A cat is a Christmas gift that keeps giving all year 'round......

Taz (in the seat) with the twins, Jason (stretching) and Kaci (on the floor)
in the RV June 2010

Tazzy D. Bell

"The Baby"
October 2010

and grows more special with each passing day.

I dreamed of Taz the other night. It’s the first time he’s been in my dreams since he died on October 7. Actually, I didn’t see him, but in my dream I was talking to some people. I’m not sure if they were friends or family......but, I knew Taz was somewhere near. I asked about him. They said he was outside......in a car with some people who were sleeping. I was working my way through the house, saying “I’ve got to go and get him”.....and then I woke up. I feel like I’m getting closer to getting a glimpse of him in a dream.

Taz
September 2010

When he passed away, I prayed that I would at least dream of him one night. I have his pictures and we have movies of him, some of which I can’t bring myself to watch yet. It is still too soon.

We took a trip up to Monterey last week in our RV. We brought our dog, Sheila, and our “twins”, Jason and Kaci. Last year, about this same time, we also took a trip to Monterey. Taz was with us on that trip. We really missed him this year.

We left Sunday and planned to drive for about 4 hours up the coast and go inland from Ventura, to Santa Paula. Santa Paula is an agricultural community. We stayed at Ventura Ranch KOA Kampground. It is a very pretty park.

The next morning, Monday, we walked around the park before leaving for Salinas. There, we rented a car and then drove over to Monterey, about a 15 minute drive.

Me and Sheila at KOA in Santa Paula
12/13/10

We have found a very good place to park the RV while in Monterey. It is actually a hotel, but has eight hookups for RV's. We have water and electric hook up and there is a dumping station for when we leave. All of this for.....$25/night. Reasonable.

Our plans were to visit our usual spots for clam chowder down on Cannery Row, go hiking at the Forest of Nisene Marks Park, eat hamburgers at “Duffy’s”, have sizzling rice soup at Chef Lee’s, and just enjoy being in and around the Monterey area.

On Tuesday we went to Cannery Row. It was misty and drizzlie. We walked down one side of the street and came back the other.

Last year when we were there at this time, there were no Christmas trees...anywhere. Several years ago when we came up, there was a huge tree there. I’m not sure why it’s not consistent.

This year, at Cannery Row we saw a tree in the area which is on the pier that goes out to Sly McFly’s Restaurant. We had clam chowder there last year.

Back in the ‘80's, when we lived here, we remembered a huge tree at Fisherman’s Wharf, that we could see from El Estero Lake. Again, last year, no tree, but this year there was a small Christmas tree right at the corner of one of the restaurants. Not as big as the one that was there in years past.

Most of the seafood restaurants have people out front who want you to sample their clam chowder. Last year when we walked out on Fisherman’s Wharf, we had about ten clam chowder offers. This year, we only saw one. Of course it was raining and we had already eaten.

We walked out to the end of the wharf. There was a guy sitting out there.....who would drew portraits. As we walked by, we said “Hi” and he said “Two for the price of one,.......since I’m SO busy!” We laughed and walked on. We probably should have had him do our picture. Maybe he would have brushed it up, my hair was a mess since it was raining.

Last year when we were walking around Cannery Row, one of the shopkeepers told us that she’d been there for 25 years and had never seen it so empty at this time of the year. Maybe having no Christmas trees or decorations last year reflected the mood. We felt it.

It did seem that more people were out this year though.

From Cannery Row, we walked to downtown Monterey. We remembered some of the places there, but there were several closed stores. We noticed that not many cars were parked on the main street. I mentioned that when we lived here I couldn’t find a parking space, but then remembered that the street was closing for the weekly Farmer’s Market.

We were walking down the street and a homeless man stopped us and asked for money for food. Charlie talked to him for a few minutes and we gave him $5. He immediately started down the side street. I said “I hope he’s going to get something to eat since he said he was hungry”. Charlie said, “Yeah, probably something to drink”.

The next day, Wednesday, since it had rained, we decided not to go hiking. It gets quite muddy on the trails. We went back downtown to have pizza instead. When we parked and came out of the parking garage, there were some homeless men there. One of them asked us for money and Charlie said “We gave you $5 yesterday”. The guy said “OK, have a nice day”. We had our pizza and came back by and the guys were passing a joint around. They said “Have a nice day”. I’m sure they were having a nice one too.

Thursday was sunny. We decided to take Sheila to the beach. We drove through Pacific Grove to Asilomar State Beach. They have paths which go parallel to the road and then paths that go down to the beach and rocks and back up again.

Tidepools at Asilomar State Beach
12/16/10

We took Sheila down to the tidepools. She was very “Ho Hum” about it. We don’t’ think she’s ever been to the beach before. We were watching the little creatures in the pool and she couldn’t care less. We kept telling her that Chelsi WOULD have been paying attention!

In spite of it all, I think she enjoyed her day. We took her back to the RV and then went to Chef Lee’s for some Sizzling Rice Soup, the best we’ve ever had.

Our local football team, the Chargers, were playing the San Francisco 49'ers, in San Diego. We found a really great sports bar called "Knuckles" at the Hyatt Regency. The game started at 5:20pm and we got there just before it started to get really crowded. There were so many TV screens to watch. You never had to turn your head. I kept fooling Charlie by saying "Wow, look at that!" He'd turn around to the TV screen I was watching and I laughed and said, "You're looking at the same one!" It was just so funny. He caught on though and stopped turning his head. End of that game. But, we did have lots of fun. It was especially good that we won!

There were actually some other Charger fans in there, so we cheered louder for them and were not afraid of getting beat up. Since it was in San Diego, they showed the city's skyline, the Coronado Bridge, and the Hotel Del, all lit up in its' Christmas lights. I felt very proud of my City. It is very pretty, and I guess I was feeling just a little homesick too!

Friday morning we started out for the 4 hour plus drive, planning to stop again at the KOA in Santa Paula for the night. It rained all the way down to Santa Paula.

The park has peacocks and the twins had fun watching them through the windows.

On Saturday morning we got ready to leave. It was raining again, but we thought “we’re heading home to San Diego. It can’t be raining there, can it?!”

So we drove for 4 plus hours in the rain and at times the freeway was a parking lot. We got home and it was not raining, but it was very overcast and rain was in the forecast. In fact we're supposed to have rain for the next several days.

We’re not getting the storm of the century, but I think I heard it’s the storm of the decade. That’s still pretty scary for here.......we don’t see much rain and when it comes, it’s not in small doses. California drivers do not do well in the rain because they don't seem to notice that it's RAINING! After several days, they finally get it, but by then we've had so many accidents and fender benders.

But, we enjoyed our trip. The twins, Jason and Kaci were little angels. They are so precious. When we drive along, Kaci lays on the couch. I cover her with her blanket and she closes her eyes and we say, she “goes to her happy place” until we stop again.

Jason goes to the other end of the couch. He’s a little more nervous about traveling in the RV. I hold him (he actually wants me to) until he settles down. Sheila does pretty well too. She is getting better, but will never be the traveler that Chelsi was.

Taz with the twins, Jason and Kaci
RV trip in July 2009

When Taz was with us, he helped to show Jason how to cope. This is the first trip we’ve taken without Taz. The twins relied on him for guidance. Taz and Jason found their “safe” places overhead and we didn’t see them until we stopped.

We will always miss having Tazzy with us, but I’m hoping that I will see him in my dreams soon.....

......More later.