Attention! Attention!

Thursday afternoon I checked into the hotel.During check in the manager is having a running argument with her partner.She says I want to check something in your room, have to talk with someone,so I’ll meet you there. I put my bags on the bike and head down there, she says everything looks fine and hands me the keys. There is a restaurant across the street that we have eaten at before, so I go there and have a nice meal. Also a glass of Champagne and toast my grandparents and my parents.

I’m up early this AM, do the back exercises read, write and I head over to the recorders office to get the death certificates for Ralph and Johanna. I fill out the forms ,he asks for ID,and I can’t t find it. I take everything apart in my wallet and bag……..NOTHING!

The clerk says not to worry about it, he can still process the request. While racking my brain( This is very different than reflecting, since there is a healthy dose of self admonition going on). I think I remember that the manager never gave my drivers license back. But I’m not entirely sure.

The clerk says he found Johanna’s death certificate but not Ralph’s. He says he has a few more places to look. 15 minutes later he returns and tells me Ralph died in Alameda county not Santa Cruz. A dim flicker of remembrance comes to me. I had heard that many years ago. He gives me the info for Alameda county,which I will visit in the near future.

Johanna did die of a self inflicted gun shot to the head. Her mother was the one who identified the body. I went to the address on the death certificate and the house is gone, replace by an apartment complex. To my best guess there is a grove of Redwood trees near about where the house would have been.

Marc Jeanine,Patti and Lauren, we saw a house many years ago with Henry and Maryann, but I am pretty sure that is different than this one. We’ll see what Ralph’s death certificate gives for an address.

I get back to the hotel and ask for the manager, the partner says,he will get her.He does a futile search, she comes out after 30 minutes and can’t find it anywhere including the clothes she wore yesterday,we review the security tapes, that show me handing it to her but she never handed it back.

Now my new problem is that I can’t go to my hotel in Monterey because I don’t have a photo ID. I call the hotel directly,can’t get through,you need a code to talk to the desk, you can only talk to an operator at a reservation desk.They get me to customer service,who contacts the manager,but she won’t budge on the ID rule. Visions of sleeping in a homeless shelter in Monterey and not lollipops are floating in my head. The manager in Santa Cruz offers to let me stay there for free and promises to keep looking. I call Mike who is suppose to pick me up in Monterey and he readily agrees to pick me up in Santa Cruz.

Nothing more I can do, so I start to make arrangements to get a new license and take a anxiety filled walk. Several hours later I get a phone call “ I found it!” She had reviewed all the tapes and saw where she had set it down.She went there and found it.

Upon returning it we had an in-depth talk about not being distracted where handling documents. I-had an in-depth talk with myself about paying attention when handing over documents.

I’m off to dinner,then finish packing for tomorrow’s ride over the mountains from the pacific to King city

Paul