Happy New Year!!

Whew! It has only been 7 days since my Christmas day post but it has been a whirlwind of activity. Where to begin?



Let's see...a developing tradition for me is the Christmas sickness which held true again for me. I have been resisting a cold for a couple of weeks. I made it through Christmas but by Sunday it was starting to hit me hard. I had a desert trip scheduled for Monday and I was considering wimping out and skipping it but in the end I went. Monday a.m. I really felt rocky but I tanked up on Contact cold remedy and we set off for the Mojave. Another Jeep with Dad and son accompanied us. A friend from the shooting range rode with me along with my young son. I used my new GPS on the trip and lo and behold the trail we crawled along 'Last Chance Canyon' showed up on the map as a road! Maybe it was a road in the 20s but anyone who found themselves on it now with anything less than a trail-ready 4x4 was in for a world of hurt. My friend looked a bit apprehensive as we banged off of various beer keg sized rocks and clawed up and down hills. He judged the trail to be a bit 'sporty'. We visited Burro Schmidt's tunnel http://www.burroschmidttunnel.org//








After this we traveled to Walt Bickel Camp http://www.bickelcamp.org/ the site of a gold miner's cabin left pretty much as when he lived in it from the 20s to the 80s. It was at this point that I realized that my Jeep's left front fender had hit a rock and two of the plastic rivets were sheared off which left it a bit loose and flapping about as we drove along. About this time my cold was returning with a vengeance. We drove on to an appropriate place to do some safe shooting and while doing so we also got to watch two fighter jets from Edwards AFB doing mock air combat overhead. I managed to make it home before collapsing in a heap from the effects of 150 miles of driving and the onrushing cold/flu

Tuesday I was in bed all day. It was not a fun day. I was supposed to take our house guests to the airport for their trip home but at 6 a.m. I was unable to move so Mrs. Grouch had to do the honors. Sorry Daughter!

Wednesday was recuperation. Mrs. Grouch's brother and family stayed with us that day and spent the night. The girls were fascinated with our dogs and the dogs loved the attention. I was exhausted.

Thursday was maybe going to be the Grouch's New Year's eve party but instead we called it off and Mr. and Mrs. Grouch were collapsed by the fire while the young son went to his girl friend's house where people know how to have a good time. We retrieved him at 12:30 a.m. and fell into bed.

Friday was a big day with New Years dinner at our place with Chee-Chee and Mrs. Grouch's NC brother, the Grouch #2 daughter and #2 son and the young son's girl friend attending. All went well, the dinner was excellent and everyone had a good time. Mrs Grouch and #2 daughter whipped up a batch of New Years cookies for desert - yum!

Saturday was important business for the Grouch - gun trading all day on the other side of L.A.

Sunday - today - the temperature was 70F and the sky was sunny. I did my favorite thing for this time of year and visited the rich side of town with my Jeep and trailer and filched the giant trees put out for recycling. I brought them home, cut off the branches for recycling and cut the trunks up for firewood. I only did 8 trees this year. On my second pass through the best neighborhood (my little trailer will only carry two of the giant trees at a time) the neighbors were outside seemingly discussing the Christmas tree bandit when I showed up again! I smiled at them as I rolled passed, pulled over and grabbed another tree from the sidewalk. They observed me and huddled closely as they conversed in hushed tones. Maybe they thought I was going to get their BMWs next! The trees that come from the rich neighborhoods are truly amazing - these things must be 12ft tall. They have to be $150 trees. No recession on that side of town. Conversely in our neighborhood the pitiful 5ft trees that are left forlornly on the sidewalk aren't even worth my time stopping to pick up. It is tough to be middle class these days.

Happy 2010 everyone. Here's hoping it is better than 2009!