Welcome to Northern California--again

I don’t need to click my heels to know I’m not in Kansas--I mean Bakersfield--anymore! I’m accepting that eating wheat grass will be part of my diet--me and Flicka. But tonight I had tears of laughter running down my cheeks at the great difference between the southern and northern halves of this crazy state. We arrived late at church this evening and tried to sneak in quietly. It was not to be. We had both dogs in the back seat with blankets(it’s COLD up here!) and Mr. T turned to make sure they were settled. He forgot he was in the environmentally correct Honda instead of the BIG CARBON FOOTPRINT Jeep and got his butt tangled up in the horn. Hello, folks! Then he came around to open up the car door for me and it was locked. I unlocked it just as he opened it--close, but no cigar. It set off the car alarm! More noise--why did we have to park right in front of the church doors??? He finally got that turned off and we just laid low in the dark for a few moments to let the dust settle. By that time we were very late so Mr. T went ahead to check out if it was a good time to slip in the back of the church unobtrusively. Just as he opened the door of the church some sick nut job set off a stick of dynamite! The explosion was so loud it sent out a pressure wave that almost knocked him across the threshold. Instead of a subtle gesture to come on in, I saw my very tall husband nearly jump out of his skin. I also saw a good-sized white cloud of smoke fill the air just across the street from the church. For those of you chatters who know what LOLPMP means, that’s what it was.
As church let out I overheard odd snippets of conversation--someone is “fencing and studying.” That was the first time I’ve heard ‘fencing’ used without the word illegal in the sentence in about four years. I also saw a grown male chorister wearing knickers and knee socks! Such things were not observed in the entire stay in Bakersfield.
So many other things have caught my attention--a man of some years--at least 90 of them--was taking his daily constitutional. He was also all hooked up to an iPod with speakers in both ears! What a great sight. He was walking at a better clip than I can but his iPod seemed so incongruous with his years. More power to him!