A Living Magazine - Prologue 4 - Pleasanton and the Livermore Rodeo

Today's post will be pretty simple since I have quite a bit to do.

Here are some shots of my time visiting Pleasanton yesterday...

My Bus Stop in Livermore for the Route 10 Wheels Bus

The Pleasanton Public Library

Bronze Sculptures

                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

                                            

Bronze Sculptures

A giant eucalyptus 

A canal running next to the Arroyo Mocho Trail

Beautiful plum tree, stuffed with fruit

Lactuca virosa (wild lettuce)

Lactuca virosa, showing how is bleeds (the white drops on the broken leaf)

These Lactuca virosa plants are everywhere in the Trivalley region

Native Americans and early settlers used the exudate like a weak

opium, for pain relief and as a sleep aid--it can be smoked and the 

plant material, dried and crushed makes a good bedtime tea

A related species

Sidewalk "fossil"

I visited Walmart and bought an SD reader for my Nextbook, and stopped at the Red Robin for a soda, but I realized on the bus ride back to Livermore that I'd left my blue fleece jacket there. I really missed it too after the sun went down, because the wind picked up and the temperature dropped.

I have now broken the my own record for sleeping outside in the same city, having spent 4 nights outside here in Livermore. On the last journey I spent 2 nights behind a furniture supply warehouse in Salem, Missouri and 3 nights in Tucson, Arizona.

I had an extra camera that uses AA batteries. so I bought 4 AAs at the Dollar Tree. Two paired sets lasted less than a half hour.  I was pissed, but it isn't worth the time to complain. They don't give refunds only store credit. A dollar's credit isn't worth the effort (which is exactly what they want).

When I got to the sleeping spot it was the end of another musical performance at the rodeo. This night it was Wolf Hamlin - a little bit more countrified than Michael Beck had been - with a fantastic fiddle player and an out-of-this-world drummer. They played Dylan's "Rock Me Mama" and extended it out to about 10 minutes. For the encore they did the coolest version of "Folsom Prison Blues" I've ever her. It was a weird E minor thing, as a punk-rock shuffle, with Hamlin screaming his ass off. Strange, but very cool. For the whole time, I was desperately trying to get either the Zoom recorder or the camera working, with no luck.

Here's the funny thing...

I'm not sure the meaning of the following nor the story behind it, but on the last song Hamlin thanked the crowd, then he sarcastically thanked the Alameda Sheriff's Department "...for letting me know I was wasted!" The crowd cheered. Then he continued... "I hope you're all wasted too!" Again came a cheer and the crowd went even crazier. I wondered how all the "wasted" people were going to get home last night. I just found it amusing.

I fell asleep easily and slept very well, waking at 5:00 am to what has become my alarm clock--the mockingbird. This time I was able to record it (please click the link and when the window opens you can right click and choose to download the file)...

The Mockingbird of Arroyo Trail

Then, as I was walking out of the site, I saw another male come in and challenge this little guy. But the first bird held his ground (or tree, in this case), after a very contentious and bitter battle. Both were missing tail feathers. I got the impression these birds must fight all the time.

I went for coffee and sat at Livermorium Park again and resolved to go back to Pleasanton to rescue my beloved jacket. The day started out cool but warmed up to a balmy 90°F...