Enough With The Packing Already

Not my Boarding Pass

Ever seen one of these ?  It's a "Secondary Security Screening Selection” boarding pass marked SSSS. One summer long ago Jackie and I went to Italy to see Colleen, we stayed for a week in an updated apartment constructed in the 1200s in this tiny hilltop town in Tuscany called Petroio, famous for terracotta pottery.  Every night we went to our village Festa De Unita party sponsored by the Democratici di Sinistra, The Democrats of the Left, and our German Green Party innkeepers/hosts told me that 'Bushie' wouldn't let me back into the US after spending dollars and partying with German and Italian Communists.

Party Emblem

Later that fall we were at SFO and Jackie and I tried to board our United flight for Las Vegas and the Agent said there was a problem with my ticket and she couldn't issue me a boarding pass. She took my bag and separated Jackie and her bag from me. Then a polite but serious young woman, well dressed in a gray business suit, came to the counter and took me aside to a desk and began to question me, she was polite but firm, while typing on the computer and talking on her cell phone with some urgency.

TSA Abuse

She asked many questions, I guess you could call it an interview ( interrogation? ) . After a while she had the Agent ticket my bag and issue me a boarding pass, and the well dressed, polite but firm young woman wrote "SSSS" on it in red pen and told me I was a special class of passenger. When I asked what was going on she told me not to worry about it, and when I asked if this would continue to happen she told me, "Yes, until your profile changes."

Current TSA Note

At the Gate I was shunted by the nylon tape ropes to a boarding line all my own that went to the wall, yes, I was facing a wall, while my boarding pass was examined, finally after some 'enhanced' screening I was seated next to Jackie. I had a 'profile'. At McCarran my bag did not come off the carousel, I dutifully filled out 'ze papahz', kept the receipt and some time later my bag arrived at the hotel with my stuff all messed up and a formal note telling me my bag had been randomly selected for inspection, ahem.

Baltimore & Hurricane Isabel

I thought it was the Revenge of Bush becaused I partied with the Communist party.  This happened a couple more times then stopped, my profile changed, apparently.  I finally figured out what happened. I flew UAL to the East coast with my kids in September, right into Hurricane Isabel.  On the way back I got off the plane at SFO instead of Sacramento, my ticketed 'ultimate destination', by then I learned to fly with a carry on only. Conner told me they came through the plane looking for me. I broke some Airline rule by not completing my flight, according to United. So that was it, the Airline determines this, not the TSA.

I had a few gripes with United when I was a Marine and flew in uniform at three quarters fare, but I'll skip that for now.  I wonder if Mister/Doctor ( did he get his license back ) Dao will get special selection by the airlines when next he flies ?  Hmmm...

No Particular Place To Go

Wow, where was Chuck Berry when he made this recording ?  I don't know but I'm guessing "Deep down in Louisiana close to New Orleans, Way back up in the woods among the evergreens". 

Historic 'castle' building in Visitation Valley

So we wound up at Breakfast At Tiffany's on San Bruno Avenue this morning, it's over the hill from us, on the other side of McLaren Park.  In The Portola (POUR-duh-luh) District, San Bruno Avenue is right alongside the Bayshore Freeway, and if you start at Silver Avenue it goes South past Mansell Street and Paul Avenue and merges with Bayshore Blvd. at Viz Valley, across from where Schlage Lock used to be and that place that looked like a castle.

Silvestri's 'log cabin' showroom

Keep going on Bayshore and you get to Geneva Avenue and The 7 Mile House and across the street at the City/County line is a rough wood structure that was called George's Log Cabin and is now Silvestri's . Keep going on Bayshore, when you get to the light at the top of the hill, behind the low shoulder of San Bruno Mountain on the left or East, is where the Brisbane Rod and Gun Club shooting range usta be.

Bullitt chase scene, Mustang and Charger

To the right Guadalupe Canyon Parkway peels off over San Bruno Mountain to Daly City, my friend used to call it NBC Mountain because of all the antennas.  Just uphill from the intersection is where the chase in Bullitt ends in a fiery crash when the Charger hits a gas station.  Go straight and at the bottom of the hill on the right is Brisbane, City Of The Stars.

You following me ?  Been down there lately ?  Didn't think so.  Not your hood 'eh ?  Kind of a place for old timers that is in the middle of a transformation.  If you walk those couple blocks around Bacon and Burrows you'd think you were in Chinatown, then there's a couple of taquerias and the surprisingly large (once you go inside) La Loma Produce at Bacon, right under the freeway.  It's worth checking out if you've got no particular place to go, there's even a Four Barrel Coffee and a Brewery Pub there, FDR, and you don't need to pack a bag.

Got Kind Of Tired Of Packing And Unpacking ...

I've never lived 'town to town'.  Except for my humble beginnings and early days and a couple years in SE Asia and SoCal, I've lived all my life in SF.  However, when I worked for the NPS I did move around a lot, just about lived out of a locker and car trunk.  I did duty at two sites, with four offices and had four lockers. I kept clean uniforms, boots, socks, civilian clothes, foul weather gear, flashlight, gym stuff, shoes, books, paperwork, soap, sunblock, foot powder, moisturizer, toothpaste, medicine and first aid kits in my car and locker. I had boxes of food, water, juice, soda, utensils and stuff and a cooler to keep things cold and fresh, so I had a lot of bags.  Be Prepared, like a Boy Scout.

I never had a desk, phone or computer of my own like everybody else, and could never leave anything lying around, so I locked it up all every night before I left so it would still be there when I returned.  In the Marine Corps I learned to pack a bag, foot locker or any kind of space so I could find everything in the dark, and I never grew out of that.  It didn't matter where I was, day or night, I always knew where everything was. But after a while I 'got kinda tired of packing and unpacking'.

Not gonna belabor the point but there is that emotional baggage we carry around, gets really tiring.  I saw a cartoon drawing once, it had a boat pulling in to a place called 'Resentment Harbor', unloading baggage onto a growing pile on the dock. Clever, easier said than done, box it up, label it WKRP and send it Fed Ex Express.  WKRP is where you wind up, you drop your bags and stay there.  All the characters on the show finally found a place to just be.

Wait a minute, hold on, what's that ?  Damn, been months since I tried to do an update, and as soon as I start typing on the computer I get a visual migraine. Going blind for a while, be back in a bit, no worries, usually not painful, leaves me as good or bad as I ever was.  OK, I'm back, just a small one, undersize, had to throw it back, maybe my powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men took care of it, or that trick I learned from Werner Erhard when I took EST way back in 1971.

Living on the net in San Francisco

Jackie's School

Beautiful days this week, I dropped Jackie off at school early Wednesday morning and rolled down to Third Street all the way to Fisherman's Wharf. I'm the perennial tourist, I like the wharf, but the reason I went on Wednesday was for the crab season opener on the 15th. Some of the boats came in on Tuesday night so my favorite place had tanks full of the big ones, local Dungeness, after last year's disaster this season's opening was eagerly awaited and did not disappoint.  This is the only place I buy crabs anymore, family business, historic, they even do interpretive talks for the Maritime Park.  Alioto-Lazio Fish Company .

Nino checking out his lunch

They have their own boats and large tanks to keep live crabs, but you can get them cooked, whole or cracked and cleaned.  I used to buy them live but their cooked crab is as good as I can do, and a lot less work.  If you don't know, these are two historic families, but for some reason the Port was trying to shut them down a while back, there was even a mysterious fire on their pier.  So I threw my support their way, and we eat a lot more crab.

The Girls at Alioto-Lazio Fish Company

Other places might be cheaper, but no better.   Anyway, the girls at Alioto-Lazio maintain the tradition, the crabs are fresh, heavy, fat, tasty, one of the reasons to live here in San Francisco, oh, sounds like I'm getting back to my existential inquiry in the last post, I didn't mean to get all philosophical on your ass.  They have a variety of fresh and smoked fish, shrimp and lots of recipes and information.

26 Foot Farallon

I used to throw my net in all over the bay and ocean back in the 70s, it's a wonder I'm still alive after eating all the fish and crab I pulled out of the bay, it was dirtier then.  Later my friend got a commercial license and we used to fish all over the bay and the ocean down to Half Moon Bay from his 26 foot Farallon, I even took Conner out there as a little kid, he did the work of a man, my friend was a mean captain, he wouldn't even let the kid keep a fish until I made him do it.  When I worked for the NPS at Fort Point and they asked me if I could do a crabbing program on the Torpedo Wharf, right by the Warming Hut, I really laughed.  

Drakes Bay Oyster Farm

Too bad the DOI shut down the Drakes Bay Oyster Company, known to everybody as Johnson's , we were buying them by the 100 up there back in the 80s, cheap, boy did we have some parties.  Just past Inverness, it was always fun to drive up to Drakes Bay, get the oysters, have a dozen or so while we were there, then head back to The City through Olema along SFD (Sir Francis Drake) and stop at the Lagunitas Grocery Store and get a real milk shake.  Rode out to the Pt. Reyes Lighthouse a while back, looked like a crane was taking out whatever was left of the oyster farm, a really minimal operation to begin with.  Probably did more destruction and harm to the environment taking out the hanging cultures than the farm did in all the years it was there.

Baby, if you've ever wondered, wondered whatever became of me, I'm living on the net in San Francisco, San Francisco, WKRP.

Yeah, that's right, I copied WKRP In Cincinnati.  In case you're a recent arrival to this country, WKRP was a popular TV show, read all about it here => WKRP in Cincinnati I feel it's a metaphor for my experience right now, how I've been feeling, 'tired of packing and unpacking'. We'll explore that more on subsequent posts, it could be helpful for your own self, watch a couple episodes, if you know me you might just get it.

I quit Facebook, just quit, no reason, none that I feel like talking about, but I left a note, I'm still on the net, still available, I said I'd be here, "if you've ever wondered".  I hope you watch a little bit of WKRP, I love the show.  Great character development, especially cuz it was only on for four seasons so we didn't have to watch them go through things that TV writers, producers, directors have to make characters do to get watchers for seven seasons. Funny, a TV show about radio.

The Crew of WKRP seemed to wind up there for one reason or another, it wasn't like they were really trying, all of them have a background story that never really comes out, they were just doing what they did, what they liked, at a place where they could do it, maybe they had higher ambitions, but they all got shaken down by life, and they wound up at KRP, at the bottom of the ratings chart.

Did you ever see that shelter dog commercial, where you can see the dogs in cages and the camera zooms in on one and he says (the voice over) something like: "I know how to roll over, shake hands, and sit, but what I don't know is how I wound up here."

And I wound up here and like the dog it makes me wonder, how did I get here ?
 "Do you know? Don't you wonder? What's going on down under you?"