Move-in Day

Basil (Son #4) moved into the dorms at Cal Maritime today.

I found out today that the reason the Secretary of State's office has been rejecting (3 times!) a form I have to file in order to spend money for my campaign is that I have been using an old version of the form. (Question: Why would the Secretary of State have the old version of the form on her website?) Oh, well, I now have the latest version of the form and am mailing it to her today.

Work is going well. I am teaching a new course: Entreprenrurship. I don't know much about it (The only time I attempted start a business, back in the early 90s, I had to shut it down because I received a letter from the District Attorney telling me that my business was illegal.) so I am signing up for an on-line course on entrepreneurship at a community college and will be teaching it to my students as I am learning it.

I haven't mentioned this very sad news yet because my oldest brother is a more private person than I am, but he has cancer and is dying. If you have an opportunity, please, pray for my brother Kenneth, his wife, children, and grandchildren.

Honeymoon and Covid

We went on a cruise to Alaska. We flew from San Jose to Seattle, where we got on the ship, the M.S. Westerdam. Our first stop was in Juneau where we visted St Nicholas Orthodox Church (They currenty do not have a rector and are surviving on reader services and occasional clergy visits), and then Glacier Bay, then Sitka where we visted St Michal Orthodox Church and were blessed to venerate a relic of St Herman. The ships next stop was Ketchican, where we went fishing.

We caught amazing number of fish, and Kathleen caught the largest one, a 34" Silver Coho.

We had 180 pounds of various species of salmon flash frozen and shipped to us, even one chum salmon which we will feed to the dog.

The next stop was Victoria, BC but we did not get off the ship. That was the night Kathleen started coughing. The next morning we got off the ship in Seattle and Kathleen had a fever. Our hotel, the Mayflower Park Hotel was very comfortable and the staff was very helpful. As soon as I told them my wife was sick they had a room ready for us, letting us check in 7 hours early.

Kathleen spent a miserable night. I walked to a nearby drug sstore to get her medicine but it did not do much. The next morning I was coughing too. By the time Basil Wenceslas picked us up at the airport in San Jose on the 31st of June we both had fevers. When we got home we went strait to bed. The next morning we both tested positive for covid. Then the next day Basil tested positive. All three of us got perscriptions for paxlovid that day. As of Sunday (today is Tuesday the 8th of August.) we are both testing negative and Kathleen says she is 80% recovered. She began teaching her fall semester yesterday. Today was the first day I was able to get out of bed. I can't taste anything except for salt and citrus, or smell anything except for what I think is a hallucination (burning wood), and my sense of balance is off, and I am partially deaf. Hopefully, that all corrects soon. I go back to work tomorrow so today I spent writing my course syllabi. Basil is doing worse than Kathleen and I. This is his third time to have covid.

Pheasant Shooting

It was a busy week. Basil had school (student), I had school (teacher), and Kathleen had school (teacher). Yesterday, Veterans Day we did not do our usual activities. Instead, I slept all day, Kathleen did stuff with her kids, and Basil did homework.

Today the three of us went pheasant hunting. The dogs were not doing their job; acting more like pets than working dogs, but we each got one pheasant. Later we had lunch in the clubhouse and Kathleen picked out a new shotgun. All our shotguns are a little bit to big for her so she tried out this Syren and really like it. Now I just need to save up the money for it.

Well the timer on the oven just went off so I better take the pheasant out.

Fruitcakes and civilization

Kathleen and I made 10 more fruitcakes today. We were going to go pheasant hunting but it was raining this morning so we decided to stay home and bake. The house smells beautiful; like cinnamon, butter, and whiskey.

Last week it dawned on me that in my world history class (we have been reading the about the pagan world; the Indians, the Japanese, the Aztecs, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Chinese, the Akkadians, the Incas, the Nubians, the Minoans etc.) that the whole pre-Christian world (except the Hebrews), all of them practiced human sacrifice and canibalism. Right now we are on ancient Greece and we have just finished reading Hesiod's Theogony, a gruesome tale of murder, incest, infanticide, cannibalism, rape, and war. I think we will be right up to Caesar Augustus in early December. And then I will assign my world history students the Gospel of Mark. I didn't plan it this way but isn't it amazing to be able to make the transition from the horrors of the demon-ruled pagan history to the Christ-filled history of the years of our Lord right at Christmas time.

Son #4 and the Maritime Academy

On Friday of last week (this is Sunday night) Kathleen and I took my youngest son, Basil to the California Maritime Academy. We went on a tour of the campus, we saw the TS Golden Bear, looked out over San Pablo Bay, talked about majors, and met some cadets. Basil is sold. He wants to be a Keelhauler and study to be a maritime officer. It is too late to apply for the semester starting in Fall 2022 so he will take some more CSUGE classes at a community college then apply for fall 2023 admission to the academy. He'll still only be 17 so I'm fine with waiting until then. We also went by St. Contstantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church. It is just a couple of miles from the campus. And just a little bit to the west of the campus is some of the best waterfowl hunting in California. I think it is a good plan.

Work I don't remember

Yesterday Kathleem told me something. It seems that several years ago I wrote a guide to writing history papers for her students. I guess, one of her students gave it to the librarian at the college, the librarian made copies, and now it is used in their turotial center. It seems that what I wrote was good but the sad thing is that I wrote it back when I was a drunk and have no idea what it says and have no memory of writing it.

Water Jobs

I have been studying for certification as a water treatment plant and waste water treatment plant operator for a while now and I think I am ready to take the state certification exams. So, as of this week I have begun applying for "Operator in Training" (OIT) jobs around the San Francisco Bay Area. Being an OIT is required for taking the state certifiction exam. And passing the exam must occur during the year one is working as an OIT. I applied for three positions today.

Bridegroom Matins at St. Herman of Alaska

Last night Anselm, Kathleen, and I (Basil is concurrently enrolled in high school and college and is weighed down with much academic work, so he didn't go.) went to St. Herman of Alaska Orthodox Church in Sunnyvale for Bridegroom Matins. It's a ROCOR parish so I expected there to be a lot of Slavonic but there wasn't any at all. My little OCA parish in Saratoga, St. Nicholas uses more Slavonic than we heard last night. St Herman has a gorgeous building, and the choir is pretty good, though it is heavily loaded with altos and soprannos. They need some Bassas and tenors, but as Donald Rumsfeld said, "you go to war with the army you have not the army you wish you had". One thing I really appreciated is that all the readers read perfectly: not too fast, not too slow, every word annunciated clearly.

After we got home from church I had lots of homework for my water classes to do. I was up till 2 am. Then I went to bed and couldn't sleep fom the excitement of Holy Week. So at 4 am I took a spoon of NyQuil. BIG MISTAKE! I slept to 1:30. We'll that puts me behind schedule for the day. Have to run out and get the red egg dys (using onion skins is too hard.) atInternational Food Bazaar.

Oh! Why did we go to St Herman last night? Because during Lent and Holy Week we are going on mini-pilgrimages to the different parishes in the area. A few night ago we visted St. Lawrence in Felton and tonight, I think Nativity in Menlo Park is on the schedule.

Late January and Early February

Anselm, San Francisco Bay

Duck season Don Edwards ended on January 31.  Before the end of the season my son Anslem and I went out shooting a couple of times.  I lost my license and federal duck stamp so the last couple of times I didn't shoot.  But Anselm did and he had fun.  He cooked one pintail breast but but didn't like it.

duck breast

My birthday was fun.  Kathleen, her kids, and my kids threw me a surprise party with liver from Original Joe's and  carrot cake from Nothing Bund't Cakes.

Work is still not great.  Because of the government's covid response I am getting very few hours at Bass Pro Shops and I've only had one substitute assignment since October.  I've been applying for other jobs but not getting them.  So, I've gone back to school. I think I mentioned taking a waste water management class from Evergreen Valley College this time last year.  This year I decided to jump in with both feet and enroll at Gavilan College full-time.  Their waste water program is much better than Evergreen's and it is, because of Covid, all on online.  

The green houses Kathleen put on the front porch are doing amazing.  We will have to start transplanting soon.

Work for money, work for love

Yesterday I finished all the training for the Census Bureau.  Now I'm just waiting for my boss to call me and tell me when I can go out and start counting people.  I'm pretty excited about it.  It's fun to do a job mandated by the Constitution.

I'm still working part time at Bass Pro Shops.  It is only part time because of Wuhan restrictions.  The health department only lets us serve two customers per hour at the gun counter, and only two customers per hour at the ammo counter; not that we have any ammo.  For example, there is a nationwide shortage of all the most popular kinds.  We've been out of buckshot since March.

My instructor from last semester's waste water management class sent me an email and asked me to apply for a job in his department.  He is the director of public works for a small city here in the Bay Area.  I  submitted my application late last night but wont hear anything until October.  Governments have very slow hiring processes.  This brings to three the number of waste water management departments I've applied to since I finished the training.

Also yesterday, I helped Kathleen with her classes.  I wrote the first assignment for her history class (it has to do with identifying values that motivate people to make the decisions we call history) and gave her the readings and assignments for the first six weeks of her economics class.  Plato, Aristotle, Bastiat, Marx (He's been in the grave for 140 years but he is still killing people.), Smith, Hazlitt for the first six weeks.  In the second 6 weeks, I think, she is going to do Hayek, Friedman, and Keynes.

Today I began growing bacteria for the garden.  Yes, we are composting but I think the nutrients we have been putting into the soil are not getting into the plants because the bacteria are getting killed by the heat.  (Hot soil is a hazzard of growing in raised beds.) So now I am growing bacteria and in a few days I will pour it all over the garden.  Then I'll cover the ground with a good mat of straw to keep the soil from getting too hot.

Saint Basil's Day (The other Basil)

Today is the feast of St. Basil of Moscow, the patron or my youngest son.  So, while praying the ninth hour today we got to sing the Troparion for St. Basil of Moscow.

Most of the beets, kale, and pumpkins - all the pumpkins, actually- we transplanted two weeks ago were destroyed by squirrels.  But we are still getting 5 or six big tomatoes, a dozen little cherry tomatoes, and three or four zucchini every day. (The squirrels, even though I shoot them, get more of the zucchini than we do.)  I've put up six quarts of pickles.  I really wanted more pickles but there have been very few bees in the garden this summer, so thought there have been many flowers there have not been many cucumbers.  I don't know what to think of that.  The carrots did not do well.  But the bell peppers are doing amazing.  The pumpkins we planted back in February were harvested and all but one given away.  I started more cantaloupe and pumpkin 2 weeks ago on the back balcony.  Tomorrow I'll transplant then into the garden. The turnips and radishes did really well but I'm really the only person in the house who likes them, so I won't plant any more, I think.

A word about the tomatoes:  The Cherokee purples did not do well.  We only got three or four off each vine.  The real star among the tomatoes this year is the Lemon Boy vine.  It is prolific and is the best tasting tomato I have ever had.  We might plant three or four of them next spring.

I ordered some short growing season watermelon seeds from Baker Creek.  They should be here in a couple of days.  I'll sew them directly into the ground and hope to harvest them in early October.

Kathleen and I have been doing a lot of fun stuff this summer.  We go shooting at Coyote Sporting Clays pretty often.  And, of course there are all the trips to Tahoe/Truckee/Reno.  (Basil and I went last Sunday and Monday.  He had a great time on the boat.)

Something kind of neat happened at dinner tonight.  Kathleen and I were talking about the reading list (Bastiat, Smith, Friedman etc.) for the economics class she teaches when Anselm, who graduated from high school two years early so did not take the economics course high school seniors take, asked Kathleen if he can take her class.  And since she, like all teachers in the county, is teaching online he can take it.  

Christmas, Birthday, the Boys, and the Garden

Christmas was pretty busy.  I did manage to find the time to go up the mountain to get Christmas trees.  It was, probably, the last time Anselm Samuel will do it.  I expect next Christmas he will be off in Alaska or Texas or South Dakota working as a welder.  I didn't find the time to make the Christmas sausage or go to any services at the Cathedral, but I was able to go to the Divine Liturgy at St. Nicholas on Christmas morning and the boys went to vespers at St. Stephen with their mother on Christmas Eve.  I was surprised by that.  I didn't know she still went to church.  About the only things I remember from Christmas this year are the party at my sisters house, going to church, and going for a walk along Fulton Street in Palo Alto with Kathleen and her kids.  Unlike the crazy, crowded, loud, over-the-top decorations in Willow Glen or some other parts of the bay area, Fulton Street is quiet and quaint.  You just walk along in the cold, looking at the houses.  It kind of evokes the feeling Rat and Mole had experienced when they were walking through a human village on Christmas Eve.

January is kind of a blur.  All I did was work.  Everyday.

In February I began taking a class on wastewater management.  It is something I have always been interested in but I never knew how to get into it.  I tried to get into it about 10 years ago but the nearest school for it was in Los Angeles.  In January of this year one of my co-workers at Bass Pro Shops told me that her other job is for the City of Palo Alto and that she works in drinking water but knows all the people in waste water.  I mentioned to her that I was always interested in that but didn't know how to get into it.  So she told me.  Then I told Kathleen about the conversation and the next day she emailed me a flyer from the school where she teaches.  The flyer said that at the request of several local governments they were offering a course that meets the legal requirements for someone to take the waste water treatment plant operator test.  So, I signed up for the class and the test.   I am very excited about this opportunity.

My 51st birthday was on the 4th.  Kathleen and the boys threw a little party for me.  I had Rocky Road and Jamocha Almond Fudge ice cream from Baskin-Robins.  Those have been my favorites since I was a little boy.

Basil and I went fishing at Lake Amador a couple of days ago.  We had fun but caught no fish.  He is still doing high school and college concurrently.  He got straight As in high school last semester and a B in his college class.  This semester he is taking another class at Evergreen Valley College: intro to philosophy.  So far, he is enjoying it.  I love that he is spending two nights a week with me.

Anselm missed a dead line for Eagle Scout so he won't be getting it.  I don't think it matters to him.  He just likes going on the camp outs.  Him getting Eagle was always more important to me than it was to him.  Besides, he is more involved with his Venturing crew and Order of the Arrow  lodge than he is with his Boy Scout troop.  He has finished his welding training but is still to young to get a job as a welder so he is working full-time at Starbuck's and trying to get into the apprenticeship programs at either the pipe-fitter union or the sheet metal union.

The garden.  Not to scale.

The garden is doing okay.  The garlic we planted in the fall is ready to ready to harvest.  It isn't the typical big-bulbed garlic you see in stores.  It is tender flavorful spring garlic.  I've been cooking with it for a week.  On Monday (today is Thursday) we built a new planter box.  So now we have four 4'x8' boxes and a bunch of pots.  We planted a lot of tomatoes, some bell peppers, pumpkin (from seeds we saved from our favorite pumpkin last year), some early squash, and a lot of flowers.  As soon as all the garlic is harvested we'll plant cucumbers and zucchini.  The garden always makes me happy.  Yes, we still have grubs, but not as many as last year.  And more nematodes are being delivered today.

Two Jobs, the Boys, and a Diploma

I have two jobs now.  My main job is as a hunting outfitter at Bass Pro Shops in San Jose.  I advise people on scopes, binoculars, guns, ammo, knives, decoys, and stuff like that.  It's fun.  Not much money but fun.  My other job is for Golden State Property Management.  In that job I drive around and show vacant apartments and houses to prospective tenants.  Its more money per hour but unpredictable.  For example, last Thursday I had six showings but today I have none.

Basil (Son #4) is spending two nights a week with me now.  That is because on Mondays and Wednesdays he is going to class at Evergreen Valley College.  That is where Kathleen works, and she drives him to school.  Right now he is only taking one class but that class meets the UC and CSU degree requirements.  My hope is that next semester he will take three, and by the time he gets a high school diploma already have the first two years of college knocked out.  He is the most academically inclined of all my children.  But my real joy is lighting the candle and incense, and singing the morning and  evening prayers with him when he is here.

Anselm (Son #3) is a qualified welder but isn't old enough to work as a welder.  No one will hire him until he is 18.  Until then he is working at Starbucks, which pays good money.  He is also taking advanced TIG classes.  Last week he survived the Ordeal and achieved the Brotherhood rank in the Order of the Arrow.  He is progressing toward Eagle Scout. He says that as soon as he turns 18 he is going to move to Alaska or Texas to find work as a welder, I'm hoping for Alaska; there's a higher percentage of Orthodox there.  Oh, how fast these years have flown by!

Perhaps, if you've read this blog for a long time, you remember that I began working on a masters degree in ancient and classical history about 11 years ago.  Well, I finally finished all the work and paid my bill but I took longer than allowed so I don't get the M.A. (One only gets 7 years from start to finish to earn a M.A. degree in the U.S.)  Instead they are mailing me a "Graduate Diploma".  So, that's something, I guess.  It's not an M.A. but it's something.

Ski Week

This is Tuesday of what people in this part of California call ski week. All the schools are closed for the week and many people drive up unto the mountains to go skiing.  I am not.  Mosly, I am working around the house.  Yesterday I rehung a door that was falling off its hinges,  Then my boys came over and I made dinner of roast beef threaded with bacon.  I also made bread pudding.  I couldn't eat it but everyone else loved it.  That made me happy.  After dinner we played board games.

Basil spent the night.  We woke up, said morning prayers, then Kathleen made us ommletts for breakfast.  After that we wend to the nursery to see if they had any tomato plants.  They didn't.  So we bought a couple of bags of potting soil and some flower seeds.

When we got home we dug out a new bed for sunflowers and pumpkins.  Its about 4 yards by 3 yards.  We also planted some flowers, and got the three raised beds ready for planting.  There are a couple of cold nights predicted this week but I think it will be safe to put the seedlings (onions, sunflowers, and zinnias) I started 3 weeks ago out in the Earth. 

After we dug the new bed (it was hard work.  Nothing had grown in that soil for 20 years since it was covered in 3 inches of crushed granite.) Basil went somewhere with his mom and I came in to get supper started.  I am baking a meat pie.  It is from last nights left over roast beef and bacon. I added one diced onion, two diced potatoes, 3 cloves minced garlic, allspice, black pepper, salt, shredded cheese, and mushrooms. And it is all in a pastry shell. 

I taught Kathleen's kids how to make ice cream 3 nights ago.  I think I am their favorite person right now.

I have run out of money to pay for National University's tuition.  So, it looks like I am going to be out of their internship program in a couple of weeks.  I don't know if the school district will be able to keep me on as a teacher without me being in an accredited internship program.  Well, I can't make $6,000 appear out of thin air.  I really wish I had never embarked on this road but had remained a substitute teacher.  As it is now, I owe tens of thousands of dollars for a program I will never finish.  Oh well, at least, my debts can't be inherited by my children. In the meantime, I have begun looking for other work. 

Maple Pecan Pie

Well, just one more week to go until the semester is over.  I mean the semester at work, not National University.  I think, that was over a couple of weeks ago.  I just have zero desire to do anything for them anymore.  Kathleen says its just a hoop invented to make it difficult to become a teacher and that I shouldn't make a big deal out of it, but I do.  But work is going well.  The lactic acid and yeast experiments are doing what they are supposed to do,  and next week  I'll do lessons on emulsions and sub-zero water culminating in ice cream.  That ought to be fun.

Today was a very fun day.  I picked Basil, my youngest son up at his mom's house at 9 this morning and, after morning prayers, we cooked all day.  We made 20 pounds of Christmas sausage,  a gallon of beef/pork stock for soups (I freeze it in plastic bags), two green bean and onion pies for Kathleen to take to her sisters Christmas party tonight, a roast beef for Kathleen's kids to make into sandwiches for their lunches at school next week, and a maple pecan pie.  The nice thing about this last pie is that it is like the sausage and beef stock:  It can be frozen for future use.

When I took Basil home a few minutes ago we drove around his neighborhood and looked at Christmas lights on all the houses.

In other news, I am back on the wagon.  I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to stop drinking again but I have. 




Maple Pecan Pie Recipe

9-inch pastry pie crust
3 cups pecan halves
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
2/3 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons flour
3 large eggs. at room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup grade-A dark amber maple syrup
1 tsp non-iodized salt


Bake the pie crust at 350F for 15 minutes.  Take it out of the oven and let cool.  You will be tempted to skip this step.  Do not skip this step.  If you do you will be sorry.
Put the pecans in the pie crust and set aside.
Melt the butter but let it cool a little before you do anything with it.
In a small mixing bowel whisk together the brown sugar, salt, flour, vanilla extract, and maple syrup.
Add the melted but somewhat cooled butter to the mixing bowl and whisk it together with the other ingredients.
Add the three eggs to the mixing bowl and whisk them together with the other ingredients.
Pour the contents of the mixing bowl into the pie crust.
Bake at 350 for 40 minutes in the lower half of the oven.  When the pie has been in the oven 20 minutes tent it with aluminum foil so it doesn't get too brown on top.

This and That

This morning I took out the tomato vines.  There were lots of green tomatoes but the days are too short and cool so they weren't getting ripe.  I planted garlic in their place.  Then I emailed an assignment to a professor.  I am taking a break from grad school now until I finish this internship.  Lots of paper I have to write while doing it.  No way to work on a masters degree at the same time.

Last weekend we harvested most of the squash and took those vines out.  Parsnips, carrots, and radishes were planted in their place.  There is still one acorn squash and two spaghetti squash ripening.  Maybe another week before they are ready to pick.

The potatoes were a bust.  After all that care we just got 9 little potatoes.  I think it is because I used store-bough potatoes for seed.  I heard they spray those with a hormone to keep them from reproducing.  In the spring I'll make sure to use seed potatoes from a nursery and not just buy them at the super market.

Basil Wenceslas, Kathleen,  her kids, and I are going to Half Moon Bay today to get pumpkins; we always go here.  Maybe you, dear reader, remember seeing the picture from when my boys were little.  I made a picnic for us.  Sharp white cheddar and romain with homemade curry mayo (cumin, carlic, tumeric) on baguette, braeburn apples, San Pelegrino, potato salad (my sister's recipe.  I'll post it later.), some of the pickles I made back in the summer, and for desert Daelman's caramel bites.

After that we are going to vespers in Felton.  I am so excited about this.  It will be the first time in months and months since my boy has been in church.  I worry and pray so much my lips are wearing out.

Well, it is time to go get in the car and drive over the hill.

Secret Christian Man

I had two conversations in code with students today. 

Incident 1.
Me: "Your name is Lydia. Do you like purple?"
Her: "Yes, how did you know?"
Me:  "I just did."

And three students pulled crosses out of their shirts.

Incident 2.
Him: "I chose the tulip."
Me: "Why did you choose the tulip."
Him: "Because of how it was designed."
Me: "Designed?
Him: "Yes, designed."

We looked at each other silently, just for a heartbeat, and each knew the other knew. He looked relieved.

A High School Graduate

Well, he did it.  It took three months of intense study but Anselm Samuel passed the CHSPE and he is free of high school two years early.  He spent all summer working at Camp Hi-Sierra so he wasn't home when his diploma arrived in the mail a couple of weeks ago. 

I had wanted him to start next week at  SVAE to learn to be a welder (it pays about $20 to $30 per hour in California; not bad for a 16 year old.) but the classes conflict with his Boy Scout schedule.  He is on a pretty tight schedule with them to make Eagle Scout rank before he is 18 (He has earned Star Scout rank over the spring and summer.  along the way he also picked up the 1 mile swim patch, the lifeguard patch, the gardening merit badge, and the lifeguard merit badge) so, he has delayed welding at SAE until January, when he will be able to take a 13 week break from the weekly troop meetings and complete the welding program.  So, what is he going to do until January?  Well, today he applied to De Anza College, where both I (liberal arts, 1992) an and my mother (early childhood education,1978) went to school.  He says he wants to study something technical, such as machining or automotive, it depends on what classes have openings.  He has already arranged to try out for the water polo, wrestling, and rifle teams. 

But I am worried.  I am worried because one of my neighbors is a 15 year old girl and she has her sights set on my son.  That wouldn't be a big worry for me if he was already trained and in a career.  But he isn't.  So, I am pushing the welding program in the Spring.  Boys Scouts will work around his schedule in the spring but they can't do it in the fall, and because the welding classes are at night they won't interfere with his day classes at De Anza.  Oh, he looks like a man, he sounds like a man, but he is just 16 and not ready for life.  I have to hurry.  I really wish I had the money to send him to St Herman Seminary in Kodiak for a year so he could do the reader program and find an Orthodox girl.  Why can't there be any girls his age in my parish?!

The Summer So Far

Kathleen and tri-tip

Billy and I

Kathleen at Light House

I've taken three trips so far this summer.   The first trip was Paso Robles, Santa Maria, and Pismo Beach.  I think that was in early June.   In Paso Robles we visited my son Billy's grave and prayed for him.  Even saying his name hurts.  In Santa Maria we ate tri-tip at Shaw's.  in Pismo Beach we played in the ocean.  We drove down on Hwy 101.  The drive home through the Santa Lucia Mountains and Santa Cruz Mountains was much longer but beautiful.  But it was also sad to see gorgeous productive farmland in Monterey county being turned into tract houses.  Before actually heading into the Santa Clara Valley we spent one night with a Kathleen's friend who lives on on the overlook La Selva Beach.

The second trip I wrote about a few days ago.

The third trip was to San Mateo County where we drove through mountains, ate a molten chocolate bundt cak Alice's Restaurant, visited a goat farm, played at the tide pools where Kathleen gathered salt at an evaporated pool, ate amazing artichoke soup, and visited a light house.  This might be the best day I've had in a year.  It's hard to believe it was all done in one day.

At the goat farm

Oysters and Artichoke Soup

In other news, Anselm Samuel (AKA the little boy) got his CHSPE results and is now a high school graduate two years ahead of schedule.  He will start a welding or machining course in a few days when he gets back from the Boy Scouts Camp Hi-Sierra, where he has been working as a life guard for the past few weeks.  This is a big achievement.  But his life has been full of achievements.

Sons and Gardening

Anselm and me at Scout-O-Rama

Anselm Samuel seems to be doing okay.  He spends a lot of time with me now.  We work on math and English so he can pass the CHSPE.  Why the CHSPE?  Because in the years since the divorce he has failed lots of classes and has no way to complete high school before he ages out.  But when, he passes the CHSPE he will get a high school diploma and be able to enroll in a community college.  Right now he says he is interested in welding program at Cabrillo College.  It would be pretty amazing if he winds up with a high school diploma and a welding certificate before he is even 18 years old.  He didn't know what he wanted to do until he looked at help wanted ads and saw a local company's ad: "Perfect job for new welders! No experience necessary! Just pass the drug test and start working tomorrow. $26 per hour to start."

A shot of most of the garden

Watermelon vines

Yesterday was the Scout-O-Rama.  (I remember the first one we went to, when Anselm was six years old and Basil was two.) Anselm went yesterday and had a good time.  Basil would not leave the house. I couldn't even get him to leave his bedroom.  I am very worried about him.

Basil is not doing well.  I won't say a lot about it here.  He is not thriving.  In fact, I think it is accurate to say that he is withering.  I have had to step back from trying to help him because it was only giving him an opportunity to act out.  I no longer invite him to do anything with me.  All I can do for him now is pray.  I pray akathists for him and have him commemorated at liturgies. I informed his godmother of the situation so she can pray too.  Other than that, I don't know what to do.  His mother and I disagree even regarding the root problem; there can be no team effort regarding the solution.

Our garden is doing okay.  I enjoy working in it.  It's not a farm but it is good enough for now.  The first tomatoes were harvested last night.  Many more are on the vines and will be ripe soon.  That's pretty amazing considering it is only mid-May.  The watermelons are doing amazing.  Anselm started them from seeds the last week of February and they are ready for transplant.  I think I might not have enough ground for them; watermelon vines grow long.

We weren't going to plant corn this year but Anselm really wanted to.  So I gave him a pot and some

Corn and beans

soil.  It sprouted a couple of weeks ago.  Then one day, when I was out watering, I remembered the story of Squanto.  So I planted a bean at the base of each corn stalk.  Now the beans have come up.  I hope the corn starts growing faster or else the beans won't have a stalk to climb!

Of course, we have planted lots of wild flowers for the bees and butterflies.  I've seen a few of each.  Not as many as when I was a boy.  I learned an interesting fact yesterday while at the Scout-O-Rama:  As late as 1960 fully 60% of the western hemisphere's fruits and vegetables were grown in the Santa Clara Valley, where I live now.  I know change is inevitable, but I have trouble seeing concrete, tract houses, skyscrapers, and freeways, and tilt-up computer factories as progress when it means bulldozing fruit trees and ridding the valley of bumble bees and butterflies.

Red leaf lettuce.

Romain lettuce

Kathleen planted lettuce.  She likes to munch on it when she's in the garden.  None has yet made it to the table, but it makes her happy.

We also have three kinds of squash, two kinds of cucumbers, cantaloups, onion, leeks, two kinds of sunflowers, garlic (I use the garlic in the kitchen all the time.), sage, and oregano growing.  Today I bought two grape vines: merlot and zinfandel.  We had some last year but we had to pull them up because of a virus.  I'll sprinkle the new vines with holy water and ask God to protect them.  Hmmm.  I wonder if Fr. Basil blesses gardens?