Car crashes, classes and city clatter - welcome home!

SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - The Admiral and I have been back in Sacramento for a little more than two weeks and already packed in two road trips (San Francisco for a birthday dinner and Camp Connell for a Four Headlamps reunion), taught two weeks worth of university classes, and dealt with matters automotive.

Because our two Mexico vehicles are in, well, Mexico, we are relying on the little red Nissan truck that I purchased new in 1990. With 105,000 miles on it, it's practically a new vehicle, except that it lacks one necessary accessory for this latitude (and this time of the year): an air conditioner.

When I bought the Nissan in February of 1990, air conditioning seemed like such a luxury. Today, driving to the university in 100-degree heat, it didn't seem so.


Nissan gets a new muffler

When we picked up the Nissan from its winter, spring and summer home at Ruth and Brian Gray's house in Murphy's it was obvious that either Brian had put on a new hot rod muffler or - and more likely - the muffler had a hole in it the size of Rush Limbaugh's mouth.

The Rush's-mouth theory won out when I inspected it and we made a quick trip to a muffler shop in South Sacramento, where we had a new muffler installed. When I went to pay the bill, I thought I had accidentally warped to Mexico. It was $53, total.


Fender bender near our Sacramento house

No matter where you live, people always seem to claim that the worst drivers in the world live there.

Sacramento is no exception, except there's evidence that people do drive like maniacs, particularly on the freeways that criss-cross the town like a tic-tac-toe board. The Admiral and I have had a few close calls, but mostly been witness to numerous cases of horns blaring, people shouting and much wild gesturing involving fingers. One fellow swerved across three lanes of traffic to shout at me because he thought I was going to swerve into his lane.

Three lanes!

Luckily, we have two bicycles (my ancient KHS and a borrowed unit from Sanders Lamont) to provide most of our local transit. Less time on the freeway and less wild gesturing of fingers and shouting will be good.


One of my classes at CSU, Sacramento

Admiral Fox has already started her countdown-to-Mexico calendar, now that we have two Sacramento weeks behind us. I'm a little more sanguine and won't get really excited for, say, another week or two.

Part of the reason is my four classes are taking up much of my attention - as they always do at the outset of the semester. But the other is we are seeing our granddaughters Sami and Kami more and they are a hoot to be with.

This morning I spent an hour chatting with daughter Anne while granddaughter Kami decorated my head with her collection of plastic bugs.


Kami at her birthday party last week

I will really miss her decorative skills this winter and spring while I'm in Mexico and real bugs are climbing on my head.

But that's, oh, three months from now.

A stomping good time up in the California mountains

MURPHYS, Calif., USA - Adm. Fox and I took a sojourn to Camp Connell over the weekend to visit with Sanders and Pat Lamont (the other two members of The Four Headlamps) as well as amigos Randy and Karin who live at the high altitudes near Sanders and Pat part of the year, but who have bought land in Arroyo Seco close to our property for the winter months.


Randy and Karen in Arroyo Seco last winter

The weather Friday was perfect for being outdoors, slightly overcast and not-too-hot, which let us take a hike around a nearby park that has some magnificent sequoia trees and enough trails to keep you walking for weeks.

We opted for a two-mile walk, followed by a lunch at the Snoeshoe Brewery (excellent pale ale and hamburgers) and, well, some quiet time after the hike and the food.

Although I had my ukulele, the chords and the lyrics along for the band to practice "Chunder," we were too busy to get out the instruments.

But Saturday morning we zipped down the mountain from Camp Connell to Murphys where Sanders and Pat's granddaughter Delaney and her dad, Brian, were competing in the Grape Stomp, the fifteenth such event in as many years. The grape stomp is just a small part of a day-long celebration for which the town closes the main street and sells food, beer, wine and enough jewelry to outfit a chain of jewelry stores.

Some heavy rains probably kept some of the more lightweight tourists from attending. But we watched Delaney and Brian stomp their way to second place in their heat. Not bad when the stomper is 11 years old and with about a size-6 foot.

Here's a video of the action.