Plenty of time to drag out my ukulele

   POINT RICHMOND, Calif. - More than a decade ago, I set out to achieve three goals, not necessarily in the order listed below.

     • I wanted to become comfortable speaking - and understanding others speaking - a foreign language.

    • I wanted to publish a novel. (Publish, not just write)

    • I wanted to learn how to play a musical instrument.

     On the foreign language front, I am relatively comfortable with Spanish, though the longer I am away from living in Mexico, the weaker it gets. Still, two weeks ago I had a lively conversation - all in Spanish - with a mechanic who was fixing a dent in my Toyota Tundra.
     My novels (The Fracking War, Fracking Justice and The Devil's Pipeline) are all out there circulating.
     And the musical instrument?
   Well, after giving myself a frozen shoulder learning to play a full-size guitar, I was advised by a music pro to take up the ukulele. He said the best thing about a uke is that if you aren't that skilled on the strings, you can always just sing louder and cover up your ineptness. He was soooo right.
     The ineptness is more pronounced now, largely because I have barely tuned my eight-string in the last few years.
     But today I was encouraged by the video below featuring Neil Diamond. He performs a Covid-19-inspired remake of his classic "Sweet Caroline." It's great.
    And given that I (and probably you) have at least several weeks more of "sheltering in place" it got me to pull my uke down off the wall. Perhaps I can come up with a few parody numbers myself.
    Don't look for me on Youtube anytime soon, however.
Or for a reunion tour of The Four Headlamps.

Coconuts fly, trailer awning rips in the high winds

ARROYO SECO, Jalisco, Mexico - The winds have finally slowed down (at least this morning) leaving some damage around the Pink Flamingo.

The awning on the original Grey Goose Express let go in the high winds, though later inspection showed the awning was due for replacement anyway. More of a concern are the trees full of coconuts, perching precariously over our solar water heater. It's high on this week's agenda to get someone to scale the tree and get those aerial bombs down before they crack a water heater tube - or go through our roof.




In the meantime, Admiral Fox has been being a veterinarian to a neighbor's dog with serious anemia, skin disease, parasites and malnutrition.

The dog, named Capitan (Is there some irony here?) is improving dramatically with just four days of anti-biotics and good chow. The Admiral has been cooking chicken and rice to serve El Capitan and his buddy dog named Paloma. Paloma is blind, but can smell the food quite well and jumps all over both the Admiral and I when we arrived with comida.

The Admiral doses El Capitan with his drugs and food three times each day. Yesterday we gave him a bath, which the Admiral will likely describe in some detail in her blog later.


El Capitan - too weak to stand to eat at first

Our amigos Sanders and Pat Lamont arrived from the cold mountains of Northern California late Wednesday, meaning that a musical reunion of The Four Headlamps is in the wings for the two weeks while they are here. Last night - after a quick stop in La Manzanilla at Palapa Joe's to hydrate - we all attended a birthday party of neighbor Danni who turned 17. His family and most of his uncles, aunts and cousins came for a fiesta of tostadas and pozole. As part of his own birthday party, Danni put on a little keyboard concert and then had his birthday cake - complete with the cake-in-the-face-smash, perpetrated by his uncle Carlos.

We were asked to have The Four Headlamps do a number or two, but we begged off, hoping to get in a little practice before we attempt to make music in public.


Danni with his two cakes

Another hit on the website from our fans in Wasilla

WASILLA, Alaska, USA - I can't say for certain that the Palin family - or their fans - are logging onto the website, The Four Headlamps, but there was another Wasilla hit yesterday afternoon and the referral was from an email.

Four Headlamps website

It's likely that someone in Wasilla ran across the post and alerted one of the other 6,000 people in Wasilla that they were getting noticed for something other than being the hometown of Presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Whoops, I mean vice-presidential candidate, Sarah Palin.


The Palin Family poses

If it wasn't so damned cold up there most of the year, The Four Headlamps might consider going there to put on a little musical program.

Little being the key word right now, but we'll do better in 2009.

Captain's Blog and Four Headlamps have a Wasilla connection

SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - In my perusing of the site meters on the various websites where I post, I ran across that someone from Wasilla - yes that Wasilla - had taken a peek at the site, looking for, of all things, the lyrics to the song Chunder.

Chunder, if you ever look at the website The Four Headlamps, you know is one of the songs that I think the group will be adding to its repertoire.

The Four Headlamps

Hmm... I might have mentioned that song here already, now that I think about it.

It's doubtful that it was Sarah or Todd Palin who was looking at The Four Headlamps site. They seem to be pretty busy doing other things, bashing about the country right now. Still, considering how few people there are in Wasilla, there could be a Palin connection.

Maybe the whole Palin clan will travel to La Manzanilla for an open mic night at Palapa Joes when we perform Chunder.

They should have a lot of time on their hands after Nov. 4. And I'm sure the State of Alaska will not hesitate to pay for the governor and her family to fly south this winter on some kind of official business.


Sitemeter posting showing Wasilla

A stomping good time up in the California mountains

MURPHYS, Calif., USA - Adm. Fox and I took a sojourn to Camp Connell over the weekend to visit with Sanders and Pat Lamont (the other two members of The Four Headlamps) as well as amigos Randy and Karin who live at the high altitudes near Sanders and Pat part of the year, but who have bought land in Arroyo Seco close to our property for the winter months.


Randy and Karen in Arroyo Seco last winter

The weather Friday was perfect for being outdoors, slightly overcast and not-too-hot, which let us take a hike around a nearby park that has some magnificent sequoia trees and enough trails to keep you walking for weeks.

We opted for a two-mile walk, followed by a lunch at the Snoeshoe Brewery (excellent pale ale and hamburgers) and, well, some quiet time after the hike and the food.

Although I had my ukulele, the chords and the lyrics along for the band to practice "Chunder," we were too busy to get out the instruments.

But Saturday morning we zipped down the mountain from Camp Connell to Murphys where Sanders and Pat's granddaughter Delaney and her dad, Brian, were competing in the Grape Stomp, the fifteenth such event in as many years. The grape stomp is just a small part of a day-long celebration for which the town closes the main street and sells food, beer, wine and enough jewelry to outfit a chain of jewelry stores.

Some heavy rains probably kept some of the more lightweight tourists from attending. But we watched Delaney and Brian stomp their way to second place in their heat. Not bad when the stomper is 11 years old and with about a size-6 foot.

Here's a video of the action.

Water gets warm just in time for our vacation

LA MANZANILLA, Jalisco, Mexico - It might seem odd to people who don't live here in Mexico (or anyone else, I suppose), but, well, we decided to go on vacation this week.

What the *&%$*$%#$**^&((?????????

For months, we have been running up and down the Highway 200, looking at property, negotiating with builders and construction guys, signing papers at the notario, getting a phone, changing the electrical service into our name for one property and, and, and.

By the way, changing the electrical service took two days and a half dozen legal documents, including flashing our Mexican visas (also know as FM3). We now get to pay the bill.

Wahoo!

So today, I am on vacation and as part of that, I went swimming and discovered that the water in the bay is warm. Warm as in maybe 80-plus degrees. Amazing, because a week ago I didn't want to wade. I went swimming twice already and if I wasn't so skittish about swimming in the dark, I would take a plunge tonight before bed.

I'll swim manana, when it's daylight.


Music jam in Puerto Vallarta

We did take a quick trip to Puerto Vallarta (very quick, up one day and back the next) squeezing in a couple of medical appointments, a trip to Costco and a music performance at the Vallarta Yacht Club.

We were sans two members of our group (The Four Headlamps), but played with amigos Judy and Bob Lyon (of the cruising sailboat Lyon Around) and a handful of other amateur musicians.

We played 14 songs and at the end, got a very nice round of polite applause.

Sometimes you get lucky.


The Admiral holds Devani

After our trip to the Manzanillo emergency room with our amiga Irma and her about-to-deliver daughter Mimi a week ago, we kept checking back at Mimi's house, expecting to see Mimi and her daughter each day. But because of some complications, she stayed for several days, though now both are at home and both Mimi and her daughter Devani are looking great.

Sylvia and I have gone by several times to bounce the little lass (Devani, not Mimi), who seems to be gaining weight day by day.

By the way, what exactly are los padrinos, anyway?


Kids on a moto

Out in Arroyo Seco, our palapa frame is up, the ramada frame is up, the bodega is ready for a roof and the septic tank only needs its cover and a little plumbing to be ready for, well, you know.

When we were out visiting our amigos Sunday, we watched our neighbor's daughter - who is probably eight years old - zipping around the rancho on dad's moto with a few of her amigos. It reminded me that soon the Admiral will be back in the land of strict rules and where having an open container of beer in a car will land the driver in jail and stepping in front of the yellow line near a bus driver is cause for getting ejected off the bus.

Staying off buses will be easy, but the beer?

Que lastima.