Blades of Grass— Like the fickle winds that blow through the tall blades of grass . . .so are the random events that drive our daily lives.

     Our first Web Soap takes place in the Pacific Seacoast town of Old Port City, California. The town, now a popular tourist attraction began as a small seaport village whose four whorehouses, six taverns and three inns, were a popular attraction for the Clipper Ship and merchant ship sailors of yesteryear. The old Redlight District and the original waterfront docks, warehouses and businesses are now listed on the American Historic Registry. In the old days it wasn't unknown for the old sailors to be "hoodwinked, taken and robbed." Some of the locals, mostly those with businesses or other interests in parts of town away from the old waterfront, say the current day merchants are still doing the same thing to the tourists. The town is just a "logger's hatchet throw" from the Oregon side of the California-Oregon border.

     Founded in 1848, the town's architecture is a mixture of old brick and solidly built wood and stone buildings surrounded by modern day condos, townhouses and apartments built in a style the town's old timers call, "late twentieth century non-native Californian Yuppie Rustic".

     Some of the town's original buildings house City Hall, City Administration and the Old Port City Police Department. The city depends on its tourist trade and computer businesses for its revenue, employment and taxes. A thriving wood and stone crafts retail shopping district and an oceanside artist colony add a unique flavor to the town.

     Our story opens in the Black Hat Cocktail Lounge, a popular local nightclub. The bar is sedate, ornate and popular with the lunchtime and early after-dinner crowd and it's atmosphere is just the opposite of the gaudy, neon-lighted tourist-trap bars on Abalone Street, Old Port City's main drag.

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