6th graders study the volcanoes

and Mike works on a time lapse of Mt. Lassen. Last year it was a group from Arcata, this year, Ukiah and Grass Valley. Eleven year olds seem to still posses a certain amount of innocence though, and can be amusing. Especially if you are camped far enough away from them. And I managed to dash into the showers just in the nick of time before an onslaught of dirty children, parents and teachers. Why Lassen is one of favorite camping spots is the coin showers. 5 quarters for 3 minutes, and you can add more one at a time if needed. The most either one of used was 7. But a hot shower is a luxury (and necessity) when camping. We were pushed up into loop D this trip, due to paving activities, but what we enjoyed, in the tent only loop, was no generators. I suppose someone with a tent could have a generator, but not likely. We did meet the German couple who had flown into San Francisco, done Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, now Lassen, and were on their way to the Redwoods, Crater Lake, Seattle, Alaska (they were flying) and then a drive to Boston. All in an all too short period of time. But they were young, and German. And camped next us were Talulah, and Annabelle, 6 year twins from Berkeley, with their parents, and grandmother. Six year old girls look pretty cute in the morning in their pajamas and Panda (that being "the panda" Sandoval), hats. The fishing was fantastic this trip (no we didn't eat any, it's catch and release), and my netting technique got to be quite good with much practice. It was one book, a hat and half, a complete scarf, and two more partial scarves. I like to keep those needles active. We have discovered pesto makes wonderful camping food. Bring those frozen leftovers from home and you have an almost instant meal. Wash down with red wine, and a good nights sleep is assured.

mama's in the factory she ain't got no shoes

After a long silence, I had a week that deserves some mention, if nothing else in it's extremes. One day I'm at the St. Frances Yacht Club eating a buffet spread unlike any I've ever seen before and the next day, the Hot Dog Truck parked beside Building 14. We had a "catered" building party and photo shoot. No dress code required. Although many of us tried to wipe the mustard off the front of our shirts before the photo session.
Building 14 crowd a little more to my social status, thankfully. But I watched the Red Bull Junior series final race from the yacht club. There was supposed to be a final, final race, but the winds exceeded the limit that the Coast Guard would allow them to race. So I just filled up my plate again.

the start, or shortly thereafter

these are only the AC 45's about to run into each other

To get a sense of Building 14, there is a new Alameda Point Studios website.  We are quite a group.
So if these events were not enough, I should mention, five hours of yoga on Monday, a barbeque at friends after that, and the Freight and Salvage for Highway 61 revisited Thursday night. The crowd at the Freight seemed to consist entirely of aging hippies like ourselves.
Oh, and we are getting used to our new, somewhat unconventional, house paint job.Please note our Alameda City flag.

turning 30 and other thoughts

Yumie is turning 30 this September. M2 (mom two), as I am referred to, is happy to report that she has landed a full time position, in her field. I haven't had many chances in my life (less than a week away from getting my senior national park pass) to boast of children's accomplishments. We have had some good ratters in our household, something that does have some benefits, but we have lived through many of our friends listings of their children's accomplishments with patient ears. So this is my turn. Congratulations, I say.
And oh, turning 30, I vaguely remember that. I think that is when my knees started to go.

 Vern was a good ratter

Now more than a month into the summer, the Leo birthdays have become, and the time seems to speed up. My blogging has slowed down, not for lack of subjects, but the inability to get them, as we used to say, down on paper.
Perhaps a listing of topics might work. I have subjects from the last two trips we took, and a trip to the Exploratorium with my 7 year niece that could be blogged. And then there always is the piano shop, which is currently bursting with pianos. But since this blogging business is supposed to be fun, I will just let the summer pass, almost unreported until my computer, words, and time all merge.

attention to detail

 

There are many aspects of my job that are boring and tedious. And then there are aspects that are tedious but satisfying. The above job was satisfying. I have discovered the screw grabber. Saves the fingers when using the wire wheel. Also keeps the tiniest screws from flying across the room into secret hiding places never to be seen again.

solstice

 

A sign of summer, my orange dragon flies have returned to the garden. 

made with love

I have made the same pie crust recipe for years. It is from my Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook. You would think after all these years I would have the recipe in my head. And perhaps I do. But I enjoy opening the worn pages with the stains from many pies. And just perhaps I like to look at the inscription that my mother wrote when she gave me the cookbook.

how to post that hard to sell item on Ebay

 I am not making this up, a real posting from Mike's Sunday morning perusal of Ebay.

Overseas buyers please not that I do not ship via first class mail if you pay with paypal. UK buyers please contact me regarding alternative payment methods.

I accept returns however I will not renegotiate a new price, if you are unhappy with the item return it for a refund. Ask as many questions as you like before the end of the auction, thanks! :-)
Warning-Due to the Graphic nature of this story tender sensibilities may be offended. If you feel you may be in this group I suggest you read a different description.
Buddy,Can You Lend a Hand? #1
Paddy Kayk was the product of a marriage between a cargo steamer Captain Seamus Kayk and a young Chinese girl May Wong. The Captain plied the smaller ports along the Chinese coast delivering Irish linens and foodstuffs to the small expatriate communities scattered around the eastern edge of the vast land. The girl was alone in the world as her parents died in a house fire just a day before the rusty ship coughed and spluttered its way into port. She was sixteen, bedraggled and blackened by soot when Seamus set his eyes upon her.
It was an unsaid part of his job description to collect news to pass it on to the next little community down the way and being a man to enrich and embelish with a masterly choice of illustrative word, Seamus was greeted warmly wherever he went and would hold his news briefs in local tea houses surrounded by locals and expats alike with rapt attention.

May Wong sat in the corner lost in her misery but as Seamus regaled his audience with the goings on in the other towns she found herself drawn into his world and soon she forgot her own. At the conclusion of the evening she knew that this was a man she wanted to be with, Seamus having a fine and practiced eye for the fairer sex wasted no time in introducing himself. May had a difficult time understanding her language being spoken by a white man with a strong Irish accent but she managed to understand enough for the spell Seamus cast to take effect. At weeks end they were married and she left the small village by the sea never to return.

War had broken out and Seamus found himself in Los Angeles at the time stocking up on supplies. A trip home over the Atlantic was becoming a very risky proposition with the U-boats prowling so he decided to spend the war in California building fighter plane wing sections. Besides, he now had an extra mouth to feed, a wee lad called Paddy.

The years passed, speeding into decades and it became clear to everyone that Paddy had his Fathers wit and his Mothers delicate touch and eye for composition. When he wasn't in the kitchen baking he was toting an 8x10 Deardorff around Chinatown taking beautiful pictures of the people and streets. With some cash saved over the years Paddy opened a small bakery and lived above it. With his personality it became a local highlight, Paddy Kayk was renowned for making cakes of light texture and delicate flavour very quickly, It was said he could make, bake and ice a cake in fifteen minutes. So you can understand that it came as a great shock to this thriving little community when the bakery unexpectedly closed a few days. ...Neighbours knocked on his door and after several hours decided that something was terribly wrong, they broke down the door to find Paddy...dead.

It wasn't pretty, Paddy was slumped in a chair, a long stump hung limp where his right arm used to be, from the dried pools and splatters everywhere it was obvious that he had died from the great loss of blood. Curiously though...the room contained no arm. His camera stood in the corner on its tripod without any lenses, his wallet was still in his pocket. Robbery was obviously not a motive. Gang warfare was the verdict though close friends swore he had nothing to do with any illegal or immoral practices. They say time heals all wounds and there are probably few people who can remember Paddy now, except his good friends who still miss him.

The building that was once a bakery changed over to a bookstore then an antique shop, Fongs.

The upstairs rooms that housed Paddy were in sore need of refurbishment after fifty years of rental abuse. The new landlord called in his handyman John to replace the floor and spruce the place up. After removing the old mats and yellowed newspapers John swept the floor in preparation of replacement. He noticed one edge of a floorboard had a copper button, he hit it with his heel and the board shot up in a flash. The stout board halted just inches from his face, after a few seconds he looked into the secret compartment and almost fainted when he saw....

 

(actual crime scene photograph)

The mystery of Paddy's arm was over, there was no gang connection it was an accidental death resulting from Paddys love of his lenses, the ones that no-one could find all those years ago. After his mother was notified(Seamus had long since passed away) she called me as she wanted nothing to do with the lenses, the cause as she saw it of poor Paddys death. And with that the lenses that have remained in a secret compartment now come to the open market for all in the world to see.