Erratic Service

The internet access here has been going up and down unpredictably; it's up this morning for now, so we're quickly trying to check our e-mail. I said to Cheryl last night, "For our future stays, we need to determine whether having reliable internet service and an included breakfast are worth $20/night extra."

Once we get cleaned up and fed, we're off to see my father, who lives in the hills above Oroville. Fortunately, it looks like we'll get a break between storms here, because I really didn't want to have to unload this chest of drawers in the rain; moreover, he lives up a steep, unpaved road. My van has the power to climb that hill and to spare; however, having the traction for it is a different matter entirely. I always worry that I'm going to meet another car coming down -- there's no room to pass.

Minor Furniture Mayhem

We have safely returned from my father's house above Oroville, where I turned over the chest of drawers to him and told him, "If you can restore it, fine: use it or give it to someone if you like. If you don't think it can be restored, feel free to salvage the wood for a different project or dispose of it as you wish." This was the first time Cheryl had met my father, although she's visited my mother and that side of the family numerous times. Cheryl and I (mostly I) talked with my dad for an hour or two, this having been the first time in over a year that I've visited him. He's built himself a nice house on about six acres of land near Lake Wyandotte in the foothills. He showed us around as much as he could, given the rain, but we couldn't go out and tour the whole place.

As we started to get ready to leave, a heavy rain cell moved in on us, so we went and sat down again for ten minutes or so and waited for it to subside a bit, then made our farewells and headed back to Yuba City.

We stopped at a grocery store to pick up a few things -- taking advantage of having a refrigerator in our hotel room -- Cheryl noted water on top of one of the boxes in the back of my van. It was only then that I discovered that a bunch of the rubber gasket around the rear doors has rotted away. This is not something I would normally notice because I usually park under cover and rarely have anything stored close enough to the rear door for it to get wet. Fortunately, the water did not appear to have penetrated through the box, and there wasn't much water anyway, so I wiped it off and moved the boxes away from the areas where the water is coming in.

I hope it won't be too difficult to replace those gaskets.

Continuing Erratic Service

The internet connections were up when we came back to the room, but failed again after a while. This time, we didn't bother complaining to the front desk and we did other things. It was still down after gigica, Cheryl, and I came back from dinner. We bade good night to Gigi after our nice Indian dinner -- I'm always in for a curry -- and turned on the Sharks game on the nice flat-screen TV in the room. (Go, Sharks!) Cheryl fell asleep, rousing only when I cheered the Sharks' third goal. I thought I'd check the internet connection again. It's weak, but it's running -- for now.

I've filled out a comment card to tell the management that the lower rates and internet connectivity were a draw, but that it is worth our while in the future to pay more for solid internet connections and an included breakfast, and that they can expect to see us take our business to the Holiday Inn Express.