Is there any doubt that Angel Hernandez...

[GarthB]

It's 7:20 AM as I write. High tide on Monterey Bay will peak at 7:32 so we have postponed our morning walk. (I call it a walk, my wife, who at 5'3" has fairly short legs, call it a trot. I walk at a 16 minute mile pace so I get my four miles in at just over an hour.)

We prefer to walk at low tide or between tides, so we'll enjoy some cofee for a while, read the paper and talk more about what we need to do to before we retire here. I've always wanted to retire before 60 and it looks like that will be possible. We plan on learning Spanish over the next year. I figure I can probably substitute teach down here, but it would help to be bilingual and Spanish seem to still be the dominant second language in the central coast region. I'm conversant and literate in French, but that doesn't seem to help, except at restaurants.

We're goint to visit Carmel today. That's where our first date was back in collge, before moving to Spokane, before raising two boys, before 32 years of marriage. Back then we bought a bottle of wine, some french bread, salami, and provlone cheese at the Mediterranean Market and ate lunch in the park. The Mediterranean Market is gone now. It closed about three years ago, so we'll have to bring our lunch supplies with us.

We'll walk the beach, visit the mission and maybe a winery or two, stroll the neighborhoods and be amazed at the $150,000 bungalows that sell for a million dollars. Dinner will be at "Portabella's", one of the best restaurants we've discovered in the region. We stop in about three times a year and owner always remembers us and sits down to bring us current on the happenings since our last visit.

We'll watch the sun set over the bay from the city beach beneath Pebble Beach Golf Course and then head for "home".

"Bush", by the way, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. I don't rely on former rats for what I consider bush. Picking up a coach's hat and running to the stands and giving it to a fan, is bush.

Hernandez, from his lack of uniformity in his uniform to his showboat handling of situations has always been a "look at me" umpire. That's also bush. But it would be tolerable if his performance was quality. It isn't.

Have a pleasant day.

[SanDiegoSteve]

Like sand from an hourglass, so are the Days Of Our Garth.