Of a mini-update and what is BART?~~~~

Well Darklings I know, what two posts in one day?? 

For me unheard of, but from this morning there were some changes.  Our Great and Glorious Fearless Leader  aka the Boss called us outlying workers including Moi and said to not come in, we would be paid and no loss on any vacation time either.

It seems that the Air Conditioner System which also controls the heat has gone out again, some electronic device and it will take at least three days to fix as it has to be traced and more than one part may have to be fixed.

Well the system is old and there's been talk of replacing it, but they were hoping to wait until the Fall when the need for either a lot of heat or coolness isn't needed. 

Doyle has been doing most of his reports here at home and doesn't need to go into his office until Monday as well,  Sis's clients have taken a 4 day vacation with the 4th of July holiday and with this wonderful break in the weather everyone is enjoying the coolness.   Rumor has it that it was only 70 degrees in Vacaville.  But I'll know more when I watch the news tonight, and see what is happening in the rest of the world.

I've had a question put to me by one of my blog readers who is in Europe.  The question was "What is BART?"

Well first thing Darkling is it is not referring to Bart Simpson of the Simpson's program, although many people would have like to have done to BART like Homer does to his irritating smart-aleck son.

BART is an anagram for Bay Area Rapid Transit.    It is easily Googled to find out exactly what it is and does, it runs both underground like a subway and above ground like a train or type of Monorail, but it is not a monorail but elevated train type trackage, run by electricity so to not be completely confused with light rail although it does bare some resemblence.

If you go to the BART web site you can see the distance it runs,  from Richmond to Fremont, through Oakland, Berkely, Hayward, out to Pleasanton, Walnut Creek, Daley City and San Francisco and the S.F. airport.  It is extending lines to the Oakland Airport as well as other area's.

If one is visiting you can use BART in combination with S.F. muni, AC Transit, the ferries, the regular train system, to travel the Bay Area and Beyond with a little planning and money, unfortunately you need to have either cash or credit/debt cards  for cards or passes for each transportation system,  at this time there is not one card or pass that one can "load up" with cash to travel, but that may happen in the future.

There is light rail in Sacramento and San Jose and if one is interested in Rail transportation one could make an entire exploration of it.   But I suggest that you Google the local transportation systems here in the Bay Area if you're planning to visit.

Anyway Sis and I decided to play "hookey" today since she didn't have any clients, I don't have to go into work and Brian is house sitting and he's gotten into the habit of taking Belladonna for frequent walks in the late evening, (so much cooler) but I've found that he and Bella have nice long "talks" well he talks and she listens, she is such a good listener.

I needed to go to Bed Bath and Beyond for hangers and things for my closet and that was Sis's destination as well, so shopping we went, and it was a good thing, we both found garment bags and such for our winter clothes, and much needed moth repellent that smells of either cedar or lavendar.   But we took a side trip to TJ Max,  and I was surprised to see at least 4 or 5 jaguars,  3 Mercedes Benzs,  a number of high end Lexus and a few of the more expensive BMW's and (please no heart attacks) 2 Porches and a Ferrari.

It seems there was a serious interest in the more high end clothing that was availabe women were stacking their shopping carts like it was going out of style, but Sis and I were casual, until I spotted a pair of black high heeled Coach shoes, with the sweetest silver buckles.  They fitted perfectly like a dream cloud, and I had to have them, I'm sorry Darklings but Greed did loom in my eyes,  they were of a beautiful classic styling just right for an Elder Goth and they added 2 1/2 more inches to my 5 foot 7 inch hight,  and yes they were $99 dollars,  I had to have them Darklings, just had to.

So I put them in my shopping cart along with a serving platter to replace one that accidently broke through my carelessness,  I was greatful that the one that broke was not part of a set of my great-aunts but one that I brought when I moved in, so no emotional loss.  Sis found a nice light weight sweater perfect for a coolish evening out, although one of the women who drove a Jag and extremely skinny and had a turkey neck (yes Darklings I'm being catty) was seriously eye-balling our finds, I told Sis to keep an eye on our finds.

I was contimplating a metal colored tote bad by "Under the Sky" that had a gold skull out lined in gold pointed spikes but I felt it was too weapon like, I mean Darklings one could have done some serious pain with that bag if they swung it. 

Then I found it another treasure, Elizabeth Taylor's "Black Pearls" colongue (sp) grabbed that too,  in terms of clothing there really wasn't much that I was interested in but I found a ring in the jewerly department, one that I had seen in an "In Style" magazine several months ago and coveted,  it was gothic enough to make a statement on its own and very stylish  it was square enamel set in gold tone metal, with an amethyst square cut stone in the center and 4 red square cut garnet type stones at each corner.  Granted it is costume jewerly but one that makes a statement.  Yes Darklings I got that as well and old turkey neck was really ticked off,  well as our Daddy use to say "Ya snooze, ya loose".

Sis found a lovely pin of a coiled snake in gold tone, perfect for evening wear.   We looked at each other and sighed, "We need a vintage fashion fair to go to" she said, and I could only agree.

We made our purchases,  debated about dinner I mean did we want to go tacky or finesse,  we chose tacky and bought the 8 piece bucket dinner from Kentucy Fried chicken,  for some reason Doyle likes the Colesaw and gravy and bisquets and we knew 4 bisquets with Doyle would not be enough so we added 4 more to please him.

Right now Sis is setting it out and we are going to eat family style in the kitchen breakfast nook,  yes Darklings there are times when it pays to let one's hair down and we are doing it tonight. 

This weekend or at least on Sunday we are going to be putting up the plums for jam,  that temporary stove is going to get a work out this weekend.  But tomorrow morning we are going over to a friends house, seems she is going through her stuff that she has collected over the years and said to come on over for coffee and coffee cake and look over her vintage hat collection and see if there is anything we want to buy, she is giving us first refusal, what we don't want she'll sell to a collector, she said that she also has vintage purses and some clothing we may want to look at and see if we're interested----Interested,  I've never had such a wonderful offer!!!

She said it was time to clear things out, she has focused on some things that she really likes and will keep as they are her favorites but everything else is up for grabs.

Oh and that Family that had the estate sale a few weekends ago, we'll be meeting them the following weekend, it took them that long to recover from their previous sale. 

So with BART back to work, my Boss and I discussing what my next moves are and these wonderful finds, I couldn't be happier.  

And now Sis is saying the KFC is ready.

Later Darklings