Road Trip!

We drove down to the Bay area on Friday to visit our daughter, and got back last night. It was great to see her again. When, oh when, are we going to have Star Trek transporters? Some random observations:

Driving through Klamath Falls we saw plumes of smoke or something all along the lake, like a series of vortices. On closer inspection, they turned out to be clouds of insects. ugh. Oh, and by the way, Klamath Falls has no Klamath Falls. From what I was told they built a dam about a century ago that changed the water flow.

It was 112 degress in Redding as we drove through. Sizzzzz

Remember when you'd see someone walking down the street talking to themselves and gesturing, and you'd figure they weren't quite right? Then cellphones became popular and you couldn't tell the wackos from cellphoners. We were in a mall the other day sitting next to a guy who was gesturing and talking to himself. He had a Bluetooth earpiece in his ear. After a while, though, I came to believe that the earpiece wasn't even turned on. Now the self-talkers are wearing camoflage!

The thing I like about driving into the Bay area is that the speed limit was 70 MPH, and everybody was driving faster than that. The thing I hate about driving in the Bay area is that traffic is so bad the freeway speeds are lucky to be 35 MPH.

Coming home, Connie and I were both thrilled to be back in the big trees and clean air. We love Central Oregon.

At six o'clock this morning I was awakened by a house-shaking BOOM! Quite a thunderstorm we had. From flash to thunder was less than a few seconds, meaning the lightning was right here. Must be Monday.


Posted by Dave    Blog Tag: Chatter

Could This Be Your Town?

I saw this on a bumper sticker today:

FOR A TOWN THIS SMALL
There's Sure A Lot Of Idiots Here!




Posted by Dave    Blog Tag: Humor

Junk Mail's Bigfoot Carbon Footprint

A ForestEthics report claims that "destroying forests to make paper for junk mail releases as much greenhouse gas pollution as 9 million cars. Another way to look at it: Junk mail produces as much pollution as seven U.S. states combined, or as much as heating 13 million homes each winter." via the daily green.


Posted by Dave    Blog Tag: News

Tragic and Ironic

In recent news, Andrea Pininfarina, whose company designs Ferraris and other cars, died in a road crash in the Italian city of Turin. While driving a Vespa scooter. If I died riding a Vespa I'd kill myself.


Posted by Dave    Blog Tag: News

Pita Pit Isn't

A pit, that is.

The local Pita Pit opened last Friday, and I've eaten there twice already (kinda). The first time, someone where I work picked up our order, so I didn't actually eat there there. I had a Chicken Souvlaki pita with romaine lettuce, tomatoes and their Secret Sauce (spicy vinaigrette). The chicken was tender, juicy and well seasoned, the lettuce was crisp, and they don't skimp on quantity. It was very tasty.

They open up the pita pocket (a large one) and split the top half into two flaps. Then they stuff the bottom half with your order, tuck in one flap and fold the other flap over, so it's like a burrito with pita bread instead of tortilla.

Tonight Connie and I ate inside. The service was quick, friendly and without error. I had a Gyro with spinach, tomato, cheddar cheese, some pepperoncini and spicy vinaigrette. It was so good, I didn't want to let Connie have a bite. But I did. (She had to steal the second bite.)

Connie had a ham and cheese pita with hashbrowns, mushrooms and cheddar cheese. I had a bite of that, and it was wonderful. They serve breakfast all day. Connie loved it too, and said she saw at least four other sandwiches on the menu she wanted to try, plus their smoothies. Her only disappointment was that they were out of wheat pita. (Didn't bother me a bit.)

Looks like I'm going to be eating at the Pit quite a bit.

Pita Pit is around the corner from Blue Fish Bistro, facing Mirror Pond:

Pita Pit
806 NW Brooks St.
Bend, OR

Oh... and they carry Coca-Cola. Yay!


Posted by Dave    Blog Tag: Reviews

Opening Ceremony

Great photos from the Olympics opening ceremony. Wish I'd taken these.


Posted by Dave    Blog Tag: Links

Missing Fish Mystery

A few weeks ago our goldfish disappeared from the pond. Where they went was a mystery to me. There were no bodies floating belly-up. The water lilies were all fine. If something like a raccoon had gotten in there, the lilies would have been all torn up. My guess was that something like an osprey or a snake had gotten in there. The water's murky enough that I can't see very far into the pond, and I thought the murk and the rocks I put on the bottom would have allowed the fish to hide.

I've missed those stupid little fish. They were only 25-cent feeder fish, but we'd had them for two years, and they'd grown larger and larger.

Today I went out front, and I saw a fish! Then two fish. One was the biggest fish, and it was nibbling flower petals from a wildflower that had drooped into the water. I tossed some food in there, and soon I counted five fish swimming around eating the pellets. I don't know what happened to the other four, or if they're still in there somewhere.

What I'm wondering is, what happened? Was it too hot out and they spent the last few weeks chillin' on the bottom? Did the water quality fall and they went into hibernation? It's very odd. Any goldfish experts out there?

By the way, we've had thunder, lightning and rain off and on all day, and now it's hailing. Weather in the high desert.


Posted by Dave    Blog Tag: News