Fresno Ball, Mall, and Mom

There's a Thomas Boswell book with the title Why Time Begins on Opening Day. Get it on Amazon. 43 used & new available from $0.01. Penny for his thoughts in paperback. So you'll know why my vacation pilgrimage to the annual Fresno State Pepsi Johnny Quik Tournament means business. Drive the Big Valley from Bay to Basin. San Joaquin Valley where Lake Tulare once took first place in lakes West of the Rockies. Valley of flowers as described by Thomas Jefferson Mayfield in the book Indian Summer: Traditional Life among the Choinumne Indians of California's San Joaquin Valley. 17 Used & new from $7.45. 125 pages. 8 ounces.

"Indian Summer is a fascinating record of the beauty and biological diversity that the San Joaquin Valley has lost and the equally tragic loss of most of its indigenous people."—Wilderness Record

Drive pickup rather than fly SFO or OAK to FAT. 580. I5. 152. Highway 99. Denny's Endless Pancakes and Coffee $4.99 @ Badger Flat Road. Poverty Flat Undercrossing. Highway 233 and the Palms of Robertson Boulevard. Anderson Pump Company. Road 15 3/4 Ave. 20 1/2 Exit 147 1 1/2 miles. Fractional destinations border The California Aqueduct. Rivers dry. Canals bring water. Trucks bring bees. Commerce in Pollen Nation. Managed nature. In Los Banos, Marx sells Cadillacs. Hawks on the signs. Bugs on the windshield. Signs of times: "Food grows where water flows.", "We farm. You Eat.", "Amazing companies doing amazing things for amazing people." On Almond Avenue, trees in bloom purple and white, dropping petals like a snow day. Blossom Banks in the Irrigation Culverts. Only spray paint dustings of flowers yellow and purple on deep green hills. Flora Digs Fauna. Up in the heavens, clouds give shade and hold water. Energies hold vapors, shaping themselves in the wind. Puffy spirit manifestations: faces, dogs, birds. When bodies die, spirits rise to be clouds. Energies attract the vapors. We remake ourselves in the atmosphere or spinoff to the stars in space to live on Asimov Place. Terrestrial life separated into seasons of games with innings. Top and bottom. No clock. Joy when you come home. Make your pitch. Play the hits.

Johnny be nimble,
Johnny be quick.
Catch the ball,
Swing your stick.

Between games, the F-no Malls are F-yes! Urban Outfitters and Ed Hardy Obey Laws of Fashion Island with Bebe. Swing it at the Mall. Eat like kings at Plaza Ventana, Royal Orchid Thai, and Sam's Italian. Week of games. Hosted by Fresno Bulldogs with Charlie at the gate where Augie coached before fame. Foul ball off Steve's bat for Keven's daughter Mila. Nick hits one off the wall at 380 for a double.

Baseball gods are good to Utes. Humans not so good to each other. Ask the Choinumne. Ask the Earth Mother. Return trip In Rainbows with alternating sun and clouds. Hot sun. Thunderhead shade. Majestic thunderstorms driving the wind farms of Altamont. Back to Mom. You can work with her. You can take her out for a meal. You can give her presents of symbolic significance. But after dinner before the check she leaves and screams, "You'll pay for that!" That's Mother Nature for you.

"Is it hot in here? Or is it just me?"