A Sunday in Suisun City

Sky's cloudy, threatening rain, more likely drizzle.  Up to make breakfast of eggs, pigtail sausages by Farmer John (smoked links raw), some crispy potatoes made by using a potato peeler to peel an entire potato, separate them into piles and fry them in a skillet til crisp on both sides.  A nice and filling breakfast.

Then deal with each of the 4 computers to get the latest Win 10 updates installed.  That done, start baking bread for my flock of 4.  I love the new oven, 30" is wonderfully roomy.  I can bake 8 loaves at once.  It's a GE and does NOT have the fan for convection so the oven is deeper by some 4 inches too.  All in all this was a fortuitous disaster.

A Friday in Suisun...

Best part of today was clearing off Hawaii our island in the kitchen.  So much stuff crowding out all it's space that I really had to cut and prep dinner on a small cutting board on the mainland...as we call the rest of the kitchen counter space.  Within minutes of getting up I found myself facing a failed coffee machine...our almost trusty SAECO espresso machine was inert when pressed into morning coffee service.  WTF?!  No red light indicators, just power on,light and no coffee machine noise when the coffee machine button is pushed.  Then I noticed that along side the right hand side of the machine was a pile of coffee grounds, Hmmmm and a big "oh shit'!  This led to opening the right hinged panel and discovering a heap of coffee grounds around the mechanism.  Yea gads, what a mess!  This has happened before on this machine and others...what happens is not clear but the mess it leaves behind certainly is!  I have removed the brew unit before on all of these espresso machnies we have had.  It's the easiest on this particular SAECO one.  Upon removing the unit I discovered that it was not in the same position that I have seen on the unit when I did this before.  A sping-like part was fully exposed and after some fooling around with the mechanism discovered that it was apparently out of sync with the way it normally was when powered up in previous disassembles.
I spent the next 1/2 hour cleaning up the grounds from all the places it's not supposed to be. Then I washed the brew unit and wiped up the grounds from where the brew unit is placed in the machine.  That done I reinstalled the brew unit, closed the side panel and attempted to place the grounds container back into the machine, no luck!  So I pulled the contained back out and examined the space it fit into.  It looked fine, si I figured that the brew unit was not installed properly as it was the only other item I had removed from the machine.  I then discovered how the mechanism worked and saw that for it to be out of position it would need rotation of the machines drive motor...that was not going to happen so I rotated the brew unit's mechanism until I could get a click upon inserting the brewq unit back inside the machine.  Then with that done I  used a knife to hold the switch on the grounds container closed...then I closed the side panel and the machine came alive!  Wow!  I won't be tricked like this again, I'll clean out the machine once a week, not once a month or more and maybe forestall this kind of failure.

9 Days Later, the REAL BLUES and my Oven Died

So that week in the last blog had us going almost every night to some venue and watch, listening and dancing to R&B mostly and a bit of blues.  On the Sunday before the Tuesday that the music died at Napa Smith's Brewery.  Something happened to kill the jams on Tuesday night.  Hell if I know, when I last saw Ronnie he was wearing a cap and a striped towel over his head...Arabic-like appearance but it WAS Ronnie!  That was  Halloween night, D'Jeena and her band played at Napa Smith with Ronnie running around ignoring us.  Who knows, we haven't been back since.  Sad.  Frustrating too!

Last week, Wednesday I think, the damned oven lost it's mind.  The hours before it was baking a 29 cent/lb 14lb bird that I had  brined with onion, celery, sage and oregano.  The bird turned out fine, great actually...but the damned oven did the temperature probe thingie, shit, shit, shit and there seems not anyway to reset the bloody thing.  Sooo after much piddling and screwing around we decided a replacement was due.  So off to Amazon, eBay and Craig's List looking for a double oven or even a single of similar duty.  We drifted out amid the rains of the week to the Habitat for Humanity's store and found a Dacor double oven for only 90 bux!  Dacors are some of the MOST expensive ovens and such that you can buy!  Upwards of $6000 for some models! 
 Examples thanks to Google Search...

 We had not the truck so ventured home to check the Dacor with all the usual sources, Consumer Reports, Amazon etc. Only to discover this model had a terrible and lengthy list of problems!  Sooo off to look in Craig's List Sacramento and there it was, the oven of my dreams, a GE Profile 27" beauty!  And, the price?  $390 bux!

These things cost boys and girls, this one lists for 1899 USD!  So off to West Sacramento we went.  We arrived at the super nice Ukrainian couples residence about and hour later and there it was!  In perfect, nearly not used condition!  Beautiful!  So with a bit of tugging and groaning loaded it in the truck's bed, tied it down and off we went!  The next day we connected with a neighbor, Mary and her son, he is a brawny, strong-as-an-ox guy that we both have great respect for.  He's friendly and capable as they come...We get our eggs

from him!  The next few days were spent sorting out how we were going to house the beast.  The oven sat in our living room.  As I was checking the necessary cabinetry, I saw many part numbers that indicated the size of the oven.  Up to this point it seemed to be a 27" oven...but, as it turned out it was a 30" one so it would not fit in out existing homemade funky cabinet!  So the search was on for new cabinetry to replace the now too small one!  Damnit! Shit, shit, shit! For about 400 USD a cabinet designed for a 30" oven was available.  After sorting out all the available options we decided to rework the existing one, it's not pretty but it fits the scene in our kitchen.   So starting Saturday I began the rework.  Now the cabinet has the oven and our extensive collection of cookbooks.  All book shelves had to be trimmed as the new stove ate the space alloted for the cookbooks, oh joy!  Then Sunday afternoon after several delays because of my difficulty with the electrical connections we (Ronnie and his mate Matt) slid the new unit into it's cabinet!  From then til this afternoon I've been deconstructing and reconstructing that bloody cabinet. Many screws, drilling and sawing the shelving unit that is the rest of the cabinet configuration.  It's nearly done, needs some painting and caulk to hide the less wonderful details but...we have a new stove and it works well having baked 6 loaves yesterday to brown beautiful.

I'm really happy for the end result..

Weather Station, Music, Music, Music and Music!

Wunderground Suisun City LIVE!

Yes LIVE weather from the top of my roof.  The  Ambient Weather WS-2902 is mounted on a 1.5" 7 ft dowel above this room.  I'm very pleased with the ease of setup and the accuracy of the data.  It was a bit of a issue getting on Weather Underground but the deed is now done thanks to Ed at Ambient Weather whoguided me over the phone to a successful connection.  I've been a member of WU since 2004 and now I'm baaaack!
Here's what the WS-2902 looks like at my house:

This has been a music week, first on Tuesday at the wonderful Napa Smith Brewery with Ronnie Stewart's outfit as good as ever then was at Kesler's in Vallejo to see and hear Earl's band (He's a really good singer and guitar player and was happy as he could be with his new gig.  Kesler's has changed the seating arrangement, dropped one of the pool tables and now there is a legit dance floor!) and last night at the Brewery again to see Diva Blues Singer D'Jeena's new and very talented band.   Today off 2 blocks to the boat docked in Suisun City to see our neighbor Dave Anderson and his band play and sing in a new jam setting on the Barkissimo.  Kind owners, great wines, friendly audience, very cool on a cool fall day!  Tonight there were many musicians, guitars, a drummer, a harmonica, violins and many singers.  All impressively talented.  A friendly crowd too. Here are some photos from this last weeks musical experiences:

 D'Jenna's New Band

 D'Jenna Sings The Blues

 A Truly Exceptional Piano Player

 Christina and Dave Dancing

 "D Macarthur and Daughter Frieda

The Bass Master

POTUS as NAZI; 74th Bithday; Bourges in the Rain

Charlottesville, VA and the death toll of one innocent anti-protestor reminds us how our democracy learns it's lessons.  The KKK, White Power and alt-right and the persons or person in Charlottesville that thought it was a terrific idea to have the rally by the group of angry white persons.  Somehow they never expected what happened, they were surprised!  Yes, surprised! 

A car accelerated at high speed into the crowded street full of protestors, killing a young woman and injuring several others.  The driver/suspect escaped in the damaged car and has not yet been apprehended.  Awful display of American angst over race and politics and framed by comments by POTUS Trump that somehow BOTH sides were to blame!??! Huh?  If the POLICE had done their jobs and protected all of the demonstrators maybe we wouldn't be having this bleak news week about another violent episode in our beloved US of A. 

I'm aghast that we as a country have fallen this low.  I'm also ashamed that active racist groups are allowed to parade in our streets under the cover of our Constitution..."freedom of speech" trumps EVERYTHING?!  It cannot be, it's a form of |"hate speech" which is banned, or, at least I thought it was.  Trump, rather than provide a calming voice amidst the screaming and yelling just fanned the flames of hate and mistrust with every tweet and comment he made.  This President needs to resign.  TODAY, YESTERDAY any second now, or be impeached for actions not becoming of a president.  Inciting violence? Being a raving liar?  Foe warmongering...anything, just rid the White House of DJ Trump and the world will be better for it!  Do it NOW!

Turned 74 yesterday, heard birthday wishes from all except my eldest who was silent through out the day.  Pissed at me I guess for something, ce' normale!  Sons are put on this earth to trouble their fathers.

Off to Bourge this morning in the rain to do our shopping at NOZ, GRAND FRAISE, LIDL et al.  Wine of all kinds and cheaply bought at NOZ, I headed to the tables and found 22 bottles that suited our palettes (hopefully), a few other odd items and came away 63 Euros less.  Not bad, wine averaged about 1.90 a bottle in keeping with our new wine knowledge...everything in France that is wine is damned good no matter the cost!  Same with Spain and Italy by the way.  I love Chilean reds, South African whites and Peruvian reds as well and all these and more are found at NOZ. 

And now WW3...Thanks to Mr. Trump and Mr. Un...Are you ready?

Scientists have described "Nuclear Winter" since the 1950's I believe.  Now we are on the threshold of the accopolypse in our lifetime.  In the 50's Kelly and I experienced such doomsayers week after week, day after day...dive under our desks, Conelrad warnings weekly, pictures often of nuclear bomb explosions.  Driven scared by our governments and the media of the time.  Then it waned, we became immune and bored of the whole prospect.  Mutual Assured Destruction became the operating words of the day and after the fall of the Soviet Union we basked in the glow of a peaceful (non-nuclear threat) existence.   That was then, now we have two persons of like attitude, Mr. Trump and |Mr. In who are staring down each other with the power to do great damage to our world by their words alone.  Enough said, perhaps, to lead the other to go ahead with missiles and nuclear destruction of an unprecedented kind.  North Korea is threatening to send 4 missiles towards Guam where the US maintains both a Naval and Air Force Base and many support personnel.  Guam is a US territory.  Mr. Trump uses the site Twitter.com to expand his presence and explain his political positions.  I find it childish and inane for our POTUS to behave as such a child would do.  Threatening North Korea through his Tweets is irresponsible and utterly immature and in-American in my opinion.  He is, by this act, inviting North Korea to act on ntheir threats and endanger every American citizen.  He is supposed to be protecting you and I and he swore to it with his hand on a Christian Bible, do you feel protected?  I certainly do not.  

Good and Bad, VERY for both!

Found Blues Berry, an organization that stages real, live, honest-to-their-god BLUES performers throughout the Berry Region of France!  No kidding!  And we went to our first event the Blues Berry Festival last Saturday at Ambrault about a 15 minute drive from Lignieres!  What a scene, big field, built up stage with pro lighting, great sound system and seating 50 feet from the stage...cost? FREE!  At first we were among the very few as the weather closed in on us promising rain, cold wind and darkness, maybe even lightning!  Empty stage was soon filled with a band rehearsing their performance and while frustrating to hear all the adjustments, bleats, strums and pops it promised a show to believe in!  Soon the crowd started to gather, we were among the earliest at 5pm and by 6 there were about 100 on the field wandering among the dealers of clothing and ceramics, food etc.  Music started about 6 and never stopped until we left at about 9:30 to drive home happy and awed by the lavender hue

The Berry Blues

Early on

The

eT

So What's Goin' On?

The Trumpster played with Putin, so what?  His whole family plays with Putin.  He loves and respects Putin, why, if you didn't know better you'd think they have a running BROMANCE.  Maybe he gave him a Trump Wristwatch all diamond studded that spelled out V. Putin.  Or one of the Trump Champagne magnums, maybe a case.  Hell in this upside-down arrangement ANYTHING is possible.  What IS possible is you and I vomiting about all this.  The man is demented, not Putie...Donnie...that's what I get to call him in my Tweets to him.  Putie is being a President of a very big, dangerous country that would LOVE to fuck US up though Donnie is trying his very best himself.  Fuck 'em both!

Now onto HealthKare in Amerika.  You got money? You've got healthcare.  You are broke, you don't.  It's that simple folks.  There's no fried banana...no freebee, someone's gunna pay poopsie, gotta happen.  Oh go to the emergency room (won't be many of those left!) and say "charge it"!  Sure...so someone's gotta cough up the cost.  Now how do we do this?  We collect the money from those who have it...call them The Rich Who Have It.  That's the WHOLE answer, there is no other...any attempt to make this "more fair" winds up with you the Poor, Downtrodden getting fucked further.  Lets start the bexercize this way...we go back to Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower.  Per Politifact " A look through the records shows that top earners in the eight years of Eisenhower’s presidency paid a top income tax rate of 91 percent".  Yep...91 percent!  Let's take America BACK to that tax rate and the bill is gunna be paid!  So that 10,000,000 dollar earner (Wall Street Simpletons and Loan Sharks) will pay into the Health Fund the PRINCELY sum of
$9,100,000!  Hell Alice, your bill is gunna be paid honey, don't you know.  And The Man still has 900,000 to fool with on the Insider's Trading Market.  Best deal in tyown I tell ya!  Best!

Then there's Driver-less Cars kids, fun stuff!  They already are driverless for chrissakes!  People eating, putting on their makeup, jacking off, watching porno on their iPad, so we're gonna Officialize this disaster by placing thousands of driverless on the streets of our fine country.  Should wind up testing the healthcare system pretty well.   

It's Just A Little Madness

Orange, my new now 29 day subscription WiFi supplier has turned into a mad, cracky, unstable and difficult to manage internet provider.  Oh so easy (NOT) to sign up for and then...where's the email to give me the "password"?  Never came...never.  So I signed up AGAIN and successfully got on the net and was pleased as punch for awhile. 

Watched the live stream of the Tour De France, went downstairs afterwards to sit with my duck in our parlor and sip some juice while being cooled by a fan.  We both read our Kindles for about an hour then I went to prep dinner as is my normal functioning at that time.  Because of the terrible heat we decided to just have sandwiches of the tuna kind.  This is easily accomplished and included tiny tomatoes, a smallish onion, celery, cucumber, mayonnaise, the wonderful canned tuna and the bread was the prepackaged made but not baked kind. I know, I know...why not my own damned bread?!  Because it was too hot to bake...but you had to bake the raw bread loaves!  Yes, I know, I know...but it only takes about 20 minutes vs 45 for the bread.  Better.   

Back upstairs watched a Chopped episode and called it quits for the day, off to bed and read of the exploits of a Vietnam US Navy jet pilot.  Tough days for the pilots, lost friends and enough fear and loathing to go around.  Not much good came of that war.   

So What Now My Love?

Millennials!  Too hot, too hot!  It's a canicule coming to a town near yours!  Not here...in Suisun!  Another A/C unit needed to cool down the impossible and run up the PGE billings.  Arghhh.  Some compromise.  Here we close the curtains and hide downstairs where the temp does not much rise with increased daytime temps.  If it gets worse we hide in the Library and turn the portable A/C on and set it to near freezing.  Drink beer, wine with orange juice and take coolish showers.  Fans are nice when you are a bit moist.  In the cool of the evening we drink iced drinks and open windows and doors to purge the hot air.  That is what we do in face of dreaded heat.  Current temp outside at 8:53 pm in Lignieres, Cher, France is da da!  91 degrees F.  Too damned hot!  Hotter in this room I fear with the PC's all warm around us.  Not good.

We ran off Tuesday to Fougeres in Britany...to see the monster castle there in it's ancient ruined state.
It was in the direct middle of the town as picturesque

I'm Too Damned HOT!

It's only 78 degrees outside but inside it's about 2 degrees hotter.  Today is Hanging Paintings Day in Maison Blache.  We have a few that need a spot on a wall to exhibit themselves and those spots (at least today) are in the parlor.  About these paintings; they are French I believe, of various age and artist.  Some quite lovely, some not-so-much but they do fit the place and purpose.  The problem is that the act of hanging requires a certain fitting be nailed in place,  nailed here in Maison Blanche means nailing into rock hard plaster and limestone blocks.  So...a drill is obtained, a bit is installed and we begin The Hanging.  As I use a slim nail about 1 inch long to test the wall structure I discover that the paintings themselves are not so heavy that the lonely single nail will not hold it.  So ONWARD! 
Later...Tomorrow has come, it's Saturday and the weather (this morning) is bright, sunny and cool with a bit of a breeze.  Off to La Chatre to the brocante via the newish Garmin GPS and a French map card (40 bucks used from Amazon.fr).  Park finally a short distance from Rue Nationale and begin the trek to see what's up.  LOTS of people milling about, stuff out into the street in front of homes and shops.  Walk, walk, stumble, walk some more.  Nice setting, nice day, nice people.  All good.  An hour later we've seen what was offered and bought not one damned thing.  Ce normale'.  Off then to the car and a short drive to the Super U grocery store for a few things. We always over buy.  See Liz among the aisles and we stop and chat. I mention the Trumpster.  "Why hasn't someone bumped him off?" she asks.  Kelly and I shrug.  We have no idea, surely someone has thought of it?!  We can only hope.
Home through the hinterlands east of La Chatre.  Beautiful fields of corn, wheat, colza and poppies everywhere, so very pretty.

A Cold, The Cold

I've gotten a cold, you know, one of those head achy, runny nosed, feverish things that are carried by people in the course of their miserable days.  I am now that person and I don't like it one bit!  Drip, drip, sniff...drip, drip, sniff.  Besides that not so small irritant I want some coffee badly and that means I'll have to venture into the downstairs freezer which defines cold here in Lignieres in May and all proceeding months back to late September.  Brrrrrr.  So, be miserable and "of want" here in the somewhat warmish computer room or down I go.  Decisions, decisions...off I go.  Ah, coffee!  Dark, rich espresso, my favorite with1 lump of crystal death for sweetness.  Now for my commentary on this last short period of time.

So our not-so-beloved POTUS (I won't say his name) went to Saudi Arabia and is bringing back knowledge of the Sword Dance and 200 Billion (with a B) worth of military contracts.  Oh joy of joys, Halliburton, Raytheon, Boeing, General Electric, Lockheed and I'm sure many, many others, will just be tickled and greatly enriched bigly, gee whiz!  When you want 1st class things that created explosions and kill people by the hundreds and thousands you sure know where to find 'em.  You want it, we got it!  KABOOM, BANG, KRASH!  Yes, it's our number one export...Death and number 2...destruction!  Meanwhile our good "representatives" want to kill Medicare, Obamacare and all manner of other help aids for our citizens.  Isn't that just great?  "Jobs, Jobs, Jobs!" Our not-so-beloved POTUS yelled after getting the deal of the week in his hot, puffy, pussy-grabbing hands.  He is now our Number One Death Purveyor!  All Hail!

Today is a Sunday and I feel like hell, I have unpacked but not put away stuff all over my bedroom floor and not a hell of a lot of motivation to do anything about it.  I want a shower, a hot, hot, hot one to clear up my achy sinuses, and to rid myself of the damning odors and large lumps of detritus that hang on after a long tiresome journey.  Read a bit, examine my science pages in www.realclearscience.com and sleep a bit of this cold off too.  That's today.  A slow day, a small day, no traveling anywhere for anything...I'm contagious and I know it and it's got to stop with me.  The SNOT stops here!

Back in Lignieres!

It's been 15 years since we began our French love affair.  A few low points, the damned lost registration document for the trusty Toyota, the bad condition of the roof we cannot afford to have redone, my leaky kitchen for the same reason...but, oh the standout wonders of our time here!  The location is in the very heart of agriculture France, the waving fields of wheat and colza, sunflowers and poppies, the sweetest people make up our local population, the contents of ANY grocery store.  Yes it is a very wonderful place that suits us so very well.  Our friends here are wonderful to be with and are ever so helpful no matter the project, and...they are good cooks too!  How many more years can we make the trek from California to the Heart of France I can  only guess but it isn't forever.  In our hearts maybe, but not in reality.  The trip here this time took no less than 34 hours from getting up at 7am on Tuesday til we unlocked the door Wednesday evening at 7:50pm.  I will review my posting the contents of an email I sent the next morning to our expansive family:

Heroics!  That’s what got us here! Heroes we are!  34 hours from awake til at our door in Lignieres!  Yes awake the whole damned time!  Two GIGANTIC traffic jams that lasted (for us) 2 hours EACH!  What caused them, who knows but there were cops, cop cars, fire engines, ambulances all trying to get thru the backed up mess on a three lane freeway jammed with semis, vans, cars, motorcycles and angry, angry, frustrated people.  Even the detour which took the Cal-Trans like Krew 1.5 hours to invent on a 1 lane road going the wrong way entered yet another traffic marmalade thicker and more fucked up than that of which we had left just 15 minutes before!  Cars going in every direction on tiny 1 car width lanes with the ocassional 80,000 lb semi load of Chinese fine 40” LED Tv’s lumbering along!  A-fuckin’-mazing! 

Do NOT EVER rent a car from EuroCar at CDG!  NEVER EuroCar ever...anywhere!  They are INCOMPETENT.  AVIS IS THE ANSWER to the question!  Renault Clio 4 dr with ancient Nav mapped GPS was the 2 day rental we used to make the monumental “journey”.  A bit noisy, a bit under-powered for normal traffic but for our jams and jellies it was enough to move the car 10 ft. every few minutes.  A horse and buggy would have been as appropriate...with stops for hay quite often.

Home:  Quick looks, then bed at 8pm.  This morning, awake at 3am...back to sleep at 4am.  Up at 10am to view the fine French world outside.  Open a few curtains, inspect the ceilings for indications of leaks above, none.  Open all doors, close all open water drains (many), close all faucets, turn on H20 at the main under the stairs.  Turn on lights as necessary.  Inspect for water damage anywhere or (worse) puddles!  It’s raining outside time for a peek at the attic and to turn on the Hot Water heater. Attic dry, no puddles.  Check World-Of_Weeds outside, ce normale...weeds aplenty!  Through the layer of gravel and tarps, weeds endure quite well.  Open barn doors, no damage and surprisingly dry.  Trustee ol’ Toyota dirty as heck but standing.  Connect battery post to positive terminal.  Check oil, add a qt.  Top off radiator coolant.  Crank... runs!  Back slowly out, allow to run a few minutes, then off.  11am: wake Ms. Lute from her slumbers.  Ready coffee.  Check out PC’s, turn on both and boot to Win 10 version “Hell Knows”, whatever was extant on 9 August of last year.  Sit and chat a while.  Go to Proxy, greet owner and shake hands,  chat about trip and weather here,  get eggs, bread, rillets and milk.  Make sandwiches for breakfast at 11:30.  Eat with my Ducky in the Dining Room after opening the shutters to allow for LIGHT!  French filtered-through-clouds sunlight! Beautiful place that it is!  Nice to be in our French home again!

So that's our beginnings for the summer of 2017.  Our daughter Ashley and her husband Andy are arriving on/about the 26th.  Then the real fun begins!  Love to you all! H

Rye, I said RYE...

It continues to rain.  It does it everyday now and trees are falling here and there as they lose their grip on mother earth.  Ah well the drought is gone for some long time with any luck.  Of course all the dams are full now so the rest of this stuff has no where to go except the Pacific Ocean nearby.  Runoff for melting snow will ensure continues flood warnings through spring anyhow.  

Today is Baking Day, every Sunday for the past 3 years I have been baking breads for my lovely and deserving neighbors.  I now serve 3 continually and 2 others intermittently.  My latest bread romance is Rye, whole rye flour.  I use a tablespoon of caraway seeds in each loaf, it enhances the flavor a bit and adds a nice crunch too.  Here's the recipe...designed for a bread machine in dough mode.

 Whole Rye Bread

2 teaspoons Active Dry Yeast
2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
2 Cups Unbleached Bread Flour
1 Cup Whole Rye Flour
1 Tablespoon fine Salt
3 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter
12 oz 120 degree Water

Turn machine to Dough cycle and start.
Once complete, form into even 12" loaf,
Slash with sharp knife three times diagonally along the loaf.

Bake for 45 minutes at 375 Degrees.
Cool for 2 hours before slicing.

We've had enough rain...

Yes we have, Lake Berryessa is now overflowing the Glorry Hole!  We have made up 43 feet since early October and 21 feet since the 20th of January!  Lake Berryessa is FULL!  The state is still under a Drought Watch...er...why I do not know.  Water is ponding up around Suisun, we are surrounded by H2O on all sides.

The Trump Disaster goes on, neverending I fear.  So very incompetent he is.  Batty, demented, incompetent!
All news us bad, it has affected my health, my blood pressure is now HIGH, something that has NEVER been a problem for me.  Now, it is.

So the wonderful Electoral Delegates did IT...Mr. Trump is officially POTUS after inauguration on January 20th, 2017.  Terrific, hold on folks...it's going to be a rough ride.

We spent last night celebrating Billy's Birthday at CC in Vallejo.  A blast!  Anybody have a loose 200K dollars?  That's the going price for CC, includes liquor license,  furnishings, the bar etc.  Make a great club house for a blues venue. 

Water! Water Everywhere!

California's drought is fast disappearing though the level in our resovoir (Lake Berryessa) is still 21 feet below the "Glory Hole"...that's what the overflow is called.  We have damned little runoff here that hasn't joined a few trillion other raindrops in huge pools on the neighboring fields.  Photos below.
Today the front passed (dry street about 11am) after days and days of rain, sdome of it heavy.  Tonight it's supposed to return.  Nice break though, Kelly went south to shop and I wandered around the area taking a few pictures of the waterworld we are currently living in. 

Innauguration Day 2017

Oh yippee...another new administration takes the rudder controls of this wandering and waterlogged ship-of-state.  Trump and his minions are now in control.  I hope it's better than I really think it is.  He seems so very disinterested and politically indesposed to the task at hand.  I worry for the public at large, they bore the weight of the damned campaign and now they will have to live with the result.  So many lies, so many promises and so few details.  He will get a real education of the running of this government, that's for sure.  Almost every interaction will be brand new to Mr. Trump and his executives.  And the media will be there IN SPADES!  They will hang on his every word and publish every tweet for the world to see.  Oh boy, what fun, a tweeting president.  Let'
s see what's up right now. 
Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 2h2 hours ago

January 20th 2017, will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again.

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 8h8 hours ago

It all begins today! I will see you at 11:00 A.M. for the swearing-in. THE MOVEMENT CONTINUES - THE WORK BEGINS!

 Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 2h2 hours ago

We will bring back our jobs. We will bring back our borders. We will bring back our wealth - and we will bring back our dreams!

4,508 replies 18,754 retweets 71,003 likes

 taramoriarty ‏@taramoriarty1 41m41 minutes ago

Amazing! Thousands take a stand against @realDonaldTrump #HumanChain across @GGBridge #KTVU

9 replies 54 retweets 68 likes

OK Lute, What's going on!?

Sold my not quite a 2 year old Microsoft Nokia 635 Windows Phone.  Got a 640 for FREE from my Son-In-Law Andy as he has moved up to a Google Pixel android phone.  We are very happy tho as these 640's are a better phone than the 635 was IMHO.

Gout has gotten better over the last few days.  Dr. called after I emailed Kaiser about it and told me to double up on the Allopropol.  Good solution. Worked.

Found an un-named neighbor lolling about my OPEN WiFi connection yesterday so after all these many years of being OPEN (No password) I have slammed the door in their face (with some reluctance).  So I'm romping around dropping the old connection and reconnecting using the new password.

Bought one of the new 2nd generation Echo Dots from Amazon.  Bloody brilliant it is. "Alexa" What's the weather in Des Moines, Iowa? "Snowing and 21 degrees" she says.  Play some Edith Piaf.  Soon Edith is blowing out the speakers in her lovely French!  So cool!

Outside, PG&E (our power company) has dug a fair sized trench in the street in front of our rental next door.  They are changing the pipe that delivers gas to the house...a 6 inch line is the main feed and it's going into a 3/4 inch line that has been in place since hell knows when.  All the lines are covered with a tar-like substance that a worker bee is chipping off with a mallet making loud hollow banging sounds with each swing.  I was informed by PG&E about 2 weeks ago that this project was underway...and it certainly is.  Three trucks are parked adjacent to the opening blocking access to the street completely. Photos coming.

It's Damned Near Over!

2016 was a STINKER!  So many innocents murdered in cold blood, so many tallented people died.  A genuine TERRIBLE YEAR!  I'm, however, fine...sort of...gout flare!

Yesterday I finally got a working yard light up on the front corner of the house.  Finally!  I had an old automatic light assembly and it seemed to work as it should when motion is sensed but once mounted on the house it refused to operate as it should so I shit-canned the damned thing and ran off to ACE Hardware and bought a brand new one.  It even comes on automatically at dusk as a dim 1/2 power lamp and switches to high when it senses motion.  Turns off completely at Dawn.  Nice thing and it worked fine last night.  Replace the old 100 watt bulbs on the deck light for new 14 watt LED ones that are brighter and so much cheaper to operate.  Cost is about the same as the old ones were when they were new.

I am in the tail end (hopefully) of a gout attack.  Both feet and my hips!  Awful!   I'm not taking Colchicine any longer, my Dr. A at Kaiser switched me to Allopurinol instead.  Why? I have no idea.
I do, however, KNOW what I have been eating as of late and that's the beginning of my gout session!  First, beer, I LOVE beer, especially ales and ipa's, porters etc.  Then there was shellfish, clams and mussels, shrimp too.  Days between but gout is a sneaky bastard, a little purine today can make a BIG GOUT day tomorrow!  Then there is dehydration, not drinking enough plain ol' water can do it.  Here's a list from the Mayo Clinic site that seems quite concise and to the point.  

"During symptom-free periods, these dietary guidelines may help protect against future gout attacks:

• Keep your fluid intake high. Stay well-hydrated, including plenty of water. Limit how many sweetened beverages you drink, especially those sweetened with high fructose corn syrup.
• Limit or avoid alcohol. Talk with your doctor about whether any amount or type of alcohol is safe for you. Recent evidence suggests that beer may be particularly likely to increase the risk of gout symptoms, especially in men.
• Get your protein from low-fat dairy products. Low-fat dairy products may actually have a protective effect against gout, so these are your best-bet protein sources.
• Limit your intake of meat, fish and poultry. A small amount may be tolerable, but pay close attention to what types — and how much — seem to cause problems for you.
• Maintain a desirable body weight. Choose portions that allow you to maintain a healthy weight. Losing weight may decrease uric acid levels in your body. But avoid fasting or rapid weight loss, since doing so may temporarily raise uric acid levels."  credit to The Mayo Clinic, here's their site:
• http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/gout/basics/definition/con-20019400