Special Delivery from San Diego

[Management: on she goes... hopefully now she'll plow through until she catches up with herself]

♪♫ You started to believe, the things they say of you, you really do believe this talk of God is true...♪♫
Friday morning, bright and early, I picked up buddy Joann, up from San Diego for the weekend. Being the sneaky sort it was decided we would drive over to Livermore. On the drive down, it was raining, a perk for our drought ridden state, and a side effect of having Joann visiting (no, really, it rains whenever she comes up here without Gene).

♫ Listen Jesus I don't like what I see. All I ask is that you listen to me...♪♫
We took a leisurely route, by way of Twin Cities Road. On the country road over to the Consumnes Wildlife Refuge, Joann shouted, "JERKY!"

I pulled a U-turn and drove slowly, peering intently at the asphalt.

Joann - "What are you doing?"

Claire - "I'm looking for whatever died on the road... you know... the jerky..."

Joann - "Road kill? I'm talking about that Store back there, with the big sign, 'Jerky'!

Claire - 'Ooooo...."


No road kill here! Just my buddy Joann, and the butcher
♪♫Christ you know I love you, did you see I waved...!♪♫

Anyway! We picked up some lovely jerky at the little butcher's shop, then did a quick drive through the Consumnes reserve.


These were the only cranes we saw, the rest have flown north

The last field of wildflowers for this year - Wild Radish

♫Sleep and I shall soothe you, calm you and anoint you, for your hot forehead. And you know every thing's alright...♪

Our drive was over to Livermore for a "Surprise, It's Mom & Auntie Claire" visit with Joann's son Philip & his Krista. We didn't surprise them too much (no one's hair fell out) and we stayed in a nice hotel nearby. It was a great visit though. I haven't seen P&K since their wedding two years ago. And oh yes, their 'daughter', a pretty lab, whose name I seem incapable of memorising.

Some puppy loves a visit from her grandma!

Phil got to show off his AWESOME wood working projects. He is totally a craftsman now. Makes all sorts of beautiful furniture, like this half finished chair. He made Joann a beautiful Mission style cabinet.

Ta da! Phil's latest project-in-the-making - awesome!

It was great visiting with P&K - among their current 'projects' is fixing up a new room in their house as a NURSERY... hint, hint.

♪♫What's the buzz, tell me what's happening...what's the buzz, tell me what's happening, what's the buzz♪♫
The new occupant will be by, oh, about October I think. Congratulations you two!


Krista and Phil in their front yard

It was a nice visit. On Saturday we met P&K for breakfast, before heading back up to my place.

The rest of the weekend was spent yakking (no kidding) and driving through my favorite American River Parks and 'deer hunting' come sundown. On Saturday night we saw only 3 spindly deer, which Joann pointed out was probably because of the rain. She was right, because on Sunday night all the deer were making up for lost time; we saw some 20 plus deer! The seemed to want to take advantage of the cool, wet, grazing.

♫ Heysanna Hosanna, Sanna Sanna Hosanna, Heysanna Hosan-nah!...♪♫

Here's a quickie vid of a turkey that was up a tree gobbling. You can hear some park visitor egging the bird on to greater vocal triumph.

But let's not rush past Sunday too fast! Sunday morning Joann and I went to my local Catholic Church - Happily the fonts didn't burst into billowing plumes of hell-fire as I approached. *whistles innocently*

Sunday afternoon it was time for the big event which is what got Joann up here in the first place. We had tickets for Davis Musical Theater production of Jesus Christ Superstar. It was the two of us, and a friend of mine, Linda, a fellow docent at the State Indian Museum. The three of us totally enjoyed the production, which was unlike any other I've seen at the Hobbit Theater. The stage was all black with the musicians on stage, rather than under it (yes they're usually under the stage's floor grating). The setting was stark, so the magic of the production was greater than normal. All the parts were played well and the guy who played Jesus had a wonderful voice. Bravo DMTC!

If you haven't caught on by now, the only problem with JC Superstar was it gave me the worse case of ear worms ever - the tunes keep playing over and over again in my head.
♪♫...sleep and I shall soothe you, calm you and anoint you, myrrh for your hot forehead...♪♫
Oh dear. There it goes again.