when I was in college...1,000,000 years ago...
This was the place in Mudville,
to take your folks when they came to visit...
table clothes, linen napkins...
delicious home-cooked food...
and the ambiance...
a 2 sided brick fireplace...stained glass windows...
folksy sayings painted on the beams...
red leather booths and chairs...
the "waiting area" was like Grandma's parlor...
and there were antiques everywhere...
it's location along then Highway 99...
the state's main north/south artery...
made it popular with travelers too...
it's location would become less desirable...
when the new 99 was built to the east...
and urban blight moved in...
but it survived until 2006...
when, after a couple of failed attempts to save it...
the owner cut his losses and threw in the towel...
closing it down before it fell down...
[it's the site of a KFC now.... sigh...]
and those of us who loved the "down home" breakfast...
lost their "breakfast place"...
I had become a "regular" while teaching on the "East Side"...
not a mile from "the Hoosier"...
and while I didn't "need" to eat like that...
it was a comfortable place to hang out...
a place where "everybody knew me"...
and I never felt funny about going to alone...
and while I am quite capable of making eggs over easy...
hash browns...country gravy....etc...
some times...you just want that...
"straight from the flat top" flavor...
and you want to be waited on...
the last couple of days...
it had been building...
that taste for hash browns...
with country gravy on them...
so this morning...
I let my hunger make me brave...
and headed for "Chuck's"...
on PacAve in Mudville...
a self-proclaimed,"hole in the wall"...
it's as down home inside as the Hoosier...
[although Chuck's tends towards nostalgia...
rather than antiques...
it has won SJ County's "Best" in numerous Reader's Choice polls...
and I heard about it on TV...
I was watching a "California's Gold" episode that featured Mudville...
and they had breakfast at Chuck's...
I got there around 11 AM on a Thursday [hours 6 AM-5 PM M-Sat]...
and I had to wait...
the counter and small group of tables were full...
when I got my breakfast... a plate of perfect hash browns...
2 eggs,over-easy[perfection] 4 slices of platter style bacon...
[I usually like to eat bacon crisp...
but this was thicker cut and cooked just right]
and a couple of pieces of wheat toast, lightly buttered...
that and the coffee cup [50 cents !] that was never empty long...
and it was a very satisfying breakfast... I will be back...
full... and feeling somewhat energetic...
I headed over to OSH...
I needed some potting soil...
and wanted to get "a couple of more things"...
for the back yard...
having found all I needed/wanted...and a bit more...
I headed home...
as I approached the circle...
I could see one of those city tree trimming trucks...
down the block on the other side...
"that's pretty close to MY house", I thought...
as I got close to my driveway...
I could see that the tree truck and it's chipper trailer...
were in front of UnklePhil's house...
with a huge pile o' tree trimmings...
completely blocking my driveway...
UnklePhil's daughter J, had arrived home just before me...
and having parked down the block...
was trying to find out WHAT was going on...
meanwhile... I'm stopped in the middle of the street...
unable to get into my own driveway...
because these workers have taken it over...
I finally have to honk my horn to get the guy's attention...
and when I say,"this is my driveway"...
we only have to repeat that statement back & forth...
3 times...
before he starts moving the big pile of brush...
and has to explain it all to his cohort...
who has just come from UnklePhil's backyard...
dragging another big load of brush down my driveway...
they get the pile moved before a "crowd" gathers...
[it's a narrow street & their truck is big...]
and I'm finally able to pull into my own driveway...
by the time I've unloaded my car...
and trucked it into the back yard...
the guys have "chipped" all the brush...
kindly moved my now emptied garbage cans to the rear...
and gone on their merry way...
another 15 minutes...
and I would have never seen them...
so anyway...
I decided to see just what they had been up to...
I guess this tree was hindering the wires...
[from another angle...]
they sure butchered it...
it wasn't even UnklePhil's tree...
or even in his backyard...
so now... moving on to the update...
you all remember this ?
[the sagging back fence ...
that the demo had begun on before I left...]
that was then...
THIS... is NOW...
QUITE a DIFFERENCE...
it won't stay like this long...
but Molly has already explored it...
it's a nice, neat patio...
but I like the "jungle effect"...
my great aunt had a lush backyard with a huge koi pond...
giant trees and everything green and full...
she had a sign,"The Lemmon Jungle"...
when we visited as kids...I was always fascinated by it..
and have been in search of my own "jungle"...
or "Garden of Eden" for years...
and I'm getting closer...
and this will help...
I have ferns to put in baskets...
I had the baskets & liner material...
but no potting soil...
now...I can have a fern frenzy...
then there's these...
yes...you have seen them before...
and they STILL need planting...
the red & white cyclamen to "fill-in" my cyclamen pot...
the "Johnny Jump-Ups" for the portulaca pots...
the maranatha plants to replace the kitty salad bar...
and the FERNS....for the baskets...
[after I spray paint the old egg baskets to preserve them...]
and some snap dragons & allyssum [white & purple]
then...
I got these mums to "fill-in"...[I know...]
and, why yes, MM... those ARE new ferns on the storage bin...
how observant of you to notice...
they weren't on sale, but were languishing...
and I felt sorry for them... [I hear you ROFL...]
here we have the gardenia, destined...
to replace the dead one in the front...
in front of it, the cyclamen bowl...
and the new "Meyer" or foxtail fern...
[I know... I know...]
and finally... a new fern I haven't ever seen before...
it's called a "kangaroo's paw"[not the same as anagazanthus...]
the "foot" is very twisted and fronds grow from them...
very cool...
and, yes... that is a new wind chime...
there are several new ones...
[they were on sale...]
there are 2 bamboo ones...
[I had none...& they sound different...]
and 2 metal ones...
this brief film is for all you musicians...
enjoy...
post script... the nice fence guy just knocked on my door...
and wanted to know if I would like him to enclose the area...
behind my garage...between my yard & UnklePhil's...
where UnklePhil was planning to put a fence...
I asked,"how much ?"
he said, "oh....free"
he has the materials and wants to be nice...
how about that ?
God is good, indeed...
oh, I asked... he doesn't do bathrooms...
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