Karla Noyes' Captain's Log Series

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...