Another Coast Day 5-28-07

This crazy Bubbledog-boy spent the night at our place Friday night. We had a good time with him Friday. There is a quarter mile race track here at the fairgrounds and during our walk after dinner Ian discovered the gate onto the track was open. He wanted to run the track and we told him to go for it. I had to do the “ready-set-go” thing before he took off and he ran the whole thing with only one stop when he heard a noisy truck up on the freeway and was afraid that the race cars were coming to get him and had to look over his shoulder to be sure. I wish I had the camera with me. He ran over the finish line the winner! He was bright red and sweating, but wanted to go again, so he did in the other direction. Larry decided to go with him. They had gotten into the first turn and Ian veered down to the dirt in the center of the track and I could hear Larry ask him what was wrong and Ian informed Larry that he had “crashed”. Apparently this boy has seen a race or two; they continued on and at the halfway mark Ian slowed down again and said his tummy hurt, so Larry said we can cut through the center and Ian said no and set off running again and crossed the finish line. We were amazed, he is such an athlete already and only four years old! He ran a half mile and then ran circles around us back to the trailer. Needless to say after his bath and his “refueling” he was pooped and fell asleep quickly and slept like a rock. Kids are so much fun at this age.

On Saturday we hung out with Andrea and did our laundry at her place; love that role reversal. Sunday we swapped out mattresses; Andrea had gotten a new one and we liked the one she was getting rid of better than the year and a half old mattress we had so we switched.

Today we went to the coast with Andrea and Will. Ian was with his other Grandma today. It was in the low 90’s here in Ukiah and was in the low 70’s over in Mendocino and Fort Bragg. It was sunny with just a light breeze on the coast today. We walked the store fronts and enjoyed the flowers in Mendocino again. Had to check out my favorite artist’s work, Hilary Eddy; she paints very large acrylic paintings in vibrant, clear colors of my two favorite subjects, flowers and glass. Then we went on up to Fort Bragg and had lunch at Captain Flints on the wharf. Larry had a big bowl of Clam Chowder and I had the Fish n Chips, all very yummy. Then we walked around on Glass Beach and then we headed back home.

We hit the grocery store on the way home and now we are enjoying the lovely warm evening.

That’s Andrea’s new man, Will with her and Larry today at the beach and I caught this pic of him a couple days ago. The flower is an Iris and the rest are at Glass Beach in Fort Bragg.

Truck repairs and playing 5-23-07

Here are pictures of who we have been hanging with and what we have been doing. The first picture is of Larry drilling a whole into Andrea’s new car for her radio. When he finished he said he didn’t find it as much fun to do as he used to…!

The weather has been nice and we have been taking our daily walks around Ukiah and then every other day or so hanging with our boy Ian. He has spent the night again and has hung with us a couple days after pre-school. We were going to head out tomorrow, but we have decided to stay here in Ukiah another week.

Our truck went into the shop on Monday and we get it back today. It was making a weird noise first thing in the morning in the front wheels and then you didn’t hear it much the rest of the day and you never felt it. Turns out the hubs were loose so all that was getting replaced and while it was there we wanted to get the leaf-springs fixed again. The little spacer-thingies keep coming out AND our side view mirrors are being replaced; they don’t always go in and out like they are supposed to and the mirror on the drivers side vibrates really badly. Larry wants to hang around another week to be sure all the work was done properly while we are near the shop that did the work.
When we leave here we will be heading up to Oregon to hangout near Michelle’s family

More Mendocino Flowers 5-16-07

Here are more pictures of Mendocino flowers. Also this muscled Spider Man was sitting beside me in the car the other day!

Today is a busy day for us. Larry is tearing apart Andrea’s new car and installing her ham radio and antenna. I am getting a hair cut. Last week Andrea bought an ’06 Ford Fusion, V6, light metallic green in color, it is very pretty and a comfortable car.

It is another lovely sunny day here in Ukiah.

Meandering in Mendocino 5-15-07

Time is flying by and I’m not writing a darn thing. We’ve been busy doing our regular stuff and visiting. We went to Martinez on Saturday with Andrea and Will and spent the afternoon with our friends Lou and Vickie. There just isn’t enough time in a day to see everyone we want to see. No RV parks in the area make it impossible for us to hang there for a few days and see everyone at our leisure. The two hour drive each direction and price of fuel makes it even more of a challenge for multiple visits…woe is me.

On Sunday we hung out at Andrea’s and played with Ian and then we all went out for a nice dinner together.

Yesterday we drove to Mendocino. It is such a beautiful drive this time of year. The hills are still mostly green and flowers are in bloom everywhere. The oak trees leaves are freshly minted and not all tired and dry looking like they can be by the end of a long hot dry summer. Then you go through the cool primeval Redwood Forest and I didn’t get any great pictures there, mostly because we didn’t stop. We popped out on the coast just as the last of the fog was burning away.

It was a quiet, peaceful day in Mendocino…not much traffic, nor a crush of people. Many times I would be in the shops by myself and we kept commenting on how quiet it was when we were outside. For the first time we timed catching the flower gardens in full bloom. I found a couple of treasures in a couple of my favorite shops and then the wind started blowing the fog in…time to go.

We got back into Ukiah where it was hot and got some groceries and headed home. Larry went to the ball field to watch his brother and nephew play softball. Andrea and Ian were there too, I had stayed home battling my sinuses with steam and tea and drowsing through my non-drowsy medication.

Oh, needless to say I didn’t have jury duty. My day was yesterday and when I called the night before I was told I wasn’t needed…wahoo! Until the next time….

More flowers of Mendocino tomorrow, I had sooo many great ones I decided to save some for later.

Catching up in Ukiah 5-9-07

People have asked about our internet satellite setup...here's a picture of it.

Sunday we spent the day with Andrea and Ian and Andrea’s new man, Will. We enjoyed getting to know him. We all played basketball together with Ian for awhile and then we had a lovely barbeque.

Monday we took a lovely walk enjoying all the gorgeous rose gardens. Larry washed the trailer and I did a bunch of something that I can’t remember now.

Tuesday, yesterday we left first thing and headed for Concord to my Aunt Gretchen and Uncle Dan’s place. I hadn’t been there in 16 or so years…amazing. My miracle cousin, Darcy, had just arrived a week ago. She has decided to move back to California to be closer to her kids and is staying with her parents for the short time it will take her to get her bearings. Debbie came over for awhile too, it was good to see them all together. We had a lovely lunch and we caught up with what Darcy had been doing since we last saw her in Texas. She continues her internal healing, and outwardly she is gorgeous! Her short hair suits her “Tornadic” personality better. She reminds me of a tall, impish elf!

Today we started out with another great walk. Larry had a project to finish and he was gone most of the afternoon doing his thing and then visiting with his brother Brett and wife Deeanne. I cleaned and did a bunch of computer work and continued my way through another thought provoking book. It has been in the mid 80’s to low 90’s the last several days.

These pictures are a rose in Andrea’s yard, my Aunt Gretchen and Darcy, my Uncle Dan and a shot of my Aunt’s beautifully decorated “parlor”. She has such a good decorating eye.

More Photos 5-5-07

Shocking I know! Three posts in one day! This one is of photos I took today of Ian being a typical boy and some more flowers. Larry got this photo of me at the playground looking like I don't know what! Gotta do something while the cars are roaring around and around the track behind us and posting more pictures seems to be it tonight!

Happy 46th Anniversary! 5-6-07

Happy Anniversary Auntie Bonnie and Uncle Gene!!!!

46 wild and crazy years!

We love you!

Spring in Ukiah 5-5-07

We had a lovely drive out of Genessee on Thursday. We left Vickie’s at 9:30 and stopped in Taylorsville to dump the tanks, which took about 15 minutes. We took 89 south out of Taylorsville to Highway 70 down the Feather River Canyon to Oroville. We didn’t hit Oroville until 12:30! If you have never been on that road it is so beautiful and never more so than in the Spring and the Fall. We kept stopping so I could take pictures; I ended up taking a couple hundred.

There are so many different shades of green with all the oaks and many other deciduous trees and bushes leafing out. Near the beginning there were the Dogwoods, they are such stunning white beacons amongst the shadows and greens of the forest, they are like spotlights. There were Lupines and Poppies and lots of this peachy flower I had never seen before. The rocky hills and river banks were covered with them; we saw wild lilac and this other white teardrop flowered shrub everywhere too. I was in flower heaven the whole day. The river was beautiful as always, I love all the rocks. There are interesting steel bridges and 3 tunnels to go through. A lot of people like to watch the trains traverse this canyon. Larry’s least favorite is going under/through this power plant. As you start down out of the mountains you get stunning views of the valley (to hazy for pictures) and then you go over an arm of Lake Oroville.

We hit 99 south until we picked up 20 west out of Marysville. Yuba City is growing on the west side, new housing and shopping. We fueled up in Williams and entertained the idea of a Big Mac, but a bus was just unloading a bunch of students so we kept on going. Highway 20 west of I-5 was getting brown already. The oaks were leafed out, but not much in the way of wildflowers. The flowers in people’s yards as we went through the various towns on the north side of Clear Lake were happy and colorful. We stopped along the way and made some lunch, but we didn’t want to dawdle, it was cloudy and we could see that we were heading into rain.

By the time we got to the Ukiah Fairgrounds it was 4:30 and we had traveled 238 miles and it was raining, but as rains went it was a soft rain and it wasn’t very cold. We got ourselves situated and then headed down to Andrea’s. There isn’t anything more special than hearing a little voice holler as he runs for the door, “Grandma, Grandpa!” Ian threw open the door and gave us both big hugs…aahhhh.

So we hung out there for an hour and met Andrea’s new man Will. They seem very happy together and Ian loves him too, always a plus.

Yesterday, Friday, we did shopping after our walk. We noticed right away that there has been an attitude adjustment in this town concerning pedestrians. In the past we just felt like targets…it didn’t matter if we were in a crosswalk or not, you had to run for your life. This time we noticed signs in the crosswalks through the town center reminding drivers of the law. We actually had people stop and give us the right of way! Andrea told us the police had cracked down and had plainclothes officers lurking around and ticketing drivers, so the message was received! This is a town where people walk a lot and it doesn’t bode well for tourism if we always feel like we were putting our lives on the line just by taking a walk, kudos to Ukiah for doing something about the problem.

Last night we had a short, little, guest for dinner and overnight. We had a great time! Ian has a nice sense of humor and has nice manners and we thoroughly enjoyed having him. Being a typical four year old he was watching cartoons this morning and during every commercial we got to hear about how he wants this, he wants that and we heard “why” every time we told why he didn’t need everything he saw. So I finally told him to get a job and he could buy whatever he wanted…it stopped him in his tracks and he turned and said “Graaannddmaaaa”. It was pretty funny. Larry and Ian took a walk and then after breakfast we loaded him and his paraphernalia up in the truck and we went to the park.

The park has new, large, fun playground equipment so Ian ran off quite a bit of energy there, while we soaked up the sun. So many yards are full of stunning flowers right now! I finally realized why all the flowers are standing out for me this year…last year we were in New Mexico and the May in ’05 we were at Goose Lake where we got snowed on and had flooding rains so it has been a couple years since I have been anywhere for the full Spring show!

Tonight at the Ukiah Fairgrounds are the car races, bye-bye peace and quiet!!! What a change from where we were a few nights ago! Life is Great!