Too much drama on the home front so I decided to give my poor room mate a break and head out of town to visit my pal Kim. She is housesitting for a friend of hers who has gone to France for five months or so. It is a very good situation for her.

But Swansboro? Good grief. I have never been there but have HEARD all the awful tales of the road and bridge to get there. Eleven twisty turny narrow steep miles to Kim's cabin in the woods. I have commuted but not for years. I thought, come on, how bad can it be? Besides, it would just be nice to get out of dodge! (Swansboro is just North East of Placerville)

     
And that bridge? It scared the hell out of me coming and going!

Holy cow. It was worse than anything that I could imagine. And apparently it gets very icy in the winter. They actually close the road. I cannot even imagine what that bridge is like when it snows.


Oh my DOG!


We have no pride and it was free!

Ok, but once I got there and Kim poured me some wine, everything was fine.

The place was magical. Really. Just so cozy and well decorated and comfortable. I felt right at home. I unpacked my bag of food and started making guacamole dip. I brought carne asada to make for dinner. Honestly though, I had cleaned my mom's house that morning and was just tired and not organized in her kitchen, I let Kim take over the dinner prep. I washed and cleaned and drank and drank...



Dinner was fantastic. Thank you Kim! We stuffed ourselves and watched some custom bike reality show. I have no clue what it was called. We were catching our buzz so we could drunk facebook! I brought my camera and took way too many blurry photos. They seemed like great ideas at the time. DELETE!



But, most importantly, I got photos of my new red head look! Not a great photo of me but a good one of my new do!


Check out the place! That fireplace has a remote control! YESSS!



All the sinks were amazing. But, I just love THIS!


Kim posing with said libations.


Cat and mouse

This is Bootsy. She wanted to help us drunk facebook!


Kim flashed me in this photo to make me smile. It worked!

So the question of the following morning was "How do you spill box wine?" Apparently I did just that. Oh my dog...I have many useful skills. Why do I not have a most excellent job or boy friend????


The hot dog is never far from the action!


This little forest friend was in the front yard when I got up this morning!

I made coffee and breakfast for us this morning. We were both in kind of slow motion this morning. Our tranquil surroundings did not prompt us to want to much more than shower and sip coffee, to be honest.


Cabin in the woods of Swansboro

Isn't this place so cute? The back deck looks out into the forest. You do not see a single neighbor. Awesome.


Me with the red hair and my Cat Mobile!

It was time to hit the road. I did not want to deal with Apple Hill traffic if I could help it, or the end of the weekend traffic, for that matter. I packed my gear and headed for home...


I had to travel that bridge again...ack!!!

I pulled out of every cars way. I probably averaged about 14 miles per hour. My car was awesome though. On the ridiculously steep hairpin turn climbs up and down. I love my car!


This retainer wall was built in 2006 when intense rains caused an entire section of road to fail across a switchback and onto a lower portion of road, closing this main road into the community of Swansboro.

  

As white knuckle as this road is it is also very scenic. They even have an airport!


Check out those fall colors!

Some really fancy homes can be found along this treacherous by way. Lots of vineyards as well. I am wondering if tons of winery's will be opening once a couple of grape harvests have been completed. This road is bad enough, but imagine it with wine tasting traffic.....ACK!



Anyhoos...I made it home in one piece. I think this will be an early night. I am tired as heck. I will make dinner for Gloria and I. Most likely read myself to sleep tonite. That is all the excitement this girl can handle.


I sure do love my new red hair!

How is your weekend going, xanga-hood? What is new, what is up, what is it all about???

The Vice Grips

And this is all that is left of the Bat Mobile.

My mechanic told me that the axle came apart from the wheel and some sort of flange thing. Once it came apart it whacked into the transmission and put a hole in it. A thousand clams, with a used or rebuilt transmission, is what it would cost to replace it. The clutch may need attention so no telling what the actual total cost might be. For my eight hundred dollar car.

Another one bites the dust. I am donating it.


Formal Cogitation - Deladier Almeida

I was asked to work at the art gallery the last days of last week. On Friday eve there was an opening reception for a new show that displayed four talented local artists. It was an exciting and successful show. First floor was Del Almedia's new works. Please check out his site. This guy is prolific. He is best known for his California landscapes, but the scope of his work is so much more than landscapes.

     

Rene Martucci's ceramic works were on the second floor. She is known for her animal pieces. Her dog and cat sculptures are very popular with everyone. She captures our pets personalities dead on. Her new works are energetic in motion wall mounted sculptures. She is also a musician and I think she really understands movement and rhythm of people and pets. I enjoyed her show very much.

  
The figure works of James Chaffee  on the third floor and the California landscapes of Chella in the loft

I served booze, my special skill. I had a fabulous time chatting, pouring hooch and mixing it up with all my Davis buddies that I have not seen in some time. It felt great to be doing a good job and to be appreciated. A long and successful day.

Sunday I was kind of exhausted and feeling a little punk. I kept a low profile hoping I would be up to going to a Halloween party I had been invited to. But no, early to bed. That was all I had in me.


 
My room mate, Gloria, has been hanging close to home these past few days because of finals. Up late studying and what not. I was woke up late in the night and over heard what sounded like a tv news station chatting away. I figured it must be Gloria listening to the news for background noise while she studied. Then I realized I recognized one of the voices. My son.

I looked at the clock, 3am. Even after fall back. I got up to find three boys sitting around my dining room table gnawing away on fast food and chatting as though they were at a coffee shop at lunch time. Always glad to seem him BUT, for dogs sake...shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!


Zac Nelson of Hexlove and Prints and currently Trawler Bycatch

Nothing says Good Morning Sunday, the day after Halloween and did you set your clocks back like a young musician in his underwear in my living room. My son, his pal Zac and a new guy I had not met before named Zack were conked in my living room. I knew that a huge breakfast had to be made for these boys. And gallons of coffee. Stat!



I organized my morning and made sure to set up the kitchen to begin cooking once the boys started to shake their sleepy heads awake. The boys woke up and began rattling around while I put together coffee and what not. But wait, there is more, so much more.



The new Zack informed me that there were still two more members of the band sleeping in the van outside. They probably had no idea where he was since they rolled in so late. Oh well, I figure, slice more potatoes, scramble more eggs! The final two came in and seemed to be relieved that we also believed in coffee as a mid morning ritual.


Zack, Jonnie and Russ of Trawler  Bycatch out of Portland OR

They were very polite and set about to get refreshed and revived after a late night playing a radio show and house concert. They played me the recording of the radio show from KDVS, the local college radio station. Michael's band Afternoon Brother and Trawler Bycatch filled the station and played together. Way too much fun. I enjoyed sharing the music this morning with them while I put together a big morning after breakfast.

  
My son Michael and his long time friend, Zac

My son seems to get a kick out of showing up at my house at odd hours with a covey of musicians looking for a couch. No phone call, no warning. Honestly, I woke up at 3am to voices thinking it was a television. They all bedded down. His friend, Zac, is a pal of ours for some years. His ambient pop music has done quite well for him. His other projects keep him pretty busy too. He has no trouble giving me shit. I love that.  And I never recognize him. He is either heavily bearded or clean shaven. At 3am in the dark he is just another boy in my living room. It is great to see him! He creates this awesome ambient pop music that I love - check him out here: Prints

     
Jonnie the singer, Zack the broken handed guitar player and Russ the bass player

These kids were very polite. Zack number two was funny and a smarty pants right away. I appreciate that. He had a broken hand from some trouble with a train schedule sign. I believe the sign was belligerent and bothering passengers awaiting a late arriving train. Alcohol may have been involved but this was not clarified. Jonnie is gorgeous and has a super sultry voice that I appreciate. She also has another band she sings and plays keyboards for called Fist Fite. Russ is the bass player of this outfit and studied under Terry Riley (credited as one of the pioneers of Minimalism in the mid sixties, explored the use of tape loops, developed the time lag accumulator, performed All Night Concerts (10pm-6am)), my son informed me. He and Jonnie were pretty quiet.

  

Doing what every musician I have met does when on tour...

After everyone was fed and showered and properly caffeinated, they did what every touring band that I have ever met did...they youtubed. Yes, they youtubed. I swear, I would never know the silly things one could find on youtube if it were not for these charming and talented kids that end up in my living room from time to time. There was the Best Freak Out Ever, there was Pissed Off RV Sales Guy, Turrets Guy and on and on. A little angry for a Sunday but entertaining nevertheless. Actually the bestpart is everyone's banter during said youtube-isms.


Goodby Zac 1 and Zack 2. Good by Trawler Bycatch.

These kids packed it up and headed to Fresno. It was awesome to meet them. As for the moniker Trawler Bycatch, read the following: "unwanted marine creatures that are caught in the nets while fishing for another species; "thousands of dolphins and porpoises and whales are killed as part of the by-catch each year"

My question is this: Are you kids the net or are you kids the unwanted marine species? I have to create some kind of back story but unfortunately, this needs attention.


Jon and Michael watching Encino Man

Jon showed up after the other kids had left. This made my day complete. He and Michael lolly gagged watching bad movies, eating lunch and catching up on the days events. They left shortly after a dinner of home made chicken noodle soup and bisuits.

I have a stupid week of bus rides to Woodland. This no car business just stinks, I tell you.



How was your Halloween, xanga pals? Mostly Tricks or mostly Treats?
I know you guys think I lead this exciting life, but I swear, it just knocks on my door when I am dead asleep.