Thanksgiving tradition

I hope you all had a very Happy Thanksgiving.  

If you want to join us next Thanksgiving, meet at Paulette's house at 8:00am Thanksgiving day.

8:30am  Here we are waiting for the 9:00am start. many people have their cameras out and are taking pictures.  Paulette took some with her phone and I had my camera strapped to my side this time. 

This was the 14th annual Run to Feed the Hungry, we have only missed one of them.  The first one had about 800 runners, yesterday there were more than 22,000.  All of the money goes to the Sacramento food bank so at $30 per person it is a substantial amount.  As we waited I asked Paulette how much money did she think had been spent for all of the running shoes.  Even more substantial number since there were some serious runners who probably paid $200+ for their shoes.  Well you have to do something while you wait for the start of the race.

The people behind me.                The people in front of me.  

 I passed a lot of them before the end.                                              

 It took me 50 minutes to walk the 5K.

 

Owl visitor

something special today

When I came up to my door this afternoon, something flew between me and the door. I was startled but looked at the ledge to my left and there was a little owl. Yes a little owl. I think it is a burrowing owl. I took a couple of pictures and it posed very nicely for me. It stayed for a long time.

Monday, 11/12/07

My computer is home again. The 'little' tune-up turned into a hard drive crash and now I have a new operating system and I-Life 08. And I am starting from scratch with a lot of things that didn't get recovered. I also have an external hard drive for back up on a regular basis. They saved my address book and I had backed up my photos before I took it in and everything else is either on line or I think I have a hard copy. I got rid of some junk. I do have to redo most of my bookmarks.

Shirley: Happy Birthday again.

We had a great celebration for Shae and Sterling. They came to California. We had lunch at Olive Garden because Shae got to choose. We went to the Make-a-Bear store and had a blast making a purple hippo, a pink cat and Cody from Surf's UP. Then we went to Paulette's house.

On the way to Paulette's house Shae asked if I would sleep with her. I told her I was going to my house to sleep. After we had been lounging around for a while (as much as you can with three little kids and four adults) Shae announced "I'm going home with Grandma to sleep." I said it was fine if it was ok with mom and dad. She turned to her parents and almost dared them to disagree with her pronouncement.

A few days away

My computer will be getting an annual service or whatever. I will be reading blogs from another computer that doesn't want to let me comment.

Something that made my world a little nicer:

I was taking my daily, well almost daily, walk a few days ago. I walk through a nice neighborhood. A young mother and her baby--he is about 8-10 months old--were sitting in the open garage door. As I passed the baby was talking. I looked over and he was throwing me kisses--lots of kisses. I thanked him, threw a kiss back and smiled at his proud mother. My walk was no longer boring exercise.

week in review

Friday afternoon and I thought of taking a nap but there is too much to do. So...I guess I'll sit here at the computer for a while.

Wednesday a dance friend planned a surprise dinner for Paulette. She was surprised when we started arriving at the restaurant. She thought she was having dinner with one person. We had a very good time and as you might expect the conversation was mostly about dancing. I took two pictures of her and her eyes were closed on both of them. At least she had clothes on; at her third birthday party she wore only her underpants.

I bought tires on line. That was Tuesday and they are at the COSTCO warehouse ready to be put on. Must call for an appointment. That was easy and I got a good discount.

Smoke from Southern California is drifting up here and making the air kind of icky; but we do not have fires.

Not a very exciting week. Must make some phone calls before everyone leaves their offices for the weekend.

October

October arrives in the middle of my annual sad time. It starts about September 20th and continues until today, October 16. Yes on The anniversary of Bob's birthday my sadness begins to lift. Tomorrow Skyler will be six. I remember being in the birthing room and as the clock ticked past midnight and thought, He didn't make Bob's birthday. The deaths: Mom 9/20, Dad 9/24, Tony 9/25 and Bob 10/9. I'm not saying I curl up in bed during this time but I am aware of an undercurrent of sadness. And I can be extra cranky. Life goes on, and I'm glad.

My favorite month is October. Besides Skyler's birthday, The fall color in the mountains was so magnificant that year. A week later is Paulette's birthday; It was such a beautiful fall day when she was born in Mississippi.
The autumn trees are about to go into "full bloom", the rains have come, the temps are down and I have traded my sandals for shoes. Today the red trees on Highway 13 added a little cheer to the rainy landscape and the Ginko trees are turning lime green before they become giant golden bubbles or triangles.

Birds decorated the partly cloudy sky this morning and the western sky glowed orange and pink and gray from the rising sun. The waterways around Sacramento provide rest stops for the migrating birds and there are different ones every day. When I open a window in the morning the geese fly over with loud honks.

Sweaters and jackets litter the chairs in my living room and office. I don't know why I don't hang them back in the closet.

The first weekend of October Paulette and I went to the Ashland, OR Shakespeare festival. We watched Romeo and Juliet outdoors and it was a way cool play and the temperature was way, way cool. The next afternoon we saw On The Razzle, inside. I thought we were going to be inside on Saturday night but Paulette went to the theater box office and sent me a text message, Bundle up. She had traded As You Like it for The Tempest. Good trade and it was way, way, way cool at the end of the Tempest.

Last weekend we met David and his family in Placerville and went to Apple Hill. All of the orchards, wineries and the Jack Russell brewing company have open house from the end of September until November sometime. They bought pumpkins, apples, Indian corn and squash. I bought everyone a pint at Jack Russell. Paulette bought Apple Carmel Sundaes at High Hill Farms. Yes they are as good as they sound. Skyler and Shae rode the ponies that walk in a circle. A California substtitute for Bubba.

I had yesterday off and finally took my car in to have the driver's side window motor fixed. It cost a lot. I didn't work because it was Columbus Day. Yes I know that holiday was last Monday for most of the country but the Dixon School district decided on the 15th.