The Good News Or The Bad News?

Hey everybody, after a disastrous journey here and a crazy start, things are finally settling down. So I'm driving to CA with the cat, what's the worst that can happen? I lose the cat.

Everything was fine and dandy, Treff was driving me batty with his incessant complaining 'why are the trees moving? Why is my seat shaking? Why is it so hot, you try wearing a fur coat. My litter box is too small...' but all in all we were making good time. We decided to stop for the night in a little two horse town called Lakeshead just north of Shasta Lake. We found a motel that allowed cats and spent the evening watching the Olympics. The next morning, Robin's dad offered to take Treffly for a walk on his leash. Despite Robin's warning that walking a cat is very different and one mustn't pull on the leash, there was a moment of panic and Treffly somehow got away. Unfortunately, there was nothing surrounding the little town but woods. We spent all morning scrounging through the brush searching, all the while visions of Treffly's leash caught up on something and choking him crept into my mind. By mid day it was hot and we had to take a break. We went to the local deli for lunch where the owner offered to copy some flyers; thus the afternoon was spent knocking on doors and passing out 'LOST CAT' notices. By evening I'd completely lost hope. I felt bad for blaming Robin's dad, but I couldn't help it, I thought he understood cats better. We all geared up for another sweep. Robin's dad sat vigilantly watching the trap he'd made, while I headed out into the brush again. As I began to scan the blackberry brambles for a flash of blue leash, I noticed a feral grey cat darting under some blocks of concrete, and thought to myself, 'now that's a good hiding place' but upon further inspection, saw no sign of his orange plumpness. Yet I kept scanning the area and then all of a sudden I saw it, that flash of blue leash, TREFFLY!!! There he was, huddled beneath the slabs of concrete, looking a bit bewildered but otherwise in good shape. After re hydrating him and a can of tuna, we opted not to stay there another night and hauled it out of Lakeshead. And after hours of searching, straining to hear him meow, I couldn't have been happier to hear Treffly’s disdainful remarks all the way to San Fran.

San Francisco is exactly as it's rumored to be, hilly and foggy. I managed to maneuver the truck successfully and was completely exhausted by the time I parked in front of 547 40th Ave. Before even getting Treffly out of the car, I went in to investigate my new dwelling. I was a bit disappointed, it really was in a basement and a bit dreary. I went back out to the truck to get Treff, and what did I find? A 50$ parking ticket! I had been inside probably no more that 10 minutes tops! There's only a two hour break in the entire week when it's prohibited to park where I did due to street sweeping and yet, of course, I’d managed to parked there just during that period, and in a moment of weakness I completely lost it.

The next day was filled with IKEA and unpacking. Robin had put me in touch with a friend who manages a catering company and I got word that there was an opening to work for something called 'Outside Lands' the following three days. I really had no idea what it was, but it was work and it was in Golden Gate Park which is about 5 blocks away so I more than happy to accept. As it turns out, Outside Lands was a HUGE concert, and I was working in the beer tent not far from the main stage! While serving beer and making an ass of myself trying to do simple math (we had no real cash registers), I got to hear (if not actually see) Radiohead, Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Tom Petty and Manu Chao to name the big ones. Despite reeking of beer, trying to catch under aged punks and working 12 hour days on my feet with hardly any breaks, it was awesome!

Needless to say, today was spent catching up on sleep and building my IKEA furniture. Things are coming together and the place is looking much less dreary, and of course I'm just tickled to wake up every morning with Treffly purring in my ear.

I hope everyone is doing well and I miss you all! I still don't have a phone, but incase you want to send me a snail mail, my address is:



547 40th Ave.

San Francisco, CA 94121

Oh, these are just the before pics, I'll put up some 'afters' in a bit.

Reunited

After returning from France, I was home for about 12 days before heading to San Francisco. During that time I was excited to see friends and family, check out the old haunts, eat Asian food and partake in various activities, one of which was horseback riding with my friend Emily on the beach at Ocean Shores. This had been one of our favorite things to do back in the old 4-H days, and although I no longer had my horse, Emily assured me we’d find something ride-able.
The day before our ride, Emily took me out to their friend’s place to “check out what horses and tack they had available”. As we were coming up the drive way Emily suddenly turned to me and said, “I have a surprise; the horse you’ll be riding is Raj!” (my old horse). I couldn’t believe it; I’d sold him over 7 years ago and I’d completely lost track of him, and there he was out in the pasture! I’d like to think he remembered me although he certainly didn’t start whinnying nor jumping for joy, but when I rode him, aside from being a bit arthritic, he seemed to remember it all.
The beach was fantastic, we cantered along the sand, played in the waves (the horses were thoroughly confused that the water was salty and that there was no grass), and jumped over drift wood. It was great to be back in the saddle, although I was really sore, and it was such a wonderful surprise to be reunited with my old buddy Raj. Thanks Griswolds!