#enjoythelittlethings – The Boring Old Man

Year of the Rabbit

It gave me a smile when I learned that 2023 was to be the Year of the Rabbit in Lunar (Chinese) New Year. The last Years of the Rabbit were pretty good ones for me, so I took that as a good omen.

Little did I know that the Year would go flying by as quick as a Rabbit! Holy smokes, where has January gone?

That being said, so far so good, even at “warp speed”.

We had our gnarly couple weeks of storms, but other than 3 days without power and losing some perishable foods, no real damage sustained on our end.

I’ve started a new book, which I may write about down the line… I’m only about 15 pages in thus far, and it’s a different kind of read for me, so I’m not sure how I’ll take to it.

I’m getting slightly more consistent in getting to the gym and my strength seems to be coming back after the last year of poor overall health, which is very encouraging.

One of my music projects is starting to make headway, which is super exciting. Last night we auditioned a new bassist and she (yes, she!) was pretty great and we seemed to gel very well right off the bat. If you’ve ever tried putting a band together, you’ll understand how important that is, but also how incredibly RARE for things to click right outta the gate. We’ve got another bassist lined up for next week, who actually seemed like a better fit “on paper”, but now he’s really got his work cut out for him! But overall, I’m extremely inspired right now and just want to keep pushing myself musically as much as possible for as long as possible.

I’ve got a lot of work to do around the house, as I got pretty lazy and overwhelmed during the holiday season, but I’m chipping away at it and making progress, so I can’t complain. Just gotta put one foot in front of the other, as they say…

This weekend we’ve got an outing up to SF (I’ll be writing about that Sunday) and a plan to pull out our emergency bags and “regroup” after the lessons learned from our bout of storms. And if time allows, I’ll be working on putting together my IG profile. Yes, very, very late to that particular party. I’ve completely ignored social media up til now, but I’m finding that if I want to keep up with what’s going on in the world of music, I’ve got to have access to it, as that’s where all the kids these days are putting out their info. And when it comes time to put out our music, it will be a necessity- for better or worse. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em I guess…

And last but not least, we have a new addition to our family as of last weekend.

Now don’t get me wrong. This is NOT because it happened to be the Year of the Rabbit, it was just a timing thing. I used to raise rabbits waaaay back in my Boy Scout days, and my wife and I have had “house rabbits” almost our entire 30 years together. There have been some gaps in between them, just like any pet it takes a while to get past the grief when you lose one, but this little guy is our 4th house rabbit in 30 years. Our last one lived to be about 12 years old, which was staggering. He doesn’t have a name yet, we like to get to know our critters before bestowing a name upon them, but he’s already getting real comfortable in his new home.

Well, that’s really about it for now. I try not to go so long between posts, so forgive me. I appreciate all of you stopping by and sharing your time with me. Hopefully next week will bring something a little more interesting!

Have a great weekend everyone and thanks for reading!

The little things in life…

My buddy SK gave me this yesterday. Picked fresh on his property last weekend…

So today I pulled out some gear and got busy…

And now I’ve got this chilling for tomorrow’s breakfast!

Sometimes it’s the little things in life that bring a smile…

Have a great weekend, thanks for stopping by!

Just Like Old Times…

Last night I had a fantastic experience and I’m still riding the “high”!

For the first time in literally decades, I got a chance to sit down with one of my oldest friends for a songwriting session, and it was like a spigot was turned on – the music just flowed like it hasn’t in years!

This was just what the doctor ordered, it’s been way too long since I was able to just create and I missed it even more than I realized.

In the matter of just a few short hours, we planted the seeds of 6 new songs right outta the gate. It was remarkable and thrilling to say the least.

Remember to feed your soul folks, it’s good for your health and your spirit!

Thanks for stopping by!

Outta whack…

It’s been a weird week… We got back from our road trip late Thursday night, then it was back to the office Friday, which was a whirlwind of activity and turned into a 10+ hour day. Saturday was spent unpacking and fun stuff like laundry…then back to work Sunday for another full day…

And now it’s Monday and again and I’m smack dab in the middle of the real world. Drats.

BUT! I did manage to drag my lazy butt to the gym this morning before work though, so at least I’ve got that goin’ for me. Now if I can just keep it up for the rest of the week!

And I’ve got plans to meet up with one of my oldest, nearest and dearest friends tonight to catch up, so here’s to hoping Monday is painless and quick!

Take care of yourselves out there, and do your best to have a great week! Find something to be grateful for!

Thanks for stopping by!

Gone Fishin’

Sunday I got to hang out with my brother-in-law and his work/fishing buddy Bill, and do some fishing out of Half Moon Bay.

B-I-L has a great boat – the Miss Jessica – and he’s an awesome waterman, so getting out on the ocean with him is a real treat, despite the 3:30am “boarding call”.

We launched at the HMB marina at 5am and headed south toward Pescadero. We didn’t have much luck for the first couple hours, then I was finally able to land a salmon, only to have it 3″ too short, so back into the sea it went…

About half an hour later, I pulled in this beauty:

I am not by any means a “fisherman”. As a kid I used to fish lakes and rivers with a couple of cousins, but by my teen years I had too many other interests and fishing fell off my to do list for decades. But I gotta say, this open water ocean fishing is a whole different level!

We first ran down to south towards Pescadero, but when things were not happening we headed north up through Pacifica, nearly to the Golden Gate Bridge. But evidently the fish had other plans for their Sunday…

Anyhow, as luck would have it, my keeper was the ONLY fish brought in that day. The irony that 3 fisherman (two with decades of experience!) could stay out on the water for 11 hours and the only fish brought in was by the noob with literally. 001% the experience of the other guys, was hilarious to me. Nonetheless, despite their arguments that I should take the whole Salmon, as it was my first ever caught, I insisted the we split it 3 ways – keeping with a long standing tradition of my BIL – so we all walked away with a nice couple Salmon steaks after a great day on the water.

These trips are a great learning experience for me, it’s almost information overload to be honest, but its awesome to have guys that know a LOT about a subject try to pass on as much information as they can, to make your experience all the better. And being on the water is always a joy for me, no matter the time of year or the conditions. To be honest, the fish is just a nice parting gift, the least important part of the day.

I think the old adage is true: the worst day of fishing beats the best day of working!

Thanks for a great day Captains Karel and Bill – it’s one I won’t soon forget!

Thanks for reading!

Road Trip: Manresa State Beach

The Mrs. and I woke up and realized we didn’t have anything pressing, so we threw some cold drinks, some mixed nuts and beef jerky in a cooler and hit the road to the coast.

We didn’t have a specific destination in mind, we kinda let traffic lead our decision making, and we ended up at Manresa State Beach in La Selva Beach, CA – about 20 minutes south of Santa Cruz.

Manresa was one of my haunts as a teen, first learning to surf. Later it was a family favorite where we often took our daughter. But today was the first time back there in a dozen years at least.

It was a little overcast when we first got there, but it burned off by 11:30, and was just gorgeous after then, a perfect day at the beach!

I’m inclined to head back tomorrow with my board, for old time’s sake…

Thanks for stopping by!

And it’s only Wednesday…

I had a nice weekend and came in Monday morning feeling recharged and “ready for battle”. By the end of the day I felt like I’d been pummeled, but I went home and played my new bass for a while to calm the nerves and went to bed in good spirits ready to have a good Tuesday.

Tuesday came along and was busy as all get out, but around 3pm I’d just finished a grueling, nearly 3 hour meeting on a big project I’ve been working on for months. I sat back and thought to myself, “alright, that was some progress, I’m finally getting somewhere!”

Less than 10 minutes later, one of my most solid and dependable employees comes in and gives me his resignation.

I’ve been short 2 employees for nearly a year now – it started back in June of ’21. Now I’ll be down 3. We still have to have 6am -10pm coverage, 7 days a week, 365 days a year and the remainder of the team is getting burned out and certainly less willing to “pick up the slack”, now that we’re 11 months in to a “temporary” situation. I can’t blame ’em.

Last night talking with the Mrs., I said “just once, I’d like to have a day when NOTHING goes wrong. I don’t need anything good to happen, just nothing bad.”

Well, today ISN’T that day. I’d just pulled in, hadn’t even turned off my car, much less exited it, and I’ve got the big cheese of the place yelling at me about an incident that had just happened.

It took 1000% of my willpower to stop myself from putting the car back in “drive” and leaving. Forever.

Thankfully I happen to have a couple hours booked in the rehearsal studio tonight AND a good friend/very talented musician is joining me for some noisemaking. Sometimes it is the little things in life that help get you through the s#!+ storms.

Hope y’all have a good day out there. If you’ve got dark clouds hanging over you, like I do, find something, anything to bring you a little joy. Self care is necessary, especially these days.

Thanks for stopping by!

Well, that’s good news!

According to the Associated Press (AP), California lost 117,552 residents in 2021. That was the second year in a row of dropping population, bringing us a current count of 39 million and some change.

For politicians and economists, this is terrible, frightening news. You see, relocation is expensive. The people leaving? Yeah, they’re the ones with assets and high paying jobs or retirement accounts. And they’re taking all their taxable income with them! Huzzah!!

That dark red color comes from bleeding us dry!

As someone that was born and raised here, as well as raising my own daughter here, I welcome this news. There is very little left of what made this place awesome. And what IS left, you can’t get to without spending half your day in traffic, and then you’re surrounded by the hoarde. It’s just become extremely overpriced and crowded, and since less than (I’d guess) 20% of the people here now are “natives”, there is NO culture or pride anymore. Nor should there be.

The recent culture is “money” and the pride is all about “how much money do you have”…it’s kinda gross. I’ve lived within 30 miles of where I’m sitting right now, my entire life. And I’ve never felt less “at home” anywhere. California dreaming has turned into nothing more than a get-rich-quick scheme and it has destroyed the state.

Now if we could just come up with a plan to shed another 15-20 million, this state might be a nice place to live again!

Hey, a guy can dream can’t he?

One of the reasons…

Anyone that’s known me for the last 15 years or so, knows that I am anxious to move out of California. The reasons to leave are legion, but having been born and raised here, it’s not that easy to say goodbye either.

There are still a few good things about California, and today I got to experience one of those good things that make me grateful to be where I am despite the many, many problems inherent in the Bay Area.

Lunch with the beautiful Mrs. in Half Moon Bay today. It’s a bit of a drive from home, just under an hour, but fresh seafood, on the deck overlooking the harbor, nothing but sunshine at a balmy 81 degrees…in February! Yeah, it doesn’t get much better than that!

Say what you will about how screwed up this place is, and I will likely agree and tell you even more things about it that are lousy, but days like today almost make the aggravation worth while.

Sometimes it really is the little things that make your day!

Thanks for reading!