Sandy Vickrey's Winters, CA Blog

My daughter is a sophomore at Sierra Nevada College at Incline, NV.  She has been taking skiing this semester.  Yes, I am paying  for that class.  She tried snowboarding when she was younger but wasn’t impressed.  This is the first time she has tried skiing and has enjoyed it.   Anyway, she is not a fan of the Olympics and has not watched over the past two weeks.  I talked to her tonight and she said that her school is going to Squaw Valley to ski tomorrow as some Onlymic athlete has a tie to her school and she will be at Squaw tomorrow.  Oh, that would be Julie Mancuso!  She didn’t know so had to look it up, guess what?  Mom was right!  Have a great time, Devon, should be an awesome day in many ways.

Monday morning I had to have my husband, John, down in Vacaville at 6AM for his total knee replacement.   Those who know me well know I am not a morning person.  However, I got him there 5 minutes early!  Please be impressed!  Check out my Facebook page for pictures as I always seem to have  a problem posting them here.  John came home on Thurs afternoon and my son, Chad, and I have been playing nurse ever since!  Finally I will have some more time to Blog.  Thanks for your patience. 

My friend, Judy and I stopped at BJ’s Brewery in Vacaville on our way home form San Franciso, tonight.  I called in when we hit Fairfield to put our name on the list and was told it was a 45-60 min wait.  When we got there we found a mom and son just finishing and they told us we could have their table, but one small problem, she couldnt’ find her wallet!  They had been to the movies but they couldn’t find her wallet in the car.  They called over the manager and explained the problem, she offered to call her husband at work and give them the ATM number over the phone.  The manager said , NO PROBLEM, I will comp  your meal.  Not what the lady had expected but again the manager said, I will pay for your meal.  The funny thing was that he thought that my friend and  I were part of the party and he was ready to comp 4 meals.  Never even asked why we couldn’t pay for her.  We were all over whelmed so I told him I would put this on my Facebook page and blog.  The amazing thing was that this manager had no idea what a huge thing was doing.  While we were waiting for the manager to come this lady told me that she had been  diagosed with caner back in October and has under gone 3 cancer surgeries and is undergoing chemno and radiation.  On top of that, this women came back to the restaurant just as we were finishing to pay her bill.  She had gone all the way back to her home in Fairfield and then to the Brenden theaters in Vacaville where someone had turned in her wallet, complete with her cash.  But, still, Bj’s would not take her money. On top of this, her 14 yr old son could not have been nicer nor more supportive of her suffering all this embarassing stuff.  His name is Dillian, want to give him credit.   You just don’t see this kind of service any more so I told Bj’s I would put this story on my Facebook pageand blog as I was so touched.  Everything about this just came from the heart.  So, if you are in Vacaville, stop by BJ’s and have something to eat, they deserve our business.

The Turkovich Winery on Railroad is having their Grand Opening this weekend.   Be sure and stop by and take a sip or two of their delicious wines and cheeses.  They are featured on the front page of the Winters Express, www.wintersexpress.com,  if you want to read the article.  The Syrah is one of my personal favorites.  After some wine tasting there and at Berryessa Gap you can have a “small plate” at the Putah Creek Cafe.  They have updated their menu for lent, I plan to try the crab cakes, one of my personal favorites.    Then on to The Palms and hear Roland White’s All-Star Bluegrass Band, the show starts at 8pm.  Have a great weekend, I plan to!

On Valentine’s Day my husband, John, sister Vicki and hubby Tom and son Jack and girlfriend Morgan all went for a train ride!  Jack and I had found a special Valentine’s Day Romantic Train Trip through the Niles Canyon.  We all met in Sunol, just south of Pleasanton.  The old fashioned train had one club car set up as an old fashioned bar from the 40’s, complete with music.  During our two hour ride we sampled wine and cheeses from the Livermore Valley.  They did a great job choosing both the wine and cheeses.  All the help were volunteers who had worked on restoring the train.  It was a very relaxing ride with beautiful scenery.  They will have rides every weekend in August.  Check them out and take a ride, I recommend it.

When My son, Jack, was at Penn State, he and some friends went to see the ground hog , Punxsutawney Phil, on Feb 2.  That doesn’t sound like much until you find out that it is an all night party in the freezing cold, waiting until 6 in the morning or so to see if the ground hog sees his shadow.  It is Pennsylvania after all, what chance does the poor thing have of seeing anything but his shadow on Feb 2?  I wouldn’t venture out in the that freezing cold weather either.  Hope you enjoyed the weather in warmer ( but not much ) in Northern Calif today.  Looks like we are in for six more weeks of winter too and we need it.  Feb 2, 2010 was the 90th birthday celebration of my mother’s childhood friend, Happy 90th Birthday, Auntie H!

I know that these are hard times for many of us.  Some of us have lost loved ones this year, a job or possibly a house.  One thing I learned along time along is that no matter how bad things my seem I can always find someone I would never want to trade places with.    That seems to put things into perspective for me. 

I hope your holiday is a happy one full of hope and love.  My best to you and yours.

Sorry this is a little late, my internet was down yesterday but I think the message gets through.   Now, on to the rest of the holiday season!

At long last the new Winters Library will open its doors for everyone to see and enjoy on Saturday, November 14, 2009!  I got to go to a “pre party” a few weeks ago.  I was so impressed with how large the space is and what nice large windows it has to let in lots of natural light.  There is a conference room, a children’s book room and several quite places to relax and read throughout the building.  We are so lucky so many people have worked on this project and have not given up over the years inspite of several setbacks.  We will all reap the benefits.  Right now they have a campaign to “stock the shelves”.  The library is collecting money to buy new books for the library.  What a very worthy cause.  Hope  to see see you there.  Happy reading.   Thank you Margaret Parsons for helping make this happen.

Tonight is the big game for Winters High School and this afternoon the parade and ralley were right downtown at the intersection of Main and First Street.  i have attached some photos of the floats for youall to see.  Boy have thing changed since we were in high school!  No more floats rooting on your team and telling them to crush the opposition, gather that isn’t PC anymore.  SO check out the floats, tehy are very internation.  I have no idea who came up with the but they were cute and creative, I will give them that.  GO WARRIORS!

Tuesday night I came home and turned on the news and found out about the tsunami in Samoa and that there was a tsunami watch for the entire coast of California!  Yes, all those images came back of the tsunami that hit Indonesia back around New Year’s a few years ago.    So, I immediately called my son, Jack, who lives in Monterey a few blocks from the ocean.  He and his buds had already been down to the beach to check out the wave action.  Had to tell him the activity wasn’t going to get much bigger until 9PM.   Then at 10:45pm that night the phone rang.  No one calls me at that hour except my daughter, Devon!  She goes to school at Sierra Nevada College at Incline, NV.  She and her friends were at school working on a paper and it had started snowing!  Can you imagine, Sept 29 and the first snow.  She was very excited.  So that is what is happening on the east and west coast of California at the end of September.  Now we are on to October, happy first of the month!