Oktoberfest

So I went out to my friend Monica's on Sunday so we could go to the Clayton Okoberfest. It was fun, but a little disappointing. They did have a German band who sang and yodeled, but they didn't bring in a lot of German food or other vendors. So that was a little bit of a bummer. But it was nice to be outside and wander around. And gotta love fried zucchini, mushrooms and cheese, and a terriyaki chicken skewer. Very German don't you think? ;-) There is the Clayton House Museum on that street so we poked our heads in. It was pretty cool with all the old bedroom stuff, clothing, piano, a bunch of old kitchen stuff which reminded me of stuff of my Great Grandmothers.

Then we headed back to Monica's and took her dog Bella for a walk around her neighborhood and park before I headed home. Once I was 20 mins from my house, the sky turned overcast and it was freezing out. I had been in 90-106 degree weather since last Wednesday and that was a shock to the system, but nice.

Redding - Day 4

I slept in until 10:30am today because I was exhausted. Pam made some great cheesy/bacon scrambled eggs and toast with freezer strawberry jam for breakfast, so we all sat down and ate before hitting the road. I wanted to leave by 11am, but we packed up, said our Goodbyes and ended up out of there by Noon. We stopped on the way to pick up a thank you card for them and a gift bag I needed for Abby's Bday gift. While in that little shopping center, there was one of those guys holding a sign directing people to Quizons, and he was wearing a cheesehead, so had to take a picture of him to show Claire. So the ride was uneventful, and we arrived back at my Aunt's at 4pm which was on track. Because I needed to turn around from there and head straight to Heather's for Abby's Bday dinner. So got out there by 5pm and we headed out to meet up with all the other family members at Chevy's at 6pm. We had a really nice time at dinner, then headed back to their house. Tony went to bed and Heather, the kids and I watched Fantastic Mr Fox. Which I lost interest in at the end and just went and crashed by Midnight.

Redding - Day 3

Got up at 9:15am again so we could be out of the house by 10:30am to go kayaking. We had to load the kayaks in the car, then meet up with Pam's friend Claudette. She packed up 2 kayaks in her car, then we went to Holiday Market to pick up deli sandwiches for lunch. Then just a short drive to Whiskeytown Lake. We got there and unloaded, then had to inflate the 2 inflatables. Then we packed up our gear, lunch, etc and launched from the boat ramp by Noon. We headed in one direction where there is this metal tube in the water that you can paddle through. There is just a small cove on the other side. A handful of ducks became our new friends and followed us around. Then we spotted 3 turtles on a log, very cute. We headed back through the tube and shortly after the ducks flew over to meet us. We rounded a corner into another cove and watched a blue heron fly from tree to tree for a while. After a while we were hungry so we went over to this beach, pulled up onto shore and unloaded lunch onto a picnic table. Not long after, 2 of the ducks found us again and hung out waiting for food. Which we obliged. So we hung out and ate for about 30 mins, put our feet in the water to cool down, and just take some pictures. Then we paddled across the lake and back to the boat ramp at about 3:30pm. We deflated the 2 kayaks and packed up the car and got on our way around 4pm. We decided to just go directly to the Sundial Bridge again instead of heading home first. So we did and took a bunch of day time pictures before heading back. On our way into the Turtle Bay area though, we looked across the intersection and saw about 5 cows/steers running across the road with 3 white trucks following close behind. They headed towards this fence line on the right and luckily didn't run down the freeway off ramp side of the fence.

We headed back to the house and had BBQ'd steak, with pasta and veggies this time. We sat around for a while telling old family stories and such for a while, then Don went to bed. My Aunt, Pam and I moved outside with our wine and continued to get a little tipsy. Then we decided to take some silly pictures. We had a really nice evening chatting and laughing. At one point they asked me what time it was and I said 2am, to a reaction of "WHAT?!?!?!" out of both of their mouths. So we all headed to bed.

Redding - Day 2

So we planned to get up by 9:15am to get our day started. So I did, and got ready to go. There was a group of turkeys outside my bedroom window when I got up. That was different. We (my Aunt, cousin Don, his wife Pam, her friend Cookie, and I) drove out to the Shasta Caverns tour area on Lake Shasta. There were a ton of kids there when we arrived. We were told that there were 2 groups of kids that were going to fill up the next 2 tours at 11:30am and Noon. So we decided to buy tickets for the 1pm boat and just hang out and wait. We got a hot dog, wandered the gift shop, hung out at a picnic table, then headed down to the boat at 12:45pm. It was a quick 15 min ride across the lake, then a steep climb up a hill to catch the bus. Then it was a quick trip to the entrance to the cavern.

There was a guy on our tour with a Team Canada Crosby shirt on which made me laugh. We entered the caverns which were 72 degrees inside, which was much better than the 106 outside. We passed a very steep and long set of stairs and thought we weren't going to have to climb them. Well, we were wrong. After we viewed the first couple of rooms, we came full circle and had to climb the 800 steps to the top. Yikes. But well worth it to see all the magnificent rooms once we got up there. It seemed right out of Indiana Jones. We were in there for about an hour, and then exited the caverns at a higher elevation, and had to climb down a crap load of stairs once on the outside. We hopped back on the bus, then boat to get back to our car.

We headed back to the house to take cold showers (super hot outside) and relax and have dinner. Don BBQ'd pork steaks (as they called them) and had some pasta and veggies. We just killed some time before heading to the Sundial Bridge. We wanted to see what it looked like at night as well as the day. And it was beautiful all lit up at night. Really a sight. We wandered around there for an hour or so. Then we stopped on the way home for some ice cream bars and wine.

My Aunt and Pam were ready for bed after a glass of wine, but I wasn't. So I stayed up a while longer an watched a couple of TV episodes on my iPod before crashing.

Redding - Day 1

So we finally got out of town around 3:30pm I think. We intended for 2pm, but time got away from us. The Tupperware part Pam was having was at 6:30pm, but we knew we weren't going to make it in time. We stopped at Safeway to get some deli sandwiches and sides to eat on the road. Then stopped at Starbucks a little later. We stopped once again about an hour out from Redding at a rest stop, then just continued on our way. We arrived around 7:30pm as the Tupperware party was in full swing, but we basically just chatted with Pam, and Don when he got home. We drank some wine, and just chatted into the night after all her guests left. We settled into our rooms and crashed around 1am.

Where does the time go?

Yesterday I looked at the Arena and saw the scoreboard widget showing a game schedule. I completely oblivious that Pre-Season started today. I just had the October regular season dates in my head, so I wasn't paying attention. Then I just read that the Teal and White game was tonight. I have gone to it the last 2 years, and it was planned far in advance. How did I not know this year? Guess it was because no one posted about it, and since it's a STH event, it's not widely publicized on the Sharks site or anything.

Anyway, I was just shocked that hockey is here already. Now I just need to get my satellite TV working again (dish realigned) so I can watch on my nice TV and not on a 6" x 4" video screen on my PC. I'll get that done before the regular season at least.

A helping hand...

I was spending the day with my Great Aunt taking her to the doctor and running some errands. Our last stop was Rite-Aid so I could run in and grab 2 things of ice cream for her. There was a man sitting on the curb out front who started talking to me as soon as I got out of the car. When I see someone like this, it depends on the situation, location and the person themselves if I decide to converse with someone who looks like they are going to ask for money. I couldn't understand him at first so I got closer and asked him what he said.

He was trying to hand me his Rite-Aid Wellness (discount) card and asked if I could buy him some headache medicine. I was kind of caught off guard by the question and stupidly, but politely, asked, "Why don't you just go in and get some yourself?" to which he replied, "Because I don't have any money.". DUH?!?! I think the fact that he had a discount card, wasn't asking for cash, and wasn't dressed like a homeless person (but possibly disabled), it kind of threw me off.

I told him I would give him a dollar, and he was very thankful. Once inside getting what I needed, I thought to myself, why didn't I just offer to buy him some? So I went and grabbed a 24ct bottle of Excedrin and added it to my cart. When I went to go back to my car, he wasn't around though. Oh well.

But then my Great Aunt, who had been waiting in the car, thought of something else she needed so I went back inside. The man was inside and approached me with an outstretched hand full of change when he saw me. I was very surprised, but just told him Thanks, but just to keep it. And I asked if he got some medicine like he was wanting, he said yes. I had already put the Excedrin in my trunk, or I would have handed it over. According to my Great Aunt, he had received a little money from some others after me, so must have gotten enough to buy some.

By the time I did my quick second shopping trip and got back in my car, the man was crossing the street in front of me after going to the gas station across the street. He had some packaged donuts/cookies/candy/something in his hand and again reached out toward my car as if to say, would you like some? I just shook my head No, smiled, and waved.

So it just made me think that sometimes there are people out there that just need a little help for whatever reason. He wasn't asking for a handout to buy drugs, he just had a really bad headache and needed some medicine. I guess the moral of the story is to not treat everyone asking for help as a second class citizen. Some of them legitimately just need a helping hand.

Another crazy dream

Last night I had another crazy and vivid dream. I was in my town visiting with some people, and when I went to leave, my car wouldn't start. So I called AAA for a tow truck. But within 10 mins or so, a helicopter landed on the street to pick my friend and I up instead. I found this rather odd. As we were flying over my town, I started noticing many buildings on fire and a ton of black smoke pluming into the air. I commented on this, but no one seemed phased.

My town has an old Naval Air Station at one end of town. It is used by some other businesses now, but still has a ton of open land. Once we landed over there, I looked back toward the city and it was more full of flames than ever. I yelled to everyone to gather what they could and head toward the water. There were some houses there that were abandoned and had no doors or windows, but we used them as shelter. I had my camera with me (as I always do in life) and a chain about 3' long with a snap hook on each end. I had the camera in one front pocket, then took the snap hook from one end of the chain and put it around a belt loop, then the chain filled up the rest of my other pocket.

We then heard a loud explosion from the city and a tsunami resulted from it. The waves were at least 30'-40' high and completely engulfed the houses we were in. I had handed the other end of the chain to my friend before this happened so we wouldn't get separated. So we swam out of a window and up to the surface. The water seemed to quickly subside. We knew we had to move on to a new location. But instead of just walking somewhere nearby, we seemed all of a sudden transported to a tropical locale. We were standing in a lush rain forest at the top of a very tall and beautiful waterfall. I remember taking some pictures, thinking if my camera survived this, then at least part of this journey would be documented.

But the explosions and tsunamis followed us where ever we went, so this was some sort of global event that was taking place. I never saw people attacking, or planes flying over, but I knew it was some sort of war situation. We found more houses to hide in, only to be forced out all over again by the waves. I remember thinking that my chain was a great resource to have and helped keep my friend and I together.

And like most of my dreams, I woke up before it ended. I actually tried to go back to sleep to see how things turned out, but didn't happen. It was very real and vivid though. Maybe that's what I get for watching 'The Colony' before bed.

Dream... Cheechoo and a work camp

I had 2 dreams last night at the completely opposite end of the spectrum from each other.

The first, I was apparently dating Cheechoo (don’t get jealous ladies). I don’t remember much of the dream except that we were at some amusement park for one part of our date. Then we ended up at some really high end restaurant, where the chef kept bringing us tastings of the food. I remember looking at the menu and it was really pricey, and even Cheech raised an eyebrow at the $40ish entrees. But we had an amazing meal with appetizers, entrees, wine and dessert. I felt bad it cost so much and offered to go dutch, but he wouldn’t let me. I was never one of the ones to pine for Cheech (so not sure why I dreamed about him) but he did look rather hot in my dream :-)

The second dream had me waking up with my heart racing. I was walking past barbed wire into some kind of work camp. I saw people dirty and in pens like you would see animals in at a farm. I had to walk with a line of people over these back to back ladder like things hovering like a bridge over water. I slipped and the last ladder came loose and fell into the water. The guard watching screamed at me as I apologized over and over. We kept going and we ended up inside and I saw a room that looked like it was framed out of bamboo and just had tarps over it. A bunch of people were inside wearing those old style military helmets watching something on a screen on the wall. Then there were bomb sounds and orange glowing lights just to make people scared. Inside were a bunch of offices, it looked like, and I just kept looking for a way out. I ended up outside back where those pens were and hiding under some tarp lying on the ground. I remember being muddy and wet and only one girl saw me go under there and was going to keep quiet. But eventually there was this lady guard that found me, and was sort of being nice by explaining what I was in for. She said the women were passed from guard to guard and then their fate is unknown. I was freaking out. Then I woke up just very uneasy and jittery.

Dream... The Amazing Race

Last night I dreamed that I was a contestant on The Amazing Race. My partner was a 40 something woman I didn’t know, which was odd. (That might make for an interesting season, to pair people with people they don't know.) And almost all the pairs are over 40-50 year old people. The game hadn't officially started yet. It was like a period of time before the game starts where they go over the rules, production, etc. At one point we were all gathering in a room with big round tables, and we had to dismantle tables from the walls in a contest. Maybe just getting us hyped up or something. And at one point one person from each pair had to go into a body of water and collect lobsters. My partner did this. This is all I can remember right now though.