Call it what you will

I call it what passes for adventure around here. Another day filled with the ordinary, but with some small tweaks to the routines that serve to pass the hours.

We kicked off our Saturday with the usual stroll, which has now devolved into a variant of the Candy Walk, just in different neighborhoods. But that’s okay; I get my steps in, and Swan loves dispensing her sweetness to the children we encounter. Here’s a taste:

A new addition to the neighborhood. Who sits there and why, I cannot say.
Hey! Wait for me!
Taking care of business
Finished with business. Missed her 54th birthday by six days.
A busy morning
The simple life

I made a five-minute video of the uphill portion of our hike.

This time, I held the phone vertically to facilitate my ability to climb the steps. I still need to work on improving the angle I capture. Part of the problem is that I’m always looking down when I walk.

I’m coming!
What the Hail, Mary?

So, what goes up must come down. And I did a video of that, too.

That was excruciating. I’ll try to do better in the future.

Our Saturday Stroll route

I still wasn’t feeling like doing the same old Saturday night in Barretto thing, so we did it on Baloy instead. And we changed things up there by visiting two new venues.

A place called Drunken Sailor was our first stop.

It is located at the Baywatch Resort on the second floor. It was empty when we arrived, and no one else came in during our brief visit. This has the potential to be a nice place to hang out, but the owner will have to work harder to find a way to attract customers. I understand they joined the dart league but wound up dropping out because they didn’t have enough players to field a team. They played good music, even some country songs I like, but otherwise, the vibe was non-existent.

A Drunken Sailor’s view

While we were there, I caught this guy checking out Swan, so I confronted him:

I’m your Kryptonite, mother fucker!
One last look before we departed

Swan was ready for her toes in the sand time.

A busy Saturday on Baloy Beach
I was impressed with the table and seats this group carved out of the sand.
Volleyball on the beach is more fun to watch when bikini-clad girls are playing

So, the beach bar Laharnyz, which used to be a popular expat hangout, is no more. It is now called Cherryz, but it was not open when we stopped to check it out. The story I heard is that the expat owner of Laharnyz and his girl split up, the girl took over the bar, and now no one goes there anymore.

As we walked the beach, we saw a new place had opened, and some of those former Laharnyz customers were drinking there. We decided to drop in and check it out.

The place is a bit rustic but nice
The beach view from our table

The owner came to our table and introduced himself. He calls the venue “Kim’s Place,” and it is pretty much a one-man operation. In an odd twist, he’s a Filipino, and his name is John Kim. If I understood him correctly, he said his father was Dutch. Anyway, a nice guy and we will definitely be back to enjoy the beach vibe and sample some of the food snacks he serves.

Those prices are amazingly low.

As we chatted, I asked if he might be interested in hosting a Hash On-Home. He was familiar with the Hash from other venues he’s worked at and was willing to have us come for a beach Hash in the future. I’ll discuss that possibility with the Hash powers that be tomorrow.

While we were at Kim’s Place, I got a message from Michael and Taz asking where we’d be later. Our next stop was Treasure Island, so they met up with us there.

The view from our table at Treasure Island

Saturday is live music night at TI, so we had a rockin’ good time. The place was as crowded as I’ve ever seen it.

Good times!

Taz has her own YouTube channel and is a much better videographer than I’ll ever be. She showed me the video short she made of the goat rescue on our Friday hike.

Damn, music and captions, too! I may have to hire her to tutor me!

My lemon chicken dinner

Michael and Taz live in the Club Morocco subdivision out near Cawag, a pretty good drive from Barretto. I’d looked there during one of my house-hunting trips prior to the move. Loved it, but just too isolated, especially for a non-driver. They dropped us off at our house on their way home. And so ended another day in the life.

Two days in a row! Can I make it a trend?

When I imagine my “do-over” life, I think I’d elect to start again in high school and take it from there. Today, I was reminded of those long-ago times in an old Facebook post sharing memories of my high school journalism exploits.

We changed the name of our high school paper from the boring “Westminster Scroll” to “Harvest.” I was a big Neil Young fan back then.
My first experience as the leader of a team. Looking at those names now brings back other memories. Tina Loo, you were such a hottie!
My tenure was not without controversy. I wrote an editorial calling for the legalization of marijuana, and the letters to the editor in response were brutal. Forty years later, the California government came around to my way of thinking.

My dream was to become a journalist, but as a poor boy, I couldn’t afford the required college degree. In my do-over life, I’m going to enlist in the Army and get my education paid for.

So, what do you think about this?

I had to think about it, but I think it’s okay. Unless you stutter.
Hobbits is a proper noun and should be capitalized. I’ve read the LOTR books several times but remember nothing about the food.

TRIGGER WARNING!

Yes, indeed!
I’m sure it was smack dab in the middle of their empty head

I should learn to be nicer; I honestly don’t care what people who disagree with me think. I take comfort in knowing I am right and they are wrong.

Alright, enough of the political nonsense. Let’s move on to something that we can all enjoy. Like Jambo’s video from the swimsuit competition at the Beach Bash:

And now for the smiles:

Hmm, how about a hybrid called “Alice in Oz”
Hey, they’re playing my song!
Squeeze it out, Spongebob!

It’s been nice changing things up a tad, but today I’m back to the Sunday routines. Nothing wrong with that: a Candy Walk, the Hideaway feeding, sunset on the Arizona floating bar, dinner at John’s place, and a nightcap at Green Room. Life is good.

1 thought on “Call it what you will

  1. So, the beach bar Laharnyz, which used to be a popular expat hangout, is no more. It is now called Cherryz, but it was not open when we stopped to check it out. The story I heard is that the expat owner of Laharnyz and his girl split up[;] the girl took over the bar, and now[,] no one goes there anymore.

    Wow. That was all in a matter of a few months, wasn’t it?

    Michael and Taz live in the Club Morocco subdivision out near Cawag, a pretty good drive from Barretto. I’d looked there during one of my house-hunting trips prior to the move. Loved it, but just too isolated, especially for a non-driver.

    But you have a driver, ja? So anything within reach of a car is reachable by you.

    When I imagine my “do-over” life, I think I’d elect to start again in high school and take it from there. Today, I was reminded of those long-ago times in an old Facebook post sharing memories of my high school journalism exploits.

    I can’t think of any major religions that offer postmortem do-overs as the same person. In Hinduism, the karma you generate determines what your next life will be, and assuming you didn’t gain enlightenment in this life (in which case you wouldn’t reincarnate, anyway), you won’t be privy to your past lives in the next life (seeing your past lives is a siddhi, or special power acquired through wise practice), so you can’t use the wisdom from previous lives to help you live better the next time around. Why would you do anything differently next time, anyway? You seem pretty intent on not learning lessons right now! Example: gonna stop drinking anytime soon? Didn’t think so. If Hinduism is right, you’ll be carrying that stubborn rejection of enlightenment into the next life. And the next, and the next… So I guess it’ll be do-overs in that sense, if Hinduism obtains, but without your ever learning anything. Eternally trapped in the painful round of samsara. Paddling in useless circles.

    Better for there just to be a Big Nothing after death. Sure, we’d lucky if the cosmos were run like “Groundhog Day,” with previous knowledge slowly helping us to improve, but I seriously doubt that’s how any of this works.

    I’ve read the LOTR books several times but remember nothing about the food.

    Did you ever read the appendices to learn about pipeweed? I would think that, as a young pothead who liked Tolkien, you’d have been keen on that.

    I got curious about the capitalization question re: hobbits/Hobbits, and it turns out Tolkien probably would have capitalized the word when referring collectively to the entire race, but not necessarily in reference to individual hobbits. I don’t know… it’s been a few years since I read The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *