What a day Monday was for me, in fact it still is Monday as I’m writing this post. There was a time when use to enjoy jumping on a plane and getting away for a few days, and my two favorite places to go were Mexico and California. I was several years’ younger back then and nothing seemed to phase me. Even if I couldn’t speak the language or really didn’t have an appreciation for the local cuisine I always enjoyed going to the land of the fruits and nuts, California.
I bet you thought I was going to say, “Mexico”, you know you did; go ahead and raise your hand now. Yes, California has a language and some junk that is known as “tofu”, which they substitute for real food. Just they name tofu is a turn off for me, the first time I heard the name ‘tofu’ I thought that the people have lost their minds, why would anyone want to grow toe fungus in big batches and try and pass it off as food. Then I did some research and found out it had nothing to do with toes or fungus, it was worse than that. Soy bean milk condensed and then curdled, who in hell comes up with these things? They say it is just “like cheese , except it is made from soy milk”, maybe the process of making it might be like cheese, but as far as I’m concerned it pretty much stops there.
My sources tell me that tofu originated back in Asia and China about the time we starting putting A.D. after the years, so roughly a couple thousand years ago. From the taste of it, I think the original stuff got lost on a slow boat from China, and ended up in California back in the early 90’s of the last century. One taste of that was all I needed to know, never again would that stuff passes my lips.
The language is “surfer”, I don’t speak surfer, I wouldn’t know “narley” if it bit me on the backside. If they’re not talking surfer language then the talking this hip hop crap where they’re “giggin “ or “slaps” and “putting on blast”.
Despite the food and language barriers I did enjoy the scenery, the next best thing to beautiful Texas women would be found in California, the Sequoia trees. Big majestic trees that somehow survived some catastrophic event before man had even settled the land, or so they say. The San Francisco Bay Bridge is another engineering marvel worth seeing. There are plenty more but a must see is the prison on Alcatraz Island. The prison that it was impossible to escape from, attempts were made, something like 36 inmates over the time it was open tried to escape. While the official records say no one ever successfully escaped, five prisoners never were recaptured or shot. The government says that they were to have presumed “drowned”. Well, they could have just as easily been presumed to have made it away never to be found, but the government gets the final say.
Alcatraz was a federal prison and housed some of “worst of the worst” criminals like, George “Machine Gun” Kelly and Al Capone, those were some big time “gangstas”. The prison was closed in 1963 because it was too expensive to operate since all the supplies had to be brought to the island by boat. Ten years after the closing it was reopened as a tourist attraction, about a million people a year visit the place.
So, I’m here in southern California and now I have to get over to the company headquarters and get to work, I wanted to get this written before it gets too late and I have to many “Coronas”, with a slice of lime. That beer is my choice in adult beverages.
Even though I am out of my element, Texas, I will do my best to keep the daily dose going even though I am in this foreign place known as California. Sometime I will share some stories about my Mexico adventures.
