Eastward Ho! Arnold and The Sheriff

According to Google MAPS, it's three hours from Menlo Park to Arnold. I used 7.

The Sheriff woke me at two (a.m.) to let me know there were alot of stolen cars being left in the area. After about 20 minutes he and his partner went on their way. Unperturbed, but fully awake, it was 5 before I got back to sleep.

In the morning I was tired and had to skip the 25th Annual Grape Stomp & Street Faire in Murphys. But I managed to get packed and spend a pleasant hour in the late afternoon visiting with Kenn Louie.

Less than five miles up the hill, not much past Calaveras Big Trees State Park, the temp began dropping. So much so I came back down.

Not much dispersed camping in these he'ar hills.

But it's amazing to once again be able to see!

88 Across the Sierras & Kenn Louie

Kenn Louie had a roofing nail go the wrong-way-first into his eye. I have an appointment in September with Dr. Charles Lin at the Byers Eye Institute, the guy who fixed Kenn's eye.

I read a lot of Jung. That, combined with being in California, the land of abounding numinosity, may have something to do with my perspective (but maybe it's just my eyes). 

It was soon after I broke the tip of my walking stick when I was in the Arnold grocery and asked the cashier if she knew of someone who could fix it. She sent me to Kenn.

Later that day, while watching him do his stuff, she drove up and I was introduced to his partner; they've been cohabitating for 14 years...maybe even married (I didn't ask).

So, this time, as I was planning my route to Nevada, I wanted to stop in Arnold. Thinking how it might be late when I left, I stopped first at the grocery. I went placidly through the line, getting directions to the ice machine, etc., completely unaware the woman in front of me was the one and same as the time before. 

It's the one in the sun that got "worked" on.

As we, Kenn and I, enjoyed a bite of beer, Lori drove up. I, figuring he'd ignore the opportunity to introduce me, asked, "Who's this?"

"The boss," he replied.

I had only the vaguest recollection of seeing her in the store and no memory of having met before. (it was late that evening, in that soft drift toward sleep, it came back; and I recalled how "numinous" it was that I'd asked her about a woodworker.)

Kenn lost his left leg a few years ago to bone cancer and has a metal one instead. They took off part of his right foot since we'd last seen each other. And he showed me a quarter-sized circle he'd drawn on the edge of his work table. It was the spot, after his stroke a couple of years ago, he used to relearn how to hammer. When he wasn't doing anything else, he'd come out to his worktable and practice hitting it. 

If yer gonna listen tuh the radio, its gotta have the right cachet.

He found some plans for a rocking-horse boat. Instead of a horse, it's a boat...on rockers. Forcing the luan plywood into the sides and onto the transom. 

Note the redwood and pine box on the left. His artistry is astounding! And prices are affordable. Call him at 209-768-2587 to see what he's done lately.

His motor skills are such that when something has to be redone he can pull out (for reuse) without deforming them, the copper nails he uses. His patience is amazing and every other word is an expletive. If I thought he was gonna live long enough, I'd find him a parrot.

Comin' & Goin'

Eastbound for the Ruby Mtns SE of Elko. She, who remains incognito but dresses for the five-o'clock martini, has a mind to go lookin' tuh see iffen there're any Lahontan trout still out there. I get to tag along.

So, I 'cided tuh swing by an' pay a call tuh that ole pirate, Kenn Louie. He's the one who fixed my stick after it got broke when i wuz practicin' muh bo moves on a dead tree.

I made it just past Murphys into the Stanislaus Forest.

It's hell leavin' a woman.

Kenn Louie - Woodworker

Feeling especially frisky one day, I was practicing my bo moves on an old stump when the stick, a prized possession, lost. A chance inquiry in the Animal Humane Thrift store led to Kenn Louie.

In an early life he'd trained as a diesel/marine/automotive mechanic but made more money falling trees in Alaska.

Somewhere along the way he married and moved to Arnold where he fixes anything people bring him. A master woodworker, he inserted a metal rod, splinted the connection with birch strips then bound those with leather thong.

We won't lose the next round with that olde stump!