DM travels southish

[Drunk Monk]

On to grad school!

Nah. On to SF.

[King Bob]

I always hated graduations, but then, they weren't my offspring. That makes all the difference. On the other hand, I hated my graduation too....

[Greg]

I'm pretty sure they have grad schools around SF.

[Drunk Monk]

True, but that's not the plan. At least, not for now.

Actually, there is no plan beyond moving to SF and finding work.

[Greg]

Good luck to her. Is that why the Yeti moved into a two room apartment?

[Drunk Monk]

Yesterday was good. It started out rough - we made another run to Lofty that didn’t go as well. Little Italy was packed and Yuki didn’t do well at a table. We think he got protective of us because we were eating and made a scene with lots of barking. 

Part of the mission here is to get Stacy’s Civic which she lent to Tara for the last two years. She took it to the shop and then indulged in a Thai massage. I took Yuki to the beach with Tara, Bri & Bottles. 

We relocated to the Empress in La Jolla. Tara picked up ramen from a local joint, rikiriki, that she’s been raving about while Stacy & I took the dogs for a walk at the nearby greenway. The ramen was awesome. 

This morning, Stacy got up early to take Yuki to birdrock (killer coffee). I stayed back to work a bit. Just grabbed breakfast nearby and listened to some old white men talk about how ridiculous they thought the Dems and Fauci are. Now I’m watching DS9 waiting for my family to return.

[Greg]

We were.....what? Did you get cut off? Have you been kidnapped?

[Drunk Monk]

I did get cut off but finished it later. It's complete now.

Stacy's Civic (dubbed Phoebe by Tara) was dropped off yesterday. We called about making an appt in the morning and they said they could take it immediately or any time during the day because their schedule was wide open. Later we called to check because they hadn't called back and they said they hadn't got to it yet and had to keep it another day. They apologized for not letting us know.

This morning, a mechanic in a panic called Stacy. He couldn't get the car to start, key didn't work, alarm was triggered, checked battery and it was okay. It had been left in the street all night and he had just tried to move it. Stacy said she'd just pick the car up and be done with them. The mechanic said that the car will be there. Yeah, it better be. Then the manager called all apologetic. Apparently the mechanic didn't know he had to put the clutch in to start a stick. Srsly? He offered some credit and they are working on it now. 

I guess they aren't used to seeing old Hondas in La Jolla. 

Now we're waiting for the car to be done back at the Empress, and for Tara to take her out to lunch, probably at Plant Power.

[Greg]

It's a stick! Awesome! The Cub can tell those manual Meme writers to beat it.

[thatguy]

A satanic mechanic?

That reminds me of another Zappa tune I like (featuring Adrian Belew, of course):



—tg

[Drunk Monk]

We just picked up the car. The manager was extremely apologetic, gave us a free oil change, topped off the brake and steering fluid and gave us a few extras at no charge. It's all good.

Had a great lunch with Tara at Kate Sessions park, a lovely greenway with a commanding view. She celebrated one of her birthdays there and also got ejected from there once for doing silks with a friend (parks don't condone free range silks for obvs liability reasons). I had a plant power bacon cheeseburger and a ginger beer - both yummy. Yuki & Bottles ran amuck.

Now Yuki and I are back at the hotel room. Stacy is treating herself to a cold drink somewhere and picking up some supplies for tomorrow's ride home. I'll do the same in about an hour when I have to move the car to dodge parking time limits. 

Tara's got some odd skills like you might expect from our kid. Silks and being able to drive manual are two of them.

[King Bob]

I remember reading about someone looking at the data, and driving stick drastically cut down on accidents for younger drivers because you have to pay more attention to what you're doing. I think ours is the last generation where most everyone drove stick at some point.

[Greg]

Because I am old and uneducated: What are silks?

[Drunk Monk]

[Drunk Monk]

One last La Jolla ocean sunset.

So many memories from the last four years here. We know the restaurants, the hotels, the shops, the galleries...

I doubt I’ll ever return. I hope to come back to San Diego for SDCC, but I’d stay downtown. I wouldn’t come out to La Jolla or UCSD.