Thingers

Thingers 

the journaling in the tag reads:
I go to a chatroom owned by
Simong. On his website he has
The Great Favourite Thing
Experiment. It started out
that visitors to his site could
suggest their favourite thing
and he and other visitors
too, would try the thing and
report back their results.
This was called 'thinging'. Then
someone suggested that
visitors could meet and do
things together and they
became 'thingers'.
I had mentioned on
Simong's site that I was
coming to England and
would like to have a meeting.
We arranged to have lunch at
the Anchor, as Henry moors
his boat nearby lo and
behold 6 Thingers turned up.
Most Thingers use nicknames,
which I will use here.
From front to back,
left side:
Simong, JG, MMM with MM (j)
J and A.
right side:
Ned, Henry not the Thirst,
Trouty, Simon and Vodka Mick.
While we were waiting for
lunch
j enjoyed playing in the
puddles.
J, August 29,2005

Last night

Last night S was pottering about in the garden when he suddenly called me out to see this fantastic sight. A rocket from VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE caused a rainbow of colours from the setting sun to reflect off it's twisting trail. We even saw the two stages separate with a cone shaped whoosh of vapour. luckily I had my camera handy and we were able to get a few photos shown below.

rocket and trail 

trail 

trail 

Hav'nt even made the first payment

End of last month J bought a new car using a little money that she received from her nana as a deposit. Today we had a little rain in California and on her way to college she got rear ended and the back bumper was totaly crushed and pushed under the car, so sad. Luckily she was not hurt, I took her to urgent care just to make sure. She feels a bit sore but I think that will soon wear off. Don't know how much real damage was done as we hav'nt had the estimate yet. Insurance, hopefully, will cover most of it but it won't be the same anymore. :(

Exhausted

Had a very busy day. A had been asking all week if he could drive to a desert camp with his friends but as it is about 120miles to the campsite we had decided it was a bit too far for a first long drive. A had a flying lesson and his friend P had a lab. So it was decided that we should let him drive our van with us as passengers, so that we would drive home and he and P would come back with the others on the camping trip.
But I've got ahead of myself as lots happened before we even left!
One idea put forward was that he might fly to the landing strip near the campsite for his lesson but that still left P without a ride. So S took A for his flying lesson at 9:00am and I went with J to the Zoo to study monkeys for her anthropology class. Great fun to not feel obliged to try and see every animal in the zoo and we spent a very enjoyable 2 hours watching how the monkeys interacted. At one we started for home and I phoned to see if S A were still waiting for me as I was a bit late. No reply so I thought I'd missed the run to the desert but a few moments later S called and said they'd just got home as A had had an "adventure'. I said I'd prefer to hear his story when we got home.
A had an exciting lesson, he had taken off and they were flying ove the mountains to the SE of SD, M was just explaining a new maneuver when suddenly oil stared to spray all over the windscreen of the airplane. Oil pressure did not drop but visabilty was bad so Mike called for an emergency landing at the closest airport, answering no to the question of whether fire engines would be required, they were given the all clear and landed safely on the runway. An adventure indeed, A's first emergency landing, I think he learned a lot!! Anyway they taxied the plane over to maintenance where the chief machanic had a quick look at the engine and then as M & A needed to get back to SD the machanic offered them his car to get them back! They phoned the airport to let them know the situation and to ask them to let S (no cellphone) know they would be late!!
About 2:30 we set off for the desert and had a good ride through the beautiful area. A did a good job driving and safely got us down the steep winding grade to the desert, I think he was surprised at how far the campground was and was quiet tired by the time we got there. As we were dithering about at the entrance to ask the Ranger where A's friends were camping, along they came, as they were setting off to the mudcaves, fed up of waiting for A & P (we were about 2 hours late)Quickly we loaded all the camping gear onto their truck and waved goodbye!!
As Simon got into the drivers seat we both suddenly noticed that the KEYS were gone. A had gone off with them in his pocket!! So there we were stuck at the entrance to the campground in the desert. The Ranger was very helpful and found the phone number of the father (I suddenly realised what a bad mother I was I did not even know the name of the people that I was leaving my son with!) We called but there is no reception in the desert so our only option was to just sit and wait for them to return, the Ranger said they would likely be about 3 hours!! Luckily we were soon in the shade as the sun set very quickly behind the mountains although it stayed light until 7 which just happened to be the time that the campers returned!! They were so suprised to see us. JM kindly offered us dinner before setting back and we had a very enjoyable campfire dinner. We left about 9:15pm and got home just before midnight. Exhausted!

IKEA

Had a nice trip to IKEA this afternoon with J. We needed to get some curtains For A's newly decorated bedroom. He has chosen a Chillie Red for the walls with a Cappuchino Cream for the trim and door. So I had in mind a black and white or gold pattern and found exactly what I wanted. The curtains are black with gray and white circles. I also needed the pole and finials. So we were able to get it all at once.
J and I also went into the IKEA cafe, J had coffee and a slice of cake and I had tea and a marzipan tartlet, delish!! and all for less than $5, fantastic value!!

SS

I had to take my kids to the Social Security office to get the ID cards changed to show they were valid for employment. We had to take the green cards and other ID to prove they were who we said they were. J got asked when she was going to become a citizen and although she felt like saying "when America admits to Global Warming" or something along those lines she held her tongue as she needs the card for the job at Vons that she has accepted.
As we approached the building my tummy was churning and I felt sick. Why do offical places make me feel like this. I'm a legal resident and all my paperwork is good and yet I feel like I'd imagine an escapee from Colditz would feel as the solders calling "papers please" comes nearer! SS indeed!

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Fire seen from our home