Dec 30 - Boring Saturday reruns

Saturday, December 30, 1972 - Page 365
LOCATION: San Francisco

Finally got to sleep around 6:30. The card game broke up at 7:00. Around 8:30 the damn Imperial's horn went off and mom went out to turn it off -- I slept thru it fortunately. We were sposed to leave for Tahoe Saturday morn but everyone was too wasted. Everyone woke up around 4:00 but I promptly went back to sleep. I woke up again at 6:00 and mom came in to get all my dirty clothes to wash (that included all my clothes practically) so I tried to go back to sleep cause I couldn't go wandering around with no clothes. I took a shower. I eventually obtained some clothes and went upstairs at 7:30 for a dinner of hamburgers. Watched T.V. alot -- UFO, All in the Family, Bridget Loves Bernie (Jim went out on his bike for milk & film -- I gave him $5 to help out on the cost), Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, & Carol Burnett -- all reruns already. Played Will a game of chess and beat him -- we all went to bed early -- Jain at 10:00, mom at 10:30, us boys at 11:00. 'Tis now 11:20. We're getting up tomorrow at 6:30 to go to Tahoe. It's supposed to be snowing there, or so said the weather man yesterday.

TOMORROW: TIME REVIEW: Final 100 days of 1972

Oct 22 - John Fowles' "The Magus"

Sunday, October 22, 1972 - Page 296
LOCATION: Newport Beach

4:00 AM
Tis now 4:00:59 A.M., Sunday. Now, I'll quit writing completely. Until later, ta ta. ---

(12:05 AM 10/24/1972 Mon night, Tues morn)
This is later. Sunday I occupied myself with T.F., and after the last entry I finished the Bradbury book. I started the Magus by John Fowles and now am on page 35 -- extremely small print. Mom finally got the clothes washed Sunday, and I finally finished the preliminary scan of my rough notes. Much more sifting remains.

1966 First UK Edition
John Fowles' 1st book, "The Magus" (meaning "Magician") is number 93 on Modern Library 100 Best Novels (wikipedia info)

TOMORROW: Procrastination on Veterans Day

Sep 29 - Again, nothing happens

Friday, September 29, 1972 - Page 273
LOCATION: Newport Beach, California

11:00 PM
Got up at 9:00. Watched T.V. all day & finished going thru "The Fossil Book." A wallet mom had purchased for me came in the mail, so now I have a new wallet -- my old one I'd bought from Milano -- and also in the mail came an interesting letter from Greg. Dad dropped by today around 6:00. Mom shopped & we got stocked up on T.V. dinners. Yesterday she washed the clothes. Yesterday, I think, was Confucius's birthday. Happy birthday, Confus, sorry I was late with that. I'm thru.

[One of Grady's Chicago photos taken on August 10.

See October 7, 1972 posting for more Chi pics & descriptions]

TOMORROW: Bless the Beasts & the Children, they have no voice

Jun 28 - Question: Cats & high-pitched sounds**

Wednesday, June 28, 1972 - Page 180
LOCATION: Newport Beach, California

3:00 PM
I have a question for anyone who thinks they have an answer. Why is it that animals with a better sense of hearing than man, always (as far as I can tell), move toward synthetic high-pitched tones? You know about the "silent" dog whistle -- why the hell should a dog pay attention to a high-pitched whistle and ignore others? And Taco [my Siamese cat] supported the evidence of this phenomenon further -- the radio had one of those TESTS for emergencies where the air is silent, then a piercing high note follows for about 15 seconds, and I turned the radio up all the way. She got very perplexed and annoyed, and she wandered around looking for the source of the noise. When she determined it came from the radio, she confronted it and motioned around it, baffled.

Elora with her cat, Kit

After I turned it down, and regular broadcasting continued, she still wondered at the radio for a while, then went back to her place on the bed and curled up to sleep. Why? I ask. If a person was bugged by a too high sound, he'd cover his ears -- If he couldn't do that (as animals can't -- well, dogs can, sort of) he'd go away from the source, not toward it -- he'd try to escape it, not confront it. Why? Figure it out. -- Why should you? (Good question) --

[From 2013: I Googled: "why are animals attracted to high-pitched sounds?" and found this answer: "Cats have much better hearing than humans and can hear sounds pitched 1.5 octaves higher than humans can. It's a skill that comes in very handy when hunting. They often react to whistling or the higher pitched tones of woodwind instruments. Baby kittens have a very high-pitched cry, so perhaps she thought you were in distress of some kind and was trying to comfort you. One thing cats and humans have in common is that we both use higher pitch tones to denote approval or pleasure, and use lower tones to denote disapproval."] 

11:55:55 PM
Aside from the academic cogitation expressed above, dad dropped by (my boots aren't here yet), Mom & I drove to Lara and Mike's (we saw their six kittens -- Tanya's, that is) and we all drove to Orange County Medical Center to see Grandma Brazel (in the next bed was a beautiful lady, I noticed) after which we went for dinner at the Jolly Roger. Also, I washed the clothes today. I'll be winging my way to South Dakota Friday A.M., 6:30.

CATBEARD
Elora & Lucky

Jun 11 - A frantic maritime disaster***

Sunday, June 11, 1972 - Page 163
LOCATION: Newport Beach, California

11:00 AM (approx)
I got up at 10:30 today. It's a very sunny day. Hold it a sec -- I'm gonna call Tim Hourigan to check something (10:54:15) --

Hi, I'm back (11:02:16). I called Timothy (whom I've been trying to contact for some time), and he does indeed have my Galleon [2013 NOTE: This is the Newport Harbor High School yearbook ~ In 1971, I dropped out of my Senior year of High School, telling my counselor that forcing me to wake up every friggin' day at 7:30 AM was cruel & unusual punishment, and therefore I was protected by the US Constitution. So I simply stopped going. However, the NHHS administration chose to ignore my truancy and graduated me anyway, in absentia. Hence, I was awarded my Senior yearbook, and you can find photos from it in the entry for June 22] -- when I thought I wouldn't be around to get it many months ago, I entrusted him with the responsibility of obtaining it in my absence -- which he did. And since I shall be gone all next week, he offered to get it signed for me by the sleazy crowd around there, which is a very nice thing for him to do.

Let's see, who will sign it? : Tim, James Fish, Shawna certainly Wood, and Mary too (Bavry & Lyons), Meg maybe cause Tim would ask, Bob too, Phil & Pete Shergalis, and maybe three others [In fact, nobody signed my yearbook except Tim]. Hmmm. So I'll pick it up next week. Now I've gotta get the clothes washed.

"Newport Harbor Sailor Band in the 1972 Tournament of Roses"
The Galleon 1972 - Pages 180 & 181

8:30 PM
Jeez! I'm trying to figure out if this day warrants a [sad-face symbol]. I don't think so but it's close -- Some guy on TV said it was the 163rd day of the year, but I make it 162 -- Lemme check that. Hold on --- Christ! I have two 110's [this pagination error has been corrected throughout]. Lemme (Rats! The timer just went off) fix that. Hold it... Sloppy job. Take five; I've gotta eat my TV dinners --

PHEW! I'm back, waiting for my dinners to cool. I've been going a mile a minute all day. I drove over to wash the clothes (My dinners should be cool. I'll be back in a little bit...

9:00 PM
... Okay, I'm through), put them in the machines, then went shopping, came back to put the clothes in the driers, drove home with the food and put a couple of TV dinners in the oven, went back to get the clothes from the dryers, drove home to fold the clothes, and Murray called, so after I ate my dinners, I prepared to depart, but before that, Dad came over, with some of my book bills, so he subtracted that amount from the $65 he owes me, and finally at about one o'clock, I drove speedily to the Sea Scout Base to find Murray. The Base got 6 new kites (dingies [that's dinghys]), and after two days -- Sat. & Sun. -- they all got busted. Murray and I contributed to that record.

Chuck Lyda and Murray Lewis at Kern River in 1974

In an extremely abbreviated version: We sailed for a few hours, then a rudder pin broke, leaving one to hold it on -- as we limped into the base, it broke off completely during a monumental problem with the sail. I jumped off to get the rudder immediately losing my glasses, while the boat sailed into the dock, to be flipped by Murray, with me swimming in with the rudder, which we took, along with the sail, back to Base, returning to paddle the boat to the right dock, then driving in Murray's car to his house to get scuba diving gear [to hunt for my glasses]. We were about to return to the base when we discovered his car didn't work, so I called Winnie, but her car was broken and she was late for work, so I called Dad who was asleep. He drove over to take us to the Base. Dad left, Murray got his gear, I got a canoe and paddled out to assist, and he dove, but the sediment was a foot deep, the current was strong, the water murky, and the Argus [the Sea Scout's giant vintage sailing ship] was going to be coming in. So we gave up on that. Murray went to get his gear cleaned, and I found a car on the hose so I couldn't rinse the canoe, and had to put it back unwashed. Bob Kirkeby showed up and he, Murray, Brian, etc. talked till a quarter to seven then I drove Murray home (without glasses or license), then I drove me home -- More occurred, but this is all I have room for. And I wanted to get rested before work tomorrow!