Feeling Better

Well it's a crazy world I feel better than I have in years.  Thanks for all the well wishes.

I think my brain did a defrag and I'm creative again!

This is amazing.  I can write and paint and dance.

Talking about recreating reality.

On a pragmatic note.....I'm taking anti-seizure medicine and staying full of electrolytes and eating right.

Happy Sunday!

Happy 2014.......whoa!!!

Hold on to your hats folks!  Another wacked out adventure with KB. 

It all started so quiet....so happy.  Kenny and I were coming back from Santa Barbara (highly recommend visiting if not living there....it's Mecca).  We did lots of bike riding and I drank an appropriate amount of wine drinking.  Only the good stuff....yummm. All good.

Then on the 30th of December.....I'm feeling strong, fit and confident so I go on a killer bike ride....as killer as you can get in the Oakland hills.  While I was riding I didn't drink much water and didn't eat much because my body was fine....I thought.

I got out of the shower and I was confused.  Kenny was sick as a dog so he was in bed and I was alone with my thoughts....and with everything else.  Whooo boy.

I was not able to work the TV/DVD apparatus.  But, I hated to say that it was not unusual when I was feeling normal.  Hmmm....Whatever... But now I was not able to heat up soup or read the words on a bottle.

We go to the emergency room not far from our house.  Kenny told the emergency room receptionist that I was having a stroke.  The poor girl was now in a conundrum.  A poster on the wall right behind her stated that a person having a stroke needed to be treated ASAP....Meanwhile there was all these other emergencies pathetically sitting right next to me.  So I upped the ante.

I started to stress.  If I was having a stroke.....I REALLY NEEDED HELP NOW!  My body started to react without my knowledge.

My right hand started to shake uncontrollably and then the clincher.  While I sat in the wheel chair waiting to be taken to the ante treatment room, the right side of my jaw opened so far that I was wailing in pain, and drool was pouring from my mouth like a bad horror movie.  I was watching myself like I was watching a movie and it was completely grossing me out.  And I was in so much pain I blacked out.

The rest of the seizure I am telling 3rd person from Kenny's perspective.  I was about 2 yards behind Kris who's sitting in a wheel chair and wonder where that wailing was coming from.  It was coming out of from my wife!!  Holy shit.  The emergency room nurse now hopped to it and rushed Kris into the treatment room.  Meanwhile Kris was clenching her teeth and straightening out as stiff as a board.  All hands on deck and we lifted her onto the table.  She was wailing and shouting out "It hurts, it hurts."

The ER doctor was trying to inject her with an anti-seizure medicine but she was trashing about like a wild animal kicking and screaming.  I held down her legs while two nurses grabbed her arms and the intern grabbed her head to keep her down.  The ER doctor gave her the injection in the stomach and she settled down in seconds.  The banshee had left the building....thank god.

Meanwhile I was so sick and I had such a bad headache I was going to pass out at any moment.  I asked for sugar and the nurse gave me a tuna sandwich instead.  That worked.....whatever.

Now I was conscious again......They asked me if I wanted to stay in the hospital overnight or be released that night.  REALLY?!!!  I just had a grand mal seizure and I should be out of experienced medical care?!  How about we have me drive a car home too?!  Of course I stayed the night.  This was also for Kenny's benefit too.  The poor dear was sick.....major sleep drugs needed to be on his agenda that night.

The next morning I was feeling creative and artsy.  Whoa? Like a crazy brain scramble.  Ok.....A new reality.

Stay tuned.  KB

Pinot Noir anyone

Our new place when it's ours has a good amount of land to have grapes again. This time I think Pinot Noir would work best. With the rain and the fog, those humidity loving vines will do just fine. We'll have to work the land but like we didn't in CO. But maybe this time we won't go as high as 1500....just enough for a case or two.

Bottling in Palisade

Well Kenny and our friend Cindy bottled half of the wine last weekend. A good time had by all.

Frost and Death

The time has come once again. The grape growing season has drawn to a close. I find it fascinating that just one frost makes the lush, hardy, green grape leaves shrivel into brown aged ones.

One day the leaves are hardy and healthy. Frost steals in overnight. The leaves are all brown and shriveled.

It is just one example of how delicate

life is on this planet. It is best never to take things for granted. I'll bid adieu, leaving you with this poem by the famous Robert Frost.

Desert Places

Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast

In a field I looked into going past,

And the ground almost covered smooth in snow,

But a few weeds and stubble showing last.

The woods around it have it- it is theirs.

All animals are smothered in their lairs.

I am too absent-spirited to count;

The loneliness includes me unawares.

And lonely as it is, that loneliness

Will be more lonely ere it will be less-

A blanker whiteness of benighted snow

With no expression, nothing to express.

They cannot scare me with their empty spaces

Between stars - on stars where no human race is.

I have it in me so much nearer home

To scare myself with my own desert places.

Remember enjoy and imbibe!

Winterizing the Vineyard

Glass Tasting.

Yep. Glass Tasting. If you've ever been with me at a decent to high end restaurant, you know that I always ask the server for a red wine glass. I don't do it for the snob factor, because believe it or not, it actually makes a difference.

About 10 years ago, Kenny, our friends ,Bob and Cindy, and I went to a wine class weekend in the Hyatt at Beaver Creek. It was great. The first class we went to was glass tasting. At first, I thought I misread the agenda. Don't they mean wine tasting? No glass tasting. It was being sponsored and led by Riedel, the makers of expensive wine glasses. Aha! I get it. We have to sit through this spiel so they can get a few suckers to buy their wares. Right. I'm so on to them......so I thought.

We sit in front of a water glass, a mug, a Riedel white wine glass, and a Riedel red wine glass. They do their little routine about how the shape of the glass is the key to how the wine tastes, and blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, yeah, right, right.....let's get on with the drinking. It's almost 1030 in the morning.

(For emphasis, another friend Cindy illustrates the feelings I felt when drinking wine at the class)

Finally we get to the important part. We are told to pour white wine into the mug. I pour it into the mug, take a sip and think "this is okay wine". Then they tell us to pour the wine into the Riedel white wine glass and take another drink. I drink from the glass and think "wow"! Is that the same wine? I can't believe it. I repeat the mug drink "Hmm, okay". I sip from the Riedel glass "wow"! Okay, okay. It's a fluke. A glass can't make a difference, can it?

In order to really prove their point that the type of glass is important to enjoying the "real" taste of the wine, they bring us new Riedel glasses and tell us to pour our white wine in the red wine glass. Now taste the white wine now. It's just a little better than the mug. Short finish, one flavor. We do the same with the red wine and pour it in the white wine glass. Eh. Whatever with this wine.And then we repeat the whole process.

White wine, white wine glass. Red wine, red wine glass. Heavenly.

After everyone in the room is thoroughly impressed, they tell us why it is so.


The bowl of the glass allows the oxygen to mix with the wine, so a larger bowl works well with the red wine because it lets the tannins and oak flavors release. A white wine glass does not have a big bowl because it doesn't have tannins or oak. The design of the lip of the glass is also important. It positions where your tongue first touches the wine and positions the wine on various places of the tongue. As you can see from the picture, we have four different major tastes - sweet, salty, sour and bitter.

If the lip is thick, the wine will go more towards the back of your mouth were the bitter area is located. A thin lip will allow the wine to enter the center of your tongue where there is a mix of sweet and salty, giving the drinker a pleasant experience. Then the shape of the glass near the lip is important. A rounder glass will give the drinker more time on the tongue. More time on the tongue allows for all the complex flavors of a red wine to come forward. A straighter line at the lip of the glass will "throw" the wine on to the front of your tongue. So even a pinot grigio may seem sweetish.

With all that, we bought some glasses! Who could not buy with all that cool new information?

Right now I'm drinking a red table wine, J. Moreau & Fils, from France for only $6.45. I'm drinking out of a stemless, pseudo-Riedel glass with a medium size bowl with an average line near the lip. Perfect for the type of wine.

Remember imbibe and enjoy!