A Moving Experience

Tuesday: (08/28) I fixed ham, eggs and potatoes for breakfast. I had ordered a dumpster for the disposal of my dirt pile and it was scheduled to arrive this morning. It arrived sometime after 9am. Unfortunately, after it arrived i had to start moving dirt. I have both a pile of previously excavated dirt and a new are to excavate. i started with some of the excavated dirt figuring digging was harder and I'd get some easy dirt before wearing myself out with the digging. Ernie assisted with some of the dirt moving. We got a couple of yards of dirt moved from the pile and then I dug out another three yards before quitting for the day. Zucchini lasagna for dinner.

Wednesday: (08/29) Lou made French toast and sausage for breakfast. Today i tried something different. I worked in the morning until noon, then took a few hours off waiting for the shade to arrive over the work area. During the wait we had lunch, Gaspacho soup and deviled eggs for lunch. After 3pm work resumed and i worked until 7:30. Much progress made today. The hole was all but completed except for removing the path we're using to haul dirt from the pile. Zucchini lasagna for dinner. Lou and Dawn were out and about shopping today.

Thursday: (08/30) Leftover French toast and sausage for breakfast.In the morning Ernie and I moved more dirt and fully completed the hole. After lunch of Carl's Jr hamburgers we returned home. I completed the remaining few loads of dirt that filled the dumpster to it's 10cy limit. Unfortunately, i still have 7cy to get rid of so sometime in the near future I'll get another dumpster to finish the job. For now, the task is to get the base-rock into the hole and off of the driveway. Then hopefully finish the walkway and maybe get something done on Lou's new shed. For dinner Lou and I went to Harry's Hofbrau in Redwood City. I had stuffed bell peppers and Lou had pastrami.

The finished patio and tea room.

The third phase of the walkway project is underway. About 8 cubic yards of bad clay soil was dug out and moved to the dumpster.

Ten cubic yards is a lot of dirt.


Now you need to watch your step to avoid falling into the new grand canyon.

I had hoped to get rid of more of the stock piled dirt as well but still have about seven yards left so another dumpster will need to be loaded some time later.

Friday: (08/31) Leftover sausage and French toast for breakfast. Lou found a nice sectional corner sofa that had two recliners built-in. She advised Courtney, our friend and she said she was interested. She checked it out with Lou later yesterday evening. Today everything was half off so with instructions top get  it  Lou and I were off to San Jose early this morning. We waiting in line at the thrift store with a pretty big crowd. Lou was the second person in the door and bought the sofa. Then, we found that neither half would fit inside the Volvo so had to make two trips to bring each half back up to Courtney's Condo. Ernie helped me bring them up the stairs to her condo. Enough work for the day. For Lunch Dawn picked up some things from Hong Kong bakery. Pork bun and egg tarts for me. This morning, first thing, I had called the disposal company to pick up the dumpster. They said they probably wouldn't get it until Tuesday. I forgot we had a holiday this weekend. I wasn't looking forward to guarding the dumpster all weekend to make sure nobody else added their junk in it. Luckily they were wrong and picked it up about 3:30.  For dinner I made pork with Spanish rice and spinach. 

Saturday: (09/01) Lou and Dawn had cereal and I had a leftover pork bun for breakfast. I made the "mistake" of suggesting a hike to my hiking group and ended up leading the hike last week to the falls in Big Basin State Park. That worked out so well, we all made it back alive, that I was made an assistant organizer for the group. So now I'm leading another hike this coming Friday. This hike isn't much of a hike compared to the last one. It's only about 5.3 miles compared to the 10.5 of the last one. Our group actually prefers 6-7 mile hikes, However, it is one of my favorite hikes. I used to hike it quite often but haven't done it in a few years. So since I wrote up the announcement for the hike I needed more exact directions to the trail-head so we can meet there. To that end, we all took a little drive up Pagemill Road from home and to the trail-head off Alpine Road on the other side of the mountains so I could get some mileage numbers and confirm the directions. I also checked a couple of other distances to other trail-heads we'll likely be doing in the  future. Since we were out we came down the mountains into Saratoga and walked the village. Then we stopped in Cupertino for me to get a couple of things at Home Depot and Lou and Dawn to visit a thrift store. After those tasks we stopped at the Country Inn Restaurant for lunch. We all shared a chicken apple walnut salad and a wild mushroom spinach avocado and Swiss cheese omelet. That was it for activity today. This morning, before we left, I started some pork, sausages, sauerkraut and potatoes in the slow cooker. That was dinner. 

Sunday: (09/02) After morning tea in the backyard, I prepared sauerkrauted potatoes and sausage with eggs for breakfast. I managed to throw my back out again this morning doing a simple task, taking out the house garbage. I worked on the drip sprinkler system in the green house. Before being called in to go to a Greek Festival in Belmont.

The church interior is quite interesting.


We enjoyed a couple of concerts, a flea market and looking at the food. We only had some Greek fries and Greek coleslaw though because everything else couldn't be determined to be gluten free for Lou and Dawn. We left for a wile for dinner at Ihop where I had pot roast and Lou and Dawn shared sirloin tips. We returned to the festival for a concert presented by the Aurora Mandolin Orchestra (above right) which has 20 mandolins, a couple of flutes, a couple of guitars, and accordion, a base fiddle and a soprano opera singer. It was excellent.

Monday: (09/03) Hot cereal for breakfast. Roasted tomatoes and avocados with chili rellenos for lunch. Sauerkraut, potatoes and sausage and sausage or pork leftovers for dinner. My back is still bugging me so I worked on the drip sprinkler system in the green house again finishing all that is needed for current plants. More needs to be done to complete the setup for all areas but I need more parts to do that.

Tuesday: (09/04) Lou copied the omelet we had the other day at the Country Inn and prepared spinach, mushroom, avocado and jalapeno cheese. Well, not an exact copy with jalapeno cheese rather than Swiss but still good. My back is still complaining so probably another easy day. I cancelled my attendance for a hike I had intended to take tomorrow. I took a walk around the block in the afternoon and found an iPhone at the end of the block. I brought it home and while I saw a list of recent calls but couldn't see how to find out who's phone it was, Lou really read the names for the recent calls and noticed our neighbors daughters name so she returned the phone to them. Hamburgers for lunch. For dinner Lou made a mix of rice, sausage, peppers, tomatoes, and onions. Not really too much accomplished today. Quite nice.

Wednesday: (09/05) Lou was off to an appointment early then she and Dawn were busy doing errands like getting Dawn's mandolin repaired. A few weeks ago they found two mandolins at a garage sale. Dawn's is now fixed but I still need to replace a sting on mine. They also got some books so we can learn to play them as well. I stopped at Carl's Jr for breakfast of  a chicken torta.

I had a TSA (Traffic Signal Association) meeting to attend in San Jose this morning. It was good to get together with some of the people I used to work with and learn a little something as well. After the meeting I stopped for lunch at the King Eggroll shop at got some eggrolls and a shrimp ball. Yum! Since I was in San Jose I took advantage of being there and wasted the rest of the day stopping by the Great Mall and a few other places before finally getting home. Lou and Dawn stopped at Chili's for soup and salad. They didn't need dinner. I did so had leftover rice. It's been cloudy all day today and even had some sprinkles on occasion throughout the day. In the evening however we had a real heavy shower that almost wet the parched ground.

Nice late bloomers. The new patio has become a regular hangout.


Our arbor has filled out nicely.

Thursday: (09/06) Lo and Dawn were off this morning to an appointment and a thrift search. I started the day checking a nearby Park and Ride to be sure the lot will have room for some of my fellow hikers to meet for a caorpoolto tomorrows hike. I then stopped for breakfast at A Good Morning Cafe, country fried steak and eggs. When I returned home, I readied the RV to roll. I needed to take it out to get some estimates to repair the damage i did to it last month. It needs to be fixed before we can leave for another trip. I got two very different quotes, $2500 and $4500. The decision seems easy. Both shops look good and have been around for years. Both seemed to equally identify what needs to be fixed. For a late lunch when I got home I had a bowl of chili. For dinner I had some cottage cheese and fruit. Lou and Dawn really do a detailed search so they returned late as it was getting dark.