Let’s Have Lunch

Sister’s House -- Citrus Heights, CA

    

Yesterday (Tuesday) I had lunch with my son Michael at a place called “South’s” at 11th and T streets in Sacramento.  Not fancy by any means, but the food was sure good.

Michael works in the State Capital as a staff member for a prominent committee for the State Assembly.  Although all (if not all, nearly all) state’s have a State Senate, some states have either a Assembly, General Assembly, State Assembly, House of Delegates, or House of Representatives…California has the State Assembly system.  Since the house and senate are essentially on break, although they still hold hearings and committee meetings during this time period, it is a slower time for Michael, and going out to lunch was an easy meet up.  Besides, he wanted to buy his dad lunch for my birthday which I had last week (see previous blog).  So I picked him up just before noon, and we headed to South Chicken Restaurant.  While still adhering to my low carb diet, I had the Fried Chicken Kale Salad and tried pulling off the crispy batter from the chicken the best I could.  I am not a huge fan of Kale, but I really liked this Kale Salad topped with herbed buttermilk dressing, toasted pistachios and goat cheese (also comes with onions which I passed on).  Michael had the fried chicken…which looked even better than my salad, although I don’t think I could have handled the cooked kale greens that came with it.  Only thing missing was his fiancé Anna who is also a state worker, but had a 1:00 meeting which she could not have missed.  They are getting married next year in July, so you can guess where we will be next year with dad turning 90, mom and dad celebrating their 70th anniversary, and son Michael getting married…and in between a few of these events, we will probably go to Yosemite (one of my favorite parks) and we plan to be in Southern Oregon for at least a month, probably 6 weeks.

Today (Wednesday) mom had a regular checkup with her primary doctor at 1 pm, so Marcia, Mom, Dad and I went to Claim Jumper in Roseville for lunch.  Claim Jumper is a Landry’s Restaurant, and I have a Landry’s card, and for my birthday they give a $25 birthday credit if you come in on your birthday month (or before the 15th of the next month).  We like Claim Jumper, although the price can be up there…but lunch is more reasonable.  Long time blog readers know that mom and dad use to live on the same cul-de-sac as my sister…where we stay with our motorhome when we visit the area.  There is only one house between where mom and dad lived, and Sandy and Arny’s house…and the man of the house just happens to be a manager at Claim Jumper…and he worked today…and he had not seen mom and dad since they had to move.  Well, he made sure our orders were perfect…and they were…and he tossed in a free piece of birthday cake for me which I gave Arny and Sandy. YES, the picture to the left is what it looks like…it really is that big.  Marcia and I in previous years…before diet…would eat at Claim Jumper and purchase a dessert or two to bring back to Sandy and Arny which would feed the six of us (remember, mom and dad were still next door back then.)

In my next blog I plan to share pictures of Christmas lights around the neighborhood...Arny is still working on his, and some of the neighbors are already finished.  When you have a bunch of lights, the pain is making sure they all work.  Arny asked me to order a few tools which helped find the bad areas...and I will share pictures of that process with you all then too.

NOTE:  The only picture I took for this posting was the one of the Capital...all of the others came from the Internet, and are noted as such if you place the cursor over the picture.

Thanksgiving(s) of Old…Well, 50+ Years Ago

Sister’s House – Citrus Heights, CA

Thanksgiving, as I have written before, has always been a huge family gathering day even well before I discovered that my Dad has 3, or is it 4, ancestors who were on the Mayflower.  I cannot remember Thanksgivings where it was just mom, dad and my brothers and sister … it always seems that we got together with many relatives, and throw in a few church friends now and then too.  Not sure what the largest gathering was…it seems there was one at our house which mom forced me to walk to when I was not even eight yet (wrote about that a few blogs ago) that we had 25 people at it…give a person or two.  Of course, as a young kid, you think things are much bigger than they really were.

Thanksgiving has always meant FOOTBALL.  In Sacramento there was a Thanksgiving Day High School Football game between Sacramento High (where dad graduated from) and C.K. McClatchy High (where my oldest brother graduated from...and yes, as in McClatchy Publishing-Newspaper business.)  I don’t know why we went to one of these games, but we did, or at least some of us.  Not sure mom went, not sure sis went…but I know I was there.  But the REAL football games that I recall were the ones which we played about a half mile away from the house at the Sewage Treatment Plant…well, actually land which was adjacent to the Sewage Treatment Plant.

Above is a current Google Image of the sewage treatment plant (now called the City of Sacramento DOU – Department of Utilities).  The plant was about half the size it is now…perhaps even less than half, and is that large area to the right of the green circle in the picture.  The “green circle” is where the large lawn was located that we played football on Thanksgiving morning.  We would gather all the kids in the neighborhood, even calling up a few would lived outside of the neighborhood, and have a giant football game.  We also used the same property to play baseball sometimes.  One time while we were playing some kid, who was near the bottom of the circle while we were playing where that white building is located in the circle, yelled and asked if he could play.  Someone yelled back, “Sure, come on down.”  Back in those days there was a trench which transported the water from the plant to a lake down past our house.  We continued to play, and after a batter or two we wondered where this guy who wanted to play with us went to…until we see him climbing out of the trench.  He did not know about the trench, and was running to us watching the play continue and yep, he ran himself right into that sewage treatment water.  We told him that he could still play…but he had to play right field for both teams…which is where the wind was blowing out to.  Surprisingly, he said ok, and that is what he did.

   

And every once in awhile…someone’s Birthday falls on Thanksgiving.  That happened 50 years ago, and it happens again this year, and it has happened a few times in between.  Hope YOU ALL have a nice Thanksgiving…I know I will, even as I creep closer and closer to Medicare…