Strolling

When it turned out the Jets game wasn’t being shown on TV, Chive and Lila consented to take a walk in the arroyo with Chauncey and Eleanor. Chauncey declared it to be his favorite walk in the world.

The river became visible.

The walk starts off on a dusty downhill slope which leads to a paved concrete road next to Jet Propulsion Laboratory. At the bottom of the slope, Chive heard the sound of the river and was stoked. He carried his football with him. A few minutes later, the river became visible to the right.

Periodically, there was a bridge to cross.

Periodically, there was a bridge to cross. On one bridge, a man was tackling a tall tree leaning against the outside railing. He succeeded in knocking it down into the water below but a branch flew off and hit Lila on the foot. The man looked and continued walking in the opposite direction. Lila said her foot hurt, but it did not appear to be injured. She was outraged that the man did not apologize. Chive suggested the man may not speak English.

Eventually, Chauncey announced there was a spot up ahead where they could sit by the river. A woman was leading her horse, Believer, across the river when they arrived. Lila and Eleanor admired the horse, and the woman showed them where to pet him on his forehead. She said he was her favorite horse out of the fifteen she had owned during her lifetime.

A small frog leapt up.

The foursome explored the area. Chive took off his shoes and waded in the water. Lila followed suit. Chauncey inspected the wildflowers, and Eleanor took pictures. She was delighted when she sat down on a rock and a small frog leapt up. Everyone came over to have a look.

On the way back, the light became softer. Other walkers were returning from the waterfall farther up the trail. Chauncey suggested they start earlier on another day and head for the falls. All agreed it was a great idea.

All agreed it was a great idea.

Closeups

Getty Museum.

One day Eleanor took her mother-in-law, Cecilia, and Chive, Lila’s boyfriend, to the Getty in Los Angeles. This was Cecilia’s first trip to the Getty. Eleanor and Chive had each visited before.

After parking several hundred feet below ground, Cecilia, Chive and Eleanor boarded the tram for the 10-minute trip up the mountain to the museum. They shared the tram car with a boisterous group of 6^th graders and their teacher. The teacher told the students to look out the window for deer which live in the mountains. A few seconds later, students with sharp eyesight began announcing, “I see one” and “There’s one.” Eleanor looked and thought she saw a statue of a deer but wasn’t entirely certain.

The three went first to an extensive exhibit with photos of Cuba from the last 75 years. Cuba has always been a mythic place for Eleanor. She grew up in the 1960’s on Key Biscayne in Miami. Her friends were young Cuban immigrants whose families had left Cuba before Castro. As they sat in their living rooms, her friends showed her photos of themselves dressed in white in front of grand homes in Havana. They spoke Spanish to their parents and ate meat cooked with onions and plenty of garlic. Their names--Miriam, Lilian, Gloriosa, Manuel--were unfamiliar to Eleanor.

Lilian, Gloriosa, Eleanor, Miriam.

Eleanor was completely overtaken with the idea of being forced to leave your home and move to another country. She made up a story of her own to tell them. She said that her family came from France and spoke French. (Eleanor’s mother did read and speak French, and Eleanor’s family had recently been to France on vacation). One of her friends, probably Miriam, asked her to speak some French. Eleanor quickly repeated the one phrase she remembered from her trip, a phrase the hotel doorman greeted her with each morning, “Comment allez-vous, mon petite fille?” Miriam remained unconvinced that Eleanor’s story was true.

They took in the beauty.

The trio ended their visit to the Getty with a walk around the garden. Chive took the camera and followed three monks whose bright orange robes matched the intensity of the colors of the flowers.

 Cecilia and Eleanor sat on a bench and took in the beauty of their surroundings. They talked about the photos they had seen, mostly the ones of the sky in an exhibit next to the Cuba exhibit.  Cecilia looked up and saw that the blue of the sky was almost exactly like the blue in a photo of the sky at Malibu. She was happy to know that the photographer had not fooled her.

Cecilia looked up and saw the blue sky.

Melding

At lunch one day with her friend, Fleur, Eleanor described camping in the rough with Trent and Olivia. Fleur, a poet and always curious about the back story, asked how Trent and Olivia had met. “It’s an unusual story,” replied Eleanor.

They met at Clingstone's.

They met about 20 years ago at a restaurant on the East Coast called Clingstone’s. It’s in the middle of a bay on some large rocks. You have to take a launch from the marina to get there.

Trent was a waiter at Clingstone’s.  One night, after his shift, he was sitting at a table drinking a beer and playing Pinochle with some of the other waiters. Trent says that Olivia came in with a date, Harcourt, a guy Trent had seen there before with other women. The first thing Trent noticed about Olivia was her red curly hair and green eyes. He remembers she wore a red flouncy skirt and a shiny black top. He was smitten.

The game didn't turn out how Trent expected.

They played four-handed pinochle. Trent’s partner was Marcos, the Portuguese owner of Clingstone’s. He and Trent had won big playing together. Harcourt’s lineage was long and his pockets deep. Trent and Marcos couldn’t resist the challenge.

The game didn’t turn out how Trent expected. Olivia explained quickly to Harcourt the ins and outs of bidding and melding and when to use the dix. They beat Trent and Marcos but not before Harcourt had too much to drink and couldn’t stand up straight. All four climbed aboard the launch and headed back to the marina.

He and Olivia drove out to the lighthouse.

Trent offered to drive Harcourt and Olivia home. He dropped Harcourt off at his family’s estate and, then, he and Olivia drove out to the lighthouse to get to know each other better.

Fleur looked off in the distance. She said if she knew how to play the guitar she might write a ballad.

Angels and Monkeys

On a recent Friday night, Eleanor and Chauncey took the train from Union Station south to Anaheim Stadium with their friends, Ben and Veronica, to see the Angels play the Yankees. Ben and Veronica had season tickets to the Angel games. Veronica warned that the seats were in the nosebleed section.  Eleanor worried she might have to hang out by the beer station if the seats were slanted at too much of an angle.  She wasn’t always comfortable with heights.

Before leaving the station, the train was searched by a bomb sniffing German Shepard. It was two days before the 10th anniversary of the September 11^th attacks. This delayed the train’s departure so they arrived at the stadium as the players were running onto the field.

Several people stood outside the stadium gates with large cardboard signs announcing Jesus Saves and Jesus Loves You in red lettering. Stadium employees stopped taking tickets while the national anthem was sung by a prepubescent girl in a tank top. Ben reminded us that we were behind the Orange Curtain.

Behind the Orange Curtain.

Settled into their seats, Chauncey and Eleanor ate BBQ pulled pork sandwiches and drank Firestone Double Barreled Ale.  Veronica had a vegetarian hotdog and a pineapple margarita.  Ben stocked up on his protein with pulled pork and sausage. 

Eleanor and Veronica talked about why they had left their jobs as therapists at the same nonprofit mental health agency. They periodically cheered when the Angels got a man on base or sent the Yankees back out onto the field. Veronica said we had come a long way from watching Christians being fed to the lions.

The Rally Monkey worked his magic.

Sometime during the 7^th inning when the score was tied at 1 to 1, a Rally Monkey film was shown on the screen.  The Rally Monkey, a Capuchin monkey, is the Angel’s mascot. As soon as he popped up in the wrestling ring ready to take on Jack Black in Nacho Libre, the crowd went wild. Children in the stands held up their stuffed Rally Monkeys and danced along with the music. Every time the Yankees switched pitchers, another Rally Monkey film was shown to spur the crowd to cheer their team to victory. The Rally Monkey showed up in the trunk in The Hangover and was the villain who terrorized Janet Leigh in Psycho’s famous shower scene.

The Rally Monkey worked his magic. The Angels beat the Yankees 2 to 1 in the bottom of the 9^th inning. Ben couldn’t wait to check his favorite Angel blog at Rev. Halofan. Veronica could return to her painting satisfied with the outcome of the game.

Bird Chat

In early Spring, Eleanor and Chauncey set up a bird feeder under the persimmon tree in their backyard. They had spent some time watching birds feast at the feeder in the backyard of their friends Trent and Olivia. They concluded that having a bird feeder was a good excuse for sitting and drinking coffee for as long as possible before doing anything productive. 

Ginger & Macy

One morning as Eleanor was drawing at the table outside, she looked up to see a few finches perched on the feeder having their breakfast. She watched as they flew off to the avocado tree, waited on a branch and came back down again to the feeder, tweeting periodically.  Eleanor began imagining what they might be saying to one another.

Ginger: Hurry up, Macy, before the others come. You can get a good spot. You know what it’s like here when it’s crowded. You’re crunching on some seed and all of a sudden, WHAM. Another bird has slammed into you knocking you off your perch. I hate that!

Macy: I know. I was here yesterday and a chickadee just flew right up and landed practically on top of me. I had to get out quick. Like my mom always says, “A bird never flew on one wing.”

They have no fear.

Ginger: Those chickadees. They have no fear. I’ve seen them on the ground even when the cat’s around. (She lowers her tweet to a whisper). I saw him go for one of the chickadees the other day. It was not pretty. Feathers flying all over the place. You know where he hangs out, don’t you? Over there. Where the humans eat.

Macy: As if we can’t see his paw hanging out. He must think we’re so stupid. 

Ginger: You know what really gets me is those squirrels. They jump up on here and the feeder starts swinging like mad. By the time they’re gone, there’s nothing left for us birds.

Macy: I guess you have to be up with the lark if you want to eat.

As if we can't see his paw hanging out.

Ginger: And what’s up with that titmouse? Have you seen him? He is all over the place. I see him hiding out in the roses looking around before he swoops in but only for a second. It’s like he’s spooked or something. He’s gone before he takes a bite.

Each bird sings with his own throat.

Macy: I feel sorry for him. But, each bird sings with his own throat. Hey, after we’re done here, let’s go for dessert at the fig tree. The figs are just ripening and they are sooooo sweet.

Eleanor and Chauncey's Review of Books

All the unwanted books were gone.  They had been distributed to various places.  Most had gone to the library.  Others to the used bookstore and some to the post office to be shipped to online booksellers.

All the unwanted books were gone.

Eleanor learned by experience that selling used books was about as financially rewarding as selling used clothing.  Much to her surprise, hardback fiction in good condition was worthless.  Paperback fiction was worth slightly more.  Most valuable were paperback books likely to be assigned to high school students, such as, Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence and The Hot Zone.  Even then, they brought in only a few dollars.  The online companies offered a few cents more than the used bookstore in town.  The books were worth more if Eleanor accepted store credit over cash. 

One evening during the purge, Eleanor decided to enlist Chauncey’s help.  The task was to identify the most valuable book in their library.  The obvious choice was the 16 volume set of the Arabian Nights which Eleanor had given to Chauncey for his 23^rd birthday.  Opposite the Arabian Nights, on another bookshelf, were 10 volumes of literary masterpieces by such authors as Homer, Plato and Milton.  

Don Quijote with illustrations by Pahissa.

The most intriguing contestant was a thin book bound in gold leather entitled, El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha with illustrations by Pahissa.  The book belonged to Chauncey’s father who died when Chauncey was 17.  Chauncey’s father had also contributed the series of literary masterpieces.

Eleanor was certain they had hit pay dirt with Don Quijote.  During their internet search, she insisted she saw that illustrations by Pahissa were going for $25,000.  They checked out every source they could find, most in Spanish, desperately trying to match the edition of the book they had with photos on the web.

They all kept their places on the shelves.

The Arabian Nights came in first place at around $1,000.  Don Quijote tied with a book of short

novels by James M. Cain each priced at $150.  The literary masterpieces ranged from $60 to $100 each.  They all kept their places on the shelves.

The next day as Eleanor and Chauncey sat outside in the cocktail pit reviewing the day under a once grand but now dying avocado tree, they heard their neighbor’s eight- year old daughter ask her grandfather, “Abuelito, what time they close the library?”  Eleanor knew most of their books had gone to a good home.