Karla Noyes' Captain's Log Series

I have a new job at a national grocery chain in Sonoma because I need the money, I like people, they are the largest firm in Sonoma Valley and they seem to be forward thinking with shop-on-line, pick up at your convenience and free delivery (with a fee, I’m not sure who pays the Instacart and Door Dash drivers. There are a couple of East Indian drivers with the most charming accents, I am so new, they are experienced and it’s fun listening to them tell me how to do my job; they are very kind). I had no idea how complex the job would be! How to deal with the wide variety of coupons, how do you give money to someone who has run their change through a change-to-cash machine, the seemingly hundreds of visual menus on the checkout system. And the produce menus, there must be 50 kinds of melon in their system! Who knew?! And tomatoes? Don’t get me started! Pro tip: Buy items with bar codes, it makes the process quicker and more accurate. Most of the customers are regulars and have been v...

  YouTube has been feeding me snippets of The Crown so I went back to Netflix and have been binge watching the whole thing. I'm totally appalled by Charles and Camilla and how horrible the whole family was to Diana. If she had been a new dog or horse she would have been treated so much better but Charles was a dud from the very beginning, and Andrew and Edward - what losers! Be glad you weren't born into royalty. The only redeeming value of the program is to get a perspective on all the political drama Britian went through, it makes today's politics seem slightly less traumatic. If I can imagine a little distance between myself and current events, I feel calmer. What the heck is the end game here, folks? How is this farce going to play out? Republicans won't act until their base blows up; it's what politicians do, they don't "lead," they follow. I know nothing of cults, that's something to read up on, and "redemption." Certainly, Congress...

Formal Wedding Invitation We have been invited to Kevin's brother's son's daughter's son's wedding. Very lovely invitation, professional photograph, gold-embossed on sage-green, thick and fuzzy cardstock.  There was a URL for wedding information, but the registry link didn't work. And there were instructions: cocktail dress (what?!), and don't wear white, cream, blush or sage (are you kidding me? telling me what to wear?!).  On Monday Kevin reminded me that the event is this Saturday. Today, Friday, I dug through my closest to see if I had anything "cocktailly" and found a loose, calf-length knit dress in - you guessed it: sage. Boy, that set me off on my congenital "you can't tell ME what to do!" rant. I'm going to wear it anyway. Maybe I'll apologize to the mother of the bride and make her feel guilty for being so controlling but heck, she's paying for this over-the-top event, she can request what she wants. To me it...

 Close your eyes, imagine a thin slice of whole grain bread with a smear of fresh butter topped with a scoop of sunny-yellow scrambled eggs, a twist of thin, smoked salmon and a small sprig of dill. Open your mouth, insert and partake of the textures and flavors. Norwegians know how to make a sandwich! In 1972 at 18 years old, I had the pleasure to work a summer in a small hotel/restaurant on the Hardanger Fjord in Ulvik, Norway. My Norwegian sister-in-law grew up there, had worked at the hotel and organized my visit, for the most part. I earned money for the trip by assembling bicycles at Macy's in Monterey as my bike racing boyfriend taught me the trade before he moved to Berkeley. God knows why my mother let me travel halfway across the world, by myself, fly into Frankfurt, take the train to Voss then a bus to Ulvik while not knowing a word of German or Norwegian, having no clue about money exchange or how to navigate airports and train stations. She must have been anxious to ge...

Here's a story, I don't even know how to tell it to myself but here goes... Aagot Tonseth Raudstein Nelson made a single-bed-size crazy quilt probably in the 1940s, she would have been about 58. It's probably composed of scraps from garments she made. Knut H. Raudstein brought it to our family's house in 1958, Aagot would have been 76 years old and probably going into assisted living. It was in mint condition and stunning. My mother had it on her bed/s for probably 35 years and when the silks shredded, rather than put it away, she cut them out. This summer over 2 months I restored the fabrics by dyeing silks to match the originals and carefully stitching them in place. While the quilt is not museum quality it certainly is important to me. I always knew I wanted to store it archivally and planned to go to my favorite dry cleaners and buy a box used to store wedding dresses.   I went to the cleaners; he didn't have a box in the shop and it would take him several ...

The Gift I went to Monterey (with my 'new' used bicycle) Brian was supposed to come but 'the train left the station on time,' unfortunately, he was not there.  I headed to my entrance appointment for the Aquarium, went to the end of the line and asked the trim, nimble-looking man, "Are you here for 2:30?" He didn't know what I was talking about. He didn't have a ticket. They sell a limited number of tickets online for specific times, I chose 2:30 because there were lots of tickets for sale, meaning fewer people inside.  Since they don't sell tickets at the door he began to dejectedly walk across the street, then I remember I have this extra ticket, "Hey, come here, you can have this ticket!" The line started to move fast as they let people in. He insisted on paying me but I didn't have the electronic money-thingy he uses. "You don't have to pay me, it's a gift." By this time we're inside in front of the Hovden Ca...

Post 1 I'm taking my son to Monterey for a couple of days, June 1-4, with plans for the Aquarium, kayaking on the bay and two history walking tours: Cannery Row and Historic Monterey. I've exhaustively researched bicycle rental options and the best deal is to rent one from the hotel, 12-hours, $40. That's the cheapest and easiest option. I went to a local bike shop that sells used bikes to inquire about purchasing one and got to test ride three. I haven't been on a bike in 28 years! It would have been laughable if it wasn't so dangerous. The phrase, something like, 'you'll always remember how to ride a bicycle,' came to mind. I ORDERED myself "you know how to do this, so do it!" and forged ahead, wobbling down the sidewalk. Getting on and off was quite a chore, what with the arthritis in the toes of my right foot that won't let me use them, and struggling to lift my leg over the bar. I'll need a 'step-through', formally called a...

 At 4:30 the other morning a frightful sore throat woke me up. "Oh no, here we go." Should I get up and gargle warm salt water? Since I know the problem with covid is the body's overreaction, I took my temp (no fever), a Tylenol and went back to bed. When we were up and about I told Kevin about my throat, and to keep his distance. He said, "You were snoring so loud last night I had to sleep in the other room!"  Thus the sore throat. When I began working at the Vet's Home last year one of the men in my office had an unusual hair cut. He was Puerto Rican with golden-brown skin, black eyes and thick, black hair. He said he spent over $100 on his haircut which was shaved 3/8 inches long on the sides and back with a patch of longer hair on top, carefully trimmed to a glossy, mounded pelt. I admired his commitment to the style (all it needed was glass eyes and a tail.) Then covid hit and salons were shut down, everybody's hair grew. I was jealous that I didn...

This is getting old. We had a fire in Sonoma County a couple of weeks ago and now this one which is still burning. Fortunately, both have avoided our stretch of Sonoma Valley (for now.) It’s never pleasant to monitor social media for hours waiting to be told to evacuate. I was up to 3am keeping tabs on the fire’s progress. It’s foolish for us not to have ‘go bags’ packed but I ran through my mind over and over where to find everything. I should have just packed and relaxed. Our county supervisor says it took 40 minutes for the fire to roar down the ridge from the Sonoma-Napa county line to Highway 12 on the Sonoma Valley floor. The speed was due to the wind, which has stopped blowing a gale. Now, thankfully, the wind is coming from the south off the ocean and bringing the fog. We are breathing easier. Good lord, the wind has shifted again and is pushing west to east toward Napa which will slow/stop the spread in Sonoma County. The fire is still burning, and they are currently calling f...

  Some of you know everything; most of you know little about me losing my job. I’ll try to be brief. We all knew it was a possibility that I’ve been contemplating for months, still, it was a surprise. At the end of Tuesday, August 25, 15-minutes before quitting time, my supervisor shows up at my cubby and says, ‘so-and-so in HR wants to see you.’ He had the expression of a little boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar “not me, I wouldn’t steal a cookie.”   I was presented with a 1-inch thick stack of paper that was my rejection-of-employment-at-the-end-of-probation-report with 37 exhibits! I was stunned, which I’m sure he enjoyed. The HR woman said I could read it right now. At 5 minutes to 4pm? I don’t think so. We walked back to my cubby; everyone had left as per usual. I insisted that I show him the stacks of the project I was in the middle of, “It can wait until tomorrow.” “No, I’ll show you now.” I showed him. He left. I began to pack up my personal stuff and though...

 In Sonoma Valley we are between two large fires: to the east, in Napa County on their eastern Vaca hills, the LNU Lightning Complex fires; to the west, The Walbridge fire threatening Healdsburg, Windsor and Guerneville. The wind is favorable for us, at this time, blowing, in general, parallel with our valley, northwest to southeast. Wind is a crucial factor because a big wind can hurl glowing embers a mile.  At work, in Napa Valley, we saw the LNU fire begin and grow, see photo below. This photo was taken Thursday, from the top of the western Mayacamas range which is on the Sonoma/Napa county line. The Vets Home, in Yountville, is on the valley floor below and is in no immediate danger. One employee in our office had to dash out due to an evacuation order; she and her family live in those hills. We know she is safe but don't know about her house. Other employees in my office who live in Napa Valley were on the phone calling their friends, "come to my house if you ne...

We have our first 2 positive coronavirus tests on campus, both employees, one works with home members and, of course, they both got it from people they interact with off campus. We had to sign a document that we had received a letter stating these facts, apparently this is a requirement of the health department (thank you, health department.) This event has triggered a cascade of processes and procedures. I’m not aware of all of them, yet, but one of the residential units is locked down while they test their residents, and everyone is negative. If any of them come down with the bug it will be all over the campus because some of these guys flaunt authority; they’re the types who would’ve ended up in the brig, multiple times. The Post Exchange (PX), our convenience store, was shut down for the day but will reopen. The entrance and exit gates will be more heavily staffed, again. (Hmm, it might be harder to get a Notary on campus to sign the Power of Attorney (POA) forms that members des...