It’s been a long time since I’ve entered anything in the blog. It’s just that I’ve been busy with stuff around the house, activities with the family and Nevada’s Sesquicentennial.
The family and I journeyed over “the hill” (as we call the Sierra Nevada mountain range) into to visit Apple Hill, just above Placerville, CA. This is an area suited for apple growing and not a real town. The closest town
Apple Crisp Sundae…YUM!!!
is Camino. My sister and her family have been making this annual trek for many years to visit the many apple orchards, buy boxes of apples and enjoy the ecstasy of delectable treats made with apples. My folks used to love this trip. Dad especially loved going to Denver Dan’s Apple Patch and eating an apple crisp sundae. I had one in Dad’s honor. Man! It was GOOD!
A few days after the Apple Hill trip, Jerri and I served as division marshals for the annual Nevada Day Parade. They have this parade to celebrate Nevada’s admission to the union on October 31, 1864. It used to be celebrated on Halloween Day but they realized a few years ago that they could make more tourist money if they celebrated it on the last Saturday of October. Hence, they now have a three-day weekend. The parade annually has more than 200 entries which outdoes the Rose Parade in that regard. I can’t say the same for organization, but everyone surely does have a lot of fun even if it does last for about 3+ hours (or more if it’s an election year with all the politicians). It seemed like most of our family was involved with the parade in one way or another. Jeri and I organized and walked with our divisions. Allan rode on the Carson City float. Grandniece Sierra rode with the Storey County entry and Dalan and Megan (grandnephew and grandniece) rode on their gymnastics club float. Nephew-in-law Jason was on standby duty with his firemen buddies and fire engine on one of the side streets. I didn’t get a picture of Megan and Dalan because they were in a later division and I couldn’t leave my group to get the picture.
Allan is the Carson City Park Ranger
Sierra and her ride
The marshals after the parade
We were very lucky with weather this year as it started out being in the 30s but became very sunny and warm during the parade. Jerri tells me that she has sat in snow to watch the parade. The weather turned the next day and we had strong, cold winds all day long. I’m glad that I didn’t have to be outside in it.
Halloween night saw Jerri, Allan and I making the trek to Virginia City (about 30 miles from my house up in the Comstock silver mine area, about 6200’ elevation). We attended an Antsy McClain concert that was a lot of fun and filled with costumed characters as well as local ones. Antsy is the lead singer for the Trailer Troubadours and tours the country singing his insightful songs as well as a lot of whimsical tunes. My Sacramento buddies, Dick Schmidt and Jan Haag introduced me to Antsy and I’ve been a fan ever since.
The concert began and Antsy was into about the 2nd or 3rd song when this OLD dude waltzed down the center aisle, put down a couple of things he was carrying and stood off to one side at the foot of the stage. I forgot my camera (dumb!) so you’ll have to picture this. He reminded me of an old prospector with long white hair and a longer white beard. He initially wore a cowboy hat but he took that off and had on a skunk hat (not unlike a coonskin cap). His clothes were as follows. Knee high boots, knee length cargo shorts and a sweatshirt that I couldn’t quite read what it said. He also wore dark glasses throughout the concert. Antsy was singing “Living in Aluminum” and this guy began to dance. He reminded me of a bobble head doll with arms that flopped around and legs that sort of hopped around. Jerri and I almost fell on the floor laughing. Antsy just about lost it, I think, as he sort of did a double take when this guy walked in. The guy was obviously a fan as he sort of lip-synched every single tune. He kept up the dancing throughout the first half of the show. A couple of times, females (I’m not sure they were all ladies) would dance with him. They just sort of sidled up to him and began to dance. It was truly Halloween!
I found out later that the dude’s name is Cephus Glover and he is a true character who follows Antsy’s concerts. Dick sent me some pictures of him, so now you get to see the real deal. After the intermission, he came back in wearing a hospital gown over his original outfit. He was a real kick and added to the Halloween aura.
Antsy and Cephlus – photo by RD Schmidt in 2010
I also wanted to share with you, BC’s new trick that she does on the rim of the bath tub. She’s gotten into the habit of jumping up on the rim and then wanting to get up on the counter while I’m brushing my teeth to get a drink out of the sink. Why she does this, I have no idea because she has water dishes all over the house. So I’ve taken to filling little Dixie cups and she drinks them down about half an inch. Then she looks up at me as if to say, “More?” So we go through this at least one more time if not more. My cat is a goofball!
BC and her Dixie cup
BC, the deep drinker
Two days ago, I woke up to a VERY crisp morning of 16 degrees. Allan had warned me about freezing pipes and such, so I am glad that I heeded his advice about unhooking all the outside hoses from their faucets. On the morning when it was 16 degrees, there was ice coming out of the hose that I had carefully rolled up the day before. I thought the water would drain out as I rolled it up, but I learned another lesson. Oh, I’ve learned so many since moving here! This picture was taken just after dawn when I came home from the gym. I hope you can see the ice at the end of the hose.
Cold morning! The bird bath was frozen solid
Yesterday, I bought a weather station at Costco so that I can follow the rainfall, temps and most of all, wind speed and wind chill factor. I am my father’s daughter when it comes to things like this. I don’t keep records like he did and don’t remember all the weather extremes that he could from 50 or more years ago, but I am interested in this stuff. I guess you can tell this about me since I’ve written about the weather several times. Today, Allan helped me get it organized and tomorrow we’ll put the final touches on the rain gauge and wind speed indicator. The wind speed instrument is solar run, so I don’t know how that will work when it snows (the snow will cover the solar panel), but I’ll figure it out when and if that happens. When it’s all hooked up, I can glance at a panel in the house and will be able to get all the details that I want. It probably won’t be long before there is something else that I want to go along with it. Again, I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.
Tomorrow is a first for me. I will be observing a couple of school tours of the Nevada State Capitol. I doubt that I’ll be interested in running these tours, but never say never. Anyway, I’m looking forward to this experience. I have been told that often, the governor or sometimes the lieutenant governor will come out of their offices to chat with the kids. That will be fun if that happens. This doesn’t surprise me as Governor Sandoval is very personable and even hands out treats to kids at the governor’s mansion on Halloween. (Good photo ops and PR)
Until next time…
buzzardnotes 