Can’t Make This Up
September 2, 2025
Everyday, the news in one sentence — courtesy of Matt, creator of WTFJHT — is gasp-worthy. But some days, it’s even more gasp-worthy than usual. Today’s WTF-Just-Happened-Today is a humdinger.
Deeply Soul Embedded
September 1, 2025
I ran across two photos today — neither mine, just to be clear — that reach down deep. Each represents a place dear to me. Beyond dear… shaping.
The first, taken by Lance Kinney (friend from Valmonte elementary school days), is of Palos Verdes, Bluff Cove specifically. My twice daily view on the way to/from high school…
I mean.
And this one — shot by a stranger, to me, named Andrew Brittain — of Yosemite. While we avoid Yosemite Valley because of its crowds, it is still a thrill to be down there and see such monstrously huge granite faces, peaks and domes. Truly breathtaking. The granite, also a defining feature of the high country, where we do spend a lot of time, is what can bring me to tears. It’s everything.
Amazing pictures.
Both places evoke profound gratefulness for the beauty that is a huge part of my life.
Hits and Misses
August 31, 2025
This is a corn, avocado, tomato, red onion (etc) salad I made tonight.
It accompanied Labor Day weekend BBQ burgers, along with another salad I made of watermelon, cucumber, red onion, mint, feta (etc). No pic on that one.. but it was also pretty and colorful.
Both salads were good. But were overshadowed by the worst hamburger I’ve ever made. Ever.
Who messes up a hamburger?! Me. But it wasn’t my fault.
I bought this at the coop….
…. which I thought was a good choice: organic, lean, grass-fed, non-GMO blahty blahty. It was rough. Maybe it was the lack of fat, but it was sinewy, dense, difficult to work with. I seasoned it and then tried to divide it into even-sized balls to form into patties.. and that should have been a sign. I had to use a knife to cut it into sections b/c I couldn’t pull it apart (it wasn’t even easy to cut). The patties were misshapen, but I figured they’d be okay once grilled. Jim BBQ’d them to perfection and they looked okay, if small (way smaller than the buns). Still coulda been good, but one bite into the thing and man… it was nearly inedible. Took forever to chew. Janet said it was like eating beef jerky burgers. She ate her bun but left most of the burger on her plate. I persevered, unhappily. Jim may have worked his down, as well.
With all of that going on, it was hard to appreciate the salads… which I kinda worked hard on. That stupid hamburger tainted the whole dinner.. which was disappointing and not a little embarrassing.
Bummer.
~~
Postscript: The next night, we had leftover salads for dinner and they were pretty good!
Sign Stealing
August 30, 2025
We now possess a few Yolo County road signs.
Jim retouched the photo to obscure the original sign text. Here is Jim’s explanation from his facebook post:
Another episode of “it followed me home.”
One of my recent projects was at a fraternity that’s relocating to another house, as the current site is going to be redeveloped. Among the considerable junk that the boys had accumulated over the years was a road sign.
How the frat came into possession of the sign is a little murky, but here’s what I’ve been able to piece together, partly from talking to the boys, and partly my own surmise:
A driver ran into the sign and knocked it down. Someone (else?) saw the sign lying in the road, picked it up an hauled it away. Someone (else?) tossed the sign over the fraternity’s side yard fence as a prank, where it lay unmolested for weeks, months or years. The boys, needing to clear the site upon moving out, dragged it over to their dump pile.
Being an incorrigible scavenger since boyhood, I saw the sign as a collection of raw materials that “might come in handy someday.” I kept eyeing it over the several days I was on site, but also kept telling myself that I don’t need it and don’t have anywhere to store it. But…my inner child won out, and yesterday I loaded it into my truck and hauled it home.
What will I do with it? I don’t know, but it might come in handy some day.
(Street names are munged; no point in riling up the public agency that fell victim to the original crime.)
He’s so cute.
Farm to Fork
August 29, 2025
Summertime, summertime, sum sum summertime.
Fresh, flavorful, homegrown.. a dinner ready in an instant….
Love. It.
From this….
To this …. a Jim summer special of toms, basil, olive oil, garlic, s/p…
To this… served over angel hair pasta w/ parm, and a side of steamed zuc (eggplant saved for another day)…
Take Me Out to the Ballgame
August 26, 2025
Jim and I went to the old Raley Field (now something about Sutter Health) last night to see the A’s play the Tigers. The A’s — no longer an Oakland team — are playing in Sacramento as they wait for their new stadium to get built in Las Vegas. This makes sense because their AAA team is the Sac Rivercats. So the Rivercats and A’s are sharing the stadium for the time being.
Our motivation for attending this particular game — besides the fact it’d been too long since we’d been to a darn baseball game — was to see Ryan Kreidler play. Ryan, of course, was Peter’s teammate on the varsity baseball team at Davis High (an exceptional talent we knew would go places). He first played college ball at UCLA, then got drafted 4-5 years ago by the Tigers organization. While he made the 40-man roster this year (fantastic!), his chronic injuries have meant he’s played most of his games as a Mudhen (Detroit’s AAA team). However…. as it turns out, just a few days ago, he was let go by the Tigers and was picked up by the Pittsburgh Pirates. So, sadly, he did not play last night.
We still rooted for the Tigers. Partly because with Peter living in Ann Arbor, we’ve seen the Tigers play a few times, and felt a bit of allegiance. For most of this time, the Tigers have had one of the worst records in the MLB.
But now, the Tigers are the best team in the American League, amazingly (too bad Ryan’s leaving them now). The A’s are at the bottom of their American League bracket. But on this night, the A’s came out on top. It was a 20-hit game, including a grand slam.. so lots of excitement.
I think the final score was 8-3.
A few pics of a perfect night of baseball.. did I mention it was in the 80s for most of this night game?
One of the main attractions… dogs and beer (and peanuts and redvines)…
A sweet father son group was in front of us… this is them singing and swaying to Take Me Out to the Ballgame during the 7th inning stretch..
Splash!
August 25, 2025
This is the latest thing to come to Davis… this tribute to Davis Police Officer, Natalie Corona, tragically killed in the line-of-duty in 2019. It’s a splash pad.. a huge interactive water feature on the north end of Central Park.. just a couple blocks from our house. Wish I were a kiddo!
Pitcher of Tomatoes
August 23, 2025
Jim went out to the garden … and came back with this (the day after we got back from Yosemite.. a couple days ago).
Pretty…
Would have made a nice centerpiece.. but we ate most of it on last night’s pasta. (Excellent!!)
That is actually our former blender thing.. the one we replaced with a Vitamix. Not sure how he sealed the bottom.. but he did. Makes a nice vessel for crop gathering.
First Days
August 22, 2025
Yesterday, actually, was the first day of the new school year for Juni, River and Mags.
I’m tellin’ ya… teachers better be ready for this gang.
Four of Ten Lakes
August 17, 2025
John Muir once described these lakes as “a glacier basin with ten glassy lakes set all near together like eggs in a nest.”
Later start today than usual. Lingered in the dining room over breakfast with three 30-somethings from LA, two were very inexperienced hikers and one was eager. <smile> Gave them lots of tips.. not sure what they’ll do.
After the taping/bracing ritual (just ugh!), headed out of the meadow to the trailhead for Ten Lakes Basin (started hiking at 11:20). We’d done this trail once before and I’d remembered it as flat for 4-ish miles until you reached a major climb to a pass. Slow going but doable.
Well… the trail was not flat, in fact it rose about 1400′ in elevation over those 4 miles (and took two hours to get to the meadow). Not huge, but not trivial (approx 350’/mi). The last 1 mile goes up 768′ (to be exact-ish) to a big flat pass. From the pass, we went on another .3 miles and dropped 100′ or so, and had lunch on the edge of a promontory that gave us a jaw dropping view of the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne, 4 of 10 lakes, and the Sierra Crest. Three hours to lunch spot, sat for an hour. Two and a half hours back, got to car at 6pm.
Total on the day: 10.6 miles, 2171′ gain.
Okay, let’s start back at the trailhead (and ignore their mileage, since it’s usually creative):
We’re going to go to the first bump (the pass, 5.0 miles) and then walk .3 beyond that for lunch and a view.
We started in a burned up forest, which was pretty in its own way:
The trail followed the Yosemite Creek drainage, some of it in forest, some of it in open granite-covered areas with sweeping views. It’s a really pleasant trail.
The end of the easy stuff and beginning of the 1-mile climb is the Half Moon Meadow… we thought we might get rain..
This is nearing the top and it’s starting to level out again …love when the blue sky gets closer and closer…
This is the pass…
Lunch was so welcome!
Here are some of our views:
The big one’s Mt. Dana (that Peter will climb on the last day… before breakfast).
That lake down there is most people’s destination. I think it’s called Ten Lakes? Grant Lake, we believe, is on the right side, other side of that mountain, out of view. There’s a tiny lake above the big one. Not sure its name.
We had to do some of these… (they’re on the edge, drop off is substantial behind them). The “Grand Canyon” is down and wraps around to the left.
This is basically where we are.. follow that little .1 mile spur…
Time to head back… needed to climb back up to the pass (about 100′).. Peter’s out ahead:
A final look at the pass before dropping down into the Yosemite Creek drainage (pretty up there!):
And then we hustled back.. no pictures until the very end.. when back in the burned forest.. one wild flower patch remains…
Again, made it back to car by 6, to the tent cabins by 6:30, showered and to the dining room by 7:15!
And just for fun.. here’s what the damn feet look like… blistered, taped..
We had dinner with a couple from Chico. So impressive. He’s 78-ish, she’s close to that (Don and Suzanne). They are camping out, ultra light folks — no tent or sleeping bags (just a tarp and a quilt), and plan to backpack for a few days. Nights up here are in the low 30s. They are super hearty.
We played pub quiz this night in our beds! Still a hoot. Of the four quizzes we’ve done: K:1, J:1, P:2
Here’s a shot from the middle of the night.. pee run.. always look up. (That’s a corner of our tent, some trees.. and stars.)
Life of Wry 