A Hunchback, A Guru, and A Moviestar

Even though Phil and I now live in Bishop, and I don't think I would ever want to live in Huntington Beach again, there is still a part of me that calls Huntington home.

Phil and I went home for the weekend to visit my Hun-dah-dah (dad), Uncle Captain Eddy, Phil's family and our friends. I love going home to visit but with so many different people to see, I always end up leaving wishing I could have stayed longer. Sometimes, there just aren't enough hours in a day.

One of the things I love about spending time with my Hun-dah-dah is hearing about what book he is currently reading. Right now, he is currently reading the classic novel, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.

I remember watching the Disney movie back in 96' but other then that, I have never read the actual novel... probably never will.

This is funny, even though my dad was already about halfway through a 3 inch thick novel, he said something along the lines of "it sucks." You have to admire his commitment though.

My dad had Phil and I both read the book out loud to get a feel for what it was like. I have to admit, I never really excelled in reading comprehension, so I gathered close to zilch about the chapter I read of the drawn out bird's eye view of Paris. However, the bit about the blind judge and Quasimodo's court hearing WAS pretty funny and entertaining. I did comprehend that much.  
  

On Saturday, Phil, Hun-dad-dah and I went to visit my Uncle Ed on his floating house, the Cruizon Bay. I don't think I have ever seen Uncle Ed with a beard before, and I have to say, I prefer him clean shaven, but he looked good. 

In regards to the beard, even Uncle Ed said that people in the Sacramento Airport were looking at him the previous day like he was some kind of homeless person who was going to try to snatch their wallet and mug them.

Uncle Ed said one of the things on his bucket list was to grow a pony tail, I had to ask, for the front or the back? He laughed, replying something like "I must be drinking fertilizer or something because my beard keeps growing." But of course he was talking about the pony tail for his hair.

Uncle Ed is a character to say the least. Acey has been getting a lot of footage of him on camera. It's too bad Acey wasn't there that Saturday because Uncle Ed was spewing insight and old tales with seamless connection and ease. Lots of good material.

Phil particularly liked the metaphor he mentioned about gold in the hills of Northern California and nothing but sand castles in Southern California. He was speaking of the people and their character and with the exception of a few, I would mostly agree.

Thanks Phil for snapping the above picture of me, my pops and Captain Eddy. Those are the guys who make me proud to say I'm an Aseltine.

It was a beautiful day at the boat and I was really happy that you were there too. Wouldn't have been the same with out you. 

Here Phil and I are at my dad's house, the house I grew up in. We were on our way out to Coco's, a Sunday morning must-do with the Wiese family.

The outfit and red sunglasses were a part of the movie star persona I adopted somewhere over the course of the weekend. I was wondering if movie stars ever refer to themselves as movie stars. So when we were saying goodbye to my dad, I kept saying, in a slow, long-draw, hoity toity voice "Say guuuuude-byyye to the moooooovie starr." 

As the movie star and her chauffeur departed, she caught this photo on the corner of Springdale and Edinger. Nothing like the mountains and clouds of the Sierras but I can't say I'm not fond of the photo.

Next time we visit Huntington Beach, we are thinking something in July, instead of heading out after breakfast, we are going to have to leave in the late afternoon. We were rolling through Palmdale in peak heat, probably in the low 100's and it was miserable. We made an emergency stop at Ranch House in Olancha for a coke and ice water but I don't think we can do that drive again with out air conditioning.

Looking forward to seeing you in July.