On the road again....

Hey, it's that time of year.... I'm on day one of a 5-day trip up the California coastal valleys, with stays in Ventura (where I'm at right now), Pismo Beach, Monterey, and Burlingame. It's a 2-bus trip, Theresa's my co-driver. We get along well, so no problem there. The group is seed distributors, or so I guess. We visit nurseries where the growers can showcase their efforts. Anyhow, it's a short night tonight, so I guess I'd better bail outa here and get my butt to bed! Good-night!

Da wife comes along

Hi, I'm back in Mammoth Lakes, doing my last snow run of the season. It's a whirlwind event, we left Friday night, return Sunday evening. As luck would have it, that coincided nicely with Jacque's weekend, and she was able to join me! Also along for the trip is my new notebook computer, an HP zv6130us. It's an AMD64 3200+ system, 80 GB hard drive, CD/DVD burner, on-board 802.11G Wi-fi, UltraBright 15.8" widescreen display, 128 Megs dedicated graphics memory on an ATI Mobile Radeon chipset. Not too shabby, got it for $699 from Fry's. Anyhow, Jacque and I are having a good time, it snowed last night and most of today, but not a huge amount. Our passengers are campers, they're out camping in this!!! Sorry, doesn't fit my description of a "good time". We leave later today, Sunday, should be home by maybe 2100 or so. Hopefully I will have Monday off, I'm gonna go get a Corsair 1 Gig memory DIMM that Fry's has on sale, for this laptop, to boost the total memory from 1/2 GB to 1.25 GB. Also high on the wish list is a Hitachi (IBM) TravelStar 7200 RPM drive that NewEgg has for $145, to replace the 4200 RPM drive that's currently in there. Spending my cash before I earn it, oh-oh (grin).

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

"In like a lion, out like a lamb".... no, this is not an xxx-rated post (grin). It's the way March is looking here in California, and especially in the Sierras, which is exactly where I am right now. Mammoth Lakes, around 7800', and it's been snowing and snowing. Not huge quantities, but steady and consistent. The weather people were starting to worry about our upcoming summer, due to way-below-average precipitation. I don't know where the numbers are now, but it's a certainty that they've improved considerably over the last couple weeks. Even San Diego, which was WAY below normal, has picked up some rain lately. Nothing like the record-setter last winter, but respectable. In the meantime, my chains sure are happy! Here's a picture from out my window, yesterday morning (it looks about the same right now).

Back in the snow

Hello from Mammoth Lakes, CA, where it's supposed to dump, big-time over the next 36 to 48 hours! I arrived in town a few hours ago, finally got everyone dropped and got my room, put the bus to bed (after I chained up...) and now, finally, am relaxing in my room. Got wi-fi here, so that's kewl, although I noticed it seems to be running a bit slow tonight. Maybe there's lots of other people online. I'm showing an "excellent" signal strength.
Anyhow, this is a 6-day trip, so the chains should have plenty of exercise. Unfortunately, if it's as crappy as the weatherman says it's supposed to be, looks like I won't be getting so much exercise. The hotel I'm at has a workout room, and a pool, so maybe I'll avail myself of them. Anyhow, it's gonna feel strange to be away from home for 6 days, although I gotta admit, I'm "missing out" on a whole lot of shuttle and airport transfer runs by being out-of-town. Geez, I'll miss that so much....

Kewl! Unexpected day off...

I'm keenly aware the forecast at work is very busy for at least the next two weeks, with a lot of questionmarks after that. Typically, the first 6 months of the year are quite busy. In fact, typically, the only slow times are *perhaps* some spots in July and August, and usually early December. So, I was happy to discover, much to my surprise, that I had today off! I'm sitting in bed with a newspaper, the laptop connected via wi-fi, and a cup of coffee. Oh, and 9 hours of sleep under my belt (grin). Guess I'll refill the coffee cup, finish up this stuff, and get my ass in gear! Supposed to drop some stuff off at Melissa's, I guess our newest grand-daughter has been giving them fits. She thought it was colic, but the pediatricion says otherwise. He says it's Arabella (at 4 days old) has already learned a "cause-affect" relationship. She wants to suck (like all babies), and, even though she's just been fed, she howls until Melissa picks her up and offers her what she wants. The she latches on, and falls asleep. Doctor says that's gotta end, right now. I had no idea a 4-day-old could actually figure out something like that! Anyhow, in an attempt to help out, Jacque has put together a couple meals, which I'm supposed to deliver today. Guess I'll include that in with my hike, which is near her house....