Well, You Axed For It! Shade Your Eyes!...

I hope this page is big enough to show the labor of two days worth of heavy duty gold panning!

There is more gold than you might think here. That coin is one of those rare silver dollars that were accidentally minted as a quarter. Now ain't that somethin'?

Later...

'Gold!'...We Found Gold!!!'...

Well, we did find gold. Sandy and I went to 'the creek' yesterday and did some placer mining. We literally dug for gold. (If you can call breaking up rocks in the creek bed, digging; and I do.

It was a nice warm day and our bosses..er, that is, our wives asked if we would like to help them make a couple of quilts for some new born grandchildren. We said, "Uh,..er-.-.well, uhh," and I guess that was a good enough answer for them because they said, in unison, "Then get your fat asses out of the way! Go for a hike or something; just don't get in our way!

We thought their suggestion of going to the creek and panning for gold (that's what I understood them to mean) was a good idea so we did that little thing!

It was nice on the creek, about 74 degrees with just a mild breeze and the water was like ice. In other words, it was a perfect day for panning.

We did a couple of pans and it got us a bit excited to find gold in the first pan so we really dug in.

Each pan had numerous small bits of placer gold and one or two pieces, big enough to be called, "Pickers."

We were there for several hours and did pretty well, considering the area had been worked many times in the last hundred and fifty years.

I found a pretty nice sized 'picker' (I like to call it a nugget even though it was pretty small)

...and Sandy found one, also. It's pictured to the right..er..-the left..-oh,ah...below.. in the brackets..

(.)

Yes, that's it...in the brackets; so we both did pretty well.( if you combine all of it)

The last pan was the best.

All in all, we had a nice time. Maybe later we can find a place on the creek that hasn't been worked to death and we can find enough to make it worthwhile. It doesn't hurt to dream!

Later...

Can You Believe It?...

Bill Banning iPods In Crosswalks Slated For New York...

Many New Yorkers Laugh Off Proposed 'iPod' Law

Don't even think about crossing the street in New York while using any of these things because soon it could be against the law.

Are lawmakers crossing the line? First smoking and cell phone use, then a ban on the stuff that makes a lot of your favorite foods taste good. Now, a New York state senator is set to introduce a bill that would say when and where you can listen to your iPod, among other things.

Boy, what's it gonna be next?

Later...

Does This Bus Go To Red Bluff?...

Boy, here's one for the books!

BANGKOK, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- A woman who boarded the wrong bus on an attempted shopping trip from Thailand to Malaysia has returned home after 25 years.

Jaeyana Beuraheng told her eight children she accidentally boarded a bus bound for Bangkok instead of Malaysia, and once there she boarded a second incorrect bus because she could not read or speak Thai or English, The Times of London reported Wednesday.

Beuraheng, who speaks only the Yawi dialect used by Muslims in southern Thailand, said the noise and traffic of the big city confused and disoriented her, leading her to board the second wrong bus to Chiang Mai, near the border with Burma.

The woman said she spent five years begging on the street in the city and was often mistaken for a member of a hill tribe because of her dark skin tone.

She was arrested in 1987 on suspicion of being an illegal immigrant and was sent to a social services hostel when authorities were unable to determine her origins.

However, last month, three students from her home village arrived at the hostel for training, and they were able to communicate with Beuraheng and help her find her way home.

Later...

Jam Session Again...

Well, yesterday was jam session time again. But, as fate would have it, neither Donna nor I made the scene. My niece called and told us her dad (my brother) was ill (she feared a stroke) and she was taking him to a hospital in Redding so, being relative oriented, we called and bowed out of the session and drove to Redding to check on my brother. He's only 80 but has been acting a bit old of late.

We got to the hospital forthwith and, after haranguing the receptionist (she says only one at a time can visit a patient) I went to his room and talked to him for a time. He appeared confused and slurred his words and drooled some so, naturally, I wondered what was wrong, why he was here. He seemed normal to me, just as he always is.

Then a nurse came in to draw blood. I had to wrestle her and shout at the top of my lungs (mostly the right one, of which the 'top', is about 4' from the floor) to convince her I was not the patient and my brother was not just taking a nap because he was tired of visiting me.
She finally saw the light and told me I had to work out some and get in better shape (and stay away from hospitals) so this mistake wouldn't happen again. That really offended me and I assured her that I do work out regularly, probably too much, and proved it to her by showing her how tired my right hand was, especially my pointing finger, from clicking that stupid mouse so much. She acknowledged this pertinent fact by saying emphatically, "Yeah,-right!"

Anyhow, she drew the blood and I remember awaking on the floor with someone slapping my face and saying, "Wake the hell up!" I guess seeing the blood made me sleepy and I inadvertently took a short nap. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)

Well, as it turned out, after performing a cat scan on him (a tabby) the doctor and the entire staff swore there was nothing wrong with him and paid my niece (his daughter) three dollars to take him home. And we (Donna and I) came home.

After we got home and I beat the crap out of Donna (playing old folks shuffleboard-I always beat her because I am a better shuffler than is she) we got a call from (or Donna called her) one of the jammers, a lady friend named Loretta. Donna told her about my brother and why we didn't go to the jam session and Loretta said we missed out on the real excitement.

Evidently an obnoxious jam sessioner complained about Loretta talking too much while the music was being played and she took somewhat of an offense to his obnoxiousness and told him he shouldn't grouse at her because of her bad temper from her German ancestral heritage and she commented about his canine ancestral heritage and that somewhat peed him off and so he proceeded to shake his pointing finger in her face until she snapped (literally). That must have did it because, after doing a short, animated dance and shouting some choice, descriptive words, he took the rest of his fingers (the ones still attached to that hand), gathered up the other one, wrapped it in a tissue and left in a huff, probably headed for the same hospital where Donna and I had been earlier.

Well, that's the long and the short of it. All in all, yesterday was a somewhat productive day, not unlike other days we have experienced recently, as we approach middle age with it's bountiful rewards.

They (whoever, 'they', are) say the older years are the Golden Years. I can believe that if 'they' mean it takes all your gold to just squeak by each day.

I can't wait to begin experiencing the joys of my 'Golden' years. I am just barely seventy one years of age and am anxiously awaiting my eightieth plus years when I, too, can drool, act confused and slur my words and still understand nothing is wrong with me.
When that happens for the first time, I won't bother anyone to take me to any hospital,- I'll just stick out my thumb and hitch hike to Redding and go to that same hospital where, yesterday, I made so many friends!

On second thought, maybe I'll have Donna take me and attempt to check me in. By then I'm sure we will really need the three dollars!

Later...