Subes for life!

I made it to Santa Cruz on their first sunny day after the storms, and everyone-and-their-brother was out and about to catch some rays. It’s busy here!

My first stop was at the Subes4Life dealership for a minor tire repair, and the guy who took my car looked at my setup and said, “You have a lot of stuff in here!” The guy who wrote the service ticket shook his head and doubted aloud if their lift would even lift the car. Haha, joke’s on you dude, since while yes it’s true I have an f-ton of gear on board, it was your shop who sold and installed the tires and you should know that and the lift will be fine.

An hour later, nail removed from tread, I was off to pick up mail and buy flowers and visit mom/G-ma and all the usual SC stuff.

Interestingly, Delaware Street is 100% less homelessy, now that SC has been issuing tickets for oversized rigs parked on the street. The only downside to this plan is that now all those rigs are jammed into Depot Park (at the Beach St. roundabout) and in the downtown parking lot where the farmers’ market is held*.

And, downtown in general is utter mayhem. Construction pits, construction fencing, two-way streets turned into one-way streets, bus lanes, streets covered in steel plates, cinder-blocked areas on Pacific Ave. TBH, I don’t follow SC news much and I have no idea what’s what, but it seems like the town has grown too big for its britches.

On the other hand, there is now a vegan donut shop, and a plant-based eatery next to that, excellent Mongolian (stir fry) across the street from them, and it’s hard to go wrong with Victor and Jeremy and the gang serving up SC Dark at SCCRCo. Zachary’s has been hit-and-miss, with portions and pricing and quality fluctuating on each visit — today was good, though, and with a certain unnamed crew member** missing there was a noticeable lack of drama and attitude***.

With the change in weather, my private enclave in East Remote (up on campus) has been discovered. As my neighbor at Pinecrest a few months ago said, “With the internet, there are no secret spots any more.” And, sure enough, the place was packed with a skateboard team, a Cranberries cover band, a broken down couple who sat at their car for about six hours trying to arrange a tow, hikers, bikers, drone pilots, two bag-pipers, a gangsta-bunch smoking pot, and RC car enthusiasts. I kid you not. The place was kwayzeen****.

And there I was, trying to think about Very Important Things and eat vegan donuts.

Alas, it was not meant to be.

It’s back to the mountains for me.

See you on the road!

*You can now be homeless, if you buy a parking permit.

**She-of-three. Yes, you guessed it. Even some of her coworkers make disparaging remarks. Oh well … not my drama!

***No cat fights. Whew!

****All of that was really going on. [Of course it’s true. Everything I tell you is true!]