I know the last time I was up there (for my uncle's memorial service at the university's faculty lounge/restaurant/whatever) I was amazed to find the traffic there as bad or worse than San Diego, and even Orange Co., and quickly (albeit on a smaller scale/area) approaching LA's gridlock during rush hours... and I always have a hard time getting around/finding my way -- if not for GPS, used to take me hours to find my aunt's house -- strange address numbering scheme and street names that have NW, etc. in them...
And yes, both of my cousins went to Lakeside -- their paternal grandmother died relatively young in a car crash and left everything to my 2 cousins' education... one went local and was quite the frat/party bro, while Jabe went to Yale and was always very very serious -- two more opposite brothers could not exist... though both are very bright, they share very few other traits and/or pursuits. Jabe tricked out his office with a huge aquarium and built a bunk bed under his desk (a bit nicer than George's on Seinfeld) and slept there 6 nights a week -- he met his wife, an HR person at MSFT when she kept looking for him in his office and finally discovered him asleep under his desk... she now runs most of the non-profits that Jabe set up and funds, including one in our mutual grandfather's name back at the university in my home town... she humanizes Jabe who isn't anti-social, just so wrapped up in his own thoughts/world that he doesn't notice other people unless/until they become part of whatever he's working on at any given moment.
The place in France is spectacular... they bought it because, like the mtn and ranch complex in Washington state, it is a short hike further up the mtn there to France's premier paraponting site... Jabe built a dorm and teaching facilities for paraponting at the Washington mtn ranch... he nearly killed himself about 7 years ago in France, but had all of the steel rods holding his back and other body parts together removed because his docs said he couldn't ever do that again with all of the hardware... never mind that after removing all of that a simple bike spill (another of his favorite things, though he has a mild form of MS that causes bouts of vertigo) at best he'd never be able to walk without assistance or at worst would kill him... it's almost as if he's trying to kill himself with the sort of risks he likes to take -- is addicted to, in a sense...
Once he hired/gathered 6 top chefs to his place in France and my brother and I happened to be passing through for different reasons (I was on my way to Total's and ENI's offices, my brother was setting up dist. centers for UPS across Europe)... never ate or drank so well in my life, except for maybe that time I met up with my brother when he was based out of Belgium and he took me to a couple dozen abbey's that brewed very strong ales and also put on quite the feasts... I should have been rich like my cousin or even to a lesser degree, my brother... I had to accumulate what I have the old fashioned way, by saving it up and investing wisely (for the most part, though I've had my share of bad decisions, too)... maybe I should have taken my cousin's offer to work at MSFT in the early 1980s... nah... I have loved my work for a few decades and that's worth a lot of money to me...
My apologies to the board for all of this personal rambling... it's just so... quiet around here right now and I don't watch TV much... did listen to radio earlier as they were featuring my daughter's band's new album... sigh, I miss my dog... |
