Monthly Archive: February 2005

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Riding Alameda Creek Trail

Riding Alameda Creek Trail

Alameda_creek_trail Took a nice little ride yesterday out to the end of Alameda Creek Trail. Eighteen mile round trip. Alameda Creek was running as fast as I’ve ever seen it. They must’ve let one of the dams upstream release some water cuz it was flowing pretty good, moving logs, debris, ducks, out towards the bay, pretty fast. Took this picture of Barb out at the end of the trail. We are so lucky to be able to be so close and to ride out here.  Of the nine mile ride out to this point, only just over a mile of it is on city streets. All the rest is great uninterrupted paved trail that banks Alameda Creek. A great ride.

remodel

Let the Remodel Begin

Let the Remodel Begin

After living in our house for 20 years, and talking about it for ten, we are finally kicking off a much needed kitchen and bath remodel. We’ve spent the last couple of months lining up our contractor, settling on a timeline and design, looking at appliances, granite, porcelin tile, cabinets. The first phase begins tomorrow with the delivery of a POD. With this extra, temporary storage space, we will be able to move all the kitchen furniture into the POD as well as most everything in the garage that has piled up over the years. A chance to include a major garage cleaning/reorganization in the project. Will spend the next 10 days boxing up and clearing out the kitchen and preparing for demo.
Since I’m a full time telecommuter nowadays, the remodel will kick me out of my current “office”. On Tuesday my new backyard office is being built. A nice little 8×12 place with nicely finished interior. I saw a model at the local showroom and the place will be perfect for my needs. Having electric, phone and internet installed out there as well. We set a goal to have this all completed so we can have a graduation party for Kelly here at the house. If everything goes according to plan we should be done by end of April.

friends

Nevada City

Nevada City

Im003938a Drove up to Nevada City on Sunday to visit with our good friends Jens and Kelly. Spent the night and came back yesterday. Jens made some great veggie enchiladas for dinner.    Spent our time playing cards and catching up. Its been three years since we’ve seen them!! way to long. The ride back Monday after noon was slow going. Highway 80 from Newcastle to Sacramento was slow and go the whole way. We took highway 5 home and got more traffic in Tracy. Other than that it was all good.  3 hours up, 4 1/2 back. Barb took this great picture of the thunderclouds as we were heading towards Stockton on Highway 5

flashbacks

Family Flashback

Family Flashback

Scan10019Brother John has been gettin busy! He is scanning old pictures and starting to put some up on his family website. Here is one that he sent me. The Flaherty kids at Mike and Diane’s house in Winters about 5 years ago. See Mom on the porch  in the background? I love this picture of us. The mullet looks good on me. Miss ya Mike!

sports

TP\’d in the Dark of night

TP’d in the Dark of night

Dsc00384Dsc00386 Some merry pranksters TP’d our house last night. Seems the girls from the soccer team wanted to wish the outgoing seniors a fond farewell and thanks for a job well done this soccer season.Dsc00387 Dsc00388Very nice job if I must say so myself. The yard actually looked kind’ve nice this morning with the toilet paper gently blowing in the breeze. Almost like a Cristo work of art. 

sports

Turn Out The Lights……

Turn Out The Lights……

Eaglefutbol_2 The partys over. After beating Irvington 1-0 in the first round of the playoffs, we lost 2-0 last night to Washington.  The end to a bitter sweet season. Kelly and Kate did not get a lot of playing time and we went to the last 5 games and did not see our kids play. So we are glad its over.  We can shift focus to swim season, which is now under way.

family

Neighborhood Hero

Neighborhood Hero

Dsc00332a The other day Barb came home for lunch and by coincidence, her sister Sarah was also here. They chatted for a while then left together. As they were pulling away from the house, Barb noticed a grandma pushing a stroller with two babies in it, two toddlers and a lady with a cane, all walking past our house towards Vincente St. Barb also noticed that there was some problem. The lady with a cane was having trouble walking and the grandma was holding her up. Barb noticed the distressed look on the grandma’s face and immediately sprung into action.

She put the car in park and left it in the middle of the street, got out of the car and went to assist. The one lady was passing out or something and the lady holding on to her was going to go down with her. Barb raced to the pair just as they fell and was able to catch the ladies head right before it would’ve slammed into the street. Sarah got there too and assisted. She came got me in the house saying “some lady fell down outside and we need your help”. It was strange, Both Sarah’s and Barb’s cars in the middle of the street and one poor lady still down next to the sidewalk with Barb behind her still holding her head up.

Turns out that this grandma was walking her four grandkids down at the bike path. She had two in a stroller and two 3-4 year olds walking along side. They had met this other lady who was having problems and asked if they could walk her home. As they were walking past our house the lady started to feel light headed and was going down. It was Barb’s quick thinking and action that prevented this lady from incurring a serious head injury.
We offered to drive the lady home or to the doctors. She only lived around the corner and said all she needed was to go home. We helped her into the car and drove her around the corner to a house on Cabrillo Dr.  Fortunately her husband was home so we helped her out of the car and into the house. He said that his wife had a stroke in 2003 and was still recovering. He also said that she wasn’t supposed to go out like she did. What is amazing is that this lady walked all the way to the shopping center on Fremont Blvd and back to the bike path before she got into trouble.
Anyway, the husband came by the house later to thank Barb for helping his wife. He and his wife were very grateful for what Barb and Sarah did. He had taken her to the doctor and everything was ok.  The Grandma who was just out walking her grandkids was most thankful. She kept saying ” I don’t know what I would have done if you weren’t here.” Funny how things work out. Neither Barb or Sarah had planned on coming to the house at all. By mere coincidence they left at the same time, just as the ladies were walking by. The whole neighborhood was deserted and usually is on a weekday. God was looking down on those ladies and sent Barb and Sarah out there to be angels.
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sports

Regular Season comes to end

Regular Season comes to end

Soccerball_3 The girls finished the regular season yesterday. In a heart-breaker that ended the drive to a MVAL championship, the Eagles scored first, then let two goals go by in a season ending loss to Logan. The 8-2-2 second place  season was bitter sweet. Although it was fun to win, our girls did not get much playing time. The last three games (two losses and one tie) took the girls out of first place and denied them a much wanted championship. After only winning twice last year, the Eagles got off to a great start, surprising most everyone in the MVAL. In any sport all you can ask for is that every game you play have meaning. This year was fun to watch because every game did have meaning. Teams were chasing us for once! Yesterday when Logan beat us, they celebrated like they had won the world cup.  For them the season was over. For the lady Eagles, they head to the MVAL playoffs for the first time in many years. At the beginning of the season, the Flaherty girls were just happy to be on the team. Now they can’t wait to get off the field and into the pool. SWIM SEASON STARTS MONDAY!! WOOHOO!

friends

Winter Barb

Winter_barb Cleaning out the hall closet in preparation for our upcoming kitchen/bath remodel. This closet is where we store most of our family photos. Found this gem in one of many boxes. Thought I’d put this picture of a sno-bunnie Barb up for your approval. Similar to the Tanya retrospective over at the Champagne Crew.