Short Tour Wrap Before Bed

Grady and I, along with thousands of others, braved the cold, wind and rain today to enjoy the Amgen Tour of California as it made its way from Sausalito down to Santa Cruz. Fearing missing the excitement, we got out onto Empire Grade above UCSC by around 11:30 this morning.

And waited. It rained for an hour or so. Then stopped and we waited some more. And then it rained some more.

Every once in a while an Amgen festooned vehicle would come tearing by, lights flashing, horn honking and everyone along our little stretch of the road, all twenty or thirty of us, would get up, get ready and then get disappointed.

The cyclists ended up starting to come through at about a quarter to two. We were smart and I'd turned the Escape around to face the oncoming riders so that we could effectively camp out in the back hatch with it open to avoid most of the rain. And Grady and I played games together, ate snacks, told jokes and took pictures of other stuff while we waited. Grady also had fun kicking gravel into the rain runoff, so much so that he's probably ruined his new(ish) shoes.

When the cyclists did come ripping through, they were proceeded by support cars, police cars, motorcycle cops and photographers on the backs of other motorcycles. And they blazed through even though we were at the top of a pretty good sized hill.

As they tore by, I snapped pictures, shot video from a tripod on the deck in the back of the car and made sure Grady didn't go wandering out into traffic. I had both my big-boy camera, the Canon XTi, and my new SX110. I think I may have ended up opting for the 110 to replace my SD1100 because of today and the desire to zoom in.

Either way, I got some good photos, including Lance!, shot some good video footage and had a good time spending so much time alone with Grady.

My favorite (and recorded) moment occurred after the first big peleton can ripping through with all of its support cars and excitement. Grady appears on the far right of the video, watching, smiling and digging it. After the last car goes by, he turns towards the camera and says, not once but twice, "That was awesome, poppa!"

And it was awesome.

Here's my photo set from the day. I'll probably add a few more as we move forward. I'm currently working on getting the videos converted into a more usable format.

Watching Trouble Brew

Today I took my boys to the mall so they could get their ya-ya's out after being stuck inside most of the last few days thanks to the rain. The mall is one of the few places with a space for kids to go crazy. They've got foam covered sea creatures to play on including a slide, tunnel, octopus head and huge clam shell. The floor's padded and there's a four foot high wall around most of the space that has a bench seat for parents to take a load off while the kids go nuts.

There are also two shoe lockers to stash shoes in. Most kids take off shoes and socks but some keep the socks on and wonder why they have such a hard time climbing up the structure.

Anyway, Grady usually finds a boy or girl near his age and near his temperament to pal up with and play. Which includes running in big circles, screaming and dancing in place. Sometimes while holding hands with the other child. Sully likes to get in the way, either by parking himself at the top of the slide or by immediately trying to reclimb the slide after he's gone down.

Sully likes being a nuisance these days. He delights in turning off the television again and again. And grabbing his brother's toys and running away with a big grin on his face. I call his affliction, little brother-itis, he may never grow out of it.

Anyway, the little boy Grady pal'ed up with today was a rather mischievous little three and a half year old. He and Grady got to chase each other all over the place, up and down the slide, on the back of the shark, sitting inside the giant clam. Good fun. For the most part.

The other little boy liked to push sometimes and I happened to look up from Sully to see him slapping a little girl not once or twice but a couple of quick times in succession. She immediately started crying and the boy got disciplined. But it appeared that there was a pattern of behaviour brewing in him that will need some straightening out.

But overall the trip was a great success made only better by a stop at the park on the way home to throw rocks into puddles and then go puddle stomping until Grady got his pants all wet and that was that.

Bracing for the Storm

By all accounts we in the Bay Area are going to be getting a beating from Mother Nature over the next couple of days. The news just said the Sierra is looking at blizzard conditions and some places will be getting more than two feet of snow. We won't be getting snow, of course, but I'm sure we'll get our share of rain and Nande will make sure we get our share of mud.

And I go back to work tomorrow so that should be some interesting fun.

But for this morning, I'll be battening down the hatches and getting ready to not leave the house. Luckily we've got a Tivo all filled up of Buzz Lightyear and JoJo's Circus.

One bummer about the wet weather is that there's really only one place to take the kids and that's the mall and it gets severely crowded during rainstorms.

At least we were able to get the house cleaned up with the boys at daycare yesterday so we can start today with a mostly clean slate.

Merry Slopmas

I don't know about where you are but it isn't looking at all like Christmas here, unless you celebrate Christmas at the bottom of a lake. We're getting absolutely drenched with rain today and, apparently, all this week.

But they are talking about two FEET of fresh powder up in the Sierra so it'll be looking like Christmas there. And who knows, maybe we'll take a trip up north to go see the snow. Not like I don't have the time to do it since today is my last day of regular work until the 11th of January.

Yeah, yeah, don't get all hateful on me, 99% of that time is unpaid. But it is time off so there is that. And we've got two projects to keep us busy during the break so that will help some. But I will probably be working on some of my other projects to keep me from going too crazy.

I know I get zero sympathy from folks living where it is real winter now. But that's alright, I'm just kvetching during the current deluge. You won't hear any complaints when the sun is back out and I'm going riding in late December!