Friday morning Rama and I dosed our case of cabin fever with a half-day on the mountain (I was covering for Erica at the Flo that evening so she could hit up an X-mas party and had to be back in the O at four for dinner service).  Pre-Rama I wasn't too well acquainted with Tam--I'd visited a couple times back in the diz with my ex-bf who also didn't have a good lay of it, and I remember mostly sulking that we weren't at the ocean.  Rama knows Tam like the back of his hand (it's uncanny), and I've enjoyed getting a steadily better sense of it.  We camp there on the semi-reg (almost always at Pantoll but twice at Bootjack when the former was full), and we've hiked around a fair amount.  I like it very much in general, and when it's cloud-shrouded I straight-up love it.

To clarify: my weekends are comprised of Mondays and Tuesdays, which sucks for some Normal Person stuff (I missed Hardly Strictly Bluegrass again this year), but is in other ways ideal.  Since Rama works for himself he sets his own schedge, and so on my off days we are privileged to go to some very beautiful places and oftentimes have them more or less to ourselves.  Plus the traffic getting there's usually pretty minimal, and any restaurants we may wander into along the way aren't too swarmed.  This is good for Rama's Road Rage and for my more general impatience, and it's frankly magic to frequently find ourselves the only two folks in some garjuhss spot.  We're getting pretty spoiled about it: Muir Beach on a Saturday?  Fuck to the no.  

It was overcast when we departed from Arroyo Grande.  We waved hai/bye to magnifico Morro Rock from the 1, stopped briefly Cayucos so Rama could buy a surf leash, and made one final visit to the San Simeon pier so Rama could call his granny and ma and Dave about concert tickets while cell signal was still abound.

My parents marked their thirtieth wedding anniversary on August 12th, and we met up in Cambria that following weekend to celebrate.  We've had a couple family mini-vaycays there over the last few years--it's kind of perfect for the fam in its friendly sleepiness, its antiques and beachiness, and its being situated centrally on the CA coast between Huntington Beach and Oakland. 

We got a late start.  I was supposed to wake up early to write following a chat about discipline with Dad the day before.  I did eventually answer my alarm, but was still so groggy I accomplished little more than some foggy scribbles.  When Nina came to call it was very easy to give in to the gift of overbearing Maine Coon snuggles and fall into a long warm slumber, during which time Rama filed his taxes.  Around ten he'd finished and I was feeling fully rested for the first time in weeks.