Dec 17 - Dinner at home with Mom, Dad, Chuck**

Sunday, December 17, 1972 - Page 352
LOCATION: Newport Beach

12:30 PM
I woke up about 11:00. Also about 11:00 Chunk & Joe came by to go paddling. They're out there now. The day is cloudy and cold, as was yesterday. About ten minutes ago, with a space cleared in the cabaña, mom started moving the assembled garment rack, full of clothes and hangers, from the living room to the cabaña. 'Twas too big so she enlisted my hesitant aid. Going thru the narrow hallway the garment bag ripped and mom gave up exasperated. I took all the clothes & hangers off, disassembled it, moved it to the cabaña, and set it up. Then I put the clothes back on. Now she's in there trying to tape the thin plastic garment bag.

Shots of our trailer in 1973 after the cabaña was removed. The old canvas structure under the awning had contained a bunk bed and tons of miscellaneous junk. 

(12:00 AM 12/19/1972)
I ended up repairing the bag with tape. Chunk & Winnie came over -- oh, before that Chunk & Joe came over, they paddled around, then left. Mom invited Chunk to dinner, so he came back a few hours later with groceries he & Winnie had brought (he donated a couple artichokes to the meal) then he went away to drive Winnie someplace. Dad arrived as they were leaving, and he stuck around for a few hours. Chunk returned an hour or two later, then he, me, Dad & Mom had dinner (Chicken breasts without bones).

Chunk is currently waging a war against Jesus Freaks and I whipped up a few statistics for him (i.e. or e.g., there are 1 1/2 billion people in the world who don't know who Christ is, 3 communist documents outsell the Bible, more people have heard of Lenin than Christ, Christ was born in 4 B.C., not 1 A.D., his name wasn't even Jesus, it was really Yeshua ben Yosef, etc.)

He & mom went to see a ski movie, and Dad left shortly thereafter. I watched T.V. and did research. Chunk & Mom returned at 10:15 -- Chunk took his statistics & groceries & left.

TOMORROW: Denizens of public transportation

Dec 14 - My new work ethic: Creative procrastination

Thursday, December 14, 1972 - Page 349
LOCATION: Newport Beach, Santa Ana, Anaheim

"Here man completed his first explorations of the moon"

9:00 PM
I got the 7:00 A.M. bus by the narrowest possible margin, waking up at 6:50, giving me barely enough time to get dressed, brush my teeth, comb my hair, stuff my pockets, and get to the bus stop. I bought a new 10-ride ticket at the terminal -- mom cashed my check yesterday. Got to work at 8:45, and today I really procrastinated. Currently I'm on page 121 in [Catch] "22" and the book must be corrupting me -- for an hour or two I read -- the rest of the day I put things off. All I did was stain the doors and clean the walls of 110, 11, & 12. It consumed my 8 and a half hours somehow.

Angela was there today, as usual between 3:30 & 5:30. She's sixteen and has to go to high school. She tried to open 101, and couldn't. Mike & I finally managed to unlock it & I spent 10 or 15 minutes fixing the door. Quit work at 5:15, got the 5:30 RTD, and the 6:00 OCTD. Dave drives the 6:30 line to Balboa -- the one I prefer to ride is the Laguna Beach line (stops right at the corner), and the new guy, I know his name not, and I conversed. He's 26 -- we talked about truck & bus driving, automobiles, anthropology, the condition of the world, and psychic phenomena (he's psychic -- has premonitions), among other things.

Got home at 7:00. Ants attacked a cake in the cabinet & mom declared war on them again. I got a new volume in "The Emergence of Man: The Missing Link." It's good. I heard that Chunk was going skydiving on Jan 6 & 7 so I invited myself along. I've wondered if I'd have the guts to jump out of a plane, so I'm going to find out [To read about the time in 1973 when Chuck & I made three jumps, go here: Skydiving].

The guys lifted off from the moon today afternoon, and are now orbiting Luna, having docked. Tha's enough for today. Chunk & Joe came by minutes ago and they are paddling now. It's 9:30 now.

TOMORROW: Bus driver Dave

Nov 27 - Stayed overnight at Chuck's apartment

Monday, November 27, 1972 - Page 332
LOCATION: Newport Beach, Santa Ana, Anaheim

(12:00 PM 12/9/1972)
I got the 10:00 bus, and reached the Ivanhoe at about 12:00 -- there was alot of traffic for the RTD. The major thing I did that day was fix the light bulb for the Ivanhoe sign. I had to replace the socket in the fixture. I didn't know anything about electricity till I started working there. Mike was getting ready to take his Kawasaki 750 out to exercise it and recharge the battery, so I asked him to drive me home. His speed was usually 75 miles an hour and I was just holding on by the short bar on the back -- I couldn't hold onto him cause he'd just waxed the seat and would slip off.

We got to Eye Sore Park just as Chunk and Joe arrived in Joe's van. After talking some, Mike left and Chunk & Joe went paddling. I didn't realize it but mom was gonna have the bridge game there, so when Chunk & Joe drove away I went with them. They made a few stops -- once to pick up Joe's father at the beach (he only speaks Czechoslovakian), and they also stopped to talk with a kayak maker on Lido. Got to Chunk's about 7:00 and Joe left after a few minutes.

Chunk & I played chess -- won one, lost second. Murray came over unannounced. I beat him twice in one game, then he beat me in the second, and I was winning the third but he quit. Watched T.V. alot -- Laff-in, the Rookies, and the New Bill Cosby show. Bob Kirkeby called, then came over -- he and Chunk then went out scuba diving about 10:00 P.M. Murray left a quarter hour later, and I got to sleep about 11:30, sleeping on the couch in Chunk's mummy sleeping bag. Chunk returned about 1:45 A.M. He din't get any lobsters like he wanted however.

TOMORROW: Missed the bus home again

Nov 13 - Daybreak 2250 A.D.

Monday, November 13, 1972 - Page 318
LOCATION: Newport Beach, Santa Ana, Anaheim

11:22:36 PM
Woke up at 7:30. Took a bath, got the 9:00 bus, and was at work by 10:40. L&M had gone up to Big Bear Saturday and it blizzarded. Due to the high winds the pool was full of leaves & trash -- I fished them out and cleaned things miscellaneously. Planted Bagouneas (that's not how you spell it of course [should be "Begonias"]), replaced a photocell-operated light fixture on the roof, and did hardware work in the next three rooms.

I started a new paperback to replace The Magus. "Daybreak - 2250 A.D." (formerly titled "Star Man's Son") by Andre Norton. I bought it by mail in English class in the 8th grade. Never got around to reading it till now (now on page 34). Got off work at 3:30, got to the Arches at 5:15, got home on foot by 5:45. Mom wasn't home. I went to the liquor store and bought a couple of TV dinners, potato chips and the November Playboy. Watched part II of "Giant" tonight. 'Twas excellent.

Mom called saying she was gone 'cause she drove Chunk up north. Then she went to her bridge game where she is now. Chunk left the letter hereto attached for her -- I thought I'd include it as a handwriting sample and a testification of current event (testification? Is that a word?).

For the past month or so, Chunk & Joe (a Czeckoslavakian paddler) have been practicing C2 [that's 2-man canoe]. They're going to the world championship in Europe in June. That's why Chunk, Me, & Murray are going over there. When he's thru being champion, we're going to bicycle all over Europe. The old wanderlust strikes again. Actually I hate traveling but it's my literary duty.

[As it actually happened, I didn't return to Europe with Chuck, but he did win Gold at the World Championships in 1975, in C-2 Mixed Slalom (meaning man/woman canoe) in Skopje, Yugoslavia, and again in 1977 in Spittal, Austria, paddling with the legendary athlete, Marietta Gilman]

Chuck Lyda & Marietta Gilman running wildwater slalom on Truckee River, CA, 1975
(NOTE: In Wikipedia her name is spelled "Gillman." That's incorrect.
Her name is properly spelled "Gilman." See Chuck Lyda Biography)

Here is one of the photos she sent me that is now on Chuck's Website

TOMORROW: News from Chicago's Sue Latka

Nov 08 - Phonebooks: Out with the old, in with the new

Wednesday, November 8, 1972 - Page 313
LOCATION: Newport Beach, Santa Ana, Anaheim

On page 510 in The Magus as of now (9:31:21)

9:00 PM
I got up with the alarm at 5:00 A.M. I let it go off again at 5:30 and turned the radio to Lohman & Barkley. They kept me awake so I managed to get up, get dressed, and get out for the 7:00 A.M. bus, getting to work about 8:45. I vacuumed the pool and dropped the little transistor AM/UHF Gradio in the shallow end while listening to L&B. The device died from drowning, I'm sorry to say -- neither resuscitation nor drying in the sun brought it back -- now, no matter where you tune it, only KFI comes in, very faintly -- I did some room painting, using the rest of the paint. New phone books came, white and yellow pages, and Mike & I had a lot of fun throwing out the old ones, and putting in the new, until I dropped a phonebook on his head. That sort of put a damper on things.

He put up the chalk board in the Maintenance room for messages, and wrote "PLEASE KEEP CLEAN", or neat, or something like that. To supplement the declaration, I added the following note: "BEFORE ENTERING, STERILIZE HANDS AND REMOVE SHOES. BEFORE LEAVING, ERADICATE HARMFUL MICROORGANISMS BY ACTIVATING THE NUCLEAR DESTRUCT MECHANISM AT LEFT. BUT FIRST WRITE YOUR LAST WILL & TESTAMENT AND LEAVE IT IN THE LOBBY. THEY WILL MAKE THE PROPER ARRANGEMENTS. THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION. VERISIMILITUDINOUSLY,  THE MANAGEMENT." -- That was all. I can't stand a blank chalk board. ---

Something's come up. I'll be going to New York in 4 or 5 months, thence to Europe. Too bad this book will be over before I get there. I'm not gonna write another one -- this is a real pain. Chunk & Joe paddled tonight, so Chunk stayed for dinner. I got home at 6:30. That's it. ---

TOMORROW: Missed the homeward bus again