Today's Scan

I'm still going through my box of old pictures. They aren't sorted in any particular order. So the scanning for the blog is more or less haphazard - as to times and places.

I found a picture of the house that we owned nearly twenty years ago - in Laguna. It's a few miles from where we now live. Nancy and I put a lot of effort in doing upgrades to the property, but even so, we didn't stay long - about a year and a half was all. Nancy was hesitant to move, especially after we completed the backyard landscaping, but she adjusted to the new place rather quickly (our current house). The house in Laguna had a zero lot line and the property was really better suited for renting, rather than owning. Eventually the neighborhood evolved to a significant number of the homes being rented. In fact, it would have been a good economic move for us if we could have found a way to keep the house - and rent it out. At that time, however, there was no way to make that happen.

As you'll notice from the scan, we did have a new lawn, a small lamppost (the precursor to the lamppost we have now) and you can see part of the patio cover along the side of the house. The backyard had a good size basketball court. That court was the precursor to the basketball court that was constructed at our current home in Elk Grove. It seems that I just have to have a place to play "H O R S E" on occasion. It's relaxing.

Sunday Projects and New Scan

The grand kids were over today. They got a lot done. Kristy and Brandon cleaned the house, while Kenneth and I took care of an electrical problem that had been plaguing one of the backyard lights for some time. We blew out a cheap voltage meter in the process, but what the heck. Baby Brandon did his part - he was a good baby and slept awhile, cried a little and ate a little. All in a days work.

I found a box with some old pictures that I decided to scan. I've posted a picture that I found. It's from one of our "Westend" gatherings. This one goes back awhile, but I'm uncertain of the year. I know we all looked a bit younger than in more recent pictures of such gatherings. The picture is at the bottom of the blog page.

Exciting Derby!

This was a great race. The 133rd running of the Kentucky Derby. You've got to love seeing a horse come from nineteen back and win a race by several links. That's especially true when you have money on the horse. Street Sense might just be a Triple Crown caliber horse. Can't wait to see.

Nancy and I had dinner at Vince's this evening. Their steak dinner for two is excellent. After dinner we went to Aaron Brothers Art Mart to purchase an abstract painting that I've been eyeballing for some time. I'm putting a couple of large abstract paintings in the exercise room. They have lots of color and exude energy - perfect for exercising. So far I'm adhering to my exercise schedule. I'm using the treadmill five days a week. Yesterday was one of my days off, so it may be tough to get going tonight. I've found that once you get started, it's not too bad. Playing some upbeat music helps to set the mood. I now have a forty minute routine that seems to get the job done. My routine keeps the cardiovascular numbers where I want them and it helps to burn off some calories. That's the goal. Once I hang my abstracts in the exercise room, I plan to take some pictures to post to the blog.

Ready For The Derby

I've made my Derby pick - it's Street Sense. Like so many others, I'll be glued to the TV tomorrow afternoon for the most exciting two minutes in horse racing. It is, of course, Louisville's premier event. Having been to a couple of Derbys back in the day, I can attest to the fact that you probably get a better perspective of the race from your living room then you do in the infield. You at least get a better view of the race. I use to call my parents on Derby Day. I miss being able to do that - and particularly hearing "My Old Kentucky Home" playing in the background as we talked. It makes me sad knowing that I can no longer share the Derby with them. They were both big fans of horse racing.

I'm using my new scanner for a variety of scanning jobs. Today's post is of a picture that I took several years ago using a Minolta 35mm camera; it's a shot I took at Universal Studios. Since I recently saw Sherlock Holmes at the B Street Theatre, I guess I might have been a little predisposed when I was sorting through my old 35mm pictures. I liked what i saw when I looked through the camera lens years ago - and I still like the image today. Something about Sherlock that just stays with you, I guess. Check it out at the bottom of the blog page.

New Scanner Photo - 260 Z

While Nancy and I were in Reno earlier this week, we saw a Porsche Cayman on display at the Atlantis casino. We both liked the looks - a classy black paint job with black leather interior - and the price actually was not too bad considering the options. We did wonder how we would get in and out of a car such as the Cayman, seeing how low to the ground it is and the contortions you would have to make just to get behind the wheel each time. At our age we are more four door sedan types, but the Cayman got me reminiscing about a time that I owned a sports car - a Datsun 260 Z. Yes, they called them Datsun's back in the day, not Nissan's.

The 260 was arguably the worst of the "Z" cars and mine was of the lemon variety. I bought it used, after it came off of a lease, and it never did run all that well. The fuel/air mixture was problematic and it hesitated when you tried to accelerate off the line. It was an intermittent problem, but one that was never totally corrected by several of the local Datsun dealers. I added a "quad" eight track stereo and it didn't work very well either. The "quad" sound wouldn't deliver the goods and one of the four channels always seemed to falter. It was sort of quasi surround sound. Like I said... the car was a lemon.

I bought a scanner while I was in Reno, from Comp USA (an Epson V100), and I decided to hook it up tonight and try my first scan. The picture, of my Z car, a 1975 model, is not of the best quality - but it's the only picture that I saved of the car. I only kept the car for a year. The picture was taken in front of the first house I ever owned and neither I, nor my neighbors, had enough money left over to landscape our lawns after our home purchase. Of course, we still had enough money left to spend on our vehicles. You have to maintain some priorities in life - right? I've posted the Z car picture to the blog. The V100 did a good job and I know I'll be pleased with how easy it is to use. I'll be using the scanner for some other pictures that I intend to post i.e. a few black and white photos of Louisville, Kentucky. I'll probably also use it to post some magazine pictures and the like.

The picture of my 260 Z is at the bottom of the blog page.

Everyday is Like Sunday - Morrissey

We had more fun at the Morrissey concert then we had anticipated. The show was mostly a matter of convenience as to scheduling rather than a "must see" event for us. The hotel rate, at the Atlantis - a good choice for a Reno hotel - for the time frame that we wanted to use for a spring outing, was very good ($45 for two days). And the Morrisey show just happened to coincide with that period of time. So, we thought, why not check out Morrissey? Well, it proved to be an interesting choice - as Morrissey is a rather controversial entertainer. He rarely performs at small venues, like the Nuggett in Sparks, but since other notable performers had frequented the Nuggett stage, he decided to give it a go. His concert, performed in Oakland a couple of days prior, resulted in an early exit, as his bouncers were needed to clear the stage of crashers (this really isn't a huge surprise, after all - he did agree to perform in Oakland ). Of course, all of this action made Nancy even more determined to see Morrissey, so I told her not to worry, no matter what, we were going to make it to this event. As mentioned, it was really different from the usual Nuggett performers, i.e. Glen Campbell, Charo, Pat Boone - and with the booze flowing heavily amongst the younger attendees (actually we might have been able to win a prize, if there were one, for the oldest couple in attendance) things went from loud - to extremely loud. Neither the crowd, nor Morrissey, disappointed. Overall, it wasn't all that rowdy, only a few tried to get onstage, and where we were seated, at a booth located a ways back from the stage, we were fortunate in that were sitting next to a very interesting and pleasant college student who is attending the University of Reno. She will be a senior, this fall, and she is majoring in philosophy. She spoke three languages and she said that she has hopes of adding two more to her repertoire, by the time she finishes grad school. Her goal is to work at the United Nations. Her favorite philosopher is Frederick Nietzsche (God is Dead), so she just might achieve that rather lofty goal. Morrisey draws a rather intriguing and extremely diverse group of people.

We had fun, that's what counts, and I captured some neat clips with my little Samsung camcorder. Considering that we were not that close to the stage, by choice, it's just too loud for us older folk if you get too near the band (it hurts elderly ears), plus the fact that three quarters of the audience near the front of the stage were standing up for the entire concert, I'm surprised that it captured much of anything. But it did! So, take a look at a short clip, that shows Morrissey performing one of his earlier hits - "Everyday is Like Sunday". He recorded this song after he left "Smith" - it's our favorite song of all the songs he sang. He did sing a few songs from the time that he was the lead singer for "Smith". Morrissey is certainly a survivor, and that is probably why he still has such a devoted and diverse following. He is also somewhat a philosopher, in his own right, and his music reflects that mindset. Enjoy the clip -

http://s178.photobucket.com/albums/w275/jimdaviselkgrove/?action=view&current=SMOV0066-3.flv

Back From Reno

We just returned from our outing to Reno a short while ago. I've posted a couple of pics that I took outside the theatre prior to the Morrissey concert. I'm now going to review my camcorder video to see if I have any video clips of the concert to post. My little camcorder is not ideal for such purposes and the lighting was less than great.

I found a video to post, showing some footage of the Morrissey concert , but PhotoBucket is down for maintenance at this time. So, I guess I'll have to post the video tomorrow.

There are a couple of new pictures added to the blog. One shows the swimming pool at the Atlantis Hotel and the other shows the snow cap mountains near the hotel. Yes, there is still a little snow left in the mountains, even if it is the first of May.