Away We Go

Carmel-by-the-Sea, California

Billy and I are packing up and will leave Carmel tomorrow. Every trip takes on its own sense and flavor. This trip is no different. We haven't spent any September time in Carmel in years, and it is somewhat different than the time we spend in January. First, there's the weather. It was foggy here for the first week. Then the sun came out and stayed out for almost two weeks. Then it got foggy and pretty cold. House guests who were coming out of 90 to 100 degrees at home were pleased. But I brought more long-sleeved tee-shirts than sweaters with me. Still, you make it work. Layers, layers, layers . . .

Second, we spent most of our time here alone. Las Chicas came in for a visit, and so did Sandra and John. But we often stack three or four sets of house guests while we are here. It's a way and time to get together with our friends who live in Northern California. And a good time to get Billy's mom out of Arizona. Except that she was in Washington with Billy's brother. John and Sandra hadn't been to stay with us in Carmel since January 2010, due to Sandra's health issues. And we no longer have Kona Village to reconnoiter each October. So their visit was a given.

We were going to invite other friends who live up in the bay area, but we learned he would be traveling a lot through the month. And, in recent months, she has dropped off on our email communication. I think she isn't currently interested in maintaining a regular dialog. And that's ok. I just wanted to make sure there wasn't something else going on. I gently questioned her about this; asking what was going on as she seemed a bit down. But she didn't respond to the query, and came back with a cheery email, so I let it be. You want to be there for your friends, and especially for the fristers (she is one). But, you can only do something about what you can do something about. I am kind; I stay in contact; I wait. While I have been known to jump in with both feet, sometimes it is better to give friends the time and space they seem to want. Hopefully she will know I am here, when I am needed.

When I talked to Lydia about this, and about the trip, she suggested that Billy and I should not have house guests on the front end of the trip. Billy was here for ten days at the beginning of our stay. He returned twelve days later and stayed until the end (ten more days). I talked to him about Lydia's advice. She thinks we need this, I said. Billy agreed with Lydia. So we went short on house guests and spent our first ten nights here all by our lonesome. It was better. It was something we needed after the strain of recent hectic and stressful years. We walked; went out for drinks and/or dinner; drove the 17-Mile Drive (yet again); relaxed and slept well. Batteries were running low on juice, but we didn't know how to recharge them. Lydia did.

And so we go. It's always hard to leave, but, perhaps easier this time, as we will be returning in late December. Billy worked straight through from late January to September 1st without a break or vacation besides Fourth of July. It was too long. Having the two one-week periods off this September was good for him. But not enough. We both know that next year he will take a few more shorter breaks, and we plan to recreate a bit more. We are getting older, and all work seems harder to do. Billy wants to work another five years, but I hope to shorten that (financial wizard that I am) by at least a year.

I return to Los Angeles to attend a Dodgers game with my frister, Lydia, the next evening. It will be the second to the last game of the season, and the Dodgers hang on by a very slender thread to the possibility of a wild card spot. I have to accept that for Dodgers baseball, the season is most likely ending. Dodgers baseball became a true respite over the past six months, even when they were nose-diving. I've learned to love baseball again, and I've been grateful for the distraction. But, its season is coming to a close with no other sport to replace it for me. Football, ugh. Basketball? Lakers are getting pretty long in the tooth, and it's so frantic. I think I will just need to hang on until April. After all, next year is a new, clean page yet to be writ. And people have invested over a billion dollars in this team! Which is crazy. But. Let's go, Dodgers in 2013.

And so, home. But again, Carmel feels more and more like home, so I get confused. Better to say that we will be returning to Los Angeles, where everyday life including our business and gardening chores await. Oh, and we will be having a new roof put on our house. That's what you do in between trips to Carmel. You take care of business. Carmel will be here, and I will think of it in the way I always thought about the Kona Village when we weren't there. Daily life goes on whether you are there or not. You just can't see it. It's like Brigadoon. Only without that 100-yearlong siesta. Wake up, and thank you for reading my blog. See you soon in Los Angeles!

Serendipity

Carmel-by-the-Sea, California

I like John Cusack. Do I like him, like him? Is he equal in stature to other members of my I-really-like-this-actor club, like Daniel Day-Lewis or Colin Firth or Sam Waterston? And, is that last question reminiscent of those on tests where you have to pick the one name that doesn't fit in? Anyway, no, he doesn't get to join that club, but I like him in most of his movies that I've seen. He started out with that young, quirky face -- the wry smile and sad eyes. Then, he grew into that face. His young face was in the scene with the boom box in Say Anything. Love that scene.

So, John Cusack came to mind when I entitled this post Serendipity, because he made a movie by the same name. Actually, Billy and I kinda know the director of this movie, Peter Chisholm, as he is a customer of Billy's. I like the idea of the movie, and it is a solid chick flick, but not a favorite of mine. So, moving right along . . .

Last week I was tooling along on my morning walk in Carmel. I rarely take the same route. Carmel is like a lot of places which, unlike the neighborhood where I live, is pretty much laid out in a grid. The streets get a little wavy as you get near the point, but you can rather easily truck along in a chessboard pattern. And I walk them more or less like a knight moves across the board (kinda funny -- in a town like Carmel with a renowned Mission, you would think I'd walk through it like a . . . wait for it . . . bishop! Hahahahahahahahahaha! Oh dear). Anyway, I tend to move a block over, then a couple of blocks down, and vice versa, hitting the pattern in which a knight moves, as I recall. I don't play chess much and I'm having difficulty remembering, as well as staying on the subject. So, the walk . . .

I came down a street that Ts into Bayview, which is where the house that Sandra and John used to own is located. They lived in Carmel before we knew them, but I would bet that we crossed in a store or on the street during that time. I took a photo of the house, texted it to Sandra, then walked the remaining yards down to Scenic, which is the street that runs along the ocean. I hadn't walked too far before I came to a curve where there were a few cars stopped, and a small group of people standing around. From this point you can see all the way up Carmel beach and to Pebble Beach beyond. I had my head down, doing my version of power walking, when someone said to me: See the space shuttle? And there it was, flying low across Carmel beach. I had forgotten that it was going to fly over Monterey, but had managed to hit the best spot to see it at just exactly the right time. It flew along Carmel beach, then cut in, flying right over our heads. So close! We were like kids chattering and cheering. It looks so small, I said. No, a guy with a Carmel Fire Department tee-shirt said, It's not small (you stupid, blonde bimbo). But in contrast to the jumbo jet carrying it on its back, it looked rather, well, petite. And sleek. Wow.

I had grabbed my phone and snapped a few pics of it as it was going over, and they probably would have turned out quite well, except that I hadn't charged my phone that morning and the battery was running low. Low enough that the camera couldn't operate. As I walked on up the beach, I was supremely disappointed. But then, I thought, wasn't it enough to see it? I almost missed it, but it was serendipitous that I was right there at the beach, in the best place to see it. I was lucky. The odds of seeing a whale in the bay are pretty good (see post entitled Thar She Blows, available here right now at a close-out price), but the odds of seeing the space shuttle fly by? Well actually, pretty good if you remember that it's going to do that. In my case, I was working against the odds, but it still worked out. So I shrugged off the misfire of the camera. Not meant to be.

As this trip comes to a close, in a week, I think about serendipity. We had a perfect trip to San Francisco, and the Dodgers won the game we attended at AT&T Park. That will stay in my memory with a residual glow. I heard a homily at Mass at the Carmel Mission that made me think about something in my life in a new way. And, the space shuttle flew right over my head. Being in the right place at the right time. My friends who speak yiddish call it beshert -- meant to be. And, as I've written in my blog, ad nauseam, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote about (paraphrase alert!) moments when everything goes all glimmering. Serendipity. Just when you get complacent and begin to take life for granted, it may come your way. Or fly over your head. And, in case there isn't a fireman there to remind you, here is my last bit of advice on this subject: Don't forget to look up! And, thanks for reading my blog.