David Coffaro Vineyard and Winery Winemaker's Diary

November 7 - November 13, 2010 


Monday November 8, 2010

I have not told this story to my family or anyone else yet. I enjoyed the day, YESTERDAY, and actually it was an easy day compared to Harvest. This is a story I will start tonight. I may not finish until tomorrow. Yesterday was an interesting day and I survived. I may talk about our great victory later. This is about my Raider experience yesterday. I will never forget it. I left at the 2 minute warning.........more later, that is about Raider stuff.

No this is about two thugs, that is what I think about these two guys yesterday. I experienced interesting things yesterday and I enjoyed it. BUT these two guys will help to make me never to forget the day. They did not hurt me physically. 

OK it is 8Pm so I have to go up to watch the Bengles beat the Steelers. The Raiders have to play the Steelers in two weeks after a bye. SO I have to wrap this up for the night and I want to make sure I understand what happened yesterday. It probably was not a big deal. 

OK I will give you a hint............................. I parked in front of a business that was closed on weekends at 10:40 Am on November 7, 2010 and when I came back to get my car I was blocked by another car...........................It would be interesting to hear their side of the story...................

After thinking about it over night I have removed references to the name of the business. You never know, someone connected to the business like these two guys who threatened me could get upset with what I write.

Tuesday November 9, 2010

Like I said I arrived at the Oakland Coliseum at 10:40 Am. I was to meet Kate and Paul at 10:45 but the rain was heavy on the two hour trip from home. I stayed at the truck for 5 more minutes because I had to call Kate and also I needed to find the Raider radio station before I left the truck. I drove my 12 year old Ranger instead of my new 2011 BMW because I was concerned about parking a new car on this side street. Looking back, that was a great decision!! I parked about 3 blocks from the Raider parking lot and in front of a commercial business that was obviously closed. There was a sign that indicated that unauthorized vehicles would be towed away but I assumed that applied during the week and there were many Raider fans at the time parking in the same lot. I decided to park off to the far side of the lot away from the sign. When I got out of my Ranger a fan asked me where the guy was that usually collects $20. I said I did not know and asked did this guy who collects the money own the building and the Raider fan answered he thought so. This fan kept on looking back for a block even though it was windy and raining a little. I assumed he had parked there many times in the same lot and arrived well before 11Am and paid his $20. The stadium opens at 11 so this lot was packed when I left my Ranger.

I decided to leave the game at the two minute warning because I wanted to get a head start on my 2 hour drive home in the dark. Last time I was at a Raider game it took me 1.5 hours to get out of the parking lot and the side streets where I was parked this time were backed up also a year ago. The Raiders were behind by 3 points and it was second down and ten with no time outs so I expected them to lose but I had my radio on during my 15 minute walk back to my car. The Raiders had gotten two first downs but were still on the 50 with less than a minute left when I arrived at my Ranger. I noticed right away a long station wagon was blocking almost all of my path in back of the Ranger. I looked and figured I might be able to get out if I maneuvered for about 5 minutes. I started the truck and turned on the game.

I started backing out and I heard someone yell at me "You owe me $20!!!". As some of you know I can be a little confrontational. I got out of the Ranger and asked him to move his car and he repeated "You owe me $20!!!". If he had been nicer I would have probably paid him. I said are you the owner...do you have keys to the building? That seemed to stun him for two seconds and he blurted out again.: "You owe me $20!!!". I tried to reason with him. I could see it was no use. He was wearing a Raider hat and shirt and looked like he out weighed me by 50 pounds. Then another guy shows up about the same size wearing a Giant shirt and hat. I told him this other guy was trying to steal $20 from me. The new guy was no help. I tried to reason with them again and told them I was a Raider fan and a Giant fan. That did not faze them. The Giant fan said they had a lease with the owners. I asked him where were the papers. That seemed to set them back for a second. I told them no one was here when I got here. They told me they open at 11Am. I assumed they were late this week. I wonder why they did not have a sign or papers with them. Looking back on it I was very calm considering the situation. I thought later they could have beat me up. 

They demanded $20 again and I played my ace: "I don't carry cash with me at a Raider game". I was amazed that seemed to work. They yelled again and called me a bad person. Then on the radio I heard the announcer say the Raiders had kicked a field goal and tied the game up and it was going into overtime. The Giant fan had left and I told the Raider fan that he was spoiling the game for me. "Ow, that is too bad Isn't it", he said. He then moved his car and I was out of there, but before I left I tried to shake his hand and told him I was not a bad person. I don't know what I was thinking. He yelled at me again.

Looking back on it I guess I would have called 911 if they had tried to beat me up and they knew they had their territory to protect and all the money they would collect when about 40 cars came back after the game, maybe $1000 they could have lost if the cops had come out. I guess I should have paid the $20 and then I would have been out of there sooner but I am a righteous person and I do not think they had a permit.

I drove off onto the freeway and soon heard the Raiders win in overtime.

Yesterday I called the business place and a nice lady answered the phone. I told her there was an incident and she wanted to know what happened and then she connected me with her boss. He told me they do hire someone to protect their place from threats and in return they get to charge for parking. He said they had a permit with the City of Oakland. I told him I was certainly no threat and I was very scarred and he needed to ask them to be a little less threatening. I assumed later that these two guys also clean up after the mess that these Raider fans leave so the two burly guys do serve a purpose. I will never park there again, I assured him. I better watch myself, I was fortunate this time.   

Friday November 12, 2010

This has been a serious week. First of all you know about my experience at the Raider game Sunday. 

NOW Kate had an emergency appendectomy yesterday. She is fine now, but in a lot of pain......yes Kate my 25 year old daughter and big Raider fan. She started getting a pain in her right side and back on Tuesday. Her doctor said not to worry unless she had a fever and nausea. She had no nausea and was not too hungry but she did not have a fever. As some of you know, I had the same thing happen to me three years ago. I told her to look for another doctor!! Appendicitis is hard to diagnose but can be very serious if not checked out right away. Kate's appendices did rupture slightly because she did not go into the emergency until 48 hours. It still took the hospital staff several hours to be sure of the illness. I drove Pat down to San Francisco and she will stay with Kate until she is released. She should be back to normal in a week or so, just in time for Thanksgiving.

Last week I predicted the Market would go up but I did not say for how long. I still think there will be at least one more surge but depending upon how the congress gets along the future is uncertain. Yesterday I decided to sell about 30% of my stock. I did not like the way the Market sold off Cisco and I did not like the stories surrounding around Amazon sale of questionable books. I have enormous profits in Amazon and Google so I decided to sell half of Amazon and 30% of Google. I also sold some Microsoft even though I think it is way too undervalued. I am probably wrong to sell but I am happy to have cash.

Saturday November 13, 2010

8:00 Pm: Kate is home in San Francisco after her trying week. It is a nice evening and Cal is doing OK against the best team in the Nation. I am sure she is ready to tackle the real world next week. I say the Real World only because some of us have used that term to equate to the normal operations of the week........Koovy has not experienced normal for two weeks....................

Koovy is not happy. All of you who have been to visit us have noticed Koovy whether you are a dog lover or not. MOST of you have enjoyed visiting with Koovy. We have noticed that! I am not a dog lover but Koovy is by far the best dog I have ever been around. I grew up with dogs when I was a teenager. I loved cats but I hated the dogs I was exposed to by my Step Father. Boy this could get interesting if I talked about Larry eventually in this diary. Larry loved dogs. His dogs, there were many only one or two at a time, were not anything nice like Koovy. Koovy is not happy because he is getting old and does not want any inconveniences that come with old age. He has been better, he is fading and now Pat is away again. Pat never yells at him. Susie convinced us to purchase Koovy AND she is off in Seattle, another story. Koovy does not like me and lately (Sure I yelled at him in times past) he does not want to be around me, even though I am feeding him the same food I eat. It is obvious I can not please him. Now the last few nights for the first time ever he has not come in the house, even though I pat him and encourage him to come in. He is having trouble coming up stairs so he probably thinks he is better off outside OR does he really dislike me. Pat will be back tomorrow so time will tell...............................................     
 

Dave
david@coffaro.com

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