Welcome Fremont A\’s
Sounds like its a done deal. The Oakland A’s are moving to Fremont. Looks like the new 36,000 seat ball park will be on a parcel of land in southern Fremont near the Bay. With the winds whipping off the bay, they will have to build the ball park with home plate looking out towards Mission Peak! How perfect will it be to have those A’s fans (and TV) settling in for a summer’s eve game, with the setting sun gently bathing Mission Peak in the back ground. And the wind!!! Oh the wind!!! Afternoon games featuring the famous Fremont winds will make for some tape measure/wind assisted homers! “He hit that one clear to Milpitas!” Barb and I have only been to a handful of A’s games over the years (hey, we’re Giants fans!!) but would look forward to catching a game once in awhile. Click the pic for a view from Mission Peak and see where the new park will be. Very cool for Fremont. Now lets see the city do the right thing for the team and the citizens.
You know you are getting old when you go with your kid to vote! Kelly is flexing some adult muscle and participating in her constitutional right to vote. You go Kel-Kel. I was honored to go with Kelly and be with her for her first ever vote. Maybe she will rememder today and her old man when she is voting for President whoever in 2056. It was such a great day that we rode our bikes over to the polling place at Patterson school library. Always feels good to cast a ballot. 
Barb and I made it up Mission Peak today for the 5th time in 6 weekends. YEA BABY! What made this one special was Father Matthew from Holy Spirit Church was planning on saying a “high” mass on the peak at 10am. Team Vandenbusch had dropped off a flier a couple of weekends ago advertising this special service. This was a no-brainer for us. The flier said that everyone was meeting at the Standford side at 7:30 for a nice walk up the peak. We hit the Ohlone parking lot and the trail right around 8:40. Figuring our 90 minute pace would put us on the peak right at 10am. Overcast conditions greeted us as we made our way up. The low clouds and mist made for a nice change of pace. 
About 25 minutes from the peak, and within 10 steps, we walked out of the clouds and mist and into blue sky and sun, and a great view of Mission Peak! As we were making our way to the top we were wondering if the Holy Spirit crowd was in front of us or behind. Our question was answered as we hit the top and saw a small crowd gathered over at the peak. Perfect timing! Mass had just started! Father Matthew brought his vestments and even made a small alter out of the shoebox he had carried the bread and wine in. WOW. What a great experience!
The sun shining on all of us as Fremont and all below were still in bathed in clouds and fog. Father Matthew appropriately read from the Gospel of Matthew 5-7, where Jesus preached to the multitudes, known as the 
Anyone who has ever been out to mile marker 11 and the western end of the Alameda Creek Trail, knows that its a place that is about as far away from civilization as you can be while still being in the heart of the bay area. The spot where Alameda Creek empties to the bay is only 9 miles from my front door, yet so far away. Did an early ride yesterday with Stevie V. We hit the trail around 8am and were at mile marker 11 about 45 minutes later. Quiet and peacful out there, with not a soul around. Or so we thought. Steve and I were just talking about how anyone who dumped a body out here would probably get away with it since no one EVER patrols the bay waters out there. We were talking a bit more when I was startled by some movements out in the reeds. I told Steve I thought I saw a guys head over near the shoreline. Then Steve notices what looks like a stick moving. ITS A GUN!!! All of a sudden, this guy stands up, folds up some sort of camoflouged blanket that was covering him. Then another guy stands up! Duck hunters?!? Never never NEVER saw anyone out here, much less someone with a rifle! So, just over the reeds from the picnic tables and rest area are two guys who were (up until this point it seems) laying in wait for unsuspecting ducks! The guys proceed to get up, paddle there very nicely camoflaged boat over to retrieve some duck decoys that were floating nearby. They stuff the decoys in a bag, started their outboard motor and off they went! AMAZING!! I’m guessing these guys were either stupid or ignorant, or both. Either way, I’m sure they were breaking some sort of law. I took a couple of pictures and told Steve that if they start shooting, he’s screwed since he was dressed in yellow jacket and green beanie, looking like a yellow-bellied, green-crested something-or-other. 
Why are people afraid of our puppy? She is so gentle, so loving and such a wimp. People just have the wrong impression of her. Sure, she is a 110 pound German Shepherd who will bark at you sometimes when she is out on the front lawn. When Jackie comes to visit they both bark but only once in a while. Niya doesn’t pay much attention to our regular mailman anymore these days, just lays there while he puts the mail in the box. No bark, no nothing. I guess the mailman has to let other people know that we have a dog for when he is on vacation.
The “DOG WARNING CARD” is supposed to be kept by the Post Office and used to notify substitute mail carriers that a dog is on the property. They are not supposed to deliver the warning card to us in the mail!! The dog warning card in the picture is the most recent one we have received. I kept the others as a souvenir. I put this one back in the mailbox for the postman to recover, but not before I added some names and the “not a”