Thoughts on a routine phone conversation

I chatted with my mom and dad on the phone for maybe an hour last evening.

The conversation probably should be considered an entirely routine event, but it struck me that I (and siblings) are pretty lucky to be able to have these phone chats with our parents after all these years. Who are we kidding, we all are getting older (especially them). I know Patricia would have enjoyed a chance to chat with her dad from time to time in the last 25 years, and plenty others are in the same boat.

50+ years of conversations with one's parents make the flow pretty easy, and essentially irreplaceable. We of course touched on the weather at some point, and it was remarked that St. Joe has had several nice rains after the 4th of July. How else could I respond? - I of course remarked that I'm sure no one would turn down any rain after the 4th. Everyone knows the context of that pretty much automatic, decades-old rejoinder, and the conversation proceeds.

Then there was a discussion about computer viruses, which led to recounting the story of some old lady in Algona who recently was nearly scammed into sending money to the scammer via Western Union. EMG proceeded to read the entire article out of the Algona paper. Interesting news article. Did it add anything significant to the verbal description already provided? Not really. Did it give me a chance to hear the reading cadences of someone who had now and again read stories to us going back 50 years now? Yes, definitely, so I sat back and enjoyed.

The fine art of conversation, plus.

Laguna Beach, CA (July 18-21)

We had enjoyed the Carole King - James Taylor concert in Arizona (described here) much more than expected, and had the idea to catch the last concert of their tour in Anaheim on July 20. A summary of the Anaheim concert is linked here - much enjoyed.

The next step was to build a bit of a road trip around the July 20th concert. We had enjoyed Laguna Beach during this visit a few years ago. Ended up taking a room at the Pacific Edge Hotel - an older property that has gone through some remodeling (and re-branding). It's now in good shape, with primary attraction being its location right on the water, and right in the heart of Laguna Beach. (Parked the car and didn't go near it again until time to drive to the concert.)

So off we went. Easy road trip on July 18; some slow-downs in the LA/metro area and in particular getting into Laguna Beach itself, but not bad.

After owning a vehicle with GPS for two years, we finally used it. What a nice technology. The voice commands are entertaining - "she" is polite, yet firm . . . maybe a bit bossy.

Checked in - and liked the room a lot. From the room, the ocean was almost overwhelming for we desert types. At high tide the water came up under the patio.

Top picture gives a sense of how it appears when you first open the door and step in; second picture gives a sense of the patio. (We spent lots of time sitting there and just watching. Virtually no TV for four full days!) Third picture is the beach we stepped down to via just one flight of stairs.

Laguna Beach is small, pretty crowded on the weekends in summer. But all in all I enjoyed being around. We didn't have a ton of time, but focused per usual on walking the area and finding good things to eat and drink. Concentrated our latter efforts in just two places: dinner twice at "230 Forest" and lunch three times at "Nick's." Scallops; short rib sliders; roast chicken; plenty of interesting beers; etc. At 230 Forest the couple sitting beside us featured the pianist (this fellow) for some guy named Luis Miguel, it was interesting.

Weather was unseasonably cool and generally cloudy/hazy - i.e. perfect for visitors from Phoenix.

Return trip was fine; stopped at the outlet mall in Palm Springs (which is quite the outlet mall) and actually found a few things that we had been looking for. Back into Phoenix at 9:30 and dinner at Delux.

Concert summarized here.

Nice trip!

Coincidence

Two probably unrelated things happened today:

1. We saw the movie "District 9" in late afternoon (recently had DVR'd it).

2. Patricia and I went out a few hours later and for dinner she ordered: prawns.

Reminder (Drinking Buddies)

For no particular reason, I've started posting "old days" stuff over at a companion website. Click "PMG look-back" (in the box below the picture at right) to visit the site.

I always get a kick out of the "drinking buddies" clip included in this post.