fossilfreak

 

360 recordings of 36 types (so many TCM movies!) 72 CPD, 1 SVU, 11 LMS, 18% clear.

 

(This was Saturday!)

 

I know, I know. When the news of Russian meddling and the total incompetence of the FBI in the Florida shooting came down, the low-level anger I've felt ever since the sore loser Resistence movement rose up, that anger reached boiling point and I've been unable to write. I'm just furious over Russians, Resist, Cryin' Chuck, Adam the Buffoon, the "unwittting" helpers on Facebook, the FBI, knee-jerks and just plain jerks.

 

And last year, just before I left the house to go to Roni's, I said "Besides getting to see Africa, I also will be happy to have almost three weeks without the panic-of-the-day, the hysteria, the riots, the hyperbole, the Godwin's law violations, the BS and outright lies, the hypocrisy..."

 

But a lot has gone on. And at least I caught up with the pictures, so I can illustrate our adventure on Monday the 12th.

 

The kids were out of school, so I went down to Elk Grove and Bernadette and I took them to Calistoga to see the Old Faithful Geyser of California. Rich and I had been here long ago, as well as the Petrified Forest in the same area. Unfortunately, the big fire last summer closed the Petrified Forest. It also affected Old Faithful, but just the bathroom block (which they had just built. They put in two enormous port-a-potties to replace it until it's rebuilt.)

 

The geyser goes off every 5-10 minutes, so we didn't have to wait. It's fascinating. Joanna brought along her drawing tablet so she could draw it. (She and I kept knocking heads on this trip, not only about the drawing tablet but later about the playground. One of those days.) Padreic was enthralled. And he understood the chart about why the geyser happens.

 

 

Gareth mostly walked around. At the end he disappointed me by not wanting a stretched penny. They're "not interesting." (Padreic, of course, wanted one. I'll have to get him an album.)

 

They weren't that interested in the fainting goats. I was so tempted the last time to scare them. Then they were in a smaller pen, now they have a huge paddock and don't look like anything would make them faint. There's a cute little playground. Padreic was climbing into the plane but slipped and hit his eye on the pipe. He was crying but Bernadette put him into the plane before he'd calmed down, so he's unhappy in this picture. Later, though, he was happy to play in the plane. Joanna had some elaborate story going on when we stopped for lunch.

 

 

 

Then we looked at the other things (not much, actually), and got the stretched pennies, and went back to Napa to the Playground Fantastico. This is another place Rich and I had visited in 2004. We'd recommended it to Roni and Monica for their families. It's still nice enough, though not as incredibly special as I had remembered. I walked across the freeway and around under the bridge to look for a geocache, without luck.

 

 

After about 90 minutes we packed up and went home, in the Bay Area rush hour, but it wasn't too bad. (Not like the horror of getting back from Rodeo Beach.)

 

Tuesday the 13th I had the cleaners. I walked to Raley's to pick up my prescription and a salad. I watched the Westminster dog show, and learned that Lex, my grandparents' dog, was an ENGLISH cocker spaniel. I'd wondered why cocker spaniels were so much smaller than I remembered. I worked some more on the jigsaw puzzle. I also dashed over to the neighborhood street to take a picture of the leopard in a tree!