achoo

I'm home again from SF! I did a pretty good job lining up posts for while I was gone - now I just need to respond to yall's comments and catch up on what you did. I also came down with a cold - I think that thick gooey wet air down there did me no favors. Clearly thin dry air is superior. (Yes, a year and a half ago I was gasping for breath from walking across a parking lot - but once you get used to it, you really get used to it.)

So. Chain controls on interstates aren't that big of a deal if you have 4WD and snow tires. I still don't think I'd try it at night, but we didn't leave til 10 am on Wednesday. Instead of being terrified of sliding off an embankment or getting bumper car'd by some idiot, we were just bored to death in the Sierras.

We had to stop in Truckee to pee and get some food, then it took a solid 30 minutes to get back up the onramp.


Truckee to Donner Pass took a solid hour of creeping along imperceptibly slowly. Once we were over the pass, we sped up to endurance speeds (5 mph) then FEI speeds (10! 12! 15 mph!).

The mountains are beautiful, even at 5 mph.


4 wheel drive going uphill very slowly rapes your gas mileage.


Finally we made Auburn, had glorious In N Out, then put the hammer down and got to SF. The 220 mile trip took seven and a half hours. Still, this trip was much easier for me - I didn't feel like I couldn't cram the truck into the tiny lanes, the traffic was much lighter, and I knew what was coming. Dragging stuff up to the apartment wasn't even that bad. Paying $35/day to park - that was bad. I only paid $25 to board the dog at a first-rate kennel! These assholes didn't even walk and play with the truck.

The apartment has an outlet by a lightswitch, so of course that's where we installed the blue canary to watch over G.


There's a nice view - you can even see the ocean out of the left-most bay window.


It's very small.


That's the front door on the right of the picture. The bathroom and closet are off of the front door. I was standing in the bay windows, so there's only a few more inches behind me. Everything fits though - it's big enough. It's laid out very well.

We ate like royalty. Well, Asian royalty, if you want to be specific - Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Korean fried chicken, and Indian. Crepes for dessert one night (nutella and whipped cream!!), crab cakes eggs benedict for breakfast one morning. The coffee was outstanding, everywhere we went (except one completely average diner that had completely average diner-coffee).

We rode the bus to the Whole Foods by G's work and on the way back saw a flaming Christmas tree in a housing project.

It was a grand adventure. Aside from getting sick, that sort of took away from the grandness. I was yearning for thin dry air so I decided to head home on Saturday. Traffic in the mountains was less awful, and the return trip took me 4:30.

Cersei was legitimately glad to see me. Dixie and the goats just wanted alfalfa, and the angry chickens wanted people food, and the cats puked on stuff to show their affection. ~C is trying to talk me into riding today, but I think that's a bad idea. I am still only halfway sick, but I think a brisk two hour ride would do me in.

I do miss G already. I hope his job is exciting and challenging so he doesn't miss me too much. If we both stay busy, the time will FLY by - I think I'll go up for Valentine's Day. Now - time to read blogs and vegetate and possibly go to the grocery store.