2023 – Go West Old Gal – 2.1 – Napa

Still Monday, July 3, 2023

Napa

After I picked up my carry-on from the Carousel, I fumbled around a bit before I found out that I needed the Sky Train, and where to find same, but I made it there and managed to find Sixt, who had presented a BMW for my 20 day rental, for not much more than the Yaris I could have had for less than $500 less.  Since I don’t have a car and therefore don’t carry car insurance, I was looking at close to $3K, and $500 wasn’t such a big part of it. 

So I have a Beemer, again.  My last one was a 1987, that didn’t get to come to HK with me in 1989.  I liked that one a lot better than this one.  It took about 15 minutes in the garage at SFO to get used to the new one.  I kept having to call the attendant to help.  The silliest part was getting the three headrests on the back seat down.  Cheaper cars have a button for that.  I looked all over for it. The guy just climbed into the back seat and brought them down manually, because this expensive car doesn’t have that button.  But, it drives very nicely and I took the scenic route through the City, over the Golden Gate, and up through the vineyards to Napa. 

Ulla and John Brown were waiting with hugs at their big beautiful apartment in The Meadows.  They let me get a little nap, because of the time difference, but we were soon off to a party.  It was Silverado’s third of July, which I remember well for its main event – the fireworks.  The wildfires decree that Silverado has seen the last of those, like Montreal and a whole bunch of other places.  But they still have the big party, everyone invites their kids and grandkids, and there’s a bouncy castle. 

The food was good, lots of salads, chicken and burgers for the other people and corn, spare ribs, potato salad and cornbread for me.  Ice cream and cookies for dessert, of course.  In the lower right hand corner of this shot, you get Michael Hooks and Paula Schultz.  We had a very good table and I met a bunch of people that I knew from my 22 years at Silverado.  I met more of them at The Meadows, mind you, but we probably shouldn’t go there.  It gets chilly at night in the Napa Valley, so the party was breaking up by 9:30, which was fine with me, as that was after midnight in Montreal.   

Sure enough, by Tuesday morning, July 4, I was reset.  John had to take one of their cars into the shop, so I volunteered to drive.  The Beemer had given a spot of trouble last night, refusing to shut off when I moved it into The Meadows Visitor parking.  The Browns’ driver got it to turn off but wasn’t able to give me a reliable formula for how to. So, before we left the garage, after dropping their car off, we decided to test it.  It wouldn’t shut down.  I went in to the garage for help and the lady there managed to get it off but couldn’t tell us how.  Meanwhile John had been doing the RTFM thing, but there was nothing it there telling you how to turn it off, either.  You are obviously just supposed to push the button.  Finally, John and I talked it through and came up with:  Just let it turn itself like it does at a stop light with your foot on the brake, then put it in park, get out and lock it.  That seemed to work reliably, but you never know when it might not work, so I took it to Gabe.  Gabriel Pastrama owns Alpina Car in Napa, and maintained Babar, my old grey Merc, for most of its 22-year life.  It beat him, too.  Nowadays, they fix such things by replacing the starter assembly, which is a computer. So Gabe sent me to the nearest BMW dealer, who is in Fairfield.

It was a great place.  I have my own consultant, Isaac Ruiz, who has the most gorgeous smile.  Their waiting area is stocked with all sorts of beverages, from the fancy coffee machine, down to bottled water, which is what I took.  The starter assembly wasn’t in stock, so Isaac called me a Lyft and said he’d call me when I could come get the car, likely tomorrow afternoon.  Sami, the Lyft driver, was very nice, a good conversationalist, and delighted to be driving to Napa, where he could get some delicious sloppy sausage sandwich at Genova deli, which I was delighted to know is still there. 

Back at the Browns’ I worked all afternoon, mostly getting quotes on cruises for clients, who will be sailing the Panama canal next March, once we settle on the cabin or cabins.  Then John and Ulla and I had a very nice dinner at Tarla, a middle-Eastern restaurant on main that opened just before I left Napa in 2016.  The spanakopita was the best I had ever had.  It was followed by an excellent Moroccan lamb shank and some sumptuous baclava.  Happy tummy, great company, happy camper, me.

Wednesday, July 5 was another workday in my office in The Meadows.  By the end of it, we were getting closer to the sale, and it was looking like two cabins.  That night Ulla and John hosted a dinner party in Vela, The Meadows’ private dining room for eight.  Ulla had asked me for a list and I had given her about twenty people, so she could choose the ones she wanted for her dinner party.  As always, she made very good choices and we had Maurine Potter, Ian and Jill Leverton and Pati and Don Simon.  Do I have a picture to show you?  No, that would have been smart, but I wasn’t. 

We were all happy to be together, though, on the right side of the grass, making the most of the decent health we all still enjoy.  And, bless our hearts, we found a lot of other things to talk about than the state of our health.  Good on us.  I have to tell you the story I contributed.  My friend, Steve, lives in Westmount, not far from where I used to live before I went to Hong Kong.  There’s a lot of wild life there, thanks to Mount Royal park, which is enormous.  Steve had a cage/trap in his back yard, because he had a groundhog living under his back deck.  It had been caught but they leave the trap a couple of weeks longer, in case it has a mate.  Apparently it didn’t, but there were new tenants.  One morning Steve went out to find four baby skunks in the trap.  Madame Moufette (Mrs. Skunk to you, but Moufette sounds classier) was studying the problem from all angles.  She made her decision and started to dig.  While Steve watched, she dug a trench along one side of the cage.  Eventually, the edge of the cage toppled over into the trench and, lo and behold, tripped the lock, giving her access to her babies.  One by one, she moved them back under the porch.  Mme. Moufette, B.Eng.  Steve let her stay there until she eventually led them up to the mountain one night, and there were five of them trailing behind her. 

I had also picked up the beemer in Fairfield.  The part won’t be in until next week.  I don’t mind the drive and I’m hoping it results in a couple of free days from Sixt.  Thursday, July 6, was moving day, but Ulla kept me in place for a couple of extra hours with the very nice present of a massage, right in her bedroom.  The massage therapist, named Jen, was happy to come to the house, now that Ulla had purchased a massage table.  If you ever saw the length of the halls in The Meadows, you’d understand why no one will schlep a massage table into there.  It’s a wonderful place though, and I recognized many names and faces, during my short stay.  The most remarkable was Kate Hemphill, who had been a neighbor in Silverado Oaks for my 22 years there.  She’s 99 and looks 75.  She’s a great advertisement for the place, too.  I am being encouraged to return to Napa and am seriously considering The Meadows.  Not for a few years though, as I love my independent life in Montreal at the moment. 

I moved into Val and Dave Lasker’s house in the Silverado Highlands around four in the afternoon and settled in to my new home and office.  It has a nice view over the Silverado Country Club and comes with two very nice dogs and a geriatric cat, two out of three of whom I have known for years.  Caroline, the Canine Companions puppy-in-training, Dave’s tenth, is the new one.  She’s eight months old.  Jacee was his second puppy and Bernie the cat, was a kitten when Sylly P was a kitten.  He’s seventeen now, plagued by a number of serious health problems, but still alert and happy, bless him and his cute little white mittens.

We had a Megan, Fitzgerald and Lasker “company dinner” in the evening at Fumé Bistro, Terry Letson’s restaurant.  Terry was our castle chef on the Loire in France, and for the Villa in Tuscany that I never saw, because of a broken pelvis.  He stopped by our table, which even included Sallyann Berendsen, our teacher partner, and her husband, Peter.  Do I have a picture of this momentous occasion?  No.  Duh.  Smarten up, Helen. 

And I did.  The Panama Canal Cruise sale closed for two cabins on Friday, July 7.  Dave, Val and I went to a concert that night.  It was outside and it got cold and windy as the performance went on.  I kept adding clothing, shawl, raincoat, touque, and gloves by the end of it.  But it was a good concert.  I just felt sorry for the performer who is 84 years old and was trying to play the guitar while her fingers were freezing.  Luckily she had backup.  Here she is, folks, Judy Collins at the Meritage Hotel in Napa.