Grand Island Mansion

The Grand Island Mansion.

J Mac Delta Ferry

I was out on a ride in the delta when I passed this ferry. A not to familiar site with all the bridges that have replaced ferries in the delta. There are 52 large islands in the delta, and an "uncountable" amount of small islands (I'm quoting a travel website that was talking about the delta), I'm sure someone has counted them. The delta is a region that stretches from the SF bay out to the sierra's. Lodi sits in the middle of it and we have a nice breeze in the summer that cools off town in hurry after our very hot summer days.

I found the ferry as I was making my way to the Grand Island Mansion. I found a website that gave me a little bit of information on the ferry.

"The J-Mac Ferry is a cable-drawn ferry that crosses Steamboat Slough. It is sometimes referred to as the Steamboat Slough Ferry or Grand Island Ferry, but almost all the locals call it the J-Mac. It got its name from the CalTrans Engineer/driver who first designed and drove it, a Mr. MacMillian, or similar name like that. Not much else is known about this one, except that it is very reliable and runs all the time, even in flood times! A map dated 1913 found at the Rio Vista Museum shows a ferry at the same location, named the A.J. Weise. The J-Mac is smaller in size and can only accommodate 4 cars or trucks at a time, along with ski boats or PWC being towed behind the vehicles. But RVs should stay off this ferry, as the on & off ramps are very steep, even at high tides.
(A caution to boaters on Steamboat Slough: Do NOT speed past the J-Mac when the red lights are flashing! There is a metal cable just at the water surface, and you could flip your boat and kill or injure everyone in it if you hit that cable at high speeds! The 5 MPH signs are there for YOUR safety!)"

Life is Good

I thought I'd post a quick reminder to myself and the people I enjoy.

I spent the last portion of my meeting with my team recently talking about a principle that I find is important in business, and in my personal life. Not that I'm perfect at this bit of advice, but I've certainly seen through my own experience why it's important. I'm sure that many of you are good at this, and some of you learning to be better at this. I will quickly sum it up to you & let you ponder it on your own as well:

I believe it is very wise to spend my time, energy, passion & thoughts focusing on the things that I can control, and spend very little time on the things I can't.

Life is good.

Pretty, Serious stuff.

I love soccer. LOVE IT. And these little girls make it look so beautiful!

Oh Dear!

Can you believe these three cuties all play on the same team together! They think it's the greatest thing ever. Classmates together last year in Kindergarten, and I believe this year together too. Red looks great on them too.

It's been a little while....

Got together with two of my friends from when I was a teen on Friday. Russell & his family had my family and Andre's family over to his place for dinner. We had a great time catching up. It's been a long time since I've seen Russell, 16 years or so, and Andre and his family it had been too long as well. Picked up right where we left off.

Super Soccer Saturday

First games of the year. 4 games, 4 different kids, 4 different fields, all at 9am. Sam had two, and both were in Sacramento. 

Patrick, win. 2 Goals.

Sam, tie & a loss. Great game!

Hannah, Loss. Fantastic play by the bear bear. 

Georgia, win. One goal & Georgia's first game of her life.

What a day.

Happy Birthday Big Alex G! 

Big Brothers...

Georgia had a tooth fall out. She placed it under her pillow for the tooth fair of course. She also placed a note for the tooth fairy. The note was a series of questions that Georgia had for the tooth fairy. Unfortunately the brothers were made aware of the note, and intercepted it before the tooth fairy could complete it, and of course the boys completed the note for her. The note reads:

My name is Georgia. I live on 710 Atherton Drive, which is here (Love that part "which is here") I don't keep my teeth. My room is purple.
Are you a boy or a girl? Girl
What is your name? Agnes Tooth.
Where do you live? On Fiji.
What do you do with the teeth? I eat them.
What does you room look like? Blue & Pink, with teeth.
How old are you? 1700
Do you have pets? Yes, dogs. Tonsil & Gums
Note: Heavy metal rocks! xoxoxoxo, Agnes

Don't worry I get them back for her.

Son's of Liberty

Patrick and the boys from our ward at church spent 4 days at the LDS scout encampment "Son's of Liberty." There were about 4000 LDS scouts from all over Northern California. Every Stake had their own arch as an entry into their camp. They had about a million great activities during the day, and great speakers every night. I really enjoyed a couple of the speakers a ton. Patrick had a good time. Came home a little sun burned. It was great to see my nephews Kurt, and Spencer Durnall there! They were both such big guys now!

Raccoons

Last night my dog is going crazy barking at 4:30 in the morning. So I jump my butt out of bed thinking someone is trying to get into one of my cars, or messing with my bike. I get out there and my neighbor came running in his underwear from the opposite direction. As I'm standing there next to my car I realize freaking raccoons are running all over the place. I start dance like I'm on hot coals thinking one of those buggers are going to dart out from under my car and bite me on the ankle. Of course, It all turned out ok, and the 4 of those Raccooons wandered off together. Actually they went into my other neighbors garage who had left it open by about 6 inches. I thought that was kind of funny. So anyhow, I start walking back up to bed, and I'm laughing because all I can think of is this raccoon that screamed at us (us being the Kelly's & Merrills) in Costa Rica while we were walking by some bushes in the dark, and how I took off. It scared me. It was loud like a dog in a fight. The image in my head of that moment is when I look back while I was running away was of my friend Joe doing some kind of funny dance with the stroller trying to create some separtion from the noise in the bushes 2 feet away. When I finally get back to bed I'm still laughing and Suz is asking what happened and why I was laughing, and of course I'm half asleep making no sense. "Joe was so afraid of that Raccoon, and John was in his underwear." Mixing the two stories together. Suzi "Joe who? and John was?" Joe Merrill, Yes he was, and it was funny." Suzi "What are you talking about?" "The Raccoons were all over, and the went into Frank's garage." At which point Suz realizes the fuss was about Raccoons and stops listening, and I continue to talk about Joe, John, and Franks garage. Raccoons are funny.

Lone Survivor

What a great book! I think anyone who reads it will be moved in some way. I read it while I was in Costa Rica, and it was the type of read where I couldn't put the book down. Not for little ones, however Patrick is reading it for school. He has 1500 pages of reading due this semester, and this will put a dent in it.
Here's the link for my friend R. Jeffery Davis.

Georgia on school

Georgia started first grade this week, and life just got big time better for the Suz. So I want to pass along my two favorite quotes of the week from her.

First quote:
Me- Georgia! First day of school over, and so how was school today?
Georgia- (dramatic pause) the....best....day....ever! I loved it. The only thing is, we have a lot of recess. (Are you sure you're my kid?)

Of course the others started in with, wait until you get to my grade blah, blah, blah. I told Georgia not to worry about it, and that she was much smarter than the rest of them so she's always going to enjoy school. That went over well with Georgia, the rest of them.....not so much.

Second quote (As related to me by Suz):
Georgia- Mom I moved desks today.
Suz- Oh great! Where are you sitting now?
Georgia- Next to the kid with all the eye buggers.
Suz- Oh....well what's his name?
Georgia- (shoulder shrug) I don't know.

I'm afraid that kid will forever be know as eye bugger kid through high school now in Georgia's head.