Sunday Morning

***YAAAWWWWNNNNN***** Hey y'all. How goes it for everyone out there in the world on this chilly Sunday morning? I just crawled out of bed and I am trying to get warm and wake up. At this moment those are my biggest plans for the day beside this post. Hopefully once the "waking up" portion of the plan has been realized I will be able to expand upon my possibilities.

I am still taking my thyroid meds. I am convinced that they are causing me to feel like there is a huge lump forming in the back of my throat sort of like the feeling you get when you are about to start crying. Sooo, that means what? That my thyroid is swollen? That I am loosing my mind? That I am on the brink of anaphalactic shock? I am calling my doctor tomorrow to discuss the full range of probable answers. I don't trust this stuff.

The little campground (Saddle Mountain RV Resort) where we are living is really hopping this weekend. Even the tent sites are full and it has been getting petty chilly at night for tent camping. I am glad to see people up there though because these are some of the coolest tent sites you could hope for on a camping trip. There is a trail that switchbacks up the side of the mountain the tent sites are scattered along and then eventually the trail just keeps on by itself all the way up to the top. We have yet to go all the way to the tippy toe top of the mountain because we always seem to head up that way at dusk and don't have time to make it back up and down before dark falls. The trail winds through some really gorgeous woods... I love these woods and man are they photogenic. You wind in and out of old oak groves and really eerily serene stands of pine. Here are a few shots I took last night while out on a walk at dusk.






Beautiful right? The next time we go up I will get a few shots of the view looking out over Carmel Valley. You can see all the way to the ocean on a clear day. I love that we have this walk right out our front door. It's a good work out too.... steep all the way up.

Huh? Wha?

Yeah. I am feelin' kind of spaced out and thinkie all at the same time. Anybody else ever feel like this? It's a weird way to be feeling. I don't know if I mentioned it at all in the past few weeks but I got all adult like and found myself a real live doctor here in Carmel and went in even though there was nothing acutely wrong with me and got a real live check up. They ran a full panel of blood tests and I went in yesterday to get the results. As it turns out I seem to have hypothyroidism. This does not surprise me all that much seeing as how I have been feeling really tired for ooohhhhhh, about the past 24 years. So today I started on meds to combat this problem. The meds are coming from a source that makes my brains turn inside out with disgust and horror but the alternative is a synthetic med that research shows to not be as effective in treating this particular problem. The pills I am taking are made of ground up pig thyroid. B-A-R-F. It makes me feel like I have a tennis ball made of pure dread stuck in my throat to think about it. But I dutifully swallowed down my pig gut pill this morning anyway. I guess it takes weeks and weeks for any results to be felt in the course of taking these pills (they actually call them "grains". ) And I may have to take them for the rest of my life. It's like the old questions... how many grains of sand in the desert? Except mine will be... how many grains of pig thyroid choking my soul? Whatever. If I feel like I can leap buildings in a single bound without needing a nappie afterward 6 weeks from now I guess it will all be worth it.

The doc also gave me some samples of tryptophan to help me sleep at night. I have been battling insomnia for a few weeks (months, years) on and off. I took two (even though I was told to take three) last night and THAT is not happening again. I was still slurring and teetering around at 1 o'clock this afternoon like 14 hours after I had taken the things. Just bizarre. I will continue to fly the night skies on my own weird personal ride of wakeful sleeping in lieu of a stupefying tryptophan slow boat to nowhere. I still woke up for about three hours of doped out sleeplessness last night... so they really did me no good whatsoever. Any one else out there had a different experience with these? Do tell!

Other than all this B.S. that is totally boring and self indulgent for me to be writing about... not a whole lotta lotta is going on. We took Rudy down to Dog City by the Sea Beach today and he ran his fannie off with numerous glamorous Carmel pooches. We forgot the camera this time so I have no evidence. Also... Rudy almost pooped in a coffee shop. It was sort of an accident. A poop emergency that snuck up on him. It wasn't like he was maliciously pooping to ruin any one's day. I was paying at the counter and Billy was trying to get coffee over at the self service counter and suddenly Rudy was twisting and curling around on the floor mat trying to deal with a rogue dingleberry that had emerged secretly from his derriere. Billy (thankfully) realized what was playing out and abandoned his coffee errand to whisk Rudy out on to the sidewalk to extricate the nugget. Are you not glad that I share these gems of info with you all?

So there you have it. Have a lovely Tuesday night folks.

A Little Break from Reality

This was made by Billy's friend Brian in NYC... Brian is a gem.

A Whole New Plan

Okay! So.... last I told you we were possibly going to head down the Big Sur Coast to Limekiln State Park for our camp hosting gig. AAAAannnndddd a day or so after that we found out the whole area was on fire. Still IS on fire actually. The planet is still working on itself in this neck of the woods.... working out the kinks, giving itself an extreme make over. It can't be bothered with a couple of geeks like us. So... once again we had to start thinking about a different plan. We spent a few extra days at Big Sur Campground where the nice folks who own the place offered us a chance to stay and work there for the coming season or two. We considered it but ended up not signing on because they needed rock solid workers through til next Fall and needed more hours than we were willing to commit to with our own businesses and the attention they require. They were great people and we wish them the best of luck in this upcoming rainy season! They have a lot of work to do to get the campground ready for possible flooding in the Big Sur River.

Also... we have to send a shout out to Betty Le at Pfeiffer. She is the ranger we worked with down there and is a super cool person. We shall return Betty. In a time when Big Sur is not heaving like a pissed off grizzly bear.

I got a bunch of neat pics on one of our last days in Big Sur while out tide pooling. This one is a great shot of a sea urchin... what a beauty. Click through to see it big, it's worth it.




So now we have returned back up to Carmel. We really love it here and may just stick put here for the winter. There really are not any state park camp hosting jobs turning up in locations we are interested in spending the winter so since this is one of our fave spots we may as well just hang out. And if we give Rudy a choice... he would pick Carmel over just about any place in the whole country. So there you have it. But don't hold your breath or count on anything. Our plans have changed 19 times in the past three weeks so anything could still happen.

Billy suffered through some serious finger pinching for me to get these two shots...





Rudy is glad as Hell to be back in Carmel. This is Dog City. We went down to the beach this afternoon and he celebrated his return with a few new friends...

I like to call the first two "Runs with Seaweed" and then "Dances with Wolf Hounds."





It is so great to be able to let him hang out and play with all these other dogs. He is crazy for it.

Right now I am in the midst of a cookie baking marathon. I have one small cookie sheet and a crap load of dough to bake off. It is an enormous waste of propane but it's happening. Tomorrow I am feeding this campground cookies. Unless Billy eats them all tonight.

Still Hangin'

Hi all... just a quick update. We still are not sure exactly where we will be landing now that we have been uprooted from Pfeiffer Big Sur. There is a chance that we will move down coast to Limekiln which is a small park right smack in the center of the Big Sur coastline. This is a super remote park... no phone, the electricity is via generator and the nearest grocery store is more than an hours drive away on the curvy doodle, make you car sick Hwy 1. It would take some serious effort to keep Billy's painting sales alive and running froma locale such as this. It is also a spot where we could potentially get isolated due to landslides and road closures once the rainy season sets in. We have to take all of these factors into consideration mostly because of the fact that we have to be able to get online and get stuff shipped out to buyers at least a few times a week. Once trapped by a mudslide I am pretty sure the post office does not deliver or pick up any mail. Yeah. So there you have it. Just so you can understand why we are considering this place as a serious option here are a few photos of the place to clarify the appeal...





So there you have it. It's not definite that is where we are headed... I am still trying to talk to rangers in a few other locations mostly in Northern California but Limekiln is the only spot so far that is for sure open.

In the meanwhile we are hanging out in the woods reading, painting and thinking. Here are a few more pics until next time...

Quickie

Our shiny little space ship in the forest....




Hi you internet people... I just wanted to post a quick update on our scene out here in Big Sur. We have a big change of plans that has landed on our sunshiny faces these past few days. The park we were set up to live in for the next three months is officially closing for the whole coming season. To access the campground you have to cross a bridge that runs over the Big Sur River and they are afraid that once the rainy season begins there will be a lot of flash flooding carrying debris down river from the fires this past summer. The bridge would more likely than not be washed out completely by these floods. So... they are going to pull the bridge out before the rains begin. This leaves no access to the campground, therefor it has to be closed down. It can rain heavily here beginning in October through to around March so it will not be opening back up any time soon.

So where does that leave us? Yeah! Good question! We are trying to figure that out right now actually. We may head north up near Mendocino (that is my first choice) or we may end up down near San Luis Obispo at San Simeon State Park. It all depends on where we can secure a spot. We can hang out here until they announce that the bridge is coming out... it could be a week or two at best I think. Then we have to hit the road.

We have no internet service where we are right now.... so updates will be few and far between until we land somewhere else. It is beautiful here (even despite the fact of damage done by the fires) and we are trying to soak up as much as we can before we head out.

True Grit

So tomorrow Rudy's poop will be full of sand. It can't really be good the amount of sand he seems to swallow every time we take him to the beach. He just gets his mouth totally full of it. He goes crazy. I don't know.... maybe it is the ultimate fiber experience or something. He loves it.

Today was our last day in Carmel so we went to the town beach for a good long while. Rudy is doing better with coming when called and staying when told to stay. I thought it would never happen. Usually if he even lays eyes on another dog (and it does not matter if said dog is 3/4 of a mile away) he rips off straight for them. Carmel's beach is a totally dog friendly place and dogs are allowed to be off lead but I personally think we look like assholes if we let him run like a nut way far away from us. So we have been battling this habit and it seems that we are finally making headway and coming to a place where everyone can be happy. We had fun today because we were not screaming "RUDY...NO! NO! Rudy COME!" every 6 seconds.

We dig holes...


We people watch (and dog watch)



And generally just hang out...



There are of course still moments when he reverts to demon like behavior. I think it will always be this way. He is dog... he is dirty. It does make for some super funny photos, that's for sure. Sometimes I think he is part terrier and part swamp thing... if there is a dirty, muddy pond to dive into he is there every time.




And for the next 5 minutes after getting wet he rips around growling and snarling. It's quite entertaining. It's all fun and games until the next morning you look over and see this happening...



Those are my pillows. Where I lay my CLEAN FACE at night to go to sleep. Sigh. Oh well... my immune system is probably the stuff of legend now that it is dealing with that dirt on a daily basis.


I think that will finish it for today. Have a great week peeps and I will report in from Big Sur once we get set up down there.

Oceanic Cuteness and Concentrated Evil

The above picture is evidence that seaweed can indeed be cute. Sooooo cute. If there was ever any debate on this issue... I have just closed the case in favor of the seaweed. It is not always stinky and slimy.

Anyway... what else? Let's see. First off I would like to make a public service announcement of sorts... This is relating to dogs of course. Kind of like when they do a recall of certain tainted pet foods that make it on to the grocery store shelves and may sicken your animal. This is a warning to all dog owners. There is a product on the market that basically is microwave popcorn for dogs. It is a smaller packet than the human size one and this popcorn is bacon flavored. We were given a free sample of this product from a feed shop here in California. Since Rudy is IN YOUR FACE if you try to eat popcorn in his presence we thought... Hey! Great idea! Bacon popcorn for Rudy!
We fed it to him one night while trying to bribe him to let us file his nails with one of THESE. We crammed his face full of bacon popcorn and he loved it. He ate it until his eyes literally pleaded... "Please, please you have to stop giving it to me because I cannot stop eating it!" So that was that. Life goes on... until two nights later. Let me explain that the inside of our trailer is a small space. I mean... it is enough room for us to live and function and be perfectly comfortable and happy in, but when it comes to certain things, namely SMELLS, it can get really small, really fast. And on that particular evening it was like being housed in a shoebox with a seriously pissed off skunk. Bacon Popcorn = Bacon Popcorn Farts. Bacon Popcorn Farts that have been stewing for 48 hours in the gut of a dog. When I mentioned a pissed off skunk that does not really come close to capturing the true essence of this scent. It would be more accurate to imagine that the skunk also smells like greasy poop. Burning, greasy poop that is on fire and smoldering in a pit of old rubber tires. Yes. That about sums it up. At one point Billy and I were actually huddled in corners with clothes to cover our faces. It woke me in the night. There was no escape. Of course Rudy was oblivious. Every now and then he would shoot us a look over his shoulder as he let fly with a freshy just to see if we were paying proper attention. Which was unavoidable of course. My attention paying skills were forcibly at an all time high. So there you have it. Do not feed your dog Bacon Popcorn. It could be used as a seriously hateful tactic against a neighbor you are quarreling with... feed some to HIS dog. That'll fix him. Just make sure you are upwind of the situation on the day you execute your plan.

I will leave you with a few more recent beach shots from here in Carmel. I like to call this one... "Two Bearded Men."


This is a shot of Rudy in hot pursuit of a curly little lady on the beach who was playing hard to get...



And this last one is my favorite shot from that afternoon. The waves were just enormous and were breaking right on the beach. The sky was an incredible backdrop of clouds, blue sky and of course the sun.


We head out to Big Sur on Monday. I am hoping to still be able to get online via our air card so cross your fingers for us.

Coastal Good Eats and Views

This week we are settling into our new hood here in the Carmel/Big Sur area. We took the 35 minute or so drive down coastal Hwy 1 yesterday to see what our camp host sites will be like at Pfieffer and ate at the local restaurant Nepenthe.

The campground is beautiful, nestled down deep in a valley of redwoods. I am not sure what site we will land in yet because Betty the ranger we have been speaking with was off duty yesterday. The park is right near a few essentials like the post office and of course a beach where we can bring the dirty little dog. I did not grab any shots of the campground but here is what our beach of choice for daily walks looks like...



It's a good one. We spotted dolphins fishing the kelp beds and the waves were nice and big (this is a requirement for me... I want the constant sound of them crashing to accompany me on my walks.) It was windy as hell but so it goes. Rudy fought with seaweed. And sometimes... the seaweed even seemed to fight back. It was fine entertainment.



Lunch at Nepenthe was nice. It is off the charts silly expensive ($17.50 for a portobella mushroom sandwich) but then I guess you pay for the view and the real estate it sits on when you eat there. There really is no such things as cheap eats in this neck of the woods. I liked the atmosphere of the place though, it was really casual and anytime I get to sit outside to eat you win me over.

After lunch we drove back up the coast and stopped off at a few beaches that we had spotted on the way down.




It was getting on in to early evening and was quite cloudy so my pics are kind of dark. I guess you can see well enough what the place looks like though. The sky was beautiful casting spotlights out on the water through the clouds..

Yesterday we stopped off at the farmer's market and were thrilled to find baskets of zucchini blossoms at one stand. We bought some and the woman gave us her recipe for cooking them as well. I made them today for lunch and they were quite good (and easy to make.) If you happen to stumble upon some in your local market here is the recipe I followed...

Bar D Ranch Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms

makes 4 appetizer/side dishes or 2 light entrees

8 zucchini blossoms with baby zucchini attached (female blossoms)
16 teaspoons soft goat cheese, feta or ricotta ( I used goat cheese and did not come close to using or needing that much)
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons minced shallot
1 cup finely chopped tomato
salt and pepper to taste
a few shredded leaves of basil

Gently open the zucchini blossoms and place 1-2 teaspoons of cheese in each. Close the petals to enclose the cheese. (This takes a minute to master... the first one will have you all "What the Hell am I doing?)

Make a fresh tomato sauce by softening the shallot in butter and then adding the tomato to cook for a few minutes until soft. Season with salt and pepper to taste and add the basil. Place the stuffed blossoms on top of sauce and cover the pan to cook (on low heat) for around ten minutes until the zucchini is tender. Serve on top of the fresh sauce.

Here is a shot of my zucchini in the pan...



They turned out really well and tasted fantastic. I used a bit more shallot than required and we had really beautiful heirloom tomatoes to make the sauce from. Also the goat cheese was locally made, loaded with fresh herbs and garlic. I would totally make these again if given the chance (it's not everyday you find these blossoms.)

Billy is starting work on a few Carmel Beach scenes and I am sure oodles of Big Sur work will follow. The landscape is endlessly paintable here. I will post a few paintings once they are completed.