Oh, Today

Nothing like being the sole caretaker of an under-2-year-old to get one focused on the moment.

Today we watched Sesame Street at from 7am till 8. Tidy-ed up and played till 10. Went over to the neighbors (Amelia was not into playing in the sprinklers with the other kids). At 11 we went to the park till noon. I drove a few extra minutes and she fell asleep. I wrote a little during my lunch hour (pizza crusts, faux-chicken sandwich, and a piece of cake). Talked to my brother; we're going to visit him tomorrow. Amelia ate lunch (pizza pieces-no crusts). Played with Ian and Quinny (Quinny started walking last night!). Dropped tickets off at D and A's house. Watched a little 'Babe' and 'Elmocize' from the library; ate dinner. Amelia took a bath then read for like an hour and I just dropped her into sleepy land where she is now.









She, of course, peed on the couch after this photo was taken.

Monumental

I rode the train from our little suburb into Union Station yesterday. I have been through some of the great train stations of the world and while Union Station doesn't do the traffic of Tokyo or Victoria Stations it is a wonderful, ambitious place. It is monumental as the main train station of a monumental city should be.

It is that "monumental-ness" that is among the things I will miss in Badgershire.

On the other hand, the country is right there in Badgershire. You could drive two hours and still not be in the country here.

"The Move to Badgershire" - Intro

We've got a map of Badgershire on the wall. With a to-do list. And job opportunities for Rabbi in a clip board. The plan is for Mrs. Kubota to stay home with Baby Kubota and I, Rabbi, to go to work.

On the to-do list:

Sell car - posted an ad on Wednesday. Actually having trouble unloading thirteen year old Toyota. I blame George Bush and the weak economy.

Buy tickets for April - This is a trip to look for apartments in Badgershire. This is done. We're going for a long weekend (thursday to monday) the first weekend in April.

Set up job interviews for April trip - Hmm... Better get cracking on this...

Find apartments to look at - Mrs. Kubota's aunt has offered us a free apartment, but we will still look for a place that we really like since our pet cats pay more rent than most residents of Badgershire.

Find POD, or moving van - I'm voting for getting the moving van, sending Mrs. Rabbi and Baby Rabbi ahead on a plane and driving out myself with whoever I can get.


Next time... What job opportunities are posted in the clip board? Who will drive with Rabbi? And how will Rabbi and Baby Kubota fare while mom is in Italy?

Milton!

Yeah, that's right. I'm reading Paradise Lost. Just finished Part I. It's not so hard if you don't worry about understanding it.

Reading

So, true to my word, I've read the last Harry Potter and I'll be reading Ford's Independence Day next.

I've also just finished Dodson's biography of Ben Hogan. I recommend it.

Leaving Los Angeles

Mrs. Rabbi and me are going to leave Los Angeles in May of 2008. We'll be moving to Madison, WI. It's a sad thing. And a happy thing. It is hard to imagine live somewhere else. No Thai food. No friends. No sunshine. But we'll have grandparents and aunts and uncles. "Real" weather. Lush green golf courses eight months out of the year. Maybe we'll get to buy a house!

Not sure what else to say about that except that I'll miss LA terribly. I already do.

Notice of Change to Service

So, this post represents the renewal of A Brief History of the Rise and Fall of Ten Minutes Ago, the RabbiKubota blog.

WhatShouldIDoJason.com is no longer in service.

You can still look at videos of my baby here.

And you can see what I've been reading over on the right. Next on my literary plate is the Dodson biography of Ben Hogan, Ford's Independence Day, and the final Harry Potter book.

New Posts

If you've found your way here you should know that the only portion of this blog that is being updated is the lists of books I've read in 2007.

My current project is this advice column blog:
http://www.whatshouldidojason.com.

or you can look at videos of my baby here.


J.

Books I Read in 2006

Clean slate now. So I'm going to publish this here for my own reference. It's heavy on the golf books, but otherwise I think I did okay this year. My recommendations from this list are Eyeing the Flash, Peter Fenton's memoir of his teenaged life as a carnival con-man, and, if you like golf, Curt Sampson's biography of Ben Hogan. Also, you'll see that I won't be listing videos or movies this year. They're boring lists, and hard to maintain.

State of the Art by Iain M. Banks
The Scheiber Theory by David Kipen
The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester (book on tape)
The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England edited by Antonia Fraser (book on tape)
The Swamp Thing Saga graphic novel
Uncle Sam (!) graphic novel
Eyeing the Flash (!) by Peter Fenton
Consider the Lobster(!!) by David Foster Wallace
Q School Confidential by David Gould
Los Angeles Diaries (!) by James Brown
Rebuilt by Michael Chorost
Who's Your Caddie by Rick Reilly
The Big Show by Steve Pond
My Dark Places by James Ellroy
Hogan(!) by Curt Sampson
Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
The Tent by Margaret Atwood
How to Learn Golf by Harry Hurt
England, England by Julian Barnes
In Persuasion Nation by George Saunders
The Truth About Babies by Iain Sansome
The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
The Giver by Lois Lowry

Here's what I've been working on lately...

Eating

So, the bride and groom have bought us two Italian dinners so far. The wedding is tonight. Three free meals! This trip is paying for itself already.

Vices #3

I borrowed the in-law's car and drove over to the Monona Golf Course yesterday and hit balls on the driving range. Absolutely beautiful. The earth is so lush here. The grass seems to grow with a banzai mentality as if it wants to somehow out-run the coming winter. The clubhouse starter directed me to the driving range, "Just head out past the ninth green. It's out there," he said. I walked out that way, but had trouble finding it, because, amazingly, there was no path through the grass. The grass grows so fully and quickly that no path is formed. I used a bag of old clubs that my in-laws found after someone moved out of a condo in their complex. They were standard length and so an inch shorter than my long "plus ones." I had a hell of a time hitting the ball. I blame the clubs. I want to go play a round on Monday or Tuesday, but I may not have the right tools. No glove. No tees. No balls even. No balls? Maybe that's the key. I'll do everything the same. Just not use a ball.

"Did you see that one? A hundred and fifty yard eight iron. Damn. I don't hit like that at home," I'll say after watching the imaginary ball soar down the fairway.

Anyway. They have beautiful municpal golf courses in Wisconsin seven or eight months out of the year.

Today

So we are in the land of leaves of a thousand colors. Even with autumn just having come the weight of deep winter already bears down on me here, I think because I am so sensitive from having lived in the land that winter forgot.

Anyway. Madison is nice. We ate at Olive Garden last night.

Vices - Part 2

My exploration of reasons I'm transfering my vices to golf continues...

#2 It's beautiful. A golf course is a wonderfully beautiful place. Many times I have been overwhelmed with a feeling of peacefulness while standing in the middle of a fairway. The warm sun shines down on a greensward that is maintained for the very reason I am there. I am with my friends and we have no obligations for that time other than to do the thing that we came there to do. The feeling is something like the feeling from childhood of arriving at the park and having no goals or needs except to play. You want to run to that tree and back as fast as you can? Do it. It's similar. The many thoughts I've had throughout the week of wanting to hit a great shot will now finally be set free. It's also like when George C. Scott stands on the ancient battle ground in the film Patton. This is where it happened and this is where we will be tested. Of course men compare anything they do to war. But compared to war and vices, golf is beautiful.






















So this isn't the most beautiful course in America.


















However this is.

Vices

As the Coming of the Baby nears I find that I am moving my impulse for recreational vice into, yes, golf. Who would have guessed? There is a reason stereotypes exist and the Dolfing Gad must exist for a reason. Let's think about why.








Dangerous! Highly addictive!


#1 Addiction. Golf is hard. But rewarding. In that small space is the mating bed of compulsion. Golf rewards compulsive, repetitive, mindless practice and execution. Like a slot machine or blackjack table, one can sit down time after time with little success until hitting a jackpot or a good hand, or, may we all be so lucky, a streak. In golf terms this becomes playing a round and hitting that one perfect shot or putting together a string of pars (or bogeys or birdies, you know, better than your usual). It just feels so good. If this happens once, maybe you'll try to play again and not repeat your success, you never get another "hit," but maybe you do. Maybe you love getting that hit. Watching the ball fly through the air and land far, far away. Launching it from the fairway until it lands softly on the green. Then, miracle, just attempting to putt the ball close to the hole and watching and hearing, unbelievably, as the ball drops into the hole for a birdie. Once something like this happens you are hooked. It may not be fun for you as you may not reproduce it for a long, long time and like any junkie you walk around with a "jones." You jones on the practice tee trying to put a ball through the window of the poor demolition derby truck stranded, crucified by driving range balls. You jones while reading books and magazines packed with the "latest" tips. And, of course, you jones on the course as your tee shots fly off to the right ("for a right handed golfer"), your approach shots land pin high - twenty feet off the green ( add an extra shot or three for skulled chips and chili-dips), and you jones as that three foot putt that you just want to sink to get the hole over with becomes a six inch putt. Was that three putts? Or four?

work

here I am doing what I swore I'd never do - blogging from work.

all alone again. the others will soon return.



who am I? the puppet or the puppet master?

Dream

I dreampt [East of the River spelling of that word] last night of preparing for LitFest at work. However, instead of getting ready at the hotel where the event takes place I was with Gore Vidal and a woman in a aquatic reptile holding tank. We walked on wooden beams just above the level of the water. The tank was filled to beyond capacity with alligators, crocs, small poisonous snakes, and large constricting snakes. Every step was tenuous and spider webs hung in my path. The keeper of the reptiles waded through the water. He, Gore Vidal, and the woman didn't seem to mind. I told them I had to leave and they told me that this was just the rehearsal. It took all my concentration to walk on the beams to leave the reptile area.

I came into an old shed. Still filled with cobwebs. Then, I walked out of the shed into a suburban neighborhood.

Someday

In the future, I wish for a reality in which I never step on another cat's tail. Man, that really makes one unnerved, especially at 6:30 in the morning. The shriek, the cry, the jump, the potential for violence. Why do they just leave their tails laying around everywhere? Maybe I need a Manx cat or just have the tails of the cats I've got chopped off. Is that something you can do at home?

What would the Croc Hunter do?

My new goal is to allow myself to have more than one dream.

I played solid bogey golf yesterday at Studio City. Monica and I went over there. She didn't play, but just walked around and kept my scorecard. I had 7 bogeys, one double bogey, and a par. The three putts were killing me. I blame the greens. The greens were crap. Monica seemed to have a good time. I really liked having her there. We got to the course and there were four or five groups in front of us, but since I was the only one playing we got paired with a nice couple, Bill and Lori. They run their own catering business. We had a great time. Our new agreement is that after the baby comes and we're able to get out and about and Monica is a hundred percent again that I'll run with here while she does marathon training and she'll take up golf.

You'll see that I've just watched Taps on video. (Look to the right.) That was a crazy movie. I never saw it before. Timothy Hutton takes over his military school as they're about to close it down. It was Shakspearean in its ridiculousness. The plot relys on at least two accidental gun discharges that result in deaths. The film goes from believeable to bonkers in a scene and a half. I had to watch just to see how it would end. I mean you kind of know how it would end, but to see exactly. I wonder how they would end it now?

A Scanner Darkly is also very good.

Also, I didn't go to the Golden Oaks community meeting. I'm a lame-o. Sorry old folks.

South Pasadena Seniors Evicted from Golden Oaks

Read the Pasadena Star-News story here:
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/news/ci_4231263

I called the Golden Oaks yesterday and spoke with a woman who identified herself as a manager. She said that the Star-News story was not true, and that "most people [will] stay" at the Golden Oaks after the remodel and rent increase. I'm skeptical. She also told me that the Star-News was wrong and that there is not a new owner, just that the new owner has hired new management. Star-News gets gigged for that one, but even so, isn't that worse in some ways?

What I haven't got information on is the eviction of folks who are on Section 8 housing assistance, and whether those people have been evicted or not, and whether it's legal or not. Certainly it's immoral.

I'm going to call City Hall today and see what's going on over there with regard to this.

The manager at Golden Oaks told me that there will be a community meeting at the Golden Oaks on Saturday, September 2 at 4:30 pm to 5 pm. If you are concerned about the plight of older Americans then you should attend this meeting, learn what you can and share your view.