San Luis Obispo: Second Week - Are they still playing football?

Driving home from the movie Monday night ("Hyde Park on Hudson" - disappointing), we stop, as the law requires, for a red light.  Two young men, who have had a few beers, saunter through the crosswalk, as the law permits.  One stops directly in front of the RAV4, bends over to put his eyes twelve inches from the license plate, and bellows, "Where are you from?  Minnesota?  Go home!"  He straightens, turns and follows his buddy.  Carol lowers her window and yells after him, "No!  It's five degrees there!"  He yells again, "Go home!"

SLO is shorthand here, both visual and oral, for San Luis Obispo, which apparently contains too many syllables to repeat on a regular basis.  The logo on the side of city buses, therefore, reads, "SLO Transit."  I commented to Carol that they might want to rework that one.  Carol's response was that they should keep it and enhance it.  Her suggestion?  "SLO Transit.  Relax.  You'll get there."

We have settled into a comfortable routine by now.  In the early morning, we take a long exploratory walk with Rowdie and then just hang out.  I work on my current short fiction.  Carol shops or reads or tries to decipher her upcoming choices for Medicare.  After lunch we set out on a long hike, sometimes accompanied by Rowdie, sometimes not.  The evenings are for more reading, perhaps a movie, occasionally dinner out.

Our friends, Sue and Dick Molnar, who migrated from the Twin Cities to Santa Fe, were in town for two days.  We met them for dinner at Novo, where we dined outdoors by the creek.

Today we drove to Santa Barbara to pick up our friends, Terry and Jeannie Keir, who will be staying nearby for a few days.  We went early to have some time to explore Santa Barbara.  Downtown is really nice.  It felt Parisian - welcoming architecture, lots of people walking.  Mostly, it was the many people out and about, sitting in sidewalk cafés, strolling the wide avenues.  We had a great lunch at the Savoy, a café and deli.  One of our best meals so far.  A warm, sunny day.

 

Terry & Jeannie arrive for fun times in SLO

The social whirl continues.  Tomorrow evening, another friend, Jan Search, arrives by train for a one-day visit.  I am very excited to be meeting someone at the train station at night.  It is so Bogart-like.  Too bad I don't have a trench coat.  Maybe it will be foggy.

 The Pleasures of Hiking

 A common sight in the neighborhood

 A great lunch spot in Santa Barbara

 Havin' a wonderful time.  Wish you were here.

 On the way to the top of Cerro San Luis

 Contentment.

 Hiking trail between Avila Beach and Shell Beach.

 Winter Wonderland, Central Coast Style

Switchback Trail

 More Pleasures of Hiking.

Stan the Man Musial died yesterday, my all-time favorite baseball player. Once we were fortunate to attend a Cardinals game in a VIP box at Busch Stadium.  As we got off the elevator, there was Stan the Man, standing not fifty feet feet from us.  Paul, about eleven or twelve years old at the time, knew about the great Musial.  When I pointed out Stan the Man to him, Paul broke away from us, walked right up the the great man, introduced himself and got Stan the Man's autograph, which he presented to me.  I still have it with my Stan Musial poster on the wall of my office.