Santa Cruz Sunset

little bojaunt down to santa cruz last weekend to make sure the sun still sets majestically behind the lighthouse.

and survey sez... it does!

The Dirty Sanchez Goes Down

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
a tale of a fateful trip.
That started from this tropic port,
aboard this tiny ship...

or something like that, as agent mcbryan checks in from south america with a reality check from that side of paradise:

Yo dude,
 
It’s not always beaches, babes and palm trees here in Nicaragua.  Sometimes it sucks.  Last night Roberto woke me up at 2am and told me my boat, “Dirty Sanchez,” had sunk.  I asked him three times to repeat what he was saying, partly because I was dazed ,partly because I didn’t know what “Bolteado” meant in English and partly because I just didn’t want to believe what I was hearing.  You mean it’s pitch black outside, pouring down rain and stormy and my brand new boat, that I’ve only had out a handful of times, has sunk?  Un-Fucking-Believable!





I don’t know what it was inside me, but I felt from the moment that I got this boat that it would end up upside down.  It’s a narrow boat, a Panga, that’s designed to go very far with a small motor and little gasoline.  It’s the local fishing boat in every third world country and it works well.  I wanted one as soon as I got here.  Even though I told myself that I would never put lipstick on an elephant, I realized when I got it that I took it a bit too far.  Two motors, a full sunshade, fiberglass floors – man it was nice, some would even say “Americanized”…but it was still a Panga.  I could see it on the faces of the locals, “check out this gringo and his nice shiny, new boat.  He has no idea what he’s in for.”  And I didn’t, but knew it wouldn’t be easy to have a boat down here.  I wasn’t naïve about it.  I’ve spent my time on boats.  It wasn’t like this was something completely new to me.
 
The boats here in San Juan Del Sur are moored in the bay.  It’s not protected, so it can get pretty rough in bad weather.  For this reason, most everyone has a watch guard sleep on the boat.  It’s a shitty job when the weather is bad, but that’s when you need them most.





Well, I can only imagine the thoughts that went through my guy Christian’s head as my boat filled up with water. The bilge couldn’t keep up with the downpour and we forgot to leave the bailing bucket for him.  It was the middle of the night and nobody heard his cries for help.  The water level in the boat kept getting higher and higher until the boat was sitting so low in the water that a wave flipped her over.  The kid stayed on the boat until the last possible second and then swam in through the storm.  We know this because we found his things this morning, still inside the boat. 
 
I’m not one who usually believes in premonitions, but I knew this was going to happen.  I saw it coming.  You see, the night before this happened, I woke up three times dreaming that my boat was sinking.  I would normally pass this off as a strange coincidence because it was raining and storming and of course you worry about your boat.  But this was different.  I rarely remember my dreams, like maybe once a month – maybe.  For a dream to wake me up – man, that’s only happened a few times in my life.  Three times in the same night, the same dream.  That’s a sign.  I knew this was coming.





We got down to the marina before anyone, just as the sun was coming up.  I could just see the new green bottom paint of my boat in the distance, just peaking out through the passing waves.  It’s a weird feeling seeing your brand new boat upside down.  It hurts.  Especially this one, which I had custom built from the hull up.  A labor of love.  It looked so helpless when we went out to it to tow it back.  All you could see was the bottom of the bow.  The tip of the iceberg.   My brand new twin Yahama 60’s were completely submerged, pulling down the stern with their weight.  The locals just stood on the dock and watched as we struggled to get her back near the dock.  They’ve seen this many times, maybe not with a shiny new boat like mine, but a submerged Panga is not a new thing here in San Juan Del Sur.  In fact, I was one of three to lose a boat last night.  Two other panga’s overturned and a big fishing boat broke it’s mooring and washed up on the beach.  Yes, it was a busy morning in the bay.





I’ve always been amazed at how helpful Nicaraguans have been to me.  It’s always been easy to round up 5 or 10 guys to give you a hand.  It wasn’t like that today.  Maybe because they were fishermen and they needed to get to work.  Maybe they thought the gringo should pay his own dues.  Whatever it was, the help wasn’t coming like it normally does.  In fact just the opposite.  With the exception of 4 guys who were with me from start to finish, I had to round up people on the beach to help us flip her back over.  The culmination of which was a pair of young guys who claimed to have “found” my engine cover on the beach and were demanding that I pay them 30 bucks for it.  Great, a flipped panga and extortion to boot.  Thanks guys, I just lost my boat and you want to sell me back MY engine cover.  I was pissed at the time, almost to the point of fighting, but I can’t say I blame them.  They saw an opportunity to make some cash and took advantage of it.  That’s what happens here.  If I grew up here like they did, I can’t say I wouldn’t be doing the same thing.





She’s righted now.  She looks like hell but at least she’s safe and sound and up on dry ground.  It wasn’t easy to do, but we were able to round up enough help to tip her over and bail her out in the shallows.  She got fairly thrashed in the process, but nothing that can’t be fixed with time and money.  Anybody who owns a boat knows what I mean.  There’s always something.  It’s the motors I worry the most about.  Man, they were brand new and now they’ll never be the same.  Hopefully the Yahama guy can work some magic on them. 





I’m sure I’ll have some time to reflect on this during the next couple of days.  Especially when I get the bill.  It sucks now, but a month from now, it will be funny.  Years from now, it will just be another good story that I can tell about the time I lived down in Nicaragua…which is exactly the reason why I came here.

ah yes, bojon adventures are not guaranteed to be all fun and games.

but they are guaranteed to be adventures...

Rolling with the Stones

hoddy body checking in this week from north carolina...

the cackalacky contingent of the tribe checked out mick and the stones on Saturday night in wally wade of all venues. Haven’t had one this big on campus in some time, but it won’t be the last. Hands down, one of the best shows I’ve seen recently.





Started with a smooth tailgate outside my office with 25 of the homies and doc yam mixing a mean joe cuervo. Over-served…if you need to ask. I wasn’t expecting much, but these geriatric mofos still rip.





Unbelievable…check out the set list.

1 Start Me Up
2 You Got Me Rocking
3 She's So Cold
4 Tumbling Dice
5 Oh No Not You Again
6 Wild Horses
7 Dead Flowers
8 Bitch
9 Night Time Is The Right Time
--- Introductions
10 The Worst (Keith)
11 Infamy (Keith)
12 Miss You (to B-stage)
13 Rough Justice (B-stage)
14 Satisfaction (B-stage)
15 Honky Tonk Women (to main stage)
16 Out Of Control
17 Sympathy for the Devil
18 Brown Sugar
19 Jumping Jack Flash
20 You Can't Always Get What You Want (encore)
21 It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (encore)

I lost her somewhere in the midst of Sympathy…of course, that might have been start me up, but that’s irrelevant. Great crowd, great venue and 3 generations of fans gettin’ it on.

NashVegas Pondelski

and back in september...

someone must have traduced Joseph K., for without having done anything wrong he was married one fine morning...

word is that Billy Bob Thornton showed up at the reception after-hours in the hotel bar, as did some of the roadies from Motely Crue.

A Time to Decompress

annual bojaunt down to china basin to expose lady bojon to a sampling of the madness that is burning man (and to get her ready for Halloween)...

Air Jordan Gets Hitched

brother jordan went down with aplomb this past weekend as he and the glam ms. mary helen made it official with a classy ceremony down in socal.

lots to cackle about at this shindig including two tipsy golden girls castoffs who somehow hijacked the limo that was intended for the bride and groom. somebody call security!

however, the highlight of the evening had to be when mh serenaded the eeej with a stirring rendition of aretha franklin's You Make Me Feel [VIDEO]. ladies around the world take note: this is what a guy wants to hear on the day he is going down!

and so draws to a close an incredible string of weddings. six over a three month period: one on a beach, one on a lake; one at a yacht club, one at a country club; one at at a winery, one at a farm. and two others we missed along the way: one in the mountains, the other in nashvegas.

what a season!

Touchdown, Raiders!

you know it's on when you arrive at the parking lot at 10am, three hours before kickoff... and you're late!

tailgate extraordinaire as we settled in with the east bay and went old skool. bloodies, shotguns, and italian hoagies.

great to feel the enthusiasm in the air. good vibes all around - as long as you were wearing the silver and black.

game time brought us to our cherie seats and a prime time view of the activities.

the raiders handled dallas pretty good and had control most of the game behind 4 seabass field goals and some solid running by lamont jordan.

however, the cowboys made it close at the end as they reached the raider 3 yard line with about 2 minutes to play. the crowd whipped into a frenzy as dallas tried to punch it in right in from the rowdiest of Black Holes.

fortunately the defense held, and the silver and black secured a much needed victory, 19-13.

and.... cut. that's a wrap. would have been tough to script a better day!

Reaching New (Pac) Heights

utter san francisco tomfoolery as 200 tons of snow were trucked into the city to build a ski jump on one of the steepest streets in one of the toniest neighborhoods.

not all residents were thrilled by this event (put on by relatively obscure ski wax company called icer), but the spectacle was pretty sweet. and the warm indian summer weather served as the perfect foil for highlighting the true uniqueness of it all.

viva la san francisco!