Happy New Year!!!!!

Location, Home, CA

Looking back at my calendar for 2009 I see that we spent 191 days on the road in our 5th wheel. That is just over ½ of this year on the road.

We started out by spending our usual time in Quartzsite, AZ in January and February and then driving on to Houston, TX with our good friends Budd and Brenda to visit our grandchildren. We arrived back home in late March.

By the middle of May we were on the road towards Seattle, WA with stops in Bishop, CA for Mule Days then a leisurely drive up the Eastern side of the Sierras to Washington. We spent 7 weeks in Seattle while Clyda’s sister under went cancer treatments.

On the way home in August we spent a week with our friends Cindy and Gary in Walnut Creek, CA for Hot August Nights. We arrived home after 3 months on the road.

In mid August I went on my annual desert trip with stops in Las Vegas and Beatty, NV before going to Death Valley, CA for 2 weeks.

Somewhere I have the miles totaled for all this traveling which is considerable. The old truck is getting up there in miles but still has a long way to go I hope as we have more trips planned.

Here is hoping everyone has a great New Years with better things to come in 2010.

Christmas is past.

Location, Home, CA

We had a very nice Christmas Day at niece Chelsea and husband Steve’s house yesterday. While most of us relaxed and enjoyed the day, poor Steve was stuck in the kitchen cooking. He did a really good job and with ham and all the goodies to go with it.

We all got way to much stuff as usual but it is still fun to open all those presents. My wardrobe was improved immensely so now I need to clean out the closet to make room. It is about time that happened as some of the old clothes have been around for many a year.

We were back home by 7:15 or so last night.

In my last post I mentioned the possibility of purchasing a new quality slide scanner. Well I did find what I wanted at Amazon.com at a reduced price so ordered it. It came on Wednesday so I have had time to play with it some. So far, it looks like it will make very nice copies of those old slides. I scanned some from 1966 and then tweaked them a little to bring out the original color. They look really good!!!. I do need to play with some of the features to find the best way to scan and store those thousands of slides I have.

We are supposed to get some rain tonight but right now the sky looks like it is clearing. Time will tell.

Frustration with a scanner.

Location, Home, CA

A whole week gone by and no entry to this journal. There hasn’t been a lot to write about.

We did have rain this week, about 3 inches worth I guess. It all helps. Everything is getting green already and of course the weeds are growing also.

I have spent way too much time playing with a new slide scanner I picked up at Costco the other day. It is a very small unit, which I like, but there are some problems with the scanning software. I have determined that for certain slides the copy gets changed which renders them unusable. It has to do with the predominant background of the slide. I have tried slides with different backgrounds but they still are not satisfactory.

A test using neighbor Paul’s scanner showed no problems copying the same slide.

I think I am going to bite the bullet so to speak and buy a good flatbed scanner that will also do slides. I really don’t need another flatbed scanner but if that’s what it takes to get good copies, so be it.

Neighborhood tree.

Sunny but cold.

Location, Home, CA


It is cold here! At least it is cold for us. The sun is out but there is a real chill in the air. We had almost 2 inches of rain yesterday and last night it froze hard enough to put a sheen of ice on standing water.

A very good day to stay inside and get the Christmas cards done.  I did have a doctors appointment this morning so had to go out. I needed my prescriptions refilled but it isn’t time for my annual physical so just did a quick office visit. I ran a few errands like paying the property taxes and buying a few items at Trader Joe’s and I needed salt for the water softener so picked that up also.

I have been looking at gas logs for the fireplace. I just don’t want to use wood anymore. They are not really expensive but I need to know more about the gas hookup. I already have a gas lighter so I think I can just remove it and connect the gas log.

Christmas lights are up.

Location, Home, CA

The Christmas lights on the front of the house went up on Wednesday and the tree went up on Friday although it wasn’t decorated until today. We had been holding off on the tree decorations as on half string of lights wasn’t working. The lights came with the tree so it is hard to trace them as they are tied onto the branches. I bought a light tracer today which did identify a few burned out bulbs but I suspect there are more with problems and I don’t have enough bulbs to replace them all. So I just put that side of the tree to the wall and problem solved.

All the neighbors have lights on the front of their houses which makes it look really nice as you come up the street. I have mine on a timer to come on at 5PM and go off at 10 PM. I should buy LED strings which would cut down on the power consumption but I only bought these lights a few years ago.

We went to the college men’s basketball game last night. They didn’t play very well and lost. The second game in a row they have lost.

It is supposed to rain tomorrow and most of next week so we are prepared for that. Craig has been covering things today in preparation for rain.

Thanksgiving in Walnut Creek.

Tue Dec 1 /2009 – Location, Home, CA

I seemed to have missed a few days posting on this blog. We drove to Walnut Creek on Thanksgiving morning for dinner and several days with our friends Cindy and Gary. Over the last several years we have spent many a Thanksgiving day with them. Thanks again Cindy and Gary for a great weekend and all the food.

On “Black Friday” Cindy and Clyda left very early for a day of shopping. Gary and I went on a short hike and watched football.

The street trees were in full color.

On Sunday we drove to Lake Berryessa north of Walnut Creek.

There were very few people around but the Ranger opened the visitor center for us and answered our questions. All but one of the campgrounds is permanently closed. They were run by private concessionaires but are in a state of disrepair now.

The dam and powerhouse at Lake Berryessa.

We drove to Winters, CA to checkout the Palms Theatre where we intended to attend a performance later that evening. We drove to Davis and drove around the campus and then stopped at a coffee shop to kill some time before going back to Winters.

The performance was by Maria Mulduar and her Garden of Joy jug band. Check out http://www.mariamuldaur.com/ for more info. The Palms is a small venue with about 100 people in attendance. Tickets were only $20 each. Maria is best known for her 1974 song “Midnight at the Oasis” record which is still heard on radio stations. This performance was all early jug band music which is some blues, some blusiana, and a little rock and roll thrown in. The show was quit good and the band was exceptional. We very much enjoyed 2 hours of that kind of music.

We drove home today with stops in Paso Robles and Nipomo dropping things off and picking things up from friends.