The Big Day

This was the day I had come for...and it did last longer than 2 minutes. But first there was the day to fill.  Joe and Alice went off to work and I was going to run some errands in town.  First I took a shower and realized that I had forgotten to pack shirts.  I remember now that I was in the middle of deciding which tops to take, after having packed Bri's favorite of my t-shirts when I was interrupted.  After that I just threw in some socks and closed the suitcase and left.

On the ride down, you may remember, I bought cherries.  Nice, juicy cherries, and so the shirt I was wearing was spotted with cherry juice so before I did anything, I decided to do a small load of wash, so I could at least trade off the two shirts that I have.

When laundry was done, I drove over to Tom and Laurel's to drop off a card in their mail box, something I meant to mail a week ago.

Then I went down to Sambo's Restaurant on the beach in Santa Barbara.  I may have told this story before, but you know that the chain of Sambo's was based on the book about "little black Sambo" and I think the franchise went out of business during the Civil Rights era.  Only in the original book, Little Sambo is Indian, not African, and the restaurant here was the original one, so it survived the Sambo franchise purge and still exists today.

I like it because it has great crab eggs benedict and the wall decorations tell the story of the little boy and the tigers who turned into butter for his pancakes.

After my late lunch, I went looking for somewhere to get flowers for Brianna.  Are florists a thing of the past?  I didn't find anything at all in either Santa Barbara or neighboring Goleta (where Alice and Joe live), so I ended up at Von's supermarket, where the girl in the flower section had apparently never heard of a "small bouquet" and tried to sell me a Sponge Bob balloon instead.  I did find something resembling a small bouquet and bought it.

At 5:30, I went to Tom and Laurel's.  Bri seemed happy to be getting flowers of her own (Laurel had received flowers at an event the previous night).  Lacie was very cute getting ready to go to the show.

Brianna wore one of the Minnie Mouse bows that Ashley made for her in her hair.

Aunt Jeri arrived, exhausted after spending all day in transit, just before we left for Bri's school.  She had flown into Burbank and then took the train up to Santa Barbara and was picked up by Joe and Alice on their way to a concert at a local casino!

There were lots of parents and grandparents at the recital.

Fans of Lost may recognize this Dad who was there watching his child perform, taking video with his iPhone like the rest of us.  His hair has changed, but the smile is unmistakable!

They divided the dancers into two groups and each group did four dances and then, at the end of the show, each dancer got two minutes to do whatever he or she wanted to do, after which they took a bow and were presented with a beautiful red rose.

Brianna looked like she was having such a good time.  Most of the time she was covered by Reese, the little girl in the black dress, which made taking pictures challenging, but I did get a few good shots.

When it was all over there were nice healthy snacks set out for the kids in the school area.

Jeri and I went back to Tom and Laurel's and I read Bri a story called "F Words."  I told Tom I knew a few F words that probably weren't in the book!

We left when the girls went to bed and we stopped at a local sushi place to get something to bring home to eat, since the restaurants were closing.  I left about 3/4 of my dinner in the fridge to have later, as I just wasn't hungry.

Yes, it was worth the 7-8 hour drive to be here to see the show.  Really a fun day.  Tomorrow I'm taking my little girl to the zoo while Bri is at school, then we are going to join them for "family movie night."

Shake Down Cruise

So I took the car on a little 400 mile shake down cruise today.  Tomorrow night, Brianna is in her first dance recital and I had to be here to see it, though I don't expect it to last more than 2 minutes.  We were originally both going to go, but both of our dog sitters are out of town, and fearing that a kennel experience would kill Polly (or set her back 3 years!), Walt generously agreed to stay home and dog sit while I come down to watch the show (and take pictures).

When we first planned this, we were going to rent a car for me.  We had no idea we would have a brand new car when the time came.  I really felt guilty that not only was Walt going to be missing the show, but here we have this fantastic new car and he can't even drive it for several days!

But I had fun (she says, trying really hard to stay feeling guilty!)

The first part of the trip was back to the Honda dealership.  We had forgotten to take our FastPass off of the front window and called to make sure they had it (they did).  Then I had to drive back home again because I had left my Kindle behind (and I'm halfway through Dan Brown's new book, so I didn't want to go off without it!)

But finally I was on the road and getting a chance to test out all the goodies.  I kept accidentally hitting the "speak" button and actually called Walt by accident once.  Must learn how to hold the steering wheel!

I even tried the cruise control...and I never use cruise control.

Things went fine all the way to San Jose, where I got lost.  Somehow I ended up heading back to San Francisco.  Walt had not put all the maps back in the car, but I had the GPS in the trunk, so I got that out and set up to get me turned around in the right direction!  It was kind of crucial because I had planned to stop at the next McDonald's to use the facilities and I was getting desperate.  Nigel, our GPS voice, got me there all right and then I gave him the rest of the trip off.

I stopped at my favorite cherry stand in Gilroy to pick up some cherries to munch on.  So sweet and juicy!

I didn't stop for lunch because I was full of cherries, but around 3 I was really having a hard time staying awake (I had been up since 3 a.m.).  I found a spot where I could pull over and thought I might take a little nap, but found the front seat is not comfortable for that, so  ended up switching from my audio book to some songs I could sing along with and that helped.

We normally stop in Pismo Beach, south of San Luis Obispo for gas, but when I reached Pismo, I still had 1/4 tank left so I decided to see how far I could get on one tank of gas.

Turns out it was all the way.  I will have to get gas tomorrow, but it made it all the way to Santa Barbara on the tank of gas they filled the car with at the Honda dealership.

As I pulled up to the house, I was praying Alice Nan had left a key for me because I desperately needed a bathroom.  Fortunately, she had and my first stop in the house was the restroom, and the second was their newly remodeled kitchen, to take pictures to send to Walt. It's beoootiful!

A quiet evening at home.  Some errands to run tomorrow, but it should be a fairy quiet day too, since everyone will be at work and it will be just me and my new car on the town in Santa Barbara!  At least until night comes, when Jeri arrives and Brianna dances.

Jack Bauer Lives

Dan Brown's newest book, "Inferno" came out today.   The only reason I know that (other than the interview on The Today Show this morning) was that when it was announced back in February, I pre-ordered it on Amazon and my first e-mail this morning was to tell me that Amazon had charged my credit card and delivered the book to my Kindle.

The timing was right.  I had just finished reading "A Little Princess," "Cannery Row" and "Along the Way," the book by Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez about the making of the film, The Way.  I was ready for a nice meaty blood and gore book.  I had read a short mystery at Logos last week, but it was light weight, not on a par with the likes of Michael Connely, David Baldacci or Dan Brown.  I packed up the book to take with me to Supercuts.

I was months overdue for a haircut and I usually have to wait some time for an available cutter, so I figured I would jump into "Inferno" while I wait, but there were no customers before me, so I didn't have the opportunity. But I finally got all of my hair chopped off.

It was fun driving the new car around.  I even managed to (a) make a phone call using the voice activation feature, (b) store phone numbers in the speed dial, and even (c) get a photo uploaded to the screen of the dashboard.

In the afternoon, I worked at Logos and decided that though I feel it's cheating to read a Kindle in a book store, I really wanted to get into the new Dan Brown.  It's been slow at the store the last few weeks, possibly due to the changing seasons, students preparing for finals, or negative vibes in the air.  Whatever the reason, it was a good day to plunge back into the world of iconologist Robert Langdon.   I had only 6 customers who bought books the whole afternoon, and nobody noticed (or commented) on my reading a Kindle.

I'm not quite half through the book at this writing and I'm having a hard time knowing what to say about it.  Brown is one of those authors who hits you with the first sentence and draws you in instantly, and this book is no exception. No real spoilers here, but the book starts with Langdon in the hospital, barely comatose, with a bullet wound across his head, a splitting headache, attached to IVs, and with partial amnesia. He thinks he's at home, but doesn't know how he got to Florence, Italy. 

Within a couple of pages, killers are running through the hospital, hellbent on killing him, his doctor has gotten him out of bed, ripped the IV from his arm and dragged him down the hospital stairs and through the streets of Florence.  It was like watching an episode of 24, where hero Jack Bauer was not stopped by anything, not even cardiac arrest, after which in a matter of seconds following resuscitation by defibrillator, he is beating up all the bad guys to save the country.

The the Brown book, Langdon is running through streets, leaping tall buildings in a single bound, ills forgotten.  The first 30% of the book is about 95% chases, as both the good guys and the bad guys are out to get Langdon for reasons he doesn't understand because he still has partial amnesia.

I'm not sure how I'm feeing about this book, but seem to recall that once you get into the meat of a Dan Brown story you are hooked.  I'm a little tired of chases, but I am into the story and I hope that I can give it a better review when I finish it, which I should do soon (though I'll be taking the car on its shakedown cruise today, as I drive to Santa Barbara, so I don't know when that is going to be).

The afternoon at Logos was quiet, but during part of it, I was chatting with a nice girl who works one day a week, straightening up the books, dusting, and acting as greeter.  She's very sweet, but perhaps mild mental impairment and the last time I worked with her she smiled a lot but we never talked.  Today I asked her how long she'd been working at the store and she came to sit with me and we began chatting.  It turns out she is about to go to Spain with her mother and they are going to walk part of the Camino de Santiago.  Now, if I had not seen the recent Martin Sheen movie and read "Along the Way," I wouldn't know anything about it, but having both seen the movie and read the book I knew quite a bit about it and we had a very nice chat.

In the evening, I dove back into the Dan Brown book while watching the Dancing with the Stars results show.  I had great plans for the evening, including getting all packed for the drive to Santa Barbara today, but I'm discovering that at 70, my ability to stay awake and do all those things I planned to do late at night is grealy diminished.  I ended up unable to keep my eyes open and my body screaming for me to lie down and get some sleep (to say nothing of the dogs who insisted on it).   Instead, I went to sleep until 3:30 and then got up to write this and pack.

I'm feeling guilty that Walt is staying home to dog sit and that I get the fun of taking the new car for its shake down cruise, but I'm looking forward to Bri's dance show tomorrow night and will take lots of pictures for Grandpa to see.

Our Day in Lots of Pictures

If I had known how our day was going to go, I would have remembered the camera, but at least I had the cell phone camera. I thought we were just going to look at a few cars, with the idea in mind of what kind of car we wanted to buy.   Walt is the kind of guy who will shop in 3 different stores to get the best price on a used book, if possible, and then worry that he spent too much.

We had an appointment to meet a guy named Fred at the Honda dealership, where we got our present car 15 years ago, at 10 a.m. and we were a little early, so I settled in with a cup of coffee and Walt wandered around.

Eventually Fred came in and asked a couple of questions about what color car we were looking for and what model.  Walt said we had liked our Accord and he thought we'd like a light color rather than a darker color.  I added "Not champagne" since we've been driving a champagne car for 15 years and I was ready for a change.

He took us outside to show us a 2013 silver Honda Accord.

Walt was definitely intrigued, so we went back into Fred's office where he started taking down information.  This being Davis, when he found out I was a theater critic, he mentioned a friend of his who performs with a local theater group and asked if I knew him.  I knew his name. 

Walt liked the 2013 model because this year Honda has added the reverse camera, so common on the Prius and that was the main attraction of a new vs "previously owned" car.  Eventually, after they offered us a $375 trade-in on our old car (the one with the "tired motor" and nearly 300,000 miles) and we closed the deal and when I posted this picture to Facebook, I heard from two people, both of whom knew Fred and said he was a nice guy -- we hadn't even signed the contract yet.

Next we met with Natalie, who is very cute, mother of 4, and such a good salesperson she sold us the "platinum" package of coverage.  She was unimpressed with our mere 300,000 miles and told us about a customer whose car went over a million miles (he was given a watch and a letter of congratulations by Honda).

We signed lots and lots of papers.

...including one which was very, very long.

Eventually, with handshakes all around and a nice fat debt in our pocket, we met Fred in the car again and he gave us a lesson on all the goodies.

It all looked very exciting.

Then we transferred everything from the old car to the new car..

 
And in a mere 3 hours, we were back on the road, very much less rich for the experience, but a lovely new car that, when I tried all the fun things Fred showed us, I realized I needed a PhD in order to figure out.  My new hobby--learning how to turn on the radio in my new car.

We went out to lunch when it was all over, to celebrate (because we probably won't afford to eat out for about 8 years now!). We chose a window seat so we could keep an eye on our new baby.

A Lovely Mother's Day

The only way Mothers Day could have been better would have been for Paul and Dave to have been with us, for the Boston and Santa Barbara families to have been in No. California, and for Walt's mother to have come too.

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, it was perfect.

We left to rent a car right after Walt got home from Mass.  We don't trust our car to drive distances any more (we have an appointment to look at new/used cars tomorrow), so we rent cars rather than having the expense of a second car on those rare occasions when one car isn't enough.

We left for my mother's later than I would have liked, but we couldn't have gone any sooner, given that the car rental place didn't open until 10 and there was already a line of customers when we got there.

Traffic was sluggish in spots and we didn't get to Terra Linda until 12:30, but Ned was still cooking French toast when we arrived.  My cousin Donna and her husband were there visiting, but not staying for brunch.  My mother gave her one of her violet plants.  She may have memory problems, but she still can make a dead stick bloom, I swear.  Her two violet plants are positively luxurious.

After Donna and Fred left, we sat down to brunch.  Ned had made a great spread for the five of us, which we had with mimosas.

We talked a lot about moving, and about hiring professional movers vs. carrying things ourselves (fortunately, my mother laid down the law:  we will hire movers.  She doesn't want anybody carrying stuff for her.  Yay!)

After brunch, my mother told Ned to just leave the dishes and she would do them later.  He knows how to work her so well.  He said that yes, of course, he would leave them for her to do, all the while he was washing them and putting them away.   By the time we left there were NO dishes to wash and only five mimosa glasses to put away.  I think my mother was grateful, but of course she wouldn't admit it!

Ned said he would take all of her electronic gear, which included a cassette player, a turntable, and speakers and maybe some other stuff.  Everything was in her big entertainment center, which sits caty-corner on two walls, and which is huge.  All the cords to all the stuff Ned was taking were plugged in behind the entertainment center and so, being Ned, he did the logical thing.

He climbed over the top and got everything unplugged.

I took advantage of his needing space on top of the center to remove all of the framed photos that were there and packed them up in a bag. (Those are some of the "all that crap" things that she has been worrying about.) Tomorrow I'll run over to Covell Gardens and set them up on her built-in bookcase, and also put up the rest of the magnets on her fridge.

By the time Ned and Marta left, and I had packed up things to take with me, the house was starting to have the look of a place that was being dismantled.   A little.

Walt went around the house and measured everything that we are moving and has a list with dimensions all recorded.  That will help as we go to the apartment and see if things are going to fit.

Then we sent Walt out to get tonic, because my mother was out of tonic.  We weren't going to be having a vodka tonic, but she would have one if there was tonic.  While we waited for him to return, my mother glanced at her knick nack shelf and, for a bazillionth time said "Look at all that stuff.   Who is going to take that?"  It was a straw that broke the camel's back moment for me.  I didn't get angry, but I got up and packed up every single geegaw and put it in a bag and brought it home with me.  Actually, "all that stuff" is now on my etageres and I don't know who is going to take it all when I get to be 93, but I have 23 years to worry about it.

We heard again about the $500 solid oak table and who we can find to take it (because it cost $500, you know, and it's solid oak! remember!), and she asked many times who was going to take the dishes and I kept telling her that Tom and Laurel were taking them.  She won't remember by now, I know, but if she happens to glance at the door to the dish cabinet she will see it is labeled with Tom's name.   She said Tom had better get his butt up here and take all the stuff because it would be easier to take now than when all the confusion started.  I just ignored that.

Now she has decided that she doesn't really have to worry about "all this stuff" now because after she moves, she can drive down every day to sort it out.  I didn't tell her that she won't have a car and that even if she had a car, there is no way I will let her drive 140 miles in a day on the freeway!   We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.  Her memory right now is so bad that I'm hoping that once she gets in a nice, new, uncluttered apartment, she will forget all about "all that stuff" that she left behind and we can just run it over to the Hospice of Marin thrift store, where she worked for so many years, and give it all to them.

By the end of Mother's Day weekend, I had spent this lovely day with Ned and Marta and my mother, and had spoken to both Tom and Jeri on the phone.  Walt and I had vodka tonics here at home and watched the Survivor finale (if you are a Survivor fan, I highly recommend that you check Wikipedia for Caramoan Islands and scroll down to the section of Survivor.  Quite an eye-opener!), I cooked dinner and then cleaned the kitchen.  I am now writing this and will post it and then watch some of the other programs that were recorded earlier this evening.

As I said, it was really a lovely, low key Mother's Day.

Sunday Stealing

My Compassion friend Michelle, who writes Blogging from the Boonies does something like this all the time, but Sunday Stealing credits it to a blogger named Danielle, from her blog Sometimes Sweet. Danielle doesn't say where she got it originally--but it was probably stolen from somewhere cool.  Tracing back the thefts of those that we steal from could take a while. So, of course, that will be as far as we go. Link back to us at Sunday Stealing!

 

Thinking about:
I'm thinking about tomorrow, Mother's Day.  Ned is making brunch for us at my mother's house, probably our last formal family meal there.  We have to rent a car to get there, but we also have an appointment with a car dealer on Monday, so a new car may be in our future sooner than I expected

Feeling:
Actually, I am feeling two things at the moment:  full and sleepy.  I made chili for dinner and only ate one bowl, but it was filling.  I always feel sleepy at this time of night, that post-prandial sleepiness which will probably go away as I write this.

Reading:
In Audio, I am re-reading "Outlander," Book 1 of the Diana Gabaldon series.   So much is foreshadowed in this book, which I probably first read about 20 years ago, that I'm glad I've decided to re-read it, with the knowledge of what is to come. 
 
As far as "real books," I have two that I am vacillating between.   When I am ready for something a bit more serious, I'm reading a book called "The History of the World in 6 Glasses," which tells how mankind's history has been shaped by the discovery or creation of: beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and Coca Cola.  Fascinating read.

But when I want something lighter in the blood and gore vein, I'm reading James Patterson's "The 8th Confession," part of the Women's Murder Club.  Just started it, so don't know if this is one of Patterson's better ones or if this is going to be one of the books that I toss aside in disgust (Patterson runs hot and cold with me!)

Listening to:
I always have the TV on in the background for "white noise," and right now I'm listening to an old episode of Monk...and Polly whining because she wants me to come and sit with her in the recliner, and I'm not ready!

Wondering:
How history is going to remember this part of our country's life, whether the Republicans are going to be whitewashed or not.  How they are going to explain the calls for impeachment of Obama, the refusal to work with the democrats, and everything else that is frustrating me about this country right now.  Oh to have the benefit of time distance.  I need to find me a craig in Scotland and see if I can try some time traveling.

Looking forward to:
My upcoming trip to Santa Barbara to watch Brianna's dance recital.  I'm sorry Walt can't make it, but it would cost a fortune to put all three dogs in a kennel...and it might just kill Polly, who is now all settled, more or less, into this family, but if she were to be put in a strange scary place with strangers taking care of her, it might set her back years.  So I'll go alone, and come back with Jeri.

Missing:
It's "death season."  I am missing David and Paul.  Seems impossible to believe it has been 17 and 14 years, respectively.

Watching:
Well, I may be listening to Monk, but occasionally I glance to my left and check out what is going on.

Eating:
Nothing. The chili was very good, and served with a tortilla.  I may have a yogurt before I go to bed, but right now the thought of food is not a pleasant one.

Making me happy:
My kids.  Ned is making brunch tomorrow, and this morning a delivery guy showed up at the door with some beautiful flowers from Jeri & Phil, and then about an hour later, an FTD delivery guy showed up at the door with some beautiful flowers from Bri and Lacie, in a personalized vase.

I am so lucky to have such loving and considerate children!

Changes Keep Coming

We've been dealing with "car issues" for the past week or so.  We have a 1995 Honda Accord that I love.  We bought it used (or "previously owned," as the euphemism is these days!) in 2000.  It had nearly 100,000 miles on it at the time, but we had been through two big mileage Toyotas that each made it over 200,000 miles and so the high mileage wasn't a concern for us.

And the Honda has suited us beautifully all these years.  It's comfy.  I love it (did I mention that before?)

But it has developed little quirks.  The light on the dashboard which shows how fast you are going hasn't worked in years.  In fact, I once got pulled over on the freeway one night because I was going too slow!  Who knew that you could go too slow on the freeway?  The only reason I didn't get a ticket was (a) I'm old, and (b) I was getting off at the next exit anyway.

It also has this annoying little quirk where when you are stopped somewhere, like waiting for a light to change, unless you have your foot FIRMLY on the brake, it begins to creep forward.  I always stop back far from the car in front of me because if I'm distracted by something outside, I might not notice that I am slowly about to hit the rear bumper of the other car.  At first it only did this when the air conditioner was running, but now it does it all the time.

And then the other day, the tape player broke.  In order to play my iPod Touch through the car speakers, I plug the iPod into a cord that goes to something that looks like a normal music cassette, I put that in the cassette slot and voila--out comes stuff from my iPod (see, the car is so old, it doesn't have a USB port for that sort of thing!).  I thought it was the cassette itself that was the problem, but I bought a new one and that didn't work either...the carrier just makes clicking sounds and does not move the cassette at all.

For the past couple of years, Walt has rented a car if we are traveling long distances, because he was trying to be gentle with the Honda.  He also likes trying out new models of cars, with an eye for what we might get when the time came.   I would still take the Honda to my mother's, but we always rented a car to go to Santa Barbara. Last week, I drove the Honda for all six of the trips I made to the Bay Area, but this week I had a rental car.

The coup de grace was when the "check engine" light came on.  Walt took it in to the Honda place and they kept it for a day, but couldn't find anything wrong with it, and the "check engine" light was no longer showing, so they sent it home.  But the next day it came on again, so it went back in the shop, where it has been for the past two days.

Tonight it came home.  Walt was reading over the report, which said that the engine was "tired."  I didn't even know that was a technical automotive term!  But yeah, it's tired and we have decided it's time to go car shopping.  If we can hold out two weeks, we will have my mother's Lexus (which has about 20 miles on it, I think, she drives it so seldom) to fill in until late summer when Jeri comes out to drive the Lexus back to Boston. That will give us time to find a good replacement car for the Honda.

We really have only three requirements for a new car -- for me, it has to have a way that I can still listen to Audio books while I drive, and it has to have reliable air conditioning.  Walt insists it has to have a trunk big enough to pack luggage for 4, since we need to put our luggage with Char and Mike's luggage when we go to the San Francisco airport to catch a plane to fly wherever in the world we are flying.

Somehow, with everything else that is going on, this isn't exactly the very best time to have to start thinking about buying a new car, but if we're going to do it soon, I suppose this is as good a time as ever.

So I guess a new or "previously owned" car is in our future (but I'll still be driving a rental to Santa Barbara and leaving Walt at home with either the "tired" Honda or a new car!)

When the car came back today, I quickly drove over to Covell Gardens to drop off the last of the forms needed and to pick up a key to the apartment, so I could go in and take some pictures so my mother could start thinking in terms of what goes where.

Naturally the first key they gave me didn't work and I had to call the handiman (whose name happens to be Paul...I probably won't be forgetting him soon!) to get me a key that works.

I entered the apartment with new eyes, now thinking of what goes where.  I had brought the fridge magnets from her house, and my camera which had the picture of the fridge door on it, and got the first batch of magnets set up in the proper configuration.

And I took this picture of her neighbors' patio area to give her an idea of how large hers is (they are identical).

I'll take the pix down to her on Sunday, when Ned is cooking the two of us brunch and we will talk about ... what else? ... moving!

PHOTO OF THE DAY

I have the best internet friends!  My friend Mary Z made these socks for me!
They are so comfortable!!