Feeling it was time to test how real my improved health was Sue and I decided to take up Stan Derelian's invite to his and Anne's 50th wedding anniversary to be held at his sister's place in Paso Robles. Sharon Bergstrom in Santa Cruz, who I had recently reconnected with on Facebook also invited us to come to her place and stay as long as we want. We decided to drive but there was a problem: my driver's licesence had expired while I was sick, so it meant Sue would have to do all the driving. She said she could handle that and I felt it was better she drive otherwise she'd drive me nuts driving her precious Subaru. As usual she spent a lot of time planning the trip, which is her style and she's good at it. However, as it happened we picked a time to go just when a heat wave hit the West. It was 110 in Paso Robles and on the way home between Palmdale and Yuma the temp was 114. The SUV was not bothered by the heat and we were quite comfortable inside the vehicle. The motel in Yuma, a place Sue has stopped at many times has a huge pool which she took advantage of right away. We had two other cool stops alomg the way, a place called Dana's Point on the coast below Los Angeles, where it was foggy on the beach and the temp was 73. Only one motel had eggs and sausage for breakfast and that was Le Fuentes in Yuma; the rest served rolls and cereal and that's all. That did not square with our anti-inflammatory diet.
We used the portable concentrator in the SUV as well as every motel we stayed at. It was a bit awkward but the thing worked well. We plugged it in inside the vehicle but it actually ran on its batteries which would run down and we'd recharge them at every motel. We thought it was supposed to run on the SUV's power but it never did. I did take some canisters with, but it wasn't enough, so we had to stop at a place in San Luis Obispo and trade our empties for replacement canisters. I did spend some time off oxygen and I am trying to increase it all the time.
We saw Stan and Anne the evening we arrived and for two hours in the morning, which was nice, because otherwise they were surrounded by lots of friends. Their two boys, Stephen and Greg, organized the party and made a short film, like Nasima did for us for our 50th a couple years ago. The introduction was pretty funny because Greg used the intro to Star Wars with a script that applied to their years together. I made into the film which I took as an honor. After that they went around the room for stories, mostly about Stan, something we did not do at our party. Some of them were very funny. Anne, who is basically shy got in a few zingers that surprised me. The food they served was too fancy for my taste, so I nibbled and drank three glasses of wine. I also took about 20 pictures. Greg wanted me to say something but I declined, mostly because how bad my hands and arms looked. My arms were and still are covered with purple bruises and psoriasis, and my hands are covered with white scales. I looked like a leper.
Stan's sister's home is perched on a hill outside of town. The veranda faces east and you can see 50 miles. You can see the mountain range that is located near Bakersfield. It was spectacular view. While talking to Ray P. on the veranda he told me he said he had a great deal of admiration for my political protesting in the sixties and seventies, something he was never able to do. I said thanks and we moved on to other topics. We went back to the house the following morning, June 31, for breakfast, and then head to the freeway to go to Santa Cruz.
When we got to Sharon's place it was about 70 degrees which felt wonderful. We stayed there 3 days and nights and it stayed cool all that time. Sue walked on the beach; we had comfortable beds to sleep on and I slept well for all 8 days we were on the road; we ate well and had an extremely good time with Sharon and her latest man, Steve Lauper, as well as with John Robinson who came down from his mountain home to join the merriment. As Suzie likes to say, we laughed and scratched to our heart's content. Steve works for a radio station in Santa Cruz and is an artist, a new variety of print-maker. He does small drawings, splashy, very abstract, say about 8 x10, and then blows them up to a much larger size, so you see a mass of detail you wouldn't otherwise see. Sharon taught English classes at one of the local H.S. but retired 3 years ago after 27 years. I was a bit surprised to see how well Sue and her hit it off. They were like jolly sisters, getting off on each other; indeed, the energy of all 4 of us was sky high. On Sunday night Steve and John played their guitars and sang for a couple of hours. It was all great fun.
We spent some time with Sharon's kids, 37 year old Heather who like her mom teaches in a H.S. in Santa Cruz. She's the scientist in the family, teaching biology and chemistry. She seemed to be quite political as well. She's married but has no kids and doesn't want any. Shron's 23 year son, Mike, is quite a hustler and looks like the god Apollo, tall, blond, sharp, resourceful and ambitious. His nickname is "Broiler" because his last name is Pitt. He's the fruit of another father. Good kid. Reminded me a lot of my nephew Mike Pfaffl who died of an overdose in 1999. Broiler doesn't seem to be too interested in drugs. He's all business. He owns a high-end restaurant, a nightclub with a dance floor, a bar, and his own home, not to mention 5 vehicles. Jeez, at his age I was still wet behind the ears and always broke. I saw that painting of mine that Skip Wagner gave him, a very colorful and playful abstraction that I did my last year at UNLV. He also owns one of the drawings I put in EROS & PSYCHE. Both are in good hands. We are already making plans to go back to Santa Cruz next summer, only we will fly and stay longer.
The ride back to Tucson was smooth and without incident.
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