Shelter Cove Sunsets

I have more but once you've seen one sunset, you've seen them all.

No?

Well, they ARE all beautiful.

Planet Earth.

Such an artist.

No Dogs Allowed!

 Unless you give the owner of the guest house $600!!!  I ask you...Could this little girl do $600 worth of damage?  Only if there were $600 worth of toilet paper lying around-because she does have a problem with TP.  She Must make confetti out of it.  I'm sending her to the Betty Ford Clinic for that addiction soon.

This human girl is Halie.  See what she brought to read?  I love her!  Her plans is to own and run a bed and breakfast, and decorate it in Flea Market Style and do over the top decorations for each season.

In Garberville, one day, an old hippie came up to me and the Little White Dog and said, "Dude. That's a Caucasian dog."

Steps To Take when You Accidentally Put Regular Gas In Your Diesel Vehicle

 Call AAA.

 Load it up.

Ride for three hours in the cab of this truck learning AAALLLLL about the tow truck bidness.  Incidentally, it wasn't me.
Furthermore he has owned this very pick-em-up-truck for eight years.
Direct quote from Bro-in-law, "You will put the wrong gas in it but you'll only do it once."

Absolutely NO Crossing the Street on Your Head!

It will not be tolerated at any time in South Tahoe.

The Sweetest Wedding Ever

 All the best to Paige and Mikey
            Tahoe- - Mike and Paige's Wedding

    Our family had yet another occasion to gather recently.  It was the wedding of our brother, Mikey.  He married Paige, who is the sweetest girl!  We were delighted to see them get hitched, and of course we were happy to be together again as a family. Tahoe was the destination which pleased one sister to no end because she had dreamed that she was going to win a car.

If you have been paying attention, you know this would somehow turn out to be a goofy and joyous occasion.

    Mike's best man was our other brother, “John the Holy Ghost.”  See, there are three important Johns in the family.  The middle sister married one and then they named their son after his dad.  That makes John the Father and John the Son.  Brother John just had to be the third John of the unholy trinity. 

      L to R John the son, John the holy ghost, and John the father.



    We came together in the little mountain town the day before without a single snafu, a miracle, considering people came from four different states and twice as many cities.  How did people do these things before the advent of cell phones?  The wedding was to take place by the lake at 6:00 the next evening. 

    Sometime after lunch on her wedding day, Paige realized that the pictures on the internet advertising the wedding site were a bit misleading.  It had shown that the trellis, as well as the chairs would be festooned with flowers and ribbons.  They assumed that these decorations would be there for them.
They weren't.

  
Oh my goodness.
Oh my goodness.

What to do?
What to do?

The sisters and brothers went off in four directions to gather supplies. (It was sort of like the “Stone Soup” wedding in the movie “Fandango.” If you haven't seen this movie, get it on your Net Flix or whatever.  It is a great “sleeper.”)

Would you believe that South Lake Tahoe has no Michaels?  No Target?  No JoAnns?

    We finally found a fabric store hidden behind a small motel and got ribbon and tule.  Miles of tule.  Others found flowers, and we spent all afternoon making poofy flowery wedding bows and then decorated the area for a proper wedding.  It was lovely.

         Now this is the way a bride should come down the aisle!
                         But alas, she put the champagne down and walked like a proper bride.


    Meanwhile one family member, The Anonymous One, worked all afternoon learning to text on the phone he has owned for a year and a half.  He told Rob before the ceremony began,  (and I paraphrase for properness) “I am a texting DUDE!”

    The wedding and the vows were sweet.  Paige and Mike both cried, which made the rest of us cry, too. The pastor ended with a pastorly prayer.  At the amen, The Anonymous One's phone beepy beeped to indicate that he had received a text.  It was from Rob (who was seated in front of him) and it said,

    “Did you remember to turn your phone off?” 

    As you can probably guess this caused muffled snorts and then laughter in the form of a wheeze like Mutley the cartoon dog for almost two solid minutes.

    John the father made a video with his Flip and there was some semi-audible input from me heard in it. 

“Knock it off!” I said, in one syllable, in a teeth-grinding, hissing stage whisper, which caused more wheezy laughter.

    There were lots of pictures taken.  They are full of sweetness   and love,  except for the ones I am in. They are not so sweet.  I look as if I just removed a spear from my own thigh for some reason. 

    No one in any casino was giving away a car either, but the weekend was still a success.  A new car is nothing compared to a loving family gathering.

                 Now for the "Ever After."

I Give Good French (braid) & The Rude T-Shirt Of The Day

 This is Halie and Paige.  Paige is becoming my newest Sister Saturday and That makes me happy!

This is Rob and he gets bored easily with anyone who doesn't talk about quantum physics and crap like that.

No More Furniture? He's Not The Boss Of Me.

 I got this cute little table at Pier One.  (a most dangerous store for me to enter)  This is my front entry.

 Here is why I like it:  It opens the area up a bit because it looks like it is a round table because of the mirror.

 And because it has a little bird under it.

I'm not sure what I'll put on it but this is what I found to start with.

Long Ago In A Galaxy Called Ada...

Our daddy built us a tree house high in a tree in our back yard.  I am busy writing it's story.  In this tree house, I learned many new and interesting things.

Perhaps I shall share them with you later. 

This seems to be the only photograph of it.  It was taken by a representative our small town news paper.  I think I was 12 or 13 here.  This would make my brother, Bobby around nine.

Wonder how long this danger would last in any tree today.

Oxymoron

Who Would Sit In The Dirt On Her Day Off Just For Children And Her Community?

 A teacher, of course!  I believe I heard this saintly creature referred to as Ms. Rogers.

 She was directing these kids who were singing a medley of five songs, one for each of the five branches of the military.  She didn't forget the Coast Guard, and she taught them gestures to go along with  the songs.  I have done this.  It is not as easy as the finished product looks.  Congrats, Ms Rogers.  We are not worthy! *bows to the floor*

 All of this happened this morning at the Whitmore Parade, and Country Fair.  The above is the Quilting Club.  I used to attend the quilting.  Perhaps I'll return.

 This is the Shingletown Fiddle Group.

 Here we have the 4-H Club,  headed by Shannon and Duane,

 Our mail delivery person and her award-winning goat,

 And the judges table.  Whoop!  There he is!

 You can see by the banner hanging from the trees that the proceeds of the events go to the volunteer fire department.  You can also see the beautiful environment in which we live.
It is a township of about 800, and I think we were all there today.

My Drunk Kitchen Ep. 6: Brunch?

Observations on the Road

As an observer of changes, I am seldom bored.  I began a recent trip by noticing that some pretty homes that I like to look at along Whitmore Road are no longer visible now that the foliage returned.   There are lots of baby calves to “awww” over, though.
When I got to I-5, or  “The Five” as it is known in Southern California, I had to look hard for new sights.  My destination was Folsom again.
One semi-amazing thing I saw was some enterprising farmer harvesting what appeared to be hay from the center median. He may have planted it or maybe it just magically grew there. I do not know. Every few miles there was a stack of rectangular blocks of hay. As I drove on down the road I came upon a guy driving a large contraption that I recognized as farm machinery with those sharp wicked-looking circular  blades cutting the hay from the center of Interstate Five! Well. This never happened down where this road is known as the Santa Ana Freeway!

Another not so unusual observance of mine was that the Department of Placing Orange Cones In Equidistant Arrays had been busy. There were many tidy arrangements of them.
Near the Cone Displays was evidence of other Cal Trans workers. The Big White Signs Team had been there. Their signs stated that the cones were to show us that our tax dollars were at work, improving our driving experience by making the roads better.
The Department of Warning Signs had been there, too. Their signs were warning us that any traffic tickets the highway patrol were able to issue would be doubled in price if any driver broke a rule while driving by the Cone Display. I was very careful. I know the state needs money but I need to keep mine for gas.

The one thing I did not see was a single soul. There were no people anywhere near the signs and cones. And no, it was not the weekend yet.

The guy in the bright yellow plane was there, as always, busily spraying poison on the food he was growing. Obviously enough people still eat the poison food. I would imagine his airplane is pretty expensive to operate. I am always worried that someone will run into me around there as everyone is always enchanted with the bright yellow plane and they drift into my lane while watching it zoom low over his crops.
I always hold my breath there.  I don't want to breathe the poison or crash into other vehicles.

I had a lovely visit with Mama and my sisters. We ate at Cafe Luna in Placerville, which is the best little restaurant on the planet, and worth the drive from here even if your mama doesn't live there.
The next night we ate fava beans that came in my sister's weekly box of unpoisoned veggies. We ate them with a nice Chianti; no liver.
We looked through boxes and boxes of old photographs and wondered where all the time had gone.
We went to the movie and saw Water For Elephants. It was excellent.

On the way home there were still no people working where our tax dollars were being spent. But then again it WAS Sunday.