Well, I have a cough I believe my dear offspring or possibly my spouse passed on to me, thank you so much. Chest congestion mostly - thank goodness for no stuffy head, although head hurts when coughing. Mostly scratchy throat and lung boogers. Yuck.
Had a furlough on Monday, the kids were off school for Lincoln's B-day, and it's my brother's usual day off, so we decided to go to
Knott's Berry Farm - the annual passes there are about 1/2 the cost of Dismalland - which we've been doing off n' on since Angus was two, and we thought it'd be nice to do something different for a year. Turns out they're on a calendar year, not date to date, so they're only good until the end of December, but it's early in the year, so that's fine. No blackout days either.
It's probably been twenty years since I was last there and wow, has it changed. It's been owned for the last 13 years by the same company that runs Cedar Point back in Ohio (they also own Great America up in the Bay Area), so the emphasis has really been put on the roller coasters. The quiet reflecting pond surrounded by trees that used to be between the entrance and Fiesta Village is now a concrete-lined pool with a bunch of rollercoaster pylons in it. What I really noticed all over was missing trees; the whole park used to be surrounded by large eucalyptus, which may be understandably gone. A few years ago there was a plague of lurp insects (a type of scale) that killed a lot of them all over southern CA. Eucalyptus are not native tree here anyway, but large old trees are still pleasant, and the place just felt very open. I do like roller coasters, but in places I'd rather have trees.
Most of the ghost town is still there, although the Mystery Shack is missing - I always liked that one with all the optical illusions. We stopped there to have a snack, and I looked at Avalon, whose eyes had started watering. She gradually went downhill the rest of the afternoon, and by the time we got home, she went straight to bed.
She and I both took a sick day yesterday, and lounged on my bed watching
The Princess and the Frog, which I'd missed, and
Mushi-Shi, which is a lovely series, but so quiet and soothing if I'm tired at all, I will doze off watching it, in spite of my being interested. I bought a Roku unit at Fry's a couple of weeks ago, and I swear, we've watched more Netflix in the time since than in the last 2-3 years! Quite handy. I do wish I could change the language and watch subtitles though.
Back at work today, and am realizing it's only the 16th but how few work days are left in the month! Ack, where does it go!
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