Santa
Cruz with it's pier, the beaches, and downtown. A music group
performed traditional dances, providing an opportunity for
Diether and Jutta to take many good digital photos.June 30, 2001: On a warm and sunny day,
Diether and Jutta enjoyed Santa
Cruz with it's pier, the beaches, and downtown. A music group
performed traditional dances, providing an opportunity for
Diether and Jutta to take many good digital photos.
June 23 to 24, 2001: On Saturday morning
Diether and Jutta drove to their Greenfield retreat. After lunch
at the cabin, they installed a water bag with a capacity of 110
gallons on the hill as a backup system for the presently cracked
water pump. Attempts to use adhesives to repair the pump proved
unsuccessful, because of the water leaking out of the pump. In
the afternoon and evening Jutta and Diether were invited to an
outdoor party on the neighbors' property. There were many good
people enjoying food, drinks, the music from a band, and dancing.
The party continued until late at night. On Sunday after 
some work in and around the house, Diether and Jutta
returned to Cupertino.
June 18, 2001: Jutta took Christian and Natalie to the SJC airport for their return to the US east coast.
June 14 to 17,2001: On Thursday morning
Diether and Jutta left Cupertino for the mountains. They took 680
and 580 to Livermore and Tracy, then crossed over from 5 to 99.
When the cellphone worked, Diether completed a few business phone
calls. Because of stop-and-go traffic between Manteca and
Stockton, they decided to take country roads to 88 to move faster.
After lunch on the patio of a restaurant in Clements, they stayed
on 88 through the Sierras, stopping only for gas, and on Caples
Lake for a small hike. Because of mosquitos it became a very
short hike. Then they continued to 395 and 50 through Carson City
in Nevada to Virginia City (VC), where they checked into a small
motel. The office is in a small grocery store. There they helped
a young lady with some earplucks, which they carry in their
luggage for noisy airplane rides, because the store did not have
them. After a stroll trhough the city and some rest in the room,
they had dinner. Their small motel room did not have space to sit
down for some work after dinner; so they went to bed, and enjoyed
a movie on TV. This was something new, because they do not have a
TV in Cupertino for a long time. Ben got it in his room. On
Friday morning after breakfast, they met with Keith for some
sightseeing in the Virginia City Highlands. This is a nice area
with Juniper pines, and good views of the hills around VC and
from some spots of the Sierras. Keith did not have time for lunch,
therefore Diether and Jutta had lunch alone in one of the VC
casinos. Based on a suggestion by Keith, they then took a dirt
road to the Cottonwood Springs, an oasis with plenty of water and
enormous cotonwood trees. They tried to drive further down in the
valley, but the dirt road became impassable, and Diether had to
back up to avoid getting stuck. After returning to VC, they next
explored the seven and six mile canyon. The seven mile canyon
only has a rough dirt road, but the six mile canyon (same
canyon further down) has a good paved road, leading
from VC to Silver Springs in Nevada (not in Maryland). On Friday
evening, Diether and Jutta had dinner at the Miners' Diner across
the street from their motel, followed by a walk to the city for a
drink at the Silver Dollar saloon, and a chat with some locals
including a retired mathematics teacher. On Saturday morning
after a walk through the city and a chat in the staging area with
participants in a sports-car rally, they drove down to Gold Hill
and Carson City, then taking the 50 freeway to South Lake Tahoe.
Nevada has excellent roads in that area. They did not have any
hotel reservations in the area, but were lucky to find a
reasonably priced lake-front room without much effort. After
lunch at the beach, Diether and Jutta enjoyed the lake; Diether
walking the beach and taking digital photographs; Jutta swimming
in the cold water. After some rest in their 
room, where Diether took some time to prepare for a
course at his company, they walked the area to discover a good
restaurant, where they had dinner a little later. On Sunday
morning after breakfast and another swimming event for Jutta,
they started the return trip taking highway 50. After an
omelettelunch an a walk in Placerville, they continued on 50, 5,
580, 680, 880, 237, and 85, and arrived home shortly at about 5pm.
Shortly thereafter, Christian and Natalie arrived, returning from
their tour through Southern California. Diether and Christian
dropped off their rental car at the San Jose airport. After
watching digital photos from everybody, in the evening, they all
had dinner together from the backyard gas grill.
June 10, 2001: After breakfast, Diether,
Jutta, Christian, and Natalie put the house and backyard back
into their original 
state. Then the young folk
drove to Santa Cruz. Diether and Jutta followed after lunch. They
all enjoyed the beach. Ben and his friends had to return early,
followed by Diether, Jutta, Christian, and Natalie after a drink
in a downtown Santa Cruz restaurant. Everybody assembled for
dinner after a good weekend.
June 9, 2001: Diether, Jutta, and Ruth's mother continued to prepare the house for the big family party, planned for 3pm in the afternoon. Tables and chairs had to be set up in the backyard, and the food had to be readied. More then 90 guests had been invited for the party, and more than 65 came, with the first friends arriving at about 3:15pm. Parking in the neighborhood became an issue, and some had to park their cars several hundred yards away. (74 pictures of the party will be shown for a few months in the -Special family events- section of the website, available through a link on the homepage. For the privacy of our friends, you need a password for viewing that section. Please email us for the password.) In the evening, Diether and Jutta stored the perishables in the fridge. Then Jutta enjoyed listening to a conversation of our French friends. Diether went to bed, because he was tired.
June 2&3, 2001: Diether and
Jutta drove to their Greenfield country retreat in the morning,
arriving shortly after 12 noon. After lunch, they drove to the
top of the hill to enjoy the mild sunny weather there. When they
returned to the house for a late afternoon coffee break, they
found the storage tank's water pump spraying water. An
investigation of the problem indicated, that this was another
interesting problem with the water system, which could not be
fixed with the available tools. Diether tried PVC glue and a
super-strong two component adhesive without success. Fortunately
a by-pass to the well pump alleviated the problem by providing
low-pressure water to the faucets in the house. To end the
entertainment from the water system soon, they decided to switch
to a gravity-driven system in the near future. Because of the
mild weather, in the evening, they started to take down a few
boards of the deck. It is very hard to remove some old nails. On
Sunday morning, they enjoyed the sunny deck. When Diether noticed
a small rabbit on the gravel, he took photos until the animal ran
away. In the afternoon, they returned to Cupertino. After dinner,
Ben and some of his teenage friends came to the house. Two had to
return to San Luis Obispo, where they attend college.
June 1, 2001: Diether, Jutta, and Ruth's mother had dinner together, and were joined later by Ruth, Ben, and several of their friends, who went out for dinner at about 10pm.
May 26 to 28, 2001,
Memorial Day Weekend: Diether and Jutta stayed at the
house in Cupertino, enjoying the backyard and the jacuzzi. They
gave up an attempt to drive to Santa Cruz, because of very heavy
traffic.
May 18 to 20, 2001: Because Diether had travelled on business on Sunday, Diether and Jutta enjoyed a longer weekend without the congestion of a holiday. On Friday after commute traffic, they drove to Reno, NV, arriving at about 2pm. After a late lunch in Boomtown, NV, they explored the area north of Reno along highway 395, and around the road to the Pyramid Lake in an Indian Reservation. They drove up Axe Handle Road and admired the view of the city of Reno and the distant snow covered mountains of the eastern Sierra Nevada. They stayed overnight in a motel next to the University of Nevada. On Saturday morning they drove through the Palomino Valley, north of Reno, to explore that part of the country a bit more. After lunch in Reno, they continued to the Virginia City Highlands, and were surprised to see wild horses roaming in the countryside. They continued through Virginia City, repelled by the many tourists, and stopped in a bar in Gold Hill for a drink and a long conversation with the owner of the bar. From there they drove through Carson and towards Minden along the Foothill Road close to the Sierra Nevada mountains. They saw a large snake (rattler?) on the road. They stopped in South Lake Tahoe, where Diether had made reservations in a lakeside hotel. They enjoyed the lake until dark, including a swim by Jutta in the ice-cold water, followed by a delicious dinner in an Italian restaurant. On Sunday after breakfast, they walked the beach, and Jutta braved the cold water once more. After lunch on the Nevada side of the lake, they took highway 50 to drive back to Cupertino.
May 13, 2001, Mothers' Day: Diether had to take a 6:30am flight to Providence, RI, for an East Coast meeting on Monday. Jutta had herself invited to Santa Cruz by Ben and some of his teenage friends.
Week of May 7, 2001: Jutta went museum and Golden Gate Park viewing in San Francisco with a family friend. She took outstanding photos of the vegetation in the park. In an evening Ben installed another post for the cloth-line to save electrical energy during the Cailfornia energy crisis.
May 5 & 6, 2001: Diether and Jutta spend the weekend at their country retreat in Greenfield. On Sunday Diether took photos of lizards on the deck of the cabin.
April 29, 2001: Diether and Jutta had lunch on the pier in Santa Cruz, followed by a leisurely walk on the beach of New Brighton State Park, south of Capitola.
April 28, 2001: The morning at the house in
Cupertino was somewhat noisy, because excavation work for
construction on 
the neighboring lot continued. In the
afternoon Ben had a large format camera for a college project. He
took pictures in the backyard in Cupertino, while Jutta and
Diether were taking photographs of him
April 25, 2001: Ben came to Diether's workplace with a large format camera to take photographs of the lobby for a college project.
April 18 through 23, 2001: Diether and Jutta
started their vacation, leaving for Monterey on Wednesday around
noon. They had lunch next to the Moss Landing power plant, and
checked into a Motel in Pacific Grove at about 3pm. They enjoyed
a walk on the coast taking photos of flowers and animals. Then
they went to the Java coffeeshop in downtown Pacific Grove. After
dinner at "The Tinnery", they watched a movie in their
hotel room. On Thursday morning, they walked for a while until
"The Tinnery" opened for breakfast. Early birds
sometimes have to experience some inconveniences, because the
coffee for breakfast tasted like a mixture of coffee and tea, and
then a gardener started working the lawn just outside of the
restaurant, adding unpleasant noise to the ambiance. We wondered
about the management of this well known restaurant; they could
arrange to have the landscaping work done before they open. The
work only took about 30 minutes. After breakfast Diether and
Jutta went on another longer walk to take pictures of historic
houses and other sights. Jutta enjoys the use of a digital camera.
Some storm front moved in around noon, and so they decided not to
add another night in Pacific Grove, but rather to drive to the
Greenfield cabin, which is only about an hour from Monterey.
After shopping for groceries at the Pacific Grove Safeway store
and stopping for gasoline in Carme
l
Valley Village, they arrived at their cabin in the early
afternoon. The weather turned wet. They lit a sawdust-wax log in
the stove to have more even warmth than with the thermostat
regulated propane-gas heater and spent most of Thursday afternoon
and Friday in the house, reading and writing, because of rain.
About one inch of rain fell in 24 hours. Saturday to Monday were
sunny and warm, and Diether and Jutta enjoyed the outdoors around
the cabin. They also worked a little, burning some brush and
applying herbicide to some poison oak. On Monday the jeep road
had dried enough to drive up the hill to enjoy the vistas from
there. On Monday afternoon, they returned to the Bay Area.
April 16 & 17, 2001: Diether and Jutta had planned to start a short vacation on Monday, but an important business meeting for Diether delayed the plans by two days.
April 15, 2001: Diether and Jutta celebrated
Easter with a mass at Queen of Apostles. Around 11 am, Ben and
some friends loaded some wood from the old fence. Diether, Jutta,
Ben and friends then drove three cars to Greenfield for lunch at
Miller's Lodge. After lunch, they drove to the cabin to unload
the wood, and to have some fun, like being driven up the hill in
the Cherokee by Diether with four teenagers in the car. They
hiked for about 40 minutes. After their 
return to the
cabin, three of the teenagers took turns to terminally erase some
old floppies and compact some empty bottles. They enjoyed the
experience.
April 14, 2001: Diether and Jutta had to mail their tax return, which they had obtained from their tax advisor a few days earlier. The lines at the post office were very long, but the service was good and fast.
April 11 & 12, 2001: Jutta spend a day and a night on Lake Tahoe to return some equipment and visit a friend.
Weekend of April 7, 2001: Diether and Jutta
stayed home for the weekend to organize the data for the year
2000 tax 
return. They also worked on setting up
some cloth-lines to reduce the use of the electric dryer. They
try to contribute to saving energy during the Californian
electricity crisis with blackouts and the bankrupt utility
company Pacific Gas and Electric. PG&E provides their gas and
electricity. The photo shows Jutta taking down dry bed-sheets. At
5:00pm Diether phoned Ben and Ruth on the cellphone, to check, if
they would return in time for dinner at home. They were just
passing Barstow on their return from the Grand Canyon. At 6:30pm
Diether and Jutta were joined by some friends (F & K) for
dinner. The conversations continued until after 11pm. Ben and
Ruth finally arrived at home at about 11:30pm.
Week of April 1, 2001: Ben and Ruth travelled in Arizona, visiting a friend in Phoenix, and taking photos of the Grand Canyon. It got very cold there, and they had to buy some warm underwear to stay warm.
Weekend of March 31, 2001: Jutta and Diether
had dinner with a friend from work and her husband on Friday
night at Fontanas, followed by dessert at home, with discussions
on bioinformatics and modern biology until early Saturday morning.
An attempt to have lunch in Santa Cruz on Saturday failed,
because of two major accidents on highway 17. Therefore they had
lunch in Saratoga instead. Ben and Ruth had dinner with them, and
talked about their plans for driving to Arizona during spring
break. On Sunday Diether and Jutta had lunch on the pier in Santa
Cruz, followed by a walk on the beach north of Davenport. Ben and
Ruth started their drive to 
Arizona in the early
afternoon and phoned at about 10pm, two hours before their
arrival in Blythe, the first stop of the trip.
Week of March 25, 2001: Diether attended a conference in San Francisco, and Jutta visited an important customer in the Berleley area with associates from the East Coast and Southern California. We had good dinner conversations with the professional from the East Coast. One day of the week, Ben had friends for dinner, and he cooked a delicious meal for them.
Weekend of March 24, 2001: Diether
and Jutta spent time at the cabin in Greenfield to enjoy good
weather in the wild. Diether continued the survey of roads on the
property with his eTrex GPS system for hikers.
Week of March 18, 2001: Jutta attended a two day business meeting in Southern California. A day after the meeting, she was told, that the company, a dot com, was cutting staff.
Week of March 11, 2001: Jutta drove to the Tahoe area for a business meeting. In Tahoe and the Bay Area some days of the week were very cold with snow on the East Bay mountains.
March 11, 2001: Jutta returned from her trip to Europe. In the afternoon Diether picked her up at the SFO airport. At home, they watched the pictures, taken during her trip.
March 5, 2001: Jutta travelled to Europe for the birthday of her father. Unfortunately Diether and Ben had committments at work; therefore a family friend drove her to the airport in San Francisco.
March 4, 2001: After mass at Queen of Apostles in San Jose, Diether and Jutta ran some errands before lunch at home. After some homework in the afternoon, they prepared dinner for themselves and Ben and Ruth. Diether ate alone, because the teenagers came home very late.
March 3, 2001: After breakfast, Diether and
Jutta enjoyed the early morning sunshine. Diether cut open a
large water bottle,
and connected it as a funnel
to a hose for testing an old waterpipe in the hill. Even though
they carried four heavy buckets full of water up the hill for the
test, they could not locate the outlet of the pipe. They used the
rest of the morning to burn some brush, which they had cut a few
months earlier and some high grass on the hill below the house.
After work, they rewarded themselves with a good lunch. After it
started to rain hard in the early afternoon, they decided to
leave for Cupertino. The drive in the rain was not to bad, they
arrived home shortly after 7pm. Unfortunately Ben and Ruth had
eaten already. Therefore, they decided on dinner in a Japanese
restaurant.
March 2, 2001: Diether took a vacation day,
Jutta had to work, starting early in the morning. In the late
afternoon they left for the cabin in Greenfield, arriving shortly
before dark. The creek was not running yet, but had standing
water in some spots. Driving the Jeep Wrangler between a trailer
and a backhoe, parked in the driveway, was somewhat of a
challenge. Fortunately, they had not taken the big Oldsmobile.
After arriving at the cabin, Diether installed the water bypass.
Even though night temperatures had been down to 20F, the water
system was fine. After an early dinner, they went to bed.
February 5 to March 1, 2001: Diether and
Jutta spent the weekends in Cupertino with an occasional drive to
Santa Cruz. Ben continued his work including weekends, and took
classes at De Anza College during the week. As usual, Diether and
Jutta worked during the week with little time for other
activities.
February 3&4, 2001: Diether and Jutta
drove to Greenfield on Saturday morning, Ben had to work. Jutta
took her 
computer for some work at the cabin.
Before driving up to the cabin, Diether and Jutta talked to Kim,
one of the new neighbors, and mentioned the need to have the
water-system improved. Arriving at the cabin, they found, that
the water system by-pass worked fine; the well pump did not have
to be used. In nice sunny weather, they had lunch outside. After
lunch, Mike, the new neighbor and another member of the group,
came up to check the water system. After a chat over a bottle of
wine, the men inspected the water system and discussed
improvement including the idea of gravity feed, while Jutta
cleaned the house. After the neighbors had left, Diether started
an afternoon bon-fire with some dried brush. Then Diether and
Jutta compacted some glass bottles, walked close to the house
until dark, and then fixed dinner. The next morning it was sunny
and warm again, and Jutta took a sunbath, while Diether took some
photos. Before lunch, they watched the dust from pulverizing a
few more glass bottles, backlit by bright sunlight. After lunch,
Jutta took another sunbath, while Diether re-organized the
container shed. Then they prepared for the return into the city (washing
dishes, packing). Taking a long-cut via River Road they had a
pretty drive back to Cupertino, where they found the jacuzzi with
less water from a crowded teenager party the night, they were out.
However, this time the teenagers had done a good clean-up job
with no bottles or cans around the spa. Ben and Ruth came home
for dinner, and after dinner Diether and Jutta watched the
weekend pictures, taken with the digital camera, before going to
bed.
January 27&28, 2001: Diether and Jutta
left Cupertino for Greenfield on Saturday morning at about 10:30am.
When they arrived, they discovered, that frost (down to 20F)had
damaged the water system at the pump, which pressurizes the tank
water for the house. Diether built a by-pass from the well pump
into the house, but had to keep the pipe into the water tank open
to avoid over-pressurizing the pipes. In parallel, he used PVC
glue to repair the damaged pipe connection. While waiting for the
glue to settle, Diether and Jutta compacted a few empty bottles,
which had accumulated there. Then Diether
re-pressurized
the connection too early, and it leaked again. So he re-tightened
it again in the hope, that it would be fine by next morning. In
the evening, he had the idea to use a higher outlet of the well
system as a pressure relief by attaching a hose to a tree. That
worked well to have water in the evening, but he turned it off at
night to save energy and water. The temperature stayed above
freezing until late at night, but in the very early morning it
dropped to 24F again, and when Diether got up in the morning at
about 8AM most exposed pipes and hoses were frozen. A bucket,
filled with water the evening before, had an ice layer about 1/2
inch thick. (The photo shows Jutta holding the ice from the
bucket.)
Diether broke one hose, when bending it. Diether and Jutta were
about to leave to have breakfast at Miller's, when Diether
succeeded to get water from a outlet connected to the well. The
connection to the water tank is very old, and rarely freezes,
even in cold weather. They had breakfast in the cabin, and after
breakfast tried the pump connection glued the evening before. It
worked well, and they had the normal water system until starting
the return to Cupertino at 1pm. On the way out, they met the
neighbors, and discussed the water system. They are interested in
fixing it, and will discuss the work on the next weekend. Diether
and Jutta then stopped at Miller's for lunch, and then completed
the drive to Cupertino. Arriving there at about 4pm, they had
coffee and cake first, followed by a short warm-up in the hot tub.
Diether then worked on literature, photos, and this website,
while Jutta watched the Superbowl game of New York against
Baltimore.
January 20, 2001: Diether
and Jutta stayed in Cupertino for the weekend to perform some
work at home, like cleaning the hot tub. Diether also took many
photos to document the "hard work" by the company,
which is rebuilding the wall in front of the neighbor's house. It
had been knocked down by a car a few month earlier (see December
1, 2000 diary entry). The task to rebuild seems to be very
difficult, because the work is going on for several weeks now.
The photo shows the work crew advancing the project.
January 14, 2001: Diether and Jutta had lunch on the
pier in Santa Cruz, followed by a stroll through a weekend street
market for antiques in downtown Santa Cruz.
January 11, 2001: In the evening
Moni, a relative visiting the area from Europe on the occassion
of a business trip of her husband, went grocery shopping with
Jutta, and joined us for dinner and some good conversation. The
photo shows Moni giving an explanation to Jutta and Ben.
January 8, 2000; Ben's birthday: After the
first full day of college classes a tired Ben - they had returned
late from the 
Pismo Beach trip - was joined by his
parents and some local friends, shown in the photo, for a
birthday dinner at the house in Cupertino.
January 5 to 7, 2001: Ben, Curtiss, and Ruth
left in the Wrangler for San Luis Obispo (SLO) on Friday evening
to help Curtis move back to his dorm. Diether and Jutta followed
on Saturday morning very early at 8:20am in the Cherokee, taking
some more of Curtiss's belongings. Shortly before noon, they all
met close to McClintock's in downtown SLO to move a large part of
the cargo of the Cherokee to the dorm. Afterwards the teenagers
stayed in SLO for a bit longer, while Diether and Jutta drove to
Pismo Beach about 15 miles south on highway 101. After lunch in a
beachfront restaurant, cappucinos at a small "cool"
cafe, and a long walk on the beach, they checked into a hotel on
the beach. Winter rates are very attractive. They walked on the
beach a bit more, before Ben and his friends joined them in the
middle of the afternoon. Before dinner, they all 
took photos of the beach and a beautiful sunset.
Then they went to a downtown Pismo Beach restaurant to share
dinner. After dinner, the teenagers went back to their hotel room
to take a few more night photos before driving back to SLO for
some more time together. Late at night Ben and Ruth returned to
the hotel. After dinner, Diether and Jutta walked on the pier and
took a few more photos before returning to the hotel room, where
Jutta continued reading a book, and Diether completed some work
on a grant proposal. On Sunday morning Diether got up early for
some more work to send it to some associates by email. Jutta got
breakfast from the lobby. The children did not want any breakfast
and rested until check-out time at 11am, while Diether and Jutta
enjoyed the outdoors. After checkout, we all (Diether, Jutta, Ben,
and Ruth) took some more photos on the beach, had lunch at the
beachfront restaurant. Then Diether and Jutta started the return
drive to Cupertino, while Ben and Ruth stayed to enjoy thje
beautiful place a bit more.
January 1, 2001: After staying up
into the new millenium, and getting to bed at about 1am (Ben and
friends at about 3pm), Diether and Jutta got up first, followed
by the teenagers in the guest room, then by Ben around noon. A
parent with two more teenagers joined the group. Taking three
cars (Jutta and Diether in the Oldsmobile, Ben with three friends
in the Jeep Wrangler, and
a mother with two teenage
girls in her Ford truck) everybody drove to Santa Cruz for lunch
on the wharf, and a walk close to the lighthouse. It was a
pleasant sunny day there, and with no fog, and we first watched
the beach life with many dogs, then some surfers braving the very
high surf, and finally a beautiful sunset. The group continued
separately in the three cars. Diether and Jutta arrived home
first and performed some office work, followed by dinner with
leftovers from thje freezer. Ben and his friends came back to the
house at about 8:30pm for another party with a fire in the BBQ
pit and roasted marshmallows.
(For the older parts of the family news click:(2001, July to present,Oct-Dec2000, Jul-Sep 2000, Jan-Jun 2000, 1999, 1998)