An outing with the (rolly)Cat

[mdlbear]

After yummy pancakes for breakfast, the flower_cat went out for a Mother's Day shopping expedition. Unfortunately we didn't find most of the things we were looking for, but we had fun anyway.

A little surprisingly, the wheelchair does not fit in the back seat of my car; it probably would if the passenger-side front seat were pulled up all the way, but that's unlikely to happen. The best way to get it into the trunk is to reach over the chair, grab the folded crossbars between the spokes of the far wheel, and put it into the trunk diagonally, wheels first. Comparatively painless.

We went to Valley Fair, the local mall, mainly in search of three things: a pewter bud vase and a purple laptop bag for the Cat, a new bathroom scale, and a pair of Keen hiking boots for me. We found the scale. You'd think that a mall full of shoe stores would have at least one selling Keens, but you'd be wrong. Macy's had an astounding variety of men's shoes, none of which I'd be caught dead in (but which would kill my feet in short order if I tried). Many stores had an astounding variety of handbags, very few of which were purple and none of which the Cat would be caught dead carrying. Most were so bad that I wouldn't have wanted to be associated with anyone who wanted to carry one.

After the mall we headed for home; I set a course past the Rose Garden, so we stopped there. The wheelchair worked well on the paved paths, but bogged down in the grass. At that point we changed modes and the Cat used it as a walker. It was delightful; it must have been several years since the Cat walked in the Rose Garden. I hadn't realized that she didn't know where the Royal Amethyst was located.

At that point we were both a little too hungry, so we came home and had lunch: yogurt, granola, and strawberries. A little bread and cheese for me, as well. Yum.

Comments

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

Valley Fair - the one that has the carousel in its sign? Or am I just suffering memory corruption vis-a-vis Silicon Valley? My San Jose friends moved to Oregon years ago, and I haven't since been south of Redwood City for anything....

[mdlbear]

It's Oakridge that has the carousel. Valley Fair is right at the intersection of I880/CA17 and Stevens Creek Blvd. It's walking distance from our house; about 2 miles.

Next time you're in the area, come visit us at the Starport! Always open on Wednesdays; other days call first. The local filk con is Consonance, first weekend in March.

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

Well, thank'ee much, Sir, for the correction re carousel sign(s). And as I'll doubtless be in the Valley mid-week if'n and when I am down there, there is indeed a fair chance that I might take you up on your kind invite.

I must confess that my knowledge of Valley geography does extend for about two blocks in all directions from Camden, Kooser and dear old Stevens Creek Blvd. (plus, of course, Alameda de las Pulgas and Sand Hill....)

Was always amazed at how ferocious the traffic jams could be; still have my old Thomas Guide, makes a grand souvenir.

[mdlbear]

Yay! There's contact info and links to maps on the household web site

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

Oh, major yayness indeed. Just seeing the street-name 'Bascom' again brought back some interesting memories, most of them good.

Is there still a Tandy Leather store on Stevens Creek Blvd? Remember that one as being a great source for silver conchos and jewelry findings that I could not easily acquire up here north of the Smith and Wesson Line.....

Take good care, neh?

[mdlbear]

Alas, no. That Tandy was less than two blocks from our house, in a strip mall that also included a Safeway that isn't there anymore either. The Safeway has moved down to Meridian and gotten bigger.

OSH, University Arts, and Mel Cotton's are still around, though. As is Guitar Showcase.

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

Never shopped in that Safeway, far as I can recall. But Mel Cotton's had the most amazing collection of bird calls, which a number of us have kept for the opening moments of telephone conversations, for entirely nonsensical reasons.

I now only know of two remaining Tandy shops (though have not Net-searched for more): one on MacLeod Trail in Calgary, the other on Aurora up in northernmost Sea Atoll. (Might even be just north of the city limits, which are a strange sort of borderland of mutable physics....)

And while on the subject of reminiscence about shops: Wierd Stuff Warehouse. Much more fun than Fry's.

[mdlbear]

Weird Stuff is definitely still around. More fun, but less likely to have things I need (at least, now that I've bought them out of their stock of IBM Model M keyboards).

Central Computing, on Stevens Creek, is another good one -- not necessarily the best prices on hard drives, but by far my favorite source for Antec computer cases, and a local dealer for Asus and Lenovo laptops. I was just there yesterday to enquire about the new EeePC 900 for Colleen.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Someone on my flist recently found a fabulous purple laptop bag at Office Depot, IIRC. It was either there or Staples, at any rate.

[mdlbear]

Thanks -- I'll try to remember to check it out.

[mdlbear]

Many thanks. Found a fantastic Buxton bag at Office Max.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

You're welcome -- I'm glad I could help!