The rest of September

OK, so what happened in the rest of the month? First, K started having problems at his job. First, they gave him a crumby shift = the worst shift you can get. Basically he has to work during ALL the holidays. He was offended because he works really hard and should get some kind of seniority, but it doesn't work like that. This shift was weak and he is strong, so they stuck him there to balance it out.

Meanwhile, management has been implementing changes that make it harder to do K's job, and not staffing the place correctly to cut costs. K told them he wouldn't be Acting Supervisor during his shift anymore if the staffing levels were short. As it is, K still thought it was weak, and told a Supervisor that it was "a setup" to fail.

K went to work after the shift change, and tried to talk to his supervisor about his shift. His supervisor said that if he wanted to be promoted, he should help him with a mentoring program he's putting together. He implied that the shift would be changed if K agreed, so he said yes.

Then, K did something to tighten things up. Later, after he got home, he found out he was "under investigation" for doing so.

First, he might be promoted. Now, he might be fired? All in the same day. Wow.

Then, he took a shift off for a little "staycation." On Friday night (during his regular shift), there was a riot! Sheriffs were called, kids were shot with paint pellets, people went to the hospital. So much for cutting costs.

Of course Management never took any responsibility for what happened, but one Supervisor kept telling K, "You said it was a setup! You were right!" But, again, nothing has changed, including K's shift.

THEN...

We got a call while K was at work that one of his best friends had died. His friends from High School in Indiana take a hunting trip every year, and this year Rick didn't make it back.

There's one friend from that group who lives out here near us, I'll call him Don. Don looks forward to this trip every year. This year they went to Alaska, a place that Rick had been before and loved. His daughter even lives up there now, so they visited with her before they took off hunting.

They were on their way back to start home. Don had shot a Caribou, the only game any of them had killed. He and Rick were carrying the meat on their backs as they crossed the river. The river was mostly not deep, but somehow Rick lost his footing and got swept up in the current. Don tried to go after him, but didn't get any closer. Finally he got scared that HE wasn't going to make it out, and somehow he dragged himself out of the river.

Anyway, they didn't find Rick for 6 days. Don felt guilty that he couldn't save him and that Rick had been carrying his meat. But they all do that for each other, and sometimes you just can't save people.

It just so happened that K saw Rick in June, right before we took our big trip. He flew back for just a few days, and now he's so glad he did. He hadn't seen him in about 8 years before that.

Anyway, we flew to Indiana, but it took Alaska a long time to release the body, and they had to keep pushing the funeral back. Finally I had to get back, but K was able to stay another day and help carry the casket, etc.

On the plus side, we found that Long Beach has a little airport, and it's really cute.W e also came out of it closer to some of our friends.

But we were glad to see the end of September, and October was a big improvement.

More about that later.

Drama is my life

OK. I was going to write about my trip this summer and all the wonderful places we went, but life went and got in the way and I've been really busy lately.

First, my sister R came to visit in late August, and we had a great time. We went to the Sunset Street Fair, Melrose, Universal City Walk. At the airport we saw Ice T, and she got his autograph. Then she went home and the fires started. A friend of ours who lives at the beach called because he heard we were evacuated! He invited us to his house, and that was nice.

The next night The Girl saw the fire on the way home, when her friends Dad drove right by the fire in the town next to us. She came home crying, and I tried to comfort her. She said it looked like a wall of fire.

The next day I woke up coughing at all the smoke, and had to turn on the AC just to filter the air so we could breath!

But the fire was still a long way from our home. The next day The Boy wanted to move back to his dorm at a certain time. I stopped at the store to get some Starbucks, and in the process of getting pressured to hurry up, I locked the keys in the car! He was SO mad! I asked some policemen who were there if they could open it for me, but they called the Auto Club guy for me instead.

Meanwhile, everyone in the store parking lot was looking at the fire, which was now on one of the mountains behind us. It was an impressive sight, coming over the hills bearing down on us. The police warned us that the street was getting evacuated later that night. The Girl started crying again when she heard this.

The Boy was only concerned about getting to his dorm, so he told her that it would never happen and this was all just a bunch of alarmists getting upset about nothing.

Somewhere around this time the Girl started feeling stronger about the situation. I told her I used to have bad dreams about fires, and I think it speaks to a fear of a loss of security. She agreed, and somehow it seemed to make her feel better.

The next day we went to visit our friend at the beach, and had a nice time. We could see the smoke from a long way on the drive home, but it was dark and it didn't look that bad.

The next morning, at 2:30am, we got a call that told us to evacuate! What?

I was immediately wide awake! I've never been evacuated before. I had gotten a few things together after the police had told us about the possible evac the day before. A few pictures, my best jewelry, my leather jackets and boots. Important papers. A change of clothes. It's strange when you think about what to save when you're leaving your home behind.

So I had the car packed in no time. K decided to take a shower, so there was some waiting for him. Meanwhile, there were police cars driving around talking on some loudspeaker, telling us we had to evacuate.

It was a surreal scene, being dark outside, hearing the police and seeing our neighbors packing their cars. A guy came across the street and told us he'd come to his parents house from Pasadena, when he'd gotten evacuated there. Now he was evacuated here too!

We grabbed the dog and the fish and got into the car. We drove to the local High School, which was the evacuation center. When we finally found it, it was small, it had cots, and the lights were on. Who could sleep in there? Plus there were no pets allowed, so some elderly people were sitting outside with their pets. I thought this was a real glitch in the system, because lots of people have pets.

I also noticed the teenage girls carrying around their pillows and blankets. I was jealous, and now I know what to take if I'm ever evacuated again. A pillow! A blanket! (plus my pictures and jewelry and important papers.)

We drove around for awhile. I didn't want to wake my friend who lives down the hill from us, because it was SO early and I knew there was already someone (and possibly some dogs) staying there. I decided we'd wait until 5am to wake her up.

Meanwhile, I tried to sleep in the van with the dog. Then we heard they might let us go back, so K drove back up the hill, and at 4:30 am they let us return. It was really hard driving around with the fish sloshing in his bowl. We kept telling K, "Be careful! Drive slower!" Poor fish.

Anyway, we got back home and went to sleep. They evacuated us again the next morning, but a man down the street was listening to everything on his police scanners, and he advised us to stay put. He'd let us know if it really got dangerous. We no longer trusted the evacuation system, and it was a hassle to leave home and find a place for the dog.

So we stayed home and watched the fire. The Fire Department decided to burn the hillside nearest us on purpose - to get rid of the fuel and avoid a bigger fire I guess. So we drank a beer and watched it burn and fielded phone calls from people who were worried about us.

The worst thing was the smoke, which came down every night and blew away every day. Since we didn't evacuate, we couldn't leave the house, either, because then they wouldn't let us come back up the hill. This lasted for a few days.

The police drove around, which was good, because there were lots of people who had their valuables sitting in their cars, ready to evacuate.

All in all, it was pretty dramatic, as you can see from the pictures. Now we have to worry about the mudslides, since the hillside no longer has vegetation to hold the dirt.

It's always something, right? I'll tell you about the rest of September in my next post.

Whew!

Blarney and Dublin

The next day of our cruise we went to the Blarney Castle. We docked in Cork, and took a bus to the castle. Of course, I'd heard of people kissing the Blarney stone before, and since we were there it seemed like the thing to do.

It turns out that this Blarney stone is at the top of a dilapidated castle, right at the edge, over a hole. To kiss this stone, you have to lean over backwards, at the top of a castle, over a hole. The stone is at the bottom, too, so you have to lean backwards, hold onto a rail, and lower yourself as far backwards as you can and kiss the wall.

There was a long line, and The Boy grew increasingly more anxious the higher we climbed. Neither one of us like heights, but he has me beat in the anxiety department. When we got to the top he wanted to go back, but since we'd climbed an ancient, small, and winding stairway that was full of people, there was no going back.

So we all kissed the stone and hopefully now are more eloquent and persuasive.

That day we watched the beginning of Bolt (so cute!), Enchanted, and Yes Man.






Day 4 was Dublin. By this time I'd devised the perfect breakfast, and I had it the rest of the trip. Their scrambled eggs tasted a little sweet, and I didn't like the omelets either. But every morning they served eggs over easy, so I'd go in and put some bread in the toaster, then get an egg and a piece of ham. When my toast was done, I'd assemble an egg sandwich and it was delicious. Sometimes I had the fresh pineapple too, as that is a treat.

They served some strange things for breakfast on the ship, probably catering to the many different nationalities on board. Some of the odder things were fried hard boiled eggs, fried rice, miso soup, fried liver, and cooked tomatoes.

I also made sandwiches for times we'd be away from the ship around lunchtime. I'd take a hard roll, cut in in half, spread it with butter, and insert a piece of ham. Yum!

Anyway, Dublin was MUCH bigger than I expected. I don't know why I expected it to be little, but it's a major city. We went to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. It was really interesting. In the Long Hall upstairs they had an exhibit about Napoleon, which I also found very interesting.

We walked around the Temple Bar, which is a cool part of town. We went to the big park in town, an it was lovely and full of people. When we stopped to see the ducks in the pond, The Boy spotted a fox across the pond, sitting on a rock! When we were pointing it out to each other, a lady nearby said she lives in the area, and goes to that park every day, and she'd never seen that fox before!

When we went back to the ship, we grabbed a piece of pizza for my snack. One of our favorite things about the ship was the hamburger bar and the pizza station, which were open nearly all day on deck. We really missed them when we got back home.

That night we watched Hotel for Dogs.

Captivated!

That book turned out to be really good! I was taken captive for awhile, but it was worth it. Now I'm back to reality and will post more about my trip soon. I practically promise!

Guernsey

The first stop of our cruise was in Guernsey. I learned that there are islands in the English Channel, called Channel Islands! I was surprised to learn this, as there are islands off the coast of Ventura, California, that are also called the Channel Islands. Makes a bit more sense in the English Channel I suppose.

I was also surprised to see on a map that Guernsey is much closer to France than England - we could faintly see Normandy in the distance. But it was a political reason that they ended up belonging to England.

My In-laws had decided to rent bikes, so we ventured onto the island and searched for the bike shop. I was impressed with the island - it looked like Catalina's harbor, but with a lot of nice flowers. Clearly they take pride in their flowers!

It had been a long time since I'd ridden a bike, but I managed to avoid falling down! The Girl and my MIL both managed to fall into traffic (right next to the bike path!), and luckily I was not there to see either. I said a prayer for the Girl as she rode off without me.

K and I decided to ride over to the Castle Cornet, an old castle on the island. It was fun riding the bike there, as there was less traffic and it was much faster than walking.

We walked around the castle and got a really good view of the canon they fire every day at 1pm. Even tho I knew they were going to fire it, it still surprised me when it went off. I kindof screamed and took a less-than-perfect picture.

It was interesting to find that England abandoned these islands during WW2, as they were too close to France and too hard to defend. That must have been an interesting time to live there.

When it came time to ride back to the bike shop, I followed K into traffic and said a silent prayer for the best. We ran a red light in a busy intersection, and everyone was driving the wrong way, but I just followed him and we made it back without incident. Whew!

That afternoon and evening we watched BOLT, DEFINITELY MAYBE, ENCHANTED, and BRIDE WARS. For dinner I had ceasar salad, black bean soup, and tiger shrimp kabob.

I just bought a book about Guernsey that takes place during the German occupation, and I'm looking forward to reading it! It's called THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY by Mary Ann Schaffer. I'll let you know if I like it...

Family Cruise

Day 1 - Traveling and Waiting

K's parents decided to take the whole family (12 people) on a cruise to the English Isles to celebrate their 50th anniversary. They've been planning it for a long, long time. I was packed at least a month in advance, but I was still rushing around at the last minute until we left. There's always so much you want to get done before leaving for vacation.

Anyway, one of The Boy's friends drove us to the airport, in our own van, and that worked out nicely for us. At the airport it turned out my bag was 8 lbs overweight, so they asked me to put some of my stuff into another bag. Somehow in the midst of transferring things, my suitcase managed to get poured out onto the floor, but we were able to quickly scoop it all back in and nothing too embarrassing fell out. Whew!

The flight was fine. We'd stayed up late the night before, hoping it would help us fall asleep on the flight, but all it did to me was give me a headache! I didn't sleep much on the way there, which was only about a 10-hour flight. I saw some good movies - He's Just Not That Into You, Bride Wars (never quite saw the whole thing), New in Town, and The Reader. I think I missed something crucial in The Reader, tho, as I didn't quite understand the end.

Ten hours later we landed in London, where it was 7am! Going through customs, I was advised to put two perfectly good packages of beef jerkey into the "Honesty Bin" = which looked an awful lot like a trash can. So much for honesty!

I bought some coffee at the airport, and some wine for the cruise, as we were allowed to take a bottle each (adult). Then we were shuttled to a bus, then driven to the port about an hour away, then into a large waiting room for over an hour. Somewhere around 1 I think they let us onto the ship, and we made our way to our room.

I was pleasantly surprised to find our room and bathroom a bit bigger than the last (and only other) little cruise we took. We got settled and then set out to explore - getting some fries from the hamburger station on deck, and eating them beside the pool. Ah... heaven! We saw K's sister and BIL, KT and David, come out of the buffet, and we got to visit for awhile.

I told everyone to try and stay awake until our new bedtime, but the Boy went ahead and took a nap that afternoon. I think this threw him off for the rest of the trip, as he kept waking up at 5 in the morning after that.

Peanut RIP 7/7/09

We just got back from a fabulous cruise to the English Islands. It's a little overwhelming, but I plan to journal it all soon. Lots and lots of pictures.


For a long time I've been meaning to post about our cute little pets and their stories with us, but I still haven't gotten around to it.

Meanwhile, upon returning from our trip, we found that one of our two cats, Peanut, is missing. I did some pet detecting, and Peanut was last seen next door at 6am on 7/7. Peanut was our cat, but he was appreciated in several homes on this street.

Something happened that morning, because the cat two houses down became very upset and fearful and demanded to be let into the house. Its owner said it kept looking up and around, as if afraid something was coming to get him. So it seems that something happened that morning that Peanut did not survive. What with all the large birds and animals that come down from the mountains, it's a tough neighborhood for small animals.

We got home 2 days later. I feel sad that it happened while we were gone, but truthfully, our being here would probably not have made any difference. And it happened in the daytime, apparently.

Peanut was a cute cat. We got him at the pound when he was a little older than a kitten, but still pretty young. We got him to be a companion to Cosmos, a large black cat that we took in, but was in the process separated from another cat that had been a long-time companion. So we thought that Cosmos was lonely for a companion, and adopted Peanut.

Well, Cosmos could not have been more pissed off! He was completely offended that we'd brought in another animal, especially one as lively and playful as Peanut. Cosmos would come in and eat, but he refused to stay in the house and would NOT let us touch him in any way. This lasted for about 2 years.

Then we had to keep Cosmos inside for 10 days when he got injured, and after that he seemed to feel that we loved him again. After that he would come in the house and even stay all night. Sometimes he meows at us to pet him, which we sometimes do, even though Cosmos is HUGE and we are all scared of the size of his claws. Plus cats are liable to turn around and bite you without warning when you are petting them.

Well, like I said, Peanut was cute, but on the small side. He was playful and liked to tease other animals (including Cosmos and sometimes us) by bopping them on top of the head. He was very smart, and could open a screen door with his paw. Cosmos watched him do this many times, but never has had the idea to try it himself.

Peanut was also a great mouser, and often brought us gifts from nature.

Peanut was very affectionate too, until we brought home the dog, Gallo. Then Peanut got pissed off with us, and hardly ever came home or gave us affection anymore. The people next door really loved him, and I tried not to be jealous, as Peanut loved being a free cat and I think they gave him fish. If I didn't let him go out, he'd pester me and meow right in my face until I let him out.

In the last few months I'd tried to keep him in the house longer, and he got a little more affectionate with us. He got so he'd sleep inside for longer and longer periods of time.

I really miss him, and I wish I'd had more time with him.

I guess that's always the way.