Diablo

It's a pain in the ass to have both kids loaded into the truck and be on the road at 7:00 am on a Sunday morning.  It's particularly difficult when the destination is the Alameda Point Antique Rubbish sale.  There are neat oddities to be found there, however, antiques and Sullivan seem like a bad idea.

Yesterday we made it almost to the 680 before the skies opened up and it started pouring.  In Moraga I turned around, the stroller in the back of the truck was soaked.

Yesterday's storm was fast moving, the skies were clear all night and the clouds rolled in and collided with the overnight cool temperatures.  It was 40 degrees and pouring in Moraga.  I explained the interaction of the front to Erin and we determined a snowball fight was in order.  We raced up Diablo and luckily made it to the summit road prior to it being shutdown.  We had the top of the mountain to ourselves, a winter wonderland.  When we came down the road was closed to uphill traffic. (And rightfully so, in the snow that track is sketchier than anything in the Tahoe basin)

Sushi

Isn't weird that.......

 I will cook dinner six nights in a row and night after night show concern for the internal temperature of the protien at hand and field wife-esq questions such as, "Do you think this is cooked enough?"

"For sure babe, eat up."  Chicken, pork and beef all undergo the same scrutiny.

So on the seventh night we venture out to visit our friends at Kaiwa Sushi.  They know us, we know them; they know what we want; salmon, albacore, crab, maguro, unagi, and albacore.  Yeah we like albacore twice over.  They bring a steady stream of assorted fishes and we gobble that sush right up with no concern whatsoever that all of it comes out raw.  Unagi is my favorite, Unagi is eel.  Could be eel ass for all I know.

My point is....the human body is crazy.  And how is raw fish so clean that it can be consumed without issue and chicken arrives home from the grocery store ridden with disease?  

Strange thoughts while driving home last night.

El Patio....not nearly as fun as it sounds.

This morning traffic stopped on State Hwy 84 and my file holding 2 years of documentation went floating across the cab of my truck.  I don't have a cutsie comment for that.  Fuck.

Ranch.

FRIDAY: It's a quiet weekend here at the ranch.  Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Ken and I are the crew. I could not be happier about the bonding time but I joked earlier that I'm here with the geriatrics from the family and I asked my grandmother if she'd like to go hunting with me since Ken and Grandpa are both dragging a leg around.  Anyway my phone typically never leaves my truck when I'm here but I realized tonight that I can create postings on my phone and save them for a later upload, so let the geriatric weekend documentation begin, I will try to get some old people pictures to add tomorrow.  I digress....

Ken and I managed to get a day off today and were able to hunt together for the first time this season....the fruits of our labor is pasted below....

This buck was also a geriatric that Ken outsmarted.  You can tell by the heavy horns and additional eyeguards that this buck was older and with respect to antler size probably in a state of decline.  Had we seen this buck 2-3 seasons ago his antlers would have probably been larger.

The rest of the day was consumed with processing the deer, unloading a truck load of flooring material (next project), cleaning gutters and installing down spouts.

Grandma made venison for dinner with Mac n' Cheese & home made apple sauce (yes it is always necessary to capitalize Mac n' Cheese, sorry venison),honestly the meal was great.  Grandma you out did yourself, thanks for that.

On this the first day of fall the first rainstorm has swept into the canyon, fast moving like a true winter rainfall, it has blanketed the property with moisture and has us all anticipating another deer hunt tomorrow.

SATURDAY:  We awoke to pouring rain, the rain fall was too heavy for hunting.  Ken and I milled around under the shelter of his covered deck for awhile until it subsided and then we headed out.  Our delay was a failure because 100 yards from his deck it started pouring again.  Upon taking our positions for our desired hunt we discovered that we weren't the only people who know that rain fall makes deer hunting easy....the mountain was alive, with other hunters.  Ken called for an abort and we slipped away undetected.  We climbed an alternate mountain and hunted until 2pm but it was a lost cause.  The score is now Kenny's 1, Deer 1.  The rubber match will occur tomorrow morning.  

At a minimum the day was successful as exercise was plentiful and the country was awesome after a rainfall.  All the moss on the trees was erect soaking up the moisture...

Other views post rain...

Upon returning I played with the dog she was cooped up all morning and proceeded to swing her bumper in circles for 20 minutes.....happy dog....

Another great dinner in Grandmas cabin followed by my scrubbing of the cabin floors and that's all she wrote!!

Again.

I'm at the Chevy dealer again.  Ive been here a long time; as noted in my Yelp review of Dublin Chevrolet from this morning; they do not value their customers time here.  2-1/2 hours in the past I convinced my new service writer (my former abruptly quit last Friday) that my situation was bullshit and that I really needed a vehicle to go do some work; now upon my return I honestly am not surprised to see all the same customers are slightly rearranged but still present in the waiting 'lounge'.  They seem to despise me though, the asshole whom raised enough shit to score himself a loaner ride to escape from this slice of heaven for a little bit.  Touché.

I'm truly amazed at the number of employees whom wander the rear depths of the dealership, the showroom seems deserted yet there's a couple fellas in shorts and polo shirts out back who seem to be endlessly moving vehicles to and fro.  How do they afford this shit?

Oh yeah I know, I perused the lot this morning and I realized its almost impossible to buy a Chevy anything for less than $50k.  WTF.

I checked out the latest, here is the cluster from the new top of the line Silverado....

Look at all those ugly ass knobs.  It's quite cheap looking in person.  The problem is it is priced like a luxury item.

 

And then there was two....maybe

At any given time I can tell you what Erin and I have planned 4-6 weekends into the future.  I can sit across from you over cappuccinos and explain when we will start the process of conceiving our third child and back into an expected due date that coincides with our respective compensation schedules from our employers which makes for an ideal birthdate for investing funds into college savings account.

I can also tell you the muzzle velocity and 400yd drop of a .270 magnum bullet.  I've meticulously memorized drop charts and wind loads for the cartridge to ensure success on my up coming deer hunt.  A quick successful hunt will allow me to get home sooner to my pregnant wife.

It's times like these when you get life so scheduled that you've consumed all the slack in your critical path then Mother Nature, God, or some greater being smacks you down and reminds you where you stand.

So I lay here in a daddy trundle bed across from my wife who is hooked up to four different monitors charting the activity of our 33 week old baby girl; helping a rather puzzled Doctor try to make a decision on how to proceed.  Nobody wants to deliver a baby seven weeks early.  It's too soon.

So how do I get Erin's mind off the issue at hand.  Plan.  Plan some more.  Plan how we can make up for our lack of planning.  We aren't ready to come home with a newborn, but now we have a plan and it seems the discussion and thought process has relaxed Erin into a morphine induced nap.

Here us a picture of Sullivan two seconds before he stomps on my iPhone.  Cue heavy metal music.

Decking

Building a deck should be fun. It's fun because it's relatively simple and the material is wood (wood is easier to work with than steel). My deck project is different than most because I'm doing it by myself with only two hands.

Building a deck by yourself is perhaps one of the worst ideas you could possibly dream up. There is great opportunity for efficiency with multiple workers on board. I'm running an efficient system, however it pales in comparison to the output I could have with just one additional set of hands.

Dammit.

It was 107 on the deck while I worked last Saturday. I'm considering wearing a headlamp and working a night shift.

I'm looking forward to the completion of my cabin in summer 2015.