Gray, Gloomy and the GPS is lost too

I am here in hell. Or my hometown. OMG .. this place is SO depressing. *sigh*

Flew into Sac late Wed night. A friend who lives in Sac, picked me up at the airport and I spent the night at her house. It was raining then ... and I bet if I were to go out and get the newspaper now, it will still be raining.

Came on up here, where my parents live, Thursday. Because I had no idea WHERE I was in Sacramento - I plugged my Mom and Dad's address into the Grimlin. It took me home ... THE WRONG WAY ... but of course, since I didn't know WHERE I WAS, I didn't know how to turn around and make it recalculate the way home THE RIGHT WAY. (oh, it is SO HELPFUL having a GPS.)

Shortly after I arrived - there was a big gang fight over at the high school (Mom and Dad live one block behind the school) ... and there were some kids (that we suspect were involved in the fight) going in and out of an abandoned house (!!) on their street - so we had to call the police about THAT.

THEN .. we drove up to the vet's in Live Oak, 'cause one of Dad's hunting dogs had hurt her paw. (see what an EXCITING LIFE I lead?)

Yesterday, in the gray and gloom we went up to Nevada City to do some research for my novel. It was good to get my hands on some actual materials, but I got to look at about 1/100 th of the stuff. And I really don't know WHAT to ask for, nor HOW to ask for it, and kind of feel like a bozo ... so THAT WAS FUN.

Today my brother and his family (they live in Lodi, blergh) come up and we're installing a new computer for my Mom and Dad. (Oh the joy!) Currently they have a Dell laptop - but they didn't buy the extended warranty with it - and the screen went dead about 2 years ago - which means they have it hooked to a monitor. It runs S-L-O-W-E-R T-H-A-N M-O-L-A-S-E-S ... and has taken to just turning itself off. No blue screen of death or anything - just blink and gone. I think it's over heating. So - maybe after we get the new system up and going - we'll be able to reinstall the orginal XP disks - and drivers and the laptop will work too. (although I doubt it.) And maybe I can make the new computer idiot proof so they don't download stuff they don't need on it and make it run slow too. (hahahahaha)

Tomorrow after church, I am leaving here and heading to Clear Lake. I've rented a house with some friends. We'll be there through Wed. Monday we're going to tour the little wineries around the lake - on Tuesday we're going all the way to Sebastopol and I have an appointment set up with Paul Hobbs Winery and Iron Horse Sparkling Wines. I am really excited to taste Paul's wines. (Usually out of my price range). Then we're going over to St. Helena for dinner at Tra Vinge.

See - SUCH the glamorous life. (not)

Zen there's the house repair

While I'm here on the west coast - Didi is still at my house slaving away doing all my honey-do list. I am slightly worried about how he's getting along. Mainly because he is BLIND (but not THAT kind I blind I keep telling everyone!) He doesn't have any depth-perception or peripheral vision Which makes it hard to find things when he drops them ... OR SETS THEM DOWN SOMEWHERE - and like WHO DOESN'T DO THAT 10,000 times a day??

So there you have it ... all the news from Ellis Lake.