Look, I’m not gonna sugarcoat this: My uncle Patrick is a very, very, bad boy. A womanizing, rebel-rousing, rule-breaking party boy.
Wait a minute! Party BOY? He just turned 62 years old!
Yeah, my uncle’s all kinds of trouble. Not to mention, nomadic and untethered as all get-out by loved ones. In fact, I hadn’t seen him since my sister’s wedding back in October of 2013, and that was ALL-too-brief a reunion. The dude moved to Portland from Sonoma Wine Country a few years before that, then told me he was going “off the grid”. Now he says he’s living in an RV somewhere up on the Columbian River. Free as bird, man. That’s Patrick. Could be he’ll wind up in Montana. Or Costa Rica. Or–
So when he rang me outta the blue to relay he was coming down to L.A. for a visit – like, less than a week’s notice – I was really surprised. Well, he never did give much warning about his arrivals back in the day. Most times, he’d just show up at the doorstep in nothing but a pair of cut-offs, clutching a wine cooler (“Hey, man…what’s goin’ on?”). But I made sure to thoroughly accommodate him this time. Best of all, I had a PLAN for when arrived. A menu of activities for the 24-hour period he breezed through. And that included shooting some video of him, just in case I never saw him again. Because much like a Sasquatch – who Pat claims he’s seen – my uncle could very well vanish back into the woods of the Pacific Northwest and never be heard from again.
This was a very important dude to me growing up. Clearly, unruliness lies deep in our DNA. But this recent reunion with him was a most unique and enjoyable time. It was SO good to re-connect with him and have some laughs. He even came bearing gifts. A copy of “Into the Wild” and a DVD of “127 Hours”. Yeah, Uncle Pat’s a MAJOR nature buff. He just can’t be contained in the concrete jungles of progress.
Anyway, here’s some video for ya! I hope you are especially moved by Uncle Pat’s reactions to some of the old home movies I showed him. I know I was. Just click the psuedo-psychedelic pic I drew of The Man back in ’06 and GO…
WINE PAIRING: Uncle Pat was also kind enough to bring down a bottle of the 2011 Primarius Pinot Noir, vinted and bottled in Dundee, Oregon. Primarius is Latin for distinguished, by the way. And while Pat may not quite be that, he’ll definitely go down in infamy as my most awesomely zany relative…