Palm Springs, Thousand Trails

This Thousand Trails has a bizillion palm trees, with I don't know how many tangerine, orange, and grapefruit trees scattered in.  :)

Yep, we made it today.  Originally, we were only booked in here for one night, but there was a cancellation, and now we'll be here until the 4th.  I think it's probably pretty full all winter long, but especially because of the holiday. 

A row over from ours, we felt like we were being welcomed back into a happy place for New Years Eve.
I'll have to find out the story of all these musicians and why they're here together, to share with you.  Live music is always a much appreciated thing for us.

Happy New Years!  Good health, much happiness, and many blessings to you!

Not quite Palm Springs, but...

From Colton CA 2010

Here we are tonight in Redlands, part of San Bernardino County.  What is important about this fact, is that we are about 5 miles down the road from Colton Truck Repair shop!!!  YEAH!!!!
Let's see.  Where did I leave off in the repair list?  Okay, the Air Turbo Charger that was leaking?  I guess it depends on who you talk to.  Later today I hear that the charger was toast!  Took until about 2:30 pm today to find out that, YES, warranty would indeed cover this as well!!!!  Thank. You. God.

So, now the radiator, and charger are put back inside, the shocks are adjusted, the PTO spline is wetted, hydrolic pump replaced, muffler insulated, wires protected, and we're off for our "test drive." 

Oh, the relief of all of this being completed (knowing that we will not have to spend the night, yet again, in the parking lot of the repair shop!)  One more small piece to this puzzle before we head to Palm Springs for the night!

Pull out on the street, just off the repair shop parking lot, CLUNK!!!  I mean that in a huge, loud, does not sound good sort of way!  The supervisor that was driving the coach at this point looks at Hubby in the passenger seat and says, "Oh, that does not sound good."  He gets on the walkie talkie and gets a couple of other employees to help back the mh into the shop.  #@!*+$&#!

So, a long story, short, a sway bar bracket BROKE IN HALF!!!  These brain surgeons of all things metal & chassis take just an hour to fix this latest problem!  In the end, it kind of cracked me up; two of the employees were talking about us being back in the shop: "Let's hurry up and get this fixed before anything else goes wrong with this thing.  Let's get this poor bastard out of here!"  They did not realize that the front driver window was open.  But I totally understood what they meant!

Here's the hilarious part of all of this!

From Colton CA 2010

When we left the garage this afternoon, they gave us TWO 2lb. 2oz. cans of Fancy Mixed Nuts, one 2lb. box of European Chocolate Cookies, two screen printed t-shirts, and two hats from Colton Truck Terminal Garage!!!  HOW COOL IS THAT!?  I had no idea that they were so touched by our visitation.  Truly, they were awesome!

Yes, our good fortune!  Total bill:  a bit over 12,000 dollars!  Our good fortune comes in at the fact that $10,000 was covered by warranty. 

THANK YOU GOD!  AMEN!

Repairs, and more repairs...

No, I'm not really complaining.  I'm not.  Because I figure that if these things were not discovered now, somewhere down the road we may have been in big trouble.
We came here to get the PTO spline replaced with a "wet" kit that will lubricate that gear.  The service manager talked the warranty company in to covering it.  Uh oh, your hydrolic pump is bad (tech showed Hubby).  Okay, warranty will cover it.  While putting that in...uh oh, your radiator is leaking.  Have to have an inspector from warranty come out and look at it.

Fortunately, the inspector was close by, came to inspect, and a couple of hours later gave us the okay to replace it under warranty. 

So, another night outside the building, in the rain.  A really great thing about it was that because the mh is being pulled in and out of the service area, all of the slides were folded in all night.  No leaking slides.  Yeah, we should have been doing that all along.  Brain surgeons, we are not.  :)

This morning we're pulled back in to the service area and told to secure everything because they had to lift the house on wheels to drop the radiator out.  This also meant tipping the mh forward.  Now, we had visions of everything in the cabinets flying out, anything loose sliding into the front window.  Turns out, it wasn't tipped THAT far.  Silly us!

Radiator dropped out and...uh oh, your turbo charger is leaking.  Another call to warranty but this time we may have to wait a day or two to get the inspector to come by.

This all creates an environment of anxious, nervous energy.  Hubby is not the laid back type.  He is easily frustrated, and is pretty verbal about it.  Imagine living in a box with your family.  It just takes one little word, or 5 repairs, to set off the negative train.  Everything is magnified in this little box, especially emotions.  We're fine, don't worry.  He goes out to talk to the service manager every so often, and that seems to calm him down.  I'll have to thank that guy later! 

What can I say?  I'm thankful for our safety.  I'm grateful that the warranty company has been so generous towards us.  We won't be stuck here forever.  Tomorrow is another day.  :)

Bye bye San Diego!

The water was smooth as glass this morning.  Sea World is on that other shore.
Full sun this morning! Just beautiful!
I can see why daughter has chosen to live in San Diego for 20 years...
PTO Spline:
Change in plans.
There is a gear in the transmission that gets no lubrication in a Country Coach motorhome. It has come to light that this will, at about 50,000 miles, create all kinds of problems. Okay, #%@*!, we'll get it fixed now (a piece put on that will lubricate this gear) before we REALLY get out on the road. So we traveled back up to the San Bernadino area
to have that part put on. Looks pretty doesn't it? However, that is not where we are spending the night. We are parked in the back, in the alley, of the truck repair shop, close to the freeway, a railroad and a party restaurant, that will do the work.
We're hoping to be outta here by noon tomorrow to beat the next winter storm coming through tomorrow night!
By the way, Hubby is 65 years old.  He had a phone call from his HIGH SCHOOL football coach to wish him Merry Christmas!  How cool is that?!?  He calls every Christmas and every birthday...every year!

Christmas Eve 2010

The peace of the season is what I love most. 
Those brief moments, searching, reaching out, and receiving God's peace.
Merry Christmas blog peeps!  Wishing you love, laughter, and His peace. 

Quote...

" We need to think of ourselves as gifts to be given and to think of others as gifts offered to us.  -John Powell 

I read this quote here.  Such a sweet blog!  I think I found it on blogs of note (I can't really remember, it was a couple of years ago!)  I always enjoy the positive, loving, and devotional posts on this blog!  (And her kids are adorable!)

What a quote, right?!?  I know many of us think of friends as gifts, but how often do we think of ourselves as someone else's gift?  Not often enough, I think.  If we did, how would we be different?  Would we do things differently? 

Certainly worth a pause, don't you think?

Mission Bay Park

Not a bad view from the old home on wheels, right?  Well, okay, this is a bit of a close up. Hehe. 
Here's the real view.
And in the 3 days since we've been here our view has been cut again by other motorhomes coming in to spend Christmas in beautiful San Diego.  Well, it's beautiful, sunny, warm, and picturesque when you're not having the storm of the decade whip through! Today is supposed to be the last day of the Pineapple Express, which is the very water laden trough that goes through Hawaii to pick up more moisture, then on to CA. 
The last time I remember experiencing a huge Pineapple Express was in 1982.  19" of rain in 24 hours.  A whole mountain became a monsterous mudslide that buried houses and took lives.  Although we have gotten a tremendous amount of rain, I don't think it has been anywhere near the storm of '82.  Thank you God!
I see a skinny strip of blue sky off in the distance...can't wait to show you a picture when it's all sunny!

Children are Quick

TEACHER:    Maria, go to the map and find   North America   . 
MARIA:         Here it  is. 
TEACHER:   Correct.  Now class, who discovered   America ? 
CLASS:         Maria. 
____________________________________   
  
TEACHER:    John, why are you doing your math multiplication on the floor? 
JOHN:          You told me to do it without using tables. 
__________________________________________ 
  
TEACHER:  Glenn, how do you spell 'crocodile?' 
GLENN:      K-R-O-K-O-D-I-A-L' 
TEACHER:  No, that's wrong 
GLENN:       Maybe it is wrong, but you asked me how I spell it.  
(I  Love this child) 
____________________________________________ 
TEACHER:   Donald, what is the chemical formula for water? 
DONALD:     H I J K L M N O. 
TEACHER:   What are you talking about? 
DONALD:    Yesterday you said it's H to O.  
__________________________________ 
TEACHER:   Winnie, name one important thing we have today that we didn't have ten years ago. 
WINNIE:       Me! 
__________________________________________  
TEACHER:   Glen, why do you always get so dirty? 
GLEN:          Well, I'm a  lot closer to the ground than you are.  
_______________________________________ 
TEACHER:     Millie, give me a sentence starting with '  I.  ' 
MILLIE:         I  is.. 
TEACHER:     No, Millie..... Always say, 'I  am.' 
MILLIE:         All right...  'I am the ninth letter of the alphabet.'       
________________________________ 
TEACHER:    George Washington not only chopped down his father's cherry tree, but also admitted it.  
                   Now, Louie, do you know why his father didn't punish him? 
LOUIS:           Because George still had  the axe in his hand....     
______________________________________  
TEACHER:    Now, Simon , tell me frankly, do you say prayers before eating? 
SIMON:         No sir, I don't have to, my Mom is a good cook.  
______________________________ 
TEACHER:       Clyde , your  composition on 'My Dog' is exactly the same as your   brother's.. Did you copy his? 
CLYDE  :         No, sir. It's the same dog.     
  
(I want to adopt this kid!!!) 
___________________________________ 
TEACHER:    Harold, what do you call a person who keeps on talking when people are no longer  interested? 
HAROLD:     A teacher 

Fresno, CA

Our trip to Fresno has been a whirlwind tour of this city of 500,000 people, stories from old radio friends, and a new understanding for me of how much  Hubby is loved and respected by his radio buddies.
KYNO was just one of the radio stations that he worked at, but it was the test market for top 40 music back in the 60's.   Hubby was program director here, and brought up (trained, helped, taught ) many of the big announcers and radio personalities that we hear today.  They were all kids back then, including Hubby, but he always went out of his way to teach these guys professionalism and the business of voice and delivery, so that the station would succeed.  It's been heartwarming to hear the personal stories of friendship and loyalty that remain today, all these years later.
We also met with his author friend at a weekly writers group yesterday.  Fascinating, it was.  They each brought a piece of writing that they had been working on that week and together critiqued the writing and made suggestions.  Nothing was held back, everyone was challenged to do better.  They've been meeting for 4 years, so they trust one another and respect the honest opinions they shared.  How awesome would it be to be part of a group like that!
Hubby's piece of writing from his book was just wonderful.  He has a real knack for it, and of course the story about radio is engaging if you were a listener back then.
So we leave again tomorrow morning, heading for southern California for the holidays.  CA is expecting rain for the next 5 days, and I'm reminded, not only of just how much it rains during the winter, but why we were so happy to move out of it.  LOL!

After the Rain

After the rain, everyone was out lookin' for a little something to eat. 
Dark-eyed Junco
Stellar's Jay
I wish I could have gotten a better shot of the pattern on his back. They're so beautiful.
It's hard to see them all in this picture, but I counted close to 50 crows in the tree next to the motorhome.
These jokers create quite the cacophony of calls first thing in the morning.

On another note, Wilson comes home today!  I've missed him, although I have to say it's been nice having a little extra room in the building on wheels.  I'm a little nervous about him coming home, only because I know how much work it's going to be to keep up on the training.  I worry that I'll screw up what he's learned somehow.  I'm such a pushover and he knows it. 

Where the Monarchs Go

  Every fall, thousands of Monarch butterflies converge on both Pacific Grove and Santa Cruz Natural Bridges State Park eucalyptus groves during their migration to warmer climates.
These orange and black butterflies hang in clusters from eucalyptus branches in order to maintain body temperature when it dips below 60 degrees. As such, these pods of tightly clinging insects look like giant bouquets of butterflies…a spectacular display of natural wonder for the entire family.
According to David Munro at San Francisco State University, "It has an extensive home range, but specific habitat needs. The ecology and the home range of the monarch butterfly are closely intertwined, as with most species. Put simply, it is dependent upon milkweed plants...the distribution of the monarch is controlled by the distribution of milkweed, it regulates their density in a given area, and it is for this plant that the monarchs migrate for long distances every year. So dependent upon milkweed is the monarch that where one finds the monarch, one will also find milkweed."

Natural Bridges State Park sits on the edge of Monterey Bay.  It's a beautiful beach with huge rock formations that used to form a bridge in the water.  I don't know why I didn't take a picture of the beach, except, I suppose, that I'm so used to it that I didn't think of it.  Talk about taking beautiful things for granted!

Happy Sunday!

My shabby corner of the building on wheels.  We were talking tonight about how we've gone from 2400 sq. ft. to whatever it is here in the motorhome, and the fact that we're happy in here.  As long as I have my space, all shabby chic, I'm good.  Yes, I have a silk rose vine hanging over the bedroom window, and some small "shabby" things inside our home on wheels, and hubby is okay with it.  Thank goodness!  I don't know that I could let go of those little things that really make me happy, in my soul. 
I mean, of course, I could if I HAD to!  Like if the world came to turmoil, and we were struggling to get from day to day.  You know I'm not talking about that, right?  I pray that never happens, because I would be seen sneaking from dark corner to stretched out behind a piller dragging my silk rose vine!  Yes, I would!
It's amazing to me that we can make this "us thing" work in such a little space.  We're still working on those "little" things, that really p*** us off!  There is a song by Robert Earl Keen that speaks to this very issue, so very well.  I'll have to try to post the song.  We can ALL recognize ourselves in that song if we're honest!
I awoke this morning to that flock of wild turkeys "gobbling" under my bedroom window!  I had to laugh out loud!!!  Just made me so happy!  Yes, they really do say GOBBLE!  Not only awakening to turkeys, but to crows and hoot owls! 
Man!  I love it here!

Morgan Hill

I
I watched motorhome after motorhome, trailer after trailer, fifth wheel after fifth wheel, leave the RV park in Scotts Valley over the last couple of months.  Yes, I felt envy and a big time desire for it to be US leaving the park, and move on.  Not because I haven't enjoyed being with family and revisiting the awesome restaurants (Tacos Moreno!), because I have.  I have missed those people and have loved being with them!  But we've had issues with the motorhome, an ongoing volatile situation with the RV repair shop, and some depression for me surrounding my Mom's death in August.
It was finally our turn to leave last Wednesday and travel "over the hill," inland, to the Thousand Trails in Morgan Hill.  I'll have to take some pictures to post what it looks like at this time of year.  The photo in this post is from early fall a couple of years ago. 
Now, the ground is damp and covered in the biggest leaves I have ever seen in my life!  Wait til I show you!  Within an hour of arriving here, we saw gobs of crows (one of my favorite birds), two big flocks of wild turkeys, a jack rabbit, and deer.  Yes, I love this place.  I have really missed the wildlife that I had so close in AZ.  There are several huge sycamore trees around the fenced-in dog run that is just alive with birds.  So many different songs and sounds.  It's like being in South America, or an aviary.  It's very soothing to sit on the bench while Shasta noses around and just listen.  I put bird food out this afternoon to see if I could coax some of those birds to my "yard!"

Great Holiday Advice!

TEN TIPS FOR THE HOLIDAYS

1. Avoid carrot sticks. Anyone who puts carrots on a
holiday buffet table knows nothing of the Christmas
spirit.  In fact, if you see carrots, leave
immediately.  Go next door, where they're serving rum
balls.

2. Drink as much eggnog as you can. And quickly. Like
fine single-malt scotch, it's  rare. In fact, it's
even rarer than single-malt scotch. You can't find it
any other time  of year but now. So drink up!  Who
cares that it has 10,000 calories in every sip?  It's
not as if you're going to turn into an eggnog-aholic
or something. It's a treat.  Enjoy it. Have one for
me. Have two. It's later than you think. It's
Christmas!

3. If something comes with gravy, use it.  That's the
whole point of gravy. Gravy does not stand alone.
Pour it on. Make a volcano out of your mashed
potatoes.  Fill it with gravy. Eat the volcano.
Repeat.

4. As for mashed potatoes, always ask if they're made
with skim milk or whole milk.  If it's skim, pass. Why
bother?  It's like buying a sports car with an
automatic transmission.

5. Do not have a snack before going to a party in an
effort to control your eating.  The whole point of
going to a Christmas party is to eat other people's
food for free.  Lots of it. Hello?

6. Under no circumstances should you exercise between
now and New Year's. You can do that in January when
you have nothing else to do. This is the time for long
naps, which you'll need after circling the buffet
table while carrying a 10-pound plate of  food and
that vat of eggnog.

7. If you come across something really good at a
buffet table, like frosted Christmas cookies in the
shape and size of Santa, position yourself near them
and don't budge.  Have as many as you can before
becoming the center of attention.  They're like a
beautiful pair of shoes. If you leave them behind,
you're never going to see them again.

8. Same for pies. Apple. Pumpkin. Mincemeat. Have a
slice of each. Or, if you don't  like mincemeat, have
two apples and one pumpkin. Always have three.  When
else do  you get to have more than one dessert? Labor
Day?

9. Did someone mention fruitcake? Granted, it's loaded
with the mandatory celebratory calories, but avoid it
at all cost.  I mean, have some standards.

10. One final tip: If you don't feel terrible when you
leave the party or get up from the table, you haven't
been paying attention. Reread tips; start over, but
hurry, January is just around the corner.

Have a great Holiday!

A Face Only a Mother....

Yes.  Her Mommy loves her!
I see a cartoon everytime I look at her.  She spent Thanksgiving day with her nose to the hardwood floor, making little pig sounds, looking for anything that had been dropped from above; like turkey!

November 24, 2010

Wilson is doing GREAT!  I can't believe that he can actually sit AND STAY!  He finally decided that he would go along with the down as well, and as a reward, he got to run free with a bunch of other dogs in a 4 acre fenced yard!  The trainer said he had a blast!  Before the training, he would never run with the other dogs in the dog park; he was scared.  Perhaps being away from Shasta, the enforcer, he will learn confidence.

Next it's our turn to get trained how to be the boss.  Hehehe.  We'll probably have several of those lessons.  :)  We may even be making this dog training place a commercial.  That would ease some of the cost of the training.  That would be good.  If we end up doing it, I'll post the commercial.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we'll be spending it with family & friends.  Probably our last big gathering for quite some time.  I'm wishing all of you who celebrate Thanksgiving, a peaceful, laughter-filled day.

Watchin' the Storm

Yeah, we knew we were going to get it!  And we did.  A downpour!  Lightening!  Thunder!  Did I mention before that the slides leak in this building on wheels?  Not just on ours.  I understand that most motorhomes with slides have a problem that way.  So we're drying every towel we have in advance of the next storm that is due in today. 
Meanwhile, nextdoor:
Note to self:
Don't park under trees!  It took a long time for this branch to finally break off.  It was weird.  We had time, from the first little crack sound, to look at each other, slide the window shade up, look at each other again and ask what that noise was, and look out the window again to see the limb fall.  It was weird.
Willy Update:
He's fine.  He's heeling reallly well, and most of the time will walk with a loose leash.  He is practicing "wait", "stay", and "down."  The down is very difficult for him.  I remember Shasta never liked that one either.  It's a very submissive position, and neither one of them like that!

Pampas Grass

Being in an RV park, you see people come and go all the time.  When you connect with someone, albeit like ships passing in the night, it can be a little sad to see them go.  But who knows, you may end up seeing each other again, down the road, in a totally different place.

We were in this park two years ago, and at that time we met Rainey and his wife, Sue.  When we came back this time, it was very comfortable to start a conversation like we had talked everyday.

Walking Shasta in the "tent area" of this RV park the other day, two little boys came charging towards me with raised pampas grass blooms high in the air. 
The Smaller Of The Two Brothers:  HI!!!!
Me: Hi!
TSOTTB: GUESS WHAT I HAVE!
Me: A sword?
TSOTTB: NO! THIS IS FROM OUR SECRET HIDING PLACE!
Me: A secret place?
TSOTTB: YEAH! LET ME SHOW YOU WHERE IT IS!
Me: Okay.
While walking over to the secret place...
TSOTTB: CAN I PET YOUR DOG?
Me: Sure.
TSOTTB: WHAT'S YOUR DOG'S NAME?
Me: Shasta.
TSOTTB:  OH!  I SAW A MOVIE WHERE THE DOG'S NAME IS SHASTA!
Brother:  No.  The dog's owner's name was Shasta.
TSOTTB: NO!  THE DOG'S NAME!
Brother: goes on to explain the movie and states everyone's name, including the dog, in the movie...
TSOTTB: OH!
Me: Do you know what that plant is called?
TSOTTB: YEAH! IT'S OUR SECRET HIDING PLACE!
Me: That plant is called Pampas Grass.  Be careful that you don't get cut on the long green leaves, okay?  They're pretty sharp.
Boys get involved in something else, and Shasta and I go on our way back towards the building on wheels.
TSOTTB:  HEY!  LOOK WHAT I HAVE NOW!  IT'S REALLY BIG!
Me: Wow!  You have a really long piece!
TSOTTB:  I KNOW!  I COULD DO ANYTHING WITH THIS!
Mom: Boys!  Time to go!
TSOTTB:  OKAY!  dropping his sword.  BYE!
And that was the last time I saw him.  I feel a little sad about that.  He was so full of joy and enthusiasm.  Made me laugh out loud.  I NEED MORE TIMES LIKE THAT!!!!

The New Baby

How fun is this???  Remember, we have an advertising business that requires that we stay on top of the latest technology.  We also pay for our clients' media bills with our credit card; thus, wracking (sp) up lots of "points" from those purchases.  Our points paid for most of the cost of this camera!  Yeah!

Boy, do we ever have some reading to do!  You know...RTFM?  Neither of us are very good about that, but because this is so new, we'll be doing exactly that!

No news about Willy.  :(  We've left two messages for the trainer, and nothing.  Has she run off with our dog???

Plans!

We keep talking about making plans.  "We should sit down and make some plans."  "We need a plan."  How can we leave without a plan? 

Fall is really the best time of year on the central coast of Californina.  No fog, fairly warm weather, and no stopped traffic trying to get down to the beach.  We've really enjoyed being here, being able to see family & friends often, and taking the time to have things settle down in our lives. 

Having said that, we've also been trying to come up with a plan to start our journey.  This weekend we've allowed those plans to gel.  We'll be leaving Santa Cruz earlier than originally thought.  We'll be here for Thanksgiving with family (I'm so very thankful for my family), then going "over the hill" to Morgan Hill Thousand Trails for a couple of weeks.  I love that park!  That's the one with all of the wild turkeys!  Still an opportunity to meet family over there in more of a camping environment.  We all met there two years ago and had a blast!

December will also find us in Fresno for a few days to see friends and talk about Hubby's book, then off to San Diego for Christmas.  We found what looks to be a great RV park on the coast, Mission Bay Park.  From there we head to Verde Valley Thousand Trails, which I also love, for a month. 

I know we're kind of back tracking, but considering the time of year, we have to go back through that way before we can winter and spring in some new places. 

Anyhoo, I'm feeling hopeful today with our new plan; looking forward, moving on.

Plain & Simply,..Hooked

Yes, I'm hooked!  This is my second slouchy hat, but this one is made from a wool blend.  I really love this yarn!  The bobble stitches just happened to come up when the yarn was changing color.  I didn't plan it.  Serendipity!  Love when that happens.
I'm on the lookout for more hats to make.  I know.  I can only wear one at a time, but it's just so theraputic for me right now.  Its like it's soothing my frayed psyche.  Not sure how long this obsession will last, but you may all be seeing slouchy hats in your future!  LOL!
Just a little Willy update: HE'S HEELING!  WooHoo!

First Day of School

Wilson's going to school today!  For a month!  It will take every single one of those days to make him the scholar we know he can be.
We've racked our brains trying to remember the name of the trainer that trained Shasta and Joe, our English Shepherd.  Joe, by the way, not only went to elementary school, but had to go to high school AND summer school!  A bit high strung, he was. 
Kate Davern, is a wonderful dog trainer, and has been training search and rescue dogs since we last talked to her.  I'm so happy that we found her, and that she has room to take Willy on.  He seems to have discovered his strength lately.  He's big.  He's strong.  And has no manners whatsoever.  Since he discovered the bizillion squirrels around this RV park, his delight at trying to catch them is boundless.  He is absolutely gleeful and so very focused that it's all I can do to hang on to the leash. 
So it's off to school for Willy.  I think we'll ALL be happier when he comes home.

Must be the Weather

This is the top of my new slouchy hat.  Yeah, we'll see how slouchy, and how much of a hat it turns out to be.  LOL! 
I've had the incredible urge to get my hands on yarn these days.  Kind of like that nesting urge to make soup when the weather finds a nip of coolness in the air.  It's been years since I've really knitted or crocheted anything, but I've become rather obsessed of late.  On a quest for yarn in a city that evidently is not so into yarn is a challenge.  I found one place in Santa Cruz, a dedicated yarn shop, but when I walked in, the place was hot and there were a bunch of women eating food and trying to talk to me with their mouths full.  I'm sorry.  I have to go now.  :)  Perhaps I'll try that shop another day, when it's not lunchtime.
Yesterday we drove "over the hill" to Los Gatos to a shop called Yarndogs.  So cute.  I wish I had taken pictures of it.  At the front door there's a welcome mat with two dogs on it and a water bowl.  And yes, inside was a customer with a dog.  Obviously, that was okay with me (unlike the food fest). 
Oh my!  What a shop!  What a glorious cloud of yarn!  I probably looked at, and felt, every twisted loop in there.  I browsed through pattern books and pictured myself tucked away in the house on wheels, totally consumed in my sweater making.  And then...YIKES!  $21 a skein!  $14 a skein! I just don't remember yarn being that expensive.   Let's do the math here...hmmmm...say it takes 15 skeins of yarn for a sweater, at $15 a skein...uh, yeah.  Could be a fairly expensive sweater, right?  And for someone that only knows the basics of knitting and crocheting, it could prove to be quite a challenge in many respects. 
So I settled, for the time being, for a couple of small balls of yarn and happily consumed my evening making knots with my little hook.

Saturday, the family

When we left the motorhome Saturday morning, it had been raining all night and morning.  "Oh well," we all said, "what's a little rain."
By the time we got our first glimpse of the ocean we saw that the sun was clearly shining in the middle of the bay.  Hope! 
When we all met up in Monterey the clouds could only be seen on the horizon.  What breeze there was, was warm and gentle. 
I think the last time my family was all together was when my father died back in 1989.  We met then, on a boat, but in the San Francisco Bay, about 75 miles to the north.  I know we have all had the thought that perhaps this will be the last time we're all together.  But maybe not.  Maybe we can be better about making that happen.
Once we motored out, offshore of Lover's Point, the captain turned the boat into the wind and we shared in the scattering of ashes.  We tossed out ginger cookies (her favorite) and flowers, and as the boat circled the ashes & flowers, we saw a school of jellyfish bobbing in the water.  Within the circle there were two harbor seals that leaped out of the water, the sun glistening on their wet bodies.  It was just magical!
It was like she was telling me that this was right.  Perfect, in fact.  Thank you.

Mmmm

I love this look! 
There is something really homey, cozy about it.  Love the crochet & the big flower!  Just makes me feel good!
I don't always fit other people's mold, but I love what I love.  It's good!

October 26th

October 26th:  my son, Scott's, birthday.

23 yrs old today.  Yep, I remember that day he was born, physically, as well as mentally and emotionally.  Driving to the hospital, taking his brother to Grammie's house for the night.  By the time we finished the drive, 10 miles, to the hospital, I could not have handled one more right or left turn in that car.  Straight was okay for a few minutes more, but no more turns!  The arrival at the hospital was a whirlwind of activity and within 30 minutes I was gazing into his eyes!
He drove to the motorhome this morning and we went to lunch together, then spent the afternoon together.  I'm so happy to be here in the area to spend time with him.  He is a loving man that, even though he's not a touchy, feely sort, he lets you know that he loves you.  Such a blessing.

October 26th:  my brother's birthday.

This particular brother, who is the closest in age to me, has always been so very supportive of me.  He hasn't always been in touch (I haven't either), but I've always known that when things got really hard, I could count on him when he absolutely needed to be there.  I so appreciate him (and his wife, Marcia).  They have been good to me.  :)
I called him tonight to razz him about being old (older than me :)  He expects it by now.  He calls me a punk.  Next year is a big one for him and I, naturally, will, without a doubt, continue to harrass him.  What is a little sister for after all???

October 26th, my mother's birthday.

True, she didn't see this one with us.  Hard to believe for me.  Even when she was struggling, I still told myself that she would make it through it, again.   It's been a strange day in that respect.  I miss her.  I find that when I was looking for cards for my son & brother, I thought to look for a card for her.  So many little things I would have found for her.  I think so often of things to tell her that she would crack up over.  I haven't dialed her phone number, but have thought to call her many times.  I know that so many people know this feeling already, but it's new to me. 
After a weekend of really rainy weather, today was cool, but sunny, and considering that we are going to scatter her ashes on Saturday (weather will be rainy again), I thought about what a good day today would have been for that.  But as it is my son's & brother's birthdays as well, I'm sure they would not want to remember this event with their birthday.  We'll hope for a ray of sunshine at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

Who will be next in the family to have a birthday on this day?  Who can tell???

A Day on the Santa Cruz Wharf

Sunbathing Sea Lions
This next photo just screamed sepia to me.