Monday, October 28, 2013

10-28-13

I went to 4wheel parts today and ordered some “Smittybilt “rock sliders.
They gave me a deal on installation so I’m going to let them do it on Nov. 4th when they replace the slip shaft eliminator kit.

Tomorrow I have a doctors appointment to get the results from the CAT scan.
After that we are going up to the cabin until Sunday Nov. 3.

I’ll talk to you after the 4th.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

10-27-13

We went to San Francisco yesterday to visit with my daughter Gaby and her husband, Morgan.

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We got to their house around 12:30

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and visited for a while until we decided that it was time for lunch.
Morgan drove us to to a small Taco shop somewhere in the Mission District.

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When I was a kid, living in the city, the Mission District was a mostly Mexican neighborhood. It is much more eclectic now but there still is a lot of good Mexican food available.

After lunch, Morgan drove us west, across town from the sunny and warm Mission District to the foggy and cool Sunset District. All the way to the edge of the Pacific Ocean and the San Francisco Zoo.

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We spent the afternoon wandering among the captured wildlife in the zoo. 
As we were going in to the zoo, this girl was walking out. She was obviously made up for a Halloween party but whoever did the paint job was good.

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Our first stop was at the Lemur area.
These were huddled together, sleeping.

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Others were just sleeping.

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Next were the monkeys. They were behind wire mesh and were hard to photograph.

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Then we wandered by the Flamingo pond.

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We saw this chimp that was in an area apparently all by himself. He looks a little lonely.

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We went into a building that advertised Komodo Dragons.

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This one was just a baby.

We stopped by to see the Koala but they were all sleeping.

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With the fog swirling around this playground sure looks cold. Its all fake ice.

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We continued on past the Kangaroos

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and saw lots of different large birds.

Pelicans,

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Emu,

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Peacocks,

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And this ancient Cassowary

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and some I don’t know the names of.

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These two Sea Lions are blind.

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The zoo has been changing over the years. They are now housing injured and rescued animals as well as taking in animals that are free and healthy.

Next came the Bears.

First, the Polar Bears

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and then the Grizzlies.

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The zoo has a resident pair of Bald eagles.

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There is a nice little steam train that runs through the area. Unfortunately we didn’t take the ride.

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We walked passed Peccaries.
They look like Javelina’s to me. I guess they are related.

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This is an Amazonian Capybara,

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Here are some Penguins.

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Then came the big guys.
I have seen a lot of pictures and videos of the wild life in Africa. But they never prepare you for the shier size of some of the African beasts.

Take this Rhino for instance.

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He is about the size of an SUV and probably would out weigh one.

Next we came to this Baboon. I’ve seen videos of them  in packs, harassing tourists in their homeland and they don’t look that impressive on film.

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This guy, sitting down was about four feet tall and appeared to weigh about 250 lbs. all mussel, claws and teeth.

Next are the Giraffes. They are bloody huge. This baby is at least 12 feet tall

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and the adults are twice as large.

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Then there was this venerable old gentleman taking his ease in a door way.

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That was our day at the zoo.
It was kind of a trip down memory for me as I haven’t been to this zoo since I was about 9 years old.
That time I took home a baby chick and raised it as a pet. I also remembered that a monkey tried to steal my hat  back then.

From the zoo we went to the Spanish Cultural Center where we enjoyed some traditional Spanish cuisine.
The food was excellent.

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Morgan and I shared a seafood Paella.

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Patti and Gaby each had a chicken dish that they said it was wonderful.

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We parted with Gaby and Morgan at the cultural center and headed for home. Of course we had to get lost at least once before we were able to escape the City.

We had a great visit with Gaby and Morgan. They are a lot of fun and really know the city.

Thursday, October 24, 2013

10-24-13

Things are still rather boring around here.

I took the jeep in to have a couple of things fixed.

Tomorrow I have to have a CAT scan to check out my aortal aneurism. I will get the results on Tuesday.

On Saturday we are going to San Francisco to visit with Gaby and Morgan.

Tuesday afternoon we are going to the cabin
When we get back from the cabin, on the fourth of November. I will be taking the jeep into 4wheel parts to get the slip joint eliminator kit replaced.

Ok, well that’s it for now. I’ll talk to you in a couple of days.

Saturday, October 19, 2013

10-19-13

Hi, Well we have been home since Tuesday afternoon.

There hasn’t been much going on around here. Patti and I both had doctor appointments.

You know, The older you get the more doctors you get to know.
Hell, when I was younger I hardly new any doctors. Now I know several. 
I must be moving up in the society.

We went to Harvey’s game last night. They plaid Windsor high in Windsor. Joanne and Dave live there so they went to the game with us.

Within the first 5 minutes Windsor made their first touchdown.
They kept it up for the rest of the game.
In the second half Santa Rosa started scoring but It was too little to late. The score ended up 59 to 19 Windsor.
Windsor has one of the better teams in the league.

Ok, well that’s about it for now.

Oh, I just remembered, Our ETD for AZ has been moved out again It looks like we will be leaving here around November 25.
Of course that could change.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

10-16-13

We just got back from seven wonderful days at the cabin.

Patti and I left SRO around 11:00 and headed for the cabin.
I drove the van up and Patti followed in her car. The reason for this is that we had a lot of stuff to take up there.
We were taking Jerry and Lorraine’s camp and our wedge tent so they would have a place to sleep.
Jerry has been very ill and has not had much chance to get out into the woods so we decided to bring them to the cabin for the party we were having on Saturday the 12th.
Patti will go back to SRO on Friday for Harvey’s foot ball game, which they lost 45-0. Then on Saturday morning she will bring J & L back with her.

In the mean time we got to the cabin and moved in.
We spent the rest of the day puttering.

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I went up the hill to the old spring tank to see if there was any water coming out of the overflow. There was just a trickle. I held a cup under the flow and it took about a minute and a half to fill the cup. That isn’t much water. But it is better than nothing.
There are two springs connected to the tank but only one of them are producing water at this late season.

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Wednesday we continued with our puttering.

We cut some fire wood and worked on getting the dining hall setup for the party on Saturday.
I set up the cooking area.

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On Thursday we set up the wedge tent.

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Patti headed for Santa Rosa around 9:00 Friday morning.

Joanne, Dave, Mat’s father-in-law Ray and Joanne’s friends Darlene and Bob showed up around noon. Everyone spent the rest of the day setting up their camps.

Darlene’s camp

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My nephew John showed up from Reno.
He camped in his truck.
 
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When everyone was settled we put up the walls on the dining hall.

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Patti returned with Jerry and Lorraine around 11:00 Saturday morning.

Others showed up throughout the day.

I was down at the shooting area for most of the morning so I didn’t see who or when they got there.
As it turned out 25 people showed up.

We had a lot of fun shooting clay pigeons. 

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The two youngsters watching the fun.
“Gee I wonder if they will let us shoot?”
 
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Sure enough, the boys got their turns with a BB gun.

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Around 2:00 I headed up to the site to start cooking Nopalies

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and tri tip.

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We sat down for dinner around 4:00.

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We sat around the campfire every night and had fun visiting and watching Joanne try to pop popcorn over the fire.

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She was successful but the popcorn was a little burnt.

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We also spent time taking family photo’s.

Mike and Cody.

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A mixed group of my relatives
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Patti, Jerry and Lorraine.

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Cody and Kaden clowning for the camera.

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We hung out by the campfire for the rest of the evening enjoying the company.

Most of the people that spent the night left by noon on Sunday.
Joanne, Dave, Ray and John stayed until Monday.
Patti took Jerry and Lorraine home Monday morning and came back by 12:30.

We came home Tuesday evening.

It was a great time and every one had fun.
That was the last big event for this season at home.
Now we are going to start planning for the winter season in Quartzsite.
Our ETD for AZ presently is 11-20-13.