Dick”s cousin, Bobbi Castle passed away unexpectedly recently. Today, there was a memorial at her home in Rio Linda.

Caroline and Peter. Caroline is Leta’s sister, Dick’s aunt and Bobbi’s aunt.

L-R: Mark, Clara, Carolyn. It was inspiring to talk with Clara. I’m an 11-year retired teacher, she’s a student teacher out of UCDavis. She’s young, energetic, so bright and ready to tackle the complexity of being today’s teacher. There is hope!

I always seem to run into friends from different community connections like Lillian Smith who was Bobbi’s next door neighbor but also a recent speaker at a RLEHS Sunday Social, a Master Food Preserver. Below L-R, Nicki Sadek from Calvary Lutheran and Jo Messner from … too many ways to describe.

I gathered 29 pounds of walnuts the last two weeks of September. The pace picked up in October. The temperatures dropped and a big wind blew through this week. There were lots of walnuts waiting for me. Some on the ground, but lots ready for picking. Reaching up is better than stooping over.

Taking the hulls off

meant stained fingers, my usual October condition.

In 24 hours, I gathered 93 pounds! And slept quite well each night. Each grocery bag is about 15 pounds.

Total so far = 228 pounds. Last year’s final total was 204 pounds.

Dinner at Val’s especially to visit with Nancy Otis. I haven’t seen Nancy in about 15 years.

Thank you, Val, for bringing us all together.

WALKSacramento hired me to present pedestrian and bicycle safety assemblies to grades K-8 yesterday and today. Ordinarily I’m not a fan of assemblies, but these were just 20-minutes with really good Powerpoints.

A couple of hours each morning. By 10 am, I was on to other errands before going home. Fun!

My Wednesday was not over. Back down the hill, dinner with Adrienne and Mike in Rocklin and then to Rio Linda for an RLEHS meeting. Before it started, we went on a tour of the cleaned-up basement of the Dry Creek Ranch House.

Upstairs, we saw the almost re-finished large closet. The exposed lath-and-plaster will be covered with a clear cover.

Settling in to start the meeting.

Josh and Stephanie brought Josh Jr to his first RLEHS board meeting.

A long day, this horse is headed for the barn.

My CELDT job ended at noon, then I headed up I-80 to Auburn. WALKSacramento hired me to start a bike club at Auburn Elementary for grades 4-5. My poster was made
and my balloon ideas were ready.

Sadly, no one showed up to the first meeting, but neither the staff advisor nor Miha from WALKSacramento were dismayed and we rescheduled for Oct 22.

My team still has a few more days of CELDT testing, but today was my last day. By far, one huge benefit of being at the 8 schools we tested at was running into old friends and catching up. Suzanne Acheson was Doug’s first babysitter 30 years ago and we’ve stayed in touch with Christmas cards. Seeing Suzanne at Ridgepoint was great. We met for three morning recesses and caught up on each other’s lives.

L-R: Melodee, Rich, Laura, Jeannie.

For the next two mornings, I will work for WALKSacramento doing assemblies in West Sacramento at Elkhorn Village School. Next week I start teaching Project Ride Smart at H Allen Hight School in Sacramento.

Tim went to Reno this weekend for a college football game and Maria had a lead on some appliances and furniture that might be available at a very attractive price. Up the hill I drove in Justin’s truck.

Friends drop by all the time. I had a wonderful visit with Maria’s sister Theresa.

On Saturday we went to a great farmer’s market in Nevada City.


We had lunch at Three Forks Bakery & Brewing and chatted with Sean, one of the chefs. Sean and his family recently received the first-ever loan of down payment money from the City of Grass Valley in order to buy a house. It was a long process, Maria was instrumental in getting it started. We interviewed him and I wrote the first draft of an article for the local newspaper.

And I went happily home with a rather new and very inexpensive washer and dryer. The G St house will soon be a happier place.

Sophia invited me, but I only got 10 miles down the road. The tow truck took me back to Justin’s.

It would turn out to be a (very expensive) cracked exhaust manifold. Darn it x 2!