I went down to the Truckee river this morning and saw some great trees about to loose their leaves.  

 

More Napa grapes  

I am the Luckiest guy in the world! I was just in Napa California for my 19th wedding anniversary. These are two of my most favorite things to do, hang out with my wife and hanging out in Napa. All the vines are turning reds and yellows. Pumpkins are all around and it seems as though every winery still has grapes on the vines. There is lots of winery smells and lots to taste.  

I still have roses in the yard this late into October and still blooming strong. I expect the snow to fall on these shortly.  

I've been watching Battlestar Galactica season 2.5 and boy is it good! 

In Reno this last weekend there was thousands of motorcycles downtown for the festival "Street Vibrations 2006". I saw a lot of radical choppers and custom bikes.  

 

I have been listening to a podcast called "King Bonk's Campfire". He tells some amazing stories while a fire crackles in the background and sometimes he playes his guitar. It had been a while since I made a fire so this last Sunday in the backyard I did. As the fire also crackled and as my daughter roasted marshmallows, I played the guitar into the night. As I played his seductive G/C riff, I thought of the mighty King Bonk and his amazing stories. Love ya ole mightly King.

One can see that summer is just about over and fall is just about here. The garden is overgrown and the wheel barrow is resting. I guess that I will have to get busy and start the fall cleanup.  

Self-Portrait 

I love fire trucks! Here are a couple from just up the street at the Sparks Nevada Fire Station No. 5.  

Here is the new ride. I got rid of the Magnum because it was bad in the snow. I went down and test drove the new all drive Magnum but found this beauty instead, a Dodge Ram 1500 Hemi Megacab.

I was at "A taste for Art", a Nevada Museum of Art wine tasting last Friday night and when I left I saw Peavine Mt. on fire. Check out this photo of what I saw. photo by Deb Haas 

A friend, DB, of mine got this phone image Saturday night of the hills right behind work. I went out this morning and the whole hill is burnt black.  

Hot August Nights came around to Reno this last weekend and I went to the Atlantis, the Reno Hilton and Downtown Sparks to see a ton of great cars. I took photos of mostly corvettes, 1958-1962 of course, which you can go over to the Vettmon blog and take a look. 

This last Friday night we had a wild lightning storm that brought on hurricane rains. I got out the camera and did some long exposure shots to see if I could snag some lightning and after about 200 shots I got 4 or 5 good ones. 

The bamboo garden is doing great!. I have almost 20 new culms from 4 groups. The most, 9, is coming from one Phyllostachys nigra (Black Bamboo). The black bamboo is seen as the tall dark lines in the back and the rest is Golden bamboo.

Guess where I went this weekend. Napa, one of my favorite places. I went with my wife Krissy and her sister Linda and husband Jerry. Lots of vines at this time of year. We tasted lots of great reds and whites. Reds Rule! I did find a favorite at the Vincent Arroyo Winery. I bought futures in the some of the wines in the barrel. Shhhhh its a secret. Another of my favorites Silverado Winery and their view from the tasting room.  

Here are some images from my garden.