of turning a 4-hour drive into a 10-hour drive was a little off by 3 hours, as it took us 13 hours to travel the 240 miles to our destination in Pacific Grove just south of Monterey. I’ll save you the math; we averaged 18 miles per hour today, or 29 km/h.

Dinner was at Wild Fish Restaurant on Lighthouse Avenue, just a short walk from our hotel. Oysters, mussels, red snapper, and sable were the menu items that found their way to our table and that piece of chocolate strawberry cake we shared.

We are staying at the Lovers Point Inn at Lovers Point because, of course, we are!

Travel Habits

Caroline Wise and John Wise in Phoenix, Arizona

Leaving Phoenix, Arizona, before noon is a luxury. Heck, leaving anywhere at any time is a luxury. A sure sign of aging is that I no longer really feel comfortable taking selfies when I’m driving, so we took this one in the parking lot as we were about to depart. At times over the years, this was a habit that preceded almost every trip, but we’ve gotten lax about it in recent years.

Most preparations for this vacation were finished by yesterday; all that was left today was picking up a bag of ice for the ice chest, some raspberries, and cashews. With all of that out of the way, I tried planting myself at King Coffee to get some writing done, but all I could think about was departing the valley. Then, about 4 hours before I thought we’d leave, Caroline told me she was ready to go. After a stop at In-N-Out on the far west of Phoenix, we were ready to embark on the long haul over the desert.

California Stateline

As we left, the plan had been to drive into California on Interstate 10 and make our way to either Tehachapi or Bakersfield, but having this extra time available, we detoured in the direction of Santa Barbara. Stopping to take pictures at state lines was also an old habit that fell out of favor; again, we’re fixing these omissions.

Kia Niro dashboard in the desert of California

We were supposed to have our first 100-degree day (38c) in Phoenix tomorrow, May 1st. So, how the hell is it 110 (43 Celsius) here in the California desert on April 30th?

Traveling Interstate 10 in Southern California

Why would anyone get off the freeway to take a photo at an empty offramp that seemingly leads nowhere? I’ll give you one guess. Note that there are no bushes or anything to hide behind out here, so you know it wasn’t Caroline who demanded we take this exit.

Pad Kee Mow at Mix Bowl in Pomona, California

Once in the Los Angeles area, or Pomona, to be more precise, we stopped at Mix Bowl on Indian Hill Blvd. Being early afforded us the time to sit down for dinner at an old favorite place of ours. We’d not been here in countless years, but we did recognize one of the guys working there. I looked up an old photo here on my blog and showed him a picture of the place we had taken back in January 2001 on our very first visit when it was still called Big Bowl before they were sued to change the name. While the fried morning glory is no longer on the menu, we were able to start with steamed koo chai and grilled pork before sharing one of the best pad kee mow with fried tofu that we know of. Some habits are worth the effort of maintaining.

Los Angeles, California

Dozens of offramps beg us to get off the freeway and go explore, snap some photos, and bask in nostalgia but with our destination up the road, we had to keep on driving. This was right at sunset when we were passing downtown Los Angeles on the 101. We finally pulled into Carpenteria shortly after 21:30 and snagged a room at Motel 6 for the relatively inexpensive price of only $110 minus tax with a veterans’ discount. Tomorrow, we head up the coast from here as we are right next to it, which gives us an extra 137 miles of the coastal region before reaching Cambria, where we were originally supposed to meet the ocean.

Only In Small Amounts

BarbieFantasies2014

What is it about “normal” that makes my skin crawl? I can handle it in small amounts, but I’m forever hunting for the personality quirk or edge that allows me to find something redeeming in people I meet or identify an aspect of film, literature, music, or art that displays a hint of brilliance that goes beyond expectation. Reducing it even further, I’d say I’m looking for an inkling of authenticity but not affected authenticity.

Abrasiveness without stupidity, ambition without snobbery, awkwardness because of curiosity, these things seem to manifest in people and things I enjoy knowing and exploring. On the other hand, there’s the adoption of trendy shit to make someone appear relevant, which only exacerbates their fakeness and triggers me to recoil from their grotesque figure.

John, why now? We are closing in on leaving for a vacation in which our time is going to be spent on a 100-mile stretch of the Central California Coast from Monterey south to Cambria. While everything will likely be fine, I’m anticipating the crass arrogance of needy Californians living in the center of their own tiny universe to be in full effect. Now amplified by the travel crush that is busting out of the pandemic, instead of happily going into a break from that ugly routine, I’m afraid these selfish people will only see their own need to be out front without shame, demanding they get all they want. When I consider that this is typical of California in the best of times, I really wish I wasn’t aware of this right now.

The reality is likely not to be what I’m anticipating as we are not interested in the 17-mile drive through Carmel or visiting the Nepenthe Restaurant. Our route will take us north out of Monterey to the Elkhorn Slough, not a popular place. While we are staying at Treebones Resort south of Big Sur, there is nothing there that would draw in day visitors or cause traffic jams. In Cambria, we can meander north to find a quiet corner somewhere. While in Monterey itself, our visit to the aquarium is during a members-only reopening, and entries are timed in order to limit how many people are in the place at any one time. If you think you hear me trying to convince myself to be calm, you are right.

Information Age Gladiator

Monterey Bay Aquarium

I’m nervous, and anxiety is drilling into my stomach. The reason for this rush into emotion is I’m about to go into battle with an unidentified number of people with whom I am in competition for buying entry into the Monterey Bay Aquarium. My browser has been open for weeks, so I don’t forget that this morning at 9:00 a.m., Pacific Time the aquarium starts offering members reservations starting May 1st. This members-only reopening runs through the 14th, and Caroline and I are booked for everything else surrounding the momentous event.

So here I am, 26 minutes before 9:00 a.m., logged into our account and ready to pounce, just as I imagine a thousand others are ready to do too.

The last time I was in this situation was a couple of years ago when a popular Eurorack synthesizer manufacturer was about to offer a new unit. The first bidder was going to be able to nab serial# 0001, and I was certain it had to be me. While I won that distinction, I later learned that there were 5 of us on it, but I was the one able to complete the transaction in under a few seconds. Expert Shopper Level achieved.

Twenty minutes remaining, and I’m feeling over-caffeinated. Our member number sits in another window should I need to grab it at the last second. My credit card is on the counter should auto-fill fail me at a pivotal moment. Two browser windows for the aquarium, one on the home page and the other on our member page. Caroline is talking to me in chat, wishing me luck; she wore her pendant from Newport, Oregon, to work today to carry the luck of the ocean with her in the hopes that we’ll do well in the high-tension stakes of scoring entry on one or more of these coveted days.

With only 12 minutes remaining, I am barely able to control the impulse to refresh the web pages. I’m anticipating that when they update the site, it might kick out those of us already logged in, allowing the system a full reset. My excitement spills into nausea, wrecking me as I worry if my fingers will perform the way they need to in 9 minutes from now. Then the thought occurs to me: how accurate is the time on my computer? Oh yeah, it’s synced to my phone, so I’m solid here. Eight minutes and my breathing feels shallow. Might I pass out?

Invisible enemies on a horizon we cannot see are poised to enter the arena in less than five minutes. Is the crowd going wild? I cannot hear to roar of those who are about to witness our fight to the death. My time as a gladiator seems to only affect me.

The site is timing out…is the crush so great? I’m also on the phone waiting for the next available service rep. My heart is rapidly sinking. It’s now 9:17 a.m., and not only am I trying to refresh the browser, but I’m on hold with the aquarium while minutes are ticking by.

Three or four calls later, after being disconnected, I finally get through, but by this time, I’ve already looked up our options for canceling the eight days of lodging reservations already made. It’s 9:40 when Nicole in member services answers the phone and reassures me that she can take care of my reservation requests. In less than a minute, we have our spots guaranteed for two consecutive days of entry to the aquarium. Thirty seconds later, the email pops into my inbox, and the tickets are here. We have won this round of gladiatorial battle in the area of information.

Lazy Sunday

Ribeye from The Cattle Exchange in Canadian, Texas

It must surely be the sign of a bored mind when, out for a moment of writing, I sit here at the coffee shop with nothing at all flowing through my head. I scan the itinerary of our upcoming trip and some of the details yet to be worked out, but find them all too boring to warrant capture. I look around me at the other 11 people here in the coffeeshop and realize I’m the only man here. Does that have any meaning? No. Caroline is at home talking with her mom, which typically induces me to nap, but I didn’t want to do that, so here I am. Then, I’m talking on Skype with an old friend who’s living rurally in the former East Germany. I’m asking about the level of belligerent racist ideology among the inhabitants, and I’m reassured that things are not hostile. This, though, is not the subject matter for any serious train of thought this morning.

Last night, on our walk around the neighborhood, we spent an hour talking with some neighbors we’d never met before. Nice enough couple, older, they both have a love of travel, at least one is addicted to reading, and we learned they love a wide variety of ethnic meals. Along the way, we were asked a question never heard by us before, “What church do you attend?” How do you tell this person, “We are atheists”? Sadly, it feels like we are telling someone we are Satanists when we admit that we do not believe in any God. I can only wonder if our contact with them can go any further.

Maybe a bit of COVID update should be thrown in here. Caroline and I are now fully vaccinated in that we are well past the two weeks after our second shot to achieve maximum antibody protection. While not worried about the virus killing me now, I still wear my mask into any business I enter and walk away from places that have removed the mandate our idiot Governor ended. While our brilliant Mayor Kate Gallego has insisted on continuing the practice, the people who found the entire process to be a sham are belligerently adamant that they are done with the sheep-like antics.

Meanwhile, in India, the wheels have finally come off the cart, well after the initial speculations that India would be hit hard. We hear nothing about China and the pandemic anymore, while Brazil is seeing its fascist leader threatening to bring the military to the streets. For exactly what purpose, I do not know. Europe is looking at more lockdowns, while America is mostly trying hard to return to normal.

Pantry progress: we are down to roughly 350 line items representing just over 500 individual foodstuffs in our inventory. Consolidation of cabinets has begun as we reclaim those for things like dishes. The goal is to take us down to nothing left in our cabinets other than staples needed for everyday cooking and to do so before anything expires or spoils. The two things that take us the longest to go through are dried beans and canned meat, but we are making steady progress with both.

Random theme of the past week has been our recognition of being so fortunate to plan for and be able to travel. Our diet is made primarily from whole foods and very few processed items aside from pasta, tomato sauce, and the canned meats we hoarded last year. If something interests us, we can indulge ourselves by bringing that item or idea into our lives. We pinch ourselves at the magnitude of luck that allows us these opportunities.

So, while I feel that I have nothing of any consequence to really share today, I can be happy that I was still able to write a little something or other. Now it’s time to go home; grill us a steak from the Cattle Exchange in Canadian, Texas, which we will share for lunch along with an avocado-tomato salad, and then set up our tent to be sure everything’s in order prior to us heading out on our upcoming vacation. Just another lazy Sunday.