Bear's Life and Tides

Monday August 31, 2020 Earl and I fished for salmon yesterday. Out the Golden Gate. North to Stinson Beach, Bolinas, Duxbury Reef. We got the usual whale show. I caught a nice 15 pound salmon I really needed that. I had not caught a salmon the last two trips. We brought it to the Gorelick compound in Berkeley for dinner. Here is the menu: It was all about the food. I did not even get any photos of the people.  Meyer joined us. A great evening. How are we doing otherwise? Terrible. There is too much grief right now in the world. I can't stop looking at the news. It is so depressing. We are all on edge. We are dealing with fires and smoke on top of everything else.  I am still getting joy from my garden every day. Today this bumblebee decided to take a snooze in a sunflower. I wasn't sure if the bee was alive. It seemed intoxicated. We are going to try to take a trip to Southern California later this week. Still in the planning stages. Good to have something ...

  Saturday August 29, 2020 Another Saturday night and I have nothing to say. I fished yesterday with Greg, Earl and Mike Berg.  Foggy going out. You could barely see the Golden Gate Bridge. We fished for about seven hours. Mike got bored and checked his email. This whale was the highlight of the day for me. This picture describes our success fishing. The fire is not progressing. I don't know if you can say it is under control. We take comfort from the daily briefings. It is only 10% contained. I am less worried. Driving home from fishing, it was very smoky. Smokier than the other day. Here is a before and after from Pt. Reyes Station, looking toward the fire. Beth and I had a nice dinner tonight with some old friends from Nicasio, Jeff and Suzie. They served Salmon. I guess I did not need to catch any yesterday. the bear P.S. I am fishing tomorrow with Earl. Wish us luck!

Thursday August 27, 2020 I am worried about so many things: the fire, the fascist convention masquerading as politics as usual, the health and welfare of my close friends and family. Still lots of smoke in the air today. No possibility of exercise in the morning. I have not been on my bike since the 18th. We can only take a hike when the wind is blowing in the afternoon. Our friends Howard and Ellen, who live down the street in Inverness came over for dinner last night.  I made a vegetarian dinner for them which included vegetables and herbs from the garden (supplemented by some sushi and stuff from Berkeley Bowl). I shopped at Berkeley Bowl after taking my boat in to the shop. Fingers crossed - it appears that the navigation issues I had with the boat are not difficult to fix. Partly fixed now. Just waiting for a part to complete the job. Ellen had a good joke: Three Jewish women are out to lunch. One says, "Oy". The second says, "Oy Veh". The third says, "I t...

Tuesday August 25, 2020   I feel like I have a test right now and I did not study. A blog to write and no idea where I am going with it.  Where I left off, we drove from Inverness to San Francisco Sunday night because we heard that an evacuation order was imminent. If you bring an umbrella, it never rains. No evacuation order ever issued. Here is the latest info on the fire : It looks like it is calming down. Still stressful. Still under an evacuation warning.  Still planes flying over all day doing battle with the fire.  We spent a nice evening in SF Sunday. We had a pizza delivered and drank a bottle of wine. Yesterday (Monday) we walked around the city, ran errands and shopped. Another pleasant day. Beth wanted to get back to Inverness. We came back yesterday. Lots of smoke in the air near the fire. Still a little smoky this morning. The afternoon wind blew it away.  I have been talking to folks who may have work for me. It feels...

Sunday August 23, 2020 6:10 p.m. Covid. Political strife. Social strife. Economic worries. Fires.  Link to Updated Fire Map What next? As I write this, we are packed and leaving Inverness. We have been under an evacuation warning for a couple of days. We took a walk to "downtown" Inverness by Tomales Bay an hour ago. To some extent, things were normal. We saw a couple taking wedding photos. We ran into our neighbor who told us there is a good rumor from the fire department that we will have a "precautionary" evacuation order within the next few hours.  We are not in imminent danger from the fire, burning in Pt. Reyes National Seashore. However, there are more thunderstorms predicted over the next few days. They are worried about more 🔥 fires which would make evacuation more difficult. There may be no order forthcoming. It was only a rumor. We decided to get out anyway. Who wants to sit around waiting for an order to get out. We have the ability to go to SF. No ...

  Friday August 21, 2020 I am in SF tonight. Fishing with the crew in the morning.  Biggest news is a fire burning in Pt. Reyes National Seashore . It is only about five miles from Inverness.  I took this photo yesterday from downtown Pt. Reyes Station. Too close for comfort. The fire looked closer this afternoon. We received an evacuation warning today. We don't need to evacuate yet - just be ready. As I left Inverness this afternoon, I saw fire fighting airplanes descending over Tomales Bay to pick up water to drop on the fire. Very real. I stopped by to see my mom and sister and family, in Berkeley, for dinner tonite. I brought them some bounty from the garden. Had a great dinner. They ate steak, my mom and I ate Beyond Burgers. Very tasty, with chimichuri sauce. The squash was delicious. Lynn roasted it in the oven. Sweet. I posted an email on my workers comp list serve this morning, looking for work. Three responses so far. It feels good to be wan...

  Wednesday August 19, 2020 Blog day is upon me again. I feel very hopeful after watching President Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention. So powerful. So true. Such an elegant speaker.  I spent last night and today in SF. I had a dental appointment and then a zoom deposition today. Last night Beth had some of her sisters over for dinner in Inverness. I went to SF for errands; and to let Beth and her sisters have some family time. I learned a lot at the deposition today. I had been feeling a bit unfulfilled. I found the deposition inspiring.  Here is my zoom background for depositions: I warned everyone at the deposition that I would have to take a break if I had a fish on. It was just a routine workers compensation deposition of the injured worker. But it was not just a name on paper. It was a real human being, with a real name, a real life and real suffering.  I like client/applicant depositions. It is an opportunit...

Monday August 17, 2020 We just finished watching the first day of the Democratic Convention. I am inspired. I have hope. Bernie Sanders and Michelle Obama were sensational. We really liked the young woman from Arizona who lost her trump loving dad to covid because he went to a Karaoke bar without a mask. This points out the powerful nature of true stories from everyday life. I always urged my clients to tell these kinds of stories at trial; in contrast to bald statements.  It has been a very weird two days in the Bay Area. I was supposed to go fishing yesterday morning, early. I got a text from Earl at 3:56 a.m. letting me know that there was a prediction of "Strong thunderstorms" with high winds. We had a little back and forth about what to do. At 6:17 we decided to cancel. Not worth taking any risks. Disappointing. I was in SF. I got up and drove to Inverness. On the way, I saw fascinating streaks of lightning arc across the sky and heard the sound of thunder. The water...

Sleepy bear here. Late Saturday night. Back in SF to go fishing early in the morning with my brother Mike, Earl and Greg. Yesterday morning, Beth and I drove to Atherton to say goodbye to Tom McKay, who is dying. It was very important to me to see him one last time and spend a little time with the family. The McKays are so together. Tom's wife Mary Rita looked great, under the circumstances. She held his hand so lovingly. He was aware of her presence and love. All their children (Kim, Kirsten and Noel) were there. Beth, who has much more experience and wisdom about death, said it is hard to die. It is also hard to be born. Tom seems comfortable. They are not giving him morphine. He is not drinking water, so the end is within sight. It is sad to lose Tom, who we all loved. He had a good long life (89 years). It is not a tragedy. Just part of life. Beth and I left the McKay's and returned to SF where we hunkered down in the air conditioned condo. It was 90 something degrees in SF...

  Thursday, August 13, 2019 I fished yesterday with Greg, Earl, Mickey and Roe on Greg's boat. A purely mooching trip off Stinson Beach. Earl caught one decent Salmon about 12 pounds. That was it for the boat. Tom McKay, my dad's best friend is dying. Lynn called me Tuesday night to let me know that he was home from the hospital, in hospice. My family went to visit him and say goodbye yesterday morning. I could have gone but went through with my plan to go fishing instead. I regretted my choice. I could not sleep last night, feeling that I made a poor and selfish choice. I called Tom's daughter, Kirsten McKay, this morning. I knew I was going to cry the moment I picked up the phone. I told her how bad I felt about not coming to see Tom and the family sooner.  Tom is a special person to me and my family. He and my dad went to high school together in Sebastopol. They remained close friends all their lives. Our families were close enough that we...