Happy Thanksgiving

Finally had a chance to light a fire. That fireplace insert is the greatest thing. Puts out a lot of heat and the flames are fascinating to watch. Plus we finally have the technique down for building a fire in it.  The secret of course is to use soft wood for the initial stage and include small pieces of hard wood that don't have any bark on them.  We don't grow any soft wood of our own, so we use scrap lumber from Ted's woodworking projects.  Once that fire is going it is hard to pull yourself away from it.  Reminds me of that chapter of Wind in the Willows.  I'm like the Badger, sitting back in his chair with his feet up and a hanky over his face.  Not sure what the hanky is about, but I definitely am feeling extra sleepy this time of year.

We went over to friends for Thanksgiving dinner and played with their Wii. It was fun, but not any more fun than playing cards would have been.

F has been here since Tuesday late afternoon, so that has been fun for us. She hounded us to get out the Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving, so the tree has been hauled out of the garage loft and washed and set up in the living room.  All decorated except for the dastardly 12 Days of Christmas ornaments.  Haven't quite mustered up the guts to get them in place, but everything else is up.

In other news, my rear bike tire finally wore to the point that I had to get another one. Replaced it yesterday at odometer reading of 1791 miles.  I bought the replacement tire at my LBS (local bike shop).  The owner warned me I was likely to get a flat when I replaced the tire, since the tube would have vulcanized to the tire.  I assured him I had tires liners.  He said that would lesson the problem.  I told him I would take my chances.  It is true that changing a tire after a flat often leads to another flat, but if he was trying to pressure me into buying a tube it didn't work.  Since replacing the tire I have had to put air in it once, we will see if it the tube holds up okay or not.
update
Replaced that rear tire on Aug 17 2011 at odometer reading of 3938, so I got 2,147 miles on that tire!

All work and no play

You might think that all I've been doing lately is working and biking, and you would be pretty much right.  Have not been working in the yard at all. Have not made a fire in the fireplace. Have been pretty much glued to the computer, trying, trying, trying, to get the writing done that is necessary. Looking forward to Thanksgiving and having a day off.
Today's ride was cool and sunny. Yesterday's ride was cloudy and windy. Before that we had several warm days. Two of these pix taken by Ted.
And in other news, my mother's ulcer is completely healed!!! Yay!

And by the way, am I the only one who dislikes the new blogging interface? with the old interface you could keep typing while Blogger added your photos, but now you have to wait until the photo is uploaded to do any typing.

Everything old is new again

It's nice that a year is so long.  By the time daylight savings time rolled around I had totally forgotten what it was like to have the days end so soon!  It feels like midnight and it's only 7 pm. I forgot that we have to leave for our bikeride by 4 if we don't want to bike home in the dim.  I forgot that now dinner is over by 7, whereas in the summer we often don't even start cooking until 9 pm.  When it comes time to get out the Christmas boxes I will have totally forgotten what light strand goes where.

We saw this gorgeous red shouldered hawk in one of our plots the last time we were in the field.  It is quite tame and I'm pretty sure we saw this same hawk when were were in this plot over a year ago. I happened to see it fly in with a mole it had just caught.  Five hours later Ted and I were back at that spot and it was still on the same branch, still eating the mole.  We got to see it finish its meal. It was still on the branch when we left the area a bit later. 

Also saw this flock of turkeys.  I had been hearing them off and on all day.

Week of Nov 1

 After rain last weekend we had great weather this past week.  I was in the field Monday and Friday, and biked every other day. From the top of the relay station hill we see Mt. Diablo to the south.  I'm very fond of that mountain.
On Friday we were down on the Peninsula.  The sunset was spectacular. From our field site we could see Mt. Diablo to the north. To the west it looked like the cloulds were on fire.
In other news, Dad was in the hospital overnight Thursday.  Turned out he had slipped back into atrial fibrillation, so he will need to get that straightened out. Luckily Eric and Karen were still there, and could help Mother.
F invited us to brunch Saturday.  She had cooked a delicious breakfast with the help of her friend D.  It was the first time I had seen her apartment, and I was glad that she had such comfortable digs to live in.
On Saturday after we returned home I biked up the steep part of the hill to the top in 1-2 for the first time.  Curiously, this was easier than biking up in 1-1. I had the wind to my back.  Tried it again today after rain stopped, and it is definitely the way to go.
Thanks to the recent rains the grass has started to grow again. I noticed the Ribes malvacearum had pushed new buds.