Met the Man, Shook his Hand

I had a dream thanksgiving night. It was interesting & pretty vivid, so I thought I'd share it here!!!

We were in a hotel on a vacation. It was south of here, part way to San Diego, probably around the Carlsbad area, but in my dream it was in Chula Vista, even though that is pretty much right by San Diego. It was a large suite with seperate rooms, and a large living room area and full kitchen, a nice place. It was around 11 AM and we were just getting up (you know, because we're on vacation!) My wife had made a small batch of oatmeal cookies the previous night, and she had gotten up and said she was going to make another batch up for breakfast. OK, sounds good!!! I had a couple of other places I was thinking of going to to eat, one of them Smash Burger, don't remember what the other was, and figured we'd make those lunch and dinner.

About 10 minuites later, I realized that it was our last day there!!! Ut oh!!! I told everyone to start getting their stuff together, but I'm going to call the front desk and see if we can get a late check-out. I picked up the phone that was on the bar adjacent to the kitchen, an old style touch tone phone, and hit the button for the desk. I told the lady who answered it is our last day, but we're not quite ready to go, could we get a late check-out? She replies, "I can give you a $20 credit". I ask what does that mean? Is there a charge to stay later, and we'll get a credit towards it??? Do we have to pay for another day, but we can apply the $20 to that??? She's not sure, and is going to check with someone and puts me on hold. I'm holding, and thinking I'm OK with paying for another day, I've got more time off and wouldn't mind staying another day. I grab an apple out of the fridge and start eating it, because there's no cookies yet, and I'm a little hungry. I don't know if she'd stopped making them or they just weren't ready.

Sometime around this, while I'm holding, the scene shifts, as sometimes happens in dreams. I'm still at a counter like the bar the phone was on, but now I'm in what looks like a large, open concept office. There's very few people there, and some of the lights are off. Then, in through one of the doors, comes Alex Trebek!!!

It's a younger Alex than we've been seeing lately, he has the bushy black mustache, but his hair is short and slicked to his head. He's walking into an office just by where I'm at, and I must have said something to him, because he stops and we talk. I tell him I'd shake his hand, but I've got apple juice sticky all over that hand. He replies something to the effect of, "Apple juice washes off, but you won't have a chance to shake my hand again."

So I reach out and shook hands with Alex.

And I tell him, "You son of a bitch!!!", because I'd realized right around that point that I was dreaming.

Golden Hour

A week back, I took Scruffy for an alignment. Having the front subframe removed had messed it up. The update on the swap, I ran into an issue bolting the transmission to the engine, and ended up damaging the pump on the transmission, so, since I've never had too much luck working on transmissions, ended up having it towed to the transmission shop. When I picked it up, started off with the oil warning light on. That spooked me, I shut it right off, and checked the oil. All the way full. OK, must be the wire to the sensor or something, right? Start driving it back, and after a while, it goes off, but the low coolant light starts blinking. That doesn't concern me much, I hadn't had a chance to do anything with the cooling system other than fill it with water and cooling system flush, and the needle is in the normal area. It turned off a few miles later, but then the temprature light went on, and the gauge heads to the top!!! I'm in traffic, and before I could even start working my way off to the side, the gauge drops, and the light goes off. Then the oil light comes on again. Once I got it home, I drained, rinsed and filled the cooling system, and checked the oil pressure wire. Everything looked good, and it never came on again. Passed smog with no problems, and other than the alignment, everything is fine!!!

The alignment shop I use is in Glendale. I had gone after I got off work. I asked the tech about how long he thought it would take, and after he told me around 45 minutes, told him I was going on a walk. Since I've been seeing it for years but had never been there, I headed straight for the local graveyard!!!

Imposing brick walls and an iron gate surround the property.

Within, there is much beauty among the dead.

Many statues, and great views of the surrounding area.

It's been years since I've gone through a graveyard taking pictures. I remembered why it works out so well.

I haven't been getting as much walking in as I would like to these days, with the time change it's not as easy to get out in the afternoons before it's getting dark. This was a great one, not only did I cover a good amount of distance, but I got to do a bit of uphill walking, too!!!

On the subject of it getting dark early, it so coincided with my walking time that I was in the right place for the "golden hour", as the sun makes it's final descent on the horizon.

I was glad to have been there for it!!!