California Fever

Day 25

Because I'm on vacation this week, my odd sleeping hours have grown even odder.  I think I've been up since about 2:30 this morning.  I'm scheduled to meet a work friend for coffee at 8:30, and want to get a post done before I leave.  (J's turned into a real computer hog now that he's been eBay'ing.)  I'm too pooped to pull anything remotely interesting or insightful from the 37th page of a book this morning...so today's post is going to be one of my old stand-by's...the search string.  Let's see how people have found this site lately, shall we?

dashboard Marilyn Manson concert 

sweet potato pie California  (And yes, I'm trying to coerce J into making some...)

weird things about California  (Where do we begin?...)

poems about Thanksgiving wishes  (I don't recall writing one, but please share if you have.)

LITTLE KIDS MOOVIES AND SHOES

hot fudge poem  (I'm not touching that one...)

poems workplace  (Trust me, if I wrote them they wouldn't be very enjoyable reading.)

(the ubiquitous)  island fever

circular thinking  (I do way more of this than I should...)

military draft heart murmur  (Yes, it's true, my father had one when he went for his.)

t-shirt surgery  (This continually shows up--who knew doctoring t-shirts was so popular?)

darfur mab  (I have no idea what "mab" is, but I definitely need to do another Darfur update.)

sound of foghorn on bridge Crockett (I don't think this is referring to a character on "Miami Vice," but rather a Bay Area town located next to the Carquinez Bridge.)

when i meditate i itch on the inside  (Hmmm, that is a problem...)

small sparkling lights  (I wish I could string a few on my insides right now...)

things you may not know about me  (...and never will.)

how many vacation days can you carry over California?  (Well, Virginia, there's no set answer for the STATE.)

asshole fever download  (Hey!)

relate fever and love  (Not that hard to do.)

baby boomer favorite things  (Jesus, I am old.)

grass skirt hey music lover  ('Nuff said.)

bikes

What do YOU love about bikes?  That's what Daryl Hannah asks in her new vlog.   (And she uses one of my all-time favorite acid jazz tracks, too...which made me wonder, "Hey, I used to own that CD...where is it?") 

I live in one of the most bike-crazy towns in the U.S.  Our city's logo is a bike.  How lucky am I that I get to commute to and from work on a Vintage one-speed Schwinn?  Pretty damn lucky, I'd say. 

Do you own a bike?  If so, I'd love to hear what role it plays in your day-to-day life.  Tell me a bike tale today.  It doesn't even have to be real...it could be something you've always fantasized about doing.  I'm crazy busy at work these days, but at least I get to pedal to and from work at a leisurely pace.  So much better than sitting stalled in rush-hour freeway traffic, dontcha think?  :)

2006 Dixon May Fair Parade

Jeffrey played a gig in Los Gatos (south of San Jose) last night--we got home at 4:15 this morning.  I was up at 6:45, sitting at the computer, headphones on, surfing surf music in iTunes to create a mix CD to play on the Buckhorn Bar & Grill's (my family'a bar) Dixon May Fair float today.  My brother Marty had said everyone would be meeting at the Buckhorn at 8:00 this morning, but he knew we'd be getting in late so that we might show up a bit later.  I called him at 8:00 this morning and asked if everything was all set.  "Uh...not exactly...we haven't decorated the float yet..."  "WHAT?!?!"  The parade was scheduled to start at 10:00!  He assured me that they had all of the float supplies at hand and that it shouldn't take long to put them up.  I told him I'd wake Jeffrey immediately and we'd be on our way.  When we arrived in front of the bar at 8:45, they had most of the decorations in place.  The float pulled into place (off the parade route) well before the 10 am start, but we had a long wait.  We were just off the railroad tracks and I swear at least 6 or 8 trains went through during the time we were waiting.  We were entry #231!  The parade started on time at 10:00 and I think we finally rolled around 11:45.  This year's float theme was "Let's Luau!" and they had palm trees (both real and inflatable), a wading pool, sand, and lots of grass skirts (both on the floats and float riders) and leis.  Jeffrey once again played drums along to the CD mix, including a performance of "Wipeout" in front of the judges' stand (my brother's request).  Poor guy, working full-time at the golf course...playing gigs Thursday and Friday nights and driving a total of 7 hours round trip to get to them...playing his ass off at the club last night...and then sitting out in the hot sun today and playing surf music like a maniac.  Needless to say, he's enjoying a well-deserved nap right now.  Ciara marched the parade route with her dance troupe and was on the float well before we departed.  Kayla was on the float with a couple of girlfriends, as was Zak with a couple of buddies.  It was a family affair. 

When I'd spoken to Chelle yesterday, she said that she'd bought grass skirts and that most of the gals were going to wear them over bikinis.  I told her there was no way I was putting my 51-year-old body in a bikini and parading it in front of thousands of people in downtown Dixon.  I said I'd walk next to the float and be their photographer.  But I ended up riding on the float, so I was roasting in my flowered shirt, jeans under grass skirt and sneakers.  Chelle's Mom is basically the same age as me--she was wearing her grass skirt over pants, too.  At one point, I realized it was just me and Patty dancing on one side of the float...I leaned over and said it was the "50-year-old hotties" side.  We held our own.  :) 

I think the bikinis are best left to Kayla and the other teenagers...

A month ago I got an email from my Flickr account from a woman in Dixon who'd come across my photos.  Small world!  Then she realized that a state park her family had vacationed at is just outside my hometown, so we had that in common, too.  We visited each other's blogs.  Imagine my delight when while riding through downtown Dixon today during the parade (and there were a lot of people on the route), I looked out and spotted this woman's gorgeous face in the crowd.  We waved excitedly at each other (recognizing each other from our Flickr photos)...I pointed at Jeffrey and mouthed, "My boyfriend!"...she nodded and smiled...and then stood up and took our photo.  I love the internet.  ;)

I know the photos in the collage above are hard to see, but that's okay, because those are just the leftovers.  The best photos are at the Buckhorn's Flickr page here.

And if you want to see a short video clip of Jeffrey playing "Wipeout," click on over to the vlog.

Upwards and onward!

We hit the laundromat yesterday afternoon.  After loading everything into the washers, we walked next door to browse in the thrift shop....where we spotted this.  Bought it for $5 (their prices are high, compared to other thrift shops), took it back to the laundromat and played it while we finished the laundry.  It might have to be our new laundromat activity (usually we take something to read.)  Has anyone else played it?  It's Scrabble (made by the Scrabble folks) but with plastic letters that you can stack up to 5 high on the board.  Gives you a lot more flexibility in forming words, but it actually seemed a bit harder.  :)

Sasquatch

Oh, this is too good to be true... 

Via Yahoo, I present to you, Waiting for Bigfoot.  Click on the "Campsite" link--that river looks suspiciously like my favorite river just outside my hometown.  This is a place where there have (supposedly) been fairly recent Bigfoot sightings.  It's an area where we might be camping ourselves in about three weeks.  Although, frankly, I could do without any Bigfoot sightings...

Schwinn!!

Today started out kind of gray--literally and figuratively.  I was feeling rather down this morning and the overcast weather wasn't helping.  We spent the morning perusing newspaper and online job ads.  Never fun.  But what a difference a few hours can make.  By early afternoon, the sun was finally peeking out and my mood began to lift.  I walked to the stationery store to get some certificate forms so we could prepare a gift certificate from our golfsmith company for a golf tournament next week.  Boyfriend rang me on my cell when I was nearly home and said the owner of the bookstore wanted me to call, to schedule an interview for tomorrow.  The BOOKSTORE??  But when I'd phoned them late last week I'd been told that the jobs had been filled.  I returned the owner's call and scheduled an interview for tomorrow afternoon.  We'll see what it pays and whether or not there are benefits.  I have another job interview next Wednesday morning for a job that I may be more interested in.  I applied for a few more jobs today, including one in Sacramento that might be kind of interesting.  You just never know what's around the corner, huh?  Because within a matter of about an hour, I'd snagged an interview at the bookstore, found a job ad that actually excited me...and here's the best part...

Boyfriend has been diligently searching Craigslist trying to find us a couple of used bikes.  (Have I mentioned that Davis considers itself "The Bike Capitol of the World?")  Last night he said he'd found one (here in Davis!...there is no Davis Craigslist--we have to search the Sacramento site) and that it was, in his words, totally me.  I looked at the ad...and immediately fell in love.  I fired off an email to the owner to ask if it was still available--she'd only posted the ad about an hour before.  I didn't get a return email until this afternoon.  I called and she said she'd had eight calls about the bike and that she was home if we wanted to look at it.  We knew we wanted to do more than look.  We swung by the ATM (figuring she'd want cash since she's moving next week) and went by her apartment, which was all of about four blocks from our place.  The bike was parked outside her apartment door and it looked every bit as good in person as it had in the pictures.  She was a lovely girl and was sad to part with her beloved Schwinn, but couldn't take it with her to Italy.  I hopped on and went for a quick spin, came back and handed her the cash, and jumped back on the bike to ride it home...with a big, fat smile on my face.   I had assured her I'd take very good care of the bike and had asked her if it had a name, since she seemed quite attached to it.  She said she'd always just called it Schwinn.  So, friends, meet Schwinn.  She's a 1970's Hollywood with the original seat and original paint job.  And, yes, you can hate me now.  :)