Babbling Fool!

"You're having a bad dream!" Kelly's voice out of the blackness, again "you're Having a BAD DREAM!"  I kick the door again throwing the devilish bastard off balance again!  Then I awake panting like I've been in a fight, tension, visions, terror!  WTF!  Awake now I think, what kind of demented shit was THAT?! Damn!  Strapped down in a hospital bed next to a wall, in a room by myself with a double door to the outside?!  Thru the little pair of windows I can see a shape, a figure, man or woman ducking behind a giant saguaro cactus amidst a desert scene out of some old cowboy movie...WTF is right!  He's coming to do something and I don't know what,  but my brain, on it's own now not held down by mere consciousness, is busy with kicking the door shut in his/her/it's face as he/she/it tries to get through.  I kick again and again and yell at the phantom for all the reality of this nightmarish dreamland. Damn!  WTF is right!? 

Up to a pleasant, cool and quiet morning, no sounds of rain on the roof, no nightmare will get ME!  Off to blog it into word-stuff and entertain my dear readers if there are any left.  It's been a long blight this time, months in actuality.  Too much, too fast for words that take time to type and explain the meaning of.  A break, a vacation was taken.  Needed. 

So my son, Red, has moved bodily to Texas.  Now that is a MOVE for a man-child (He's almost 50 after all) and has now disconnected from California for the first time in his life.  Permanently I suspect.  Don't all Californians who move out-of-state KNOW they are coming back one day?  Sure they do.  It's harder to come back that it is to leave, a truth.  Texas is exciting though, he's got a new job in a new place, living in a new town, under new circumstances.  Exciting no matter where it is.  That effect is part of Kelly and my own sense of adventure.  The newness.  The awareness of one's freedom to experience joy in another scene from the Movie Of Life.  As good as that is, coming Home is always good too, never spoiled by the "somewhere else". 

Of all my children Red was the one I figured would never leave, and now he has.  That leaves Rosie and Aim to hold down the fort, certainly an able pair.  All the others live away from the state of their birth.  We are now represented in Arizona, South Carolina and Texas.  Grandchildren, yes, we have a few.  A step-grandchild and Great Grandchild in Oregon, another GC in Texas now about to go somewhere else for the winter like Michigan I think, or Alaska (Brrrrr for both!" A Jordan in University in California, Kaylee in nearby California wearing many hats, many occupations, much busy-ness, a Lute in there somewhere running wild!

Off to get another cafe espresso.  See you later!

Rain, The Homeless and US

Rain nearly every hour of every day, soggy local world of ours.What ever happened to the drought?!  When we returned from our trip east the soil was parched and plants dry and looking burnt.  Now everything is green and lush, looks like Ireland for chrissakes! And we're STILL on mandatory water rationing!

Last night (Wednesday evening) we met the Cheif of Police along with about 70 others and discussed how we deal with the homeless and criminal elements in our community.  They are everywhere in our local area, camps have been set up in out of the way places throughout Suisun.  Along with these camps we have the typical mess that they make and the petty theft issue that seems to come along with them.  Many stolen bikes, anything left outside the house is open game to be pilferred.  Many ideas were presented but somethings stood out and could be accomplished without adding people or money to the mix.  Old Town Suisun is DARK. There just is not enough lighting to the streets and alleyways.  This is a really easy fix, repair the street lights that are out and/or add lighting to each property where it would do the most good.

Some of the homeless are really homeless, an economic situation that has grown and grown with the globalization efforts in this and every other country...some people just get unemployed and their lives unravel to their and our detriment.  Then there are the druggies, homeless or not they infest the streets and gather in some of our homes to buy, sell and take various currently illegal drugs.
Methamphetamine, heroin, crack cocaine are but a few.  Add to this the sundry criminals that are dropped off by the CDC (California Department of Corrections) via Greyhound bus at our trainstation doorstep in their grey sweatshirts and white travelling bags; they wander the streets trying to sort out the next victim and/or crash pad.  We have California Proposition 47 to thank for that population.  here's the details of that wonderful mistake: California Proposition 47, Our Mistake  Nice mix all of these.

I'm BAAAACK!

Yes, I know, June the 4th was the last entry in this boringly silly blog of mine.  We departed Portugal after spending 6 beautiful weeks in the condo at Sao Rafael just west of Albufiera.  A glorious place indeed!  We left by another route north of Albufiera and entered Spain passing many hill towns and medieval castles along the way.  No snow this time, just sunny and cool diagonally through Spain towards Andorra and in the distance not too far, our lovely France.

Once home in Lignieres, we settled in for the balance of our summer's stay.  Much weeding of the courtyard and we were forced by the Lilac Tree of ancient age falling over, it's heart of rot gave up the ghost.  I cut it up for the most fragrant stove wood I've ever had.  Minor repairs here and there and the typical day trips to places we've not yet been, some VERY close to Lignieres but somehow hidden and missed.

The Kats, Mucca and Cara, had a ball running around Maison Blanche,  Cara caught a couple of wayward mice but pickings were few and far between.

We never did contact our Electrician so that work remained unfinished.

We LOST our car registration form which meant we couldn't get the car inspected until it was replaced.  I enlisted the help of an online service that issues replacement auto paperwork but that had not come by the time we departed for California in mid-August,  so we will have to take that up when we return. eh!

Bye for now, I'll be trying to blog more, we'll see how I do. Here are a few pictures of Summertime 

France for you.

 

                                                                       

Where are we Duckie?

Continuation of our Portugal Adventure.  Nearing our goal, that is Albufeira the Tom-Tom is of no further use, roads torn up and new freeway take us parallel to the coastline, NOT "to" the coastline.  We have an address and a visual description of sorts ("near the beach, modern") and that's it.  Big coastline this...so we just start heading on whatever street presents itself towards the coast when we can see it through all the highrise hotels and apartments and condominiums.  This is not easy.  We wander first somewhat east of the city itself after looking at a map at the beach areas.  Wandering around neither of us can identify a probable suspect condo development, they are all white and all huge and that's about it.  We do also have a name of the development "Sao Rafael" that we haven't seen either.  We drive through the actual town and look around at it at the same time as we have hours of daylight left.  We stop and walk through the market area to eye what's there for wandering Americans.  Back in the car a short time later we continue our search.  We head west staying on roads that are paralleling the coast and much nearer it.  The last bit of hills before the coast and the beaches is a wall of single family dwellings with only a few apartment complexes in evidence.

The New Freeway

So at the next corner we turn left and head for the hills!  We note a less organized development to our left, a Gypsy family has set up a camp in rundown development company storage and office buildings...oh boy.  Then up the grade to the top and l'viola!  Housing developments, modern, clean, white and mostly unoccupied.  Hmmmm, well do they LOOK like the mental image of what we are searching for?  Yes they do.  Do we have a street name?  No, but there was an apartment number..."24B", she says.  So we drive until there is space to park.  Then out we go door to door wandering thru these apartment blocks looking for "24B", the office is near but alas it's closed today...wonderful.  So back to the search we go.  Hmmmm they knew we were going to show up today.  "These are really beautiful" I say and Kelly agrees "Yes they are!"   We continue on...41, 40, 39...We find it!  "He said the key would be here" I babble as Kelly looks inside the box..."No key inside"  Hmmmmm.  So we return to the office after spending an hour or so in the hunt.  It's open!  Goodie, goodie gumdrops!  There's hope...we sit and wait our turn to talk to the manager  who is on the phone.  She is off the phone and we enter and introduce ourselves.  We tell her of our discovery (no key) and she replies "Oh, that's the wrong apartment!".  Duh...So the nice manager-person led us to the correct apartment, showed us where the key's were and showed us the apartment inside and out.  I don't know HOW we got the wrong number, but wrong it was.  What a beautiful apartment...and we actually FOUND it by dead-reckoning!  To the sea, to the sea!

Off to Albufiera!

Our goal is but a hundred miles or so away, we are so excited to end this long journey and quit this hotel life for a goodly while.  Spain has been very pretty and very agricultural as well.  We're ready for boats, coast line, beaches and FISH to eat while in Portugal for 4 weeks (initially, then extended to 6 weeks).  The border is a river crossing at the beautiful Guadiana International Bridge.

By Howard N. Lute 2016

By Howard N. Lute 2016

By Roger W Haworth

And here is the Guadiana Roman Bridge in Merida, Spain

Photographer Unknown

Going toward Albufeira we see acres and acres of orange trees lining both sides of the road.  Is this a part of Florida?!  or southern California?!  Orange trees are seen everywhere, mile after mile.  Once off the E1 highway and onto a local highway the N125 there are iterant orange stands here and there as you drive along offering bags of oranges at discount prices. Huge arrays of apartment blocks appear and line any and virtually all beach areas.  More housing than I've seen anywhere I've ever been!  These are largely empty too, over-built and some stopped in mid construction.  It's a shame and a travesty of over development and mindless greed  (My left-wing bent is showing).

Ah Seville!

It's a long, long way to Seville from Burgos, 708 km or 420 miles according to Google Maps.  They say it takes a bit more than 7 hours for the trip down, well we did it in 9.  Mountains again and stopping for gas and trading drivers.

The car was a chaotic scene. 2 cats, Mucca and Cara crammed amidst overstuffed suitcases, bags of miscellaneous food items and extra clothing plus an array of electronics. There was simply no place open for the creatures to stretch, so they largely stayed in their Sherpa bags and slept through it all.  Once in a while either one would venture forth a a foot or so and stare out the window.  Torture. Boring.

Our goal, of course, was our hotel in Seville near to the Seville Costco store.  Suckling pig in plastic shrink wrap looked really good to me on an ad I saw before the trip.

Kelly at the Costco in Seville

Serrano Ham 99 Bux!

Looks just like the Costco in Fairfield, CA

Kelly SHOPS!

The Central Square in Seville, Spain

Burgos

The superhighway down to Burgos was as smooth as a babies bottom.  We purred along at a stately 120kph (72 mph) mile upon mile until we crossed the Spanish border.  I noticed off to the right a large sign in Spanish (what else?) indicating that IF we were foreigners we should "go here", a large arrow pointing off to the right.  We ignored this instruction entirely unsure if we were whom it was directed to, I guess we could have driven there and asked but, we did not.  Now in Spain and through the Pyrenees  we went with the appearance of a light dusting of snow in the mountains in front of us.

It took us by surprise as soon ahead the snow gathered by the side of the road and "black ice" became a real fear.  "Black ice" forms on road ways an since it is transparent only the asphalt shows through thus hiding the slippery danger effectively from drivers eyes, not good.  So slower we went, sometimes only a crawl at 5 mph (8 kph) for some miles.  We escaped our wintery highway after a while and drove into to Burgos about 4 pm.  Total driving time from Toulouse was about 6 hours.

Once in Burgos we began our hunt for the hotel, we had an address and soon found the street but, alas, the number of the street address was simply not placed on many of the buildings.  Back and forth we went eyeing every doorway and street sign for a number, any number and few there were.
Finally in an act of desperation I pulled into a parking spot and ran back to a group of women waiting for a bus and as I got their attention, asked them in pidgin Spanish "Donde esta Hotel Forum Evolucion, por favor" and all pointed in a single motion towards the street corner about a block away!  Fantastic!  "Gracias, mucho gracias" I said and rushed back to Kelly and the waiting car.
We pulled away and quickly turned the corner and there it was!  Now what?  I dropped off Kelly and began looking for a parking lot, but where was it.  Behind the hotel?  A block away?  Huh?  I finally wound up parking in a bus zone behind the hotel and waited for Kelly.  I due time she appeared and upon getting in the car directed me to a large garage door with a set of buttons on the right side.  I got out and pushed the button "Aperto", ah,a noise, a clunk, a whirrrr and the door began to open revealing the interior of an elevator!  An auto elevator!  Wonderful!  Kelly hopped out and walked inside and I returned to the driver's seat and drove Theresa-[the -Toyota into the elevator.  Kelly pushed the button "Cerrar", the door then closed and we began to descend into the garage.  The door in front of us opened and here we were in a large open area under the hotel with a door connecting to the lobby and our trusty Toyota parked secure for the night.

Into Spain, In the rain, not yet in the plain!

We stayed but one night in Toulouse, had scheduled our Airbus Industries visit for the next day in the morning and now that that had been concluded, we  headed off towards Burgos, Spain.  Quite a run for this day as we had been at the Airbus Industries site for several hours, now we exited Toulouse and headed south towards Burgos in (at times) driving rain. 

Such is travel,  we found a small grocery store and decided to eat that night in our room of sandwiches, snacks and fruit rather than go through the unfamiliar city to an unfamiliar place to eat unfamiliar food.  We wanted only to sleep here, rest, watch a bit of TV and get going first thing in the morning.  These days, in Europe, most (if not all) hotels, (no matter the cost) have a breakfast first thing in the morning that you can buy for between 4 and 7 Euros per person.  It is a bargain in most places, featuring, unlimited coffee, tea, hot chocolate, pastries, various local meats and cheeses, and juices.   Makes the stay far more interesting and fills a very substantial need at times.  Outside of the hotels it is difficult to find any place that has ANY breakfast-like settings.  Do take the hotel breakfasts, they are a real bargain.

Then we were off to Burgos.

Airbus Industries, the site.

Big, very big, everything in sight is larger than life.  The buildings are enormous, the pavement, acres of it, covers all the land between the numerous buildings.  Planes of huge size are parked neatly alongside each other along the 2 plus miles of runway, of which there are 2 plus all the taxiways thrown in for amusement.  It is...big! 

Our tickets were dispensed by a very pretty staff person in the reception center, filled with few exhibits including a model A380 made out of toy building blocks and a souvenir shop which we caroused.  It began to rain, whole buckets of rain, the roar of it hitting the roof sounded like jet noise.  Then a bus pulled up and we were called to board it, however it was some 150 feet away and the pouring rain was now creating lakes and runoff making the run to the bus a very wet experience.  That could have been thought out better that's for sure, hope it's a sunny day when you go.

The bus lumbered it's way a short distance to a huge building that appeared to be 4-in-oneas the outline of one section of the building was duplicated three more times.  It was fully 1/4 mile in width!

And contained 4 A380's!  Wings had been mounted, tail assemblies were in place but the nose cones were not as of yet, installed. 

Now the sad part, we were told (and most respected the request) that we were not to photograph ANYTHING we saw!  So, I was thwarted and disappointed.  To actually witness the size and massiveness of the machinery as well of the buildings and planes and NOT take pictures?!  Blasphemy! Nonetheless, we had a great time, the crowd was small and polite as could be and came from many nations, demonstrated by the many  languages spoken.  

A380 Taxi and Takeoff

The Making of the A380

Off to Toulouse...

Toulouse was our first stop being it was about 300 miles south of Lignieres and home to Airbus Industries.  So on Friday morning some 7 weeks ago we joined the very few on the A71 and drove south through Claremont-Ferrand.   I was interested in us getting a tour of the manufacturing plant where the Airbus aircraft were assembled.  We had gotten our reservations when we were in California and now we would get our tickets to see one of the biggest factories in the world!  I've seen Boeing's in Seatle and it is impressive but this is supposed to be much bigger, so we would see.

 

The Sud Aviation SE 210 Caravelle was the world's first short/medium-range jet airliner, produced by the French Sud Aviation firm. Its maiden flight occurred in 1955.

 Kelly on her way through the rain drenched parking lot to the reception hall at Airbus Industries.

The Airbus A400M Atlas is a multi-national four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft.

Off to France in March...Hmmmm

Yes, we did that.  Came here in early March, stayed here three days recovering from the damned flight over the "Pond" and the associated travails it affords us.  We rented a car this time from EuroCar whoever they were, they were cheap online but once at CDG they were s-l-o-w to assign the car, then I found out why, they didn't have one of what I wanted and so, of course, a much larger beast was available for only a small token expense more.  So while they young man typed away at his PC to assign us top the car, a system that should be ready to deliver a car in a moments notice took 45 minutes!  That was just to get papers on the counter, dealing with them afterwards took another 30 minutes!  Good god!  We were sooo tired and then had to face the awful Paris traffic on the fucking ring road.  So once in the car, loaded with every bag on our inventory plus 2 cats in carriers stacked on top we were off to find the on ramp to the ring road and, of course, I maneuver our fine vehicle into the wrong lane and wind up going exactly the wrong direction from what I had so carefully plotted.  Shit, shit, shit.  Never fails, snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  So off we go across the rolling hills of northeaster France for some good ways, 30 minutes I estimate before we detect that the fault has been made and we are indeed not going to get where we want by this roadway.  We take a while to find a turn off and return to this roadway going the other way.  Nearing Charles De Gaulle once more we decide to just "go over the top" (of Paris that is) "it'll be way shorter!".  Driving on, we go through about as mindless an exercise as one familiar with Paris traffic could do. We struggle "over the top" and drop down on the western side of the fine "City of Lights" and fight traffic we do!  The freeway system here MUST have been designed by Cal Trans of California highway construction fame.  Knots!  that's what has been built, knots!  Interlacing wonder-ment built in beautiful French style with beautiful roundabouts covered with flowers leading to a dozen different ways to get somewhere we didn't want to go!  Grrrrrrr.  I was so stressed, Kelly kept petting my shoulder trying to calm the raging me inside.  Fuck!  This was NOT in "The Plan" let me tell you, NOT AT ALL!  We added at least two hours to whatever trip south to Lignieres this was going to be by this "shortcut across the top".  Eventually, I calmed and we found ourselves on the A71 South. Yes, somewhat later in the day than we wished but it was, indeed, the highway of our dreams and destination.  We cruised.  Home as the day darkened at 4:30, we shuffled to our respective bedrooms and fell away to the haven of sleep.  The cats did not. 

The AAA News

Well I went to Kiaser Vallejo as indicated for the appointment with the AAA surgeon (Abdominal Aortal Aneurysm).  Traffic near the hospital was as awful as ever, so much so that K dropped me off near as she could get to the front lobby of the medical office building so wouldn't be late.  As it was I was in the act of sitting down in the Surgery Dept. when the nurse came out to retrieve me for the doctor!  I urged her to allow K to get there but she insisted and said they would rush her in as soon as she got there.  So in typical Kaiser visits, onto the scale, 211.2 lbs fully clothed w/shoes, then blood pressure which was high for me as I was rushing from the car to the office and up a flight of stairs just 3 minutes before.  She took it two times, both right and left sides...by the time of the last one it was 127 orver 72...boringly normal.  Then K showed up and we wandered down the halls to the exam room, where the doctor appeared to us in a very untypical 2 minutes or so!  This place is fast!
Doctor Lee was cheerful, kind and explained the entire status of my AAA situation and quickly informed us that I was not going to be operated on right away as the AAA was not bulged enough.  She stated that it was 4.5cm and they would not consider operating until it was 5.5cm.  OK, so what does that mean for our trip to France?  They will recheck all of the size business when we return in late August.  Fantastic!  Such relief I haven't felt of anything in a long, long time!  I was expecting far worse news than this. We were excused and left with much joy.  Then I offered K to go to her 2nd hand store and I would wait watching the birds over the estuary.  Then home for left over pasta w/pork ragu for lunch.

Monday at 10:50

I have a doctor's apt at Kiaser on Monday at 10:50 to discuss my AAA.  That's my own lil' Aneurysm of the thorasic Aortial kind.  Last December (2014 year) I was diagnosed with a Thoracic Aortal Aneurysm about 3.8cm in diameter.  Not a great problem to have as the only fixes are operations of the dangerous kind.  Of course I used the internet to research this issue-of-the-aortial-tissue problem and made myself comfortable with what was going to happen.  The situation changed 2 days ago when I was requested to get my body into Kiaser for a follow-up inspection via ultrasound.  That was done this morning, the result was the thing is larger, now 4.7cm and my new doctor has referred me to a thorasic specialist.  Thus the upcoming surgery on my unfriendly Aneurysm.

This morning was also my cooking class at Ironwood, GR and I were Megan's etudiant for this session.  The subject was Stocks, Soups and Emulsions.  We made a shrimp with vegetables and Fetuccini and a Roasted Cauliflower Soup.  We both passed, at least we think so.

If I get nothing else out of my medical predicament it might just be that I've started to blog again.  I got burned out, wordless last summer.  I'm NOT a writer, just a person that wanted to explain himself in a timely way as shit happens and reactions occur.  It's how life is after all, our destiny is whatever it is, not pre-determined but created by circumstance and happy accident.  So now I have a subject to reflect my self off of and see the truth of it.  I like doing research, this but another great opportunity to learn.