Writing and Rambling

Koufax Memories - Strange Water

Sure he drank from his bowl, but never when there was another option. Once we moved to Seattle he drank from rain puddles >80% of the time. It got to the point I would start leaving plates and bowls scattered about the backyard just to watch him move between them all and really whet that whistle. He treated Strange Water like tapas - taste a little bit from all the options.

Drinking from the spigot in Big Sur. Like a fancy boy.

Mt. Rushmore of Teas

Today I took a Tea 101 class where I learned about, and sampled, different variants of teas. All were unique and superb. Each well representing their style: white, green, oolong, black, pu erh, herbal. Very fun experience; not unlike wine tasting. The same grape from the same vintage by the same winemaker from the same vineyard, but different blocks, will taste different.

All tea comes from the same plant! But different regions, and harvesting and rolling techniques, and amount of oxidation and fermentation, and brewing temperature and time, will vastly alter the beverage.

With that said, my Mt. Rushmore of types of teas are as follow: white, oolong, black, pu erh. I will drink and enjoy any good tea - I am a tea drinker; I drink tea. But these are my top 4 in no particular order.

Lefty

In early 2016 the Humane Society hosted an event at our work featuring about shelter dogs with the hopes they would get adopted. After a long day in the factory I thought nothing would be better than playing with some dogs before the long commute home. I texted Sara and told her why I would be late.

90 minutes later she had put a hold fee on a dog through the San Francisco SPCA. Sara found her through their webpage. A young bitch that had her front right leg amputated a couple of days prior.

We drove up to the City the next morning - we needed to meet her and she needed to meet Koufax. She warmed up to us immediately. It naturally helped that we had handfuls of treats and kept passing them though an opening in the glass wall that separated us. We would later refer to this opening as a “glory hole” because from Lefty’s point of view that hole was the most glorious thing in the universe.

She did not give Koufax the same first impression. As a matter of fact, she bit his face. I told you she was a young bitch.

We obviously took her home. I was apprehensive but Sara loved her and I trust Sara.
At first it was a colossal mistake. She was not house trained. Certainly not leash trained. And, drank water until she threw up and then would drink more stopping only to pee seconds later. If you didn’t keep an eye on her she would drink out of oil puddles. On and on.

But then …

She hopped her way into my heart.


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Sitting Around the Campfire

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This will not be the last time I mention this: I am an Eagle Scout. This will also not be the last time I write about campfires. I offer my credentials as bonafides that I have sat around hundreds of campfires.

Amongst the world’s greatest known enemies - climate change, poverty, racism - is sitting downwind of a campfire. Nobody ordered a cayenne pepper s’mores. Look at this photo. 30 seconds before it was taken Goldberg was on top of the world. Then the smoke rolled in, searing his irises. True story: his eye color darkened. When we noticed it the next morning we told him - horrified, he immediately called his optometrist to get an appointment. It was the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend.

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I now offer you my greatest life hack. Look up the wind forecast before picking your seat around the campfire.

Let that sink in.

Before picking up the axe. Before betting your friends it will only take 1 match to light the fire. Before ripping into the Graham Crackers*. Before any of that, type into Google “local wind forecast”. Or visit a webpage like WillyWeather. All sailors, pilots, campfire enthusiasts have it bookmarked. Or just talk to the Ranger. Figure out where it is coming from.

*you have to carefully plan when you open those packs. Once the wrapper is open you have less than 48 seconds before they go stale. A open pack of Graham’s is the only substance on the planet that has a shorter Peak-to-“Is thing 1000 years old?” time than an Avocado.

And then sit with it to your back. Or, ideally, 45 degrees off vector. That is to say, if the wind will be coming out of the North than you want to sit at the NE or NW side of the fire. All night long the smoke will be across from you. Leaving you free all night to drink and laugh and tell tales all with clear eyes. And a full heart.

There is the added bonus that the smoke will chase away any friends from sitting directly across from you where dialogue would be difficult due to the fires affect on sound waves.

See you upwind …

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