It took us forever to get all the camping gear loaded up, so we didn’t end up rolling up until about midnight. But what a wild scene it was! It was black as pitch - no street lights and no lights from neighbors - and intense, hot dry winds. To the left a giant red crescent moon was setting over the mountains. It felt like we had landed on Mars! Thankfully the place was just as we’d left it, and there were no footprints anywhere around it. We hustled to get the blowup beds set up in the upstairs, and unloaded everything else into the construction site downstairs. We definitely couldn’t stay there if there wasn’t a clean upstairs to put beds in.
The weekend was mostly chores - the F’s car’s brakes started grinding on the drive out, so much of the day Saturday was spent getting the brakes fixed, then he got on the giant ladder and spent hours installing two solar powered security cameras, which, amazingly, work exactly as we’d hoped. As of now we can keep an eye on everything that goes on out there. We also put up some No Trespassing signs at strategic spots, and some motion lights. We could still be robbed, but we just made it a lot less appealing, I hope.
So what was it like, finally actually staying there in our place after dreaming about it for almost a year and a half? It was great! I’ve never had a vacation home; my mother and I used to fantasize about this when I was a kid - so many people on the east coast have what you call “country houses”, something that never would have been within reach for us. A vacation home in California isn’t in reach for me now, either, so this is the cheapest possible way to make it happen - buying an abandoned shack in an abandoned place that nobody wants to go to, except, fortunately, us.
So we slept upstairs with the intense winds blowing through the one window, I made meals in our improvised camp kitchen downstairs, washed dishes in the actual wash behind the house, bathed nude right in front with no one to see me for miles, and it was grand. Even better, on Saturday night we finally got to go to the only local bar that we’ve been trying to go to since we bought the place last March. They are at last open for business after covid shut downs, and were having a fun cover band concert out back. In listening to folks around us, it seems more than a few also come from New York’s East Village; it’s funny how so many of us made that connection between there and Wonder Valley; two wild, dangerous places full of artists and misfits and people who enjoy the obscure and bizarre. Our hope is to make friends out there. They are definitely our peeps. I’m imagining many more enjoyable Saturday nights spent at that place.
This morning Bobby and I went walkabout to some neighboring ramshackle houses, one of our favorite pastimes. God, I hope he grows up to be the kind of guy who makes music videos in these falling down places. It’s hard to predict what impact spending time out there will have for these kids - something interesting, I hope.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that today is, in fact, Mother’s Day, which used to be a source of intense misery for me. Not anymore. Once my mother died, and I decided it was time to take this day back for myself, they’ve gotten progressively easier, until by this year I scarcely remembered it other than to plan the weekend away. I’m not a fan of forced sentiment - I feel similar about anniversaries, Valentine’s Day, even birthdays - but I get that it doesn’t hurt to slow down occasionally and take those moments to celebrate the people we love, even if it’s over something as silly as just happening to be born on that day.
Mostly right now I’m just happy and relieved that even with all the false starts and missteps with this place, we ended up getting to enjoy it after all a bit this year; and that it is as enjoyable as we’d hoped, and that all of us are all in. My hope is to return Memorial Day weekend - but a) it’s the weekend before the wedding and I could find myself busy with something or the F may have to work, and b) it could be wicked hot. Saturday was high 90s and was pretty miserable, although we managed. By that weekend a local pool will be open, however, which makes a huge difference. I’m really hoping we can have one last stay out there before the heat of summer and my every Sunday gig at Knott’s Berry Farm renders weekend trips impossible until after my event. I’ll miss it terribly. But at least I can watch it on my phone now.
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