In the last few days I've been adding the images of cd covers to my iTunes. I used to have them all, but between my iPod dying awhile back and my computer dying more recently, I'd lost most of the images. Now I've got almost all of them done in my computer, but I'm missing a few that I just can't find doing a Google Images search. A couple of them I understand why: they're most likely bootleg editions of cd's that I bought in Japan. However, one is really puzzling to me. I have a compilation cd called "Sixties Girls" from a UK label called Crimson Productions, and for the life of me I just can't seem to find an image of it anywhere. Except for a couple of mentions I've found, it's like it doesn't even exist. This wouldn't be quite so vexing to me except for the fact that my iPod has the image, which means that I obviously found it before. Ugh!
Partner and I spent Thanksgiving week in California. As we usually do, we flew into Sacramento (a lovely, small airport) and rented a car. We spent the first part of the week at his cabin in the foothills of the Sierras. We did this so we could visit his ailing sister in Gridley, which is only about 45 minutes away. Other than that, we spent most of our time watching Firefly on dvd. Thanksgiving day we met up with his sister at their second-cousin's house not too far from the cabin. Even though the cousins live fairly close, they don't get to see Partner's sister very often; in fact, they hadn't seen Partner in 38 years! So, even though they were technically "family" for Partner, it was really as if they were strangers. I've told lots of people this already, but it felt as if we picked a house at random, walked in and told them we were there to celebrate Thanksgiving. All in all, the family was rather nice, and they provided us with good food and wine, so you won't hear any complaints from me. At least, not about that.
As soon as we finished eating, Partner and I drove down to San Francisco. I made Partner drive because he knows the city better, but I forgot that it takes almost 3 hours to get there. I felt bad about him driving all that way, but ultimately I'm glad it wasn't me. When we got to the Bay Bridge, they didn't have enough toll booths open for the number of cars trying to make it into the city. The worst part is, they had a terrible system for the traffic lanes, and by the time we made it through the tolls, I was ready to KILL.
Here's the sitch: some of the booths take cash, and above them is a green light. The booths that were closed had a red light, and the booths that just took the electronic payment had no light at all. We were on the right side of the highway as we approached the tolls, and ahead of us we could see one or two green lights on the far right, three red lights to the left of them, one green next to that, then a whole series of no lights in the middle, then one or two more greens on the far left. We obviously couldn't get to the left from where we were (even though that traffic appeared to be moving), and we didn't have the transponder to pay electronically. Instead of moving all the way to the far right, we somehow ended up in the line for that isolated green between the closed lanes and the speeding lanes for no cash. And that, as it turned out, was the worst lane of all.
What happens on the Bay Bridge is this: the non-cash lines are usually wide open, so people speed up to them and pass through. When there is a cash-only lane next to the non-cash lanes (which was the line we were in), ASSHOLES will speed down the non-cash lanes and then try to merge into the cash-only lane at the last minute. This causes problems for the people in the non-cash lanes because they suddenly have to slow down or stop while waiting for the ASSHOLES to merge. This also causes a problem for the people in the cash-only lane because they've been waiting in line like they should, only to be "cut off" by the ASSHOLES who skipped the line. It is so aggravating that some people who are waiting in line are tempted to leave the line and either drive across speeding traffic to get to the left, or they skip a few cars and merge back into the line they just left. This actually happened a few cars in front of us, except that when the car left our line, it collided with an approaching car that was speeding down the non-cash lane. It wasn't a bad accident, but it clearly showed what happens to people when they're stuck in a bad situation.
What was worse for us that night: because we were in a line that had the non-cash lanes to our left and closed lanes to our right, we had people skipping ahead on both sides and trying to merge into our lane. Partner is a patient man and didn't seem to notice, but I was a complete wreck. There were times when we weren't moving at all because people who came from behind us got in our line ahead of us. Believe me, if I had had a gun that night, there would've been some casualties! It was so bad, that I was thinking that I never wanted to visit San Francisco again; nothing in the city could be worth what we had to put up with that night. (Believe it or not, I can feel my blood pressure rising just thinking about it, and it happened more than a week ago.)
I have to say, the rest of the long weekend in the city was nice, but it may have been all the Capt Morgan's Rum I had to drink to help forget about the bridge. A highlight was seeing my cousin and his fiancée at their new apartment and eating a home-made meal of salmon and rice. Except for the Thanksgiving dinner, that was about the only time we've gotten to eat a home-made meal while traveling. Another highlight was spending Saturday afternoon in Berkeley; yes, we had to brave the bridge again, but this time we only had to deal with blustery winds. And the afternoon activities made it totally worth it. After the winds blew through, San Francisco experienced beautiful, summer-like weather, so we were definitely spoiled the rest of our time there.
Since returning home, I've decided to give up drinking for awhile. The skin on my cheeks is really red, so I'm thinking it might be good to detox for a little bit. I'll have plenty of time to "retox" once we go to New Orleans for Xmas and New Years.
Lately Partner has had to deal with a troubling woman. In describing her to me, he said,"She looks like she got her pussy caught in a toaster." Brilliant!
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