Dave and I went on a 3 day road trip to So Cal – first stop Panorama City to see Aunt Chris and Uncle John. They have had an insane last 6 months with a complete rebuild of the house next door to make a rehabilitation center. This included tearing down the common fence with no notice. Sounds like it wasn’t legit at all. The construction crew did not speak English and using gps the owner decided that he owned 2 feet of Chris and John’s side yard. So after a lot of yelling and gesticulating to stop the non-English speaking workers, the neighbor owner decided to be nice and take only 1 foot of the property. I figure through squatter’s rights they should own it all after 35 years. Chris and John are in their late 70s and work hard to maintain a low key comfortable life so this was quite disruptive! I must say now that it has been pretty much settled, they looked very good, as did the cats, tortoises and chickens! Well, maybe not the chickens since they were molting. But it is quite fun to see Chris especially, interact with them as pets.
On Saturday, we got to watch Rome play soccer. It’s been a few since we watched little kid sports and it can be very fun! We also got to meet Kristina’s fiancée, Kara, and Lesley’s boyfriend, Jason. Eric and Edna were there as well as Marinell, Edison and of course, Lesley and Talon. Then we all went to a long lunch at Lazy Dog and got caught up on all the details of life. It has been several years since we were all together so that was a fantastic meal! Then we met up with Eric, Kristina and Kara agin for dinner at Macaroni Grill. It was so nice to reconnect with Kristina and get to know Kara.
We also made a quick stop at Forest Lawn to visit Mom and Grandma and Grandpa. It was surprising to see the huge tree by Gand G gone but they have planted a small magnolia tree in its place (I think). Cleaned up the headstones and walked around uprighting several flags that had fallen over. I think they were on the graves of those who served for Veteran’s Day at the end of the week.
Then it was a pretty quick drive back home down Highway 5. After all the driving we have done through some pretty boring deserts and prairies lately, I5 isn’t so bad. And relatively quick. So now I need to get ready for the girl’s trip to Austin, Texas!
