Summer of 2012

     Well...my summer away from
Jasdip began with a flight to
Portland, ME  and a drive to Green
Lake to visit nieces, nephews and
grand nieces.  It was fun driving
along through all those small
New England Towns.  We had a
great gathering with lots of food
and drink, visiting neighbors, meeting
new people and lots of Lobster!!!
Nora and Matt's house in Maine is
a wonderful place to host lots of
folks and we all were very relaxed
after a week. Then it was time to
move on.

    For me it was a flight back to
Alameda, CA and a visit to my old
neighborhood in Martinez and two of  my dearest friends Mark and Joyce.
Got to meet the new kitties (Stormy
and Cloudy) and see the house before
the massive remodel.

Kitties to the Vet for shots

   There, of course, was much eating,
drinking and the requisite reading
Mr Mark would give me each
morning.  That man reads constantly.
I gratefully used their place as a base
and also spent time with Cati on

Cocktail hour at M & J's!

Timeless. I keep trying to get Cati and David to come to La Paz and visit but they are a very busy pair. I also did my annual refinishing of M & J's teak table on the deck but didn't have time for the chairs.  I already have my marching orders for next summer.  Chairs  WILL  be refinished!!! You all know me and I really like to varnish something it
always makes me feel useful and
good! LOL.

My Old house in the "Hood".

   Well four months seems like a
long time but it really went so
fast.  I headed to Richmond to
check  in with Jeff and Anne
(cruising friends from La Paz). They
were house sitting a nice place right
on San Francisco Bay and we sat outside on the patio and watched the
ships and sailboats go by.  We headed over to  the Richmond Yacht club
to check it out and Jeff got us in.
Can't remember what Club he used
but it worked.  We had wine and
an endless "red solo cup of Goldfish"! What's not to like!
    Just as I arrived at Jeff and

Nice digs!

Anne's I saw something floating
in the Bay.  At closer inspection
it turned out to be a black
Taylor Made fender.  It was
actually coming right to their back
yard and I just went down to the
beach and picked it up.  It is now
Hanging on the side of Jasdip in
MX. Those suckers have a lifetime
warranty! What luck!  There was wine and beer involved and I think that
is why Anne couldn't decide
which way her sunglasses were
supposed to go.  Cruising has that
effect on us all!






       Then I headed north to Oregon.
I stopped in Medford to check on my house and to visit my sis and her

The Crew

husband.  We had a great visit. went
to the usual haunts (wineries) and
they also took me on two river
trips.  The first I think was the
Klamath ( upper).  There are no
pictures of that one.  I wasn't on the
river for more than 15 minutes and
the first rapid came up. Well........
there went my camera and anything
else that happened to be in the
kayak including me.  Well I kept trying

It was beautiful

but I just didn't get it.  I really felt
hopeless.  Guess it had just been too
long and I forgot everything that I
might have known in the past.  Upon the
Group's insistence I gave up my kayak and was relegated to the raft.  As it
turned out I had a good bit of fun in
the raft because I was far more familiar
with rafting rivers than kayaking them
and it all came back to me very
quickly. Never the less I was a bit

My sis Paula

demoralized by the first 30 minutes of
the day. These particular pictures
are of the second time we went
on the river and I had a much better idea of what to do.  The rapids were
easier and my brother-in-law, Ron,
gave me great pointers that served
me well.  What a good guy!

Some small rapids

Diane, who by the way has visited me in MX!

Diane, Paula and Ron

Kayak-er Extraordinaire!

    While I was visiting Diane gave me
the name of a Deep tissue masseuse.
Toru Suziki.  I went to see him and he
breathed life into my shoulder's.  He
gave me more range of motion than
I have had in 10 years.  While I was in
the Medford area I went to see him a
total of 5 times over a month or two.
He had a great grounding effect on
me mentally and physically and I am
continuing the exercises he suggested

Toru

still today. Things are getting better.
as evidenced by my being able to
sit at a computer to continue my blog!
I was and still am so excited about
the progress I am making every day but
it's inception was there in Rogue Valley with Toru!