Hill-topping with Larry 10-27-07

Boy is time getting away from me! I couldn’t believe how many days have gone by since I last blogged.

Last weekend after a lovely rain storm we went over to Ukiah for our Nephew’s wedding reception. We had a great time and I didn’t take a single picture. Kinda weird for me, but I just didn’t feel like taking pictures. It was good to see Larry’s Brother and his family, Larry’s Mom, our Brother-in-law and Nephews and their girlfriends. We saw a few people we hadn’t seen since High School which was strange because they were hardly recognizable. We spent the night at Andrea’s and then headed out the next morning for “home” back in Quincy.

Every day this week Larry went to two different hilltops doing repeater maintenance. I went with him on Tuesday and it was a stunning Indian Summer Autumn day. Not a breath of wind, sunny and warm. Most hilltops are windy so it was a rare day, I was glad I went.

The truck Larry has been using is the fire departments seldom used 1970 Ford 4x4 with a utility body. The thing only has a little over 12,000 original miles on it. It certainly took me back 30 years. When Larry and I were dating he had bought a 1972 Ford pickup, but his was an automatic and we had it quite awhile. The wide bench seat and the simple dash, the high beam light switch on the floor (which I still miss) and that lovely faint aroma of gasoline and oil that old trucks seem to hold. Not an electric switch to be had to move anything…which I am glad we have today. What a ride!

The first hilltop’s road wasn’t too bad, but the second’s was sooo rocky and rough we had to go really, really slow so we wouldn’t toss all Larry’s equipment on the floor or rattle ourselves and the truck apart! One hour to go five miles and I totally get why Larry doesn’t like to drive dirt roads anymore! Oh, I forgot to mention that the truck did NOT have power steering which made for more work for driver Larry. This is just a small example of the road we were on.

Now I know some of you have just been dieing to know what a radio site looks like so here you go. The first site we went to was small and quiet, one building, solar panels, tower and great views.

The second site had lots more buildings, towers and equipment and was noisy with the hum of air conditioner motors which are needed to keep the radio equipment from over heating, the repeaters generate a LOT of heat. The lightning bolt is pointing to Larry up there checking out an antenna. This tower is pretty short as towers go, he’s climbed some so tall that he would wear a safety belt, lucky him…not me!

The rest of the pictures are of the great views to be had from mountain tops.

Yesterday I went to another site with Larry that is between two lakes and we had to climb to get to it, but it wasn’t on top of a mountain and we didn’t have to take to a dirt road. This little lake was very serene and peaceful.

As we aren’t doing anything much that seems worth sharing it may be another week before you hear from me. The last picture is a close up of lichens on a rock, pretty color and textures.

Keys, Flowers & Rainbows 10-19-07

Every day Larry has gone off and done whatever it is he does…fixing radios and repeaters. He has about a dozen hilltops he wants to get to before snow shuts him out to do maintenance. Look at this pile of keys!!! Hmmmm, if I can get rid of those I can pick up some more rocks…tee hee. Larry left all these hilltops in really great shape when he closed his business and left, but sadly the agencies responsible for the equipment hasn’t found anyone to replace Larry. Well, let me clarify that, there are people/techs who would love to charge tons of money but don’t know what they are doing. Is Larry the only radio tech out there that actually went to school for electronics and radio repair?

I had a wonderful massage on Tuesday and that is about it for me this week.

Yesterday we had a guest for dinner and I bought a small bunch each of Mums and Alstromeria for the table. Didn’t they turn out lovely? The bright green of the Alstromeria leaves set the flowers off nicely. We had a wonderful visit with our friend Vickie Robbennolt. She is the one we visit out in Genessee Valley. She is also the first person I ever gave a massage when I became a Massage Therapist and amazingly that was 12 years ago...she was one of my best customers at my Gift Store, remained my client and became a Great Friend!

Yesterday after Larry returned home he was telling us how gorgeous the fall colors were as he came down the mountain. So this morning we headed up to see but there is a storm coming in and the sun kept going behind the clouds dulling all the colors. I was able to get some pictures of this happy rainbow.

Tomorrow we drive to Ukiah for our Nephew’s wedding reception. Ian and Andrea and Will get to see us again so soon…

Back in Quincy 10-14-07

We had a lovely overnighter with Ian. It rained most of the day so we played inside. He was asleep by 8 pm, which was unfortunate because he was awake at 6:15 the next morning. I heard “Gramma I wanna watch cartoons”, I pointed out it was still dark, but that wasn’t a problem for him…jeez. Later after Ian left we got all our shopping done at Walmart and Safeway.

This morning we hit the road at 8:45 and Will made points by dropping off a Venti Vanilla Decaf Latte on his way to work. It was foggy and in the 40’s when we left. I decided to drive. There wasn’t too much traffic and there are enough pull outs and passing lanes that if I annoyed people behind me they could pass…eventually. I’ve driven on the freeway, but it takes a bit to get comfortable with curvy roads. So I drove from the beginning of Blue Lake to about 10 miles west of Williams where we stopped for toast. I did fine and I kept my tail end on my side of the lines. I skunked us by driving over a dead skunk, I didn’t want to try swerving while I was getting the feel of pulling the trailer. I didn’t fall below the speed limit more than a few times AND I even pulled into and out of the gas station without crashing into anything.

It was a beautiful day, lots of sunshine and no wind. The colors of the trees were so pretty. These first pictures were taken east of Ukiah before I took the wheel. The bridges and tunnels are on highway 70 west of Quincy. Before we hit the Y west of Quincy we watched a bowling ball sized rock drop through the air from the hillside along the oncoming lane, I think we probably both thought a potty word (O.K., just I thought the potty word, Larry was just trying to figure out how to miss it) because we figured it was going to hit us, but Larry watched from his side view mirror as it landed and skidded to a stop just behind our trailer tires. It would have been ugly if it had hit us. I’m surprised they haven’t caged up that hillside like they have successfully done in other states, because rocks and the hillside falling through that area are common. The picture that looks like a wall of rock has a tunnel in it that we go through and the second picture shows the tunnel closer and another tunnel beyond that.

We landed at the Pioneer RV Park in Quincy at 2:30. Larry didn’t think we would get a satellite signal at the site they gave us, so he worked on that first and after trying the dish in about 4 different places we moved to another site. He was doubtful there, but found a spot where there weren’t trees in the way so we got set up. We think we’ll be here for a month unless Larry finishes what he’s here to do sooner. The fall colors up here are always gorgeous so you’ll probably get to see lots of pictures while we are out and about.

Caught up in Ukiah 10-12-07

Wow, can’t believe a week has gone by since I’ve posted an entry.

On Sunday the 7th we left Coarsegold, pulled out early for us, 7:40, but as we didn’t get up until after 7, not bad! Larry had us all disconnected and hooked up to the truck the night before. We knew it would be a long haul and we didn’t want to arrive in Ukiah late. We had a nice travel day, beautiful weather. We took highway 99 up to Stockton then cut over to I-5 on highway 4. North on 5 until Williams where we took 20 west to highway 101 and then south to Ukiah.

We are continually amazed by how wildlife manages to survive city life. We saw a very big coyote in a field next to Sacramento’s Arco Arena. The leaves are turning so the drive was very colorful. We traveled 327 miles and got into Ukiah at 2:30. We got all settled in and kicked back for a bit and then went down to Andrea’s for dinner. They are all doing great, focused on planning the wedding of course.

On Monday we did the storage thing…take things out, put things back, rearrange, but the weather was stunning. On Tuesday the weather was grey and rainy and has been like that mostly ever since.

Wednesday Larry went down to the Bay Area to help a friend with some repeater work. I had the whole place to myself! The thing I noticed most after Larry got home that evening was the motion of the trailer from him moving around. We are used to our house moving but going all day without it, I really noticed it for an hour or so!

Yesterday I hit the sales at Mervyns and JCPenney. Came home with some good loot. We had dinner at a place here in town with Andrea, Will and Ian, and met Will’s parents Ron and Sandy for the first time. Nice people and we had a lovely time.

So now I am caught up. Last night and today it is raining. I had my hair cut this morning and in a few minutes we are going to pick Ian up from preschool and he is spending the day and night with us here. We leave here on Sunday for Quincy.

Plans 10-5-07

We have just been doing our usual the last several days. I can’t think anyone wants a run down of when we eat our meals, what we eat, what we are reading, when we take a walk, etc. Pictures of all that would be worse!

We went into Fresno on Wednesday to see their Underground Gardens, but they were closed (so much for recorded messages of schedules). We stopped at a different Walmart and drove around for food and to find Von’s, so we saw quite a lot of the city and we were very surprised. Fresno just seems to be one of those cities that no one goes to unless you are visiting someone or your corporation sends you there for a meeting because it is kind of the half way point between Southern California and Northern California. It was clean, had nice wide boulevards and was easy to navigate. All the people we ran into were friendly and helpful, it was a refreshing experience!

These first two pictures are how Candy Corn grows in the Midwest and the Southwest…I figured a lot of you didn’t know this.

We leave here on Sunday and head up to Ukiah for a week. Larry needs to get some test equipment and tools out of storage and I want to swap out my summer clothes for my winter clothes. I guess we’ll get a few visits in with the kids too…smile.

Then we head for Quincy, Ca. We plan on staying there for a month. Larry is doing some work there for a friend and I’ll have time to get started on a project I have put off. Then it will be back to Ukiah for the Thanksgiving holiday and then up to Albany, Oregon for the Christmas holidays with Michelle. We will be there until after New Years and then we don’t have any plans. We will head south but where that will be we don’t know yet. We think we’ll just roam around, but who knows. It has been our experience that all of the above could change in a heartbeat.

April will have us back in Ukiah for Andrea’s wedding and then mid May we want to be in Oregon for the spring bloom of azaleas and iris’s. There are two huge iris growers up near Salem, Oregon and we keep catching the end of the bloom season. So now you know as much as we do…scary.

These last pictures are of a couple of different sunsets here through the Oak trees. Today is cold and cloudy but will be back up in the 80’s next week…sorry we’ll miss it.

P.S. the candycorn pictures were taken at Disney California Adventure