My Alphabe Thursday theme: Places I've Been For many years, I've wanted to visit the Gilroy Yamato Hot Springs, a once-upon-a-time very popular resort in the foothills of the southern end of the Diablo Range. Now part of the Henry Coe State Park, this historic landmark is about 10 miles northeast of Gilroy, California, which is nearby my town of Hollister. Unless there are special events or planned guided tours by the all-volunteer, nonprofit group Gilroy Yamato Hot Springs (GYHS), the place is not open to the public. Two weeks ago, GYHS held a special event to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the hot springs being made a historic landmark. (It's listed on the National Register of Historic Places and also designated as a California Historical Landmark.) Yup, the Husband and I attended the event. The grand hotel, club house, swimming pool,  soaking pools, and other magnificent structures of long ago no longer exist. Many of the guest cottages still stand. The

Klunga-langa-tank. Klunga-langa-tank. Klunga-langa-langa-langa-lagna-langa-tank! That's the Husband's and my new song, based on the sound my purple pencil makes when I push on the end of it. Over and over. And over. And, over. Words are on strike in my brain today. Or, maybe it's my brain that's on strike. The words are simply in their cubbyholes waiting to be put together into a story. So, if you please, I hope you'll come back tomorrow for my Alphabe Thursday post about the Gilroy Yamamoto Hot Springs. Ciao. And chow, I would definitely like right now.

I've been seeing a lot of yellow vehicles lately—yellow sedans and sports cars, school-bus-yellow RVs and trucks, and bright-yellow vans and motorcycles. Yellow must be the new popular choice. I like that. My first car was a lemon-yellow 1971 Dodge Colt.  That was my high school graduation gift. I fell in love with it, at first sight. There were two colors available, and the Daddy liked the other one, which color I no longer remember. He was a great sport and let me have the yellow Colt. I think the Mama was disappointed that I didn't want some kind of flashy, sporty, or more feminine-looking car. The Daddy seemed to have no problem with the Colt being a boxy subcompact, as it ran perfectly and it was new. (The Daddy liked buying new vehicles.) It was also cheap. Very cheap, as I was happy with no radio, no air conditioning, no anything extra. Emeline is what I called her. We definitely had some great adventures. The first was learning how to drive her. She was a stick s

The big news is that it has been raining today. Those glorious drops of water on the Mama's rose are raindrops. Hurrah! Showers were steadily beating the rooftops and roads between very early this morning (maybe 1:00 a.m.) and just before noon.  It looks like more rain is on the way. Maybe even a thunderstorm or two.  Whoo-hooo! I got happily soaked twice, once walking around the neighborhood, taking photos. As I was bending down by a gutter taking photos, a  driver at the stop sign called over to me, "Are you okay?" It took me a moment to realize he was speaking to me. I stood up and turned, pointing to my camera, "I'm fine. I'm taking photos." He laughed. "Thanks very much," I said. He waved and drove away. The second time was a quick dash over by bicycle to the godmother. When I left her house, I felt like bicycling more in the rain. I was good and whooshed straight home. The Mama said it the best about our good fortune today, &q

Consumers be alert! This afternoon,  I shopped for the Godmother at the pharmacy, as there werelLots of things on sale that she wanted—cereal, instant coffee, vitamin D3, and more. The vitamins were not on sale, but it still was cheaper than the similar item that was on sale. Pretty good. After I left the counter, I checked the receipt. Something didn't feel right. I thought the price on the coffee was wrong. It was correct. But the price for the vitamins was wrong. The cash register rang it up as $24.99. The tag on the shelf said $14.99. I brought everything back to the counter and told another clerk (because the first clerk was gone) about the difference. Huh? The clerk looked at me blankly. So, I told him I'm going back to check the tag again. He told me that if the tag said what I thought it said,  then I should bring the tag back. Ha! I was correct. The second clerk checked the tag. "Okay, we'll give you a refund," he said and handed it over to the