Buenos fucking dias, Bill

Said goodbye to Irene and Lock in San Fran (thanks for the hospitality!) and headed out to Sacramento. The engine warning light just fixed itself like the guy on the phone said it would, so I skipped the visit to the mechanic. The weather has been unbelievably cooperative, and continues, knock on wood.

First stop was to meet with Derek Huisjen and Dave Winter at a Peet's Coffee in Roseville, since they don't have an office yet. Derek is a Java programmer, he did an awesome job for us at metaWorks as a contractor, when there still was a metaWorks. Dave is the President of a startup called Highmark Digital, which has a novel process for replacing existing doors. They developed a really cool bit of technology that interprets digitizer data and converts it into the machine code used to mill the replacement doors. We introduced Derek to Dave a couple years ago and a few months later Derek and his wife Melody moved from Denver to Sacramento to join Highmark. These guys are going to have a very successful business, once the so-called economy starts to grow again.


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Speaking of which, the economy out here sucks. In Boulder we're pretty insulated from what's happening in other parts of the country. Sacramento is right up there with Phoenix in terms of suckage.

Then I met up with Bill and Leslie Bisharat, who have a furniture retail business in Rancho Cordova. Leslie and I had lunch while Bill was out on an installation, and then we all convened at their home, where I spent the night. They live in a sprawling ranch house on a few acres of horse property in Folsom. Leslie grew up on Taliesin West, since her father worked for Frank Lloyd Wright. She carries that FLW sensibility in her work, and has some great stories about growing up there. Bill's family is originally from Palestine, and he's a total character. After the 67 war, Golda Meir occupied his family house as her own base of operations.

Bill and Leslie are the proud grandparents of a three year old grandson, Nour. Their son Haithem, and his wife Rachael live with them, so it was a pretty social affair. Nour is a surprisingly developed three year old, complete with a sly sense of humor, and a strangely mature sense of right and wrong. He's like a Mini-Bill. Bill and Leslie cooked up some chicken fajitas and we all sat around the table talking and eating. We polished off four bottles of wine. Ouch. This is how you roll at the Bisharat residence. Fortunately I came mentally prepared and drank lots of water.

In the morning I got up around 6:30 and shot some photos. Foolishly, none of them have people in them. The big Live Oak graces the patio at the back of the house. Sitting there you can watch Cormorants flying overhead, fox and deer meandering around. At night Coyote came out and gave us a barber ship quartet.

I was on the road at 8 and drove more or less continuously for 12 hours, taking one break for a nap in the afternoon. Unlike other days, I went straight up the interstate. I wanted to see Mt. Shasta and the interior part of Oregon - I've only done the coastal route before.

Northern Cali is chock-full of olive and almond orchards, I tried to photograph them but they didn't capture the scale. Also lots of elevators like this one. Shasta did not disappoint, and Oregon was bucolic, with lots of sheep and goat ranches, reminded me a little of parts of Germany I've seen, only on a grander scale.

And of course there's the timber industry. Lots of wood moving around. Wending my way through the forested landscape, I kept having these Twin Peaks flashbacks. Viva Log Lady!

Tonight, I'm at a Motel 6 in Olympia, about 30 miles south of Seattle. I found a local place to eat at called The Brick, which has a Wednesday night steak special for 9.99. I tried that and it blew me away, it was just as good as the steak at The Cork back home, and 1/3 the price. And the weather is still actually nice. Come to think of it, I've never been in Seattle when it's raining. Weird.

Tomorrow I meet with Scott Hudson. Haven't seen Scott since 1987, when we were both at CU Boulder, and I'm really looking forward to it. Scott has a sweet operation called Henrybuilt, you can check them out online. On Friday afternoon, Isabel flies in at 2pm, and from there we'll head up to Vancouver to visit Bill and Jeanette Clementson. Bill is a programmer and LISP uber-nerd. B & J moved from Boulder to Vancouver four years ago, this will be the first time we've seen them since they left. After that we head across the Rockies and down through Yellowstone on our way home. Whoosh.