Springville California - Road Trip!

I knew this past weekend was going to be beautiful, after the previous weekend being at 100 degrees, we were promised much more spring like weather, with the highs in the 80's and a nice breeze blowing. I was feeling a little house bound since we really haven't done much of anything so far this year, other than a quick trip down south at Easter time. I thought Keith might not want to go anywhere after his trip up to Fresno on Thursday, but he thought going for a drive sounded good, too, so Saturday morning we set out to go up Hwy 65 and find someplace in one of the little towns for lunch. We were thinking Lindsay, since we had visited that town for a few minutes on our last little trip up that way, and what a cute little town it was. But, when we hit Porterville, we saw a sign for Springville and since we'd never been there, took a right through Porterville and on up the road.

The trip on Hwy 65 is really pretty once you get out of the oilfields outside of Bakersfield, very rural and lots of rolling hills and orange groves. Lots and lots of orange groves. There are a couple of small agricultural type towns right on 65 before you hit Porterville, and more towns between 65 and the 99. The scenery is mostly green, with the flat valley full of orchards and fields on the left as you are driving up the highway, and the brown this time of year hills and beginnings of the Sierra Nevadas on the right. Very pretty and very nice to see after months of being in a suburban/urban environment.

The road to Springville was even prettier, going towards the mountains and climbing up through the hills, past Lake Success, which looked really nice and we think we will come back and bring a picnic lunch next time. Pine trees are now on the hills, and beautiful ranch houses beside the road, and then around a bend we come to Springville, which is basically in a river canyon. The altitude is 1000 feet, so not so high that they would get snow, but high enough where the mountains around the town would definitely be snow covered in the winter and what a view they must have all year round. At a population of a little less than 1000 people, small town indeed, with a few businesses along the main street, a hamburger stand and a funky (very funky) little cafe that we stopped at for lunch and to go to the bathroom because by now I REALLY NEEDED TO GO!

Lunch was okay, you don't expect fine cuisine in a tiny little cafe where the floor and your table kind of slope towards the wall and there are five stools at the counter, six booths, one waitress, and one cook.

We drove through the houses alongside the river, you couldn't actually see the river because of the houses and trees, but I was impressed to see that all of the little houses were very well kept and the town was very clean, until we got to the end of the road of houses and there they were, the hillbilly houses that every town has, with junk in the yard and kids bikes laying around and Christmas lights still up, you know those houses. Where the nearest neighbor, whose house and yard are immaculate, has a For Sale sign out front because he is probably really tired of living next to Just Throw The Junk In The Yard Mr. and Mrs. Billy Bob.

Anyway, beautiful little town and next time we'll keep going further up the road to see where it goes.

We didn't take any pictures but I did find one on the internet that shows the cafe where we ate.  The sign that says CAFE.

I also found a map that shows where we were.

As we were driving up to Springville, we passed an orange stand on the other side of the road, so on the way back down stopped so Keith could get some oranges. Here is something you would never see in the city, an honor system orange stand, where you grab your huge bag of oranges that were grown right there and put your $5.00 in a metal box on the wall.

Mud Pie and a Comedy of Errors

Yesterday I rode over to my most favorite store in the world, the Goodwill bookstore where I spent the exorbitant amount of $5.85 on a few books and a couple of those little cookbooks that I'm so drawn to regardless of the fact that I really don't like to cook. The Goodwill has hundreds of these little cookbooks, you know, the ones at the grocery store checkout that come out every month with promises of easy and delicious recipes. The ones that cost $3.95 at the grocery store but only 25c at the Goodwill.

Anyway, one of the cookbooks was sponsored by whoever makes Oreo cookies and there was a recipe for Oreo cookie mud pie that looked so good and stayed on my mind until after dinner when I couldn't stand it anymore and decided that we really needed an Oreo cookie mud pie for dessert.

Instead of driving over to Target to get the ingredients for the mud pie I decided to just bike over since it's summer time and still light out after dinner, and biking over to Target is actually so much easier than driving, no looking for a parking spot and all, you just lock your bike up at the convenient bike rack right outside the door. I get the Oreo cookies, a pint of chocolate ice cream and a pint of coffee ice cream, hot fudge sauce, and whipped cream, which I can do without but Keith likes, and the total for the ingredients comes to almost $13.00. I probably could have just bought a frozen mud pie for about half that price and wouldn't have had to put the mud pie together, but that is beside the point. Next time I want mud pie, I will just buy one though.

As I'm riding up to lock up my bike I see a woman coming out of Target with her shopping cart full of stuff and she is talking on her cell phone, not noticing that the big package of paper towels that were on the rack thing under the cart had fallen off and were being pushed along by the wheels of her cart. As she turns her cart to go down the row of cars, the paper towels get left behind in the middle of the street where a pedestrian calls out to her about the paper towels laying there. She is still on her phone (of course) and leaves her shopping cart to go get the towels and her shopping cart starts rolling towards a parked truck. Moments before the cart smashed into the shiny red truck the helpful pedestrian grabs it and stops it. The woman is still talking on her phone.

I had to laugh, and you probably had to be there to think it was funny, but hey folks, is that phone call really all that important, important enough to embarrass yourself in front of a parking lot full of people?

Now, the mud pie was actually not that much fun to make and certainly didn't look like the picture in the cookbook, so next time I will definitely just buy one ready made, or just eat the ice cream out of a bowl (or the container) maybe adding a few oreo cookies and fudge sauce for fake mud pie.

Cat Fight!

Well, this morning one bad apple (Buddy) spoiled it for the whole bunch. Our experiment in letting the cats out for an hour or so in the mornings has come to a yowling end. No more, kids, cause you can't behave yourselves.

It all started when I reached out the door to put Genie's food on the back porch for her and Harri went right past my arm and right past Genie to get to some grass. Genie was so hungry that she didn't even notice Harri at first, but then quickly went to hide behind her basket after seeing Harri out there. I went out and put Genie, her basket, and food up onto the patio table so she could feel a little safer, and then let the rest of the cats join Harri outside. Keith is making his breakfast and I'm at the computer (where else) checking my email and all of a sudden I hear cats hissing and yowling and run to the back door just in time to see Buddy chasing Genie across the yard. The rest of the cats are all panicked and trying to get back inside except for Pepper who is also hissing even though she isn't anywhere near the fight. Keith runs out to try and rescue Genie, who is now nowhere to be seen and I hope she hasn't jumped up on the fence in panic, never mind that she's never figured out that she could climb that fence if she wanted to.

Buddy has all kinds of fur hanging from his mouth, so he obviously got in a few bites and now he is in BIG TROUBLE, MISTER! and after he finally calms down a little and comes back inside and Pepper calms down a little and also finally comes back inside, we go out to check on Genie who has jumped up onto her cat condo stand and in through the window into the safety of her shed. Where I think she is probably still hiding here an hour or so later.

So, no more going outside kids, it's not fair to Genie to be attacked in  her own territory and no matter how much you whine, you're going to have to stay inside!

In other news, Keith's test and interview with BNSF yesterday up in Fresno went well. There were 54 candidates there, minus a few who didn't make it to the door before they closed it at 7 am, and if you are late, tough luck, you are done. Then after the speech about how if you do drugs might as well leave now a few other people were eliminated. It boggles my mind that druggies read the paperwork that BNSF sends to you that specifically says they do a hair test for drugs but they still show up thinking they can get away with bringing fake pee or whatever. Then there are the ones who come in shorts and flip flops for their interview. The ones that were left all took the written test and about 15 more people were eliminated when they didn't pass, and then on to interviews and waiting in line to get your hair clipped for the drug test. Keith said there were quite a few ex-military men, who of course will get preference simply because they are military men and are used to strange hours and following rules and after all they did spend a part of their lives risking that life every day in Afghanistan or wherever. I don't begrudge them getting preference at all, so many of them come home to a lack of opportunity and jobs.

Anyway, if they want an old guy like Keith, they will let him know in a few weeks, and if not, then he gave it his best shot. We're thinking that the way things have gone lately, both railroads will call him on the same day and then he'll have to decide which one to go with. Or, neither one will call. We just have to be patient and wait and see.

One Of The Bad Things

About getting older is that your stomach just can't take it anymore.

When you are young, you can eat just about anything you want and never have a problem with digesting it. Coffee, greasy hamburgers, french fries, whatever, you can eat it and no problems, digest away! But, besides the possibility of getting really fat, not being so careful about what you eat will catch up with you someday.

That someday is here for me. I've come to the conclusion that I just might have irritable bowel syndrome, something that affects everyone a little differently, but whatever your symptoms, that irritable bowel makes the rest of you really irritable too. I was absolutely miserable all day yesterday, with my stomach hurting and many trips to the bathroom and finally in mid afternoon I just gave up and put my pajamas on for the rest of the day because my pants were bothering my poor stomach.

I may have to give up coffee (AGH NOT THAT!!!) among other things. Not only am I supposed to eat low carb and full of fiber for my diverticulitis, but no coffee? The horror!

I did have some coffee this morning but only made half a pot and now I'm drinking water. I'm absolutely starving but kind of afraid to eat. A banana sounds really good and soothing about now, but we don't have any bananas, so I guess I will make a trip to the store here real soon. I've done a little research on what to eat to sooth the cranky bowel and will do a little more today. Then I'll try and combine the low carb high fiber but only certain kinds of fiber (nothing too harsh and gassy like broccoli, which I don't like anyway, so that works) and see if we can't get things quieted down so I feel better.

Now, have you ever worked for someone that just seems to take a dislike to you and tries really hard to find fault with everything that you do? I'm sure all of us have at some time during our lives had to deal with someone like this who is in a position of power and enjoys making your life miserable and wants to get rid of you but doesn't really have grounds to fire you. So, they just pick and pick at you in the hopes that you will get fed up and quit.

Keith is dealing with just such a person at his new job (that he really doesn't like if I haven't mentioned that before) and he is just not enjoying being there. At all. The shop foreman seems to go out of his way to criticize and nitpick and just make him totally frustrated each and every day. I suggested doing the sticking your fingers in your ears and going la la la la la but I don't think that would go over very well. Either that or just doing the Peanuts teacher sound in your head while the boss is talking, whua WHUA whua WHUA whua. Or, do like one of his coworkers who also hates the boss does and just turn your hearing aids off.

Anyway, he is not liking his job and is in pursuit of something else and that something else may come to be in the next few weeks. He interviewed with the local short line railroad for a track maintenance job on Tuesday and today he is up in Fresno testing and if he passes the test, which he should since he's taken it a few times now and passed before, interviewing for a conductor position with BNSF. So, hopefully one or the other of these jobs will come through for him.

I'm Afraid of Pepper

She is still very very very cranky, but I guess if you'd been to the vet where they stuck things up your butt when you were sedated and then you had to go poop a whole lot afterwards, you'd be a little cranky, too.

This morning everyone wanted to go outside right after breakfast, I had opened up the back sliding door to get some fresh air in here and hear the extremely loud birds chirping out there, and they all lined up by the door saying OPEN OPEN and Pepper was there snarling, so I opened the door and out they all went. Pepper goes right for the dirt first and rolls around in it, Harri tries to find some grass to eat, Buddy and Mimi go to sniff and explore, as does Bear. Genie tries to hide in her basket because WHAT THE HELL ARE ALL OF THESE CATS DOING IN MY BACK YARD?

We did find one way to get them all back inside again yesterday, Keith went to roll the green waste bin out to the curb and when you roll one of the trash cans out to the curb it sounds like thunder, so they all came racing back into the house and I shut the door and made them stay in. So now I have that trick up my sleeve when they don't want to come in.

Anyway, this morning, Harri got spooked by something and came back in the house, where I brushed her and wiped her off with a damp cloth, and after she was all clean, right back outside she went. Everyone was getting along okay and I went out to sit with them for a little while. I felt Pepper's wet nose on my leg and reached to pet her and she snarled at me. Nice, Pepper, I'm just trying to pet you.

I went back inside and a few minutes later hear more snarling and hissing and cats are running for the door because someone got a little too close to Genie in her basket and somebody got mad and the basket got tipped over and Genie ran off to find someplace else to hide. Everyone was in now except Pepper, so I shut the door and left her outside to snarl at whatever, as long as it wasn't at me.

She finally calmed down enough and came inside and is nowhere to be found now. I'm assuming she is hiding under a bed or out in the garage, but for now I'm just going to let cranky snarling cats be wherever they want to be. She scares me sometimes, she will bite and scratch if she is not happy, and she really isn't very happy these days. I know her butt is sore from all the trauma it went through, and it really needs washing since she can't reach it and I noticed that she really does stink but I will wait on all that for another day or two.

It's hard being a cat parent sometimes. They really are like toddlers running around, dirty butts and all, and I've known lots of kids who like to bite.

I did thwart the white stray cat this morning, I've been picking up the outdoor cat's food right after they eat in an effort to keep flies and strays away, and this morning white cat was across the street waiting for an opportunity to come over and scavenge after Lucy was done eating. Ha ha, white cat, I picked up Lucy's dish and then a little while later see him coming up the sidewalk, looking around for food, not seeing food, and then wandering off back down the sidewalk, tail hanging in disappointment.