THE SEVEN VOYAGES OF SONBAD THE SOUS CHEF

My son, CGB (Chef Grill Bitch) sailed off from Burlington, Vermont last May for sunny Big Sur, California to take a job at a lodge in a state park there. He was also joining his sister who has spent her last 3 summers there and now works and lives in Big Sur as the archivist for the Henry Miller Library. Within 6 weeks of his having moved there, Big Sur, as most of you will recall, began to burn. His being a CGB and the fire are in no way connected, as it is well documented that the fire was started by lightning. He and a small crew stayed on at the lodge feeding firefighters and foresters and waiting day to day for news and updates. Ultimately, all of Big Sur was evacuated. He, along with most of the town's residents ended up in Monterey hoping daily that they would be allowed back in. But days began to become weeks, and as his work had been seasonal, and there was no way to know when/if he'd be able to return to the lodge, he found a position elsewhere.

His next voyage found him working on a luxury dude ranch outside Jackson Hole, Wyoming, as a sous chef. Again, the work was seasonal, but it was a great position with young, wonderful employers in the heart of God's country. He works very long hours with little time off, but has had fun, met some terrific people, but, because there are few cell phone towers, he has been cut off from the outside world. He's had only dial-up computer access and, essentially, no phone service. He and I have e-mailed infrequently and I was under the impression that he was going to move on early next month to either Las Vegas or back to Monterey.

Imagine my surprise when I started shutting down my computer last night and found an e-mail from CGB asking me to check on airfares from Jackson Hole to ...................Boston! My boy-o is going home! Well, almost home. We are from the very northernmost part of the White Mountains in New Hampshire, and CGB had lived and worked 2 years in Boston. Land of the Celtics, the Red Sox, lobsters, and the Bruins. To say nothing of the Dropkick Murphys! He plans to move back there and become reunited with his belongings which have been in storage in Burlington for 6 months. He and Bahama and Thom (see above) will soon be together again and I'm glad of it.


I did work on Joan's, uh, um, thing last night. Except for the eyes and its feelers, it's done and I love it and I know she will, too. And, no, it's NOT one of these! This is Joe Rockstar who lives with Bahama Llama and Thom in CGB's life. So I'm working on Ragna for the rest of the day and should have the bottom cable ring done and have started on the top. Woohoo!

Random thought for the day: Didja ever type the word archivist but see the word antichrist? Just wonderin', is all.