Nostalgia

After months of cold, the last two weeks have been just gorgeous.  Nice to see people starting to come out to walk, run, cycle.  Feels like life is stirring up once again.  The clock was set forward by an hour last week and now the daylight lasts past 7:00 pm and while the mornings when I get up have become dark when they were getting lighter just a week ago, this will soon change as the sun comes up earlier and sets later.

Lately, there has been a twinge of longing.  A longing to go back to the little pimple of an island to see my folks, to talk to Er Gu before it is too late, to see the changes to the place and the people.  From the little I hear, the skyline is changing again as the integrated resort rears its head(s) over the harbor and the new immigrants add to the pressure on the infrastructure.  Sometimes, I miss the fast pace of life there.  To be honest, the nostalgia does not last long.  I don't relish ever going back to the walk-to-bus-stop-wait-long-long-for-bus-squeeze-into-MRT-and-try-not-to-fall-on-people-because-there-is-nothing-to-hang-onto-walk-to-office-and-repeat-the-same-tedious-routine-in-the-evening.  And spend nearly an hour doing that one way oftentimes longer if the clueless selfish RI and Catholic High boys refuse to move to the rear of the bus so others can get in or if the bus driver had a bad day and decided to take it out on the commuters by not stopping.

My commute now is barely 1.8 miles each way and no more than 8 minutes, sometimes less.

I don't miss the humidity either although the cold here in the house can be numbing.  So you take comfort in the bed, piling up the covers and blankets and try to dress up quickly after the baths.

On another subject, the distant hills surrounding the tri-valley are beautiful.  All green after the series of winter storms.  College spring break is here and the girl will soon be home.

I do miss other my far away girls.

Birthdays Both

And Spring is finally here.  And with the solstice always come YY's Birthday!  So here's a very very Happy Birthday to a much loved and treasured sister, aunt, confidante to all my kids, and all in all a centerpin for many lives.

May all your wishes come true.

And we must not forget our half man who is well on his way to becoming three quarter man and more.  Happy Birthday too to Ryan who at 15 is already dreaming of having his driving licence.  May your wishes come true too.

Sunshine & Sleep

As I was dragging out 'em boxes and slicing up into packable pieces, the beautiful weather got to me and in my head came the nonsensical, this is spring cleaning. LOL. But it truly has been a beautiful day with plenty of sunshine, tempearatures in the balmy 60's. Green hills all lush from the storms and downpours that has brought California water levels to about the 100% mark after several years of drought. This is the kind of day that makes California California, it that even makes sense.

By the time the Man and Half came home from Amador Valley, the garage looked much neater and cleaner with all the leaves and dirt all swept out. "Cept I could not really find a proper broom given that our one and only was taken oiff to Channing Way. But I did find one that for some inexplicable reason, had a floppy attachment of clear rubber to the wooden handle. I cannot conceive of any use for a broom with a floopy broom head but being that it was the only brooom around, I used it to drag out all the gunk from the deepest corners and swept out the garage floors. WIth the inevitable result, of course, that the clear soft rubber should tear and now the floppy broom head is truly floppy. Luckily, I was near the end of the spring cleaning (ha ha), and just held the broom head for the last few hurrahs.

Having tried sweeping the garage in that miserzable place called Almond Drive, I knew the corners that would trap and harbor the most dirt that could stay for years if not flushed out once in a while. And hence I discovered that the bottomest left roller of the garage door was not sitting in the metal groove and gives a loud crunch when the door slides almost to the garage floor. My perfect home is definitely not so perfect after all. It is just the latest in the little imperfections that my fastidious house proud previous owner had glossed over or run out of steam to correct.

All that work cutting up and packing away the KC Dat boxes for disposable took a toll. That and a very late lunch. So I crept into bed at past 3 and fell into a fitful sleep beneath the warm covers. I think I am going to be sleepless in San Ramon tonight. Just like last night. The end of daylight savings meant the night was one hour later that it was just hours ago and that may have had a little impact. But the cause was really the afternoon nap after a long 6 mile trek to and from the C**c**t shop at the shopping square where Lucky Supermarket is located, past Almond Orchard. In a futile attempt to get a copy of the receipt that will prove I had returned the modem that they keep insisting I did not return on 21 Dec last as we were heading out to Reno. Sending the debt collector after me over this after being a faithful customer for 3 years really sucks. Towards the end of our custom, the company was really heavy handed and billing close to $180 a month. Now they want to report me to the credit bureaus because of a modem I definitely had returned. The girl who recorded the return that fateful 21 Dec looked like she was on some serious meds and the line was painfully long and moving slowly. Maybe she just failed to record and return to the warehouse? But to company the onus is on me to prove that I did return the modem despite many pleas and assurances that I no longer have that modem. But alas, that receipt was lost in the rush to Reno and back and the shop did not even keep its own records. I can predict I will have to fish out the $80 eventually because it is hard to deal with a company like that.

Lesson learned - always look over your receipts and keep those that matter. Don't trust any service people to record correctly.