Art and Soul in Oakland

Art and Soul is a big outdoor festival in uptown Oakland celebrating summer with music, art, and food. Wayne and I went Sunday, planning mostly to stay at the Clay Street Stage where live bands were going to play the blues all afternoon long.

Sure that parking would be non-existent close to the festival, I recommended we park on the lake and walk in. So, we did. The place we parked was a good mile from the Clay Street Stage, but it's a pretty walk along the lake and through part of the city to get there. We can always use the exercise! As we walked, we saw lots of parking available much closer in but, oh well. As I said, we can use the exercise. Walking was fun, even though we said we might take BART part of the way back.

Wow, the music was fabulous! We danced up a storm on the street in front of the stage, along with a lot of other Oaklanders. In between sets we ate fried catfish and garlic fries with fresh squeezed lemonade. I love this about Oakland, hanging out with people of all colors and backgrounds, everybody cool, everybody smiling and talking to each other, everybody dancing and laughing.

Wayne and I love to dance, and as we were leaving a young African-American lady came up to us and said, "You two dancing! You are wonderful." I grabbed her hand and squeezed it as she passed. "Thank you!" Wayne and I grinned at each other. "We've still got it. Old folks get down!" That's one of our mantras these days.

Holding hands, we decided we could walk the mile or so back to the car and started down Broadway. Wayne was thirsty. "Well, Luka's is on Broadway where we have to turn toward the lake. Let's stop there and get a beer." Sounded like a plan. We were a long block from Luka's when a young guy passing by in a car going the opposite direction on Broadway yelled, "Cutest couple on Broadway!" Wayne yelled back, "Thanks, bro''. I waved and cheered.

Here we are with beer and mussels at Luka's, just moments later.

Gotta love Oakland.

Mendocino - land of good air

Wayne and I try to get to Mendocino as often as we can. Just a couple of weeks ago we went for part of the Mendocino Music Festival, which is a two week deal. We could only stay three days. And we also went to breathe some great air.

Mendocino has the best air. One time we were sitting on the back patio of a restaurant there having lunch, and Wayne turned to me. "I can breathe just great", he said. "This air is amazing." And it was. We really hadn't thought about how bad the air has become in the Bay Area, but once we got out here in the pristine 'wilderness', i.e. around more water than vegetation and/or buildings and cars, we couldn't help but notice. Both of us could breathe freely, whereas at home we are both stuffed up most of the time.

We talked about moving to Mendocino, because it is beautiful and we can breathe. But we are already many miles from our kids, from our family. If we were there we would be even further away, and much more inaccessible. Mendocino is what it is because it's darned hard to get to and pretty isolated. So we've decided to visit as often as we can.

Here's where we stayed this last time, MacCallum House. How fun it was, and also one of the best places to eat in town. It has an adorable bar too, and that's always a hit with me!





Here's our room, which was a child's playhouse in the late 1800's. Loved it.










And a gorgeous tree, which was in the front garden near the blue Adirondack chairs. Mendocino is sooooo relaxing!

That discouraging word

Remember that old cowboy song Home on the Range? "Where never is heard a discouraging word, and the sky is not cloudy all day." or something like that. What is a "discouraging word" anyway? I think of it like a bad attitude. And I have a bad attitude about discipline - that's my discouraging word.

These days I'm trying to learn how to do most of the things I want to do while still finishing projects, i.e. learn discipline. I'm a person who loves to start a lot of things at once, and then lets them hang over my head until I finish them much later. I do eventually finish them, but planning and starting is the fun part. Finishing, not so much.

This reminds me of a former relationship I was in, where my partner liked to tear apart things in the house, starting a renewal project, and then let it sit unfinished forever. Drove me crazy, and now I'm doing much the same thing.

With all this in mind, I've established a time for writing. Every day. Stephen King does it and look at his production. If I can do even a fraction of what he does, I'll be way ahead of where I am now, which is madly trying to finish something at the last minute to submit to my writing group once every two months. Writing is one of the things I want to do, and it's never really finished of its own accord. So if I just think about it, wish I had time to do it, and never put any words down, I've failed.

I'm writing an hour every day, 11:00 a.m. to noon. At this moment, I'm not worried about what I'm writing, as long as I write something. So far it's been three days, and twenty one days makes a habit. Wish me discipline.

Portlandia

Wayne and I have been in Portland OR for the past several days, staying with my grandson Jack and his family's foreign exchange student Alvaro while my son and daughter-in-law are in Mexico. Alvaro is from Madrid. He's 13, will be 14 in April, and has been studying English since he was 5 years old, in pre-school. His English is very good. On top of that, he's a delightful boy/young man, right where he should be - balanced between the worlds of child and adult. I have been texting with his mom in Madrid, and she can hardly wait to get him back. Obviously. He's been here in Portland with my son's family for a month. It's a long time, but the experience will be with him for a lifetime.

Here is Alvaro, doing homework from Spain at the dining room table.

We thought we had rain in northern California! It's been a really hard winter in Portland - endless rain, snow, more rain, cold, snow. So when my son asked us to come, we of course said yes. They have an annual vacation in Mexico with my daughter-in-law's family and it gives them a mid-winter chance to see and feel some sun. Totally necessary.

Jack, my 14-year-old grandson, did not want to go. He didn't want to miss school. All his cousins are much younger so there's no one his age. There's spotty internet. Big Problems when you're 14. Not to mention they wouldn't have been able to have Alvaro if they were all going away. This is the last week he will be here before going home to Madrid.


We brought a little sun from California. For the first time in months (according to my son), there was a day of sun after we arrived and before they left for Mexico. It's rained every day since, but Thursday (day after tomorrow) there's supposed to be sun in Portland. Hallelujia! There's some hope for spring, I can see crocus and daffodils in yards as I walk Tuli, the adorable little-girl dog. Here's Tuli (short for Tulip) on the left.

Here's sun in Portland on the right. Verified.

I love both these boys, and my son and daughter-in-law, or I wouldn't put up with this weather. We are having fun, although most of it is indoors. On Friday, I'll deliver Alvaro to his group to begin their journey back to Madrid. My son and daughter-in-law return from Mexico on Saturday, we return to Oakland on Sunday. It's all going fast.

Here is a caricature of Jack and Alvaro, amazingly accurate, that was drawn by an artist at the Portland Saturday Market before we came. Alvaro will take it back to Spain with him, but I have a photo, which I will cherish. Youth. Love.