Tuesday night – First day off

Had a really nice day.. the first of my vacation. Only had one work call.. and that only counts as today  because it ended at 21:30 this morning. I did read some email.. but am trying to stay mostly offline.. (asides from blogging :-).

Not much to report.. diane, the dogs and i had a soggy run through the woods up to Libby’s lookout.. the weeks of rain have made the trails into creeks. luckily. we were equipped.

Early afternoon our friends Ryan and Angela came by with their  hyper cute kids. It was so nice hanging out and talking/playing with them. It was just what I needed as I try to restore a little life in my life work balance.

Hmm.. what else happened.. yoga, then soup.. then…

well… nothing…

isn’t that great ?

 

Nite all, nite sam

-me

Monday night – fare thee well

As promised.. here are the pics from yesterdays wonderful grateful dead concert.. it is their 50th year playing together.. and I’ve been seeing them for 39 of them.. Hard to believe. I expected it to be a little bitter sweet.. kind of an ‘end of an era’ thing.. but there was nothing bitter about it

perhaps.. the only sadness was that lead many jerry garcia was not there to enjoy it.. he died 20 years ago this year (hard to imagine !)   he was defintely there in spirit.. one very cool story.. At saturdays show.. this appeared over the stadium.. ( a really nice woman who was at both shows took the shot and shared it )  and it hasn’t rained there since march. The internet says it was man made.. i don’t know how to do that.. do you ?

 

 

backing up a bit.. the day leading up to the show was nice. we took a run down at the beautiful badlands overlooking the bay.. watched pelicans, egrets, herons..feeding. it was memorable.. it has to be since i didn’t have my camera.

then back to our fun and quirky hotel Dinah’s.. where we watched them feed the Koi and ducks.

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we were just heading to check out when i heard someone shout my na,e. OMG>. our good friends Linda and David who used to live in Richmond 20 years ago and then moved to Oregon.. !!! They were here also to see the show.. and had seen the previous night as well .Super small world..

 

Here are their kids Abby and Gabe.. I think i haven’t seen game since he was a baby ! both cool kids.. musical and talented !

 

they had a nice gaggle of friends who’s names I’m spacing on.. but it was very festive. 

 

we grabbed a quick lunch then headed to Levy stadium in Santaclara. 

 

Despite dire warnings .. traffic was super easy.. we got there with out any delay.. and walked over to the stadium

 

great collection of hippiedom.. made me feel nostalgic and at home

 

levy statdium is beautiful clean and new.. this was certainly an acid test of sorts .. 

 

we had a couple of hours to spare so we headed down to shakedown street and checked out the wares.. 

 

we even scored some cheap beer !.. Yum !

 

then we went in and explored the venue. We walked around for an hour or so.. Our tickets were terrible, behind the stage.. so we found a good place to stand and camped there

 

 

 

we grabbed some food including this vegan dog.. Vegan dog ?!?!? gotta be Cali !

 

check out this cool relish  fly 

 

great view from the stadium

 

really , really great view (wasn’t it a good, good week !!!!)

 

we were walking and i ran into my buddy Ken K .. a circuit simulation whiz.. I hadn’t seen him in many ye=years.. again.. small world !

 

then we settled in to the show

i once heard that writing about music was like dancing about sculpture.. so I will spare you a description of the concert.. other than to say it was wonderful..   trey played the jerry part perfectly.. nice and tight.. but not too showy.. it wasn’t supposed to be a fish show. Bobby and Phil soundded good, Mickey and Bill were in lock step and Bruce hornsy and this guy Jeff I didn’t know played keyboards..

 

It was as good as any show I’ve seen in the last 4 decades.. and the love from the crowd was amazing

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best of all was getting to be there with diane and see it through her eyes. She said it was two shows in one.. her first and last..

i loved being there with her..

ok.. plane aboutt o take off.. so I’ll finish here

nite all, nite sam

-me

Sunday night – grateful

Diane and I just went to the fare thee well Grateful Dead concert. In santa clara . It was so great. Its about midnight and we have only about 4 hours to sleep… So with all of your permission, i will write about it tomorrow…. What a scene ! What a show !

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Details tomorrow… (And im on vacation this week !)

Nite all, nite sam

-me

 

Saturday night – California dreaming

DIane and I spent a peaceful and social day here out on the left coast. We began with a 4 mile or so run including the three mile loop up to the Radio dish above Stanford. . Lots of climb

Then we took a drive down to Santa Cruz to see our friends Will and Juba.. We had a nice breakfast with them before they headed north to se the Dead at tonights show.

 

 

Mid afternoon we dropped by my freind Paul nd Dan’s for a really nice lunch.. great catching up with them , their kids and Pauls Mom ROsmary. The trips there always have to include a little science. I tried out a new spin on the old standard vinegar nd bakign soda..  it’s worth a try

put a half inch or so of baking soda in the bottom of a clear container. Put a few blobs f different colorr food coloring on it, then pour in several inches of salad oil.

then slowly pour in some vinegar. The vintager sinks to the bottom of the oil and hits the baking soda and food dye.. it creates blobs of colored liquid floating up through the oil, that eventually sink back down.. kinda like a lava lamp.. Try it !

 

Then we went back to the wonderful  Dinah’s homel.. a cool and retro oasis in in Palo Alto.. You gotta love that they had both a bible and a book on buddha in the night stand

 

 

every space between buildings here is full of koiponds. taboo and trees. It’s really lovely.. you gotta check it out if here. 

 

 

later in the evening we went over to see my cousin Mark and his wife Kathy.. e sat out back of their beautiful house and watched an amazing post sunset cloud show .. 

great day.. tomorrow’s the concert.. more on that then.

now some jet lag required sleep

nite all, nite sam

-me