Somewhere In The 80s...

Maura in a playful mood.  Picture is sometime in the 80s given the hairstyle and the style of the pants she was wearing.  I believe this was taken at the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo.

At A Pumpkin Patch in Santa Barbara, 2004

These pictures were taken during a visit to Santa Barbara in October 2004.  This used to be an empty field for most of the year but is usually a pumpkin patch for the month of October.  Our good friends Paul and Cheryl live just a couple blocks away.  The bottom picture shows Maura and JJ inside the corn maze that we all navigated.

Goose Birthday Playlist

1. Shake The Disease - Depeche Mode
2. Anything, Anything - Dramarama
3. Little Star - Madonna
4. Dead Man's Party - Oingo Boingo
5. True Faith - New Order
6. Nowhere Girl - B-Movie
7. Story Of My Life - Social D
8. Bad - U2
9. A Forest - The Cure
10. White Shadows - Coldplay
11. Heaven - Psychedelic Furs
12. Ring Of Fire - Social D
13. Molly - Sponge
14. Just Like Heaven - The Cure
15. All The Same - Sick Puppies
(16. Resistance - Muse)


The years I knew her, she played these songs a lot.  I mean a lot.  On the 16th track.  She wasn't around when the British band Muse released The Resistance album containing the title track in 2009.  But I'm pretty confident, in fact as sure as I'll ever be, that she would have liked this song.  It has all the elements of a song that Maura likes - a catchy beat, about the right bpm and punchy guitars.  I made her several mix tapes and CDs over the year.  And I miss doing that.  So to celebrate her birthday tomorrow, October 19th, an updated playlist.  Happy birthday, Goose.

Trucker Maura, 1986

Maura inside the cab of a truck. The date stamp is September 1986, a few months after we started dating in May of that year.  I borrowed this photo from her sister Jennifer, who told me it's somewhere near Fresno.

Maura and Jennifer, 1986

This photo was taken at the Andersen's Pea Soup restaurant in Beulton, just outside of Solvang.  From the look of it, the sisters were riding their bikes.  From the helmets and cycling gloves they were wearing, most cycling types can probably date this to the mid 80s, when those Bell helmets were popular.  This is obviously before Maura got serious into bike racing.  Photo is stamped Feb 1986 in the back, a couple months after I first met her.

Family Portrait, 1985

Maura is shown sitting next to her grandmother, Dorothy and father, Joe.  Sister and mother are standing.  This is the living room at the West Covina house.  I like that oversized kitty-graphic shirt Maura is wearing in this pic.  Photo stamped June 1985 in the back, courtesy of Jennifer.

Found Picture

Found this in the garage in Pasadena where we kept all the bikes.  Me and Goose, sometime around 1990.