Category: Uncategorized
By Paco
This afternoon I had to make a quick run to get a couple of things, the closest place to me is K-Mart. Not my favorite place to go, but I have noticed that it is Wal-Mart without the crowds, so it’s usually a fairly painless place to run in, get what you need, and then run out.
I ran in, grabbed my one item, and walked to the check out. There was 1 long line there. I looked around, and noticed that there was 1 checkout line. And that line had some grumpy people waiting there.
Well… I stood there, and stood there, barely moving forward in the line. One guy in front of me, walked over to another line where an employee was standing at the register doing nothing. When he came back, he said she “couldn’t open her lane yet”. Ok…
After standing there for about 5 minutes, a lady shouted out “I can take people with 5 items or less in the Jewelry Section!”. Ok… I have my 1 item, so I figured this would be the place to go, one lady got in line in front of me, and the guy who had been in line in front of me came and got in line behind me.
“Go ahead in front of me…” I said.
“I have a couple of other items…” he replied.
“No problem, you have been waiting here longer than me.”
“Thanks.”
The Jewelry cashier immediately announced that she wasn’t as fast as her companions at the checkout lines.
“Companion” I said under my breath.
She wasn’t lying here is how the check out went for the person in front of me.
“Ok… you total is $14.54. Would you like to pay with your Sears Credit Card?”
“No.”
“Would you like to apply for a Sears Credit Card.”
“No.” guy says while handing her a 20 dollar bill.
“Ok, out of a $20… it’s $14.54 out of $20… and that’ll be… ummm… $5.46 for your change… your change is $5.46… have a nice day!”
“Thanks.”
Not seconds before she was done with the guy in front of me, I heard the “not ready” cashier yell out…
“I can take customers on check out 6!”
“Grrrr!!!” I steamed…
“Now she opens?!?!?!” the guy in front of me grumbles.
Eventually I FINALLY got checked out, and out of K-Mart. What I thought would be a 5 minute visit, turned into a 20 minute journey.
But… it was all worth while when I got out to my Jeep, and took a close look at the car next to me.
It was a beat up late 60′s Buick Skylark. (not unlike Jaime’s first car.) But what made this one stick out, was the great sentence written behind the passenger door.
Awesome! A fitting car for the K-Mart parking lot, and it actually put a smile on my face as I drove away…
By Paco
Somebody PLEASE translate this for me! This showed up on my answering machine recently…
HELP!!!
This very well could be a relative of “Crazy Drunk Guy”.
By Jaimenacho
“It’s prounounced POH-TAM falls” My father told me after I had returned from an afternoon hike with my oldest son. “That man died up there awhile back. Fell off. His brother died too, going up to show someone where.”
That was a nice little story to make me feel extra safe about the place I had just gone.
Potem, Poh-tam, Poh-TEM Falls, whatever it’s called was/is a great place. Recently, in an effort to get out and take more pictures, I’ve begun a weekly hiking regiment with one of my kids (this way it doubles as a family event, as well as an artistic venture,) Brenando is 6, and a fairly decent hiker. By decent, I mean he puts up with me taking photos, and doesn’t complain too much about the distance we travel.
The main problem with our weekly adventures is that we’re limited by drive time, and getting back by dinner. I made the choice for this weeks drive- Potem falls. Potem falls is located about 30 miles East of Redding. (I get all my ideas and directions from a local waterfall website, that has pictures and directions for a lot of north state falls).
I put Brenando in the car, and headed out.
After heading the 30 miles east, we turned onto a road for the last 9.1 miles of the trip. The road turns to dirt about 3 miles in, and Paco had warned me it might be muddy. The road was scattered with debris from various rock slides, but nothing that made forward progress very tricky.
The waterfall website listed the turnout at 9.1 miles, to head down to the falls. when my trip meter hit 9.1, I saw a pullout, and parked the rig. Bernando and I got our stuff, and started looking for a “trail” down to the water. There was no clear trail marked. So we started downhill. to say we were sliding in the leaves and mud is an understatement. A couple times we came close to rolling down. Bernando has a bad habit of clutching onto me like a wet cat everytime he starts to slip…ad to it the fact he won’t take his hands out of his sweatshirt, it just makes him panic even more.
10 minutes of “hiking” down the hillside, I decided this was not the right spot. We headed back up, and drove further down the road, to the next pullout, which was about .1 mile ahead, and there we saw an actual trail. Note to future Potem hikers, where you start your trip meter DOES matter. There’s a marker that looks like a sign used to be there…two poles on a cement block…that’s where the trail begins. The trail switches back and forth along the water down to the falls…which is impressive.
The falls seem to be about 80 feet high. It’s a very powerful waterfall…so much so that actually getting close enough to photograph it from the base of the falls is almost impossible, due to mist. I tried a few different places, and each time I set up, the wind shifted and I was covered in mist. I hate wearing glasses, they get misted up, making it MORE difficult to focus my shot, and due to my long shutter speeds, I could never get a shot off without misting of the lens…which can’t be too good for a camera. I vowed to come back in late summer when the flow might be a little less.
Making photography more difficult is my son, who bless his heart, just wants to explore…sitting in place while I set up a shot can’t be fun. So periodically he scampers on rocks, or trees to pass time…which causes me to flip out and yell at him like a parent in Wal-Mart.
“Careful!!!, get off those rocks!! You’ll fall in the water!! Now!! Get down!!” He glares, then stays in place, and I get to re-focus on the picture. We sat and watched the waterfall a few minutes then walked up the trail a bit to shoot the creek/river. The water was moving pretty fast, so I was extra paranoid about Brenando getting too close to the edge…add to it the whole sides of the hill were covered in wet moss…and it made trekking down to the edge for a picture sketchy. At one point I had to climb right to the edge to move a twig that was in my way…normally I don’t move parts of mother nature around, but the twig/tree was REALLY annoying…so I went down to move it.
“Don’t fall in.” Brenando yelled at me, “You’d be cold.”
I was hovering near the edge of a 15-foot drop into freezing water, I wondered…”What WOULD I do if I fell in?” I scampered back up to my spot after that…finished shooting…and we headed back up the trail. Brenando let me know how BORING taking pictures is, and that he didn’t like it. We stopped a couple more times on the way back so he could pout while I took some pictures. We got back to the car without any real incidents, and drove back to Redding…just in time for dinner.
The waterfall itself is great. Really strong, and really impressive. I’ve heard from my dad that it’s also great fishing up there. I will go back for sure, even if I don’t know how to pronounce it.
By Jaimenacho
I think it’s time for a new open forum type topic. Due to the fact we’ve not really had a new topic for awhile…I say having some open-ongoing topics might free things up, provide for more content. Inspired by Eduardo’s trip to Clear Lake, I say we have a topic devoted to “Getaways”. Whenever an amigo goes away someplace, They should come back with a report on where they went, and provide the rest of us a story to read.
We also should see about getting our CD projects out…
By Jaimenacho
I just moved. Again. I will post my farewell to my last place when I’m officially out of it 100%. Part of the move required me to switch my dish network account. I called the 1-800 # and took care of that, only about 15 seconds into my call, I became confused.
was I even talking to a person?
They answered my inquiries like a human…yet, they sounded oddly robotic.
They had the wierd pauses between phrases, and a tingy sort of voice…like the robot in “Fitter, Happier…” on Radiohead’s album, only trying to schedule my cable move.
I wanted to ask, “Am I talking to a PERSON or a ROBOT?” I figured I might be talking to Stephen Hawking, or some dude with no vocal box…or maybe some dude with a vocodor.
All in all it was very bizarre, yet, somehow, entertaining…and I feel saddend by not hearing that voice.
By Jaimenacho
The mouse has tripped the trap once more, escaping. Last night he didn’t even try…all the traps were still loaded and ready this morning when Ieft. I’m not sure how he’s done it…but he’s good. Real good. I was hoping for a foot or and ear at least…maybe a tail…but he appears to have gotten out sans injury.
To answer Paco’s question, the traps aren’t as bad as they look, they’ve killed mice before…they will again.
Mouse 3- Jaime-0
By Jaimenacho
When I went to the local .99 cent store for mouse traps I found these PETA approved devices. I’m debating buying these. I guess the mouse wanders over them…then gets stuck…like Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby…to me…this seems like the mouse would still be living, and pissed should he get caught in the trap. According to my wife, they are still alive when they get stuck. I guess it’s a very ugly site to behold…tufts of fur, ripped off limbs…etc.I’m not using one of these yet, but as of now, the mouse has eaten the peanut butter off the trap 2 times, tripping the traps both times. How he set off the traps, and didn’t get stuck is beyond me…he’s either very quick, or a rat (not a mouse).if he is a rat…then I’ll need to reload with bigger weapons. If the traps have not captured him by attempt 5, I’m going glue trap on him.
Score as of now Mouse 2- Jaime 0
