The Adventures of Me & My Shadow # 9 in AZ & CA 2/15/98
Hi everyone! First I want to thank you all for remembering my
birthday. Mike & Nancy took me out to dinner and it was a
great day. The defibrillator check went OK and I found out a lot
more about the thing. I found out that I can shut it off with
a magnet, this is so that if I go in to surgery it can be turned
off and can't fire and make me jump into the surgeons knife. When
the magnet is removed it will be turned on again automatically,
it had been set so that it would have to be turned on by a computer.
I guess they reset it that way as they thought I might accidentally
get too close to a magnet. The dental appointment went OK and
I'll see him again next year.
It was sure hard to leave Phoenix and head for San Diego with
all the storms coming in. I have to time my travels in-between
storms. I want to thank Mike for treating me like royalty and
let me drive his new car as he drove the old one. All I can say
is "thanks Mike I'll try not to lean on you so hard next
time", it's always nice to have a rock to lean on and Mike
was my rock in Phoenix. I wasn't the only one leaning on him,
His boss at work leans on him pretty hard, not only at work but
he is building a new house on weekends, Mike gets leaned on pretty
hard then also. Of course Nancy, the gal across the street leans
on him too, So Mike don't have much time for Mike. I also want
to thank Ron & Connie For the big bag of oranges & grapefruit
from the trees in their backyard. I hope it lasts till I get up
to cousin Bessie's, hopefully I will be able to re-supply with
oranges there.
My timing was good and the trip to San Diego went well. Gus was
in charge till we got to the California border where I turned
it over to Gertrude. In southwest Arizona I again saw several
acres of RVs camping out on the desert, I'll have to check this
out sometime. I read in the paper in San Diego about an RV park
about 70 miles east that was a nudist camp, I'll have to check
this out but no use going out there in the winter. If any one
took their cloths off they would turn blue. I'll have to plan
a trip out there in the summertime after El Nino goes away. This
was the second time I came into San Diego from the east. The last
time was over 40 years ago, before interstate highways, US 50
was the only way. Now we have I 8 and some parts of it could use
some repair. There were a lot of streets in San Diego in need
of repair also. A lot has changed, more irrigation of the desert
around El Centro and a lot more people. I 8 has tamed the steep
grades in the mountains, my speed would drop to 45 MPH but I was
in high gear all the way except when a road block stopped me and
I had to accelerate up a grade. There were two road blocks on
the trip, I think they must have been looking for illegal aliens
or drugs. They no longer check for fruit like they used to. The
wild flowers in the desert are starting to bloom , saw many large
patches of purple flowers, if you have never seen the wild flowers
blooming on the desert it is a sight to behold.
Had a nice visit with my cousin Mabel and some of her children
then revisited some of the places from 40 years ago. Then it was
on to my nephew Kelly & Annett"s out by Miramar, I was
stationed at the Naval Air Station there back in the fifties.
Annett's mom & dad were there from Vermont, I hadn't seen
them since the wedding so we had a nice visit during a rain storm
that did some flooding in San Diego but we were on high ground
here. Kelly & Annette took us out to a seaside restaurant
for brunch. The surf was up and they had the windows on the seaside
boarded up but the food was fantastic. Kelly & Annette have
been renting but now they have just bought their first house and
will be moving March 10th.
When the weather looked favorable I headed north to Fountain Valley,
CA. I wasn't plugged in while I was in San Diego and my batteries
were too low to run the computer and the refrigerator had shut
down so had to head out without a navigator. After awhile I pulled
into a rest area and found that the batteries had charged up enough
so turned the computer on and woke Gertrude up, she took over
and got me into my cousin Elton's place OK. I don't trust Gus
here in California. I turned him on one time in San Diego when
I made a short trip and was headed back to Mabel's. He told me
to take the Broadway exit from the Freeway and the exit wasn't
marked Broadway, it was marked 30th St. I think this was a California
problem because as soon as I went down the ramp I was on Broadway.
30th street was at the first intersection. Gertrude had called
it correctly, she told me to take the 30th St. exit and then she
said merge onto Broadway in .02 miles and when we got to the first
intersection she told me to turn right onto 30th St.
I think Gertrude has been watching over Gus' shoulder though as
when I was coming up to Phoenix awhile back I had pulled off the
interstate and had to go a little way to find a parking area where
I could pull in and mess with the computer. I wanted to turn Gus
off and let Gertrude take over to take us into Phoenix. When I
woke her up and put her in charge she looked around and then told
me how to get back over on the interstate where the route was
marked. That was the first time she has ever talked to me when
I wasn't on the marked route, Gus does it all the time. I have
to tell you, I have caught Gus telling lies, the first time it
happened was in Houston when I was leaving Bill Haws' place, I
wasn't looking at the map and he told me to turn right, after
I did I looked at the map and found that I should have turned
left. At the time I just thought I must have just misunderstood
him and let it go. Then when I was leaving Linda's place in Tucson
he again told me to turn right and this time I was looking at
the map and the marked course turned left. I gave him hell and
told him if he pulled that again I would have to let Gertrude
do all the navigating but I think he knows that she doesn't have
maps of every place so he feels safe.
I did get a chance to work with the Roots program while I was
in Phoenix, I understand the new version pretty good now and have
been correcting a lot of errors that I made when I was entering
data several years ago. I'll get back to it after I finish this
letter and I may be asking you for more data when I see you next
time. If you are interested in genealogy ask me for an updated
file of your ancestral files when I show up at your door, You
can check it over and bring it up to date for me.
I still have to check in with Bobby & Terry & Michelle
in Long Beach then over to Riverside to Doug & Di's then up
to Bessie's before heading over the mountains. This morning they
are saying that I will need chains to get through the snow at
the higher elevations so I hope El Nino ends soon.
Till next time, Dallas, or Dad if it fits.