yahd pissins

One thing about a car like ol' Brownie is, (still not 100% on that name...) but you get the idea. Is in a place where cars are king, and the newer the better, a car like mine stands out more than say, a Ferrari Mondial with a headlight out.

Last night I got pulled over for the first time in probably 10 or 11 years. The infraction? The officer said he couldn't read the letter "S" on my license plate because the trailer hitch was obstructing it. Seems reasonable enough. I mean, i'm sure that's cause enough to pull a guy over and risk getting mashed like a bugar between the fingers of my car and a passing drunkard in a shiny new Hummer H2. Why not?

Well, I got more of the story tonight actually. Turns out that while I was loading up on some free furniture (a night stand and coffee table, as well as the wooden chair i'm sitting on right now) from a friend of mine's garage, a watchful neighbor smartly called the police and made a report that my friend was being robbed. Apparently while I was 2 blocks away refilling the ol' tank, the cops had his block surrounded. Up and down the alleys, surely with guns drawn looking for the tweaker in a ski mask. So, I guess I was doomed from go. The officer was nice enough, surely better than the ones they keep over there at the 6th Precinct in the West Village, i can tell you that. But it could easily have turned into a disaster. Naturally he had the double take on my NY license, which has been rendered invalid by California DMV by way of the common hole punch, but there I was with a car full of supposed LOOT.

Naturally I came up clean on the local police radio, I mean, for pete's sake I was a god damned BOY SCOUT. I also managed to squeak in my story about the time I had to sleep on Highway 40, and spent the night thinking I was going to get fucking CREAMED from behind every time trucker stomped on his Jake Break coming down the hill behind me. (the sound of those sounds too much like the sound a truck makes when he drifts across the white break-down line and onto the grooved pavement meant to remind the driver to keep it between the lines...) So it was nice. Kind of like practice for an episode of Garrison Keillor's weekend address. It was an adventure, and I drove away happy that I wasn't going to have to go to the local jail on my first trip back to Sonoma County, even though i've heard they have good Corn Bread up in there. I'd say yesterday was one of the more relaxing days i've had since leaving Brooklyn. Took a nice leisurely drive west out through San Anselmo, Lagunitas, and Point Reyes before banging north and rolling through the hills alongside Tomales Bay and over on down through Petaluma and on up to Santa Rosa for some Tacos before heading up to Healdsburg to walk around in the vineyards and listen to some Sonomacore. It was good times walking the rows with a couple of dogs (Mogli and Mabel) sniffing in all the fresh air and just soaking in the silence of the california countryside.

Had a couple of beers, ate some peanuts, took a little piss on the ground. You know, my good friend Aaron used to say to me after moving up to my place in Santa Rosa probably 15 years ago now, hell, i'm sure it's 16, but hey, who's counting? He had been living in the city for a while and needed a break from the pace of it. ( ha! imagine. San Francisco. TOO FAST?) Anyway, I had a pair of Bose 501's flying from the ceiling in the living room, playing some old jazz standards, a strawberry patch out front with a hammock on the porch. 40 acres in the back, and vineyards stretching to the sunset off the front, there we are outside having some beers, and he says to me, "Nuthin' like pissin' in the yahd!"

He's right. And i've always remembered that. Anytime I find myself out pissin' in the yahd, I say to myself, "nuthin' like pissin' in the yahd..." There really isn't anything quite like it. It's FREEDOM. It's AMERICA in the nutshell. Well, I tell you. It's much later than I thought it would be when i got to this part. Not sure if you noticed but i bumped up the size of the pictures on that last update, and was thinking i'd keep it going like that. California Sized, but I don't know yet. It really doubles them file sizes, and I don't have the turbo fiber channel here for the uploads, but i'll try a few other things in the days to come, see if we can't strike upon us a compromise.

Today's post is a bit of my new neighborhood. Hope it gives all you city folk a sense of it. For me it keeps me grinning ear to ear all day just looking around at a place so pretty as this one. Hell or High Water, if you're gonna be in either, I think I like 'em both better from over here.

One small thing is i'm rocking the shared wireless which has an impact on them big uploads, and there's a bit of hen pecking involved with some of the files to make sure they get where they're going. My friend Facundo found a cheap and effective solution for me. I've got FedEx all over it. Should be FLYING down the pipes any minute now.

Have a good day out there, and if you do, well, then them pictures are doin' their job.

good times,

dTown | listening to the whir of my G5's fan