Observations

[larryJ]

As my son and daughter-in-law prepare to move for the summer, he brought #3 granddaughter up for us to watch for the day.  They are moving some things into storage and moving the owner's furniture back into the house.  The owner's family use the house during the summer months.  My son and family will move into my daughter-in-laws mother's condo.  Her mother spends a lot of time in China and will be gone for the summer.  As the beach is 45 miles away, we don't see them all that much, but the condo is only 15 miles away and #3 likes to play outside when she is here.  The condo does not have a grassy area for her to play on so I suspect we will be seeing a lot more of them during the summer.

Our daughter brought the other two girls over later in the afternoon to play with their cousin.  So for a while we had a houseful of people.  The three girls love to play together although yesterday the oldest seemed to want to hang out with me playing Uno and reading a book.  Then our son and daughter arranged with each other for our daughter to bring the baby back to Newport.  They did this out of respect for their aging parents............wait........no, they knew the Laker game was going to be on and we weren't going anywhere!

Observation..........Remember the old saying......"Grandchildren are terrific and wonderful...then they go home," or something like that.  Well, it is true.  After they left we seemed to sigh a lot from the enjoyment of having the kids here or sigh a lot because they went home or sigh a lot because we would be able to watch the game undisturbed.  After the game was over, we were amazed somewhat at how tired we felt.  It was close to our normal bedtime, but we felt even more tired than usual.  There is something about being around the kids that wears us out and we aren't that physically involved, i.e., running around the yard, etc.  We mostly just sit and watch or play board games or card games.  Love of grandchildren can be tiring.

Larryj

[larryJ]

Surviving units of the Galloping Geese, taken from wikipedia......

Of the seven "geese", only #1 does not survive, though a replica was built in 2000 for the Ridgway Railroad Museum. The other six are located as follows:
Goose #1 was operated for a short while and then scrapped.
Goose #2, #6, and #7 are preserved at the Colorado Railroad Museum and are operational.
Goose #3 was sold to Knott's Berry Farm and is operated regularly during off-season periods when park attendance is low.
Goose #4 was on static display in Telluride, Colorado. It is currently in Ridgway, Colorado, undergoing cosmetic restoration, possibly to operation.
Goose #5 was bought by the city of Dolores, Colorado. After restoration in 1998 it is now operated from time to time on the Cumbres and Toltec and Durango and Silverton tourist railroads, as well as at the Colorado Railroad Museum.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5WFixFohOA

Larryj

[larryJ]

Post Script............that video was taken in 2008 and as I mentioned earlier, I don't remember seeing it on our last visit.  However, I read that is was still in operation as late as last March.

There is a full history of the Galloping Goose on Wikipedia.  Search for Galloping Goose and there are several sites about it.

Larryj

[larryJ]

I had to make a quick trip to the hospital lab for my monthly blood test today.  My appointment with the oncologist is tomorrow.  Being a holiday there was only one other person there and I was able to get my test done and leave in a matter of minutes.

I had a shopping list and I was by myself, not having to deal with my wife shopping with me.  There is a local Target store near the hospital in a mostly Hispanic area, which caused me to have the following observations.........

Observation #1:  Young Hispanic girls are reviving the short shorts and platform shoes fashion look.  I'm not complaining, merely observing. 

Observation #2:  I had ten items on my list and was able to get them and get out in under 30 minutes.  Remember, no wife with me.

Observation #3:  For some reason Jelly Beans seem to be lacking in our stores, except, of course, at Easter.  I like Jelly Beans.  That is one of the two reasons I voted for Reagan.  The other being that as our Governor he shaped up the state pretty good.  His favorite snack was Jelly Beans.

Observation #4:  Young Hispanic girls are reviving.......oh wait...........I already said that.

Larryj

[larryJ]

On the subject of birds, we don't have a great variety here in SoCal.  We have sparrows, pigeons, crows, and mockingbirds for the most part.  Occasionally, a hawk will come down from the mountains and I have seen a few other rare sightings of others. 

Observation:  The crows like to eat the mockingbird eggs.  It is a common sight to see a smaller mockingbird chasing a crow around the sky to keep them from the mockingbird's nest.  It's funny to see a small bird chasing a bigger bird, but the crows try to get away, they don't fight back.  That said............

Observation:  Mockingbirds don't sleep!  After our boat trip yesterday, we brought GD#3 home with us so my son and daughter-in-law could finish moving into her mother's condo for the summer.  As we don't have a youth type bed anymore, she sleeps between us.  Last night she woke up at 1:58 AM crying because she couldn't find her "binky" (pacifier.)  Once that was found, she was good for the rest of the night.  While trying to go back to sleep, I was serenaded by a mockingbird who has taken up residence in the neighborhood.  It is amazing how many different bird calls the mockingbird can sing.  A mockingbird who has a great repertoire has been around for a long time where one who doesn't must be young.  Sometimes I try to identify the songs, but I am not that familiar with birds to know many.  But I do know that many of the sounds are from birds that don't inhabit this area.  Or maybe I am dreaming.

Larryj

[Diane Amberg]

 Don't you have those scrub jays? I hear they are everywhere. How about those big acorn woodpeckers? I had a birder friend who lived not too far from San Diego long ago and she too would talk about their local birds, same as yours, but with a few others, maybe even a Phoebe and wrens too.  You might have more kinds tucked around that aren't obvious. Aren't birds fun?

[larryJ]

Diane, there are jays up in the mountains, but rarely do we see them here.  When I lived in Wyoming we called them camp robbers because they were bold enough to fly down and take things such as food right in front of you.

Larryj

[larryJ]

Observations of a cousin's reunion and four day trip...........

The reunion itself was planned for Tuesday and Wednesday.  My son has a client near Bakersfield and he and I elected to drive my van to the reunion stopping in Bakersfield for him to do some work.  He and his wife are really in to using "points" for hotel and motel stays and have a lot left over from their round-the-world trip two years ago.  In fact, he is a gold card member which got us an early check in at the Sheraton in Bakersfield.  He was gone all day and all I had to do was play on the computer, read my book, eat at the restaurant and take a nap.  Not a hard day at all.  All the rooms had patios and I enjoyed ours just sitting and reading. 

We left early Tuesday morning after a complimentary breakfast as we had to meet the plane carrying our wives and two grandchildren in Oakland.  We arrived at the Oakland Airport about an hour before the plane landed and he was able to rent a car for himself and his family.  Then it was an hour and a half drive to the reunion in Santa Rosa.  We arrived at the hotel about ten minutes after the formal meeting was started.  When I walked in, I said, "Is this room taken?"   Everyone laughed and there were hugs and kisses all around.  There were six first cousins in attendance and many of their family members.  Our group included myself, my wife, her cousin, my #1 granddaughter, my son, his wife and the #3 granddaughter.  Six first cousins sounds impressive, but four of them were brothers and sisters.  States represented included California, (of course), Oregon, Florida, Ohio and Kansas.  After the meeting where we got caught up in what was happening with each of us, some went to the hotel restaurant for dinner and then some more chit-chat and off to bed.  The next morning we were invited to the hostess' house to view her husband's model airplanes that he builds and takes to meets and flies them.  In the afternoon, we all boarded "Rosie the Trolley" for a tour of Santa Rosa.  Dinner that night was provided by a relative of the hostess' husband in another town.  All BBQ and goodies and they even provided some gluten free goodies for me.  It was a backyard affair, but the wind was blowing a little and it got a little cold.  But it was a good time and more bonding with my cousins.  I was the youngest cousin there.  Yesterday, we left early to take the others back to the airport and turn in the rental car.  The flight only takes about an hour and a half.  The drive from Oakland took seven hours.  I was pretty tired when we got home.  My son did all the driving.

Observations:  Although we are all older than the last reunion, it seemed like nobody had really changed.  I didn't know that Charles Schultz, creator of Peanuts comic strip had lived there.  I should have known.  There were plastic statues of Snoopy and Charlie Brown, etc. all over town even in the hotel lobby.   

Santa Rosa has the distinction of moving the most buildings from one place to another.  I am not sure that is a good thing, but the narrator on the bus seemed to think it was.  One of the buildings was a church made entirely from one redwood tree.  It had beautiful stained glass windows, but they were unfortunately covered by screens to prevent vandalism.  When they reset it, it was facing a park with the back end to the street.  Now the city wants to pick it up and turn it around to face the street. 

The woman driving the trolley must have been fairly new as she was going where the narrator was telling her to turn.  She almost took out a street sign on the sidewalk one time when pulling in to the curb.  She hit it with the side mirror of the trolley.  However, the tour was a complete history of the town from the time of the Indians up through the Spanish, Mexican and the American eras. It was very interesting.

One cousin has a terrific ability to quote limericks, not just a normal five liner, but long and involved ones.  My son had told his wife about this cousin and she just couldn't get enough of the limericks. 

The oldest cousin is 81 and now is the ranking cousin.  I had not seen her since her father died in 1996.  Her sister, the hostess, has two sons both of whom were there with their wives and I had not seen them since 1996.  One of the sons has a photography business, taking pictures of people's pets.  The other recently remarried a Chinese woman so my daughter-in-law was not the only oriental person there, but they didn't spend a lot of time together.  Don't know why.

San Francisco Bay is absolutely gorgeous.  We had to drive over the Richmond Bridge to go from Marin County to Oakland and got a very pleasant view of the Bay. 

More later when I can........

Larryj

[Ms Bear]

That sounds wonderful Larry, glad you were able to make the most of the time you had together.

I met a real politician today.  He served as a County Judge among other things for many years locally and his family has been in our county for generations.  He was telling me that he had been married longer than I had been alive, getting ready to celebrate his 48th anniversary.  Had to tell him that when he got married I was already married, had a daughter and was expecting my second.  Glad he is retired, not sure I could have voted for him.

[larryJ]

More on this last trip........

I have a cousin who is three months older than me.  Between the two of us, we have worked on keeping the family history going.  Our parents spent a great deal of time researching and were doing it before the Internet or anything like that.  It was all footwork going to libraries and writing letters back and forth.  We have carried this on and our family history is quite complete.  However, in April, the 1940 census was released.  We both jumped on it looking for where our relatives were.  This was not too hard as we probably knew most of it already.  But we did run across a curiosity.  One of our cousins, the youngest of four in that family, was listed as living with his maternal grandparents as a small child.  The rest of the family had moved on to California.  As it happened, these were the four cousins at the reunion who were brothers and sisters. 

So we asked.............Why did the youngest stay behind?

I talked to the older brother and got his version, verified by his older sister who was sitting next to us.
My cousin talked to the same brother and got a different version.........somehow.
I talked to the cousin who was the one that we were curious about and got his version.
Neither one of us asked the oldest sister, which was probably a mistake.

So now we know.........................not much more than we did.  And somehow it is not important anymore.  We asked and got answers and that is the end of that. 

Two cousins, not present, had moved and I wasn't aware of that.  One cousin's son had divorced and remarried three years ago.  I didn't know that. 

It is not like we don't talk to each other.  Things just don't get mentioned or I am getting more forgetful.

Larryj