What? You’ve gotta be kidding! Well, it’s a great sounding title for a future fun column. But it’s only a curious lead-in to my standing praise for Steve Gibbs and his column “A Different Drummer” which appears here in the Herald on Sundays, regular as clockwork since Steve was a boy…almost (Steve says it launched in1985). So I’ve been reading him almost since I landed in Benicia in 1983 and first became a Herald subscriber. Steve is a bright, witty, insightful, recently retired teacher from Benicia High, and I often think of his powers of perception and communication-writing like one of those steel balls that bangs through his pinball machines: bouncing off side rails, lighting up lights and alarms, being swatted at and accelerated by paddles, and ringing up serious columns of perception and discussion! Years ago, my all-time favorite Gibbs’ column was one he wrote about some chickie who was on the back of his or somebody’s motorcycle. It was clever, descriptive, no details stuck in my head other than it was Great Reading and maybe, Maybe, MAYBE he’ll get wind of these praising words and reprise it in a future Gibbs column???

Man About Town sees 632 First Street

No, I’m not The Man about Town (Herb Caen in Benicia?), but what’s going on down at 632 First Street? This past Saturday night I was parked along First waiting for my Take-home order of yummy Chicken Fajitas from Sandoval’s for my wife Jan when I looked to the newly lighted window at 632 marked with “Happy Life Pottery and Gallery” and “The Unclouded Adventure.” I was intrigued to go in and be Snoopy. WOW! Art and More under Construction! I met David M. Stellato and his wife, Amy (The Unclouded Adventure) who are in the process of bringing some artful and creative treasure-processes to Benicia. See their Facebook page and website, “Happy Life Pottery and Gallery” and www.Happylifepottery.com . Scheduled for opening in Mid-November! Yippee!

Joey’s Midnight Ladder

It’s 6-7:30 pm on a Saturday night and our Tuxedo Cat Joey decides NOT to come home for dinner from his neighborhood travels. So I leave dinner in the garage with the side door open (we’ve gone through this before), he’ll probably show up, maybe at midnight curled up on his padded chair, having enjoyed his night out and now settling down for the warmth and security of home, fresh water, and his choice of dry or canned kitty food. But No, several trips around the house at 9 and 10 pm calling “Kitty-Kitty-Kitty” in my highest-pitched Cat Voice, but still No Joey. So we go to bed. Approaching the upstairs master bedroom, we hear Joe’s voice outside the window crying over the garage. “Aw, Jesus, Joe! He’s outside the window!” I say to Jan who’s approaching and pulling back the curtains, and asking, “Hi, Joey, what’re you doing out there?” Apparently Joey thinks this might be Prime Time for an upstairs window entry, he’s done this before costing us a window screen repair, so I say, “No, I’ll go downstairs with the flashlight and try to talk him down.”
No Frinking luck, the trailer is too far from the garage for him to leap to its top like he’s done before, and I’m not about to hook it up and back it closer, so I go to the truck for tools and then to the side yard where I have some 1x 6 x 6’ spare fence boards. With (6) short deck screws I extend two together, lean them into position, put Joe’s food dish at the bottom and shine my flashlight for him to see the easiest path to getting down.
He approaches it, sniffs it, gives it half a cat thought and disappears. He’d rather go to the top of the house, leap into the darkness of the Black Acacia tree and wander down its trunk like he’s done before chasing squirrels during the day. We meet in the garage, I tell him what a Piece of Work he is, put away my tools, lock him in for the night, and call it a day…and a night.
©Peter Bray 10/15/2017
All rights reserved

Peter Bray lives, works and writes in Benicia
and has written this column since 2008.

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