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…

Cali Trip - Part 2

Once getting out of San Fran the drive was easy. deidre got out the CD’s that she had recorded, turned the volume up and sang at the top of her lungs along with Adam Sandler, Tenacious D, Jewel, James Blunt, Prince, Eminem and all of the other music that closer to the bottom of Master’s list of favorites than the top. she’d called everyone to let them know she had made it in once piece and was in an adventurous mood ready to take on anything that Hwy 101 could throw her way.

When she made it to her dad’s house at about 3 am she was shown to her bed, hugged and tucked it. she wanted to fall asleep right away. The next day would be starting much earlier than she wanted it to.

One of the reasons deidre chose this particular time to travel back home to California was because her father was planning on combining an open house along with his annual 4th of July party. There was just one problem though. The house wasn’t finished it. At this point the foundation had been poured, the studs and walls had been erected the roof was on and so was the siding. There was nothing else though. No flooring, no insulation, no hot water, no toilet etc. deidre was sleeping on the second story of this unfinished home. Under 2 thick blankets the 50 degree cold sill seeped in. deidre spent the first 15 – 20 minutes of each night shivering before falling into sleep.

deidre’s first full day with her dad started with coffee -thank god- He had a meeting first thing in the morning and then came by in his work truck to pick up deidre and take her to the main park at which he works. He introduced deidre to a few of the people that he works with and then took her to the water treatment plant that is his responsibility to maintain. He showed her how to mix the chemicals and take readings of different levels in the water so that it can be labeled safe to drink.

Then we drove out to one of the other parks that he works at where there is a working lighthouse. On the way there deidre took some wonderful pics 

 It’s so pretty out there with the ocean nearby, the smell of salt water, the mountains over yonder and the space in between flat and plain like. deidre could easily imagine building a small cabin and living out the rest of her life in that spot.

Dad’s property consists of a small wellhouse/shed, a large garage with washroom and the house itself. Until the house is finished Dad, B, and their 2 Newfoundland are living in a 36-foot trailer. When it comes to socializing there just isn’t room so dad has a campfire ring in the front yard (yes, the front yard) and the 5 of us (dad, B, Hero the dog and Blessing the dog) sat around the fire each night talking. That first night we were up until about 2 am.

It was just like summers as a kid when deidre and her sister would spend 2 months camping in whatever park dad was working at at the time. Every night we had a fire and slept in a tent. Each day we would run around getting filthy and covered in dirt, sap, sand, and whatever other messy thing we could get into while dad was working.

Staying at dad’s house was a bit like that. deidre never got fully clean. Within a half an hour after getting out of the shower she would be dirty again. There was nothing to do but accept it and have fun anyway.

Friday was a little more relaxed. deidre woke up, got dressed, went down stairs and was reminded that today was the day that she promised she would go to the soup kitchen with B. deidre’s never actually been to a soup kitchen and it sounded like a wonderful opportunity to help out the community. We got there about 10 after picking up one of B’s friends and her son. Lunch would be served at noon but there was quite a bit of prep work to be done first. deidre helped to brew coffee, set out the bread, set up silverware and the juice table etc. Noon came very quickly.

deidre didn’t quite know what to expect. Here in Saint Pete the homeless people that deidre has been exposed to stand out on the street corner all day asking for money. deidre is always tempted to get a stack of job applications from the nearby area and hand them out as she drives by instead of money. she didn’t expect that the people at this soup kitchen would be like that, those people on the street corners here make far too much money to ever go to a soup kitchen.

What she saw made her very sad. There were families coming in. Little girls and boys with their mothers and fathers who didn’t choose this life. Teenagers who couldn’t meet your eyes because they were embarrassed to have greasy hair and dirty clothes, ashamed that they had to accept food from strangers rather than starve. Almost every single person there thanked us after being served and when they returned their dirty plates. 74 people showed up. Out of those 74 only 2 seemed to be your “typical” homeless person on either drugs or alcohol.

It kind of makes you think doesn’t it?