Of a yard sale, a book, and an alert~~~~

Hello My Darklings,

First I want to say that I am gratified that you like my blog the way it is, I do appreciate that.

Secondly I have found a Monster High Doll for Coralline and I just got word that the poor child is suffering from Allergies, the Doctor is being careful with the Meds she's taking, but it should help.

I'm going to see her tonight and surprise her with the Doll so I will know more. 

I have to admit that in going to the stores I came across a yard sale, and had to stop, I found some unusual looking garden statues for my yard, one is of a sea serpent and comes in 3 sections, so it looks like it will flow in and out of the grass or if I mount it on some sort of brick work in water it will look like it is flowing in the pond.

The other is a sort of deranged looking Unicorn, its the only way I can describe it, but it looks insane enough to fit in the garden for what I have in mind.

BUT I missed out on purchasing a real 2nd hand coffin----is that just my luck!!!

But the seller told me that it was purchased by a teacher from a medical school---and the seller said for me to come back in two weeks---tons of Halloween things will be for sale---I plan to get there when it opens, in the early A.M. coffee mug in hand, and Doyle's' van at the ready.  You know me and Halloween, my Darklings.

One of my co-workers this morning left me a note about a book that I might be interested in reading, knowing my taste for the bizarre, the morbid etc.  It's a book about a serial killer that no one has heard of names Edward Wayne Edwards, I think the author is Jon Cameron, and it's just being released.  It looks bizarrely fascinating about a serial killer who may have done murders and managed to get innocent people arrested and jailed, such as the Abbot Murder case, the Shepard Murder case, possibly the Zodiac Case and the Black Dahlia.

I'm going to request this book through my local Library and if I find it worthy to add to my collection then I will purchase it.

I'm typing this on my coffee break here at work so it has to be a bit short, but right now my fellow co-workers and I are concerned about a situation that has developed and it's about someone that our Boss is somewhat familiar with and he is concerned as well.

He has given us this information and I did see it on the news last night----We don't know where this person is hiding and since I'm here in the San Francisco Bay Area, I'm asking my Darkling friends to be on the watch for this person----there is no accusation by me, but to simply be careful, inform the authorities if you see him and to let the authorities handle this.

I am printing part of the article for your information. You can find the person's picture on the internet on Yahoo news.

FBI issues nationwide alert for San Francisco man

Associated Press

By GARANCE BURKE 2 hours ago      

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The FBI has issued a nationwide alert to law enforcement agencies about a San Francisco social media consultant they consider armed and dangerous who is wanted on suspicion of possessing explosives.

FBI spokesman Peter Lee said Sunday that 42-year-old Ryan Kelly Chamberlain II was last seen in a dark blue, hooded sweatshirt and jeans.

Multiple agencies, including hazardous materials crews, searched Chamberlain's apartment in San Francisco's Russian Hill neighborhood on Saturday, blocking off the street to vehicle and pedestrian traffic for much of the day.

Lee gave no details Sunday about the nature of the investigation, but said authorities believe Chamberlain is acting alone.

"We believe he is alone in the vehicle but we just don't know, again, where his ties or his network is so we ask that any members of the public be on the lookout for anyone that matches this man's description," Lee said at a press conference outside FBI headquarters on Sunday.

Chamberlain is traveling in a white 2008 Nissan Altima with Texas or California license plates, but authorities do not know where he is heading, Lee said.

~~~~~~

Our Boss feels that it's possible that Mr. Chamberlain might be under some sort of mental strain and we hope that he is found unharmed and can explain his actions. 

So Darklings do be careful.

And when I read this book I'll let you know what I think of it.

 

Later Darklings

 

 

 

Of Dental Surgery, book sales and wild fires~~~~~

Hello My Darklings,

Well the dental treatment went much better than expected, my dentist feels that two more treatments will finish the root canal part of it and then to proceed onto crowning the tooth, its a back molar and he'd prefer a gold crown but I want something more natural looking, considering that all the new materials hold up just as good.

But we will discuss that as we get closer to that portion of it.  I really don't like dentists visits but at my age, frankly at any age, good dental care both at home and with your dentist is important, that I why I've been able to keep all my teeth for such a long time.  Mother told me a long time ago, that prenatal care is important for bones and teeth for the expected baby.   By eating healthy and taking vitamins and doing what your doctor says almost guarantees that the baby's health, teeth and bones will be in excellent shape.

The one thing that does bother me is people going to extremes of teeth whitening, I have seen on people teeth so white that they are un-natural in color, as a matter of fact my dentist has said that teeth should not be white/white but an off-white or pale cream color.  So instead of whitening it should be lightening.

Now I love coffee so every so often I do have my teeth lightened but to a more natural light color to take any coffee staining out, and its less harsh on the dental enamel.  That is something that always worries me.

For me after the root canal treatment I'm a wreck, and my jaw and palate hurt from the shots, so I take Vicodin for the pain and almost always fall asleep that is why its important for me to have someone drive me to my dentist appointment when its something this extreme, dental cleaning is not a problem, but this.

So I came home and napped, for a while.   Then it was time to go to the book sale.

Considering how Hot it has been I knew it would be warm at the book sale, so I dressed comfortably, black cotton shirt and skirt and comfortable walking shoes, one is on one's feet a lot.

On the opening night I encountered nice people and rude people, the ones that I know are buying for re-sale can be the most rude, I was looking at one book and this man was going to take it out of my hand, I slapped his wrist and told him to back off or I would bite him, that he had no right to remove a book from my hand that I was going to purchase, and if he wanted to make a Federal offence of it I would call over one of the book sale attendants to have them call the police.  And I gave him a hard stare, he backed off.

I did alert one of the book sale chair persons and they dealt with the man.  It was interesting because some of the other buyers that I know re-sell stayed away from me. 

And the book that I was buying was "Roy Rodgers and the Rimrock Riders" 1952, Whitman Publications,  I am going to give that to my brother for his birthday, he loves Roy Rodgers, the Lone Ranger, Hopalong Cassidy, Gene Autry, etc. and I knew he'd love this book, along with a couple of others that I found at other places.

I did find a very old book printed in 1910 titles "Apparitions"  it was a bound monograph about the reasons for the appearance of ghosts or spirits.  I thought it would make a nice addition to my Cabinet of Curiosities, and I found at the bottom of a pile, an old small Catholic Missal from the 1890's.  Sis came over to look at it and gave me an idea when she said "Hmmm you could put it together with a vampire killing kit, it's the right age."  My sister can be as wicked as me.

Sis had been looking over the reference and history/biography section of materials for her own personal library, sometimes she gets lucky in finding out of print works in her field.  Then we edged over to the Mystery section, and I found a number of good reads for those rainy winter nights or long summer evenings, including 5 re-printed hardcover James Bond books with their covers---those are keepers.

We filled 5 boxes of our selections and a nice man with a dolly transported them to our car.  Over this weekend we'll pull them out and put them into the Library waiting for us to transport our minds to other places, adventures and the deepest darkest minds of evil. 

I was reluctant last night to eat anything tough so Sis heated up some Butternut Squash soup, and the soft centers of Sourdough french bread, she dipped the outer crust into her soup, ordinarily I would have but I still felt tender.

We watched the news last night and they talked about the fires down in Riverside, heading to Malibu and with 50 mile an hour winds, over 18,000 acres destroyed, homes burned, people given orders to leave, and fires up North as well near Calistoga threatening vineyards.  And just across the bay grass fires in Brisbane, and another large grass fire down in San Jose near a shopping mall.  The whole State of California is so tinder dry that fire season has started early, our good rain fall stopped in January, and although our reservoirs are at 97% full for us here, the winds, the heat, the lack of rain has made conditions very dangerous, both in the country and in Urban and Suburban areas. 

Sis is concerned about pyromaniacs, or foolish children or teenagers, but some could have started very simply by a carelessly tossed cigarette.  This morning I got up and made sure that the water was on the plants both front and back and I'm going to have it run again tonight using any cistern water,  Sis also got up early and watered the front area of the house she's going to buy.  A neighbor of ours told us that his elderly neighbors that live next to him, have their son living with them in a room built into their garage, and the son is, as he puts it a 51/50, so he is very concerned.  For some reason I feel that this Summer is going to become very interesting.

And now Sis is ready and wants to go hunting Yard sales, no re-conceived ideas, just driving around and having fun.  I like the idea already and Belladonna is ready to hang her head out the window and sniff interesting scents.

Later Darklings

Vacation update~~Lodi Review, wine and yard sales~~~

Well Darklings, I have a lot to post~~~




The beauty about laptops is they are much like a portable typewriter that the war correspondents used during World War II, Korea and Vietnam, now with a laptop and flash drives you can get the story out quicker or save it till one returns to home base.



So while I have a chance this morning I’m going to post a lot of “posts.”



Starting with this one~~~~



If you live in the Bay Area, do not discount Lodi as a place to get wines, I was very pleasantly surprised by the variety and quality of their wines. Of course if you go down the main drag all you see are just box stores and strip malls, but I did some serious research and found that they have an “Old Town Lodi” and wonderful one of a kind shops.



I love cheeses, but I have to be careful as sometimes too much cheese can cause problems, and as an Elder/Elderly Goth I know that problem all too well, but if you can go to Cheese Central on School Street you will not be disappointed. Now I happen to purchase some of their cheeses at the Thursday evening Farmers Market and they have fabulous jams and jellies. Another Shop in Lodi that I heard mentioned on “Eye on the Bay” is the Sea Salt Cottage, and it is as fabulous as they said.



I enjoyed lunch at the Dancing Fox Winery and Bakery, and went back on my last day before I returned home to get some bakery goods, which I know will last for several days. Just Heaven is the best way to describe it. Although some people said that their lunch was a “mixed-bag” in quality I felt that my lunch was quite good.



On the wines, I’ll leave that to your own choosing but I have to say I was not disappointed with the selection from D’Art Wines. Just excellent. There are many wineries in the area, and I recommend that you take just a week at least to enjoy the wine tasting rooms, but be prepared to have a very nice place to stay so you are not driving in an inebriated state.



I splurged and stayed for 4 nights at the Wine & Roses Hotel, it is a Hotel, Spa and Restaurant, a lovely romantic place for romantic couples, but not good for children---in that case take the kiddies to Disneyland. It was relaxing, pampering and well worth the big bucks that I spent there. On the Spa I went for the Wine & Roses Ultimate Treatment, the only thing that could equal it are the treatments at the Claremont Hotel and Spa…Ahhhhh Heaven.



For the remaining 3 nights I spent in Lodi I stayed at the Hampton Inn on Beckman Rd, don’t let the location put you off, it was very nice there, and priced very reasonably. And if you have children it is child friendly. Check out Trip Advisor for other places to stay.



There are in Lodi at least two child fun places, one of them is a science museum and the other is a small children’s amusement park perfect for the really little ones, check Lodi’s web site for more information.



While I was in Lodi at one of the wine tastings I met up with a young lady (well anyone under the age of 50 is young to me, but she was in her early 30’s) who is studying to be a Sommelier, not an easy thing to do as I understand it, having read a news article in a local paper. Her knowledge of wines was, in my opinion, amazing, but she said that she is not yet good enough to be considered a master at it.



I told her about my “middle class” wine purchases and she said that for California wines in my price range they were good choices, she did recommend a few to me that although more expensive I should treat myself to at least once in my life. Something I’m going to have to save up for.



I asked her what she was partial to and she said she had a weakness for the Portuguese Dry red wines and the Southern Italian Reds as well, she felt that the French wines could be “finicky” which was her word for it, but she was still tracking down a French red wine she felt good with. She still had not determined which of the white wines would be her favorite.



She was very into the history of the different wineries both here and in Europe and told me that if California had not rescued the French vines when France had that dreaded moth invasion many of our fine varietals would have been lost forever, she felt that France really doesn’t give California enough credit for having saved the wine industry. She also is studying California and other wines made here in the United States and said that we can sometimes be surprised by what can turn up.



Because we wanted to continue our conversation she joined me as my guest back at Wine & Roses for Dinner and we had a marvelous conversation over the wonderful food that was served, about the twists and turns in our lives, she agreed with me that we may not live the life that we want but we do live the life that we need to live.



We exchanged business cards and e-mails and made plans to get together in the latter part of October at an Oktoberfest she recommended and told me to bring Doyle as well.



I had so much fun at the Thursday Farmer’s Market in Lodi, and it is so interesting to see the differences in produce that each Farmer’s Market carries in various areas. I had fun making what I call “pantry purchases” of spices, jams, preserves and such that I will enjoy stocking my pantry with.



But home again, home again on Saturday so I would have had at least Sunday to do my laundry and get everything ready for work on Monday. But even on Saturday I had a chance to stop at a Yard Sale---yes Darklings, maybe I should put a banner on the back of my car that says “I brake for all funerals, cemeteries and Yard Sales”, and this one was a delight to check out.



I found a wonderful incense burner in a type of bronze of an Indian chief with a peace pipe, sitting on a blanket, the chief and the blanket are two parts with the blanket (also made of metal) to hold cone incense and then you place the chief over it and it looks like he’s blowing smoke and smoke coming out of the pipe as well. I determined that the style was from the late ‘teens to 1920’s when such things were very popular.



I also found several 1920’s fortune telling decks, and a peculiar looking tarot deck, it was only the major arcana but the designs were from the 1920’s but with the faces of skulls. I thought these decks would look good in my cabinet of curiosities in my library.



It turned out that the yard sale was really an estate sale, an elderly relative had died and I found a darling sugar and creamer in the darkest blue color I have ever seen right from the 1940’s, and a dark grey handbag from I. Magnin’s of San Francisco from the 1950’s which will go very well with my hat that I bought at the Vintage Fashion Fair a few days before I left for Lodi.



There were other things as well that I purchased, some period costume jewelry, and other things, and then I had to leave, since I knew I would be driving west and towards the setting sun, I wanted to leave before the sun was so low that it would be in my eyes while driving, not a good thing really, especially as one gets closer to the insanity of driving in the Bay Area.



If there is one thing I learned Darklings is this, if you are driving East in the early morning the Morning Sun will be in your eyes but will rise higher and get out of your way, but driving east in the late afternoon is fine, but if you are driving West it’s better to do it in the early morning with the sun behind you as the late afternoon sun can be blinding. North or South is not a problem.



But I always make it a policy to never drive after 3 p.m. when I’m on a trip, it’s always better to find a place to stay, otherwise you’re heading into commute traffic or evening can quickly come upon you during the late fall and winter months especially in the mountains.



And then I was home, happily greeted by Doyle who helped me unpack my car, and put away my wines and panty supplies as I loaded a load of clothes into the washing machine and finished unpacked my bags and putting things away, Doyle later stored the suitcases away with cedar blocks in them to keep out moths and such.



We went to pick up my little Belladonna who was delirious to see me, with barks of “Mommy you found me, don’t leave me again”. My sitter told me that she and Belladonna got along fine but she did miss me. With that in mind I am more determined than ever to not leave Belladonna behind if at all possible.



Fortunately I did not have to make dinner either Saturday or Sunday as Doyle wanted to stretch out my vacation just a little more without having to worry about dinner preparations, also he wanted to celebrate as he had successfully concluded his part in the investigation and it was all turned over to lawyers. I told him about the Oktoberfest in October and he said he would make sure to have that time free.



So now I am putting together my lists of places and events, things to see and plan on. Already I’m feeling a tug to explore something strange and new but I’m going to have to wait and save up my money and plan. I know I want to go North again but this time further North, to drive through huge trees and see if I can spot Sasquatch, to see bizarre things and hear the roar of the ocean on the Northern Coast, sort of a touch of “Dark Shadows” in a way, find my own “Collinswood”. Who knows…..maybe find Barnabas Collins…..???



Later Darklings.