Karla Noyes' Captain's Log Series

The Embrace With the arrival of the coronavirus I have a new ritual I perform with every interview - I bring the center piece. Out of my bag I pull a box of tissues and a bottle of hand sanitizer and announce that this is my Japanese Tea Ceremony, then ritually sanitize my hands and the pen we will both use to sign the documents. Last week one of my interviewees responded with a greeting in Japanese. "Oh, you speak Japanese?" "Just a few words." "Me, too. How is it that you know some Japanese?" "I spent a month in Japan studying Aikido." "Is that so? I studied Aikido for 5 years in the 70s, I got pretty good." "I went with a teacher of mine. We went to different dojos and practiced. Some of the dojos didn't have mats, only linoleum floors. I worked with these 10-year olds who had no trouble falling on the floor and rolling, but for me it was ouch, ouch, ouch." "I know what you mean, rolling on a hard su...

Fall 2001 _________ Vineyards would make an excellent brothel – a very expensive one. The location is spectacular in the lower, eastern hills of Napa Valley. On a hill itself, it has a view of other oak-covered, breast-like hills. The style is reminiscent of a Tuscan villa with tan, stucco walls, large terra cotta floor tiles, large earthen pots with fountains of dried flowers, wrought iron lighting fixtures and most wonderfully – large, original art on the walls. For me the most memorable piece, because I had to walk by it 50 times that night, was a large, multimedia representation of Mickey Mouse by Andy Warhol.   While not my favorite subject I came to appreciate each stroke of the artist’s hand, and to admire his subtle use of fun colors. It’s so rare to see original art in places other than museums and galleries, but then I don’t get out to many brothels. The other art was more tasteful to the quiet winery setting. The structure is oriented north-south, parallel ...

May 12, 2002 Wedding Season has begun again in Wine Country with the first event at ____ Winery last Saturday. I keep thinking each wedding I attend is more expensive than the last, and this one must have cost a mint! (But it didn’t come up to the one last year for the TV news announcer at _____ Vineyards Gardens, all those fur coats!) This was the first wedding reception held at ____, which opened last summer. It’s clear the building was not designed for this sort of thing, for example, there was no industrial kitchen, or one that we were allowed access to. I’m not quite sure of the building’s purpose: there are art galleries upstairs, a small café, and a small gourmet food store downstairs. It has the look of a museum with two, open, foyer-type spaces, which will be good for cocktails at art openings. This wedding reception utilized both of those spaces. Of course, you could have hosted a nice party in the ladies room, it was large and attractive enough. I don’t kno...

Two related lessons: One elderly man I interviewed recently told me: if you’re happy or not is your choice. I experienced this once, Brian was a Cub Scout and I took him to a Pine Car Derby held in the lunch room of a local elementary school. I did not want to be there, I can’t remember why, but I had a black stormy cloud over me. Grumpy, sullen, withdrawn I was standing in the middle of the room, someone had set up a boom box playing the Beach Boys. I scanned the entire room and everyone was having a really terrific time: laughing, smiling, talking, helping. At that moment I made a conscious decision to give in and enjoy myself. It worked. Try it. Another elderly man had to tell me that he has no patience with residents who gripe about the Home. “Go to the entrance, do you see a locked gate? No. You can leave at any time.” If you’re unhappy with your situation, your marriage, your job, your ____. Get out. Take action. Look into the alternatives (you might discover that you’re ...

Lesson 1 The best part of my job is going out to the units, or our hospital, and meeting the members to obtain their signatures on required documents. I met a woman who was out on the terrace of the hospital under an awning smoking a cigarette in the light rain. She’s my age and had been in a minor car accident, with only a broken foot (only.) She’s a good story-teller and relayed the experience. She was driving off campus when she was T-boned by a car leaving the champagne business just outside our facility. The police saw it all, she was taken to the local community hospital (they do all the x-rays, surgeries and fancy stuff), then released back here. She said her life flashed before her eyes, then she wondered “did I tell everyone that I love them?” Well, I’m telling you: I love Y-O-U! For some reason I’m feeling quite content this time of year. Usually I feel that the winter holiday season is imposed upon me, like a burden. I’m supposed to be happy, and I say “Bah, humbug!” ...

I’ll be taking a break from composing these Captain’s Logs. Last week I researched how to write a screen play, then how to write a novel and one of the take-aways was: establish a regular time to write. And since I have to be quiet while Kevin’s sleeping I’ve got this perfect time! Probably 8 hours a weekend. I’m going to use it to finish-up my History of the Blue Wing Inn booklet for publication next fall, complete with photos from other sources. I may need to do some crowd-sourcing for funds to help me get it printed, so you’ll hear from me about that J Work goes well. My office is a zoo but the monkeys are hysterically happy. I admit to becoming a little touchy as my supervisor critiques my presentations. He always has one encouraging thing, like ‘you’re getting better,’ but nit-pics everything else, some of it is useful, like getting rid of ‘ums’ and ‘ahs.’ I can do that. I pride myself on being ‘coachable’ but it turns out I have a bit of a limit (remember, Karla, you love t...

Fire, I hope this isn’t going to be a recurring theme… Last Saturday around 5pm the local utility turned off the electricity to thousands of homes and businesses. For us, they turned it back on Thursday at 2:30pm. Five days without electricity. It wasn’t too much of a hardship, we still had running water, unlike people with wells who need power to run their pumps, and we had natural gas so we had hot showers and hot food. Strange how often I turn to the microwave, and the light switches in the dark. I had my little battery-powered lantern and carried it everywhere with me like Little Red Riding Hood’s basket. We have our battery & solar powered emergency radio, and solar powered battery-pack for charging cell phones. Fortunately, we still had cell phone coverage - our emergency communication device (as long as the cell towers have power) - my only tether to the outside world. We received our best news from one or two Facebook groups that offered links to emergency and information...