Live from Sacramento it's "Animal House"

Wednesday, I spent much of the day developing the Sacramento area Pet Therapy meetup group and website. Because we recently moved to a new town, and we are also new at training Coco to be a “Therapy Dog”, I decided to combine both of our needs into one effort. This group will help us in training Coco and meeting new people in our community. There has already been a great response and interaction on the website. I scheduled our first face to face meetup meeting for next Saturday. We already have 14 rsvps.! It should be a lot of fun.

If you get a chance, check out our community meetup website I am developing.

I spent the rest of the day playing poker on-line. I took a break and went out to check out a couple of less expensive long term storage places for my RV. The place we have it in now, is so close and nice, but if I drive a few miles, I can save half the monthly fee. I discovered some RV storage places have high tech and the latest equipment. Some have ancient facilities and junkyard dogs that guard the place at night. They are probably both just as effective. Though, I would rather try to hack into a high tech security, then try to subdue junk yard dogs. Lol.

Thursday was a “dog day”. I took Grace and Mercy for shots and their annual physical. Coco had her nails done, while I ran errands most of the day. I made for our dinner meal, a "speciality" an old friend used to always make us when we went to his home for dinner. Spaghetti & Fried Chicken.
Caren shopped all evening and took a much needed break from the duties of the house and assisting Carrie’s health issue. Please keep praying for Carrie, this is really hard on her.

Caren had the privilege of attending a gala social event for women at the “The Gathering Place” in Folsom. I called Phil to see if he wanted to “hang out” during the women’s event and found myself “roped into” being one of the food serves at the event Caren was attending. It was fun to work with the other guys, and I got a great meal out of it.

My son-in-law David had never been to a live hockey game. He was going to attend one with us last xmas in Las Vegas, but Carrie got sick and he stayed in the hotel room with her. Last Tuesday I went to a Sharks game with Jonathan. So,when I heard Sac State’s Ice Hockey team played only a few miles from our house David and I, went to the 9:30 p.m. game between Sac State and UC Davis.

It was a lot of fun. If you consider being jammed packed and having to stand the whole time shoulder to shoulder with drunk coeds and college guys fun. They screamed the whole time, taunted each other, yelled obscenities and some of them might have fallen down drunk, but since we were so jam packed nobody fell down. It was like being trapped in a live National Lampoon Animal House movie. It was a lot of fun, we are planning on going back next Friday.

Jobless and Homeless

Tuesday….

Dec 2nd 29 years ago very early in the morning on a cold winter night we were driving a winding lonely stretch of U.S. 101 following the Russian River from Ukiah to Healdsburg, in Northern California hoping Caren would not give birth to Jonathan before we made it to the hospital. We made it with a couple of hours to spare.
So today we are driving to San Jose to pick up Jonathan and take him to a Sharks Game. Two of his favorite things in life, beside his computer and snowboard, is eating steak and watching the Sharks. We enjoyed dinner is at the Black Angus.

Jonathan had a minor accident with his motorcycle the other day. That is the bad news. The good news is except for scratches, and scrapes, twisted ankle and a big road rash he is fine.

We were able to use his accident as a benefit at the Sharks game. Because we had decided to go so late, and they are having such a good season, and I am cheap, we ended up with tickets up in the upper, upper deck.

Jonathan is on crutches so that was going to be a little challenging for him. I talked with one of the head ushers at the stadium. They were so nice they relocated us to the private season holder boxes area and set us in great seats 12 rolls up from the ice. My 40 dollar a seat on-line ticket purchase turned into $300 a seat tickets in the private area where waitresses came to our seat to ask us what we would like to order.

The best part of this story is it turned out to be a great game. The Sharks scored in the first 2 minutes of the first period and they won a very exciting game 5-2

After dropping Jonathan off at home we found ourselves driving early in the morning on a lonely road the 120 miles back to Sacramento reflecting on the day today and that day 29 years ago. We thanked God for a great son, these two great days in our life and we both expressed how we felt very rich with myriad life experiences.

So what if we are jobless and homeless? We are rich beyond measure.

Giving Thanks...

Thanksgiving Week at our Daughter’s home.

Monday began with another Dr. visit for our daughter. She has been fighting an infection that needs to be clear for a couple of weeks before she can have the operation she needs.

Would you consider saying a prayer for her? She has been on bed rest and disability for over 6 weeks. She is a very active person and it is very hard on her. Tuesday was spent cleaning her home and her bedroom for her. Wednesday and Thursday her husband and her, were able to go to Lake Tahoe while she enjoyed a change of scenery from her bed. They really enjoyed themselves and were able to stop Friday at Dave’s parents home for a late Thanksgiving dinner with them.

Our son Jonathan came up to spend Thanksgiving at Carrie & Dave’s home while we “dog sat” their two dogs Grace & Mercy. I made a big Thanksgiving turkey in a new electric roaster we bought for this holiday.

You know the rest of the story. We ate too much, moaned, laid around the house, saying next year we won’t eat so much…blah blah blah.

Friday we took the dogs to a dog park in Citrus Heights. Carrie’s dogs don’t get out too much so they acted a little frightened at first but they warmed up after awhile. The next day we took them back again with Dave & Carrie and Grace had a lot of fun. Mercy was still not so sure about it.

Sunday we visited “The Gathering Place” in Folsom and met some old friends. It has been many years since we saw Paul and Linda Samples and Paul Jones. Phil & Donna Jones our good friends here in Sacramento were having their new twin grandchildren dedicated at church. We enjoyed pizza at the park with all of their extended families and joking told others we were “adopted” members of their family. Phil and Donna have been so gracious to invite and include us in many special events.

Speaking of special events we got a huge surprise in the mail.

We received a card with several pictures of a little boy we took into our home under severe circumstances 23 years ago. We had received a phone call from a mother unknown to us who was abandoning her 8 year old son, Matthew, because she didn’t know what else to do. She was in an abusive relationship with a man who wasn’t his father . The same night she called we found ourselves driving 60 miles to San Francisco to pick him up on a street corner and take him into our home. A few weeks later his biological father contacted us and wanted him. I was able to provide him with counseling and parenting training and reunite him with his father. Then within a year his biological father and mother got back together and they have raised him and his younger brother and sister these last 23 years.

“Out of the blue” they tracked us down, wrote us a Thanksgiving Thank You card and sent us pictures of their family who now lives in Oregon. We were so overjoyed and grateful. We had often wondered what happened to Matthew. Caren often prayed for him when she thought of him. He is a handsome 31 year old man and we may have the chance to meet him the next trip we take to Oregon.

Our son-in-law who is a worship pastor makes fun of us for enjoying the Gaithers and Old-Fashioned gospel quartet music. So he found this on-line for us... you may enjoy it.. We sure did.

Make sure you turn your sound up......

Sleeping by the Eel River

After leaving Ferndale and the Redwoods we decided to park by the Eel River and take a little nap. The amount of choices you have when traveling by RV is awesome. We love the freedom we enjoy. We find the journey becomes our destination.

I forgot to tell about being back in San Diego. I flew down and my friend Gary who had just had his 2nd heart attack, with no permanent heart damage, (Thank God) picked me up just 3 days after his heart attack. I stayed with them a couple of days and got to visit with their granddaughter Sofia.

Then I drove back to Sacramento in time to spend the weekend with Caren. We got to visit our friends Phil and Donna and visit their church the “Gathering Place” in Folsom, California. Then afterwards we got to meet some great new friends Mark and Mynda.

So far we are loving the move from San Diego to Sacramento. But, San Diego still has a more beautiful skyline.

Take a drive through the Redwoods....

Avenue of the Giants - A Destination Vacation: This world-famous scenic drive is a 31-mile portion of old Highway 101, which parallels Freeway 101 with its 51,222 acres of redwood groves. It is by far the most outstanding display of these giant trees in the entire 500 mile redwood belt and is accessible to all with convenient services provided along the way. The Avenue of the Giants is surrounded by Humboldt Redwoods State Park which has the largest remaining stand of virgin redwoods in the world.

Whenever we drive through Humboldt Country we also take a detour and drive the ave of the Giants. It is truly a "magical place".

We didn't take this video but it shows the place we love to drive.

We pressed on and stopped in Willits for gas and dinner. Then we drove across to Lake County and spent the night at the Robinson's Rancheria area. Tomorrow we head back for our daughter and son-in-laws home in Sacramento.

Ferndale Today...

Woke up at Bear River Casino and headed toward the Redwoods. Just as we were to get on the US 101 south ramp I saw a sign for Ferndale and we made a quick decision to make another trip detour. It was one of those great decisions.

What a jewel Ferndale, California is. It is filled with old Victorians and is a great place to visit. Caren browsed in all the little shops on Main street, while I sat across from the Post Office in the sun and smoked a cigar.

I think I saw half the town go into the Post Office by the time Caren finished browsing. I think the old guy, sitting on a chair, smoking a cigar, added to the ambience of the town that morning because I was greeted cheerfully by many people.

Caren examines a little Victorian house.

We had lunch at Poppas. It was great, I had the blue plate special a corned beef sandwich with coleslaw while Caren had homemade Cabbage soup.

The morning and afternoon was like being in that Twilight episode when he longed for an earlier more peaceful time and when he got off his commute train he found himself in a town 50 years past. We didn’t want to leave, but the Redwoods, the “greatest place” on earth still beckoned us so we fondly said goodbye to Ferndale and headed down US101 to the Avenue of the Giants.