Cali Trip - Part 3

Friday night Dad and B took deidre to a coffee shop hang out of theirs. When deidre was in high school she and her stepmother used to go to a little coffee shop in Turlock where they would have live bands. One band in particular, Canterbury, was a favorite of deidre’s They played Christian rock, but their lead singer was so hot it that deidre was willing to overlook their choice in music. Actually the music was pretty good too, but not nearly as good as the sounds that the lead singer and deidre made as he was taking her in her fantasies.

By bringing deidre to a coffee shop on Friday night B was trying to recreate that experience. The difference was that the music was jazz, and none of the band members were attractive. The coffee was great though and we drank cup after cup as we shouted to each other over the music.

That night we sat around the campfire again and told jokes with one of the men who has been helping dad work on the house. Evidently the campfire in the front yard most nights makes dad appear to be a squatter and he meets lots of people who are between homes. His latest helper, W, was a very nice person who had fallen on hard times after having his driver’s license taken away due to some seizures. It’s hard to get work as an electrician when you can’t drive. Dad pays him a small amount per hour plus meals to give him a hand. Tonight he was eating the rest of our Cornish game hen as we told jokes and laughed around the fire.

deidre has a few favorite jokes. The first is the string joke. It’s dumb, but deidre loves it. The second is the UCDavis joke which you can’t tell as a joke or it’s ruined. If you really want to know any of these just ask and deidre will type them out. Dad, however, has added one to this list, not because deidre likes it, but because she made it up when she was a kid. Every time we get together with new people dad has to tell this dumb joke and completely embarrass deidre beyond belief. He decided to do that Friday night. This joke deidre will not re-tell. It’s dumb and pointless and makes no sense like most knock knock jokes created by 5 year olds don’t. she will drink her own piss, suck cock until snot comes from her nose, scream out that she is a fucking whore, plaster the internet with naked pictures of herself, get down on hands and knees and snort like a piggie, but she will not mortify herself by retelling this “joke”. When she couldn’t stay awake any more deidre went upstairs, crawled into bed and shivered until she fell asleep.

Saturday was the day of Dad’s non-house warming 4th of July party. deidre spent the first part of the day running back and forth to the grocery store picking up this and that until dad finally realized that he had everything that he needed. During the previous 3 days he had smoked a shit load of chicken thighs and drumsticks for the 90 or so people that had RSVPd but still needed to prepare the condiments, veggies, burgers, calamari and abalone.

deidre and her step brother (who had arrived at about 6:30 that morning from Portland) were put on lettuce/tomato/onion duty and started slicing away. He’d been in prison for a while, released about 8 months ago, and so had a lot of catching up to do on deidre’s life. deidre told him about her marriage, divorce, stepdaughter etc and we started to talk about this girl’s belief system. she’s never gone through the dedication ceremony but is basically Wiccan in all but name. deidre always tells people who ask that she doesn’t actually call herself a Witch, but a Witch in training.

We began to talk about the Wiccan Rede, “An Ye Harm None, Do What Ye Will” which brought us to why he is a vegetarian. He hates to cause harm or suffering to anyone, including animals. At that moment the knife deidre was using to cut the tomato cut completely through the tip of her left pinky finger. It didn’t hurt, surprisingly, but when she brought her hand up the tip of the finger was missing. The damn thing wouldn’t stop bleeding and deidre couldn’t seem to stop giggling. Not only was it fascinating to see the meat on her finger, but it was hilarious that it had happened during that topic of conversation. After she bandaged herself up, and threw away the missing piece, she went back to cutting veggies and was MUCH more careful.

After all of us had eaten dinner, gone back for seconds and had dessert we settled in to watch the fireworks. They started at about 9:40 when it was dark and were beautiful. One of the people there was a 19 year old girl with Cerebral Palsy. She was such a sweetheart and sort of latched on to deidre. It was so much fun to lie on the grass next to her and hear her reactions as each firework exploded in the sky. Things like that are always better when you can experience them with a child, see the wonder through their eyes, letting their youth bring out the child in you. Everyone went home by midnight. We did a little bit of clean up and got to bed late again.

Sunday morning was deidre’s last morning with dad. He hadn’t actually had time to cook up the calamari and abalone the night before so he sautéed it for Sunday morning breakfast. Calamari is one of deidre’s favorite foods and it was a special treat to be able to have some prepared this way. Dad even left the tentacles in for her ☺ Everyone else had pancakes. It made deidre feel special that he cooked them up just for her, but then again, she will always be his little girl.

At about noon deidre said good bye to dad, her step mother and step brother and drove away to begin the 6 hour drive to her sister’s house.

To be continued…