fossilfreak

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 560

215.4 miles

clear, cold

 

358 recordings of 60 types, 4 old SVU and 45 old CPD. 25% clear.

 

I think I'll pay less taxes with this tax cut bill. Monica says they pay $34K in income tax! OUCH. Nice to be poor! Or nice not to live in California.

 

I gave up on the Rosetta Stone puzzle. I'd put in 405 pieces, not 395. It's very frustrating but I would like to do it one day. I put the groups back into the box still connected, but I really need to try something else for awhile.

 

In the evening I went to a caroling party. It was great fun. I'd taken a veggie tray, others had brought bread and stuff. They had a really delicious tortilla soup and glogg, and then we went out and carolled around the block, singing at places that were decorated. It took two hours, and as I wasn't planning to eat dessert anyway, I came home.

 

 

I took a quick trip to the Commissary. I couldn't get regular oatmeal, but it doesn't matter, I have a spare box. I usually use the quick check, but it's Christmas time, so I went through a regular check stand so I could tip the baggers.

 

The cleaners came early and there were three of them (of course.)

 

I picked 13 more oranges. There are 5 left on the tree, but I think I'll have Bernadette's for her.

 

364 recordings of 29 types, 55 old SVU. 21% clear.

 

Wednesday the 18th I left the house with Pharaoh, got money, took him in to the vet. They were getting someone with two dogs out so we waited outside for about TEN minutes. Then they couldn't get the dog and the paperwork finished. I thought I would NEVER get out of there. On down to the gas station where I filled the car. And off I went.

 

A little outside of Davis a warning light went on. I had to pull off to be sure it said what I thought it said, and indeed it did. "Check gas cap." (I don't HAVE a gas cap.) So I opened the cover to be sure the valve was closed, and it was, so I figured it was OK and kept going. Argh.

 

Outside of Milpitas I had marked 5 caches, but unfortunately went past three of them. I did find the 4th but by that time I was just eager to get to San Jose. And there, I took the wrong exit to get to Helena's. I couldn't get turned on the Lawrence expressway south and ended up driving all around before I finally got to her street. Turns out that I should have turned off on Saratoga. I can go back on the Lawrence, but to get to Helena's must turn on Saratoga. OK then.

Boy that woman can TALK. Of course, that's why I went down, so she could. She tends to repeat herself and just keep talking when one tries to comment.

She'd recently gone to Prague and had a lot to say about that. I'd never considered it as a destination, but now I'm really interested. Monica and family plan to go in 2019 and to Peru (with Helena) next year, which sounds wonderful.

Helena talks to herself, too, and repeats herself. She's louder than I am talking to myself, but I, too, repeat myself (maybe I think I didn't hear me the first time.)

We went for a short walk before dinner, which was meat loaf and trimmings. I tried to keep the carbs down, with mediocre success.

 

Thursday I woke before Helena (surprise surprise) and took a shower. She woke talking to herself.

 

After breakfast we took a longer walk, and I hoped to be able to find a geocache to show her what it is I do, but without luck.

 

Then we went to Santana Row. At first I thought I would be REALLY bored because we went to a nice clothing store, and she kept pointing out such pretty clothes. This sort of thing would be more interesting to Monica. But then on the way to lunch we stopped at Sur La Table. I wish we had this store where I could go more often. All the kitchen supplies! So many things I would like to have but have no need for them.
 

  

  

From there we went to the Village California Bistro. We had chicken waldorf wraps. Huge, but YUM! Thence to more tchotske stores. I really liked the velociraptor but thought it wouldn't fit on the plastic window ledge where I would have liked to put it. (When I got home I realized the ledge was wider than I remembered, and I decided to order the dinosaur after all. (Perhaps if I'd realized the car was going to cost so much to fix, I wouldn't have, but it's done now.))

 

 

Back at Helena's house she found out that Mark wouldn't be able to come due to trouble with the product launch on the day before. This was good for a lot of sad talk. "But I should be glad he has a job."

 

Finally Monica and the girls arrived, and cousin Olga, and Helena ordered the chinese food and went with the girls to get it. We ate, and were just finishing when Mark was able to come and Helena perked up. Monica liked her presents (some nice clothing, nice jewelry, and from me tapioca beads and dutch chocolate from Koreana. Her real present is going to be given to her on Thanksgiving.) Charlotte went to dance class and then the rest of us chatted for an hour, and then everyone left. I was getting tired and went to bed soon afterwards. I thought I would read in bed, but woke at 11:45 long enough to turn the light off.

 

 

   

Friday I got up, stripped the bed, packed, had a quick breakfast with Helena and drove home. My "check engine" light came on right away so I had a pretty tense time for 158 miles and cancelled the trip with Bernadette to Apple Hill for the next day. I figured it was probably OK to drive home if this was the same thing I had before, but since that was only 3 months ago (and I'd spent $130 on it) I was NOT a Happy Camper. At the vet, they'd lost my leash, so I got a better one for Pharaoh's vet visits. I hoped that filling the car again would fix the problem, but nooooo.

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.)