On the road again

So tell me what is worse, gabbing while driving or using the same instrument to take pictures through the bugs on the windshield? At least my daughter was not in the car, so I was not setting a bad example. Of course, if she was in the car, then she would have been driving and I could have really worked on my photography.

Caltrans has been busy fixing roads again. Here are some pix I grabbed with my phone while driving big old blue home today. I took my girl to a friend’s house, and she drove in, so I got to drive the big thing home.

I saw this guy in town. How many cones does he need? Has he been collecting them from the side of the road, or is he getting ready to plant more?

Then there is the little issue of camera repair. It is looking at the road better than it once did, but it is still doing some of the advertising for the local used car dealer. You be the judge.

Just when I thought it was safe to drive again, they want to work on 26 more miles of my road. A couple of days ago on the way to the big city, we stopped twice on the way down and once on the way back. When we are the second car to stop, we get the whole 20 minute wait. It is all part of learning to drive, I told my daughter as we sat and waited. Does it count as part of her 50 hours, 10 at night which are required for her license? She was behind the wheel, and it was at night.

They seem to think these shoulders are too narrow. I see a couple of other issues here which bug me more. My little car bounces all over in those three inch deep ruts in the pavement.

Oops, he missed a cone. People who drive Mercedes think of their hood ornament as a guiding star. I am not certain what to make of the one that keeps popping up in my pictures. Maybe it is my princess crown.

If you want to fix narrow shoulders, how about adding them to a road like this one that has none?

Or maybe pave a nice wide one on one side of the street for half a mile and none on the other.

I should not complain too much, at least those roads are paved, unlike this one. At least it has no ruts. We have four seasons around here, Snow, Raking, Fire and Road Construction. Road Construction actually comes before fire, because those orange signs bloom even before all the snow melts and the rains stop.

Flying boy

Several times a year, the local pilots association invites young children to experience flying. They take as many kids as show up for a short flight around the area. My boy is fascinated with flying, so we take them up on it when we can. This morning found us at the local airport. It is so small that UPS and FedEx truck shipments here because the runway is too short for their planes. There is no regularly scheduled passenger service, but there is a fine air ambulance company with a couple of helicopters and fixed wing craft to take care of the sick and injured.

While we were waiting our turn, CDF, now known as Calfire on paper landed a helicopter for refueling. At least they have fuel at our little field.

After much waiting, it was my son’s turn and he got to fly in a well decorated plane. He even sat in the copilot’s seat, though he could not see over the instrument panel. A friend of his was flying at the same time in another plane, and they had a chat via radio. Off they go . . .

It was not an unusually clear day, but the mountains all around were plain to see as the plane turned onto the runway. This time the camera saw the radio towers.

We have liftoff.The flight is over.

Whatever the weather

Around here, the only thing you can count on the weather for is that it will change. It is June according to the calendar. I actually took this picture a couple of days ago on the penultimate day of school. I had been out to walk the dog the night before, and noted that unusually cold rain was falling. Rain in June is not unusual, but rain that makes me shiver in my shorts is. If you listen to too many locals, snow is common for several occasions, Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day among them. I think we can add High School Graduation to the list. Compare this shot to the one a few days ago when there was a fire on the same mountain. Of course we all talk about the weather, but none of us had done anything about it.On my walk that morning, I took a few pictures to show the city dwellers among my readers what clear air looks like. What looks like low hills are actually about 5000 to 6000 feet above sea level. My camera did not pick up the radio towers which are about 20 miles from where I took the picture. Just across the field, you can see the road to town climbing the Bass Hill about a mile away.The mountains in the distance are about 50 miles off, and across the state line. I could actually see farther than my camera can record. As I sit here and type, the sun is out, but it is generating far more light than heat. Now that school is out, I expect warmer weather. I may not get what I expect.

All the good places

Monday I was too busy to write. The day started with yearbook sales at my son's school. For the past few years, I have been working as a co-editor of the book, which includes responsibility for advertising and sales as well. We presell as many as we can, then offer them to procrastinators when we have them available in late May and early June. Once sales were done and the students were off to class, it was time for a perennial favorite, the class play.This year, he is in fourth grade, so he is absorbing our state history. I am a bit confused by the progression of curriculum in the grade level classes, but what do I know? In third grade we learned about local county history, which was incomplete without mentioning that pioneers traipsed across the country to get here. In fourth grade we learn about state history, which is incomplete without understanding that there were no means of travel or communication from the popluated east to the uninhabited west that belonged to the natives and the Spanish. We needed to learn that there were people back east who thought GOLD was a good thing to come here to pick up off the streets. In fifth grade, we finally address that issue which has been lurking behind the stories for the past two years, the history of our country. Back to state history, the performance was a musical review called California Missions and More. It starts with JB who is making a movie about California Missions and wanders through various characters who took part in the missions era of California, including pioneers, miners, native Americans and various folk from Spain. My boy played Father Serra.

After the musical review was complete, I removed him from school and took him to the orthodontist. This time was for serious stuff. They were applying two appliances to his mouth to widen his arch. He has lots of big teeth and two small jaws. Between various procedures, he had to wait for parts to be manufactured, or the doctor to be ready to look in his mouth, so he found a friend.The orthodontist wants kids to have fun. They understand that the stuff they put in little mouths hurts a lot, so they do their best to make the office a place the kids want to visit. My son was looking forward to playing the video games when his treatment started. Of course, he played them when his sister had visits with the orthodontist. I made him obey the sign on the machine that said he had to brush his teeth first even when he did not have an appointment. I do not remember our orthodontist having anything this fun in the office when I had braces. This guy is a new addition even for this office.After the mouth work was complete, it was dinner time. We had to find something soft enough for a tender mouth. We split an order at the Chinese fast food place, then walked down the parking lot for something even softer. I had not even thought about the "Hot" light. That tells you how far this place is from home, and how rarely we visit. When we walked in and gazed into the display to make a decision, we were presented with free samples. At that point, I remembered the John Denver song about watching the buns rise. Like I said above, we go to all the good places.
When you admire the merchandise for long enough, they offer seconds, especially when you are the only ones admiring the dough wandering up and down before it jumps into the fryer then does a flip, climbs a hill and takes a bath in sugar. Certainly anything you watch all the way through the cooking process must be healthy. At least it is soft enough for the little mouth with all the hardware to deal with. I did not need my second helping, so my son suffered greatly and took care of it for me.

National Trails Day

We took a little bike ride to celebrate National Trails Day.

A couple of guys and an ox. A rare image of the California Girl taking a break before the big ride.
Lance Armstrong and my boy both ride yellow bikes.
My loyal steed resting for lunch.
Do any of you wonder which side of the family this comes from?
We rode through varied terrain.It is nice of them to make all these cuts to keep the grade near level.I am not certain who left those rocks there.Do not eat too much lunch before crossing this bridge. This is not what I would call a beginner hill.Fire took out the rail bridge a few years ago, so we took the old highway bridge.This is not a beginner hill either. We climbed it after we crossed under the highway. My boy and I walked up. My husband used his low gears because he could. I did not even try to ride after I stopped for the picture.The highlight of the trip: Tunnels!Yes, two of them, and they are both open this year.I am glad I was not here when this rock fell. Despite the rocks we did have to dodge, lots of rocks I remember from past years were gone this time.

The lower part of the trail has at least a half dozen river crossings like this one. In all, we rode about 26 miles, advertised as a 500 foot climb in the first few miles then gentle downgrade for the remainder of the trip. However you slice it, it is a long ride. Even though it is an old railroad grade, and sometimes used as a road by hunters and firewood cutters, it was rougher this year than I remember in the past. Maybe I am just getting older.