Bumper To Bumper

Folks,

So I am sitting in the South Pine Cafe (http://southpinecafe.com/) in Nevada City this AM eating a Garden Omelette and the guy sitting at the next table orders a scramble (as in eggs) with Tofu in it - this is when you know that you are on the left coast.  

They have a Fleetwood Mac CD on and Lindsay Buckingham is singing 'Secondhand News'.  I love that cassette tape, 8 track, record, 45, CD, reel to reel, laser disc, mp3 - I still remember buying it (on vinyl) and playing it to death like everyone else - it still sounds good - and Stevie Nicks is the hottest 60 year old I have ever seen - but she needs to get on NutriSystem. 

I love the South Pine Cafes byline - Breakfast Lunch Beer - it's kind of like a koan or a bumper sticker - stating what we had always thought as unknowable, in a few words, such that we now intuit and understand ('grok' for you Heinlein fans).  

Everybody has a code that they live by - to paraphrase Graham Nash.  For most this code falls into the category of 'isms' and John Lennon made a nod to this in "Give Peace A Chance',

'Ev'rybody's talkin' 'bout Bagism, Shagism, Dragism, Madism, Ragism, Tagism, This-ism, that-ism, ism ism ism ...'

For me though, my code is 'bumperstickerism' or 'bumpkerism' for short.  I have a compiled a book of these 'Krome Koans' and whenever I find myself in need of guidance I refer to it.  

An example.  The waitress at the Cafe was very friendly - the Tofu guy was responding.  But what saved him was verse 27 of the Krome Koan that I shared with him, 'If it has wheels or tits, it will be a problem'.  

Also verse 43 counseled, 'Where there's a will, I want to be in it.' 

Usually this kind of wisdom is dispensed while you are drafting some asshole, both feet desperately activating the vehicles ABS, because he/she just cut you off by coming onto the highway in front of you doing -10 km/hr when you are doing Warp 8. However today, in what can only be described as a Moses like experience, many new verses were revealed to me on the door of a shop in Nevada City - I have included the picture herein.  

You will also notice the fish symbols at the top of the door  - and I want you to hold on to that because in this year of the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species (24 November 1859) and the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth (12 February 1809), I will come back to that at a later blog - it promises to be controversial.

I visited Yosemite today (no, not Sam) and it was awe inspiring.  John Muir who is so closely linked to Yosemite once said, 'I was on the world, but was I in it?'  There's another blog right there.

It's hard to describe the experience of being in Yosemite - I have included some pictures but you can't hear the water cascading and falling, the wind's icy fingers pushing through the hard rock and trees (and all this was in the washroom) or see the true 'range of light' as Ansel Adams referred to it.  

To me, this surpasses the Grand Canyon - I am going back again in the morning before moving on to Death Valley.

And lastly, thinking about driving in California, I offer this quote from Marie Osmond, 'My mother told me when she had her last child she felt overwhelmed, overworked, not appreciated, underloved. Something just snapped and she gave the baby to my father and she got in the car and drove up the coast of California, which is exactly what I did'.

Obviously both she and her mother needed to know verse 59 of the Krome Koan, 'Be nice to your kids, they'll choose your nursing home.'

How do you handle a problem like Marie ....

The search continues .....

Phil