March 2020 – Caro Babbo

Boat Jockeying, Staying Put, Protecting our slip.

Ko Olina Marina, Ko Olina, HI 20-MAR-20 — Yesteday morning Jimmy Cornell’s website, Noonsite, said French Pokynesia was completely open. In the afternoon, it said FP was completely closed.

San Francisco is Closed

Ko Olina Marina, Ko Olina HI, 17-MAR-2020 — Yesterday an official announced that in San Francisco and seven surrounding counties all non-essential businesses would close and everyone was to remain in their homes.

Before we left for the airport we learned the Visa Office would abide by the rule and would also close.

Delta kindly credited us for the fare with no fees.

It is also unclear whether we would be able to land in French Polynesia or anywhere else.

Pondering

Ko Olina Marina, Ko Olina Hawaii, 15-MAR-2020 – This is the first time I’ve been alone for more than a few minutes since my dad died.

I’ve traveled on the bus to Honolulu a few times to the visit the Apple store and work on my TWIC card, but this is the first time I have been alone on board with time to think.

Tomorrow, we’ll fly to San Francisco to visit the French Consulate there. We’re not making the trip home we’d planned. Instead, we’re headed to French Polynesia, if they’ll let us in.

Continue reading “Pondering”

We meet James, but not Kimi

Ko Olina Marina, 12-MAR-2020 — It’s always interesting meeting someone with whom you have corresponded but never met.

I’ve been writing professionally, in one form or another for something approaching forty years, but I find I still get spooked writing for a new audience, and so I did writing this. The obvious audience is followers of my blog, but this post will also get read by the members of the WhatsApp group of Zingaro Patrons and other invitees. They know James better than I do. James is a celebrity with this group who are fiercely loyal. I find myself worried that I’d somehow lose face with them, or even with James.

James and I started corresponding off and on just after I discovered his Zingaro YouTube channel. There were few enough episodes that they could easily be watched back-to-back in a couple of hours. I think he had met Kimi by then, but perhaps not. James figured prominently in a piece I wrote about why there would never be a Caro Babbo Youtube channel. He has an easiness about him, mixed with competence that make him interesting and easy to watch. The first few episodes could have been titled this week’s pretty girl, because there seemed to be a new young woman in every episode. There wasn’t any mystery about why these women would spend time with James.

And then, at some point, an 18- or 19-year old named Kim shows up and James loses his heart. He and I corresponded about what a lucky man he was.

When we saw James this past week he talked about how much money he blew through in those early days of the romance. Unlike the eighties pop hit, Kim stayed after the money was gone.