Beer and Fritos

On March 29, 2023, I wrote that the previous Monday I arrived by bus in Crescent City from my brother’s house in Oregon. I rode my brother’s extra bike to Dutch Brothers holding an umbrella - there was a giant storm system jost off the coast. My host, an old classmate, met me there and we got in his car and drank coffee on the way to his house. The rain was heavy, but OK. We hung out for about an hour and a half – catching up, looking at stuff.

We went to the brewery, but it was crowded so we went to the Mexican place. We tried everything and played pool. There were a couple of ladies at the restaurant. When we were finished we went to the liquor store. When we got to the house, we had beer until late.

In the morning of the day before I wrote this, I had a coffee with my host. He gave me a key and headed to work. I had a couple of hours, so I was lazy for a bit, but ended up rushing to set up for my meeting which turned out to have been canceled.

The power went out due to the wind from the storm, but I had my tether and battery power. Apparently the downed powerline was in the area of my brother’s house in Oregon. My host told me about the camp stove in his garage so I made coffee and did a couple of other things. The house was very cold and the rain started in earnest. I did some work.

The rain persisted and I took a nap. When the power came back on, I noted that the rain had improved. My host showed up after a while and he suggested we look at the surf on South Beach. We drove through town and I noted that the harbor was cold. It was fun looking at the views. There were pipes draped across the parking lots there. I remembered the dolos and my host showed me where the dolos had been placed along the jetty. We took pictures.

After that we stopped at the store for beer and Fritos. Then we ate the Fritos and rode up a big hill trying to get to Smith Redwoods State Park but it turned out to be gated. I finished the Fritos and my host told me he would take us a more direct way to the park along Elk Valley and Parkway.

First we just explored the way to the Smith River but later we walked around the river in the rain collecting rocks. I had my umbrella out. We visited two river shoals heavy with rocks. Then we drove back to the house.

A short while after that we checked out the brewery but they were very crowded again so we moved along and decided to go to the Mexican restaurant a second time. I noted that that time we had a nice waitress. We played more pool. I even asked if we could play a third game. We both sank the 8 ball a couple times and didn’t finish our last game. We returned to the house, and my host tidied and prepped for work, and we went to bed.

In the morning of the day that I wrote this my host woke at 6:30 but I didn't. He was gone by the time I got out of bed. Apparently I was snoring. He thought it was some recording of a frog. I got up at 9:15. I was late for a meeting. I was back-and-forth doing dishes and tidying or getting dressed. When the call ended, I packed to go. I rode my borrowed bike on local streets.

I went to the one good coffee shop in Crescent City. I had trouble getting a table, but had fun reviewing Twitter. I drank some coffee and I started chatting with a social media acquaintance back home in San Francisco about my brother’s bicycle. I had been on the fence about fixing it. I called around and learned there was no bike shop that seemed to be working. I had seen a bike shop in South Beach in Crescent City but I was skeptical since my host said that it wasn’t a very good spot. I spoke to a lady at the sporting goods shop in Brookings and she said I should go on Facebook. I decided to just look at the bike shop I had found in South Beach.

On the way there I had to ride in a way which avoided the worst of the 101 and ended up chatting with a cyclist who was headed to Patagonia.

A short while later I found the only bike mechanic in the city and he said he would tune my bike for 150 bucks. I gave him $30 and walked to Elk Street. That was where I frantically made change from a 20 and called the local transit agency to identify where the bus stop was.

Later I walked back to the house. A bunch of people had sent me messages via social media and phone trying to confirm the weekend with me.

My host showed up at 4:30 and went surfing. I watched the sunset and then we went out for Thai food. We went to the less popular brewery and then we sat at his house for a couple of hours looking at postcards.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.