Everyone's got reason to smile today — Grandpa Gehlke, because he's home for a rare few days; Grandma, because she's got a newly remodeled kitchen; and Ben, because he gets to visit with both Grandma and Grandpa in Hayward. It almost seems like old times at the Gehlke homestead. Photo by Glenn.
September 29, 2019: September is nearly gone and summer with it, although we haven’t totally left its heat behind. We’ve been enjoying those warm afternoons and the cooler evenings that suggest a real change of seasons isn’t far away. But for now we have been taking advantage of the nice weather to work on home projects and attend a weekend festival or two.
Food porn alert! This month's newsletter is dominated by scenes of gourmet food consumption. Viewer discretion (and a healthy appetite) is advised. We begin with Oakley's Friday Night Bites event, which occurs every first Friday at City Park and features entertainment and a number of food trucks. This month Roni is trying a gyro from Portu Goal — that's the colorful vehicle just behind her. Photo by Glenn.
Ben is with us tonight — just say "food" and he's there — enjoying a heaping dish of carne asada fries. Photo by Roni.
Glenn is quite happy with his Philly cheesesteak. Photo by Roni.
Tonight's entertainment is courtesy of musician Toree McGee, performing a mix of original and cover tunes on the city's concert stage. She's got a pretty decent and enthusiastic crowd. Photo by Glenn.
Oakley takes a lot of pride in its downtown and it sure looks pretty at night with all the trees lit up. It looks even prettier now that Roni is present. Photo by Glenn.
Sept. 15 finds us in Concord for the annual Contra Costa Greek Food & Wine Festival. It's the final day of the show and we're ready to dig into some authentic Greek cuisine. We'll start with... Photo by Glenn.
...Gyros! (Yes, this might be the first newsletter we've ever produced that includes two photos of gyros taken at different events.) A bit of grilled lamb and fresh tzatziki sauce really make for a tasty lunch. Photo by Glenn.
A whole lamb roasts over the coals at the Greek Food & Wine Festival. Our mouths are watering already, but we didn't stick around for the evening feast, tempting as it was. Photo by Glenn.
It may be as close to the Greek Isles as we ever get. We can almost hear the gulls and the waves rolling in on this beautiful afternoon. Roni so wanted to take this picture. We had to borrow the chair from a less-than-enthusiastic festival goer, who probably thought we were nuts because we didn't take no for an answer. Photo by Roni.
Time to move on to our next tasty treat. These are loukoumades, which are essentially Greek doughnut holes covered with honey and walnuts. We didn't actually order them with walnuts, but we accidentally picked up someone else's order. Wow, we're making all kinds of friends today. Photo by Glenn.
Roni may be smiling as she polishes off our tray of loukoumades, but she's in total agony after twisting her knee when she misjudged her step on a curb. She's clutching her walking stick, which fortunately we brought with us today. Looks like another trip to the doctor is in her future. Photo by Glenn.
Okay, looks like nothing is broken, but that doesn't mean it hurts any less. Roni will have to stay off her knee for a few days to let things heal. Photo by Glenn.
The doctor sent Roni home with a pair of crutches to help her through the healing process. She's not excited about them, but at least she can hobble around and accomplish some light tasks around home and at work. She wants to feel better by Saturday, when she has to run a booth at the Heart of Oakley Festival. Photo by Glenn.
Well, Roni managed to make it to the Heart of Oakley Festival on Sept. 21. She still has one of her crutches handy, but she also got help setting up and tearing down her booth. Photo by Glenn.
The opportunity to enjoy a Giant Bad Ass Sausage is all the incentive one needs to spend the afternoon at the Heart of Oakley Festival. Okay, maybe one of the incentives. Photo by Glenn.
It's Sept. 11, and we're about to board eBART for a trip to Hayward to visit Glenn's folks. It's Ben's first ride on the new diesel trains, and also happens to be the 47th anniversary of the transit system's 1972 launch. Photo by Glenn.
Glenn's parents are waiting for us when we arrive at the Hayward BART station. Grandpa Norm is up from Hemet to visit for a few days. We missed Grandparents on Sept. 8, but Ben thought to make a card in their honor; Grandpa holds it up for the camera. Photo by Glenn.
We'd love to say this is our finished kitchen, but in fact it belongs to Glenn's folks. We get our first look at the project, which is technically done except for the baseboards and some new appliances that are supposed to arrive today. Photo by Glenn.
Ben inspects the remodeled island while Grandma gives us the grand tour. Photo by Glenn.
Our Hayward visit ends with an impromptu visit to the Ferreira home. Jenny and Allen work on their dance moves — at least, we think that's what they are doing. Photo by Glenn.
Jenny, Mom and Dad share a laugh over a video that Allen says reminds him of Grandpa. We didn't quite see the resemblance. Photo by Glenn.
Here's Roni's new iPhone 11... Um, clearly this isn't the iPhone we thought we were getting when we went to Best Buy, but it is an Apple TV, another fine Apple product. So yeah, basically it was an impulse buy. Don't judge. Photo by Glenn.
This is the last of the walls in the kitchen to receive tile. Unfortunately it's behind the refrigerator, so it will be mostly unseen. We're in the home stretch now. We've already scraped up the old linoleum in preparation for the new vinyl planks. With luck, we'll be done with the floor in a few days. Photo by Glenn.
There’s a bit of Greek in Roni’s family tree, so perhaps it is understandable that she would be drawn to Mediterannean cooking and especially tempted by the annual Greek Food & Wine Festival hosted by St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Concord. The show usually takes place on the third full weekend in September, which for years fell on the same dates as the Oakley Almond Festival and its successor, the Heart of Oakley Festival. What that meant is usually we’d miss it, because Roni had to work at the local shows, either running a booth or coordinating the event.
But not so this year, as the Greek fest fell on the second weekend. And so it was that we trekked over the hill on Sunday afternoon, the 15th, in search of baklava, moussaka, souvlaki and a bunch of other authentic Hellenic fare that we can’t pronounce. The food is anything but cheap — we dropped close to $100 for a couple of gyros, a plate of cookies and some dinner to take home to share with Ben — but it is about as close as you’ll come to a trip to Greece, and definitely less than the cost of airfare. We indulged ourselves, at least for a couple of hours, feasting and listening to music that helped set the mood on the main stage.
Things were going great until Roni decided we needed to pose for some selfies at one of the Grecian backdrops displayed along the vendor alley. She was juggling her phone and failed to notice that she was close to a curb as we walked from the dining tent. She missed the change in elevation and came down hard on her right leg, twisting her knee in the process.
Her first fear was that she’d broken something; she swore she heard a crack when she came down. But we ruled out broken bones when she was able to stand and walk around on the injured leg. That didn’t mean she was feeling comfortable. We walked around the festival for a few more minutes until she decided it was too painful and sent Glenn back to the car to retrieve her walking stick.
How very convenient that we had remembered to bring the walking stick! Roni had bought it shortly after her appendix surgery to help her get around while she recovered, and less than two months later she found herself needing it again. It fortunately got us through the rest of the Greek fest, but there was no doubt we’d be back at Kaiser hospital come Monday.
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HE NEXT DAY found us at Kaiser’s minor injury clinic, where they gave Roni a wheelchair and Glenn chauffeured her to the imaging department for an x-ray. Back at the exam room the doctor checked out the results, noted the swelling on her knee, and basically said there was nothing to be done until the swelling subsided. If it still hurt in a couple of weeks, come back for a follow-up appointment. In the meantime, take ibuprofen, ice the knee down, and try to stay off of it as much as possible. They sent her home with a knee brace and a couple of crutches as lovely parting gifts.
Telling Roni to stay off her injured knee is like telling a cat not to chase a mouse. Good luck! Our busy breadwinner has her iron in a dozen fires at any given time, and this week was not the best time to be out of commission. What worried her most was the aforementioned Heart of Oakley Festival, where she was scheduled to have a booth for the sanitary district the following Saturday. It wasn’t that she couldn’t sit at the information table and chat up the public, but rather that she wasn’t sure she would be able to set up the shade canopy without more help.
That help turned out to be Glenn, who on Sept. 21 rode over with Roni to the downtown plaza to help her get her booth in order. It was fortunately not too hot, and the day passed quickly with Glenn and Ben taking turns to come and visit her. It was helpful that our favorite Bad Ass Giant Sausage booth was in attendance, so there was plenty of incentive to visit the show, if for no reason other than a tasty lunch.
As of this writing, Roni is feeling quite a bit better. She can stand on her leg with only occasional need for one crutch, and she is hoping she won’t need to return to the doctor for a follow-up visit. We’ve basically all told her she has to be well in time for our upcoming cruise, because the last thing any of us wants is for her to have to hobble around South America on crutches.
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OME DAYS IT feels as though Glenn is the one on crutches, given the slothful progress with our kitchen project. One day you’ll read this newsletter and be shocked to hear that the job is complete, but for now the best we can report is that things are getting… closer.
In the past month, Glenn managed to scrape up all the old linoleum and sanded off the remaining adhesive so that we are down to bare concrete. Then he wrapped up work on the remaining tile across from the pantry and behind the refrigerator. This included grouting the edge of the counter next to the refrigerator, so now all the grout has been added for the tile that has been placed. There are still some tiles left to do along the bottom of the walls above the baseboards, which will be the very last piece of the puzzle once the floor is down.
Glenn began marking out lines on the concrete this week for where the vinyl planks will be laid, but progress again stalled when it was decided we should continue the new floor all the way into the laundry room — something we weren’t going to do right now — which meant having to scrape up the linoleum in there too.
Because of the stackable washer and dryer being difficult to move, we’ve decided only to redo the part of the floor we can easily reach for now. One day we’ll finish it up on the washer side, probably when we eventually have to replace those machines again. We used to keep the cat litter box in the laundry room, and unfortunately that has resulted in a lot of cat urine seeping beneath the old floor and into the concrete, so we have been trying to neutralize the odor before reflooring, which is slowing things down. Roni has set a deadline to get the project finished before our cruise, so perhaps by next month you will get to see the long-awaited words: “WE ARE DONE!”
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EPTEMBER THREW US a curve with our investments, but mostly in a good way. With storm clouds appearing to gather in the global economy and national political scene, we had been anticipating a drop in the financial markets that has been typical this time of year once traders return from vacations and things get back to business as usual. But exactly the opposite happened.
Perceived progress with China trade negotiations and a drop in interest rates combined to send stock prices significantly higher, and not even talk of presidential impeachment proceedings has so far dampened bullish enthusiasm. So consequently our portfolios look healthier, but we mostly engaged in strategic buying as we wait for the inevitable correction. (It is inevitable, isn’t it?)
Glenn’s IRA was flush with cash after being forced to sell his Target (TGT) shares at the end of last month, so he sought out several new positions to replace the lost dividend. This resulted in the purchase of three high-yielding stocks: 132 shares of New Residential Investment Corp. (NRZ), a mortgage-backed real estate investment trust; 100 shares of PIMCO Dynamic Credit and Mortgage Income Fund (PCI); and 100 shares of KNOT Offshore Partners L.P. (KNOP), a shuttle oil tanker company with operations in the North Sea and Brazil.
None of these is likely to grow much in equity, but with annual yields ranging between 8.5 and 13 percent, they more than cover the Target shares and leave cash to invest later. And another cash infusion is on the way, thanks to the relentless rise in prices this month; a covered call option on AbbVie (ABBV) closed in the money on Sept. 27, meaning 100 shares of that stock had to be sold for a few dollars below market price. Ouch. But we live and learn.
Glenn opportunistically picked up 50 shares of Carnival Cruise Line (CCL) on Sept. 26 after the stock dropped 10 percent despite a strong earnings report; investors disliked the impact of rising fuel costs of the bottom line. He also bought another 50 shares of beleaguered department store Macy’s (M) to add to the growing position in his IRA. Between that and our taxable account, we now have 300 shares total with a buy order in for more if the price falls below $15, which is always a distinct possibility for Macy’s stock. It is no doubt hard times for brick and mortar retailers, with Amazon the darling of investors, but shopping malls aren’t going away any time soon, and to quote Warren Buffet, “Be greedy when others are fearful.” In this case, we are.
Our one other buy this month was a small one. On Sept. 24, Glenn collected 25 shares of automaker NIO Inc. (NIO) in his Roth IRA after the company known as the “Chinese Tesla” reported disappointing earnings that cratered the share price by more than 20 percent. It’s a highly speculative buy, given the company isn’t yet profitable and may never be. But for a princely sum of $56 before commission, it’s a gamble he’s willing to take.
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ECHNOLOGY HAS BEEN on our minds this month, especially with Apple’s release of its new iPhone 11. Roni has eagerly been waiting for the product launch since this past winter, watching the battery life deteriorate on her aging iPhone 8 and feeling a bit of tech envy after Glenn and Ben both picked up iPhone XRs at the end of February. With our Panama cruise approaching, she wanted to be sure to have the capabilities of the new phone’s triple camera during the trip.
Still, Roni wasn’t sure she wanted to buy right away because of the cost of the upgrade. That concern was alleviated somewhat when she found out she could take $300 off the price with a trade-in of her current model. So sold on the idea, we went over to Best Buy on launch day to see what we could do. In short, not much. The clerk told us that the iPhone 11 Max Roni wanted was already sold out and they didn’t know when their next shipment would arrive. So in the end, Roni wound up ordering her new phone online direct from Apple. It should be here early next month. An early Christmas present, no doubt.
But we didn’t leave Best Buy totally empty handed, because while we were browsing the store and contemplating what to do about the phone order, Glenn started looking at the Apple TV display. It was an impulsive buy for sure, but one justified by the notion that our money would be going to support Apple and perhaps boost the price of the shares we own, so it was really our duty as loyal Apple customers to be good consumers and consume stuff.
We’ve had one of the second generation Apple TV boxes in our bedroom for a few years, a gift from Glenn’s sister, and especially enjoy using it to watch YouTube. We’ve had Sony streaming devices on our living room TV, but limited success getting them to work with our mostly Apple household. Adding the Apple TV 4K in the living room now enables us to stream video content from our main computer with relative ease. We have so far used it mainly to view YouTube and connect with our Amazon Prime account, but we like it.
We aren’t quite ready to drop more money on an Apple TV+ subscription, but should we ever decide to cut the cord on our Xfinity cable, we at least have a decent streaming option now.
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EN AND GLENN got to spend some father-son time together on Sept. 11 when they took BART to Hayward to visit Glenn’s folks. For Ben, it was his first ride on the fancy eBART diesel trains between Antioch and Pittsburg, plus an opportunity to visit both his grandparents for the first time since our Sea Ranch trip in July. Grandpa Norm was home for several days, taking a break from caregiving duties down in Hemet.
We got to check out progress on their kitchen remodel, which sorry to say is nearly done after just a few weeks while ours continues to slof along. But it looks great and makes an already large kitchen seem even roomier. We’re sure it will host many future family holiday gatherings.
Because work was still in progress on the kitchen, we didn’t hang out at the house long. We all enjoyed soup and sandwiches for lunch at Erik’s DeliCafé on B Street, then went for ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery before riding over to Sean’s house across town. Sean was at work, unfortunately, but we got to see his recently rebuilt backyard fence and meet the stray mama cat and kittens that have made his yard their home. Our Tour de Hayward continued after that with a stop at Jenny and Tom’s place, where we had some time to visit with our nephew Allen and niece Shannon, who was just a couple of days from turning 19.
Our folks dropped us back at BART when the visit was done, and we rode home packed together like sardines in the commute-clogged train cars. It was enough to make us grateful that we don’t take BART often, even as it is more convenient than fighting traffic on the roads.
That’s all we’ve got for this month. Hope you have a spooktacular October.
