Quick Trip To Napa

Saturday: (11/30) I started my day with a shopping run to Orchard Hardware to get my post and rails and Home Depot to get my fence boards. Yes, I’m picky. It was quite a load hauling 3 4×4′s, 9 2×4′s and 44 fence boards. Too much for my yuppy Jeep. I broke the rack. I just barely made it home. No problem with the load, just that Dawn and I had to depart toward Napa at 1000. I parked the Jeep. I’ll look in to what I’ll do to the load tomorrow. I need to get it down to San Jose. I don’t want to loose it on the road.

We jumped in the Hyundai. It did start and didn’t give us any problems on the trip. I still need to find out why the battery died yesterday. We cruised up through San Francisco, across the new, terribly expensive, Bay Bridge on Highway 80 to Vallejo then up Highway 28 to Napa. We arrived there at 1230, plenty of time before our 1300 appointment. While we waited for the appointment, we discovered an outstanding market, Vallergas Market. It is possibly the best market I’ve ever been in. Not a big market but they have everything. The produce section is definitely the best ever.

At 1300 we stopped by for our appointment. Dawn had found a braille printer for $49 on Craig’s list. They are worth several thousand dollars new. It’s a very heavy little suitcase with the printer in it. If it works, and it looks in like new condition, great! If not it will easily hold a door open in a hurricane.  With printer in hand, stopped at the market for lunch. I had a ham and guyere cheese panini, Dawn had some olive loaf and cheese with dried cabbage chips. After lunch we drove to downtown Napa walked around the old town area, found out the Christmas Parade was this evening, and visited a nice bookstore.


We enjoyed the parade then left town at 1830 stopping in Vallejo t the Buttercup Grill for dinner. We shared a chicken with garlic and artichoke dinner followed with a peanut butter cup pie. All very good. The traffic was a little heavy on the drive home.

More Power Needed

Friday: (11/29) Breakfast was cinnamon tarts and deviled eggs. I did a few tasks in the morning. I raised another yard chair for Lou to use outside. I just attached 4×4 boards to the legs. I also repaired my post-hole shovel. It lost a nut that was its pivot. It evidently was an odd size and I couldn’t find a proper sized nut so I got a bolt and lock-nut of the appropriate size to repair it. My next task was to install the new battery for the Jeep that I bought on my way home Wednesday. The Jeep had the battery go dead last Friday when I left the headlights on for a short period and ran an air compressor. A good battery should have been able to do that task for two hours and still start the engine. It wouldn’t turn the motor after just twenty minutes. Then, at least twice this week, it barely started the engine. It was a 3-year free replacement Walmart battery and was only two years old.

It was easy to swap out the old and in the new. Getting the credit for the bad battery was a bit more difficult. First, it was Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year. Fortunately, most everyone was buying, not returning. It still took about an hour. There was a bit of trouble convincing them to credit me for the replacement battery but they came through in the end. I also spent some time emptying my buckets of concrete debris into a pile to free the buckets. Lunch was some leftover dinner rolls with summer sausage and cheese. Tomorrow Dawn and I will be diving up to Napa. Lou wanted her scooter out of the car so she can take a “walk” if she wants while we are gone. When I went out to open the car to get it the doors wouldn’t unlock with the clicker. Not a good sign. I checked it and the battery was dead, totally dead. This is our nice new Hyundai. I jump started it with the Jeep which now, fortunately, has a good battery. When I attached the cable I noticed the negative battery cable was loose. As tight as it will go, but loose. This isn’t related to the dead battery but is something to be fixed by the dealer next visit. I took the car for a drive to charge it up. Hopefully it will be OK in the morning and cause no problems on the trip. For a long trip like to Napa I prefer the mileage of the Hyundai over the Jeep, 40 compared to 14. Dinner was baked beans, BBQ ribs and baked potatoes.

Thanksgiving

Thursday: (11/28) A nice day of relaxation for me. Ernie though, was busy preparing the feast. I had some of his cinnamon tarts for breakfast. We usually have an early dinner about 2pm. I spent the morning adding pictures to the blog. I’ve only been adding them about every month. It does liven up the blog though. Menu was turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, scalloped potatoes, sweet potatoes, fruit salad, and fresh cranberry sauce. Dinner knocked me out for the rest of the afternoon. Ernie had made several pies as well for desert.

Oh Pour Me

Monday: (11/25) Nice weather. Clear skies and no wind. But, it is fall and those pesky leaves continue to fall. I prepared to pour some concrete today. When I tried the mixer it threw it’s chain . I bent the motor shell when I was bring it down to San Jose when I dropped it. I thought I had it straightened out but no so. I took it apart and took the hammer to it again to pound it into shape. Last night I stopped on the way down at Orchard Hardware for some concrete mix. I also brought my big black dump wagon to save my back when hauling the bags to the back yard. I poured about half of the base I had formed and used more than half of my bags so I blocked it off short and returned to the nearby store for more concrete. I got there in about 10 minutes then discovered I didn’t have my wallet so returned home and got the wallet and then back to the store for the concrete. With all that, I still was back pouring concrete in 35 minutes. The concrete was all shaded so it took a long time to dry enough to complete the finish. While it was drying, I had lunch. Then I started digging out the remainder of the fence base near a big redwood tree. I will be angling the fence there to protect the tree. I had to get my jackhammer out to remove about three feet of 8″x8″ concrete fence base where the old fence connected to the garage. It made really quick work of the removal. I really should have gotten the jackhammer years ago. The concrete eventually finished up nicely.

Granola for breakfast, a turkey and cheese English muffin sandwich for lunch. For dinner I walked to La Victoria Restaurant for the chili relleno plate dinner.





Tuesday: (11/26) I started by stripping the forms off the fence base I poured yesterday. I also back-filled the edges. Then I constructed the form for the last section of fence base. It was a little tricky because it angles toward the end post to avoid a big redwood tree. I completed the form and installed the rebar by 1230. I then dashed off to pickup to more bags of concrete mix. I tried to calculate more exactly today so I don’t have any leftover bags left to become bricks over time. I finished pouring the concrete by 1400. I then cleaned up and waited for it to dry enough to finish. I poured it a little wet and it’s a late pour so I may be out after dark doing the final troweling. I picked up a clip light earlier just for such an occasion. I needed to cutoff the form boards so I finally opened up my new cutoff miter saw. It made quick work doing needed 15 degree miter cuts. Don’t know why I hadn’t brought it out before I got it to use for the siding repairs. I did the final troweling after dark about 1800. Should be ready to put the fence up next week. Now to find the best price of the fence  materials.

Pancakes with peanut butter and jam with sausage for breakfast. Turkey and cheese on English muffin for lunch. A confusion pizza from House of Pizza for diner.



Wednesday: (11/27) I stripped the form off the section I poured yesterday then cleaned up the area and back-filled around the fence base. I then loaded up about 15 five gallon buckets of concrete debris and excess dirt. The dirt I add to my growing dirt pill probably ending up with another raised flower bed until I collect enough for another dumpster. The concrete ends up in the garbage a little at a time. I started home early visiting Lowe’s, Home Depot and Orchard Supply Hardware looking for lumber for the fence. It looks like the pressure treated wood is best from OSH while the fence boards might be better from Home Depot. Sunday or Monday I’ll do a shopping run for the lumber. Might be a fence by Tuesday.

Leftover pizza for breakfast, brunch and lunch. Leftover spaghetti for dinner.

Looking At Hiking Gear

Sunday: (11/24) Leftover chorizo scrambled eggs for breakfast. We headed out about 11am and stopped at Ann’s Restaurant in Menlo Park for lunch. I had a Chicken bacon sandwich and Lou and Dawn shared some lamp chops. After lunch we dropped Dawn off in Redwood City to look around while Lou and I stopped by Redwood Trading Company, a hiking shop in Redwood City then Stopped by REI in San Carlos. I was just looking at what is available for light hiking. Not much at either of these store. It looks like to get light backpacking equipment you heed to look online. Lou did find a pair of shoes at Redwood Supply. For dinner we stopped at Chavez market in Redwood City for a couple of Super Nachos to go.

I’ve now got a list of four things to do to prepare for a Pacific Crest Trail Through Hike:

• See if I can, in fact, sleep on a sleeping pad.


• See if I can walk 15 miles a day for several consecutive days.


• Take a backpacking class.


• Loose 30 pounds. This means I won’t notice the weight of the backpack.

I may try the hike this coming April. If I only do a section or more and don’t complete the entire through hike in one year, at least I’ll have started the hike with a section or two checked off and I’ll be ready to backpack other hikes, possibly not as ambitious.

Seems like all the hikers have a trail name. I think I’ll be “Moob” unless I think of a better one soon.

Tellebration Palo Alto 2013

Saturday: (11/23) Lou’s birthday today. We dashed off to do our weekly grocery shopping today. It was a little different because it was also Thanksgiving dinner shopping. With that done, I prepared  some chorizo, onions, peppers and potatoes in scrambled eggs for breakfast which we enjoyed in the back yard. Lou prepared some spaghetti squash with orange carrots and chicken for dinner.
After dinner I took Dawn to the Telabration presented by the South Bay Storytellers in Palo Alto. Dawn was one of the storytellers for the event. Nice show along with Dawn there was a cowboy storyteller and the Boomerang Barbershop Quartet.

Portola Redwoods SP, Tip-Toe Falls and Tarwater Loop Trails

Friday: (11/22) The usual hikers breakfast of a loaded breakfast sandwich from Jack In The Box.

If you don’t have Google Earth try this link for a look at the hike route.

Nice hike with my San Jose Mid-Week Hikers Group at the Portola State Park. I had planned a nice hike to see Tip-Toe Falls and do the Tarwater Loop Trail. The park is about 27 miles from home so we had two carpools for the nine hikers to get there. That also reduces the fees since the entrance fee is per vehicle. My annual State Park Pass paid off again. The heavy rains we had a couple of days ago did dampen the park but there really wasn’t much mud and the creeks are down now. unfortunately the bridge across Pescadero Creek, really a river, had been pulled for the season so we got to dip our feet in the stream to get across. Lots of banana slugs were out on the trails as well because of the rain. Our hike was only 9.6 miles with my estimate of 8 miles but no one complained because the park was so nice.

After the hike I returned my carpool folks to the Park and Ride we started rom. One of the hikers had just bought new tires but arrived this morning with a flat. When we returned I used my compressor from the Jeep to air up her tire. That turned out to be a bad idea. When i left the park i turned on my head lights and left them on when i stopped at the park and ride. The combination of the compressor and the headlights killed the battery. Walmart batteries must not hold too much charge. My onld volks wagon could burn the headlights 4 hours and still start the car. This was only 15 minutes and a good battery seems like it should have been OK to start the Jeep later. Roadservice arrived in 15 minutes and put me back on the road.

This put my return home at after 3pm. I had not had lunch, just a granola bar so I was a bit hungry. I called Lou and she agreed to go with me to lunch. As it turned out, Dawn was on her way home on the trolley so we waited and picked her up and had dinner at LUU Noodle House with our usual chow fun noodles, pad thai, and egg rolls.