Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Last Minute Things

Horse race at Golden Gate Fields in Berkeley Horse race at Golden Gate Fields in Berkeley
Sunday: (01/02) A day at the races. Breakfast was soft boiled eggs and cinnamon toast. None of us have ever been to the race track before so today was the day to solve that. Today was dollar day at Golden Gate Fields in Berkeley. It's the last remaining race track in the bay area. Tanforan became a shopping center many years ago and Bay Meadows became condos more recently. Before Golden Gate fields closes we thought we'd better get out for our day at the races.

Horse race at Golden Gate Fields in Berkeley Horse race at Golden Gate Fields in Berkeley
Dollar day made it more acceptable with $1 parking, hotdogs, beer and soft drinks. We watched 3-4 races before calling it a day due to the cold and drippy weather. I managed to pick the winner of one of the races. Lunch was hotdogs and beer, of course. We eventually made it home and enjoyed super nachos ala Lou for dinner.

Monday: (01/03) Leftover enchiladas for breakfast. I started the day with a hike at Shoreline Park in Mountain View.

Shoreline Park in Mountain View Shoreline Park in Mountain View
I tried to meet up with the Monday Hikers group but was late and missed them. I had a nice walk by the baylands with all the geese and other fowl.

New Traffic Operations Center In Santa Clara County
Next, I went to where I used to work for a visit. They're doing so well now that I don't work there? Above is a photo of the Santa Clara County traffic operations room with it's new monitors.

Lunch was a chili relleno from the nearby El Rincon restaurant near work. I got a call from the San Jose tenant to look at a couple of things. I was nearby so took a look at what was needed but couldn't do anything without tools. Dinner was more enchiladas. Lou and Dawn were busy packing the RV to leave again, possibly on Thursday?

Tuesday: (01/04) Breakfast was Lou's eggs Benedict. I was off to San Jose to work on the house there. The tenant called for a couple of things that needed looking at. First stop was at Lowe's for some materials. I picked up a new shower door and a new bathroom faucet. Lou, Dawn and Courtney met me at Lowe's. Lou and Courtney continued on down the freeway for some driver training for Courtney. Dawn came with me to her apartment. I spent the day removing the old shower door and installing the new one. It took a while to clean up the lime deposits due to formerly hard water. That's why the faucet needs replacing as well. Of course the fact that everything is over 20 years old has nothing to do with it. I didn't get to change that faucet because the shutoff valves also need replacement. Something for tomorrow. We've been around home since June and now they call? No lunch. Dinner was Lou's split pea soup.

Wednesday: (01/05) Lou and I went back down to San Jose. I read the directions for replacing the bathroom faucet. The directions estimated it was a 15 minute job. I also had to replace the shutoff valves which went easy as did the faucet but the total time was well more than 15 minutes. I must be getting slow? A nice shiny new pop-up drain pipe came with the faucet as well. I looked at the lime coated old drain and thought to myself, "Self, don't do it. It drains OK now." But I didn't listen! The old drain came out easily but the new drain would not fit in the hole in the sink. They improved the design and now it wont seat on a sink like ours with a precisely cast hole. No problem. Just go back to the hardware store and get one that would fit. After visiting Lowe's, OSH, Home Depot, and Ace Hardware, who all carry the same improved "imported" products we couldn't find anything to fit. I returned and cleaned up the old drain and re-installed it. It doesn't look great but it will have to do until I can make a new one by turning down one of the improved pieces. Note to Self. I'll try harder to listen and heed what you tell me next time. We made it home in time for dinner.

Oatmeal with honey for breakfast. For lunch we stopped at Chavez market in East San Jose splitting a super nachoes and a torta. More leftovers for dinner.

Thursday: (01/06) Dawn's tiramisu for breakfast. Tamale fries for lunch. Lou had some tamale seasoned meat left over from New Years Day dinner and they were put onto French fries with cheese. Quite tasty! Dinner was leftover beans, rice and pea soup. The project for the day was to install a new tarp on our storage tent. The oak tree drops a lot of leaves on it and, though it was still intact, it probably wouldn't make it through the winter so the new tarp, which was too small, went over the top of the old one. Not my usual quality workmanship but we're going to get out of here, no matter what. The rest of the day was doing the final preparation to leave tomorrow.

Tree fell on car a Mountain View Target Store
Weather caused tree to park on a car at a nearby shopping center.

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