a few sites and sounds

ten days now in California and i figure it's about time to get back to keeping everyone up to date on The Only Boy. It has definitely taken me a while to find my stride after a couple weeks on the road. They were definitely marvelous days though, with nothing but moby dick, dusty miles, and other people's couches ahead of me. great nights with cool mountain breezes, laughter, wine, and new places to explore. Amazing time at the lake to figure out the west coast again and get inspired to be unemployed - just means time to be outdoors, cook dinners, do projects, right?
now - out here in dusty davis. where people careen around on cruisers like elephants on a tight rope. some of these people should not be on bikes. and because there's so much emphasis on bikes, they make bikes follow the rules: they'll ticket for stop signs, lights, not having lights at night, etc. Bike friendly is not bike fun.

Moving and accompanying details have kept me over busy the last 2 weeks and have yet to fully feel unemployed. we got out here and then discovered that the place we lined up was dirty and cluttered and just kinda nasty and just wasn't going to be the place we wanted to hang out. unfortunately, we discovered this after I moved everything from the car and storage container into the house. so we talked the landlord into terminating our lease, promptly found a tiny, but amazingly cute little cottage really close to town and campus, and then started moving again. we're just about done with that. to the point of setting up utilities - trying to prove to the post office that our house exists, trying to clear up a $2,000 phone bill that someone in utah rang up with my social security number, trying to not crawl through the phone line and strangle people who work for comcast - you know, that sort of thing. but finally, the rugs are on the floor, the kitchen has been consecrated with an espresso from the stove top (though we found a replacement carafe for our coffee maker - exciting) and two beautiful dinners from the central valley bounty, and I just built a hanging rack out of salvaged 2x4s and copper pipe. when you come visit you'll scream about how cute it all is. looking forward this week to cracking the norcal cookbook that mom gave us.

in other hysterics - last week I tried to put the bikes together (after they were totally disassembled in the storage container). It was an amazing day - just like Saturday in the bike shop. Hot hot sun, and every project turned against me - the wrong tubes, broken stems, grease melted in the sun, wheel damage from shipping, and all other manner of mishap. it felt great to have gresy hands again - though I have been staying in touch with phoenix through some proposal writing etc. as well.

anyway - that's the fun list. other highlights: riding around san fran, sitting in parks, laughing with our friend Mat (visiting Sf from DC), going on a sweet hike only an hour and a half from Davis (made it to treeline - pic below), finding 2nd hand stuff for the new cottage, 100 degree days.
so that's the update - hopefully starting the real fun soon.

the hike was to "twin lake" - an appropriate first hike down here.