Valentine’s Day

First came Avery’s basketball practice. Warming up with jumping jacks:dsc04952Dinner at home afterwards.dsc04949dsc04957Dessert at Leah & Jeff’s:dsc04962Apple pie from Freeport Bakery and Salty Caramel Cupcake Entremet from Ginger Elizabeth. dsc04963

Bike Hikers ride

I joined Bike Hikers last September, then came my bike crash and recovery. Today I did my first ride with the club. The Tuesday “easy rider” ride had quite a few participants. About half of the easy riders are also quite fast, they left the turn-around point before the slower riders got there. Such a friendly group of people. I will do this again.dsc04948Miles=20

Field Trip: high water on Feather River

On Sunday afternoon, Justin asked me if I wanted to drive along the levee to look at the water. This turned out to be about two hours before the evacuation of 188,000 people from upriver as the Oroville Dam emergency spillway continued to erode.dsc04892dsc04890On the other side of the levee, water was seeping under the levee into the farmland or …dsc04891This pump is ordinarily used to pump water out of the river to irrigate farmland, but this is not the growing season so the pumps are turned off. However, the river is so high, it’s creating back pressure on the pumps causing water from the river to flow backwards through the pumps (thank you Justin for this explanation).dsc04894We counted at least 12 markers like this one along the levee. They note trouble spots that inspectors need to repeatedly check – and there are a lot of inspectors keeping watch.dsc04909dsc04910dsc04912Boils are spots where the water has soaked through the levee and comes bubbling up on the other side. When discovered, the boil is ringed with sand bags in an effort to stabilize it.dsc04899dsc04897The confluence of the Feather and Sacramento Rivers is at Verona, but there is serious leakage going on with the water now halfway across the road.dsc04901Days ago, farmers started moving their equipment to higher ground.dsc04904An overpass (with no on/off ramps) near Justin’s house:8366There are some beautiful homes on the river side of the levee – a risky location in times like this.dsc04902There were big U-Haul trucks at the ready everywhere.dsc04916A neighbor of Justin’s asked for help to move some equipment. The first stop was the local gas station; Justin wanted me to fill up also. We got there just before it became clogged with customers.dsc04920The exodus was agonizingly slow along Hwy 70 as the evacuation continued. What should have been a 45 minute drive from Marysville to Sacramento took 5 hours on Sunday night.img_0519The mandated evacuation did not apply to E Nicolaus. Wheatland, 12 miles north, was recommended evacuation. So we sat tight and hoped for the best.

Hearts on Fire

The 4th annual Chili, Chocolate, and Cornbread Cook-Off at the Rio Linda Grange.dsc04876dsc04877Getting the chili ready to serve.dsc04879-1Cornbread ready to go – mine is in front.dsc04874Desserts – decadent and delicious.dsc04873Susan Hanks explained how the voting process worked.dsc04878Every cup was numbered, a corresponding jar for collecting poker-chip votes sat by each dish in the kitchen.dsc04881The dessert winners:dsc04883The cornbread winners – my Civilized Cornbread won 1st place!dsc04885The chili winners. Cecil McCracken (red shirt) won first place.dsc04886Most appearances in the winner’s circle was Deb Crowe (patterned apron).

Basketball and ukelele

Tuesday, basketball practice for Avery.dsc04799He made almost every basket he shot!dsc04797dsc04796After ukelele on Thursday, Sophia showed me how she’s been reading a book about taking care of cats. She preparing for the day when her parents let her have a pet-sometime before Carson’s 2nd birthday. Which means Thais and Lenin only have 11 months and 2 weeks to figure out how to dissuade her. Good luck.dsc04804About to wake up after getting home from daycare.dsc04811Wrestling with Mom while Carter keeps on eye on things.dsc04814

Super Bowl babies

I watched the Super Bowl with Justin at his house and made terrific pulled pork nachos – a good blog post but superseded by even better news. Maria’s daughter Leslie had her third child today – a boy named Liam. Congratulations!img_2649Not to be outdone, Justin also had a baby today!20170205_140212Maria and I had the SAME due dates for our first-borns, August 10 1975. Leslie was born one week early, Justin was born four weeks late.

LCI spring training

A group of local LCIs (League Cycling Instructors) were invited to discuss and review the best practices for teaching Project Ride Smart in North Natomas or the bike education classes in San Juan Unified School District.dsc04779dsc04777dsc04781dsc04788L-R: Mellissa Meng/NNTMA, Dan Allison/San Juan USD, Elle Steele/San Juan USD & 50 Corridor.dsc04782