A picture on the Gonzaga U. page.
(That is Bernadette.)

A dense fog clung close to the ground all morning. The Highway Patrol warned about speeding, and led 25-mile-an-hour convoys on the highways: all in vain. A couple of big rigs collided and 38 cars collided. One death, 10 serious injuries, I-5 closed all day, just past the airport. It took us some extra time to get to the airport and pick up Bernadette. We arrived just as she got to the baggage claim. The real hassle was getting out. I saw one poor man from Redding (there to pick up his son from the University of Wyoming) who had needed to drive to Davis, across to Sacramento, then north to the airport. I suggested that going back he should take 99 North till he could get over to I-5 again. That should save him some 50 miles. The trouble was getting away from the airport. It took nearly an hour of stop-start and crawl just to get back to the highway.
We got home about 3:30. It's nice to have her home again. Another friend dropped off a 286 computer that needed a new battery, and Wowbagger came by to fix it. (Friend is donating it to the church music program, who can use it.)

Roni tells me the beefeater-doorman's name is Tom.

Wednesday we took Sailor to the nearby dog park, since Rich still has a sore foot. Sailor doesn't often see many other dogs, but he sure got his chance then! There was a 13-yr-old arthritic Lab who barely walked in, but then lumbered around for about an hour, sniffing the news and checking out everything. There was the grayhound cross with the dalmation spots and the most marvellous black ears, who could outrun Sailor, to Sailor's great puzzlement. There was a pair of younger black-and-tan dogs who ganged up on others (but not to fight, just to play). And later a puppy came. Sailor hurt his foot after awhile, but we never found out what was making him limp. After about an hour there, he was quite tired.

He'd recovered yesterday, so I took him on a walk down to get my paper. I started off by the ducks (well, ONE duck) and some songbirds I didn't recognize, as well as a couple of woodpeckers, then down past schools, including a mom walking in with party supplies. Sailor was tired by the time I reached the bookstore, and just flopped down the minute I tied him up. His limp reappeared, slightly, en route home, but nowhere near as pronounced as it was the day before. Total walk, 5.1 miles.

Wednesday night we went to the fifth gold lecture, which was great. It was Patricia Nelson Limerick, a professor at the University of Colorado. She has written LEGACY and as soon as next month is here, I will be ordering it. Her topic was about the individual in the Gold Rush and how one can get a more rounded picture by looking at individual stories. Of course, I thought about on-line journalling. If any historian could read these bits and bytes in 150 years, how well that would fill out the bare facts of 1998!
Another thing I noticed was that Mrs. Limerick was very similar to me in a number of ways. Just looking at her picture, you would think she was plain. She has a mole near her nose, as do I, and gravity hasn't been that kind to her face either. She limped out on a broken foot, as well. Yet, the minute she began to speak, how attractive she was!

Yesterday Rich took the van in so the antilock brakes could be fixed. They opened it, and like a patient with inoperable cancer, they closed again since we thought $185 was plenty to spend for not finding the problem. Oh, well.

I, meanwhile, decided I had too many clothes, and went through my t-shirts, getting rid of some duplicates and some old blood bank ones, and a Loretto High school one. It's a start.

There were horrendous noises outside. I looked to see a Parliament(?) of magpies in the palm tree. I wish they'd eat the dates. Every day we sweep them up, every day the dates fall.

Last night we went to the Discovery Museum party. Excellent food, good wine, and a handbell concert. The bells ranged from the tiny tiny ones, to HUGE ones. I realized that I would like to get involved with this someday. Once I get organized with CASA, I intend to rejoin the Resurrection Choir, who sing for funerals, and then I will start looking for a handbell group to join!

Rich snaffled some of the corks. "What am I going to do with these?" he asked. I figure he can make himself a life vest!

They had trees throughout the museum. I had noticed the "Bee tree", for the newspaper, decorated with bees and beehives, but they had many others, well done as well.