I Kalifornien...

Well, here we are!...After 5 weeks absence from these webwaves, mainly due to packing up stuff and flying over here to California to work and minister here for the year, and being between house in the Central Valley and cabin near the coast, with Net-access being a bit, shall we say, iffy, I'm in front of an 11-day house-sit at our friends' the Mersons, here in Scotts Valley...Got broadband?...They do!..Maybe I'll get you some news and pix on here meantime...

You know, it's a no-lose situation, win-win, to go from Sweden to California...Either way, place, God's beauty, natural and human, is amazing!...Was up in the far far north of the state, up between Shasta and Lassen peaks and parks, up there in the volcanic landscape, with forests and rivers, canyons and power stations, for the wedding of a cousin, Andrew, to Katie...Family reunion time, and we all got souvenir fly-fishing flies since Andrew is a professional fly-fishing guide...Was a beautiful evening in the little town of Burney afterwards, instead of turning in at our great little roadside Motel, I decided to walk two doors down to the local Burney Bowl, to bowl a few lines with the local people....Unlimited bowling 9 to midnight, 10 dollars, shoes are free...had such a blast!...I love bowling alleys and the folk who are usually there, and the constant overlapping PHOHNG! sound of the pins...I'm not a huge countrypop music fan, but that country-outlaw-rock, of trucks and good times, that was playing over the PA, well, it's just the thing...Can't play no Nordic Free Jazz here, just don't go...

Getting reacquainted with my homeland and its current customs, pasttimes, the social-political-cultural climate, that we only see by little slots of time through our now-become-northern-European eyes...The way cars look, what's on TV, the increasing sizes of things, how other things never change...

Favorite things return to me, those "Oh yeah! I remember that!" things:  The tall tall palm trees out in the middle of Central Valley orchards and the passing Santa Fe train with its lonesome whistle, the long straight canals, the sounds of Spanish and the Latina cultures...Santa Cruz, West Cliff Drive along the cliffs, giant brown pelicans, fog, Caffe Pergolesi, my old favorite spot downtown, now boho-edgier than ever, Streetlight Records, Capitola Village, Pizza My Heart pesto slice with Patrick...Drive up Highway 1 along the edge of the world all the way up to the City, San Francisco, fogbanks just off the coast, Esbjorn Svensson Trio on the CD, moonroof open, walk our favorite American city from Mission to Embarcadero via Chinatown, North Beach and Washington Square, soaking up the multicolored urban craziness again...Thinking of Stockholm, our other favorite City by the Water, how the two cities are so similar and so distinctly not the other, can't lose either way like I said...Close friends, let us not forget, that we have now seen once again and again, we see their grown children, we sit in their backyards in Ben Lomond and Turlock, we describe Sweden and God's works there even as we hear of His great doings here in the far far West...We gratefully borrow their cars, eat their food, live in their homes, celebrate at their parties...

Gonna be here for the next year, working for the cause of Christ's Kingdom in Sweden and beyond, letting God use me here and now to push the Whole Thing forward...I'll show you some pictures here soon...You might also find me on Facebook if I can ever get my derriere over there to get that going, for now, meet me here if you like!...Love and peace...