fossilfreak | Entries tagged with church

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 602

97.6 miles

90s

263 recordings of 45 types, 38% clear.

On the way home I was digging through my console container and discovered a baggie of quarters and I don't know if it was Rich or I who left it.

Monday, while in Ashland, I had made an appointment for Friday.

When I got home (the 22nd) I started the Crater Lake puzzle. I got most of the frame and a bit of the sky done. I enjoyed saying "where's my Spooky cat?" and having him come!

The 23rd I changed the kitty litter, policed the yard, watered the flowers and soaked the trees. Brought in the laundry. And oddly enough, I got tired.

USAA gave me all kinds of trouble about logging in. (And today SAFE is doing the same. Sometimes I just hate computers!)

The 24th was my appointment with the surgeon. They sent a message to the cell phone that doctor was running late, but I was prepared with a book and just stayed there. About 2 hours. But when I met him I liked him a lot. I was surprised to learn, though, that this will be a more complicated operation than I thought and will involve a hospital stay. I found the rectal exam embarrassing. However, the staff and surgeon are nice. I initially scheduled the operation for the one day Roni said she couldn't come, but they ended up postponing it for a week to the 26th. There are tests I have to take, and the receptionist Jen was quite helpful telling me where I could do that. (Kaiser and/or the military spoiled me, everything being in the same place.)

I watched Safari Live, which I love.

On the 25th I spied HUGE toadstools in the zinnia bed! I guess something in the compost I put in was rotten.

I finished the Crater Lake puzzle, now to get it sent to Niki! And I went to see "Christopher Robin", which is cute.

I didn't do the paper bag of papers I'd planned to sort, didn't write my TripAdvisor reviews, didn't do much of anything except make eggplant parmesan.

On the 26th I went across and told my neighbor my medical news and also that Bill was coming to live with me. She tells me there are two newborns on the street, and another expected in October! How neat.

We had an African missionary at church who claimed the source of the Nile was Victoria Falls. I was sure he was wrong, and at home confimed that he meant Lake Victoria.

I started a 1500 piece jigsaw puzzle, that's too big for anything so I have the frame on the table with a cloth over it, and some of the pieces on boards, and some still in the box. Later I decided to put different colors in sandwich bags and that's been helpful. Day 1 I didn't even get very far with the frame, day 2 I got the right side of the frame done and Day 3 got the frame all done apart from one piece. I also got a lot of the big brown cookie done and a white one with green sprinkles. Day 4 I got most of two identical cookies with candy balls. Day 5 I hooked a lot of stuff together, and also got the red sprinkle ones partly done. I also found the last frame piece. Day 6 I started slow but then hooked up the green sprinkle cookie to the brown one. Then the last three days have been slow, maybe 20 or so pieces attached. I'm trying to get the big lump attached to the frame, but it's slogging.

On the 27th I spilled the dog's water all over the floor just as the cleaners came up. I went down to see Bernadette and the kids, at last. Joan had only 10 days to destroy Bernadette's system so she didn't do too much. I started reading "Stowaways in Paradise" to them.

Sadly, the surgery was postponed a week. This helps Roni but gets it uncomfortably close to the Kingston Trio concert. I've arranged a ride if I make it out of the hospital in time.

I played a lot of Fishdom on this day and Albion on the 28th. I signed up for Western films at Renaissance. I'd decided against going back to the guy who did time travel films, because that room is far too uncomfortable to watch movies in. I went to

Wednesday the 29th I took a marble run down to Padreic a day early for his birthday. He was THRILLED!! He had seen the same kind with A.J. and he just played and played with it. I read another chapter to the kids and then they tried to play with him, but he still needs help with sharing. Anyway, it was the best present I could have given him. Before I gave it to him, I read the Seuss Happy Birthday book to him.

Pharaoh was reluctant to come in, and on the 30th he spent the night out.

The funeral services for John McCain just went on and on... I reluctantly voted for him in 2008, deciding that it was either the Democrat or the Democrat Light (McCain) and I'd have preferred Sarah Palin. And the fact they didn't invite her to the funeral... I understand not inviting Trump, but they ruined Palin, not the other way around. Facebook quote: "I've grown quite tired of the white-washing for a vindictive, petty man." And another, about Palin: "The whole thing just illustrates the reality that John McCain was a giant A***ole while alive and now can be thought of as one in death as well."

I went to Mass at the Retreat House and then went to Mercy San Juan and got my EKG and chest X-Ray done. And I accidentally lost 70K "gold" in Albion which sets me back considerably.

And Padreic is 4!

On the last day of August, and my last day to live alone for awhile, I went to see "Operation Finale." I spent some time arguing with the ticket lady demanding my Monday discount, until she convinced me it was Friday. THAT's embarrassing! But the movie was great. I knew what happened and I was still on the edge of my seat!

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 602

93.8 miles

heating up, 90s

264 recordings of 41 types, 38% clear.

The 16th I drove over to the campsite and parked and had breakfast with them. Then off we went to the boat dock... they had said, the night before, that we'd better leave by 7:30 to get to the trailhead by 9, due to construction. As it happened, however, we were fine. I got the tickets (I was #1!!) for the 10 o'clock boat, and we started down the trail. Nice trip, too bad I was never going to make it back up. We were early, so I settled down with my book (The Clockwork Boys by T. Kingfisher, oh my goodness!) and the bags while the family played by the lake. Then it was time for the boat trip. A.J. and Gabe had to have life jackets, and because of the recent tragedy in Branson, I really paid attention to the safety information.

It was a bit smoky, but as we got close to the sights we could see them clearly and if you looked at the water, it was really blue. We saw the floating tree, the Old Man of the Lake, which has been floating at least since 1896. We boated around the Phantom Ship, which reminded me of a Galapagos Island.

After the 2-hour trip it was back up that trail. I walked across the Pyrenees (bitching and moaning all the way) I can do this. Yes, but it took a lot of sweat and a loooooong time.

We went to the Visitor's Center for lunch and shopping, then to an overlook for The Picture. I have a picture of Vince and me in 1992, his college trip, here. One of my friends glanced at it and asked "are they twins?" which has made my day ever since. So we had to have an updated picture. I think it turned out pretty well.

We stopped at another visitor's center on the way back to camp and saw a film and took a short trail, and Gabe got into trouble with his mom for leaving the trail. In my room, later, I realized there were virtual caches all over the park, including that visitor's center, so I made my plans for the next day. Gabe made the fire though dinner was something else... this was for marshmallows. AND I had just given them a grill set they could have used for marshmallows, but forgot until they got back from a trip to the store. Anyway, I left about then.

I had coffee in my room so didn't have to use their system. The next morning I drove down for breakfast, and watched Vince helping A.J. with his Junior Ranger stuff. I then went back to my cabin and checked out and met them at the center place, and we drove to the Pinnacles. This was a short hike and the Pinnacles are fascinating. They are fossilized fumaroles. We saw the National Park border with an old gate
.

Then we went to Plaikini Falls, which was a pleasant hike after the hard one of the day before. And then we said goodbye... they were going around the lake counter-clockwise while I planned to head that way a short distance to pick up some information for a virtual cache, then go back to the park center and get more information and maybe just walk along the rim for awhile, then out the north entrance and go to Ashland. I did this, and also stopped at a couple of viewpoints and chatted with a couple who'd been to Devil's Tower and a German couple, and then to the park center. I walked over to the Lodge and finally found the information I needed for that geocache. When I stepped out I was admiring an old car when a modern one screeched to a halt and a lady raced out saying "JAN!" It was my dental hygeinist!! So then, as I walk back to the park center, I spy some familiar looking people... Vince and family, taking A.J. to a visitor's center to get his Junior Ranger patch!! We said goodbye again, I grabbed something for lunch and passed their car on the way out of the parking lot, and drove on to the Wizard Island overlook where a nice man helped me with the picture, and so out of the park.

And so to Ashland. It was a VERY long way, over 100 miles. I swear I thought it was closer. I finally pulled into the Bard's Inn, which is no longer a Best Western but still very nice. They had repaved the parking lot, and it's beautiful. The town was smoky but I managed to see all the plays, even the outdoor ones, outside. I took the backstage tour (I think the 4th time, and this one was the best) and went to a "park talk" which was inside. Got to hear a couple of the actors, always a fun thing. My plays were Book of Will on Friday night (and I was tired, had a hard time staying awake), Henry V and Love's Labors Lost on Saturday. LLL was outdoors and late because of the smoke and the possibility they'd have to cancel it. So about 11 I was really getting tired, but it finally ended. Sunday I went to church (and since Joan knows the priest, I went back to say hi on Wednesday) and then to Sense and Sensibility and, outdoors, Romeo and Juliet. The weather was beautiful, but when Tuesday dawned, they had to move R&J to the high school.

Monday was off, so I went geoaching, then walking and shopping. The first cache was fun, since I was having no luck at this church sign, when a voice from on high (well, the porch) said "keep trying." Eventually he pulled it out of the bush for me.

The shopping I got three jigsaw puzzles, as if I needed jigsaw puzzles. I also saw a marble run and thought it might be a good present for Padreic. And I got "Runny Babbit" by Shel Silverstein, for the kids, because they obviously need more books.

Tuesday was Othello in the afternoon and then I went to dinner at the Black Sheep. I'd tried all kinds of restaurants and still have to write my TripAdvisor reviews. It was a fun but very expensive trip!!

Wednesday, after Mass (everybody wanted me to stay for coffee) was a long drive home.

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 602

93.0 miles

heating up, 90s

276 recordings of 46 type, 35% clear. I am halfway through season 3 of NCIS.

On the 10th of August I was weeding the zinnia bed and semi-tripped over my little wire fence. I didn't fall, thank goodness, but had (and still have) a doozy of a bruise.

Pharaoh was giving me trouble about coming in at night and I left him out about 40 minutes.

I went to Bernadette's and played with Padreic and helped clean out Gareth's room a bit. She told me the coming operation will take out the appendix, which makes sense.

My driver's license renewal came. Too late to get an appointment, especially with the medical issues.

I went to the pizza party for Sharing God's Bounty. I really pigged out. It's amazing how many people are involved in so many jobs... besides cooks and servers there's publicity and volunteer liasons... I sat next to Peter Mithin and Boyd Keenan. I felt a little silly saying why I was there, but as a founder, and hospitality early on, and as Rich's widow, I was OK. I said I didn't do much now but bring coffee and both Ann and Jim said I was also a generous donor.

My jaw hurt on the way home. I don't need a heart attack just now, TYVM.

I finished the jigsaw puzzle in 9 days. It has 5 pieces missing, but 31 pieces that didn't belong to this puzzle. I took it up to Niki.

August 11 was second Saturday breakfast. I spent some time looking for my Social Security card so I can get a Real ID driver's license. I stopped at Lazy-Boy on the way home and got some glasses. I took them up to Vince and Niki but they didn't want them.

August 12, Father had a LONG homily. He's very excited about the Mass and eager to share it. Then I went to Communion at the nursing home. It's been a long time, since before the disastrous Pittsburgh trip.

I ordered face masks for the smoke in Oregon.

August 13. I finally got my appointment to get the results... very disappointing. Basically Svetlana, who is a very nice lady but NOT the doctor, read me a black and white copy of the color report I got from the doctor. They're going to refer me to a surgeon. I was in tears when I left and went to Bernadette's. She was too wrapped up in her World Con plans to be sympathetic. I tried calling the doctor's office to find out the name of the surgeon, but of course it didn't work. So I don't know any more than I did before.

I walked over for a geocache, which I actually found.

August 14 I drove back out to the office to get the surgeon's name and phone number so if they call while I'm gone, as they did, in fact, I could call back for an appointment. It turned out there's no phone service at Crater Lake so I couldn't check in at home until Friday, and couldn't call the surgeon's office till Monday, but I got an appointment for Friday! I had to replace the bulb in the back hall.

There was a Pilgrim's pizza party, and this time I didn't pig out quite so much. I gave a little speech about Casa Leopoldo in Palas de Rei. I bought wine for the trip to Ashland and packed my Ashland glass, but couldn't find my beaded covers for the glasses!

And, finally, Wednesday the 15th, I could start my Oregon trip. I packed two duffel bags, one for Crater Lake and the other for Ashland. My sandwich was too big for a regular sandwich bag! Finally, I left the house at 7:47. I drove and drove (past a field of melons!) till 9:48, the Corning rest area. I needed to get out and stretch even more than I needed a potty break! What a nice rest area, where I've probably never stopped before. Look at all the olive trees! Is there a geocache here? (My pocket query assumed I was taking Highway 99 instead of I-5.)

At 11:39 I was at Castella, looking (unsuccessfully) for a cache. I had waved gaily at the rest area where I saw the eclipse last year. After the fruitless search I stopped at the RRPark resort to ask how they were doing with the smoke. I'd put on my mask at Redding because it was really bad there. There were "thank you" signs to firefighters on all the overpasses. My favorite was "thank you for kickin' ash."

I ate my sandwich at the resort and decided not to stop in Dunsmuir, maybe on the way back. (no.) I went on to Weed and couldn't find the cache at the totem pole, but fortunately stopped at the gas station for a potty break. I say "fortunately" because the rest area on hwy 97 was closed.

I didn't notice there was a cache in Dorris (and in a store, I really could have found it!) till I was just past the turn to it. And no real place to turn around. Oh, well. I did stop and take a good look at the second-highest flagpole in the world, which we had watched being built, back in the days when we would drive to Spokane on 97.

I stopped for gas in Klamath Falls, next to the Super 8 where I stayed when I went up alone to get Vince (when Rich bought the van!) Actually, leave them alone for 25 years and they change everything! Then when I took the turn for Crater Lake I started looking for geocaches, but only found one of the ones I had marked. I stopped at the overlook for Annie Falls, and finally got to Crater Lake about 4:30. I registered and got cabin D1.

Then I tried to call Vince, and discovered there was no phone service. So I left a note at the camping check-in, but decided, sensibly, not to trust that and sat on a log overlooking the parking lot while I read a book. Sure enough, I saw them, about 5:30, and told Niki just to register to see if they got the message... nope. They were camped about .4 miles away, further when I walked around the long way.

I sprang for dinner and had pork chops with mustard, cornbread and butter, and green beans. Yummy. And I bought A.J. his first stretched penny. I spent the rest of the time at Crater Lake looking for an album, but they finally managed to get one (and two more pennies) on the way home.

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 599

66.4 miles

HOT

341 recordings of 69 types, (I watched the end of the season of Suits and am not going to continue with it), 11 old CPD (with one missing). 23% clear.

Tuesday I went down to Elk Grove to pick up the sunscreen Rob bought for me (it's an add-on, and I don't spend enough at Amazon for it). The place looked like it exploded... Rob apparently decided to clean out the garage. Their cat was so lonesome! And after that it turned out to be the wrong kind of sunscreen..I wanted the roll-on kind. Oh, well.

I had wanted to look for two geocaches, but when the GPSr batteries died I only got 10 or so caches loaded on. Fortunately, one of them was one I wanted to get, so I found it, for the first find in June.

I finished Notre Dame de Paris, volume 12 of the Harvard Shelf of Classics. There are some laugh out loud moments in it.

The cleaners came because I had the lifeline screening on Monday. While I was getting ready, after I'd shut my bedroom door, I opened Bernadette's room... and the sneaky cat wasn't locked away so went in there. Poor Alicia!

June 20 I went to the Knights of Columbus Ladies' Lunch. As they are on Wednesdays, I normally can't go. I sat with a lady who told the exact same story I'd heard before (from another woman) either at the brunch in Modesto or at the Retreat House. I.e., she's a parishioner at St. John Evangelist, her husband was Grand Knight, it was a lot of work, he was always on call, and when he was replaced they joined the Carmichael Elks and she said do NOT try to work up through the ranks. The exact same story, different woman.

I took one lady home afterwards.

I made a "Boxcar" geocache list.

June 21 Pagan came over and helped set up the White Elephant TV Rob and Bernadette gave me three or so years ago. It was a lot simpler than I thought it was going to be... I didn't need speakers. Also, getting the Uverse hooked up should have worked better, but there were some difficulties. Since I couldn't get through on the Internet, I was on the phone a long time with a helpdesk guy. The trouble with hooking up to the TV was that the DVR wasn't plugged in very well. (Oops.)

I treated him to an Indian lunch. So good.

In the afternoon I moved the furniture to get a good view of the television, which is now on the hearth. Then I took the 30-year-old Sharp TV to the recycling place. I was offered all of $1.30 for it, but couldn't be bothered.

Charles Krauthammer died. So sad! Meanwhile, I've realized that I'm much happier when I fast forward through Juan Williams. You're entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts. And even his opinions are written by the Democrats.

I ordered up the Crater Lake boat trip. I decided I wanted to go, too, even though the climb back up is going to be very hard. This is fortunate, as it turns out Vincent misinformed me as to how long they were going to be there, (so I will be leaving before they do, instead of the same day, because I have a play ticket that night. Sigh.)

Friday I printed up the permission slip for Joanna, since Bernadette apparently didn't send it in and then lost it, and Rob hadn't yet received the replacement.

I spent so much on Albion the last few weeks, and didn't get the prize I was trying for, I've cut way back, and am doing all right.

Saturday I went out and got money, a hose for the back stand pipe, and bread, and mailed off the graduation and birthday cards to the boys in Snohomish. And Niki is reluctant to do all the great things around Bend, which is stupid.

Today at Mass Gerrie had the two Bertie books, and doesn't like them all that much, and I gave her Village School by Miss Read (which I re-read in a hurry this week: and am now reading the next in the set so we can trade next week.)

After Mass I went down to have Rob sign the permission slips (which I have left in the car! How awful if I forgot them!!) We also traded sunscreen since he got the stick stuff, including for himself. He's skipping the Crater Lake part of his trip, as Gareth isn't all that interested.

I got gas coming home, so I think I'm pretty well ready. I will water everything tomorrow morning and then it should be OK until Friday. I hope.

Today I decided I didn't feel like digging up tulips. It's not like I could be done tomorrow, so one day probably won't matter.

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 599

66.3 miles

HOT

339 recordings of 59 types (most single NCIS episodes, and I have all of seasons 1 and 2, and most of season 3.) In CPD, one was mislabeled so I'm getting it from Netflix, and I somehow erased 2, but I'm mostly through season 4. 16 of these episodes. 24% clear although that will change today.

On the 5th, the kids and Bernadette left for Oregon. Sniff! I went to the Ladies' Breakfast. Later in the afternoon I went to the WPAC board meeting. One guy had his knickers in a knot about limiting the number who can attend a luncheon. And another woman was complaining, at great length, about the way facilitators are trained. I was properly impressed with how the president got things back on track and we finished the meeting in an hour.

Election day. (I dropped off my ballot last week.) At least we got a Republican into the governor's election, and yet again I wont be voting for Senator. (2 Democrats in the general election. I hate the jungle primary.)

On Wednesday, Pharaoh upchucked. I hope he's not sick. I got a phone call from America's Plumbing to rate it, but I don't see my 5-star review posted.

Thursday the 7th was Vince's birthday. Bernadette surprised him by driving up there with Padreic. (She took my rock tumbler (which Rich had kind of taken over, so I sort of lost interest) as my gift to him.)

My much-anticipated visit to the new doctor was today. I actually had "Doctor Oni" who is a Nurse Practitioner with a long first name that starts with Oni and an even longer last name. He's very nice. I showed him the after-fall picture and this gave him lots of ideas. One thing is the next blood test will also look at my thyroid. I told him about my arm occasionally hurting and he asked if my jaw hurt. No. I didn't remember the Pittsburgh blood pressure but now I do, 156/something first and later 148/something. My actual check up will be in July.

I walked over to the Little Free Library to drop a book off. And the big thing is I backed up the pictures and the journal entries from last September to today. About time, yes?

Friday the 8th I went to the book sale again, and then went out to Ogre's Den in Orangevale (where I discovered my GPS hadn't loaded the caches I tried to download because the batteries had died.) I asked the guy if I could bring my old Dungeon and White Dwarf magazines, and he said "sure." Yay.

We heard that Charles Krauthammer is dying. Fishdom had a wild update. And Glenna is in town and got in touch.

Saturday I had breakfast with WPAC and then lunch with Glenna. We went to Bella Bru, and the food was good though the young man forgot my order so I had to re-order. We had a nice chat. Steve has gotten a promotion. Also, they're looking at perhaps buying another house. I got the skinny on the grandchildren.

I spent so much money trying to get one special prize (and didn't get it) so I'll be just doing the minimum for awhile.

I went to church in the evening so as to be free on Sunday the 10th, and forgot to bring the checks. Last week I'd gone to the retreat house so didn't leave the envelopes. Church went long. Then stopped by Brenda's trying to get my Oberammergau book but she wasn't home. (It turns out she was walking her dog. She has Ring so knew I had stopped.

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 599

35.1 miles

cloudy, one small rain shower

337 recordings of 27 types, 62 old SVU. 25% clear. (and 216 recordings (this morning) in "keep till I remove.")

Monday (the 2nd) I stopped at the credit union to let them know I was traveling in two weeks, and to check on the status of my loan. Which I'm doing well with... I'm about 40% paid off, and of course as I bring it down, more of the principal and less of the interest are in each payment.

I got the C batteries that were needed for the Cookie Monster toy. I also found a watch, almost the same as Rich's that broke, but in plastic rather than metal. But it works the same way.

I also bought dog food, but couldn't find Staples for an ink cartridge. The place I pictured in my mind was actually a Fed Ex place. So I went to Amazon. (And mistakenly only ordered color, so I still needed black. On Thursday I looked up the address in the new Yellow Pages. They failed me, and it was Harbor Freight Tools at the address they posted. This was the second YP failure, the other being the wrong number for the exterminator. So into the recycling it goes.

I was working on trip plans and could SEE the New York Merci Boxcar on Google Earth Street View. I am staying... free... in Syracuse with Choice Hotel points.

And I waited and waited for Vince to call. But it was Monday!!

Tuesday morning there was another rat in the kitchen! It dashed for a hole on the other side of the dishwasher, since the one hole was blocked with bricks. So I guess the noises I heard on Sunday were, indeed, vermin, even though my pets didn't react.

I started clearing out some TV shows I like but don't really need to have recorded while I'm gone, like "How the Universe Works" and "What on Earth" (for two really cheerful shows about how we're all gonna diiiiiiiiiie. Also "Love it or List it", which is great fun but it doesn't matter if I miss a few or a hundred.

There was a Herman game, so I played Fishdom. I had a tuna sandwich for lunch and a slow-cooked stuffed pepper (in the tiny slow cooker, the one for nacho cheese) for dinner, and still have some food in the pantry past the sell-by date.

Fiona from Ngoko Safari had sent on the letter from Kathula's grandfather. Besides the letter (thanking me for supporting his nephew!) there was a picture and a tiny necklace and bracelet set.

My arm really hurt. I apparently strained it, possibly by picking up the dog food.

Vince called (about time, right?) and we are agreed that we both miss St. Philomene's Easter Vigil (done right, before the new priest and the different musicians.)

Wednesday was my day with the kids. At Wee Wednesday, Padreic was very busy putting big soft blocks into the "shack" and was really upset when Arthur went into the shack. I went over to tell him that Arthur could go in the shack too, there's room for two. Then I told Arthur that Padreic was putting the blocks in, and Arthur's mother came over to suggest Arthur could help. Then we left them alone, and they put all the blocks in, and played in the shack, then threw them all out, and (this was the exciting part) they cooperated on a different project involving lining up the blocks under the shack. No grownups involved!

I finished reading The Land of Oz to the kids. I told them next week it would be short stories so I wouldn't start a long book and leave them hanging (though now it looks like they'll be gone in June so I'll have to really work to read all of Charlotte's Web to them before they leave. Of course, I can read some to them when we go to Gilroy.) Anyway, Joanna suggested I should FaceTime them and read to them. This was a nice comment, proving that I'm right, they do enjoy it.

Apparently I just ordered colored ink, not a double package with black, for the printer, so I decided I had to go to Staples. I finally, on Thursday, ended up at Office Max.

Thursday was the rat guy. It was Cody again. He plugged the new outside holes and trimmed back the oleander, and really surrounded the dishwasher with copper wool and black gunk. At first it was really hard to open the dishwasher and I pushed the lid down Very Carefully, but today the lid just falls down. This is worrying, since the plug's wearing out. We put bait up in the attic. Thursday night, though, the rats apparently brought along elephants to protest with them. It was a lot of noise. The dog keeps checking, but I think they're gone... except Wednesday morning I pushed at the dishwasher and there were noises back behind the sink. DIE, already! The heavy heavy rain on Friday should have erased their trails outside so I should be OK for awhile.

Also, the water people came through. They dug a hole in front but then dug underground all the way to the back...I didn't know that for sure until I asked on Tuesday. Then the guy took me in back and showed me where they'll connect up the pipe... in 4 to 6 weeks. Oops. I thought it was immediate so I scheduled the pipe replacement May 14 and 15th. The water guy didn't think it would be a problem, in fact it would be easier to hook up to new pipes. So maybe they'll all arrive together! Guess we'll see.

Friday, rain rain rain! I decided to stay home and play games, so I did.

Saturday I went to the WPAC breakfast in the morning and then met Bernadette and the kids for "Jack and the Beanstalk." Padreic did enjoy it and also enjoyed meeting the actors afterwards and getting their autographs. Then they came here so Padreic could play with the Cookie Monster toy now that it had new batteries. They had to leave by 3, though, because Gareth had a play date!

Then, instead of going to the shell ceremony with Sacramento Pilgrims, I decided to stay home. I hadn't called John back, though I did some days later and left a message.

Sunday I had forgotten it was the second Sunday, so almost didn't help with Communion at the nursing home, but I did go and enjoyed it a lot. I did remember to take the baby bottle full of change that I had filled during Lent. It was Divine Mercy Sunday and Father Martin is really excited about it.

I called Helena to find out how her brace was working out, and discovered that the x-rays for the back fracture had uncovered a lump in her lung. It's stage 1 and hasn't spread at all, so next week they're having a treatment conference, her, doctors, and Mark and Diane. (D. via Skype.)

The squirrels, or so I believe, dug up one of the peanuts I planted.

I was watching an olde John Wayne movie and there were cartoons and shorts before it. One was clips of historic film, including the funeral of Edward VII with all the royalty of England there. Fascinating!

Monday the water guys were working across the street. I didn't know they'd finished my yard until the next day, when I asked. The cleaners came, and I had called ahead to ask them to park in my driveway. I also had neighbors parking in the driveway, too. After they left, I went to the commissary, a small trip but almost $100 because I was getting Alicia some breakfast burritos and found some impulse food for myself.

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 599

31.4 miles

partly cloudy

305 recordings of 21 types, 65 old CPD. 31% clear.

Tuesday (the 19th) as I was driving home, I decided to stop at Wendy's for a burger. I think this may be the first time I've been at a Wendy's since David died and Rich walked me down to the local one to help me calm down.

Alicia had left the baby gate open so the dog got into the kitty litter. She left the shower leaking. She didn't eat the strawberries and grapes I had out for her, and she had the heater up to 72%. (darn. I was really hoping this month's usage would be down.) However, she was able to come at the last minute and the dog didn't have to stay out in bad weather.

Vince called and they planned A.J.'s birthday party for Saturday. Vince wanted to put together some kits so they could make their own trains.

Wednesday Fishdom came up with an Easter game. While I had most of the things from last year (and put the delighted hedgehog into the Wonderland aquarium) I did want the two fish again (Humpty and Dumpty) so I played.

Bernadette had work this day, so she brought Padreic over in the morning on the way. I decided it was too rainy to go to Wee Wednesday, so we just stayed in the house and I gave him macaroni and cheese for lunch.

He was playing with the Cookie Monster toy and had discovered it would travel across the kitchen floor, so of course the batteries ran down. It was C batteries, and I found a pack of two unused Cs. Then I see they were both corroded. Who knew that not using batteries in many years wasted them? So I need to get new Cs.

I drove directly to the school and went out in the rain with Padreic to go to the office and donate Charlotte's Web. We hung out then for about 10 minutes until we could go wait for the kids on the school grounds. I saw Joanna and told her to go to the crosswalk and then go to my car, which was unlocked, and get into it, and then waited for Gareth. The three of us walked toward the crosswalk, at Padreic's speed, and there was Joanna with the principal holding an umbrella over her. Apparently, she only remembered the first part of the instructions, and I believe this is the second time that's happened, so from now on I'll have her repeat the whole thing.

Back at the house, I read to them and watched their homework, though Gareth needs constant prompts. Joanna played with Padreic. When Rob got home he helped set Gareth up to edit his paper (which gets electronically sent to the teacher: wonderful technology) and then went to relax. I stayed around to keep the kids sane (not that it was hard) until R. came out to start dinner and I told him B. was going to bring something. Then I asked if he was prepared to rejoin the world, he was, so I left about 5:45. It was late enough that going up Watt actually was OK and I got home myself about 6:30.

Thursday, rain rain rain. I stayed in. John called. As I suspected, he's found a widow he knew from the past and is beginning to date.

I made the backspout *whoosh* out, very satisfactory. However, I got a hand cramp. The first one I ever had was in Zubiri, Spain, but I'm getting them more often now. Foot cramps I've been having for years.

I uploaded all the pictures from my camera. It's been a couple of months.

There was a shooting over the weekend... it was initially presented as a poor unarmed young dad, but there was a bit more to the story. It's our own Michael Brown incident, though so far the Black Lives Matter people have only blocked off the Kings games. No rioting to date, which is promising.

Friday I did some digging in the garden. I called Brenda to find out how Renee is doing, and she's been removed to a convalescent home. I also called Darlene. She was on her way to St. Augustine.

Then I drove down to the Feickert school Carnival. Bernadette had bought my raffle tickets and a ticket for a cheese pizza slice. (Friday in Lent, no hot dog for me!) I danced the Macarena and Y-M-C-A, but mostly I hung out. Bernadette actually can do the hula hoop! I put my tickets mostly in the bag for the gift cards, and a few in the Kindle Fire bag. And I won nothing. However, Bernadette (and Padreic, who had carefully put the ticket in that bag when she told him to) did win a basket with a really cute bunny. And Joanna was totally thrilled with the bag.

&bsp

I sadly told them goodbye, since this is Joan's turn to have them for Easter.

Saturday I spent a lot of time playing games, then went back to sleep and ended up with 8 hours of sleep. This hardly ever happens.

I went to the store, then later went to evening Mass to avoid the Palm Sunday processions. Ever since Alan left, our Palm Sundays just aren't that exciting any more. I talked to Peter Mithin for a bit.

I adjusted a slow cooker orange chicken recipe for the Instant Pot. It wasn't bad (it's from a diabetes cookbook) though I forgot the grated orange peel which is ridiculous with all the oranges Monica gave me!

Sunday morning the dog wasn't in his bed. I went looking for him and there he was in the kitchen with a RAT! A big one! Eeek!! It scurried off to the hole next to the dishwasher. Sunday morning at 4 AM, I couldn't call the rat people till Monday. That night I tried blocking the hole with a lead weight, but it pushed it over and got into the kitchen again, though this time I didn't see it. Then I put bricks there and that seems to be working to keep it out of the kitchen.

I dug up the garden for peanuts which I planted on Monday. I'm also trying to sprout kumquats. And I have a different kind of avocado pit I hope to grow.

I had a long talk with sister-in-law Carol. Frank will be 75 on April 11th!

Fiona (from Ngoko safari) has posted her trip report. They (she and Benson) will be coming to the US in October, maybe to Seattle!

I printed up the Canadian Geotour passport, and put Doug and Nancy on the GPS.

Monday I had a nosebleed. I spent a lot of time playing games. I am spending too much money on Albion, but it's very addictive.

The cleaners were early so I had to do a quick final pass. Then while I was in the bedroom I kept hearing this "tap tap tap" and wondered what they were doing. Finally, when they tapped on my window I learned they had locked themselves out!!

My tulips are so pretty!

I'd been wondering if Roni would ask me for Easter. She finally emailed the family, what fun it would be if everyone came for Easter dinner. (This was a surprise, lately they've been taking Grandma to dinner in a restaurant. Apparently Kathy has become totally anti-social, doesn't want to go out, doesn't want people to visit.) Monica is going to New Orleans, Bernadette is in Oregon, and I said no because I'm on retreat till Easter morning and am going to want to go home with my dog. Poor Roni!

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 599

31.4 miles

cloudy, cool

308 recordings of 21 types. 66 old SVU. 31% clear.

Sunday morning (the 18th) I went to church. There was an amazing time when all these young people, at least 100, filed in. I gathered it was a Confirmation class by the flame badges they were wearing, and later, after meeting the 14(!) leaders who came from as far away as Scotland and many different states, I deduced it was a retreat, and probably most of the diocese.

Then I came home, quickly wrote a journal entry, cleaned up the kitchen and living room, grabbed a quick bite, and was out of the house by 11:15. I tried stopping near the raptor center to see if I could get the cache I missed the other day, but it was down a steep slope and I had no backup if I hurt myself, so I reluctantly let it go. There were a couple of slowdowns on the road to San Jose, including one complete stop, but I got to Monica's house about 2:20, yay me.

Mark wasn't there! He was off riding his bike. Monica helped me carry the train stuff into the house, and the grill set from Lazy Boy. Then she gave me two bags of citrus. Now I'm trying to sprout some kumquat seeds. We were on our way out the door to walk down to the MLK library when Mark arrived, so we told him he wasn't allowed to look till I got back.

It was a pleasant walk and I got to see the inside of the library (which is a joint city and university library, which is a fantastic idea!) with Charlotte. When we got back to the house, I went and got Mark, telling him I want to play with the trains.

He was delighted. The decorations are great, (he thinks he can use Windsor Castle as an amusement park) and the trains wonderful. He said one locomotive was worth over $300! I'm so glad I didn't have to try to sell them! (And I just found another box with more layout stuff, though not as full as the last one.) Two of the transformers were corroded, and he gave me back the good one that was in good shape, because the Z gauge train was in the box. So I still have the tiny tiny one.

I overheard Genevieve breaking my heart. She was making a poster or something that said "If you're pro-life you're pro-welfare..." Sigh. But no point in confronting the 17-year-old, who knows everything of course. I hope the society continues to change, because I'm sure her grandchildren will be horrified that people nowadays thought abortion was acceptable, the way we are disgusted by slavery.

Monica and Charlotte went off to see a play, and Mark had a dinner with friends, so I said goodbye to Genevieve and drove off to Helena's. Of course I once again turned at the wrong exit (the Lawrence expressway). Maybe next time I'll get it right.

Helena, on medication for her bad back, couldn't have the wine, but *I* surely enjoyed it!

She fixed a pleasant dinner and we were relaxing, both in our jammies at 9 when all of a sudden the CO monitor went off with an ear-piercing shriek! It turned off for a short time when I took it outside, but started up again in the house and there was no shutting it off... Helena went through the neighborhood till she found someone to remove the batteries. We opened windows and turned off the heater, but it was obviously a defective monitor. (It never stopped, even outside.) Nonetheless, we were jumpy.

Helena has a way of repeating herself that is easy for me to catch. When I got home I found myself talking to myself (which I do) "That was good. It was quite tasty." "I really liked that tasty meal." "It was really good."

Monday morning I went out geocaching. To my delight, I found the first three, so of course I got cocky and didn't find two, but ended up with 5 finds, including two Little Free Libraries and I did remember to bring books to leave at each. (And picked up a book for Padreic at the first one.) The second one was built from an old fence. Their hint was something about the attic so I wasted a lot of time looking there before I found the cache in a fake book. Really clever!

Helena had been intent on taking the CO monitor to Home Depot but when I got back and said "let's go" she didn't want to. We had lunch and then went off to Notre Dame High School. Monica and Mark had each given us directions, and they differed slightly, so once I had the vague idea, I was able to get to the school, and I saw the parking lot was open. Helena, trying to interpret the instructions, was telling me to turn right, but I decided to circumnavigate the school first, and sure enough, we got a parking place in the school lot!

There was a little program, and then Charlotte took us on a tour of the school. The tour finishes at a big display of place settings... each Freshman girl made a plate and display about a famous woman. Of course there were a lot of women like Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi, not so many of the Condaleesa Rice persuasion. They did have Katherine Johnson, (Hidden Figures), and Malala, women I really respect. They also had Bella Abzug and Margaret Sanger. I dont know why one has to be in favor of killing babies to be a feminist, and this at a Catholic school. If I lived here I would be biting my tongue so very much.

They also had some really nice food and I, like an idiot, threw out a very nice plastic cup that they had veggies and dip in (so I went back for another which I kept.)

They finished with the school song and I was reminded of the time I saw Charlotte in her 1st grade performance of "I'm going to eat some worms" when she really got into it and shuddered. I said then she'd be an excellent actress and so she has been (apart from the first time when she was just checking with everyone else about what she should do.)

Afterwards I drove us to Monica's (which Helena, for some reason, calls Mark's) where she fixed a very nice dinner. I told her I'd filled my eye-rolling quotient for the day, but I got a few more in before we were done.

Part of the eye-rolling was because I'd said "sure" I'd come to her grief support group and then she was all a-dither about dinner, we'd be late, they couldn't have it early enough, etc. etc. I finally said I wanted to go to dinner(!) and to the grief group if we managed but que sera sera. She'd managed to get Mark involved in the panic, but in the end we had a good dinner, plenty of chat time, and make it to the meeting in time. Though Helena's deafness did cause some trouble because on the way back I asked, to be sure, if the grief group was at the church, and she heard something about the Greek church and said she'd never been there and I'm thinking that can't be right. We finally got it sorted out. It's good we went because we were the only two people there apart from the group leaders. I wore my WPAC name badge and we ended up talking about that. They thought we had some good ideas. I pretty well dominated the hour, but we did give Helena some time to talk.

Tuesday early I left, and came home. It wasn't too bad once I got out of SJ.

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 595

26.3 miles

COLD!

334 recordings of 37 types. (Lots of movies, because TCM is really interesting right now). 70 CPD, 1 SVU (SO close to being done!) and 11 LMS. 24% clear.

(This is the stuff from Tuesday, Feb. 27th.)

Ash Wednesday being on Wednesday this year, I skipped getting ashes and instead did my stuff with the kids. Priorities! On my way down the hall in the early morning, I saw the map was skewed. One of the hooks had given way. I took the map down and replaced it later in the day. I wonder what happened... perhaps the cleaners bumped into it?

Padreic made a valentne for Mommy at Wee Wednesday and was so proud of it. He let me take care of it while he played at the Wng Ding exhibit, but otherwise he held it all the way home. He almost panicked when I took it while I was taking him out of the car, but was willing to hear me explain. He presented it with great pride and Bernadette was appropriately thrilled. Then he helped load the dishwasher.

I had nice valentines for the three and told Padreic his was the one with his name, and he picked it out. And was good about not taking the others. The big kids, too, enjoyed theirs, Joanna logically more than Gareth. (The school has an "all or none" policy about Valentines, so Joanna gave them out and Gareth didn't.)

And I drove home with the car seat. Fortunately, Bernadette didn't need it until Saturday, so I didn't have to take it back. This is good, because the freeway was a total disaster. I was going to get wine before I went home and had decided to get off on El Camino, fortunately. Hence, even though the Arden Way on-ramp was much busier than usual, I started over, and then one more lane to the El Camino exit, then, as things were really really slow... pretty well stopped in fact, one more to the exit only lane. Which was fortunate. As I glanced over on it, I saw traffic was completely stopped and the highway was empty, because there was an incident (suicide attempt?) on the overpass. I had heard on the radio there was an accident at Marconi, which is why I had thought things were so slow, but this was a surprise, and had developed about 5 minutes before I arrived there. They were telling people to get off on surface streets, but I was on the only possible way to do that. Lucky me. It only took me 45 minutes to do the normal 20 minute stretch.

I got the wine, got home, and waited impatiently for the time to go to Debby's. She'd asked me to a Valentine's day for widows, bring something red, so I brought red wine. The first time I went there, no one appeared to be home. I drove home to be positive I had the right time, then called... and she was there, apparently in the garage when I rang the doorbell. When I got back, another person was there and another person drove up, so I felt better. My wine went over well, and the food was great. A real disaster for low-carb, spaghetti (Debby had two sauces, but I didn't want to be the one among all the Catholics to remind everyone it was a day of abstinance, so my Ash Wednesday was a total failure!) and two fantastic desserts, but it was a delightful evening with a lot of talk, about widowhood and about other things. A nice Valentine's day after all.

Thursday, Pagan was in town (it was his birthday) but this would have been the only day I could see him and I really needed some time to wind down. I went out to the Retreat House and then came home to finish the jigsaw puzzle.(18 days of work since New Year's Day.) I also signed up for the triduum retreat.

It was really windy. Also, there are magpies building in the palm tree so I have to keep picking up so many sticks.

I took some stuff to St. Vincent de Paul, including my mom's rice cooker.

Friday was, of course, Renaissance. The morning documentary was about the Oscars, and gave me a lot of ideas of movies I would like to see. My Netflix queue somehow never gets smaller. In the Time Travel class, he had 3 short films. My favorite of the three was "Mi-Temps", and "La Jetee" was grim... and was the inspiration for the film we saw the next week, "Twelve Monkeys." I called Notre Dame High School in San Jose to RSVP for the Grandparent's day.

Oooh. Road Scholar is offering an Oberammergau Passion Play tour. When I mentioned it, Father Giltus at the Retreat House said he was possibly going to lead one. I would rather go with him instead of with a bunch of strangers, though the RS one also goes to Salzburg which would be nice. I've found out that I would lose $200 of the $500 deposit (it would be a transfer fee to another program, which I have planned anyway) if I signed up with RS then backed out. So I'm holding back for a short while. At least till the next credit card bill closes, because this month's is so huge I need to recoup a bit. (I paid for the Boxcar Children in full.)

Saturday I had a nice lunch at Marie Callendar's and met a Bob, new member of WPAC. Then Bernadette came by for the car seat, and I also gave her a ton of conditioner (because I kept getting it instead of shampoo) which she says Joanna can use, and fancy material for her costume-making friend.) Thence to Mass, because I had a great plan for Sunday.

Father Brown is Mr. Weasley?

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 585

(I started this book right after Rich died and if I'd held
to the 5 pages a dayI planned, I'd have been done in June 2012!)

4.3 miles

cool, partly cloudy

348 recordings of 48 types, 0 old SVU, 69 old CPD, 48 Last Man Standing. 24% clear.

I didn't mention on Thursday that I'd also done more on the jigsaw puzzle, day 8 so far, and I'd scratched off North America on the map Vince and Niki gave me. I slipped and got a tish of North Dakota, the upper peninsula of Michigan (I decided Detroit airport didn't count) and some of Nova Scotia, so obviously I have to go to those places to make it right.

Yesterday I had more errands. I reconfigured the car and took Joanna's car seat inside, to wait for when Padreic is big enough for it. I took stuff to St. Vincent de Paul, stopped at the church to request a Mass for Rich on February 4, and took a bag of books (mostly Nero Wolfes) to the library. I came back with an Aunt Dimity book I hadn't read. I just told Bernadette that I was sick of cosies, but hey.

I got back to work on the "books read" spreadsheet, and behold, I was two off last year, actually read 108 books!

Today I took the dog with me in the morning in the car. I was early for breakfast so walked him around the parking lot of the strip mall. He actually behaved well. Maybe I can take him for walks again, which I haven't done for over a year. Of course, I would still have to worry about other dogs, but it might work out. A pleasant breakfast, 32 people or so, and I had a steak skewer skillet. (For lunch I used my new griddle to make a proper grilled cheese sandwich. The way Rich used to make them. Yum.)

Then I went geocaching a bit: the first one I tried for the third time (2009 and 2013) and found it. I dunno how I missed it before. I also had spied a man with a Gonzaga sweatshirt so I commented... his son had gone to Jesuit and Gonzaga but quite a while after my kids. Then the second one was at a place I'd tried last year with Richard without luck, and again I had no luck today. Oh, well.

At home I started watching the current season of SVU, though I think I'm missing an episode. (Still 2 missing in season 18, too.) And I'm slowly getting through the madness of Big Cat Week and of my Christmas movie binge on TCM.

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 558

178.3 miles

cool in the mornings, hot in the day. No heater, no AC, just wait it out.

359 recordings of 31 types, 23 old SVU (I went through the list and got rid of all the ones I actually had seen. I think they sneak some in, since I found a couple yesterday that I know I already said "do not record.") 23% clear.

I was really scared coming home with the "check engine" light on, so didn't go anywhere on Saturday. I got about 13 pieces into the Rosetta Stone puzzle... this is going VERRRRRY slowly. Also, because I wasn't going to record anything, I turned off the living room power so I could get the baby outlet cover off and replace the power strip with the new one with the 15' cord. Even with the power off, this took some time, but I got it done and everything is plugged into the new one. I still need to get some small speakers for the "new" television before I can move all the entertainment center to the hearth.

Sunday I did drive over to church and then stopped at Emigh Hardware to get the Key Krazy geocache, which I did finally manage. Then to La-Z Boy to pick up my free gift, another set of stemless wine glasses. Different pattern from the other ones. They have lots of pretty things, but I had already decided to order the silver color velociraptor.

Then at home I've started cleaning out the shelves in back (in order to make room for the dinosaur.) I found my old Palm IIIe and got it going... now what? My fossil fish rock is cracked (I had no idea.) There was a lot more stuff thrown on those shelves than room for it, for sure.

Monday morning early I was at the garage. David, the repair scheduler, told me if it was the same thing as in August it would be under warranty. He asked if I was going to leave it and I said no, I didn't want him to forget me this time. I was the 7th person in, even at 7:30, and it took them a couple of hours to find the problem. The problem was the filler pipe, between where you put the gas in and the tank... and it cost $517 to fix. And another three hours or so. I just about finished the book I'd brought. And, finally, they washed the car before they gave it back to me, and so home.

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 558
169.1 miles

WINDY! (Sunday) hotter but calmer yesterday.

356 recordings of 30 types, 67 old SVU. I've completed seasons 10 and 12 now. 20% clear.

I went to the first Saturday breakfast and got my birthday card from WPAC. There were 4 October birthdays there. Then on the way down to Elk Grove I actually did some geocaching, found two but for the third the only parking place I could find was next to the "No stopping any time" sign, so I thought I'd try a different approach another time.

When I got to the house, the menfolk were all asleep, with Bernadette and Joanna gone camping. It seems that Gareth got up about midnight and played on his iPad the next 6 hours. So when Bernadette got up she sent him to bed with Robert, so they were all dozing away when I arrived at 10.

Gareth packed for himself... with a bit of reminders from me and his dad. Rob made him some breakfast. (Toast and jelly.) He made eggs for Padreic who had said that was what he wanted but then, of course, wanted a banana instead.

Gareth and I went over to the Fall Festival at Green Acres nursery. They changed the date from the third Saturday to the first Saturday, which competes with the Elk Grove Harvest Pumpkin Festival. (Where they had a giant pumpkin weighing more than a ton, setting the record this year!) So it didn't seem to be as busy as usual. Gareth hurt his knee last week and was limping, so wasn't really interested in this anyway, and he never was one for the pumpkin decorating or the balloon animals so after we did the pie walk (and didn't win) we left.

I drove up Watt so I could get a car wash, and not before time. July or maybe even June was the last one, and I drove to Laramie and had a week in smoky Ashland and another couple of weeks in smoky Sacramento. First Saturday breakfast, driving into the rising sun, is always a good way to tell that the car needs washing, anyway. Then I drove thru the nearby McDonald's and got him a hamburger, and so home.

I'd taken one of the STEM kits from Grandma, as well as the da Vinci model I gave him for his birthday. Bernadette and Robert never actually get around to doing this stuff with the kids. The boy had his 30 minutes with the iPad, which is when I finally got Bernadette's message that he shouldn't take it here. Oops. So later when he said he didn't get his after breakfast time, I said "oh yes you did, all last night!" The boy is definitely addicted.

We did the bubble kit. You experiment to see what makes strong bubbles, catch them and bounce them (Gareth needed to be reminded which way to put his hand... sometimes I wonder what's going on in his head) and the best thing was making square bubbles. There was a lot of manaical laughter. I think he enjoyed it.

Later he FaceTimed Grandma, and they've made plans to do this together when she's here. I suggested she lock Joanna in a closet. Joanna is so bubble crazy that we had to hide this kit because she wouldn't be able to help herself. Also, she tends to take over and Gareth tends to let her. Grandma can also do Joanna's kits with her (without interference from Gareth.)

We had trouble with the model. It's easy enough, but we didn't have the hand strength to put some struts in.

We played Blokus. The boy for some reason dumped the thing when I went to the door at one point. I won both games, though I'm still not sure what the best approach is. However, I have to stop thinking it's like Go, because the way to win is totally different.

In between all this, he played with the giant Lego. I would think it's too babyish, but he had a good time experimenting with different building techniques and making a big tower.

At bedtime, I read him the last chapter of the Great Brain. It turned out to be 35 pages, what a surprise, and he was tired but stayed awake to the very end, laughing at the final words.

Sunday we went to Church, then I was distributing Communion at the nursing home and he was good in the corner with his iPad, and so down to Elk Grove. Daddy was interested in helping with the model, so I hope he did.

I came home and just collapsed. I completely forgot I had a ticket to Rising Stars of Opera in Davis, even though there it was in my purse calendar which I consult frequently. Oh, well, at least it was a free ticket.

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 547
166.1 miles

hot

354 recordings of 32 types, 72 old SVU. 21% clear (I cleaned out all the old movies, I'll get another chance and this was filling up too fast.)

This week was bookended with STUPID moves.

Sunday the 24th, I went to Church and learned about a couple of friends who are very ill.

Back at home, I was puttering around getting ready to go out in the afternoon when the phone rang. It was my sister-in-law and we had a nice chat. She lives in South Carolina but had missed the eclipse because she was touring in Poland at the time, guided by our niece, Dan's sister. I finally cut the call off (after about 30-40 minutes) so I could get down to the 24th street theater before the play started and give them a donation. I managed to find a parking place about a block away and was able to drop off the check.

From there I went down to the Crocker in order to get the Wee Hallowe'en tickets for Bernadette, Padreic, and me. (It turns out Joan will be in town then, but I hadn't known that when I bought the tickets.) I was a little unhappy to have to park in the city lot for $5/day instead of at a meter for only an hour and less money. So I decided to spend some time looking at the pictures and things. The temporary exhibit wasn't in yet, but there are lots of new pictures and things have been moved around. I was particularly struck by a picture of a Chinese restaurant which is very three-dimensional, acquired in 2015. I also admired a picture I saw with Joanna during a Wee Wednesday. The kids were expected to see lots of things, colors, a festival, but all they say was "there's a DOG in it!"

Then I had a good look at "Sunday Morning in the Mines". It was done by the same artist as the "Sabine Women" paintings. I had no idea. Apparently the Crocker family were good friends with Nahl. I had always thought the mural on J street was "Saturday Evening in the Mines" and the miners were escaping the picture... but actually they're coming back. This mural was painted in 1973 by Frank Carson.

I went back out to the parking lot, and there was my $5 parking pass and lo! someone at the pay station ready to buy one, so I cheated the city out of $5. The city immediately got its own back, because a few blocks away I tried to get through a stale yellow light but it turned red before I got all the way across the intersection, and had my picture taken (with the "UH-OH!" sound.) Oops. Now I'm all worried about my license, about the good driver discount... oh, grumble. That was the stupidity of Sunday.

Monday I called for the County inspection (and had it on Tuesday and on Friday I got a notice from the County saying "don't forget.") Why in heck do I have to pay $375 for permission to put windows on my house?

I also called the elder mentor program with Renaissance, because it sounds like fun as well as being worthwhile. They're full this semester but I am listed for spring.

I walked my package over to the UPS store. It's moved, so at first I thought I'd wasted the walk, but the new place is in the same strip mall as the old. Maybe 2 minutes to make the return. On the way back I got a new sunshade for the car, as the old one was falling to bits.

It was impossible to load stuff onto Flickr, so I tried changing back to Chrome, and huzzah, the background is white again, so I can actually use it. It works a lot better than Edge.

Tuesday was the inspection. I stayed home from the WPAC breakfast, so as to wait for the guy. I called in, as requested, and then had to call the inspector himself to find out when he'd come. I'd replaced all the batteries in all the smoke alarms (which I suppose is a good thing, but they weren't working when I tried it before, and in reality, as long as I have the smoke/CO detector in the hall, the others don't really matter. (And now I have a way to escape my room, which is great. The swamp cooler made that impossible.)) Anyway, I was ready when he drove up. He left his car running, walked around the outside of the house, signed the permit, and left, maybe all of 5 minutes. OK then.

Vince wanted to call early, at 6:15. Luckily, I read this at 6:14. I had a long list to babble at him.

Wednesday I went to Elk Grove. Bernadette took Padreic out on the bike to go to the library, so was hot and tired when she got home. I was eager for her to get home because I'd located, and bought, the 4th book of Jane Yolen's Pit Dragon series and I knew she'd love it. As she did, though at the time she seemed more into the Celtic catalog I brought. Today the kids seemed really interested in Pinocchio. (That poor little puppet can't catch a break.)

Thursday I went back down there so B. could continue turfing out the garage before Hurricane Grandma arrives. Today she took in recycling, and later some high chairs to Chicks in Crisis, which is for homeless pregnant teens. (She also gave them some cute Hallowe'en baby sleepers... she'd initially been saving them but suddenly realized "oh, why?") She also got to the clothing boxes so she could find Padreic's winter clothes. These are now under her bed instead of in the garage. There is hope.

Padreic spent most of his day watching Strawberry Shortcake and building with Duplo and with his colored blocks. (Lucky he got them from Aunt Cheryl, as the Tot Room has been completely revamped at the Crocker and those blocks have disappeared.)

I went and got the kids, then got money, groceries, gave the Sharing God's Bounty coffee to them and got gas. I was TIRED when I got home, though I didn't really do much.

Friday was Renaissance. The documentary was about Nina Simone, which was interesting (I'd never heard of her). But afterwards, again, we got the Social Justice talk and the received wisdom of the CNN Bible. For instance, for the second week in a row the moderator said, as a fact, that "Donald Trump is a white supremacist." I don't need this. It's just annoying to be living in California, sometimes. I'm through with the fora.

The movie, on the other hand, was great fun. Peggy Sue Got Married. Great music! I'd never seen it before and one of the discussions we had was is it really a time travel movie or a dream? I really am enjoying this class. Before class I asked the guy behind me what he was reading and got a disquisition about economics, the Koch brothers, the horrors of Reaganism, how Barack Obama (and "I *like* Barack Obama" (no, really, I never would have guessed) ) had disappointed him by colluding with one of the bad guys (my eyes were glazing over.)

Then I went to pick up Joanna. I love her but she drives me crazy. For instance, she decided she didn't like fried chicken (after I'd picked up some for her, but she scarfed down the mac and cheese and then wouldn't eat the chicken.) Turns out, according to her mother, she DOES like fried chicken. I did get her to watch "Beauty and the Beast" by starting it, not asking her, because if I'd asked her, she'd have said "no, I'll be SCAAAAARED." As it was, she sat with me, covered her eyes at the scary bits, and ended up liking it. I thought she would. I read Jules Feiffer's "I LOST MY BEAR" to her (Gareth's favorite for years) and "Bartholemew and the Oobleck." (That racist, Dr. Seuss.)

Saturday we worked on her Magic Schoolbus junior scientist kit about the human body. She made a ball and socket joint and a hinge joint and a lung model (this one, the balloons tore so I ended up using plastic bags, which actually worked) and her favorite, a stethoscope. After lunch ("do you like grilled cheese?" "Yes." so she ate about an 8th of a sandwich) we went over to the Powerhouse Museum which used to be the Discovery Museum. She was interested in seeing the planetarium show. She watched the kids doing the salmon run but didn't join in. She played doctor, and did magnificently on the balance thing, 30 seconds, while I once managed 1 second. She's got average flexibility while I'm above average. Then the diner, *yawn.* After 90 minutes I was ready to leave, but first we did the nature trail, so she got to run some more. (The ADHD does show, indeed.)

Then I pulled the second dumb thing of the week. There was a tilty board and for some reason I thought I could balance on it. But instead of balancing, or at least going off to the side, when I stepped on I fell backwards, flat on my back. I was a bit surprised I could actually get up. Stiff and sore, but when I went to the car, I couldn't sit down it hurt so bad. I thought I'd picked up a rock or something, but later I figured it was a bruise, a big one, instead of a goose egg an ostrich egg. (This morning I finally saw the bruise, very black and massive. Since then it's softened up somewhat and is heading to purple.) I finally got a way to sit and drive (fortunately, it's only one buttock, but I sure did a number on it.) I took Joanna home. I discussed what she should have done if I'd been knocked out. (HONESTLY, Jan, what WERE you thinking??) I suspect I would have been out of luck. "I'd call mommy." Well, actually, that's a good idea and she now knows the phone number, and called Bernadette in the morning. But my cell phone is off, so that probably wouldn't have worked. No, you go into the museum and tell them "my Nana needs help." This is how I know I'd be out of luck, I cannot imagine the shy one actually doing that. THEN you call mommy or let them do it by telling them your number. And if we weren't close to somewhere that could help (remind me never to take this kid into the woods) you call 911 and then call your mommy.

I limped into the house and debriefed Bernadette, who had lots of lovely veggies for me. Then I painfully drove home, stopping to get some Amarula (I deserve it) first. I decided not to go to church today and have been sitting uncomfortably all day except for going out to turn the water on and off and to take some chicken bones out to the car.

So September went out with a whimper (after the bang, I guess.)

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 547
153.9 miles
mild

371 recordings of 51 types, 75 old SVU. 17% clear.

Saturday, September 2, I went to the WPAC breakfast. It's at a new place, so I got there a lot quicker than I used to. So I sat in the corner and talked to a couple of guys, and wasn't that happy when Ralph came along, but it turns out he's interesting. Also, he makes model ships so I need to talk to him.

The cat got locked in the pantry, and this time he urinated copiously. Grumble.

In church I said hi to a number of people. It was the 50th wedding anniversary for one couple who I talked to about Renaissance and the Camino (they may walk part of it next year.) I'm happy for them, but envious as well.

I gave the last of the Betsy-Tacy books to Gerrie, who called later to thank me.

My Canadian friends, Nancy and Doug, invited me to stay. So I'm serious now about driving to Ottowa from Pittsburgh next spring. This is the one thing that was Rich's job, hiring rental cars, that I haven't yet done.

I sorted through the SVU episodes and there were a number I had already seen, so that's why that number is lower.

On Labor Day I started the Trip Advisor reviews. I only did three, and have so many more to do. My current goal is to finish them all by the end of September.

I finished crumbling up dipping chips at the bottom of the bag, and used it to crust a chicken breast before I fried it. YUMMY.

New Orleans handled Katrina so badly, and continued whining afterwards, and Nagel was re-elected and talked about a "Chocolate City." I decided then and there that I never wanted to go back to that place. The way the people have handled Hurricane Harvey in Houston (how alliterative!) has made me interested in seeing it after a few years. So I looked up things to see... oh, yes, the Johnson Space Center! Vince, of course, knew this!

Tuesday I cut fur mats off Spooky. I haven't had a cat mat up since long-hair Smokey, before I met Rich. Spooky is short-hair, but sheds a LOT and is not the most fastidious cat.

I went over to the Tuesday morning breakfast. Afterwards I mailed the book to Sue from Ashland. It was too hot to go to the board meeting in the afternoon.

Fires and smoke everywhere!

Sometime that afternoon the squirrels took off with the two tiny pumpkin starts! AND the squash, and I have no idea how they got that (it was huge and I was going to have it that night)! This may have been my last chance for pumpkins (no, I have one more female flower and I'm going to net it the second it has flowered and been visited by a bee!)

Vince called. The boys started school this day. And there was a harvest moon.

Wednesday was my mammogram, then down to Elk Grove. I started Pinocchio with the kids.

Jeo, one of the first geocachers I ever knew, died! He'd been in the hospital a few years back and I thought he would die then, but he came out and seemed to be pretty much back to normal. I'm so sad.

I try to sponsor kids who are fundraising for local schools, so when this teen turned up on my porch selling cookie dough for El Camino's water polo team, I bought one. I talked to him a few minutes, then brought him the money... he said "how do you spell Yarnot?" and I asked "how do you know my name?" and it turned out he's a neighbor! From the house where they have the Hallowe'en parties! Oops.

Thursday I went into Hoarder central and moved stuff so as to get to the windows. I started sweeping there, too.

Outside there was a truck vacuuming out the storm sewers. Then it broke down and this ENORMOUS tow truck came to get it. Never a dull moment in this neighborhood!

I had a nice but small fish tv dinner. I wanted to add one more fish fillet, so I put it in the microwave at the same instructions as the dinner. No. You can't do that... smoke started pouring out of the microwave and it took quite some time to clear it out of the kitchen.

When I went to water the peanut plant, I startled up this HUGE black widow. Lesson learned, when I clear the junk and the cacti away from the back windows, I must be sure to wear gloves!

Friday I did clean the back by the high windows, wearing gloves of course. There was so much dirt and leaves under the boards Rich had there as shelves, that my dustpan broke.

Then it was Renaissance. The morning seminar was about the theater scene in Sacramento. I mostly went so I could tell about Patience, the play Bernadette is in. Someone else did that, anyway, so I didn't have to.

The time travel movie was "Somewhere in Time." Schmaltzy, but fun. Chip (the teacher) says the watch is an "ontological paradox" (because there is no origin.) This gave me a great pun, (what is a "phylogenical paradox"? To recapitulate) which no one understands. I had a hard time seeing this movie because Mr. Big Head came in late and sat right in front of me. Every time I almost could see, he'd move his head. He even had his cell phone on and it rang.) I believe the people behind me could see my occasional "choking hands" reaching for his neck. In the end, though, I was even polite to the creep.

On the way home I bought a Power Curve power strip (the 15 foot cord is of the most interest, because that would mean I could move the TV in front of the fireplace without rewiring one outlet) and a Spin Broom. As seen on TV. Unfortunately, that doesn't work as nicely as the tv would have one believe.

Then I was making cookies for tomorrow's memorial meeting, and put three pans into the oven at once. Because I messed up the preheating, the cookies were in too long and the kitchen filled with smoke, again. This time I apparently started burning the cookie pans, aluminum, because I accidentally had a whiff of it and couldn't breathe at all. Since then my persistent cough is persisting even more, and I'm a bit worried about shortness of breath. This time I locked the cat away and opened all the doors and waved the smoke out. I did eventually make some cookies, but maybe I should just stay away from the kitchen.