March 20, 2012 — Los Angeles, CA
Today was a pretty easy day. Last evening, we got to visit with Nira, Joe, Faye, Avanish, and kids. Today it was Tom and Phil (aka Fido) who live in Santa Cruz, CA followed by a night stop at with my cousin Chris and his family in Simi Valley.
We initially met up with Phil in San Jose, CA where he was working on a couple of projects at TechShop (see www.techshop.com), a candy store for anyone with a lust for really cool and expensive tools: 3-D printers, laser etching printers; hudro-jet cutters, and CAD assisted routing tables, the list goes on. Phil was busy custom etching some of his electronic cigarettes (see www.e-smokeytrats.com) for customers so after taking a tour of the facility, Denise and I headed over the hill to Santa Cruz for lunch with Tom, a technologist, master gardener, [kite and board] surfer, and all around good guy.
After lunch at Rumble Fish, a decent sushi restaurant in Scotts Valley, we all headed over to the e-SmokeyTreats Corporate offices where Phil was supposed to give me a quick lesson in how to become a “stone cold killing machine” with a pole spear and possibly get me back into scuba diving. Tom, who’s also a diver/spearfisher giggled hysterically at Phils instruction and assertion re my potential as a stone, cold, dispatcher of ichthyians. Regardless, I left with Phil’s priced and as yet unused carbon-fibre pole spear and a promise to send him a picture of the first fish I speared with it.
Despite Phil’s generally relaxed attitude, he’s one of the two people I try to suck into the more hairball activities in which I engage. Phil’s every talented and extremely capable — and for some reason is motivated to come save my a**. Joe’s the other person who fits the same bill — though more with technology than physical/mechanical stuff which is Phil’s forte.
After a fun afternoon with Phil and Tom, our path turned east and then south. We were headed for the LA area — an environement I try to avoid at all costs. My cousin Chris, however, had bought a new house and had been lobbying for me to come down and visit after he’d been up to see me in Portland.
When we finally got to Chris’ in Simi Valley, we were warmly greeted by Chris, his wife Julian, and his twin sons — who had grown a lot since I had last seen them. Julian and Chris had very graciously prepared a Sri Lankan dinner with chiken curry, black pork curry, veges and fixins’. It was great. The perfect recipe for a nice warm sun-shiny day.