Maybe it was just the Ides Of March...

Last weekend, I decided to take a trip out to the coast to relax and get my mind off of things (see previous posts for a brief list of these things). I went out to visit Ted in Cleone, just a bit North of Ft. Bragg. Ted is a great friend and an ideal human being for helping you sort things out and get down to what's important. And he's a lot of fun to be with. And, as most of you know, he performed the wedding ceremony for Rachel and I.

He's building a house on his property on the coast while living in a rental nearby. Here's what it looks like so far...



Here's the view from his place...



It doesn't suck.

Anyway - I was supposed to leave town on Friday around 10:00, but got hung up with a few things related to my job search. I finally got on the road around 12:30. It was all new ground for me as the trip took me on Highway 20 West through Willits. It was a really pretty drive. And aside from some rain and a wicked sinkhole that was keeping CalTrans busy in the rain, it was a fine drive. I listened to my audio CD of Matt Dillon reading Jack Kerouac's On The Road. I'm not kidding - Matt Dillon. I kept thinking, "Come on Dean, come on Karlo Marx..we'll do it for Johnny, man!" And I was tempted to pick up a hitchhiker or two, but didn't.

I got to Ted's rental around 3:30 where I met his nephew Steve (who is out from Wisconsin to help with construction and is planning to settle out here), and one of the contractors working on his place, Jason. Nice guys all. And since it must have been 5:00 somewhere, I broke out the Trav-L-Bar and we had cocktails. Sailor Jerry and Red Bull was new to me, but not bad. I switched to Ketel One and Red Bull, though.

Oh, here I need to digress a minute about the water at Ted's place. Steve went in the house to get cups and ice cubes. The ice was normal looking on the outside, but yellow in the middle. It was pretty gross looking, but tasted fine. Apparently, it's safe to drink, it just comes out yellow from the well. Later, in the bathroom, I accused Ted of not flushing - but that's just the way the water looks.

Anyway, we finished our drinks and then Steve went over to the house to put in a few hours of work before we went out in town. Ted and I unpacked the car and while Ted was checking his messages, his phone rang. It was Steve on the phone calling about a beligerent homeless person who had set up camp in Ted's new place and was refusing to leave. The message on his machine was his neighbor calling to tell him about a "loud vagabond shouting strange obscenities." I'm not kidding, he said, "vagabond." Who says "vagabond" anymore? Well, me from now on, I guess.

Here's Ted's first guest, the vagabond...



The next part of my story says a lot about my friend Ted. When we got that call and heard that message, I immediately got myself all worked up for a potential fight. No, I guess fisticuffs is a better word, what with the guy being a vagabond and all. But Ted casually entered the Sheriff's Department phone number in to his phone and then grabbed the crock pot to take the poor guy a meal and send him on his way. That's Ted, or at least some of the best part of him.

Well, we got there and fed the guy and he was nice enough, but turned a bit wacky when we assured him that we were serious about his leaving. He asked for money, and when we refused, he started ranting about God's house and that there is no personal proerty and then he reluctantly headed out for the Texas Gulf - heading North on the 1. I guess he'll get there via Alaska and Canada, and I guess maybe Greenland.

Here's me with Steve and Ted...



After dinner, I helped a bit with the work - not much because I am still a bit gimped with my shoulder. And we made plans to go out later that evening. I was bragging on my wing man skills, which were doubted by Steve. And to be fair to Steve, I don't look like much - but that's the secret to my success. I am not a head turner, but I am cuddly and funny, I project a sense of safety, and I am so very married that I am immediately sized up as "harmless" by women in bars.

We first went to a bar where my Spanish would have come in handy had we actually talked to anybody. It was all hispanic males playing pool. I went to the juke box and picked a few Spanish tunes then switched it to English with Santana's Oye Como Va as the transition song. We did bar sports. I won the pool, Ted won the shuffleboard, and Steve won the pinball (although he swears I did).

We then went to another bar. Sorry I can't remember the names of these places. I got pretty drunk. So did Ted. That's rare. Steve got drunk too, but he amazed both of us when he saw how drunk we were, cut himself off, and committed himself to driving us home safely.



At the second bar, we played darts. You had to leave a driver's license to get the darts from the bartender. I slipped her my Disneyland Autopia license and she thought that was pretty funny when she realized what it was halfway to the register.
















I asked Steve and Ted to pick out my challenge to claim the title of World's Best Wingman. Now, I don't like to brag, but I will if I'm really good at something and challenged about it. And they made it tough. They didn't just pick the most attractive women in the bar - that might be too easy. They picked an attractive tough looking gal and her even tougher looking friend. Don't let the pictures fool you - before I went to work they had a "don't fuck with us, we might be armed" look about them.

Here's my warm up exercise...



...The girl on the left ended up being contractor Jason's half sister.








Now here's the challenge...



That's Magnum on the left (No kidding - she showed me her driver's license) and (dammit) I can't remember the other gal's name.






And last, but certainly not least, here's me with the bartender behind the bar...



If you have ever tried to get that picture, then you know it ain't easy.

The rest of the night was a bit of a blur. We played some pool, but lost interest. We ended up shutting the place down and hung out outside briefly. While I was chatting with our bartender, I missed some excitement. Apparently some local cocksure jackoff was simultaneously being disrespectful to Magnum's friend and and trying to pick her up. He was the kind of pretty boy you just want to punch for breathing. When Ted stepped in, the guy first was ready to go, but backed down pretty quick when Ted didn't. Then the guy tried to kiss the girl, but before he could, Magnum grabbed her by the hair to drag her home. It was so Springer.

Steve got us home safely, and for that, I dubbed him master of cookie distribution. I promised I would make my triple chocolate disaster cookies on Saturday. Ted fell asleep (that's pronounced "passed out") on the fold out bed. I wasn't sure if I should wake him up or take his bed, so I sat down to read for a while. I woke up sore as hell and hung over in the chair.






But I did make the cookies.












And I didn't mind being sore and hung over because we had an afternoon spa treatment booked.

That's right, Ted and I had a Brokeback day. We went to the Bamboo Garden in Ft. Bragg.

It was awesome. An hour in a room with a whirlpool, sauna, and shower. What we didn't know is that we were to share the room and the tub. Let's just say the tub would have been perfect if I was with Rachel. But with Ted, well, not so much. And I quickly claimed "First tub! I promise I won't pee in it."















Ted took a sauna...


...Irv, if you're reading this, that's only the left half of that picture of Ted. Shoot me an e-mail and we can discuss a price for the right half. You'll see a side of Ted you've never seen before (as far as I know).







Anyway - it was great to get all relaxed before a massage. We each had a little dish of exfoliating face wash, tea, and some really great water. Oh, the best part was a small towel dipped in lavender ice water. It was great layihg out in the sauna with that cold wet towel draped over my face - just sweating out toxins and breathing in cool lavender scented air. Here's the two of us post sauna, pre-massage.



It might be hard to see in the picture, but there is no trace of the night before on us.

My massage therapist was awesome. I told her about my x-rays and the revesal of my cervical spine and the narrowing between C4 and C5 and how I got a lot better with physical therapy and rest but that I was a wreck again because of all the stress in my life. I told her like that, too - one long sentence. She listened and did an amazing job of finding and working out the knots in my neck and back. She started gently and worked deeper until it hurt and then maintained that level of intensity for the duration of the session. I felt awesome when it was over. Her name was Dawn, and I recommend her highly.

Ted opted for a hot stone massage and said it was good, but he was a little disappointed.

We sat around the spa for a while drinking tea and water.

Then we drove down to the ocean. Here's what you see as you head down the road to the beach. I love this picture. I wonder if the crew that erected this sign had any sense of irony while putting it up or if they just tossed their cigarette butts on the beach and moved along to their next job.



We parked and watched the sunset and talked about what's been going on in our lives lately. It was great communication and it helped me put some things in perspective and sort out what I want to do next.

I found this interesting - I had inadvertently packed my life in T-shirts...



That's a CommTech T-shirt in the middle flanked by an Adapt T-shirt on the left and an Interactive Intelligence Professional Services Group T-shirt on the right. That's about right where I am right ow - at CommTech torn between taking a job with Adapt or Interactive Intelligence. There's great reasons to work for both companies. I really like Brian at Adapt, we have a project scheduled together already, and they are a great company to work for. But I also really like a lot of people at Interactive Intelligence, it is a larger, publicly traded company, and I think I could do a lot for them and they might pay a little more.

Anyway, we sorted through these things and the stress in Ted's life. The house and location may be beautiful, and it will be a great place to live when it's finished, but it is really stressful for him right now. He is working really hard every day and he is constantly forced to make big decisions in a short amount of time. So I think it was really good for him to take a break this weekend, too.

I shot five minutes of video of the ocean for Rachel and then we went off to dinner at the Purple Rose. Good eats. I had the best chimichanga I've had in years and a good tostada. The guacamole was good too - very fresh.


We then went back to Ted's place and watched Good Night And Good Luck. He dozed a bit. And Steve got bored and went downstairs to bed. We watched Saturday Night Live for a while and then went to sleep.

On Sunday, we got up and went to the shore for a walk. There's a great paved trail across the street from Ted's property called Haul Road. That's right, H-A-U-L. You know, because they used to haul stuff on it. Mostly lumber. There are train tracks beneath it, I'm told.


Then we went back to Ted's rental. Ted ripped up some iceplant that I'm going to try to plant in my yard between the boulders and the fence to keep the weeds down and help with the erosion.


Then I hopped in the car for the drive home. It was clear on Sunday and the drive was much nicer. And I saw a lot of neat things to explore in the towns along the way. I look forward to going out there with Rachel some day.

In all, the weekend was just what I needed, and even more than I had hoped for. My head is clear, and I am pretty much worry free. And I feel good about it. Today, I got two calls about jobs. It's weird for me because I've always gone in to job interviews trying to convince the company to give me a chance and hire me. Now I am asking them to convince me to choose to work for them. And since I have a personal relationship with Brian at Adapt, it's a little awkward.

In a day or two, I'll have offers from both of them, and maybe from a third company, and I will have to put together a spreadsheet and come up with some criteria to help decide which offer to choose.

Tony came over today and took an online Hunter Saftey course and test while I worked on taxes and bookkeeping for CommTech. April 15th is coming up, but I am already almost done with both the business and my personal returns. And I haven't heard anything from Jeremy, which makes me think his lawyers are telling him the same thing ours did - there's nothing there for him and even if there was, he couldn't do anything until January of 2008. And I will have to deal with it in the future some time. And I still have to take some steps to shut down CommTech officially. And I'm trying to come up with some sort of plans for a funeral. Maybe a wake/party or something.

But for now, it's really nice to not have anything to worry about. I'm going to try to make the most of it for a couple of days.