Suzy Says

Or unhappy Wednesday, as the case may be…

One day as I was driving home from work, I noticed that Wednesday was making an alarming creaking sound. I got more alarmed the creakier it got. I called my brother and he said to drive her on over that weekend for him to take a look (or listen). He thought it might be the bushings (whatever they are), and suggested that I take Wednesday to the place I buy tires to get a front end and brake inspection. He also thought I needed new tires, and while I might be able to get away with only getting two new ones, it was probably better to get all four.

Unfortunately for me and my ever-tenuous resources, my tires were considered “marginal” by the tire experts. My brother was correct about the bushings (whatever they are), since they were “torn and broken”. Besides having no idea what they are, I have no idea how I tore and broke them, which sounds pretty violent and also memorable. Oh, and I had 10% left on my rear brakes. At least I still had 85% on the front ones, which do most of the work.

I was presented with a truly alarming estimate for the work needed to correct all these mysterious problems, as well as all four tires. I gave it to my brother, hoping he and Rob could do the work. I had a hard time reaching him, and in the meantime was driving around on my marginal tires with my 10% rear brakes, which was almost as alarming as the estimate for fixing them. Eventually my brother and I caught up with each other, and basically he said he would not have time to do the work in the foreseeable future.

So I went back to the tire place and signed over my paycheck to them in return for all this, as well as an alignment and maybe some other stuff. The last time I bought tires was in April of 2017, and considering the state of the rough country roads I drive on and the fact that I drive about 250 miles a week just to work and back, it’s probably about as much as I could expect to get from the tires. I am careful about checking the tire pressure and getting them rotated in the hopes of making them last as long as possible. At least I can be confident that I can stop the car, which, as my brother says, is the most important thing a car can do. And I have new tires before the rain starts up again.

I felt Erica’s and Jessica’s absence keenly at the Fair, and I couldn’t bring myself to go into the Fiber building, which did not contain any of Erica’s miraculous confections. However, I had no such misgivings about the quilts, which were quite wonderful this year. There were a couple of charming wildlife themed quilts:

But this one may have been my favorite:

You can’t really tell from the photo, but it was sparked here and there with rhinestones, giving it an unexpected glitter. Here’s a close up:

You know how I love the sparkle.

I was charmed by this embroidered Winnie the Pooh blanket, which also had a lovely little trail of bees:

And the blue line on this adorable Dr. Seuss pillow is the top of a pocket, built right in to hold a favorite book:

I don’t know what this was, but Rob would love it:

There were some beautiful floral displays. This won best in show, and I would love to have it at my house:

I was charmed by this display with the cute little pigs:

And I loved the path showing the names of the little towns in our big county:

Such a clever idea! As were these displays:

I am not creative in that way, but I sure appreciate the creativity in others.

The sun was setting as we left the Fair, the hills aglow with pink and gold and a light breeze cooling the air as we walked back to the car. It was another wonderful Fair. I love feeling like I’m in “Charlotte’s Web”.

A YEAR AGO: A wonderful day at the Fair.

FIVE YEARS AGO: My bathroom renovation was nearly done. Rob did an amazing job. I hope whoever lives there now appreciates it as much as I did. In a way, I miss my old house, despite all its quirks.

TEN YEARS AGO: Walking dear Schatzi at Big River. I sure miss that sweet girl.

I took so many photos at the Fair this year that it will take two posts to share them all with you.

As always, it was a beautiful day. This year, we arrived around 5:00 on Saturday evening. It was still warm, and I was still glad to have my official Fair hat, but there was also a light breeze. We started out with a Surf’s Up, a delicious frozen mixture of pineapple, coconut, and watermelon, appropriately accessorized with a paper umbrella:

It was like a vacation in a glass! Appropriately armed, we strolled through the sunshine to inspect the exhibits. The biggest pumpkins were not the prettiest I’ve ever seen, but they were definitely sizable:

We stopped and tasted apples:

After all, it is the County Fair and Apple Show. There were so many delicious varieties, and Megan took notes for a couple of potential additions to the family cider apple orchard.

These were entertaining additions to the vegetable displays:

This was my favorite bunny:

Besides being totally adorable, he was very playful, sitting up on his hind legs, rolling his ball around, and generally being cute as a button. Or a bunny.

I was very taken with these watercolors, one of downtown Philo:

And one of the winding road to the Gowan’s farm stand, which has been an Anderson Valley landmark for generations:

The artist is a dear friend of Erica’s who I have met a couple of times, so I have reached out to tell her a) how much I love her work; and 2) that I’m interested in buying one or maybe both of them. It’s been a while since I bought art, and these two really speak to me. It will be nice to have local art in my house, too.

A YEAR AGO: The horror!

FIVE YEARS AGO: It was actually raining!

TEN YEARS AGO: Getting ready to move.

FIFTEEN YEARS AGO: Candy! It’s what’s for breakfast!

One of the things I have been getting used to in the new house is that it has a hot water heater instead of a flash heater, which the old house had. With a flash heater, you get on demand hot water and, as the name suggests, pretty much right away. With the water tank, I find I have to run the water for quite a while before it warms up. One Saturday, it never got above tepid.

I went outside and looked in the little storage shed attached to the house, where the water tank lives. Its pilot light was out. I was able to successfully relight it, which made me all proud of myself until it went out again. I followed the instructions, not wanting to bother Danielle yet again.

Eventually I had to, though, and she came over to investigate. The hot water heater was only five years old, but she thought it needed to be replaced. She put a call in to the guy who deals with such things and went to work. I started making alternative plans to take a shower and wash the dishes.

Being Danielle, she came home with a new water tank and had somehow persuaded Water Tank Guy to come over even though he had worked seven days in a row and undoubtedly his enthusiasm for this weekend project was why they invented negative numbers. He agreed that the tank needed to be replaced, so he set about draining the old one and putting the new one in place.

She said that she put in a hot water tank instead of a flash heater because then there was hot (or at least warm) water for a while when the power went out. Apparently flash heaters need power, which I never knew because I never had water when the power went out, since it meant that the well pump didn’t work. Here I will have water at least for a while when the power goes out, since there is the big water storage tank on the third floor of the house.

It occurred to me that so far Danielle has not made a lot of money from renting the house to me. Also that I might be some kind of appliance jinx. First the heater needed a new thermo coupler, involving an expensive visit from the Gas Guy. Then my stove was replaced, since Danielle decided it was cheaper to just buy a new one rather than have the old one fixed (the broiler and one burner didn’t work. This is the kind of thing that I would have just lived with at the old place). Then the outlets and closet light in the bedroom weren’t working, necessitating a visit from Electrician. Now this. She also mentioned that she was going to have to buy a new refrigerator for her own house. Hopefully my refrigerator will continue to keep things cold while the water heater continues to (eventually) produce hot water. I don’t think this is the time to mention that I can’t change the dryer controls and instead have to run it two or three times on the cycle it’s stuck on.

ONE YEAR AGO: The beginning of Dental Hell. I do not recommend visiting it.

FIVE YEARS AGO: Some miscellaneous updates.

TEN YEARS AGO: Getting ready to get the hell out of Oakhampton. Note to Self: What is with your landlords turning up wth no notice, wherever you live?

A Beautiful Day on the Coast

Sunday was another beautiful day. It seemed like a good day for a trip to the South Coast, especially since the inimitable Franny of Franny’s Cup & Saucer was guest chef-ing at the Garcia Guild breakfast in Manchester. It was a New Orleans breakfast, with white cheddar grits, sautéed greens with andouille sausage, scrambled eggs, nectarine, blackberry and mint fruit salad, biscuits with preserves, custard donuts, and orange juice.

Sounds good, right? However, the reality, as so often happens, did not live up to the expectations. Though I arrived a little more than an hour after the breakfast started, I soon learned that they were out of: coffee, orange juice, fruit salad, donuts, and preserves, with no plans to replace them. Each person at this allegedly all you can eat breakfast was limited to one single two inch square biscuit, which was of course the best part of the breakfast.

I knew that I was unlikely to change my long-held opinion that grits were gross, and this in fact did meet expectations. I couldn’t taste any cheese in the two bites I took of it, which only confirmed my dim view on grits. I left most of the breakfast behind in disgust along with my $10 (the entry fee was not reduced despite the fact that about half of the advertised items were not available). Never doing that again. Lesson learned! Stick to the Hooterville Grange.

My cloud of disappointment vanished immediately when I noticed that Franny’s was uncharacteristically open on a Sunday. I went in and got an almond croissant, sea salt caramel pecan brownie, and a slice of plum and frangipane tart. These were all fabulous.

I continued down the coast:

going from sun to fog and back again. Arriving at Anchor Bay Thai, I saw that they had painted a new mural on the back wall:

Really striking, and I love peacocks. With my to go order safely stowed, I headed to Gualala, where I looked around the bookstore and admired the ocean:

before heading back home in my delicacy-laden car. That evening, I watched the very enjoyable “Sudden Fear” with the one and only Joan Crawford chewing up the scenery and the sultry Gloria Grahame slinking through it as they battle over the affections of the charismatic Jack Palance. Bonus fun was seeing San Francisco in 1952 and mentally comparing the past and present. You can have a peek at the locations then and now here if you’re curious.

A YEAR AGO: Clyde and Dodge were getting closer. Now none of the cats goes outside if I can help it. Whatever scared Clyde that day has reduced or eliminated his interest in the Wide World, which is just fine with me.

FIVE YEARS AGO: A delightful evening at the theater with Megan and Lu. We are overdue for a girls’ night out!

TEN YEARS AGO: Remembering my grandparents’ long and happy marriages.

It wasn’t all sloth on this long weekend, however. I found time to help set up the library book sale, along with countless other volunteers, young and old alike. My high level task was to haul handcarts of books through the alley behind the library to the Veterans’ Hall across the street.

We had a pretty good system going. One of the volunteers pushed boxes of books down a chute to a loading area, where another volunteer stacked the boxes onto the handcarts so they could be dragged across the street, up the ramps, and into the Hall.

There other volunteers decanted the books onto tables set up by genre, arguably a less appealing task than the book haulage itself. Having said that, though, each load seemed to get heavier, and I began to feel about 90 years ago. At last, we got to the “special price” books, the last to go. These only had to moved around the corner into the room where the Board meetings are.

It looked great when everything was set up:

And I am pleased to report that the library made close to $9,000 from the book sale. How’s that for teamwork?

A YEAR AGO: Dodge gets the thumbs up from the vet.

FIVE YEARS AGO: My computer was brand new. And somewhat shinier.

TEN YEARS AGO: Still love those Chanel rain boots. And I rarely use an umbrella now that I live in the country. Mostly it’s just a hat. And non Chanel boots.

FIFTEEN YEARS AGO: Art on the streets of San Francisco.