Fiesta de Navidad en Palmdale

On Christmas eve, my brother took me and Pumpkin to his parent’s house in Palmdale. This is the annual fiesta that the de Guzman’s have where most of the family gathers to have fun into the wee hours of the night. We drove in two cars - Pumpkin and Sarah in the Subaru with Teri and Matthew (big boy) with Eric and I in the Toyota. We left around 6 PM and headed up the 170 to the 5 north. I enjoy those moments in the car with Eric because that is really a good time to catch up on life and get into some good, meaty discussions. Things were going okay, but Eric was worried about Matthew getting strangled by his seat belt since he had fallen fast asleep and his head was leaning off to one side.  I checked a few times and confirmed that big boy was just fine. Still, Eric was nervous enough to suggest that I drive while he sat in back. No problem. We stopped at a gas station and did the switch. There were a lot of cars moving in and out of the gas station and as I carefully guided the car out of the station, Eric commented on how I drive like a grandma. I didn’t deny it. In fact I wear that grandma driving badge proudly because I always believe that being careful is better than being reckless. Onward we went. The traffic was slow like thick blood moving through the arteries of an old, balding Jewish man who likes to wolf down slabs of cream cheese drenched bagels. Finally the traffic cleared up and it was smooth sailing on the 14 east to Palmdale. We exited the freeway and Eric had a little trouble locating the street to turn on. We missed the turn and I had to do a u-turn at the next street. We arrrived at the house and knocked on the door. After a few seconds Beto answered and welcomed us in. I greeted Teri’s parents and her sisters. Her sisters came up to say hello and hug me but I wasn’t sure who was who. I know Lupita (Pita) and Lourdes but her other sisters like Carmen and Chele. I know Teri will read this post and give me the guidance I so desperately need. On a side note, I started an online family tree that I hope Teri can contribute to so the information will be close at hand if needed in the future. I am bad at remembering names, even my own relatives.I sat down while Pumpkin went off to play. Teri’s sister (Teri - name please) offered me a bowl of pozole, a traditional Mexican soup eaten at important occasions. I have had it before and it tasted really good. Beto had made a giant bowl of hot salsa which I added to the pozole along with all the other good stuff like lettuce and raddish. This was a good opportunity to speak in Spanish since, well, everyone there spoke. David (Lourdes’s husband) brought in a Karaoke player. This was what I had anxiously prepared for. I like to sing songs in Spanish as well as collect lyrics to songs I particularly enjoy. Not knowing what the setup would be, I had gone into my own Yahoo group to fetch some lyrics to some songs and had them in my back pocket just in case. There is nothing more embarrassing than to stand up and try and sing a song and not know all the lyrics. I was determined to make sure that would never happen on my watch. After Beto got it set up, he brought over a bottle of Tequila and asked if I wanted a shot before I started. "Ahora no necessito", I replied confident that I could belt out a song without the loosening effects of alchohol. I began crooning out the songs, "Volver, Volver", "Mexico Lindo Y Querido", "Guadalajara, Guadalajara" and so forth. Somehow, hearing my own voice gave me the willies. Why? I usually sing in my head and only sometimes sing out loud when I am listening to a song on the Internet. Now that I was singing with a microphone in my hand, the high notes just didn’t sound as good as they sound in my head. After the first song, I decided that a lo mejor, deberia tomar un trago de Tequila. So I downed a shot or two with lime and that felt better. Throughout the night I alternated between joining in with the singing and watching my brother play scrabble with Miguel and some of the teenage boys - Chino, Eric and Francois. Time went by quickly. It came time to open Christmas presents. The teenagers came first, followed by the little ones and then the adults. Pumpkin ended up with a large, soft pillow in the shape of a cartoon character and some little toys. As it got later, she came up to me and told me she was bored because the other little girls were not really playing. I tried to help her out but I could tell she was getting tired. It got later and the teenagers invited me to join in a game called Mafia. I said sure and listened as Francois began explaining how this mystery game played with cards worked. Halfway through the explanation, Eric came over and asked if I was ready to go. It was already 11:30 and Pumpkin was half asleep. I decided that it was a good time to go so I said goodbye to everyone and we left. Teri stayed behind while Eric and I tucked the three little ones into the back seat of the Subaru. We started off and by the time we got on the freeway a few minutes later, Sarah was snoring and all three of them were fast asleep. But a new crises arose. The gauge on the gas tank read empty. This was not good. We were starting up the hill to leave Palmdale and it was getting more sparsely populated. We debated about whether we should turn around. Finally, Eric assured me that there was a gas station up ahead a few miles. Fortunately, we made it to the gas station and after we tanked up, we got into some more meaty discussions as we made our way home.

Traveling on Amtrak

Pumpkin and I took the Amtrak train from Van Nuys to San Juan Capistrano yesterday. On the way down to Orange County, we decided to get some snacks in the dining car. While waiting to pay for our food, we heard an angry woman shout out, "where is my water?" What the hell? There were 10 people waiting in line and suddenly this woman was demanding water. She then went on to rant about how she had a business class ticket and she wanted her god damn water delivered to her seat. The poor cashier did his best to placate her. He even apologized for the staffing shortage due to the holidays and tried to convince her to return to her seat. The woman, too agitated and angry about not being served in her seat, marched over to the refrigerator, grabbed a bottled water and stomped off while shouting how she was never going to ride Amtrak again. Good, I hope she doesn’t. The world needs less of these kind of people.

Dogs Stuck in Car

This morning I took Fluffy for a walk with a stopover at Bel-Air Market to make a deposit. On the way over, we passed by a parking lot in back of the market and I suddenly heard the sound of two dogs barking coming from a car that was parked outside. My curiosity aroused, we approached the car which was a nice late model BMW. The dogs were large Dalmatians and they barked excitedly at Fluffy as we got closer. To my surprise, all the windows were closed completely, not cracked open even a little. That seemed a little odd to me, though the temperature outside was close to 48 degrees. A couple was walking their dog on the opposite side of the street and so I decided to ask them if it was okay to leave two large dogs in a small car with all the windows closed even when the weather was cold. The woman told me to call 911 right away. Confirming my suspicion that it was not okay to leave animals in a car with no air to breathe, I decided to take it a step further and called 911 from my cell phone. The dispatcher patched me through to the fire department dispatcher and after describing to her my location, I told her the situation. The dispatcher said "It is 48 degrees out sir." "But the dogs have no air.", I replied. Again she repeated "It is 48 degrees out sir and unless the dogs look like they are in distress, it is not an emergency." Okay, so much for that. Feeling a little foolish for making such a big stink, we continued on our way to the market to take care of business. On the way back, I couldn’t help but wonder if the car was still there. This time, we passed by and the dogs didn’t jump up and bark as we passed by. In fact, it was very quiet. You can draw your own conclusions as to what happened but I do not regret getting involved even though I ended up arguing with the fire department dispatcher.

Pumpkin Getting Better

Pumpkin is feeling better today. She still has a cough but no fever. She gave us quite a scare the other night when she woke me up at 2 AM to tell me she was having a nosebleed. Blood dripped out of her nose and all over the bathroom floor and toilet. Fortunately, it didn’t last very long.

Pumpkin Sick

Dropped Pumpkin off at school and got a call at 1:20 PM from the office receptionist with the news that she had a temperature of 102 degrees. Her temperature came down a little but she still feels pretty bad.  Hope she feels better tomorrow.

What Good is a Used Tire Tube?

I had an old chest pull exerciser that was getting too loose and no longer gave me the kind of resistance I craved. I bought some latex resistance bands a while back but they also turned out to be a disappointment. An idea popped in my head so yesterday I went on an excursion to Bob’s Cycle Shop in Fair Oaks and asked the cashier what they did with old bicycle tubes from changing flat tires.  He replied that they recycle them and if I wanted to bring my old tubes over they would gladly recycle them for me. I surprised him a little when I said I am interested in taking some of their old tubes. He told me to wait a minute and disappeared behind the bike repair area.  A couple minutes later he returned with a handful of tubes of all sizes. I was ecstatic at the sight of all those different size tire tubes. I ran like a gazelle back home. No, not quite. It was actually 100 degrees outside so I more or less trudged back home, over the Fair Oaks bridge, crossing the bike trail and finally back home nearly an hour later. At home I immediately got to work. First, I removed all the old resistance bands from the chest pull. Next, I cut a tire tube in half and threaded it through each end of the chest pull handles. Finally, I tied the tube together, tested the resistance, made it a little tighter and voila! I now have a really incredible chest pull with hundreds of pounds of resistance to pull and push against. When pumpkin came home, she got excited too. We spent a half hour together doing pushups, pull ups and I let her try out the chest pull. By the way, those old tire tubes are great for tying trees down. They don’t dig into the tree’s bark and are incredibly strong.

Fluffy - the newest addition to our family

Wow, what a day! Started early this morning at 9 AM with Creek Week trash pickup. We went to Folsom and picked up some trash around Blue Ravine near the Winco. Not too much trash to pick up but discovered a nice walk along abandoned railroad tracks. Went back to BT Collins Park to eat a free lunch. Then over to Winco to buy some groceries. After we got home, we went to see the newest addition to our family - Fluffy!Fluffy is an abandoned lab/retriever mix that one of Cindy's coworkers found. We went to pick her up this afternoon and now she is with us. What a bundle of energy she is. Her sole purpose in life it seems from the limited time she has been with us is to simply play ball. Where's the ball? Go get the ball! Give me the ball. That must be the extent of the interaction she had with her previous owner. Monday morning is a free exam by Dr. Bindra. If all checks out, we are going to keep her. The only problem is that Meow Meow our cat has all but disappeared. She may have decided that one large puppy is one too many for her.

Why I am a free thinker

How us free thinkers look at religion.  I am transcribing here a letter from Richard Dawkins, a famous free thinker and humanist:

Dear Friend:

If you live in America, the chances are good that your next door neighbours believe the following:  the Inventor of the laws of physics and Programmer of the DNA code decided to enter the uterus of a Jewish virgin, got himself born, then deliberately had himself tortured and executed because he couldn t think of a better way to forgive the theft of an apple, committed at the instigation of a talking snake. As Creator of the majestically expanding universe, he not only understands relativistic gravity and quantum mechanics but actually designed them. Yet what he really cares about is sin, abortion, how often you go to church, and whether gay people should marry.Statiscally, the chances are that your neighbors believe all that - and they can vote.

In other parts of the world, there is a good chance that your neighbours believe you should be beheaded if you draw a cartoon of a desert warlord who copulated with a child and flew into the sky on a winged horse. In other places, there's a good chance that your neighbours think their wishes will be granted if they pray to a human figure with an elephant's trunk.
Even if your neighbours don' t hold any of those mutually contradictory beliefs, they probably take it for granted that we should unquestioningly.

Prop 8 Upheld by California Supreme Court

Today was a sad day for those that believe in equal rights under the law. The question is does this set a precedent where other rights could be taken away by simple majority vote? I hope not. Hate and fear have triumphed against reason and logic. I am not gay nor do I know anyone who is gay. However, who am I to tell anyone what kind of lifestyle choice they should make? Furthermore, the other side has not produced a sound, rational argument for denying gays the right to marry. To simply say that marriage is between a man and a woman because the Bible says so is about the weakest argument I have ever encountered and yet a majority of people agreed. I watched some of the commercials and they disgusted me with their scare tactics about how children will be forced to learn about the gay lifestyle.

It seems to me that people tend to have very short memories. There was a time when couples of different races couldn't marry. That was written into the books. There was a time when Chinese couldn't own property; a time when Japanese were sent off to live in the desert; a time when blacks were treated like animals. Remember Prop 187 where illegal immigrants were denied health care, social services and education? In each case, the oppressed minority eventually achieved equal rights and the corresponding offensive law was overturned. Yet in this case, the opposite has occurred. A law that denies rights to a group has been upheld, not overturned.

I challenge anyone to present one shred of scientific evidence that gay marriage would either destroy the institution of marriage, threaten the moral fabric of our society or pollute our children's minds. The burden of proof falls on those who insist that it has no place in our society.

Last night dreams

First dream was a hike with Melody, Nelson, the pumpkin and wifey. Came upon a big mud pit. Everyone was able to avoid it except for me. I jumped in and was covered from head to toe in mud. Got out, had to take off my clothes and we ended up at the trail head with about 50 other people with me in just underwear.

Second dream was a drive on the freeway and we stopped at a rest stop. I got out and a caravan of large, black Mercedes with dark tinted glass pulled up. Some Middle Eastern looking men wearing black leather jackets got out of their cars. One of them came up to me and invited me to go for a ride with Sheik Muhammed Al Gari. I agreed and the door of a 30 foot long black limousine opened up. I got in and sat about 10 feet across from a little boy. A man next to me whispered, "I think he likes you." Then the little boy reached into a box next to him and offered a gift to me. I expected something expensive like some diamonds and rubies but when I opened up the box, all that was in it was a small, toy car.