Snow and Drought

Wow! Another snow storm is headed for Southern California. It's the third since I took my snow storm break at Cajon Pass in mid April. It's interesting that in a drought, which we are definitely having in California and with most streams and springs already dry in mid April, that we are having the snow storms that should have occurred in January and February and before now in late April and May. The storms don't produce much water in the end but the cold is a definite hindrance to my pleasure while hiking the trail. Since it looks like I'm off the trail for a while, I can't help enjoying it a slight bit more knowing that I wouldn't have enjoyed the trail as much as I'd like to if I were out there..

CCCC Salad

Tuesday: (05/12) Leftover KFC biscuits and honey with a sausage for breakfast. I rather enjoy Lou and Dawn's gluten free-ness and getting all the biscuits. Lou drove me to the dentist. I had a filling that needed replacement. Chinese cashew chicken cabbage salad for lunch. This is a variation on a wonderful salad we first had at a restaurant in Joshua Tree, California. After lunch Lou and Dawn were off to appointments and I had the place to myself. About 1345 Dawn's new laptop arrived so I started setting it up. I had chili beans and corn bread for dinner while Lou and Dawn were out dining at the Sherwood Inn in South San Jose.

Spin City

Monday: (05/11) Chicken quesodillas for breakfast. I had a doctors appointment for my latest ailment, vertigo. I think I need to get rid of it before getting onto a trail on the side of a cliff. So, I will now be around home for at least another month. This year hasn't worked out too well yet for the hike. Dry springs, snow storms, and my ailments. Cottage cheese and fruit for lunch. After lunch I was busy ordering a new laptop for Dawn and tinkering on the computer. Kentucky Fried Chicken for dinner.

Better And Worst

Sunday: (05/10) I became sick last night so I have been relaxing in bed all day. And here I thought I was getting better. I planned a longer hike tomorrow to test my left knee that has been acting up and seems better and in their team efforts, some other part of my body started to complain. I hope things are better tomorrow. Granola and berries for breakfast. Chipolte's burrito bowls for lunch. Leftovers for dinner.

A Whole Lot Of Garlic

Saturday: (05/09) I had donuts for breakfast. Lou and Dawn had smoothies then were off to a rummage sale in Mountain View. Mid Morning we were off to Gilroy. After a quick stop at Camping World we headed over to the Longhouse Restaurant for breakfast. Being Gilroy, Garlic Capitol Of The World, our breakfast featured garlic. Lou and Dawn shared a Cowboy Garlic Pork Chop breakfast. I had a bacon cheese and garlic omelet. They were both no nonsense fresh garlic endowed, not for the non garlic lover. Then we visited a few thrift shops. I visited the local Harbor Freight and a couple of auto parts stores. In no time it was dinner time and today was Lou's Mother's Day dinner, prime rib at the Black Bear diner. Before we left town Dawn and I explored the Best Buy store there looking for a new laptop for her. Lou explored elsewhere. We finished with a visit to the Super  Walmart and then headed home arriving home a bit after 2000.

Kaucher Mitchell Mathis-Swanson

Friday: (05/08) Lou and I made our grocery shopping run this morning. We'll be gone tomorrow morning, our usual day. Egg sausag and cheese sandwich for me and leftover pancakes for them for breakfast. I worked on repairing the RV's broken tire valve mount but couldn't get the last bolt off to remove the hubcap. They were put on with an impact wrench and were quite tight. I removed three with my battery powered impact wrench. it was stronger than an old air impact wrench I had was. But it just wouldn't get one off. SO, a run to Harbor freight was needed. I picked up a new impact wrench good for 250 foot-pounds rather than the less than 100 FP my battery powered wrench provided. Dim Sum for lunch. I got the hubcap off with no further problems but still didn't make much progress in repairing the valve stem mounts. Green salad for dinner. We headed down to San Jose State University in the evening for the  Kaucher Mitchell Mathis-Swanson Story Telling and Oral Interpretation Event. It's always interesting. Dawn once participated in the event.

Google Cars

Thursday: (05/07) Biscuits and gravy for breakfast. I actually did a little work. I trimmed a door to Dawn's playhouse. The building is falling apart and as things shifted the door got sticky. All better now. We had guacamole and chips for lunch. In the afternoon I took a walk to downtown Mountain View, about 6.5 miles one way. The knee seemed to work fine with only occasional pain mostly when I stopped. Lou picked me up on her way home from a shopping run from Joann's Fabric. I had leftover pizza and Lou and Dawn had Smoked ribs and baked potatoes.for dinner. We even had some rain showers today.

On my walk this afternoon I was at an intersection adjacent to El Camino Real, the main road through town. It is an odd intersection because it is so close to the highway. It only has a signal head for one direction and it flashes yellow most of the time then cycles to solid yellow and then red when the left turn traffic from the highway approaches. The flashing yellow is where the green light would normally be located. Mountain View also has some other interesting things. There are self driving Google cars all over town all day testing and improving their systems. They are amazing to watch. They are such good drivers compared to almost all the other drivers while still not driving like your elderly relatives. However, this intersection seemed to give it a challenge. It stopped at the flashing yellow light and backed up some cars that eventually honked at it. I'm sure the next time through this intersection it will be responding differently due to improvements but it does demonstrate how complex a self driving car can be when you have poor (non-standard) traffic system design. Darn, my past life is showing again?