Well…We made it!

As the title indicates, Mrs J, the Three Dogs and I managed to successfully transfer to College Station over the last couple weeks or so.  It was not beyond its exciting moments though as the whole process kept us busy beyond belief.  Sleep at night is not difficult. However, we tend to awaken in the morning with our muscles warning us that we're in our 70's not in our 20's any more.

The festivities started with the two of us separating our "Stuff" into two piles.  One pile to transfer to the rental house and the other to go directly into storage awaiting the completion of construction on the new home.  We did most of the packing of the first pile. Unfortunately, we didn't get all the way done and the movers offered to pack the rest.  Given that I am still wearing my neck brace 24-7, I was willing to take them up on the offer.  Being much more practiced on packing and moving, they quickly got ahead of us.

Yep, a lot of stuff we wanted delivered to the rental, didn't and without unloading our two storage containers, we're doing without or buying new ones.  Not optimum!  But we'll get by.  

 I mean it's not all bad news.  The Lord might have intervened and directed their action.  The rental house is SMALL!  3 Bedrooms, 2 Baths and about 1200 sq ft.  

Bryan-College Station Regional Association of Realtors

Anyhow, College Station is a medium large City.  Texas A&M adds a lot of young'uns to the melee.  Seems the need to drag race their cars on the streets is still a trend as it was 55 years ago when I got my license.  I think the Lord might be repayig me for old transgressions.  Yes, my blood pressure does go up a bit!

But, we got most of  some of the boxes unpacked. (No Beans, not even close to "All").  Mrs J being the kind, thoughtful and planning ahead type of person she is, made reservations on the Disney Magic sailing out of Galveston for Cozumel and Presidio.  A little 5 day jaunt with the 3 Grandkids, Son and Daughter and their Spouses, Mrs J and I.

Oh, I forgot! 50 million rug rats running full blast around the ship, below my lower range of neck movement which includes vision limitations.  Fortunately, Mrs J was willing to take me by the hand and keep me from trouble.  I learned that finding a place to relax, with bar service and close proximity to a restroom (less than 50ft) made the situation a lot more survivable.  Having been to both ports multiple times (No, I don't want another serape, Thank You!) I stayed on board for both. 

 

 

Oh, my Word! The quiet and service was wonderful! Even got a nap in!

But...All things must come to an end.  We got back home and mysteriously the Boxes hadn't unpacked themselves.  Little J, LJW and Miss B went to visit LJW's Mom, so we're back to the process.  Fortunately, the unpacking is well underway, maybe 75%  of the boxes.  Phase 2 is now underway.

For those who don't know or have forgotten, Phase 2 is the put things away phase.  Or, more correctly the "Where the heck (insert a different verb that defines frustration better) is the XXXX?"

 

But Progress is being made, the garage is getting fuller, and the stack of recyclable cardboare id knee hiigh and getting taller.  Man, I wish I still had my truck,  for a lot of reasons, Neck being one.

Speaking thereof, while you're reading this, I'll be visiting my new neurosurgeon and hopefully he'll give the go ahead to take my neck brace off.  Permanently.  We'll  See!

Fortunately, we haven't experienced replacement so far during the move.  Forecast for the rest of the unpacking is still up in the air!

As you can see a slow and boring week.

 

Or Not! 

Happy New Year!

Restaurant Raconteur

Source

Sarge gave me some inspiration with his post the other day about going out to eat, so I thought I would document the resulting thoughts.  However, I might be a little overly confident with that title. I will tell a little story here, but I can't be sure it will be with any skill or wit per Webster's definition.  Raconteur is a word I've heard before, but doubt I've ever used it here.  I saw it twice very recently and liked how it sounds.  It was in a book called Calico Joe by John Grisham.  Known mostly for his legal thrillers, this one is about a baseball player in the '70s. Another sports related story that I absolutely love of his, one of my favorite books, is Playing for Pizza.  It's about a disgraced quarterback who runs away to Italy to play in the Italian League.  While there and dining in the owners restaurant, he discovers that while he has a paid contract, most of the players on his team are paid in food, hence playing for pizza.  Highly recommended, mostly due to his descriptions of the food that will either get you salivating, or looking for flights to Italy, but probably both.  I read years before our trip to Rome, and it cemented my interest in going.

As for Sarge's post, Marchetti's does sound delicious. I've had my recent fill of Italian as my command Christmas party was at a Italian restaurant in the Little Italy neighborhood of San Diego, Nonna's.  I hadn't seen that word before seeing it on a Netflix movie title about the cooking from a bunch of Italian grandmothers. I had the chicken pesto gnocchi which was excellent.  Last night we attended a benefit catered by a gentleman we know who owns The French Gourmet restaurant here in San Diego. 

I saw an article that said the restaurant was closing on January 4th.  I'm saddened by news of restaurants or businesses shutting down, sometimes because they lose their lease as the owner wants to sell to a developer to build more apartments.  You know the saying, "you can't stop progress," and that's definitely true here in San Diego.  However, it's the way this progress is progressing that I really dislike.  In an attempt to accelerate new housing growth, the city has changed all sorts of zoning laws and fast-tracked development.  The builders can now put up apartment buildings in single family zoned neighborhoods, buying up lots for far more money than buyers can afford (driving up housing costs), using money they don't have to spend on lots in more costly multi-family zoned areas.  But even worse is that these dwellings are without parking.  They let developers build without any space for vehicles if they are within a half mile of a bus route which is pretty much anywhere.  But few in California take public transit.  Those apartment dwellers will just take up all the local area city street parking that is already congested.  That leads to angry residents, cars being keyed, no room for resident trash cans, or cans being moved to driveways and thereby ignored by the trash trucks, etc.  I don't think the city actually cares about it residents, or even about the need for more housing.  I think they're just after all the developer fees to help close a $3.3B pension deficit, but that's different pithy political post for another day.

Anyhoo, after reading a few lines of the article, I quickly got online and made a reservation to support him in his final days of culinary amazement.  His restaurant is a quaint and stylish little place, looking like some cottage in the French countryside.  It has a French bakery in the front and a small seating area off to the side.  We've been many times for special occasions, and even Easter and regular brunch.  And he's catered many of the benefits we've attended over the years.  However, after I finished making the reservation I finished the article.  It turns out he is not getting pushed out by a landlord, he is the landlord.  He himself has decided to retire at 71 years old and he has accepted an offer from a developer, one that has been after him for 10 years.  He stated that it wasn't yet time and the offers were never serious enough to make him consider it.  However, they significantly increased it recently as well as buying an adjacent lot, offering him $7 million for the loss of the business, the sale of the building, and the lot it sits on.  While I don't necessarily want to see another congested apartment complex without parking, you can't stop progress and I cannot blame him for accepting that figure.  

Either way, we will enjoy our dinner, it just won't be with sadness for him.  At the benefit last night there was a silent auction and I noticed his name on many of the items.  Seeing how he's flush with cash he was feeling generous.  Not sure how many items he took away, but he has plenty of time and money to continue that type of philanthropy and I wish him well.

I hope your Advent season is going well.  Besides the Christmas party and the benefit on Friday night, our weekend social calendar wasn't finished.  I put on a nice red suit as part of the local VFW's "Santa at the Ship" event which gives out toys to junior military families whose father or mother are either on deployment or recently returned.  My Mustang Club purchases the toys and donates funds for the bikes.  I wasn't supposed to be Santa this year as a 92yo VFW member asked to play the role,  and they wanted to indulge him, seeing how you never know if he'll be able to do it in the future.  However, he got quite fatigued lifting children onto his lap so he had to leave about halfway through the day.  I was in the Alert-5 position though and quickly transformed into St. Nick.  

Mrs. Claus always makes Santa happy.

Other than that, we plan to have some neighbors over next weekend for a Christmas Open House, but that will be the end of us being socialites for the season.  The rest of the year should be rather quiet and low-key.  I plan taking just a few days of leave, bracketing Jesus's birthday and New Years.  Work is already quiet as the active-duty folks are allowed to phone muster for much of the Holiday stand down.  I roll my eyes at that, but it keeps the gate traffic down!  I'm not sure I'll write again this year, so I'll wish you all a Merry Christmas and a joyous New Year.

Manic Monday*

 Ok, Campers,  still not a lot going on at Rancho Juvat.  Weather has been beautiful, not too hot (mid 80's), not too cold (low 60's).  Just about perfect.  The good news is, my leg seems to be getting a bit better.  I can walk a bit more comfortably, most of the time.  I think I've been to virtually all the Doctor's in town, none seem to know what to do about it, but, as I said, it does seem to be getting better.  We'll see.

My favorite travel agent (AKA Mrs Juvat) is planning vacations left and right.  Mid-November, she's set up a wine cruise for the "gang" from our friend's previously owned winery.  The Husband, the winemaker had passed away.  The Wife, the Business Manager decided to sell the winery.  The folks who bought it,  well, they're not really personable.  So, the "gang" has kinda gone out on our own.  

 

This is pretty much the group going on the cruise, as I said, "The Gang"

In any case, about 14 folks are going on a riverboat cruise in Portugal on the Duoro River which runs through the Portugese Wine Country.  The boat holds about 100 passengers, so, it won't be too crowded.

And...They provide wine on the boat.  So....We've got that going for us.

This is where we'll be.

Should be a lot of fun

One of the many reasons I married Mrs J is she is a very kind hearted person and goes way out of her way to try and help folks having "difficulties".  As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Little J and LJW had a miscarrage.  Mrs J and I went through a few of them between Little J's birth and MBD's, so we (especially she) understand the feelings.  So, we're sitting out on the front porch enjoying a nice glass of Sauvignon Blanc a couple of evenings ago (temperature was about 75 with about 5K of wind, quite delightful), while watching Axis Deer transit our property.  (Drives the Great Pyrenees bat-shit crazy.  I like to laugh at the looks the deer give the dogs, since they're on another side of the fence.  Yes, it's a great life we live here!). 

Anyhow...we're sitting there when Mrs J, out of nowhere, asks if I'd like to go on a cruise sometime around Christmas.  Since we'll have come back from a cruise less than a month before, the cash register bells in the back of my head started going off. So, I hemmed and hawwed a bit.  Then she ran over our out of pocket expenses for the Portugal trip.   Hmmmm!  Seems our trip was covered by her commission with quite a bit left over.  

She then mentioned that since Little J, LJW and Miss B would be coming home for Christmas, it might be a good opportunity to get them in a family adventure with us, them and MBD, the Rev and their two kids.  Take their minds off of things.

She's a smart cookie, way smarter than me (not that that's too hard), so I said "Great Idea!" and gave it my blessing.  Just a 5 day cruise, get's back on Christmas Eve. It's a Disney cruise ship which pretty much ensures it'll be a very Christmas and Kid oriented cruise program.  I mean, they've even got a Pirate Knight Night.  ARRRGGGHHH, Mateys! So, it should be a blast. The whole gang is excited.  Which is good!

Beans, I think they've got room for one more (Big) kid if you want to tag along.  I'd pay big money for photo evidence of you in an elf costume.  Yes, I would!  (And I'd have subject matter for several future posts, which'll keep Sarge happy.)

So, as I said, a lot of ups and downs lately, but it looks like the more prominent vector now is a 90 degree Afterburner Climb.  Thank You, Lord!

Much like this!

 

 Damn, I miss that! And, that's with 2 external tanks,  You should try it with a clean jet!  Gotta get the landing gear up REAL fast.

Peace out, y'all!  

*Just in case you want to listen to the Bangles 

New Year, New Things

 Well, Campers, there has been progress on several fronts down in the great State of Texas. First, this post was written on my new (to me) Mac laptop.  Seems the battery was a bit faulty when I bought the computer and it crapped out a few weeks ago.  3 weeks and ~$300 later it was functional again.  Ahh Well!  

While waiting for it to be returned, one morning I was looking out the window, this was the view. Picture doesn't really convey his size well.  He was huge!

Drives the Great Pyrenees nuts, yes it does.  They charge out of the house at full speed to the fence line.  The steer just stands there and laugh's at them!  

 Life is good.  

What's the status of the Grand Kids?  The eldest turned 3 the end of October.   In fact,  all three grand kids birthdays are the last 3 days of October, just an FYI.  Makes it very easy to remember when gift purchasing is required.  End of October and End of December. Heck, even I can remember that.

Mags got some wooden fruit so she could practice slicing them.

In any case, MG got several outfits based on the "Frozen" movie.  She seems to like them.  Wears them 24 hours a day.

Running to show Grams her new dress.  Speed was slightly more than my phone could handle.

Her brother, Leon', just turned one and is walking and starting to put together sentences, so...Progress!

He also seems to enjoy riding the scooter!

My Brother has completed his move out of SoCal and is ensconced in one of our guest houses. He has a couple of work from home gigs, so not likely to starve.

My younger brother watching the present unwrapping ceremony.

Gotta take care of all the participants in the Christmas celebration.  Even T-Dog gets a bit of love from her Dad.

Had a Christmas Morning video chat with Little Juvat, LJW and Miss B in England.  All is well in Jolly Old, and Santa successfully visited their domicile also.  We were a bit concerned about that.  It IS quite a distance away, but the Military Postal Service came through with flying colors.  Bravo Zulu, folks!

As mentioned earlier, this post also represents a major shift in the pattern of the Universe.  Writing it on the Mac has a whole slew of different methods of writing it.  Fortunately, MBD has been a Mac Nut for millennia and was willing to help me figure out how to do things (aka inserting pictures and positioning them).

Thanks, Sweetheart!.

It's been a very pleasant Holiday Season, Not a lot of drama, lots of stories told, Good Food, Good Wine.  What a great way to celebrate this Holiday Season, hope yours went well also.

Peace out y'All!

Not quite Christmas...Yet!

OK Campers, we're getting closer to that big day, you know, Christmas! Where we celebrate the Birth of Our Lord, first and foremost. Then we open presents and have a big dinner with all the fixins and Friends and Family gather...to celebrate the Birth of our Lord. Right? Actual Christmas celebration this year will be Mrs J and I and my Brother (Note to self: Need to come up with a blog nickname for Brother. While "Hey Punk" has a history in our relationship, something tells me it won't work nowadays. Suggestions appreciated.)

MBD, The Rev and the rest of the Gang are celebrating Christmas with his family. The gang from the 'Burg will arrive at CStat on the 26th. Gift exchanging will take place at some point during the ensuing 3 days. Not quite the same, but pretty darn close. I guess we're kinda like the Three Magi, late to the party, but still remembered. 

Looking forward to the visit...A lot!

 

Source

On the "WhatCha doin on the keeping busy" side of things, Mrs J determined that the temperature sine wave was going a little too much below the "comfortable" range.  That range is about 40 degrees here, much below that and the dogs get pretty vocal. (Yes, Beans, I know Sarge regularly goes sunbathing at -40 degrees.  What can I say?)

In any case, they like their role as guard dogs, hence they bark at the slightest strange sound.  Which, if they're in the house, means we get no sleep either.  So...

Mrs J determined that an investment in a canine apartment complex constructed on the back porch was a worthwhile expenditure of Benjamins.

So let it be written, so let it be done.

 

Oops, Typo, Sorry. A little Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner is good for the Christmas Cheer, No? 

So ...

Hardest part of the project was moving the two boxes (1 each) from outside the gate to the back porch, very bulky and heavy.  It is a two person job in putting them together, one to hold the pieces in position. The other to screw the bolts in.

First night trial, Atticus, the leader of the pack, slept on the patio couch.  Gryndll, however, was nowhere in sight.  There also was no barking in the yard, so the assumption is he was in his nice, warm, quiet bedroom.

Or at least we hope so. Maybe he'll convince Atticus that he can fulfill his guard dog duties and keep warm at the same time. 

Again, we hope so.

Mrs J also took the opportunity to  straighten up our patio, got a trip to the dump scheduled for today.  But the back yard looks a heck of a lot better.  My back and the words "lot better" are not orbiting in the same universe however.

Learned something else new.  I mentioned a while ago that I had purchased a MacPro laptop.  Well, this post is being written on my 10 year old PC.  Seems Apple didn't mention that my version of the MacPro laptop has a battery problem.  Went to write last week's posting and the laptop wouldn't power on.  Tried hooking it up to electric power, no change.  Took it to the local computer dude, he said he'd heard of the problem and I needed a new battery.

No, Beans, it's not covered by warranty.  It's a refurbished computer.  Looks like I"m gonna be out $250, plus labor to get back in the saddle.  Just when I was getting used to Mac peccadilloes and forgetting those of a PC.

Ahh, Well! To end on a rather humorous note, I saw this sign this morning as we were walking back to our truck after a brunch downtown.

The sign was on the other side of the sidewalk and therefore the street, the difference between the two walls is less than 4 feet, so if a car could cross the sidewalk, well, I guess the car could serve as their BnB cause they ain't gonna be able to open the doors.

I gotta chuckle about it though.

Peace out, y'all!

Happy New Year!

 Well, glad to see 2023 is over. Quite a bit of bad luck in the juvat AOR during it.  But...it ended on a pretty good note.

Christmas Eve dinner was a great bit of fun.  All were in attendance except The Rev who had the late service at his parish in College Station.  (He arrived around 1AM along with Santa.)

Christmas Eve Dinner sports a new traditional meal, Beef Wellington. (It used to be Cracked Dungeness Crab, but that's too hard to get nowadays.)

After Dinner, my Brother asked if I still had the family picture box.  We had discovered a moving box about 3 x 3 x 3 filled with family photos when my Dad passed in '08.  They'd been put in one of our storage closets in my office with the intent of going through them "Some Day".  Well, this was that day.

Oldest pictures were these two.

The bottom picture is of my Mom at 1.  Her father is holding her and grandfather looking on.

Had to call my Mom's Sister (only surviving member of that generation) to find out who the Lady in the first picture was.  Turns out she is the Great Grandmother of my Mother's Grandfather.  The mathematician in Beans will no doubt fact check me and let me know if I'm in error, but I think that's 5 generations from me and 7 from my grandkids.  I could be wrong.  I ran out of fingers.

Me, ~ a million years ago, in Okinawa, looking at the airplanes.  Who knew I'd be back in about 30 years in a jet.  (BTW, OldAFSarge was already there fixing jets. Just to explain the "Old" part)

I'm on the left, my deceased sister is on the right

I think this picture was my First Communion.  Not sure, but we were in Norman OK.  My Dad was working on a Civil Engineer Masters at OU.

There were an awful lot more pictures being passed around and we opened a few bottles of wine to celebrate.

A couple of bottles of Pinot Noir inherited from my Dad's cellar.  20+ years old, this seemed like the proper occasion to drink them.  

They were fabulous.

And we even had a surprise visit from Santa.

Yeah, I know, No Beard, Beans...But he's only 3 Months old.

 

Since, my brother was here, we went down to my late sister's house to see if he wanted anything of hers.

He picked these quilts that she had made.

and

The clan started their RTB's the next day and Mrs. J had an appointment that started the third cycle of Chemo.

Apparently, the tumor has shrunk a bit as certain bodily functions are returning.  I'll leave it at that and say "Thank you, Lord!"

I'd like to thank all y'all that have prayed for her.  Seems to be working, but there's still a long row to hoe.

Moon rise Christmas Evening

 

Happy New Year to all! Peace to all y'all!

Music and a meal

Beans's Christmas music post inspired me to write a little bit the other day, to provide a little commentary on the subject, and also as a little create outlet for me since I'm taking some time off over the holidays.

Now in my house, Christmas just started a few days ago, and will go through epiphany of course.  The Christmas music will continue just as the decorations remain up.  As Beans shared, Josh Groban did a fine job with O Holy Night.

Source

There are some wonderful Christmas songs out there, ones I never grow tired of listening to, and yet there are some that are just awful.  It's almost as if these artists are phoning it in, writing or performing a song just to rake in some bucks around the holidays.  These are songs that are purely pop drivel, as the artist may add a couple topical lyrics and a jingle bell or two to an uninspiring pop song in a weak attempt to capture the theme of the season.

Speaking of which, Taylor Swift is getting all sorts of pop-culture press this year, partially because her Eras Tour has raked in nearly a billion dollars, but also since she's dating some football player on an overrated team.  But the other day I heard her version of a Christmas standard and it was lousy.  I'm no Taylor Swift fan, but nor am I a hater.  Some people love her and that's fine, but her music does nothing for me.  And it does even less so when she attempts to sing Eartha Kitt's Santa Baby, with a version that is weak and vapid at best.  

That led me to thinking about some of those Christmas songs that are iconic by one particular artist. Sure, there are plenty of Christmas albums out there and plenty of artists put their mark on various songs, but some just can't recreate the magic that is made when certain artists practically own the song.

Dean Martin's Let It Snow is one of those perfect tracks for me, and nobody does that one better. I would put Bing Crosby's White Christmas against any one else's version. It may not be the absolute best, since I can't say I've heard them all, but it also brings back fond memories of me as the kid and my dad playing the album. I've already expressed my love of Nat King Cole's "The Christmas Song." It's my favorite song of the season and also evokes the same strong memories.

I would also put Vince Guaraldi's Christmas Time is Here in that memorable song category. No idea if anybody else has a version, but that one is iconic if a bit melancholy. The whole Charlie Brown Christmas album is wonderful and I listen to it on repeat. There are versions on YouTube that play it over and over, with several hours of his jazzy take on the standards.

Judy Garland did it well but I have to say I really like Michael Buble's version of "Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas."  His "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" is also excellent and gives Bing Crosby a run for his money. They're both great crooners though so I suppose that's understandable.  

This one gets me in the feels:

I don't necessarily have a favorite but I do enjoy Stevie Nicks's version of Silent Night. Apparently it is the most covered Christmas song, with 3,700 interpretations out there.  From that same album as the dusty Fleetwood Mac singer, the Eurythmics cover of Winter Wonderland is pretty good. And Brenda Lee with her rocking around the Christmas tree is pretty much unmatched. Here are more:

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas by Burl Ives

Christmas Baby (Please come home) by Darlene Love

Andy Williams - It's the most wonderful time of the year.

And not necessarily iconic but I really like:

Amy Grant- (a two-fer) Grown up Christmas List and Breath of Heaven

Coldplay's Christmas Lights

Faith Hill's A Baby Changes Everything

And finally my new favorite of the season:

Stella Cole, who croons like a cross between Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand

Anyway, lots of music above, most of which you've heard before, so if you need to pick a couple, I recommend Charlie Brown and Stella Cole.  Enjoy!

And for my second act:

No, that's not chocolate cake, but a piece of beef.  Ok, it wasn't that bad, but close to it.  Source

Christmas dinner was good enough, but I almost ruined a $70 chunk of prime rib. I did plenty of research on different ways to make it last year:  Super high temp, then you turn it off and let it rest, or slow roast at a low temperature for a few hours.  I used the high/rest option last year, so I opted to change it up this year and went for the slow roast.  Somehow I put it in to slow cook at 350 instead of 250, and so by the time I got home from a movie (somewhat a tradition of ours), the internal temperature was already 165, when it should have never gotten above 118. So instead of nice pinkish-red rare roast beef we had medium well to well.  It wasn't a big hit for the family so we had leftovers and my wife made it all better in a delicious beef stew.  I won't make that mistake again, but I feel like I need to go to confession.  Last year's turned out excellent so I'm not sure why I tried to fix what wasn't broken.  Fortunately, we also had some lobster tails I found at the commissary, and lava cake for dessert which took the sting off a little bit.

It was an easy post-Christmas week around the Tuna household. I worked Wednesday and Thursday, but was home early as there was little to no work to be done since the Sailors and Officers were only showing up to muster*, then back out on liberty.  However, I'm all square on the annual training requirements.  I'm well educated on how to not sexually harass anyone, and avoid sex traffickers, so I've got that going for me.  Drove the San Diego Port Commissioner in the Holiday Bowl Parade on Wednesday morning for a quick 30 minute route, which was nice.  I had no interest whatsoever in the bowl game (USC vs Louisville) so I declined the free tickets.  That night we went out to dinner with my wife's cousin who was in town to visit her new granddaughter whose daddy is a Navy Seal.  Someone to add to my prayers.

Hope you all had a great Christmas, and that it continues for you too.

*Commanders can give a max of 96 hours special liberty so Weds/Fri morning musters keep them within regs.  We have no junior sailors that need more supervision.

Family

 Merry Christmas all Y'all!  Hope you are having an enjoyable, peaceful celebration of Our Lord's Birth.  You'll be happy to note that the various portions of the juvat clan arrived safely and are exchanging war stories left and right.  

 Brother Peter hadn't arrived yet in the above picture.  Got in to AUS at about midnight, decided to drive here instead of staying at the hotel.  Successfully managed to avoid the 4 legged roadblocks on the highway and arrived about 0200.

The next day we decided to visit our favorite Winery and introduce my brother (lives in California) to the blessings of Texas Wine.

After a brief tasting, we bought a bottle of one of their Gold Medal Syrah's (took the gold in CA, yeah, they’re proud of that accomplishment).

For those in the know, there is considerable interest in buying the winery and the conditions of the sale are pretty favorable.  No contract yet, but hopefully soon.  Will relieve a whole lot of stress on the surviving winemaker. (pictured above)

I also enjoyed walking around the tasting room and looking at the stuff.  This rang a bell for me.

Might need to get this towel also.

An enjoyable afternoon was had by all.  

Saturday night we had a pleasant and very much needed surprise.

3 inches of liquid gold will do wonders for the hay field as well as reducing the amount of dust therein.  The latter will also do wonders for my sinuses, so again "Thank you, Lord!"

Finally, I've discovered one of the finest sleep inducing products known to man.

Me and the Grandson got about an hour long nap in.  Both are better off for it.

Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year.

I promise, bigger, better, longer post next week after things settle down a bit around here.  Got to run to HEB right now for the "Aw S417!" stuff I forgot for dinner tonight.

Peace Out, y'all!

God Bless us one and all!

 Well, Campers, it's been a busy week.  Mrs. J has been slowly getting the house ready for the familial invasion starting this next week.  The pick up of Little J last week went well.  He's now able to sleep through until about 4AM and doesn't necessarily need a nap in the afternoon.

However, just because HE doesn't need a nap doesn't mean that Miss B doesn't, so he tends to take one at the same time.  Frankly, I'm jealous.  LJW also seems to be a bit less stressed now that he's home.  I can understand that.

On a related stanza in the song of my life nowadays, we are in the process of moving his family into my Sister's house on the property.  It's quite a bit bigger, and although a mobile home, is much nicer than the cabin they've been living in for a year.  With a little bit of luck, they'll be together in their next assignment  sometime next year, but this should be a bit nicer quarters in the meantime.

Once they've moved into the new temporary home, we'll do a little bit of renovating on the cabin and return it to the B&B role it had before.  Got to keep the Turista's happy and divest them of a bit of vacation cash.  

Ain't America Great!

In the ongoing "I'm not the Executor, dammit, I'm the Administrator" saga, I am meeting with my lawyer as you are reading this.  We're getting closer to closure on this excruciatingly painful period.  My Sister's car is all but sold.  I've got the cash in hand, but...

You knew there had to be a "but" dinch'a?

When we went through my Sister's papers, I found all sorts of certificates in a file, so I grabbed that file and put it safely away in my file cabinet at home.  We're leaving to meet to exchange paper with the buyer and I search the file for the title.

You know what's next don't you?

All sorts of official papers in that file, except one. I asked my Sister several times that day to tell or show me where the title was as I searched her house for it. For some reason, she declined to reply.

So, off to the Courthouse.  "Yes, Sir, for $42.50, we can get you a new title.  You'll receive it in the mail in about two weeks."  Fortunately, the buyer is a friend and knows where I live. She said "Keep the money cause it'll burn a hole in my pocket".  So, thankfully, that bump in the road is not the Grand Canyon. 

Yet.

On the Mrs. J front.  She's doing ok, not great.  A daily nap and reasonable bed time have helped. And the good news is she's finished her second cycle of Chemo (4 to go). The Doctors involved gave her an early Christmas Present.  This time, she's got a two week recovery period instead of just a single one.  No meds, no infusions, nothing but rest, recover and regain strength for two weeks!

I suspect that all involved in the process are celebrating Christmas and that might have had an impact on the scheduling.  I'm ok with that, Mrs. J is also.  Thank you Lord and Happy Birthday.

On the Dog Front.

Well, the melding of two dog families (three in each) has been an adventure.  We've had to make a lot of compromises on all three fronts, the human front, the Black Dog front and the inherited dog front.

The Inherited dog front.  L to R. Gryndll, Bentley, Atticus

 The Inherited Dog Front are, based on size and age, expecting to be ruling the roost. As my Sister's sole duties were working and feeding the dogs that expectation could be understood.  However  my Sister's house is completely fenced in, so they're used to being outside when she's at work.  Unfortunately, due to a poor fence design on my part, our fence has one gate and the fenced in area includes the garage.  So, if we need to leave the house, we need to open that gate.  Since the dogs love to explore our 40 acre property, they gleefully make a beeline for the open gate.  Consequently,  I've learned an awful lot about the layout and topography of the property as well as how effective Mesquite needles are at drawing blood.  My duty for this week is to find someone who can fix this fence for less than a brazillian dollars.

But, it also has had an impact on the other dogs, making them a bit timid about going to "do their thing".  Sometimes they're even artistic about it.  For example, I don't think Rembrandt could do this as well as Annie did.

Dad! When I say I need to go pee, I need to go pee...NOW!

Oh well, I've gotten pretty efficient about cleaning up things lately.

On a separate note, I got invited to Lunch with the Old Gang from the IT department in the school district.  Of the 5 people who attended, only one was still with the district.  The last replacement they hired is getting paid $14/hour.  That should tell you something about how things are going.  Holy Crap!  Only $2240 per month before taxes and such!

No wonder only one is left.  That having been said, it was very nice seeing them and telling "Remember when..." stories.  The one remaining at the school, gave me a small present.  I had had it hanging over my desk when I worked there, but forgot it when I left.

I  think it fits nicely on the door to my workshop, helps me get in the proper mood and relax.

I just figured out that next week's post will be on Christmas.  Hope all y'all (especially you, Beans) have been especially good this year.

God bless us one and all!

Peace out Y'all!

*Just learned that another of my Heroes passed.  Don Pardo of the Famous "Pardo's Push" has entered Valhalla.  Never met you, but your story influenced me tremendously.

Pardo's Push.  Read it, or we can't be friends.

Source

 Risking your life for your wingman.  The absolute definition of a "Fighter Pilot". Rest in peace, My Friend".