morrowlife

Here’s Loyal Reader Number Two striking a pose on a very strange tree. Notice that both ends are in the ground. Which is the base and which is the canopy? (Note: Dumb Old Blogger is refusing to publish pictures again. Watch this space for this fascinating picture Real Soon Now.)

Great camping trip over the weekend! We had a nice time in a beautiful (but mosquito-ridden) place. It’s ten minutes from home and like being in a completely different world. The woods are unlike anything else we’ve seen in California. The floor is covered with foliage – much of which is poison ivy and poison oak, but we managed to look without touching (“leaves of three, let it be!”). We’ll be going there again.

The Miata’s headrest speakers arrived late in the week. I got them installed on Saturday after we got home from the camping trip and while we were in the middle of putting a couple of sprinklers in a soon-to-be-sodded part of the back yard. Busy weekend. Even though the speaker installation took all of about fifteen minutes. They were a perfect replacement fit and work a whole lot better than the originals.

Congratulations to Loyal Reader Number One! He just found out he has received a four-year full-tuition scholarship from BYU. We’re really excited for him. That’s huge. I don’t think we’ve heard back yet from all the other scholarships he applied to, so there may be even more coming. This alone is plenty, though.

Sunday was the usual. LRN2 and I visited one of our two new home teaching families. We’re seeing the other one tomorrow night. Their home situation isn’t too great right now, though, so they’re coming over here. I’m looking forward to their visit.

We attended an awards ceremony for LRN1 tonight at the school building in Modesto. He got two awards and has two colored cords to wear on his gown at graduation. Big day for him. Congratulations again!

Time for bed already. See you tomorrow.

Here’s a much-younger Loyal Reader Number One simulating a robot. He’s the one on the left there. Picture taken in Virginia, I believe, based on the background.

Short Shrift tonight. I got home from work at 8:00, had a quick bite of dinner, and went to my Tuesday night meeting.

One exciting thing is that I got my fully-licensed copy of iWork in the mail today. I had been using the trial version for the last little while, so it’s not exactly something new, but I’m still pleased.

I’m still waiting for those Miata speakers to come.

Wanted to drive the Suburban to work to celebrate Earth Day, but I didn’t want to pay thirty bucks for the gas. I had the truck in spirit, though. Earth First! We’ll mine the other planets later.

See you tomorrow.

Here’s the company store. I finally found that place where I owe my soul. The prices don’t look that high. Picture taken at Great America.

I’m back! Welcome home to me. The Loyal Family seemed mildly pleased (link warning: cute Lego-themed film with sound and a horrifying ending) to see me, and I’m certainly glad to be home from the short little jaunt down south.

Spoke with my younger sister on the way home. They’re doing fine. She had a birthday the other day and this was my first chance to talk with her since then. We’re going to visit them in a month or so and trying to figure out all the details. I still need to rent a car, for example. Details – they’re killing me.

Well, it’s late already, so this will turn out to be yet another Short Shrift day. See you tomorrow.

Here’s the lovely view outside my hotel room window. Picture taken about five minutes ago.

Greetings from Lancaster! I made the trip in good time and am comfortably ensconced in my hotel room. See the link – there’s even complimentary on-site parking! This isn’t one of those cheapo hotels with off-site parking and shuttle buses running back and forth every thirty minutes. No siree.

The hotel opened in January and feels new and nice. There’s even an HDTV in my room. Four hundred channels and nothing’s on. But in high-def!

Tonight’s sushi dinner was pretty good. It’s not the best sushi place there is, but it’s pretty good.

Off to the Air Force base tomorrow morning. They’ve closed some of the more interesting places on the base, so I guess I’ll have to concentrate on my meeting. No horseback riding for me.

I’m going straight home from the meeting tomorrow night, so I’m likely to be pretty tired when I get home. Probably of bloggage is rated “dubious.”

Gotta read my book and get to bed. See you tomorrow. Or maybe Friday.

Here’s a railroad engineer. Taken at the miniature railroad we rode nearly two years ago in Los Gatos. And especially appropriate today, given the state of things (see below).

Well, it was certainly a warm weekend, wasn’t it? I’m pleased to report that our air conditioner is working just fine. And it certainly had plenty of opportunities to prove it.

It was sunny and well over 90 degrees in Lardville both weekend days. The truck’s thermometer reported 95 at about 4:00 on Sunday afternoon. We’re back down into the mid-70’s today and are only expecting to get up to 70 tomorrow. After that, it’ll be back into the 80’s. Very pleasant.

The pool is starting to warm up a little. Loyal Reader Number Four and I were feeling quite warm on Saturday afternoon, so we rolled up our pant legs and waded in about a foot deep. Meaning we were standing on the top stair. That was about all we felt like doing, but you could certainly have swum in it without dying of freezation. You might not have enjoyed it thoroughly, but you wouldn’t have frozen.

Let’s see, how was the weekend spent? Saturday morning, we went over to visit Loyal Readers Numbers Five, Six, and Twelve, as scheduled. We picked up the sofa, which LRN5 noted in Friday’s comments isn’t really uncomfortable at all. It looks nice in the room and we’re glad to have it. We also had a nice lunch together and just enjoyed hanging out a little bit. Their place is looking very nice and getting nicer all the time.

Saturday afternoon, Loyal Reader Number Two and I got the pond and pool filters cleaned. LRN4 helped me work on the pond’s plant life a little bit. We got last year’s papyrus plants out of the deep end. We thought they were dead, but there were signs of life, so we trimmed off the dead stuff (which was really most of the branches) and set them back into the shallow end. They may come back and they may not, but they at least have a chance now.

That’s pretty much all the work for the weekend. We watched a movie on Saturday evening and otherwise relaxed.

Sunday was the usual busy day. The good news for the near future, according to LRN4, is that choir practice is finally moving to directly after church. That will save us the frustration of having to rush home after church, grab a quick bite, and then rush right back for choir. It will make the church block four hours long, but it will be worth it to not have to come back right away.

Anyway. I got all the paperwork done and signed for buying the Honda, so I assume that will be taken care of within a few days. I can quit watching the mileage so closely! Although there’s no reason to wear it out prematurely anyway.

I’m out of subjects. See you tomorrow.

— Much later —

Greetings from the train! Still! It’s now 8:45 PM and we’re just pulling out of the stop immediately after mine. This should have happened about two and a half hours ago. It turns out a freight train had an unspecified “emergency” that left one or more cars stranded on the tracks just ahead of us. They’re just getting it cleared now and we’re finally on the way home. Sigh. I don’t expect to be home before 10:00 – and maybe later if things don’t go well. Guess how I’ll be getting to work tomorrow! That’s right – in my car. See you then.

— Even later —

It looks more like 10:30. We’re just pulling up the grade outside of Livermore. Still have to stop at Tracy and then we’ll be home. Well, we’ll be in the Lathrop station, anyway. Five minutes of driving and then I’ll really be home. Just in time for a few bites of dinner and bed. I’ll get this posted, but there will be no links (no wifi on the train today for some reason). See you tomorrow.