Last posted blog was dated 5 February and contained grammar errors. Sorry.
As advised in an old adage, “Never apologize, never explain” … well I made it through the first piece of that advice but am still having a bit of trouble with the other.
Oh well …
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Mark and family were here last sunday.
Francis and I played dominoes. We had a good time. I won a couple of times but it took me much thought and pattern searching and he pointed out that I could have won faster had I played a different pattern because he would then lay out his tiles in a pattern that would have used all his tiles and he would have won. By then I was laughing.
Then Francis started winning so I asked, as a joke, that he select my tiles for me and I won. Then we were both laughing.
I don’t recall the rest of the games we played but I was really concentrating and nearly won one or two more until he began winning again. Then the game ended when we were called for dinner.
I swear the kid has magic hands.
I think he was having fun as was I.
For the next time the family is here we agreed we would learn Backgammon since neither of us had ever played that game before. If we were betting I’d put my money on Francis catching on while I am still trying to learn.
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I’m reading a good book, which is 6th or 7th in a series. It is a good read without feeling I need to go back and read all the ones I missed. I am finding I have read enough and am remembering the characters.
I finally decided the author is probably doing her own way of weeding because she is writing backstory and I’m catching up along with her.
I think I have already told you about finding how names in books are sometimes clues to story lines or a character’s place in the story.
Well, the book I am currently reading is full of them. So as well as being a good read, the challenge of understanding is equally good … Maryse, Loussainte, Clara Morrow, Monsieur Godin, Reine-Marie and that’s just a start.
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Weather is much as it has been. Cold mornings (currently 28 degrees) and a bit warmer in the early afternoon.
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At the south end of Old Stage Road where it goes through Mt Shasta is the relic of an old Richfield gas station. Several folks, including me, my older son, a local photographer who is no longer taking photos, and who knows how many others have looked at the building with thoughts or dreams of turning it into a dwelling.
It seems those stations were part of a system for automobiles and for the aircraft of the day to find their way. Like the huge white arrows on the ground which pointed the way across the country from east to west or west to east depending on the direction of the arrows, the Richfield stations with their extremely tall RICHFIELD towers with red beacons on the top marked the route for airplanes north and south and were called the Lane of Lights.
There are VERY few of them left. Here are photos of some of the remnants of history .
The station at Capistrano …
and at Siskiyou Summit …
And the one at Mt Shasta.
The gas stations were spaced a full tank of gas apart so drivers knew when and where they could refuel.
I can remember when Daddy would stop at a Richfield station and my sister and I would be given booklike pamphlets about the birds, or flowers, or other points of interest along the route.
A teacher of mine, with whom I corresponded late in life, had saved some for his children and gave me some. I wish I could find those but they were all lost in my late life moves.
Oh well …
For further information here are some links …
https://www.livinggoldpress.com/rich.htm
Hope you can enjoy the trip down history lane.
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To end this week …
Remember the little things. Some day you’ll appreciate that they were actually the big things.
Quotes from Charles Todd (Ian Rutledge book series)
“A Fearsome Doubt – pg 194”
And so ‘til next week …