Saturday was a trip to Tehachapi, about an hour north of here, for apple picking with Scott and Janet and three of their grand kids, and Janet's brother and his wife.

We took the "back" way there, which brought us right through windmill country.





It's a little early for most apples here yet, but two varieties I forget the names of were ready.





We're going to go back in a few weeks when more varieties are ready. The green ones on the bottom were okay, but the ones with red on the top were crisp, tart and perfect.

After getting a few bags of apples, we went into town, where the German bakery was having an October fest. After that, we saw a train go through town and beat it up to the Tehachapi Loop to watch it go by.




Why wouldn't you put a penny on the track? Well, in this case a dime, since pennies have been worthless for a few decades.



We saw three trains in an hour, two going north and one going south (the one in the video). There was another southbound train as we headed back to the 58.

On the way to the 58, we stopped to use the bathroom at a store in the middle of nowhere, which is next to a Kern County rescue/fire chopper base. The pilot gave the kids a tour of the 41 year old Huey. It was awesome.



There's a snorkel hose that drops into water and fills the 450 gallon tank in 28 seconds. This chopper actually just responded to the Metrolink crash a few weeks ago. It's somewhat of a Swiss Army knife of rescue choppers; it can carry six firefighters or rescue people to a scene, it has a winch on the other side to pull people out of ravines, it has speakers, and can carry water and dump it all out in a second. Pretty cool. And it's about the cleanest aircraft I've ever seen, I mean it's spotless.

If I was ten years younger, I think I'd try to be a California firefighter. The job security is good. 

The weather has become delightful for the past few weeks. We have silenced the a/c units and opened the windows. The desert smells awesome this time of year, I think it's sage or creosote bushes or something. It's been in the high 70s during the day and low 60s to mid 50s at night. I'm sure there's some heat left this fall, but it's been gone for about two weeks now.

Recession/pre-depression  spending habits are really not that hard to adapt to. We're ignoring the ordnances and hanging some of our laundry out.



And making more of our dinners at home.



Look at that feast! Grilled chicken breasts, sautéed asparagus, Tehachapi apple applesauce, and homemade banana bread. Because it's Monday. Isn't that better than anything that the Olive Garden ever overcharged for? 

Depression: Bring it on.  

For the record, I have never eaten at an Olive Garden, even in prosperous times, of my own accord. I can make pasta at home for like $0.39/serving. Restaurants are for when you want something deep fried, because that's a pain in the butt at home.