Toilet tanks, gates, latches, door locks, closet clothes poles, landscape grooming, Weedeating on occasion, Special Carpentry Projects, all manner of Honey Do Handyman work – these are the things that I currently do for self-employment and have done for these past 16 years. Before that I cleaned roots and clogs from sewer lines in three counties for three years and got good enough at it to train others for two different firms. Before that I was a corporate guy for 30 plus years, WooHa was that a trip! I learned early my Mechanical Engineering Design and loved to draw, Oh to draw, add curvature to pipes and tubes, express myself with 2H lead or India Ink across mylar with jewel-point RapidoGraph pens. The Arts of communication! So I began to write bits and pieces of poetry. Was self-employed in Walnut Creek as a Graphics Designer for 5 years before re-entering the Corporate World as Graphics Designer for Brown and Caldwell, Consulting Engineers. This led to across the Bay and Bechtel Corporation headquartered in San Francisco. Yippee! A BART rider for 10 years! All the time I’m writing poetry and self-publishing my stuff in a creative newsletter called, “Taproot & Aniseweed,” and doing Open Mics from here, Benicia to Livermore, Walnut Creek, Vallejo, San Francisco, Berkeley, etc, and local poet, Martha Cinader invites me to “Listen & Be Heard Poetry Cafe” on Marin Street in Vallejo. So Ursula Morgan Kane and I video-record 12 original songs, sung A Cappella by me and later with help, others and I upload them to Youtube.com where you can hear them all today. Benicia Literary Arts in Benicia invites me to the Rellik Tavern where we do some fun stuff and Benicia Poet-Artist Tom Stanton records my 16 minutes of fame as “Peter Bray at the Rellik,” Check it out.
Chapter 2 we’ll discuss great kids Cathy and Chris and Michelle, wife Janice and pets, dogs, and cats, “Saving The Lido” in Benicia, uploading nearly all my stuff to Facebook pages, withholding nothing for the “Big Time Publishers,” My WAR on Crohn’s Disease, the MAP pathogen, Mycobacterium avium, Paratuberculosis, WTC-911, “Total Destruction at Free-Fall Velocity” and Architects & Engineers for 911 Truth. Or just follow my column here at the Benicia Herald for another 10 years and enjoy the ongoing Hoot! Editor Nick Sestanovich, you do well in your next leg of the Odyssey and stay in touch! – PB
Peter Bray lives, works, and writes in Benicia and has written this column since Christmas of 2008.
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Well, I woulda bulldozed the lido if I had been given the opportunity. That backward thinking is why the city is in a mess now and will forever be a forgettable place in the Bay Area. Incidently, it is also why we’re broke and will enjoy higher water/tax/sewer rates until we declare bankruptcy in 2040.
History is an asset to our city and its residents and our culture. The Lido was an eyesore, but the Jurgensen’s Old Corner Saloon within it was referred to by Jack London in his book, John Barleycorn. We saved the upper floor and private money restored it to a functional, gorgeous building downtown. It has paying tenants in multiple shops on both floors..That wasn’t backward thinking, that was progressive thinking. Property tax and sales tax for the city are now derived from that constructive work. That was 20 plus years ago, today’s problems are today’s problems. Perhaps you might enjoy living elsewhere. Are you a part of the city’s solutions or the city’s problems? Peter Bray, Benicia, CA
Since I don’t care, I am neither a part of solutions nor problems…although I would like to create problems for the tax and spend mentality of the liberal city government.
History is an asset, how exactly? We saved the saloon…big deal, might just as well have saved the whorehouse or put up a plaque where JL got laid…amounts to the same thing, recall the song, “Glory Days”…Benicia will not have future glory days with its head stuck in its arse and in the past.
Enjoy what you call life, I have no need or desire to debate any issues with you.
Peter Bray, Benicia CA
Look forward to your next column…perhaps you’ll reminisce about something else I consider stupid.