Ace Train 24: Stroll up the Alameda

Sometimes I am able to catch the early light rail train to Diridon Station, and then I have a half hour before the train leaves.  I usually use this time for a walk, and one of my favorites in up The Alameda to Race.  Thee and back is about a mile and a quarter.  This hike is close to where I worked when I first started with Santa Clara County and Virginia Street Project.  Many of the businesses have changed, but a few are the same.  The big muffler man is still there, but the building where I use to work is gone.  There are four motels, The arena Motel was made just before my work moved.  I have a picture of the Flamingo Motel, as I had a client staying there.

There is an extension of the Santa Clara University Law School, Schurra's Chocolates is an old stand by, there are two clothing stores and a couple interior design stores.  Fontanetti's Batting cages are now on The Alameda.

The Alameda is also known as a gay area as manifested by the Billy de Frank Center which use to be located in the same building where I use to work, and is now on The Alameda.  I discovered there is a Gay Men's Bath House, and also a cannabis club call San Jose Patients Group.  

I often visit the used book store close to Race and the Alameda.  I look for old Mormon Books, but they don't seem to have many. 

  As I mentioned the old building where I worked is knocked down, and there is a sign of an upcoming Whole Foods there.  It was actually on Stockton, but we had a back entrance on The Alameda.

And finally, I go under to overpass of the Southern Pacific Railrod.  These are the tracks over which the Ace Train leaves the station.

Arena in the background

Boating: Labor Day 2012

My Job, holding the flag

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9hT7HEpsqA

 

 The Normans took us boating for Labor Day.  We all swam around the boat, Caleb surfed and wake barded.  Charity and Anthony tried the wake board.  Charity was up for a few seconds.  Tony loved the tube the first time with Mom, but when he went with Dad his dad swamped him.  Anna and Natalie and Dianna and Mark were also there.  Heather was home sick.

Doctor Who: ****season Three

The first episode has the Doctor (David Tennant) kidnapping, by accident, a bride, Donna Noble portrayed by Catherine Tate.  She ends up on an adventure with The Doctor, as her fiance turns out to be a heal and just using her.  However she does not stay with The Doctor, and the next episode we are introduced to Martha Jones, a medical intern.  Her hospital is taken to the moon, as the intergalactic police are looking for an alien.  Just as everyone is running out of air, they are returned.  However there has been an adventure in the mean time.  There is an episode about Shakespeare, which is fun, but I didn't care for the witches.  William is great however.

There are a couple of great two-part episodes.  The first presents the Daleks in New York.  There is a cute bit of a relationship between a dancer and her boyfriend who is turned into a pig-man.  They genetically engineer Dalek and human combinations.  However this  doesn't work for the Daleks. 

Another is about the Doctor turning himself human in pre WWI England.  He is hiding from a family who want to use he and the Tardis to rule the universe.  This is very similar to "Goodbye Mr Chips" as The Doctor is a school teacher at a boarding school.  The Doctor falls in love in his alternate life, and has to decide if he wants to give up this life to be The Doctor.  He becomes The Doctor and is able to defeat his pursuers.

The season ends with a reintroduction of The Master, who also had hidden himself away, taking human form.  With the arrival of The Doctor, he remembers who he is, and steals The Tardis.  The Doctor pusues him, but not before he has become prime minister, and opens the way for an alien species to help him take over the world.  In this one Martha Jones saves the day.

Movie Night: ***^The Help

Sheri got this movie through Netflix mail, and we watched it for Labor Day.  It was very enjoyable, during the Kennedy years, and start of the civil rights movement.  It took a lot of courage in those days to confront your environment, especially in the South under Jim Crow laws. When segregation is the law, it is hard to stand up.  This move has Emma Stone as a young author, writing about the injustices she sees, and through time recruits a group of "Help" to tell her stories; positive and of injustices.  Viola Davis and Octovia Spencer are "The Help" first help with the book.  Bryce Dallas Howard portrays the worse of the racists.  She is just evil, wanting to pass a law requiring extra bathrooms for "Black Help."  It is fun how the book comes out, and how they are able to do just enough so they can publish the book without being arrested.

Ace Train 23: Clean it up already; 49er stadium

The Ace Train follows the Altamont Pass Road, the original highway and not the freeway.  It  passes a couple trailers, that are like split open.  You see them clearly from the train, not so much from the road.  This is one of the messes that has been there since I started riding the train a year and a half ago.  It would be nice if someone would clean it up. 

The 49er stadium is making fast progress.  Even in a week you can see changes.  The have a round bowl already made. 

And then yesterday, I noticed the framework for and even taller portion was going up.

sorry about the stormy weather

 Another new thing is the work on the salt pond levees in the Wildlife Refuge.  I think they may be breaching them in effort for the area to return to marsh land.