Opus Buehler

The East Bay Model Engineer’s Society is a model railroad club that has been in existence since 1933.   In 1985, the   Golden State Model Railroad Museum was created to work with the State of California in transforming a vacant 10,000 square foot maintenance building in Point Richmond into the home of three extensive model railroads; N scale, HO scale and O scale. I discovered it quite by chance around 1987 and have been a member ever since.   It’s location in Miller-Knox Regional Park in Point Richmond is always appreciated by the children of all ages who still and will always love the magical lure of a train. When I joined, one of the original members, an old curmudgeon named Bill Drudge, took me under his wing.   We were in the process of building the giant O Scale layout, which would eventually include 40’ high mountains complete with a network of maintenance cat walks, just like Disney’s Matterhorn, but without an abominable snowman to scare the kidd...

I  had been up the previous night with food poisoning symptoms and had gotten little sleep.   I only had an early morning run of picking up a five-star client at his home in the Healdsburg area at 6:00 am, and then taking him to his office in San Francisco.   Done for the day and home by 10:00 am.   Easy Peesy. Upon completion, Dan, my friend and owner of the limousine service, walked up to me cursing madly.   It appeared that one of his reservationists had booked a run at too low a cost to make it profitable, unless Dan, himself, drove which would eliminate all labor costs.    The run needed to happen soon, but Dan was now involved with other, pressing business needs which were preventing him from taking off on this transfer run, from Sea Ranch to San Francisco.   He must eat the bullet on this one and do it as a loss.  He didn’t have time to get another chauffeur and there I was, finished for the day, with nothing to do and about ...

On May 29, 2018, Hardester’s Market & Hardware, the multi-generational center of Middleton’s universe, burned to the ground. I should know.   I was driving to Chico that day and must have driven past it at exactly the moment the fire, which fire-fighters reported, started in the back of the store.   There was no indication of the soon-to-be inferno, as I passed through. As I reached the northern limits of this small town, I was about to pull into my friend Palani’s Chevron and Market to get a coffee and I noticed two fire trucks responding to a call.   From Middleton, up through Hidden Valley. and then into the Clearlake area, it was nothing but south-bound fire trucks, in full emergency response.   I lost count at about 10, thinking to myself that something serious was going on behind me. Up through Lower Lake, more fire trucks were racing south.   Cal-Fire was not taking any chances and this appeared to be an all-hands response. Just ou...

I was talking about Irish Coffees at the Buena Vista this morning with a friend and she sent me a YouTube link of a song with lyrics about those very same IC's at the BV.  I liked the song but realized that it was a Christmas song. Even though connected by the Buena Vista line, I thought that listening to a Christmas song on the beginning of a very hot July day was not the way to begin a journey to the DMV hell that I had planned.  Hmmmm, wait a minute.  Didn't this very same thing happen once to Mel Torme, the "Velvet Fog"?  I suddenly remembered that Mr. Torme used to tell the story of another extremely hot July day, this one in Los Angeles in the 1940s.  Trying to escape the heat, he drove out to Robert Well's house on Malibu Beach and u pon arriving and entering, he found his friend, stone cold naked, sipping a cold one and sitting at his piano.  "Just what the hell are you doing?", inquired Torme. "It's just too damned hot...

There is a bar in the Haight Asbury area of San Francisco called the "Persian Aub Zam Zam" and it was owned and run by a lovable curmudgeon named Bruno. Bruno was a navy pilot during the Pacific War and upon his return, took over this bar from his father and ran it until his death in 2000.  Bruno loved to pour martini's and nothing else.  If you ordered a scotch, he would order you down the street.   In fact, Bruno had is own guidelines for proper bar etiquette. 1.    If you tried to order a 3rd cocktail, he would kick you out.  2.    If you tried to buy a lady a drink,  he would kick you out. 3.    If you spoke in a loud voice, he would kick you out. 4.    If you played anything other than Dooley Wilson's version of "As time goes by" on the jukebox, he would kick you out. You could smoke at Bruno's.  Since he could not get anyone to work with him, he had no employees.  The s...

Years ago, I once found a 30 day Rail-Pass on Amtrak at a reasonable cost and planned a journey on America’s rail network. Over that month, I crisscrossed the country several times and managed a full circumnavigational loop, hitting all the corners, mostly in coach and with full camping out mentality. At this time, the most you could spend on a single train was three days with Chicago continuing to be the great rail center of this country. After three days of train camping, I would book into a hotel, get my laundry renewed, enjoy a day in that city and a night in a comfy bed. Then off again on the next morning’s departure.   I did, on occasion, book a room on a  train. I happened to do this on an overnight from New York’s Pennsylvania Station to Chicago's Union Station on the very legendary Broadway, Ltd.  This flagship of the Pennsylvania Railroad and its fierce competitor, New York Central’s 20th Century, Ltd., were the only way for serious businessmen t...

Just flashed on a memory.  There was a great movie out a few years ago called, "Me and Orson Welles" about an intern who got involved with Welles and the Mercury Theatre Group.  It was set in 1937 during their groundbreaking New York stage adaptation production of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.   The movie is great but the idiot at my local multiplex had mis-marked the marque over the theatre door. It said, "Me and Olson Welles." Kids these days, I swear.  Is there any hope for the future.

I lived in that pink house on the beach for years and never noticed that big arrow in the sky. Alamitos Bay jetty, out to the Pacific It was the late 1970s and I’m living in a beach front house, on the sand in the Belmont Shore area of Long Beach.   It was my haven and escape from just one too many Arizona summers.   Belmont Shore enclosed Alamitos Bay and its jetty out to the ocean.   This waterway was famous for being the last known ports-o-call for the S.S. Minnow on that fateful day that started as a “3 hour cruise.” I was working for a small computer manufacturing company in marketing support and this was the position where I crossed the bridge from being a techie and starting my sales and marketing career, which opened the world to me. There was this very shy girl working in our software department that had a crush on me.   She was completely sweet, kind and nice and I wish I could find a better word to describe her than “mousey” but I...

Years ago, I had a period of unemployment and raided my 401(k) for money to live on.   I was unaware of the tax implications and soon I had a very large tax bill.   I was set up on a payment plan but it was still a very large monthly payment, set up on a direct debit through my bank. This caused me to start my second career at the John Barleycorn and that is described in other stories.  I came into some money down the road and wanted to resolve this.   I called the IRS, found the exact payout, got a cashiers check, wrote in my SSN and tax year and sent it, certified mail, to the IRS.   All steps performed properly according to their instructions.   In a few days and with another large debit looming, I called to get a status but, unfortunately, I learned that they had posted it to the wrong tax year.   I asked about my next direct debit and was informed they would take the money, sort it all out, reapply the funds and then, issue me a refu...

It is common knowledge that people who seldom rent limos think that most fantasize about having sex in them.   With years of experience, as a driver mind you, I can honestly say I’ve seen it all but very rarely with the Full Monty. Until this last Friday that is when a new twist was added. I h ad picked up 3 very nice couples at their house in the Guerneville area of the Russian River, here in Northern California.   I was in our brand new Lincoln MKT white stretch and it is a very beautiful automobile.   Their plans were to hit a bar in the area, then off to dinner in Sebastopol and   to be finally dropped back home to continue the birthday party.   Probably no more than 40 miles of driving all night. All was uneventful until the ride home.   They were in a boisterous mood after many cocktails at the bar, wine and cocktails at dinner and then champagne in the car, including two bottles of a very nice Veuve Cliqcuot, the personal favorite o...