Cute Coots March 20, 2012

I’m watching Coots.  They are little black birds each the size of a kitten who swim in groups and eat vegetation.  They have a white beak and a fuzzy black head and chicken like feet.  In fact I think of them as Chickens of the Sea.  Cornish Game Hens of the River. They appear indecisive [...]

Water Water Everywhere and not a drop to drink March 16, 2012

I was told that 35 years ago people used to drink the water right out of the Delta.  They don’t do that anymore.  Wells had to be put in and arsenic levels were on the rise.  Acceptable standards for how many parts arsenic per billion of water have fluctuated over the years.  I am told now [...]

Big Moon Floods February 1, 2012

The correlation between extreme tides and the full moon was never anything I thought about when I lived on land.  In Waterworld the drama of the day can be all about the Big Moon Floods.  At my current dock during the last full moon the water crept over the embankment and soused the lawn.  For [...]

Hoodlum Owls January 29, 2012

The Egrets used to nest in the trees near my boat.  At dusk their squabbling before settling down sounded like a hen house with a turkey thrown in.  Suddenly they stopped coming around and I wondered if I had done something to offend them.  But it wasn’t me.  It was the Hoodlum Owls.  There goes [...]

Lit Boat Parade December 15, 2011

I’ve never put Christmas Lights on anything, let alone a boat.  A kind neighbor gave me a bunch of discarded decorations and lent me a generator and with crew E and J we were off.  It took FOREVER to hook up the lights and we had no time to test the generator before motoring out [...]

Expanding Reach November 15, 2011

I took a long drive to Sacramento today to record a two minute  “Perspective” for KQED NPR station in the Bay Area.  I hope it is the first of many.  I enjoyed sitting with the headphones on in the sound room reading copy into a fancy mic.  The Delta has more going on than they [...]

Smoke and Mirrors November 10, 2011

Burning piles of debris is managed by local fire departments.  A “good” day to burn is cool, dry and not windy.  Coupled with fog and frosty temps and you get smoke inhalation all night long.  After the marina got the go ahead for it’s burn day this week I spent a night this week wondering [...]

Wind & Cold November 4, 2011

It’s funny to think of a place where I’ve spent no more than a month, as home.  We came home on the 2nd after waiting through a raging howly windy day.  I couldn’t even think and ended up watching movies in the bouncing boat. The morning dawned quiet and calm.  The sun emerged and I [...]

Eggs and Pears at the Hotel California October 29, 2011

I still haven’t quite left this place yet.  I am only anxious in the sense that the weather is growing cooler and I’d like to be safe behind my wall-o-eucalyptus before the first storms of the season hit.  Plus there’s a strange endless routine of boat cleaning and painting that I have fallen into as [...]

Mobile on short notice October 21, 2011

I pride myself on being ready to slip lines at a moment’s notice.  I’m trying not to let the spiderwebs tie me to the dock as they did in Berkeley.  So when some friends said they were moving their sailboat upriver and the idea came up that I follow them in my boat, the answer [...]