Back in the city... there are days like these where it feels like I never left and that actually feels good. It's GREAT to be back.

On the mornings that I don't surf I take a walk/hike instead. This morning I decided to not surf, sleep-in a little longer (6:45...Oooh) and walk instead. I really like my walks and I really like walking all over the hills and town of Fairfax. I almost always see something interesting or run into interesting people.
Today's 'find' is this hand made flyer. This flyer is great on so many levels. After I read it and took a picture of it I kept a sharp eye out for 'Cindy.' Hey, five bucks! How awesome is that?

It's true, oh-it's SO true. I'm playing music again BUT this time around it's acoustic music...mostly Ukuleles but I'll also be playing an occasional Dobro/slide/lap steel thing and acoustic guitar. My friend, Tom Borromeo the Uke master and collector and I are working some tunes out for an acoustic duo with harmony vocals. It'll be mostly old classic tunes (Dream a Little Dream, etc.), Beatles songs, Talking Heads and so on. I'll keep any and all up-to-date who may be interested when we'll play out.

Oh, I'll still be playing electric music again real soon.

Temp, 33 degrees? Check. 7:30AM? Check. Yellow house? Check. Hand painted truck? Check. Plastic, neon-pink Christmas tree in front yard? Check. Fairfax, I L-O-V-E this town!

It's a new year and I hope to H-E-L-L that this one is far better than last year! I started off the new year in the Shasta/Dunsmuir area of (way) Northern California. Had fun poking around, sleeping in a converted caboose, buying used books, a used baritone Ukulele, eating great diner food, hiking around and checking out the sites, etc.
I hope that this year is an excellent one for you and yours.

I'm back working on the graphic novel. I know, I know I've been saying that for a while but considering I've spent the better part of the year on my back in pain in a hospital or recouping at home after said painful hospital stay I'm feeling much better and hoping to get (at least) this completed. I'm hoping at this point that all of the hospital shenanigans are behind me now.
So, in the meantime, dig on the fly going big!

It's been a good long while since I've posted anything here. Been in the hospital way too much this year and well, I just didn't feel much like posting or talking about anything.
Now, I'm out of the hospital and out of any health issues (for the time being) so I suppose it's time to get back to it all....

So, without further ado here's a picture of two fine surfers who are also great friends of mine, Jack "Milkman" Ellis and Mary "Half Full" Wagstaff on the wall at the home break.

While "re-vamping" the surf shed (thanks for the heads up, Dex) I took a couple of pictures of the quiver. Logs, fun boards, early 70's short board, knee- board and even a mid-60's log. Whoo-hoo!

Working away on the graphic novel. It's been a bit slow going what with losing the novel through my hard drive going down last year and now rewriting it as I go along. However, I do really like how it's coming out since I've been rewriting it but it is going S-L-O-W. Man, this is hard work to be sure.

The Bolinas Dawn Patrol crew was representing our little beach and 2-Mile surf shop in Pacifica this past Saturday for the 12th Annual Kahuna Kupuna surf contest. I am happy to report that Jack Ellis (seated to the left) finished in First Place for the 65-69 age group and that Loren Moore (seated center) finished in Third Place of the same division. As for myself, (seated to the right closest to the camera) finished his breakfast in record time later that morning.... though both Loren and Jack may have convinced me to enter in my age bracket next year! Dawn Patrol Rules!

The only two SUP guys I trust at the beach and they both just happen to belong to the same crew as me, so...
Frank "Overhead" Kemper and Russ "Cool Breeze" Bradley.

Just got a mid-1960's Harbour for R-E-A-L cheap. 9'6" glassed in fin, square tail. Surfs pretty well. Turns better (quicker) than I thought it would.

Yep. It's been awhile.... I'm still alive and am still attending my early morning board meetings (see photos). Next week I get to go to SF and get a camera stuffed down my throat to see if I need any surgery, have cancer, have polyps, or maybe nothing at all... here's hoping for nothing at all.

Hope you all will be able to attend one or both of these events. Thanks.

Started another blog which is actually my Web Comix.

http://diadeloscomix.blogspot.com/

Now, if I can just remember the password.... seriously!

Miki Dora... I couldn't give a rat's ass what YOU thought of him, I liked his take on life and his surf style. A true hustler in and out of the water. DORA LIVES!

While eating breakfast one morning in Alamagordo, New Mexico recently I looked up from my huevos rancheros and coffee to notice an oil on black velvet painting of 'Raggedy Andy' on the wall across from me. During my breakfast and conversation I would occasionally glance at 'Andy' wondering what was amiss about it, beside the fact that it was a lame painting on black velvet.

Then it hit me... Andy had quite the "package" painted on him. I pointed this out to my companions at the table and we all had a pretty good laugh. I then noticed that there was no Raggedy Ann painting to be seen anywhere. That's when we all realized that Raggedy Andy is gay. Hey, I have no problem with Andy and his lifestyle choice.

Well, folks... just got back from yet ANOTHER hospital visit. This time I was there for 3 1/2 days. Yes, it was pancreatitis (again) HOWEVER, none of the doctors nor specialists could figure out how I even remotely contracted this for a third time as, for a change I am 40 lbs. lighter, in excellent shape with and excellent diet and exercise routine.
They have now opted to send my blood work-ups, et al to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota to see if I am actually one of the "rarer" cases that can contract this terrible ailment without being an alcoholic, etc. I'll keep you all posted.
As for the photo... well, that's pretty much how I felt all of Monday until I went to the hospital.
More later.

I just returned from a wonderful trip to Seattle, WA. I stayed downtown in a hotel near Pike's Market and managed to walk all over the place every-single-day, rain or shine. One particular evening I was fortunate enough to get to hang out Cafe Racer with some of the local cartoonists who most I knew either through anthologies we were in together over the years or from various comic cons and what not.
I also was able to visit with my friend, Paul who I knew in college here in California before Paul and his wife, Moxie moved up to Seattle 14 years ago.
Seattle is a pretty cool town.

Bubble Man


I know, I know, I seem to write a lot about my every-other-day hikes lately but I feel this guy is worth writing about. I call him "Bubble Man" and I used to see him A LOT at Peri Park in Fairfax, CA (mostly on the weekends) making these ridiculously huge bubbles with an assortment of sticks and some-sort-of-twine/cord on the ends. Some stick set-ups looked like nets others looked pretty simple like in the pictures above. The bubbles he makes can grow so large that they can engulf an entire SUV, or he can switch out his sticks and cord for another set-up and make hundreds of bubbles the size of grapefruit! He's always a crowd stopper...traffic too.
However, after a while I didn't see Bubble Man for a few months and thought that maybe something had happened. Maybe he got sick, or maybe some cranky local didn't like what he was doing. Bummed, I thought that the era of "Bubble Man" was at an end.
Then it happened this morning.... It was Bubble Man and he had turned up but this time his location has changed to the old Lucky/Albertson's parking lot right next to the Java Hut.
It's great to have the bubbles back in Fairfax!