Volume 5

       Recently a friend and I were having one of our long, laugh filled phone conversations and the name Herb Caen came up. Herb wrote a column for the San Francisco Chronicle for what seemed like forever. We had a subscription when I was just a kid and I always read it first thing. I  really liked his tales of SF or his time growing up in Sacramento. He sometimes referred to himself as "The Sacamena Kid " because Sacto is where he first got his start working for a newspaper. He mostly wrote about his beloved " City by the Bay". The fog rolling in beneath the Golden Gate, the sounds of the seals at Fisherman's Wharf, the smell of the fresh baked sour dough bread at the bakery, the tourists all clamoring to get a seat at the Cliff House, the latest political scandal , who was with who at one of the many high society venues  and of course where to get a good martini. He also had a thing he called three dot journalism wherein he would write a paragraph or two on one topic then leave a space, type in three dots, a space, and then go on to something different . So with the dearly departed Mr. Caens permission, I'm going to " borrow " his three dots for a bit .
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      When we had the Echo motel my dad had a saying about some of the other motel owners, " they're stickin' it to 'em ". We had a good business and always filled up fast on the holidays and in the summer . When we were full, Dad would flip the switch for the no vacancy sign and say "Bob , lets go for a drive ". We'd hop in the old Willys pick up and head up to stateline. Dad would point out the motels with there " NO " on and with very few cars in the parking lot and he'd say " they're stickin' it to 'em ". What these motels would do was put on  the "NO" sign as people were just getting into town and then when the other motels were full and the tourists were frantically looking for a place to stay,they turn off the "No" and charge the desperate tourist a much higher rate. We never did that I'm proud to say. My Mom used to send out Christmas cards to our guests and we had many repeat visitors. We kept our motel clean, never "gouged" anyone and were kind to our guests. Now THAT'S how you do business! If you treat people right you will be rewarded many times over. Well , sometmes anyway.
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      The WikiLeaks Diplomat Document Dump has been interesting to watch. I always knew our government was scary, scheming and underhanded but this was even worse than I thought after reading these latest revelations. Julian Assange, the head of WikiLeaks , is reportedly going to release more info on the crooked banking system . It's good to have this stuff out so that maybe theres some changes made for the better. I fear the Mr. Assange may be assassinated or have an unfortunate "accident "sometime soon . Ignore the the message and kill the messenger.
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       We've had some real cold nights lately on south shore, down to 5 degrees here on Knox street and -8 degrees at the airport. Over at Jon and Susan's house on the meadow it was zero. It's not too bad this morning as a warmer storm is moving in bringing temperatures up. The pipes didn't freeze in the rental next door which was good and although the truck was hard to keep running at first, once it got warmed up it was fine. It seems we've had a fire going in the woodstove almost non stop for weeks. Hope the wood holds out for the rest of the winter . As it is, even with the thermostat at 60, the furnace kicks in a lot. With an old house and single pane windows and the original insulation from 1964 we tend to bundle up when these cold temps come creeping indoors. Thank heaven for Christy, the down comforter and our warm and furry kids, Lucky and Ashley.
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          I'd like to send out a few thank yous. To my sister Michele , thanks for the picture of the scorpion with Bush's photo shopped head on it as well as the photo of us at The Echo, classic ! Bob Conti thanks for calling and reminding me of Herb Caen and for being a friend and also for selling me that old Norton , when I go, it goes back to you . I thank you all for reading these ramblings and hope you enjoy them as much as I do pecking them out . If not, just delete.So it's time for tea and toast and maybe some shoveling of the snow.

        Take care , Bob of the boat.