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2002-06-04 - 10:00 a.m.

Well�I guess the vacation is finally over.

My trip to California was wonderful, insightful, frustrating, and tiring�sounds like the typical vacation eh?

So where should I begin�I guess with a few highlights of the time that I spent �up country�.

-Day 1, there I was sitting on the deck, looking out across a �valley� to the mountain range at the far side. The air was crisp and cold, the sky was clear, and sure enough, for the second time, the humming birds came out. Feeding in the early morning sunshine, darting here and there, and making quite a racket. For such a little critter, they sure are loud fliers�

-I caught every critter (and more) that I was hoping to this year. The sagebrush lizards were plentiful and so they were easy to catch. I did indeed find and catch an alligator lizard, albeit a little one. I caught a western garter snake, and 2 king snakes, and a western California skink. Hehe it was my own little �The Black Bear Experience� (the Jeff Corwin experience is a great show btw, and well worth watching).

-Day 2, up to Charlie�s for dinner and a concert. Yeah a concert. Not quite the thing that you would expect on the side of a mountain where the only electricity available is solar, or generator. After a nice cookout it was down to the music room (a whole separate building) with some very sophisticated equipment in it. In addition to the soundboard, there was grand piano, and enough other electronic �stuff� that this room was used not only for recitals, and things like that, but also as a recording studio. Well enough of that, the good part was listening to Rosebud and Scott play for most of the night. All original stuff�and man I tell ya, it was amazing. Oh and get this�yall remember the guy Screech form saved by the bell? Well he is Rosebud and Scott�s bass player. How weird is that?

-Day 3, Pop and I put in 3 raised beds in his garden. Pant, pant, pant�kill me�I swear I have never seen so many rocks in my life. Funny thing that I learned about my dad was his is an obsessive man. As long as we were in the garden all I heard him talk about were the damned pocket gophers, (which is why the raised beds were going in. They were these wooden framed things with a wire mesh on the bottom to keep gophers out) and rocks. I swear, I think his garden does have more rocks in it than dirt�but He still manages to grow beautiful things in it.

-Day 4, I got to play with his bees. (Sorry Susie I know I am getting all these terms wrong). About a month or so ago my pop got him self several pounds of Italian (I think) honey bees. Man are they neat critters�I spent lots of time reading his bee books. Well to get to the point I got to help him inspect the hive, and the good news was there were lots of little babies, plenty of honey, and a happy active hive with no bad things in it. Pop is very worried about a thing called foul brood. It is this thing (bacteria, virus) that kills off the larva in the hive, and unfortunately there is only one thing that you can do if they get it. Burn the hive. There is no cure as of yet� So after we checked out the hive, I got to put on a big box to give the bees more room, and then a grate called a separator, (this keeps the queen out of an area, so she cant lay eggs in a part of the hive) and finally a smaller box on top off all this. The little box on top if for honey only, and makes it easy to harvest it.

-Day 5, In the morning I went hunting arrowheads. Didn�t find a one, but I did find lots and lots of flake. Late that evening I was entertained by a spectacular lightning storm across the valley. It must have lasted for a good part of 2 hours. I tell ya though, it was the weirdest thing that I have seen in a long time, there was no rain to go along with it, and no wind either. It was kinda like watching fireworks�

There is of course much more that I did �up country� but I didn�t want to bore the world with all the details, so I will end the recap of my trip with a part of my journal that I had written while I was up there�

China Town�

It is my last day in San Francisco and I made sure that I got to my favorite place�

Found my �lizards on a stick�. It turns out that you make them into soup. You first remove the head and feet, and then take the 2 lizards (you get a male and female when you buy them) add them to water, put in what ever else you wish�and there ya go, a soup that is supposed to be good for your kidneys. I guess that I was lucky to have found the correct side street on my first try. Last year it took me hours to find a place that sold em. I had a snack at House of Dim Sum�oh wow!!! 2 pork pot stickers, and an egg custard. They were so much better than I can make. It just show me how much more I have to learn. I think that I have finally found a gift for Jen and Allen� (the rest of this has been edited out till after the wedding)�

Well it looks like tables are needed here so I had best go�more reflections later.

Whew back again. I think that I must have walked the length of Grant Street twice. Add to that several trips up and down side streets. At one point I found myself walking up another damned hill here thinking to my self how bad my feet and legs had begun to hurt when I noticed a young Asian woman walking up hill towards me. One of her legs was crippled and unable to support much of her weight. It looked like it also bent in the wrong direction. With much difficulty she was climbing the hill with a crutch under one arm, and a giant smile on her face. It was then that I told myself to shut the fuck up and quit being a whiner. If I didn�t want to hurt so much I would loose some weight and get into shape�ok self�point well taken.

I finally turned on my phone. Sigh�bad news for me�My car is still fucked up. It is going to cost another grand to finish the work on the damned thing. Turns out that the heads need to be rebuilt completely�sigh. I have now spent so much money on this car now that I had better just finish the repairs. I will never get my money back on this thing, not even close. All I can hope for is that it will be mostly trouble free after I get this fix done. I guess that it is still cheaper than a new car though.

Well it is time for my class to begin so I will write more later�

Today I learned that honeybees are not native to the Americas, they were imported here from Europe. How cool is that?

So�what have you learned today?

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