It has been said, “When life deals you a lemon, make lemonade.” It’s been a precept I’ve attempted to follow through all of the many unwelcome health issues with which I have struggled for the past 35 years or so. Sometimes the lemonade was sweet, sometimes a little sour, but looking for the bright side of any adversity has always seemed more rewarding than dwelling on pain, discomfort, or limitation.

Well, another lemon rolled our way yesterday as we were traveling to Carefree, AZ, to visit our friend Sue who, together with her late husband Dave, we first met on our Mexico RV train adventure. About halfway there we stopped to stretch our legs and walk around a bit. I left the motorhome and stood on the curbside in the chilly morning air. Suddenly I noticed a large shiny puddle growing under the diesel engine at the rear of our coach. Smelling a bit of it on my finger confirmed it was diesel fuel and it was leaking quite rapidly. Where we stopped was right in front of a place advertising diesel truck repairs but when we approached the surly mechanic he informed us he would not work on a motorhome under any circumstances. I was finally able to convince him to at least look at the engine from the rear. He too confirmed a fuel leak from somewhere high up on the engine and said he wouldn’t drive the coach anywhere.

Soooo, for the second time since we’ve owned the RV we called our roadside service company and arranged for a tow to a garage in Quartzite, AZ. That was a 27 mile trip back in the direction from which we had just come. The leak was discovered at about 11:00 a.m. but, due to the lengthy delay in getting a big rig flatbed tow truck to us, getting all loaded, and traveling the miles, it was nearly 5 p.m. by the time we were unloaded at the mechanic’s garage.

He came aboard, lifted our bed to get to the engine, and found we had blown a hole in a fuel line leading to one of the fuel injectors. He said a special part would have to be fabricated in Blythe, CA (another 25 miles west), the next day as the fuel line had a special fitting on the end of it.

Today the new line was installed and we were able to get back on the road but, due to another commitment, we had to cancel our Carefree trip altogether. All in all it was a simple minor repair but had a large effect on our plans. We’re both sorry to have not been able to complete that part of our trip and visit with Sue. Unforeseen circumstances have now stopped us from completing that trip twice in the past 5 months.

Now, what was all that stuff about lemonade? Well, during the tow for those 27 miles we were able to achieve an infinite miles per gallon of fuel. Even more meaningful is that had we not stopped to take that break we could have ended up with a serious fire in the engine compartment which, given our being in the middle of nowhere, would probably have resulted in the total destruction of the coach and our Jeep we tow behind us. Given that scenario it could even have been worse ending in injury to us or worse. So once again that angel was sitting on our shoulders taking care of us and serving a big frosty glass of lemonade.

Thank you!

MERRY CHRISTMAS IN GRASS VALLEY

I don't imagine many people are wishing for a whiter Christmas than what most of the country has received this year. Yet, this morning our world has again turned white. We awoke to rain and sleet that quickly turned to heavy snow and, almost instantly, all of the ground that had been revealed disappeared beneath a blanket of new white. Here's a small album of photos taken this morning in our front and back yards.

Here atop our mountain is the home of our nearest neighbor. They are also snowbirds usually at Sky Valley this time of the year.

The sign reads, "Swimsuits optional beyond this point" but, thankfully, the hot tub isn't operating at this time of the years or there would be goose pimples on places not accustomed to them.

Looking east from our deck towards the peaks of the High Sierra Nevadas in a brief sunbreak.

Another brief shaft of sunlight highlights our backyard.

Judy and I hope you've had a wonderful and meaningful Christmas this year.

A Firefighter's Family Christmas

WE Wii’d THE NIGHT AWAY!

Holiday schedules become very flexible when a family member works in emergency services. Our son Kevin, as almost all of the readers of this blog know, is an officer in our largest fire department. As often as not, his schedule ends up with him working on many of the major holidays, and this year was no exception.

In depth negotiations with Santa Claus resulted in a special delivery several days early so the whole family could celebrate the holiday together. Therefore, Tuesday, Dec. 23rd became our Christmas.

A little more snow fell throughout the day, ending before sundown. Our unplowed road is rapidly turning into an icy downhill slide as the white stuff gets packed down hard on the gravel. Only the hearty are venturing out until those conditions improve substantially.

Last year we had the pleasure of having our daughter Laurie and Granddaughter here from North Carolina but this year, with the economy being as tough as it is, they stayed home. We missed their smiling faces around the dinner table this year. Dinner was wonderful though repeated attempts to get the two boys to make nice faces were a complete failure. We settled on a nice picture of we four adults with the two munchkins doing what they felt like doing.

A very generous Santa delivered a Wii fit video game system to Kevin and Dodi’s boys and, when they all arrived at our house that evening for Christmas Dinner and our gifting, they brought it along with them. What a lot of fun. We bowled, raced, played baseball and laughed and shouted at successes and failures alike. I can clearly see why the Wii is so popular.

Waking on the morning of Christmas Eve, we discovered that Mother Nature was doing her thing again and moderate snow was falling. The trees looked as though they had been dusted with powdered sugar.

Oh the First Snowfall of the Winter

Let it snow, let it snow…….OH JUST STOP IT!

The first snowstorm happened before we returned home and the second one arrived last night, lasting into this morning.

Though we didn’t measure, it appeared we had something like 10” on the ground when we got here and another 5” or so fell overnight. Now we have 12 or `13” on the flat after some of the original compressed down.

In recent years our snow accumulation has been pretty light but this year's weather forecasts, out through the first of the year, look like Grass Valley will keep this snow around for a while.

More storms are forecast to arrive starting Saturday night, DEC 20th lasting through all of next week with some precip arriving each day. Some of that will be snow and some of it rain but it makes for a rather soggy holiday in Grass Valley.

Old Rowdy ventured out in the white stuff today and didn’t think much of it. I can just imagine how that cold white stuff felt on his belly and other stuff located in that area. Brrrrrrrr!

The Christmas cookie baking began today making the inside of our home smell wonderful with brown sugar, vanilla, and sugar odors filling the air. In the bath, however, the smell is of Ben Gay for my joints that ache in the stormy weather.

We're at home for Christmas

Home again, home again, jiggity jig:

We celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary driving north on State Highway 99, from Desert Hot Springs to Grass Valley. That trip is nearly 600 miles and that’s a long days drive.

When we awoke yesterday morning the heavy rains of the previous day and evening had come to an end and the day was washed in brilliant sunshine. Nearly an inch of vitally important rain had fallen in the previous day and while there was still great concern in the areas that had been stripped of all their vegetation in the recent wildfires, no large movements of mud were reported on the morning news.

Snow had fallen quite heavily on the high desert around Yucca Valley, Lancaster, and Apple Valley and, of course on the mountains around the Palm Springs area. The mountains are always beautiful but dressed in winter white they are at their best.

In California’s central valley we encountered several hours of rain showers while driving through. As we approached Grass Valley on Highway 49, we began to see snow on the shoulders of the road. It increased as we rose up the mountains until the ground was totally covered with something less than one foot all over town.

Of even a bigger shock to our systems, however, was the temperatures which stood at about 26 F downtown…..brrrrrrrr. After a month and a half down in the 70’s and 80’s of the desert if felt like we had stepped into a freezer.

In this morning’s early light we drew the drapes and got our first good look at a magically white winter wonderland. The bird feeder on the deck was decorated with what looked like a huge cotton ball while the icicles dripped from the rain gutters.
Judy immediately set about decorating for Christmas and, by the end of day one, the tree was up, full of lights and our heirloom ornaments. The potpourri pot is bubbling, the village is on the mantel, and the only cds in the player are those containing Christmas favorites such as Mannheim Steamroller (we were fans long before Rush Limbaugh discovered them) and Ray Charles.)
The grandsons arrived after school and found it a little hard to understand why Grandma only had package cookies and none of the wonderful home-baked Christmas confections their taste buds were remembering. Life’s lessons continue to be learned.
Grandma tried explaining that everything would be done in its time but I don’t think they really understood.
So, we’re home for Christmas. The weather guy, by the way, says we’ve many more snowy days on the horizon so it seems certain that Christmas will be white.

More Merriment

I was struck the other day with the thought that the desert environment we live in is much more like the conditions into which the Christ Child was born. Bethlehem is and was in the desert with palm trees and other prickly things. The vision of a white Christmas, with sleighs and evergreens, is purely European and American.

But even here on the desert, far away from home and family, the joy and excitement that is the Christmas Season do infect us. It’s true that most of us don’t get carried away with decorations in our restricted-space homes on wheels, but we still decorate. Some even find creative uses for the desert cacti and palm trees found everywhere around us.

In fact, some folks, mainly those who staff these resorts during the whole winter, do go all out—nearly over the top—in exterior holiday décor.

Of course the resort at which we stay has been fully decorated with animals made from the dry end of palm fronds decorating every street post and all of the various buildings sporting icicle lights and other decorations. One of the differences between these displays and typical commercial efforts is that these were all thought of, designed, and created and installed by the volunteer workers who staff these places in exchange for rent or having to move after a set number of days. They are a hard working group and did a great job on the decorations this year. The penguins sliding down the faux snow slope are especially cute.
Here at our house, Knute the polar bear (Yeah, named after what was the little orphan bear in Germany) sits proudly at the front of our yard greeting all who pass. The candy cane lights around him glow nicely in the dark.

Inside our little home we have our miniature tree with politically and environmentally correct LED lights and, since we normally hit the sack around ten, we have no problem complying with the resort’s request to extinguish holiday lights by eleven p.m.

The “Holly” channel on our XM Satellite radio is capable of playing Christmas music 24/7 and Forest our Alaskan Bear sits in the driver’s seat wearing his Christmas outfit—a Santa hat and his tee shirt from North Pole Alaska.

Oh yes, we’re very Christmassy – Christmassie – Christmassee – oh whatever. We’ve no place to store gifts so our clothes end up in plastic bags stuffed under the bed, but we work around the situation. The packages for back east have all been shipped and due to arrive any day now. Our stockings will be hung with care but that will have to wait until we journey back to our very own chimney in Grass Valley. There Judy will fill the house with the cherished decorations we’ve collected over the years and the wonderful smells of Christmas--cookies, pumpkin pie, apple cider, turkey, and who could forget—SWEDISH MEATBALLS.

The grandsons will visit with sugarplums dancing in their eyes, certainly not prepared for the disappointment of opening a package with a shirt or pair of pants inside. They’re still at the age when they believe all gifts should be things to play with. Underpants as gifts are just one of life’s hard lessons. Growing up is tough. Those cookies will soften the blow at least in part and they’ll look back and remember the warmth and love of Christmas at Grandma’s house.

Oh yeah, it’ll be Christmas 2008 at our home whether here or there.

Though not a Christmas picture at all, we came upon this scene in the resort with Mt. San Jacinto backlighted by the setting sun. Really pretty, don't you think?

Heading Home for Christmas?

Having been here in the Southwest for a month and a half, our activities are now focused on returning to Grass Valley, for the Christmas Holidays. As things stand now, on the 10th of December, our departure, scheduled for next Tuesday, the 16th, is in some doubt as a large, cold storm is headed for California. It’s due to arrive this weekend and persist into much of next week. For much of the state it will bring some much needed rain, but in the mountains snow is anticipated to quite low elevations.

The plan is to leave the motorhome in storage here on the desert and drive home in the Jeep.

We’ll keep a very close eye on the situation and may have to delay our departure or cancel our trip altogether, depending on the severity and duration of the storm. Yeah, Laurie, it looks like this year you could have had a white Christmas in Grass Valley. You also may have had to enjoy it without us.

We’ve just had a couple of the very windy days for which Desert Hot Springs is known. When you are located adjacent to hundreds of wind generators you have to expect some windy days. For the remainder of this week, as we await the arrival of the storm mentioned above, we’ll have lovely, warm weather.

This past weekend we attended the Indio International Tamale Festival along with our friends Lyle and Marge Hacke and an estimated 99,996 others. There were tamales of every size, shape, and filling imaginable—fruit tamales—pork, beef, chicken, turkey, cheese, and vegetarian. If you couldn’t find something that tickled your taste buds, there was something wrong with your buds.

Cynical Ron wondered if the latino guys loitering around the Border Patrol recruiting trailer were legal or not. He also was amused by a group of police officers enjoying a pleasant conversation with each other while the odor of marijuana drifted through the air around them. I guess it demonstrated that what law was being enforced was very selectively chosen.

It was a beautiful warm afternoon around 80 degrees with wall to wall sunshine and the crowd was well behaved.

Thanksgiving Greetings

This Thanksgiving morning we give thanks for the rains of the past two days that have significantly dampened a water-starved Southern California. Apparently there was not enough rain to cause the mudslides in the recent burn areas that so concerned local officials and residents. The sound of the raindrops on the roof awakened us numerous times overnight.

If you happened to spend the night at an altitude above 7000’ the precipitation was of a much quieter variety, falling as a light snow. When the clouds parted this morning we could see the snow-covered peak of Mt. San Jacinto, towering over Palm Springs.

For the past several years we have joined others here in the resort for Thanksgiving dinner in the dining hall at the recreation center. The problem is that we really enjoy turkey dinner and, more importantly, the leftovers after the dinner is done. The warmed up dinners on the days following the holiday, the turkey sandwiches, and the turkey “hash” to finish it off, are all favorites. Also, it’s such a traditional dinner that certain flavors and textures are expected and, while other people’s cooking can be very tasty, it’s not the same as what “MOM ALWAYS MADE.”


Therefore, Judy began the early morning by baking her version of a delicious traditional pumpkin pie.

Soon the turkey will go into the convection/microwave oven. Judy’s main concern is a lack of stove burners and cooking pots and dishes for all of the other stuff.

We’re a little light in the seasonal decorations department—we don’t have a lot of room to store that kind of stuff—but Mr. Turkey and some colorful imitation Fall leaves have decorated our mantel (think dashboard) for the past week and all of that will be replaced with Christmas decorations next week. Hey, you have to go all out no matter where you are, don’t you?

By the time dinner was done and being served Ron was ravenously hungry from the wonderful smells of dinner cooking and totally forgot to take more pictures.

Suffice it to say, the dinner was terrific and, in spite of a few small disasters in the tiny kitchen, went off without a hitch. Judy said, “That went very well. We’ll definitely do this again next year.

One of the best parts was enjoying the whole thing again a few nights later and the wonderful turkey sandwiches for lunch.

The Fall decorations will remain up for a few days before we put them away for another year and, though we’ll be heading home for Christmas, we do have a tree, an inflatable bear for outside, some rope lights that look like candy cane and other stuff that we’ll deploy until we put the coach in storage for a couple of weeks.

THE POLICE BLOTTER

The story of how we came to live in the little historic gold mining town of Grass Valley, Ca, bears telling.

Back in the mid-70’s I worked with a married couple one of whom had parents who lived in Grass Valley. They would frequently take a few days off and visit them and return with wonderful stories about this neat little town.

We, at the time, were living in a city/suburb of Los Angeles or Orange County, take your pick, and were not happy with the conditions there for raising our two kids. Thus we were open to ideas of places to which to move and Grass Valley was one option we investigated.

We subscribed to the one-and-only Grass Valley newspaper, mainly for the real estate ads of property for sale but also to get a better feel for the community. One day the paper contained an article about a vehicle accident in town. It seems the town had hired a motorcycle cop who came equipped with his own motorcycle fully rigged as a police vehicle. On that particular day he spotted what he believed to be a stolen car. He hit the red lights and chased the car through town. The car driver turned up a street the policeman knew to be a steep uphill dead end. “Ha, ha,” he thought, I’ve got you cornered now. As he rounded the corner to head up the hill he was faced with the fact that the car he had been chasing was now backing down the hill at high speed and heading directly for him. He managed to jump clear of the motorcycle before the car ran over the motorcycle, destroying it. The driver then drove off and escaped.

Well, being used to big city news this story really touched my funny bone and I told Judy that we had to go there and see this place. Shortly thereafter, an ad appeared for a new house that sounded like just what we were looking for so we packed up the kids after school and headed for the Gold Country. We bought a home on that trip and moved there in July of 1977,

Our home turned out to be just a mile away from the local airport where the California Department of Forestry operated an airbase with firefighting air tankers. Since it was summer and they were flying frequently I decided to buy a police scanner so we could know where they were going. It was an enjoyable and informative piece of equipment and we would listen to the fire channels during the day and the local police in the evening.

One evening the police dispatcher reported a man in kilts walking down the mainstreet of the downtown area. The police responded and soon reported they were “unable to locate anyone on stilts.” She corrected them and they continued their search. Shortly thereafter they reported a guy in a skirt behind the local department store who was, “either relieving himself or abusing himself.” All of us listening in our little house doubled over with laughter.

Anyone who came into town on a motorcycle was suspected to belong to the Hell’s Angels and would be followed closely by uniformed officers in a police cruiser until he or she left the city limits. That scanner was a great source of amusement.

Now here we are spending half of our lives back in Southern California, not too far from the greater Los Angeles area. We watch the television news from LA and it is replete with shootings, rapes, muggings. Why we even had a shootout in one of our local Toys r Us stores here near Palm Springs on the day after Thanksgiving in which two gang-bangers managed to kill each other while endangering several hundred innocent shoppers in the store. This is serious stuff and no where near as much fun as the news from home. I read today’s Grass Valley newspaper online this morning and wanted to share, for your comparison, their column entitled, “The Police Blotter.” I really miss the crime of Grass Valley.

So here are some actual selections taken from the “Police Blotter” from today’s GrassValley newspaper.

Grass Valley Police Department

Sunday9:22 a.m. — A caller from East Main Street at Idaho-Maryland Road reported someone just went the wrong way on the roundabout.

12:19 p.m. — A caller from the 100 block of Normandy Court reported being in an accident and exchanging names and telephone numbers with the other party. However, when the number was called to get insurance information, it had been disconnected.

12:47 p.m. — A caller from the 1100 block of East Main Street reported a physical fight. One of the people involved had blood on his face.

1:29 p.m. — A woman from a business on the 700 block of Taylorville Road reported the vehicle next to hers in the parking lot had hit her vehicle. The damage was not found to match that vehicle, however.

3:21 p.m. — A caller from the 400 block of Mill Street reported a stolen bicycle.

3:28 p.m. — A caller from Morgan Ranch Drive reported several youths skateboarding in the street, with a Toyota Tacoma following behind them, swerving back and forth.

3:56 p.m. — A man across from Memorial Park reported he was assaulted after a Narcotics Anonymous meeting.

Monday
3:18 a.m. — A caller from the 400 block of Henderson Lane reported a diesel truck was running and making noise.Nevada County Sheriff’s Office

Sunday
10:59 a.m. — A caller from a veterinary clinic in Loomis reported a man from the 24000 block of Restive Way had been in with his dog, which had been shot by a neighbor. The man was threatening to shoot his neighbor.

4:13 p.m. — A caller from the 16000 block of Nomad Way reported a goat was “screaming, jumping, drooling, laying down.” It appeared to be in distress. (I love this one)

5:18 p.m. — A woman from the 10000 block of Carli Way reported being harassed by a man to whom she owes $800. He keeps coming to her residence because she has not paid him.

5:58 p.m. — A woman from the 22000 block of St. Helena Drive reported her daughter moved in while she was gone and refuses to leave.

8:21 p.m. — A man from the 16000 block of Duggans Road reported a woman was hitting him in the stomach and throwing things at him.9:20 p.m. — A caller from a business in the 16000 block of Penn Valley Drive reported a fight in front of the business.

11:16 p.m. — A woman from the 12000 block of Banner Lava Cap Road reported something was “being hit against her door.”

Monday

4:55 a.m. — A caller from Highway 174 and Greenhorn Access reported horses in the roadway, but sheriff’s deputies were unable to locate the horses. A woman from Orchard Springs Road called at 6 a.m. to report she had the horses blocked in with her car. The horses were returned to their owner.Nevada City Police Department

Monday

12:59 a.m. — A caller from the 200 block of Commercial Street reported an accident with a white SUV leaving the scene. A be-on-the-lookout advisory was issued for a white SUV with tinted windows and a sun roof, with possible front-end damage on the passenger side.— Liz Kellar

GRASS VALLEYFIRE DEPARTMENT

The Grass Valley Fire Department responded to 55 calls for service from Nov. 5 through Nov. 11, including those responded to as part of the joint operational relationship with Nevada County Consolidated Fire District and Nevada City Fire Department.

Here are some highlights:

10 a.m. Nov. 5 — A vehicle hit a house on South Auburn Street. Firefighters found significant damage to the front of the home with injuries to the vehicle’s occupant. Emergency personnel extricated the patient for transport to Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital.

3 p.m. Nov. 5 — GVFD responded to a reported vehicle accident on Brunswick Rd near Sutton Way. Firefighters found two vehicles with moderate damage. Nobody involved in the accident was taken to the hospital.

2 p.m. Nov. 10 — GVFD and NCCFD responded to a chimney fire on Squirrel Creek Road. They discovered the fire was contained to the chimney with no damage to the rest of the home.

Nov. 11 — GVFD responded to a motorcycle down on Ridge Road. Responders found the driver on the side of the road with injuries, and they prepared the driver for transport to a hospital.

Now you tell me. Isn’t the Grass Valley crime scene a lot more fun than LA’s.

Hello from the Desert Southwest 2008

Hello again blog readers:

For those of you who do not yet know, we are back in our winter homeplace, the desert southwest. Specifically, the City of Desert Hot Springs.

We’ve been here for three weeks now enjoying the pleasantly warm mostly 80+ degree days, the hot mineral pools, and the community around us. It has become an interesting experience to live two separate lives with friends and activities exclusive to each of them.

Our family is weathering the economic downturn okay but Laurie has had her hours at work curtailed as well as a reduction in pay that is making life tough on she and Dani. Dani is a straight “A” student, including classes in Mandarin Chinese!

Though we had no opportunity to see him, Kevin was down here in Southern California during the recent fire disasters in the community of Yorba Linda. He and Dodie and the boys are also just fine. The boys are growing like weeds, of course.It’s amazing but I think the situation right now is less stressful for those of us living on a secure fixed income.

When we left this area at the end of April this year we were amazed at the amount of new construction going on. Not just residential—though there was plenty of that—but huge new commercial and shopping complexes everywhere. Now, sadly, most of that has come to a screeching halt and those commercial developments that were near completion are now finished and standing empty. Who knows how long that situation will last and I don’t usually spend a lot of time feeling either good or bad for land developers, but this situation is truly sad. The developments here in the greater Palm Springs area are, of course, mostly very upscale and to see the millions and millions of dollars spent with absolutely no return on the investment must be financially punishing to these developers.

With jobs being lost by the thousands, companies closing by the hundreds, and banks going belly-up faster than the fish that lived in my acquarium, it’s tough out there. If ones income depends on other people’s disposable income or the stock market, one had better look for a different line of work or income for a while.

You may recall that Ron had a Goiter removed last April before we returned home. It was discovered as a result of his being so short of breath. After returning to Grass Valley his breathing became even more labored, rather than improving, and it was determined that the surgeon in Palm Springs had left another huge goiter in place that extended beneath his breast bone down to his heart. To make a long story short, in September that mass of thyroid gland was removed in Sacramento. If an adult man places his two fists one on top of the other that is the approximate size of the thing they removed. To get it out they had to crack his chest, just as is done in open heart surgery. When they do that they press both shoulders downward to help open the cavity. Since Ron has two unresolved rotator cuff injuries they were both severely aggravated by this procedure resulting in an extended recuperation lasting several months.

Since he was virtually unable to do anything for the past six months, time has passed Ron by this year. Just this morning he finally realized that Thanksgiving is less than a week away and it’s only 3 weeks till we return home for Christmas. Up until our return to the desert his world has been his recliner and a paperback book since the first of May.

We had plans and reservations to attend the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, N M, again this year but, when the beginning of October arrived, Ron was not physically able to drive the motorhome. By November, he was finally well enough for us to head for the desert for the winter.

After three weeks of the kind of weather we all dream of when we say, “Southern California,” we expect some rain over the next few days, leading up to Thanksgiving. The recent wildfires just added an exclamation point to the desperate need for some precipitation to fall on the State and, while we all enjoy the idyllic 80 degree temperatures, we’re also sensible enough to realize how wonderful a couple of rainy days will be.

We’ll be here in Desert Hot Springs until the end of April—except for a two-week sojourn home for Christmas and an early January trip to the Phoenix, AZ, area to visit our friend Sue Anderson for a few days followed by a visit with the Don Youngs at Lake Havasu, before returning here.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL OF YOU AND YOURS.