Late Saturday Night (Halloween)

So far the shots have not caused significant reactions…

I spent the day searching for wine for Thanksgiving… I found a couple of bottles… but now believe we need to spend a Sunday wine tasting along the Russian River to find other bottles… A Sunday which happens to be our 29th wedding anniversary.

We went to a party tonight… at the Saddle Rack… a country night club… owned by the President of our Rotary Club… (Hey, we got cool members) Superman and Cat Lady were particularly impressive as was the Monk and an so far unidentified Doctor from MASH…

As we arrive in the neighborhood kids are still out… most older and lacking costume… Not exactly what the holiday is about….

Great time, wonderful conversation, lots of friends… a pot-luck with good food.

Travel Planning

T and I were off to the airport early today, not for a flight, but to visit the Dr… We will be taking a cruise from Rio to Valparaiso in January, and in addition to a Brazilian Visa, we also needed to be vaccinated against Yellow fever… the clinic suggested Typhoid and Hep A for me, and Typhoid, Tetanus and Hep A booster for Tina… They gave us prescriptions in case of Cholera… They determined we were unlikely to be exposed to malaria, polio, and a whole butch of other nasty stuff… Several needle pricks later we had our little yellow international record of immunization cards declaring us sufficiently immune to be allowed to travel… The airport heath clinic is one of the few able to complete the required heath forms…

We have other travel requiring preparations as well…

We are going to Virginia for Thanksgiving… The daughter is there… One Niece and her family, one nephew and family (well, he isn’t, he is in Iraq, our daughter is living with his wife and children, serving as nanny while she attends the local collage…) An additional nephew is there, but not this Thanksgiving… We will see him in December at his wedding… there is a blog about the wedding dress… at Suzy’s Bridezilla blog, http://suzysbridezillablog.blogspot.com. Of course this means another trip… a road trip… and there is the cross country drive over New Years to deliver Steph’s car… more planning, more reservations…. I already have the flight back, on my beloved Virgin America… and a motel in Albuquerque on New Year’s eve…

So back to Thanksgiving… There is a song about Thanksgiving, or maybe its about the draft… I have been assigned responsibility for the wine at dinner… I am taking this seriously… I figure 6 bottles… I am carrying them on the plane, from California… 6 bottles… maybe two champagnes (yes, not from France so not really champagne) a couple of whites, one must be sweet(ish) so probably a Riesling, the other a chardonnay, and a couple of reds… I think I have those nailed… A pinot noir from Bearboat (Piper Sonoma’s still wine lable…) and Couzins by Elyse, a blend of Zinfandel and Rustivo… (I am not sure I consider this a blend… As I understand it, Zinfandel and Rustivo are the same grape, separated for the last 150 years or so, with differences accentuated by differences in wine making between Italy and California…) I have the Elyse, and the Riesling… (Snoqualmie Naked organic Columbia Valley Reisling) So far I haven’t found the Bearboat… so I may need to drive up to Healdsburg next weekend…

Road trip planning…

The Problem: Steph needs a car… For the time being, Steph is living in Maryland… I have a hard time buying a used car remotely. Eastern used cars have a reputation for rust… Californian cars don’t…. We like stick shifts… They can be hard to find… but probably easier here than there…

The Solution: buy a car in California and deliver it to the East (aka Maryland)… (there is one for sale at Google that looks good)

The Other Problem: Maryland is 3000 miles away…

The Other Solution: Make it a vacation, an adventure… a drive, over the New Years day weekend holiday, plus a couple of days… drive from California to Maryland…

The Plan: leave California Wednesday night, 5:00… Drive to Mojave (still California…) next day, to Albuquerque New Mexico… (New Years Eve, stay in the old Pheblo area of town… we are not party people but it is nice to be in a public place) next day, off to Oklahoma City… next day, Memphis Tennessee… (Beale Street, Blues clubs, and Graceland…) Next day, Nashville… (I want to see the Ryman Auditorium and shop at their gift shop…) from Nashville its Roanoke Virginia (or there about)… The next day (Tuesday) we are off to Dulles airport, near Washington DC…. I fly home, Steph continues to California, Maryland…

It’s a southern route… Old Route 66 much of the way… then across the Tennessee and up the Shenandoah Valley.

Let the planning begin

Bad dog, no cookie… and snow throwers in the land of no snow…

This weekend is night tours at Patterson House… one Victorian house, 80+ oil lamps, 0 electric lights… a fire in the fire place, a fire in the wood burning cook stove for baking cookies, for which we need cookie dough... as a result we have cookies, no butter and a bad dog… I had butter out over night to soften… early Friday I started to make the cookie dough… unwrap the butter, grab the white sugar… not enough.. time for a store run… while I while at the store our darling Emma ate the butter… all the butter… back to the store for more butter… cold butter, hard butter, which won’t cream with the sugar… chop it up, put it in a warm oven, beat it for a bit, back in the oven, repeat, repeat… finally get the cookie dough done and off to work just in time for the first tour… The cookies are pretty good…



On other thoughts… I like to get up early and read the Sunday paper… the Sears (formerly Sears Roebuck) caught my eye… Here in the land of little snow they have snow throwers on sale… three different models ranging from $599.99 (Save $130) to $799.99 (save $270) Clearly this is an national ad campaign… and those developing it in Chicago land have forgotten that a snow thrower is of little use in the land of no snow…

I am tempted to walk into my local store and try to buy one… Better yet, gather friend and make a short Michel Moore style film: Scene 1, couple sitting in living room reading Sunday paper, Him, “Wow, these are great prices on snow throwers… I think I will buy one”… Wife, (while picking oranges from tree in front yard) “OK honey, its good to be prepared (maybe she believes in Global warming…) Scene 2, at Sears, Husband (holding ad from paper), to clerk, “Can you explain the features of each of these snow throwers…” Clerk, with blank stare “Hun????)

In their defense, in the fine print at the bottom of the page the following can be found (under the heading “Sears In-stock promise on advertized items”) … items not normally available at your Sears store are excluded…”

Still you have to wonder about their one size fits all approach to advertizing… The flyer also includes warm coats better suited to the arctic than to the beach… and we are the beach… I guess I won’t be shopping at Sears this week

Trips… past and future

Last weekend I went to Carson City. It was the annual “V&T Symposium” held by the Nevada State Railroad Museum… two days of presentations on Nevada Railroad History, a reception, a banquet, and a shop talk on Sunday…

I drove over after work on Thursday… left at 5:00, I-580 to I-5 north to Stockton, then Hwy 4 across Stockton to Hwy 99 north… then either Waterloo Rd (Hwy 88) or Hwy 12 east until they meet in Lockford… Outside of Clements they split… I followed Hwy 88 across the Molkoleme River then up the Martell divide between Sutter Creek and Jackson… I headed down Hwy 49 to Jackson, past the Empire and Argonought mines, making Jackson about 7:00 as the light was failing.

At Jackson I head east on Hwy 88, past the Indian casino, past the towns of Pioneer, into the high country, beyond Hamm’s Station.

Traffic was light… the sky was clear… the stars were present. The blue tipped snow plow guides had been put out… a sign of the changing seasons… There was snow along the side of the road above 7,500 feet or so.

My biggest fear was hitting a deer in the darkness. Despite the fear the trip was without incident…

Into Carson about 9:00… a friend was checking in as I did… we went to dinner down the street…

We had two days of papers, subjects ranging from the Lighting Express to the location of a 1873 railroad, to the 1939 City of San Francisco accident…

The highpoint of the weekend was the shop talk, by restoration manager Chris DeWitt, in the shop with the McKeen car… this 1910 self propelled gasoline rail car had been reduced to a café-dinner in 1946… followed by use as a disco, then a plumbing shop…

With the end of the plumbing business, Al, the owner chose to save the McKeen (and a second Berkeley built Hall Scott car, also part of the building) to the museum with some support to have it restored as a railroad car.

The car its self is Jules Verne’s dream, sharp pointed front, rounded rear, port hole windows… rivets, lots of rivets… and thanks to lots of work it lives… They tested it on Thursday… we were allowed to inspect it Sunday, but it didn’t run…

The run home was fast… and beautiful… the trees were turning in the Carson River canyon… Maples, Aspen and willow in bright yellow… Higher up the Aspen were past their peak… on the west side the trees hadn’t peaked yet…

I could have stopped and taken pictures… but I didn’t… I am torn… taking pictures says “I was here…” but would my photos be better than a post card… I wasn’t sure… and didn’t see “THE picture…” Sometimes you need to be satisfied with just having seen… without the proof of the 5”x7” photo…

So today, I went to the Brazilian consulate in San Francisco… Tina and I need visas for a trip in January… There is something exotic in having to go to the Brazilian consulate to apply for a visa… The experience wasn’t exactly exotic however…

I arrived at 8:30, they open at 9:00…. There were 18 people in line in front of me… complaining about wrong forms and previous visits… I waited… the doors to the consulate opened early… We took numbers and sat in hard plastic chairs.

I sat, I watched others sit at the 4 windows… they had different lines for Brazilians, for non Brazilians, and for commercial visa contractors… The staff tried to take all groups in fair proportion… The room looks like a cross between a DMV office and high school counselors office… The only thing missing was the elevator music from Blues Brothers…

They called my number about 10:50, and I finished about 11:20, receipt in hand… The staff was polite… no one yelled or threatened or screamed…

Finished, off to the garage to fetch the car… pay for 4 hours (anything over 3 hours is 4 hours) and head south and east towards work… Traffic is so bad that I head south on US 101 towards the San Mateo and Dumbarton bridges… I took the Dumbarton.

At work I spent the day filling oil lamps for the night tours starting tomorrow… I spent four hours filling lamps, changing wicks… getting ready… then home to get the cookie dough ready… It will be a long day tomorrow.

Randy

Stove pipes and wood smoke

Friday I spent the day replacing the stove pipe at Patterson House… The stove was smoking, and wouldn’t draw (a term meaning the smoke goes up the chimney, and not into the room) I replaced the sheet metal flue… taking it down, then replacing it with sheet metal off the shelf replacement flue…. It took 7 hours…

Stove flues are one of those things which are simple, but can be complicated… and while once common are now not… the local hardware store carries the basic stuff, not in a great variety… There are a couple tricks to doing it well… one being a special tool to crimp the ends to make them fit together… I have a pair… Our blacksmith has a cone mandrel, using it allowed me to lock the seams…

It was a fight, I got dirty, I cut my hands... The first fix didn’t take, but the second did, and it went together and now works… 7 hours later…

This weekend (Saturday and Sunday, October 10 and 11) is Harvest Festival… People picking corn, people buying pumpkin, listening to music, doing crafts, and such…

Saturday I spend my time in the house… By 5:00 on Sunday we had entertained 576 guests in the house… Sunday we had 548… The total is the highest attendance since 1998… I’m tired… The house is dirty… but the stove worked…

The stove is important… its iconic, black and nickel, containing fire and filling the house with the smells of wood smoke and food cooking…

On other things… The son graduated from US Navy Search and Rescue swimmer school (SAR) and is back in Everett Washington. Its pretty cool… we are proud. Tina surprised by and cleaned the gutters… very good considering that we expect rain tomorrow… lots of rain…

Its now about 9:00 pm Sunday, I am at home… I have a fire going… first of the season… I have a book waiting….

A Random Report from under a harvest moon…

We are fast slipping into fall… its cool, maybe cold in the morning… but hot by early afternoon… I lit the heater in my office at work (I turn it off sometime in early May as the weather warms… ) I have to fix the flue for the wood burning stove Friday… and chop wood, and stack wood, and chop more wood.

At the farm the pumpkin patch is open… Our farmer grows all his own pumpkins… its a very sincere pumpkin patch. Elsewhere the corn cribs have been emptied of last years crop. The farmer is plowing the wheat and pumpkin fields, preparing it for a hay crop… First he waters to let the weeds sprout, then plows them in before they can set seed. Its a timing issue… the weeds will still sprout if water is available, the new sprouts easy to kill. The pigs go to market next week.

The moon tonight was wonderful, low, large, dark yellow orange as it rose… It’s a bit past full.

In the kitchen the wine seems to be doing well. The head (a collection of skins and such floating on top) is starting to fall… Its time to move the wine to a more airtight container and press out the skins…

This weekend is the harvest festival at the farm… next week I am off to a history symposium in Carson City… across the Sierras… with luck the Aspen will be turning bright yellow as I top Carson Pass.

The son graduated from US Navy SAR (Search and Rescue Swimmer) school and is back with his ship in Washington… He called today asking how to prepare artichokes… there was feminine laughter in the background… we all move on… our kids grow up.

Last weekend was busy… Saturday I went to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass… a three day free concert in Golden Gate Park… 6 stages… I saw Guy Clark and Vernon Thompson… then the Austin Lounge Lizards, walked about a bit, then Steve Martin and his band… settled in for Ricky Skaggs… followed by Gillian Welch…. Emmylou Harris joined her half way for one song, then rejoined for a finale… Followed by Steve Earle…

The trip home was eventful… first the Muni LRV driver (aka motorman) didn’t want to board the two wheel chairs on the ramp… the passengers revolted and he loaded them… We were packed in like sardines, but everyone was friendly (except the motorman/driver) The fare box was out of order… I couldn’t pay my fare… I expected to pay when I got off… but at Civic Center station it was chaos of the highest order… and all gates were open… and we were being driven out… Payment was not an issue… Bluegrass had met the Love fest…

The Blue grass crowd was older… a little more traditional… Love fest was young, wearing fluorescent wigs, minimal costume, fur and feathers… We were both trying to find a way to escape San Francisco… and Bart and Muni were finding it a challenge… The Bart gates were open… you couldn’t scan a ticket… they had abandoned all effort to exact payment… Police were at the head of the escalator… they needed to hold the crowd back until the platforms below cleared… eventually I and several hundred of my closest fiends made it downstairs to catch our trains… Many of the kids were trying to go south via Caltrain, but had abandoned Muni and were trying to use Bart to get to Millbrae and a transfer station…

We were standing room only on the train when it finally arrived… but it was fun… one guy had a mouth powered keyboard… people were singing… they were rapping… they were polite… We all escaped together…

Sunday was a new event… 100 years before President Taft had visited California and along the way visited the Yosemite… He invited John Muir to guide him… but there must have been tensions between the two men… Muir had frustrations with the direction of the park… Taft would soon approve a dam in the Hetch Hetchy Valley…

A friend has saved a wooden railroad passenger car, an observation car, the car that Taft and Muir rode on their journey to the Yosemite… In celebration we recreated the event… We assembled a train… a steam locomotive, a postal car, a coach, and the Observation car… A friend and his wife assumed the role of Taft and his wife… (Taft’s wife wasn’t there 100 years ago, having suffered a stroke but 100 years allows healing) Eleven of us dressed in period clothing… I assumed the role of John Muir… It was a strange role… he was invited, but in the photos he is in the rear of the group, away from the president… This was very different from 6 years earlier when with President Roosevelt they had been shoulder to shoulder and had gone off together for adventurers and discussions… The administration and with it the climate had changed…

Not a bad weekend.

The picture is from a trip to Chicago in 2007... to see Brian graduate from Boot...
We all have come far...