Chapter 4, in which I return to Sacramento to visit David's family

After the bash, my roommate dropped me off at the ACE station, where I had planned to catch a bus to Stockton, from which I could transfer to a train that would take me all the way to downtown Sacramento. So, the 1st thing I did was to pull a Tony.

I boarded the bus & told the driver that I wished to purchase a ticket. It turned out that he had been assigned to this route at the umpteenth nanosecond & had no idea how that was supposed to work. I began to calmly explain to him, in excruciating detail, how I had been told by the good folks at Amtrak that I would be able to procure a ticket from the bus driver. About three & a half seconds into my story, he succumbed & told me I could have a free ride.

The rest of the trip proceeded as anticipated, with me finishing Barbarians Led by Bill Gates en route & I was picked up at the Amtrak by David, Jane, Josie & Mikey. They were still recovering from jet lag after a 2 week vacation in Brampton but stayed up until the wee hours of the morning chatting with me.

The next morning they took me to a nice Thai restaurant in downtown Sacramento for lunch. When we were done eating, we went to a nearby arts show. Not being an art show veteran, I wasn't quite sure what to expect but, had I any expectations, they would have been more than met.

The show was a melange of artists displaying (and hoping to sell) their work, which ranged in price from 2 to 4 digits. One of the 1st items that captured my fancy was a soapstone sculpture of a very dog-like bear, whose carefully chiseled face was graced by a forlorn smile begging onlookers to rescue him from this life of endless public scrutiny.

Next to captivate me was a series of "spirit shadow" photographs. These were taken at night using a long-exposure camera. The artist had walked around in the scene being captured & used a bright lamp to cast his shadow on the scene as it was being recorded onto the film. This had the effect of producing photographs with these bodiless humanoid shadows in them. His most prized shot was one depicting the stonehenge with crouching shadowy figured cast onto each visible stone. Apparently he had received special permission from the British gov't to skulk around this anthropological treasure.

By far the most amusing (not to mention thought-provoking) piece of work I came across was a graphite sketch bearing the title "Spirit of mount Rushmore". It featured the well-known landmark but with the faces of the 5 presidents replaced by faces of the 5 native tribal leaders decked out in full regalia. I was so taken by it that I made a point of expressing my awe to the artist.

I spent much of the remainder of my stay playing with Mikey, watching Josie sketch manga (both her mother & paternal grandmother were gifted visual artists & she's keeping up the good work) & having highly animated discussions with David & Jane.

On Sunday evening, they were kind enough to drop me back at my apartment. I gave them a tour of the place & introduced them to my roommate.