After helping Mom out this morning with loading the car with Good Will items and then mowing, Kim and I went out to lunch. We went down to The Commissary and it was tasty. I love their sauce and their deviled eggs. We talked about all sorts of things, and mostly relationships since that is the crazy part of the last month. I’m grateful to have such an amazing woman, and not to be caught up in all the drama that has been happening. Mom was nice enough to cover lunch for the two of us. When we got back I helped out with some more packing.
After golfing Dad and I went by the Fresh Market. We picked up a dozen scallops and Dad cooked them up really tasty. I was glad to have them with the bacon on them. The little bits of bacon make things soo tasty. Mom also made some fantastic bacon wrapped asparagus. It is nice having dinner with my family again.
Today Dad and I went to play around of golf. We only played 9 holes, and I still got a 72. 71 is par for the 18 hole course, and I got more than that on the back 9. I lost a lot fewer balls than I thought I would; only 2. Dad had a lot of amazing shots. We had lunch at the club after that and it was tasty. Dad got me a Ghost River beer, which tastes a lot like Blue Moon.
I helped Mom get the items that they no longer needed out of the attic. There wasn’t too much that came down, but it looked like a lot when it was all piled up in Kim’s room. There was a lot of old stuff that seemed like it should have sentimental value, but we would never use it again, and it was easy to replace. I also went through my room and found only a few things that I’d want to keep. Most of the things were puzzle boxes and it was really nice to go through them, with all the memories they contained.
Last night Steph dropped me off at the airport at about 1am. I worked on CatDuo through the night and was ready for some sleep when I got on the planes to Memphis at 6am. The flights were completely uneventful. The first flight to Salt Lake City was even nice, as I had a whole row of seats to myself. The second flight was packed, but I was able to get a good amount of sleep through the whole thing. My mom came to pick me up at the airport just after I got into Memphis at 1pm, and we went straight to a Chick-Fil-A for lunch. I didn’t get anything to eat while travelling, so I was ready for some food. There are Chick-Fil-A in SF area now, but it is still something I like to do when I get home. That and Commissary BBQ. We stopped by the grocery store on the way home and picked up some food for while I’m here. I’ve forgotten how nice it is to have covered room and board.
Saturday we went sailing out of Santa Cruz, and it was really nice. Steph and I were joined by Ray, Monica, Chris, Francis, Michael, and Ray’s Friend Paul. The girls got sick when we went out to the high wind and rough sea. It was fun out in the heavy wind, but the light wind was terrible. The area inside the mile buoy was full of weak swirling winds. Steph took a long turn fighting them while I ate, but I took back over when that was through. She got us out to the good wind and it was nice. I got tired of holding the wheel and my shoes were terrible at gripping the surface. Ray took over for a while and did really well. As long as we weren’t doing jibes, I’d be fine with anyone taking the wheel. Afterwards we went to the Penny Ice Creamery. There was a little stand that we found first that was a block and a half from the main building. We walked over there once we asked the girl at the booth where the main building was. I got some amazing coffee and praline.
Yesterday morning I took the kitties over to one of the offices Steph’s company operates out of and introduced the kitties to the robots that Steph is working on. The owner of the company wanted to get videos of the cats riding the robots. He didn’t quite understand how one interacts with cats, or how hard cats are to control. There is the phrase ‘herding cats’ after all, which is not about how easy cats are to control. Archer and Lana were doing really well with the robots, and we got them to play on/with the robots as Steph drove them around. Archer went after the pink furry tail plaything when we taped that to the robot, and when we taped on the laser pointer Lana went after the dot. They got more comfortable with the robots, but wouldn’t put up with the robots driving while they were on top. We tried putting them on top of the robots and then driving it off really quickly for a bit of video, but even that didn’t work. We stopped that when Archer had his foot run over. He was fine, but didn’t want to go close to the robot after that. One thing that I found very strange is that they weren’t interested in the treats while they were at the office. Even when I tried to make them eat a few, they wouldn’t have any of it. It was a big adventure for the kitties, and me. We cuddled a lot afterwards as I worked on the games.
Today we had a lot more interesting maneuvers for the motorcycling. It wasn’t nearly as tiring and not nearly as hot it seemed. I had a good time and was taking corners a little too quickly in some situations. We all did rather well on everything except the U-turn box. Adam had the hardest time with the U-turn box, but he managed to pull it out in the end. I think that situation is the one we have to worry about the least, as you can always just roll the bike instead of riding it in tight quarters. I didn’t do great on the test, but was far from the worst score. Jeremy did the best with a score of 1.
We had our first course on the motorcycles yesterday. It was hot out and we were all dying in the log sleeves. Some people even had the leather jackets that you might normally need for riding at full speed. With the speeds we were going at (max at about 15mph) there was little or no respite from the heat with any kind of wind. The class went at a good pace, but some of the other riders weren’t particularly learning quickly. Everyone in our group did really well. Steph got a difficult bike and couldn’t easily shift. She also dropped the bike twice, which I thought was a little funny. By the end of the day I was feeling rather comfortable on the bike, and I’d be willing to take a motorcycle out on the road (not yet highway). I probably was on the nicest of the bikes there, and it was really easy to handle and shift with.
It's an Exciting World 