At least I saw them ride by!

The Tour of California wraps up this weekend. I know I have never been a sports fan of any form, but...I guess I'm a fan of this tour thing. Lance has returned with his entry in the Tour of California, and a guy named Levi Leipheimer from Santa Rosa (and Lance's teammate) is the rider to watch. Check out the AMGEN site if you're interested in the stages and routes. My close encounter came near the end of Stage 3, San Jose to Modesto last Tuesday.

I managed get my lazy butt out of house just as a monsoon-like deluge ended around 4:30. Drove about 4 blocks, parked in a nearby neighborhood and sprinted to the intersection by the college where the peloton was to make a turn toward downtown and the finish. The Tour of California rode by, making the 90 degree right turn without incident. They had bunched up together by then, ie, the main group (peloton) closed the gap with the break-away riders.

The crowd started screaming, "Here they come!" just as I reached the intersection. Standing one row of onlookers back, I raised Loretta's point-and-shoot camera (mine stayed home due to the rain, bad mistake it turns out), and commenced to push the bottom repeatedly as they glided by around the corner. Unfortunately, the button I was pushing was the on/off button! When I finally noticed that the flash was not going off and the lens was moving in and out each time I pushed the button, I recovered from that temporary insanity and started taking pictures. Pictures of the pavement, the man's hand waving in front of me, and the old bag's camera who raised her's up blocking my view.


Nice shot, huh? One of those wheels may or may not belong to Lance or Levi. But, they were in there somewhere.

There's always next year when I can plan on attending more than one of the starts or finishes somewhere in California...and bringing my own camera.

I...

I am a 59 year old male.

I have a wife and live with her in Northern Central California with three dogs (one blind one, one sick one, and one very small one).

I have two ex-wives.

I have a mother. I don’t have a father any longer.

I have two children, one female, one male...and one grandson and a son-in-law.

I have two younger sisters and five nieces and nephews. One sister I communicate with semi-regularly, the other I don’t.

I had two grandmothers and one grandfather (I never met one grandfather).

I daydream and fantasize all the time about money and things I’d like to do and places I’d like to see.

I am not proud of everything I’ve done in my life.

I have a feeling there is still something big and important I am destined to accomplish.

I have traveled to and lived in several states and foreign countries.

I play the guitar. I used to play drums and learned to play the accordian.

I make a living working for a major retailer, though I have also worked as an Avon delivery person, a fast food employee, a tire installer, a creamery worker, a member of the armed forces, a restaurant manager, a radio DJ, and a photographer.

I have a large bucket list.

I have recently taught myself to work on bicycles and would like to make a living building custom bicycles.

I rode Harley Davidsons for five years, and will ride again someday soon.

I have several tattoos and plan to get several others.

I have pattern male baldness though my hair has remained black (what’s left).

I had a quintuple bipass as well as four angioplastys and a heart attack at a very young age.

I love to cook and consider myself a self-taught chef with no desire to ever work at this vocation professionally.

I used to have many friends, now only a select few.

I pray almost every day, though I don’t really know who I praying to besides myself.

I am an optimist 80% of the time.

I don’t take anti-depressants any longer.

I used to work out at a gym five days a week.

I weight 238 pounds right now though my goal is 198.

I would like to be a vegetarian but am far from it right now.

I love to write and would like to write short stories and a novel.

I want to publish a book of my photographs.

I believe most people think I am funny and witty though sometimes moody and too serious.

I smoke and drink alcohol.

I cry during sentimental movies and some news stories.

I am very critical of others uncaring and rude attitudes, beyond that I give people the benefit of the doubt until they prove otherwise.

I believe in capital punishment and think that the list of capital crimes should be expanded.

I can water ski, but not snow ski.

I hate most professional sports and have virtually no interest in following any of them.

I have Jamie Leigh Curtis’ autograph and lip print on a napkin. I once had a 20 minute conversation with Mark Hamill in person. I’ve met Lou Ferrigno, George Fenneman, Bruce Hornsby, Carol Kane, Jack LaLane, Fess Parker, Engineer Bill...I know there’s more, can’t think of them right now. I interviewed Lloyd Bridges on the phone.

I heard my name read aloud on my birthday by Sheriff John.

I earned three combat air medals in Viet Nam.

I hope I win the lotto.

I have no idea where this came from, it just sounded like fun at the time,

Face time in Seattle

I recently had the opportunity to fly to Seattle and meet the newest member of my family, my grandson Rowan. Born on December 17th 2008, he just turned 6 weeks old. I'm quite sure I was much more impressed with him than he with me. Besides simply being able to simply see him in person, I managed to fulfill another small goal: hold him and rock him to sleep. In fact, I was even able to take him from a fussy crying state to sleeping in my arms...at least once (my efforts weren't always successful I might add).
He is quite the beautiful baby, this coming from someone who rarely doles out any compliments in the direction of newborns...I happen to think most should be kept swaddled from head to toe until they are at least two or three years of age as a public service (remember that Seinfeld "ugly baby" episode?).























All babies have their "moments", as evidenced by these two photos. He was not real happy about being dragged out of his nice, warm house and shuttled to Pike Place on a cold, dreary, Seattle morning. Not even flying fish impress him at this point. He does love riding in the car though, blissfully asleep on the way there and on the way home.

All in all, the short, hectic trip to Seattle only whetted my appetite for more "face time" with Rowan James Gonzales...not to mention with my daughter and son-in-law, Jen & Roth. I don't know exactly when I'll be back, hopefully soon. I do want my grandson to know his Grandpa Skip, aka, Grandpa James.