riverbank: the city of action

it's true. our little tiny town's motto is "the city of action". no one's quite sure where the moniker from...however...there are plenty of theories. one implies that riverbank is inhabited by "loose women" and therefore it is the place to come for ahem...such services rendered. another theory i've heard is what i like to call the "footloose" theory. supposedly, back in the day, modesto (the nearest town) didn't allow high school dances but riverbank did...so the local high school students had to have their dances here in riverbank, along with other forms of entertainment (kind of along the lines of the previous theory). whatever the origins of the title, the fact is that in the two years (almost) that i have called riverbank home, it truly has been "the city of action". for example...the police have been called at least four times for domestic disturbances in our neighborhood. three of them involved the same couple (thankfully the woman moved out...since then their house has been pretty quiet) and the other time was for a child molestation...yikes! on a separate occasion, a police helicopter spent a good fifteen minutes flying over our little block with its search lights on looking for someone while several sheriff cars patrolled the streets with their own search lights blaring. good times. we've also had a flood! last spring, it rained so hard for about thirty minutes that the streets were literally covered with about twelve inches of standing water.

why do i bring all this up you ask? because this weekend we had another evening of excitement to add to our our growing list of disruptions while dwelling in the fine city of riverbank. on saturday night around 10.30pm, john and i were startled by a loud explosion outside our bedroom window. i didn't think much of it actually...i just thought our neighbor was banging around in his work truck or something. but curiousity got the best of john and he peeked out the window only to discover that one of the houses across the street was on fire! smoke was billowing out of the garage and before long, flames were licking up the sides of the house, causing the van that was parked in the driveway to ignite as well. i've never actually seen a house burn before so this was quite the experience. john went outside and watched from across the street...however, i was content to stay inside and watch from the warmth of my bedroom. eventually...before the night was over...seven firetrucks, an ambulance (thankfully it wasn't needed), a police car, the fire cheif's suburban (why do they ALWAYS drive suburbans?) and a boom truck with stadium lights filled our tiny street. thankfully, no one was hurt and most of the damage was contained to the garage and van. the house had smoke damage of course but they think most of the inside is salvageable. we still don't know what started the fire...we assume it had something to do with the explosion we heard...but who knows? houses don't just randomly catch on fire...so it had to be something. we're fairly certain it wasn't drugs (a big problem here in the central valley) because of the lack of chemical precautions taken. and i'm pretty sure it would have made the news if it had been drugs...and so far...it hasn't. anyways...like i said...riverbank has lived up to its infamous name...the city of action. ha!

a quick update about the rest of the holiday weekend...luke was here from tuesday evening to sunday afternoon. gosh...i like that kid! it was great having him here. we didn't do a whole lot but that's really ok. supposedly he likes it better that way. wednesday we took him to the cingular store to get him a phone for his birthday (from my parents...i'm not that generous!). this was his first cell phone...so it was pretty funny watching him figure it all out. while we were still in the store, he was just standing there with it in his hand looking a bit awkward so i asked him what was wrong. he said that he didn't really know what to do with it! i told him to just put it in his pocket and answer it when it rings. he seemed ok after that. :D

thursday we spend mostly at john's parents house. we had mexican style lunch (tacos mexican style...the good kind! my mouth is watering just thinking about them...) and then a more traditional turkey dinner. so i guess i got the best of both worlds. luke had his first "official" beer...since he turned 21 on sunday...we let him fudge a little bit. john and luke played basketball with john's neice and nephew in the afternoon...i wanted to play...but the belly kinda prevents any kind of activity like that. :( oh well...i'll be able to join in pretty soon.








friday we went to go get our christmas tree! after much deliberation we decided not to drive up to the foothills to chop our own down because i really didn't think i could handle sitting in the car that long. so we just drove down the street and picked out a cute pre-cut one from one of the tree farms that are so populous around this area this time of year.

i spent friday afternoon decorating it and then saturday afternoon decorating the rest of the house. i didn't put up as much stuff as i did last year just so i won't have so much to take down later. it'll be a lot harder to deal with with baby i'm assuming...so i figured i could have a little less of a christmas wonderland in my house this year and a little more sanity because of my sacrifice. :D
luke left us on sunday...the sky cried with us. it started raining just as his ride came to pick him up. it was great having him here...hopefully he can make it again in the spring.
anways...that's my thanksgiving weekend...how was yours?