NYE and all that it enatils

After setting up my PC to scan drive C for errors (a 5-hour operation) I took my pigs 'n blankets, grey poop-on and a box of toothpicks, my sleeping bag and a pillow, and a wee little gift box, hopped into the car and made the trek up the hill to farmount's cabin. The route sounds simple, but driving it is not. 85-->17-->Bear Creek Road exit-->Black Rd. -->Gist Rd.-->Skyline Dr., turn right and in 30 seconds you're there. Black Road is a typical mountain road, a relatively steep grade with lots of turns and twists. Most of the road has a reflectorized center line, and it's plenty wide for two vehicles. Gist Road, on the other hand, is like this:

Imagine a ladder.

Twist that ladder into a moebius strip.

Pave the strip.

Slop some tree branches, mud and rocks on it at random intervals.

It's the hairpin turns at 90° in pitch darkness which annoy me the most. It is amazing how many of those they pack into 1.6 miles of road.

The party was well worth the trip. When I walked in, they were playing a DVD of a fashion show in which nevynn and his cohorts were modeling kilts. mastersantiago broke out his flea circus and used the gathered throng as guinea pigs for his first ever performance. It was twenty minutes of magic and comedy excellence. I still wish he had lit the flaming hoop, but I guess kalanasse, whose arms formed the hoop, was glad he didn't.

It was pretty cold outside, so I didn't brave the hot tub, though many others added themselves to the "people soup". I am lousy at names, so if I saw you and don't mention it here, that's my excuse. It was good to see seamoose, unseelie23 and maestrateresa again. seamoose, that Dickens family link I mentioned is This one here. And I was happy to meet and get to talk with numerous others whose names I either did not catch, have forgotten, or just didn't want to post 'cause I don't know their LJ handles, if any.

After midnight, makellan gave an amazing, amusing and enlightening demonstration of human electrical conductivity, using a magic wand and a beautifully crafted glove-like object which turned his hand into something resembling a steel lizard's foot and talons. I kept my distance, since electric current and my heart condition are not good buddies. The things you have to give up in old age. ;-(

Here's where the names thing is kicking me in the butt. nevynn's sword buddy arrived with a Goddess whose name I wish I could remember because she is a professional belly dancer, and having seen her dancing to some bogus East Indian music, I would love to see her perform to the Arabic music she is used to. Amazing moves, and by her conversation she knows her art well. I've many belly dancer friends, so I know the real thing when I see it.

And it was fun to watch the impromptu partner rotations throughout the evening. And there was a lot of good food.

At about 3:30 the survivors found places to sleep, I was out on one of the couches in the livingroom, which is my usual crash site. nevynn said he would have coffee set to perk at 8:30, which was met with a round of "as if" from those who drank coffee. I was up at 8:20, saw that it was light out, so I gathered my things and stole away with a little more rustle than I would have liked, but I don't think I woke anyone up. The only reason I stayed overnight is I wanted to do the return trip in daylight. Turned out to be a good idea, since it was raining and there were minor mud slides, rocks and downed trees along the route. Instead of taking Gist Rd. back down, I drove the half mile or so up Skyline to Black Rd. and took it all the way down. I think in the future I'll use Black Rd. It isn't much longer, and coming from the north puts the cabin on the right instead of the left. And it's a lot safer.

Got home at about 9, did my morning meds and shut down the computer (disk check was done), and took a nap till about noon. It was very windy and raining all day yesterday, so I just stayed inside.

Brakes!

Dropped my car off because the brake warning light was coming on all during my trip down the hill yesterday. Just got the call - $700+. Yikes. And that's just the front brakes. Next year I'll need to do the rear ones. And they told me my tires are getting close to needing replacement. I'll have to look up when I bought them, I know they are nowhere near the 60,000 miles I thought they were supposed to be good for. Or was it 20,000? I'll have to look.

Good news, bad news

The good news is the weatherpersons were assuring us this morning the rain would be gone by afternoon. The bad news is they didn't say which afternoon. Because it certainly wasn't this one.

The other good news is the brake job was done in record time - 1:20 pm - which meant I could go there in daylight. I walked the 32-minute trek in the rain equivalent of a blizzard. High winds, higher gusts, amongst large drops of significant vertical and horizontal velocity.

On my walk back from the shop this morning, I had peered over the bridge to see how Stevens Creek was doing at Evelyn Rd. The current was torrential, and there was a large tree trunk caught on the point of a Y where the creek divides into two channels. On the trip back, the tree trunk was gone. We're talking 12-foot-long 1-foot-diameter tree section, here. And it is nowhere in sight, so I think the water pressure is what knocked it off.

Anywho, at least I got my exercise for the week.

Amusing footnote, on the walks there and back I noticed several Christmas trees left on the side of the road and a lone latex glove.

The other bad news is they did a complete inspection of the car, and several things which Toyota was supposed to have done in the 60k inspection a year ago apparently were done not at all or poorly, my battery, which was just replaced a year ago July, is "marginal", and my 80,000 mile warranted tires are down to 3/32 of tread after only 1/4 of that.

If I still have a job next month, maybe I'll look into getting a newer car. I'd like a hybrid, but Prius is both out of my price range and unavailable (there's a 6-month backlog of orders, I understand). Maybe a used one? Or the Honda, though I have a problem with Honda cars because when I was growing up, all they made was lawn mowers and low-powered motorcycles.

It was raining so hard when I drove home, I didn't stop at the office to pick up the package which was delivered on the 31st. There will probably be another one in the mail, so I'll wait till after the USPS snail arrives. Meanwhile, my socks are in the hamper, my jeans are in the dryer, and the umbrella, jacket, hat and tennis shoes are drying out in the livingroom. I think I'll go downstairs and join Pumpkin, who is atop the recliner, and watch some football. And maybe start reading The Dark Tower.

I was going to start reading it last night, but instead did my family duty and opened up the massive tome which my big sister had mailed from Israel. It is her master's thesis in creative writing (English), a series of short stories about life in her community, which is a religious co-op called a moshav, not to be confused with a kibbutz. I lived there for six months in 1977, and wanted to see if I recognized anyone. So I started reading the first story.

I had forgotten what a good writer my sister is. Partly because she rarely writes to her relatives, and partly because most of the work she has sent me has been in snippets. Her job is writing for WIZO, a non-profit women's Zionist organization, and I think a lot of her work is in Hebrew. What she has sent me of her work work is mostly snippets and collections of 1-page blurbs. All good stuff, but none as ambitious as the thesis. It's not as much reading as I thought it would be, since it is done in 12-point type, 1.5-spaced, single-sided. So that will be my bedtime reading and Roland's Traveling Road Show will be my lunchtime reading.