Top Ten Posts on Left Coast Cowboys from June 2009

This is not generally a current events blog. I reserve my snarky political commentary for Twitter. Which, I know, confuses people who have followed my recent steady stream of 140 character “roasts” of The Luv Guv Mark Sanford to this site. Only to find, not politics, but grapes, coyote poo and terriers. (Although The Luv Guv did shovel a lot of poo when he used “hiking the Appalachian Trail” as his cover story.

Two years ago, as I planned a cross-country roadtrip with my niece, she said: “We have to swing by Graceland to see The King.” I had to tell her, “Don’t look to Graceland, if you seek the King”. On the trip, we drove right by the boyhood home of the REAL King as we headed into the Smoky Mountains. We didn’t plan a stop.

With fruit harvest just around the corner and grape harvest only a few months after that, I’m making lists. Lots of lists. About all the things I need and the stuff I need to do up at Sonoma. But the other day, it really hit me what I need most. Some Wacky Country Sidekicks. It all started when I got the old Claudette Colbert/Fred MacMurry classic, The Egg and I, from Netflix.

Tonight was my first Spanish class at Community College of San Francisco. I approached it with some trepidation. It’s been years since I learned a language and I’m worried that part of my brain is rusty. But trying to manage the grape harvest last fall using just my vaguely-remembered Latin and a lot of hand signals convinced me that I needed to master at least the basics.

For someone my age, I’ve been surprisingly careful about my skin. Largely it was because I found lying around trying to tan the most boring thing in the world, so I seldom did it. I never really wanted to go for that bronze look. I can count the sunburns I’ve had on one hand — and still have leftover fingers to flash the peace sign.

Today was the 163rd Anniversary of California’s Bear Flag Revolt. So we went down to Sonoma Plaza to see the annual ceremony. To bring you up to speed, the Revolt was an incident during the Mexican American War (the war that produced the Alamo) where a group of American settlers stormed onto Sonoma Plaza, took the California Governor, General Mariano Vallejo, prisoner and declared California a Republic under the protection of the United States.

Thirty years ago June 11th, John Wayne died. Seems like he never left us. Two years ago, as I planned for an epic cross-country roadtrip with my niece, it was coincidentally, the 100th anniversary of John Wayne’s birth. At that time, I made it a point to get reacquainted with The Duke’s movies, mostly since we were planning to drive through Monument Valley, the scene of so many iconic John Ford/John Wayne Westerns.

To anyone who thinks Sonoma is snooty wine country, I say an emphatic “NO”. We are Small Town America where the predominant industry happens to be wine and small farms, especially farms raising organic, sustainable and heirloom products. If you ever doubt that, you should check out some of the local City festivals. These aren’t staged events for the tourists. Like today’s Community Ox Roast, these events tend to be put on, attended and for the benefit of the locals.

If you remember any part of the Sixties, you’ll remember these. Even if you are younger, you must have run into one of the Big Eyes paintings at various garage sales. Big Eyed Kid paintings used to be everywhere. Along with Big Eyed Cats and Big Eyed Dogs. There may even have been some Big Eyed Clowns. (Or that might have just been one of my nightmares.

I’m not quite sure why I got a Facebook account. I hardly use it. I update it with Twitter when I make a new post and there are several far-flung friends (or even friends just flung 30 miles down the road) who are conveniently kept in touch with by Facebook. I’m checking it a little more now that a few gals from my college are on it and are posting up interesting links.