About Me

Rog and Sue Lloyd sold their home in Meadow Vista, CA in July, 2005 and enjoyed life aboard their catamaran NEOS for eight years. They sailed the 48 foot catamaran throughout the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal and on the Pacific Coast from Ecuador to Mexico. Neos was sold in July of 2013 and Rog and Sue returned to life on land. They are now settled in Rocklin, CA close to family and contemplating how they will spend their future as CLODs; cruisers living on dirt.

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Friday, March 1, 2024

February 20234

Rog drove down to Santa Barbara with Jay for the annual Black Belt Meeting at the main dojo. There was a huge storm system barreling down on California which cut their trip short. They drove home after the meeting on Saturday. They avoided the high winds and rain that hit Sunday but they didn’t get home until after 2am. Blooms had quite a few hours without power and Ryan and Beth got stranded in Vegas for an extra day but we all survived the atmospheric river. On his birthday weekend, Max went to a ceremony celebrating a scholarship he won from the Daughters of the American Revolution.
So he had his birthday party a week late. This is a big one as he turns 18. I truly enjoy getting together with this family. We have such a good time together. Max has also decided that he will go to the University of Montana in Missoula. Now his family can prepare for a summer journey in August.
We had a nice visit with a friend from high school, Dick Byce. He is down from the Seattle area visiting his sister in Walnut Vreek so came up for lunch. We get to see him about once a year.
Rog and I celebrated Valentine’s Day at Handel’s of course! Rog has been busy putting together a very intricate cabinet for the new bathroom remodel project. The designer (me!) has some very unusual requests and isn’t really good at communicating her ideas. But it is coming along.
Meanwhile, whenever the rain let up, I was in the backyard trimming and weeding and raking. Rog joined me for a few days to trim the trees. I am trying to finish the back before the pavers come in March and restrict my access to the Recology barrels. By the end of the month, it was looking pretty spiffy. Of course, another storm hit the first few days of March which didn’t help with leaves.
During Karissa’s week-long president’s holiday, we found a sunny day after the snowstorm and visited the sno-park near Boreal. She found a great hill where she was alone and could modify it to her liking. After a couple of hours (and soaked to the skin) we headed to Truckee for lunch at Pies and More where we had a garbage pizza. Great fun!!!
Eric found a camper to put on his truck bed so they are another step closer to the month-long vacation trek they will be taking this summer.

Friday, February 2, 2024

January 2024

NEOS LOG January 2024 We started the New Year with a neighborhood get together across the street. Reminds us of how lucky we are to have such great people around us.
While she was still on winter break, we spent a special day with Karissa. She wanted to get a second piercing on her ears. We went to Claire’s at the Galleria and I had my ears “repierced” as well. Then we had lunch at the Olive Garden.
The first Saturday of the month we had a belated holiday dinner with the Lloyds. Fun to get together with the Elk Grove contingent and catch up on the year’s activities.
Max auditioned for the California Honor Band and was accepted. They had less than a week to learn the 4 compositions and 2 rehearsals. The performance was on Saturday night at Sheldon High in Sacramento. It was an amazing performance. So proud of him!
Lots of medical appointments this month; dentist, oncologist, ECHO, labs, cardiologists,and physicals. All good. We had Terry Hawkinson over for dinner. Actually, she brought the main dish while I made the bread, salad and dessert. She has her hands full with Lloyd’s deteriorating condition and it is good to have her relax for a bit. At the end of the month, Max’s Jazz Club had a fund raiser. An evening of jazz and dessert. The group did a super job and we had an entertaining evening.
The projects for the month included finishing the books for the grandkids, planning and buying for the bathroom project, and finally getting out into the yard for winter cleanup and trimming the grapevines. Karissa spent an afternoon making macaroons with her Aunt Beth. The macaroon fairy dropped a platefull of them at our frot door.
This coming birthday is a big one for Max…the big 18. Karissa is pulling out all the stops to make it special for him. She came over to get Pops’ help on a wood project she is making for him. And she came the day before his birthday to make him a batch of peanut butter cookies.
We ended the month with major rain and flooding. At least we aren’t in Anchorage…Petg reports 100 inches of snow so far and more coming. And temps well below zero.

Monday, January 1, 2024

December 2023

This was an interesting month. It started with Sue’s surgery. I went into Sutter Roseville for a small wedge resection for removal of a precancerous lesion and ended up in surgery for 4 hours for a complete lobectomy of the upper left lung for cancer. The doc kept me in the hospital for 5 days waiting for the drainage to stop. Glad to be home, it took a while to get my strength back and be able to get back to my usual routine. By the end of the month, I was keeping up with my daily chores. In January, I’ll get back to the treadmill at the gym and help Rog clean up the massive amount of leaves that have accumulated. It looks like they got all of the cancer and all of the lymph nodes were clean, so no chemo or radiation. Just regular CAT scan follow ups.
The month still had its share of holiday events. The weekend before surgery, Rog and I joined the 49er LIons Club for their annual Christmas brunch. Nice to see a lot of old friends we haven’t seen for a long time.
The Blooms had their Solstice bonfire on the 22nd. By this time, I was pretty well recuperated and was able to contribute the homemade sun bread. The weather was almost perfect and the food excellent.
The next day, we headed back to the Blooms for the holiday gift exchange. A fun afternoon!
We spent the rest of the weekend doing lots of prep work for the holiday dinner on Monday. On Chrstmas, we had a delicious breakfast of Eggs Benedict at Beth and Ryan’s for a gift exchange. Then home to get the turkey on the grill and the roast in the oven. At 1pm, guests arrived. My oldest brother and his wife joined us as well as my oldest sister and her husband. We had an early 3pm dinner so that they could get on the road early. What a great day!
We ended the month with a celebration potluck at the Aikido dojo. They had a practice and then we shared some great food and conversation. I had dressed for the bonfire, but we stayed in the dojo. Nice to be able to be out and about again. Welcome to 2024!!!

Saturday, December 2, 2023

November 2023

Well we hung in there for a long time, but COVID finally caught up with the both of us. I was scheduled for surgery November 8 but Rog came down with a cold right after his aikido test. And a few days after that, I came down with it. When they called with pre-surgery instructions, they asked me to take a COVID test. Sure enough, it came out positive. Surgery was canceled for the second time and rescheduled for December 4. The “cold” lasted a few days and then lingered on with a cough. I felt yucky for a while, but it actually wasn’t too bad. Rog’s aikido class had a potluck dinner so he came home after Friday night’s weapons class and picked me up for it. What a great group of people. I met all of the folks I have heard so much about all these years. Michelle and Karissa included me in a “girl’s night out” to see Rocklin Theater put on Beauty and the Beast. As usual, a superb performance. We followed it up with an ice cream at Handel’s.
We had our usual Thanksgiving … started with the Macy’s Parade, then the Purina Dog Show. Ryan had brought over a HUGE turkey on Tuesday and I gave it a brine rub. Rog stuffed it, then smoked it and cooked it on the Weber, Karissa came over a little early and set the table. She had made adorable pilgrim place cards. Everyone else got here about 3. Ryan had smoked cheeses and Beth set up a tray of appetizer goodies. The turkey was so big it took an extra half hour to cook but the wait was worth it. Michelle made veggies and dessert, Ryan mashed potatoes, and I contributed the jello salad. A feast to be sure! The Blooms did the after meal cleanup which helped tremendously.
The next day, Ryan and Beth picked us up at noon and we headed to Bodega Bay for the Family Weekend. Took us 3 ½ hours to get there, but well worth it. The house was gorgeous. Great views of the bay, especially at sunrise. Blooms made us enchiladas on Friday night, with Karissa making a cinnamon crumb cake for dessert. We played a long game of “Laugh You’re Out”. Some images that will take a long time to forget! But a lot of laughing.
On Saturday, Rog joined the Blooms for a hike to the beach through the dunes. It was quite a trek for him. Only 15 minutes one way but lots of hills and loose sand. Before lunch, we did the family picture. Then the Blooms took a road trip north and Ryan and Beth headed out to shop and then have lunch at Spud Point. When everyone got back, Karissa got in her session in the hot tub. We also enjoyed watching a couple of deer that munched for hours in the patio garden 10 feet from the window. Beth made a shrimp and crab alfredo for dinner with ice cream for dessert. The evening games were a version of “Guys vs Gals” and then “Heads Up”. We made egg mcmuffins for breakfasts, leftovers for lunch. We left about 8:30 Sunday morning and were home before noon. What a fun weekend. What a special weekend.
The rest of the month was spent on my list of “to do before surgery”... We did 2 full yard leaf pickup jobs, made the Christmas snowflakes and poem, trimmed dead plants and got the yards in order and the house is decorated for Christmas. Weather has definitely turned and fall has arrived.

Tuesday, October 31, 2023

October 2023

OCTOBER NEOS 2023 We started the month with dinner here with the Roses. I worked with Kathleen back in the 70’s and Dave was in Rog’s karate group. It was a gorgeous day and we enjoyed eating on the porch. Rog had a weekend aikido seminar which took precedence over his usual karatefest participation. He is focused on testing for his brown belt in aikido at the end of the month and he got a lot of info from the 3 aikido black belts that presented. We planned to take a day trip to Tahoe to chill out but the van had other ideas. We lost power at Colfax. After a short stop, we tried again but only got a mile before we lost our turbo (“limp mode”) again. We turned around and headed home. I made an appointment with Mercedes Benz and we took Tess in for a diagnostic. Their recommendation was to replace a faulty turbo. Their bid was $7500. We took it to our usual mechanic who did the job for half that. Meanwhile, our coolant overflow reservoir sprang a leak so we had to replace that as well. But it does not come as a separate piece so we had to replace the entire radiator. Egads.
Max got back from his trip to Atlantic College in Maine so I had the famil;y over to our place for dinner so that he could tell us all about the trip. He was definitely impressed with the college and will be weighing it against Univ of Montana. Both places obviously want him. Nice to have choices. The following week we took him to Don Quixote’s for dinner followed by ice cream at Handel’s. He is dreaming of a couple of hiking adventures. We’ll see which ones he actually picks!
We went to lunch with Jay and his sister who was visiting from Virginia. We went to Cracker Barrel and enjoyed a long visit. The following weekend, we had the card group here for dinner. It was nice enough to play one game out on the porch before dinner but it cooled off quickly and we were inside for dinner and the final 2 games.
Lots of projects this month. First on the list was the kitchen counter. Rog sanded it down, restained it, then for 3 days he lightly sanded it and then applied one layer of varnish. Looks pretty nice!
With the weather turning cold, there are a number of chores that need to be done before winter. We scrubbed down the screens out back, washed all of the cushions and then packed it all away for the winter. The cushions for the table chairs were pretty soiled so I ripped out one hem on each cushion, removed the filling, washed the covers and the filling, then put them back together. It was worth the effort. They look much better.
Then Rog tackled the French door. He fixed some broken wood at the bottom, added an astrical and then I stained and painted it. It has new weatherstripping as well.
The final project was our oak tree out front. We hired a tree service to remove the dead wood and trim it back a bit. They did a great job and cleaned up pretty well. It took me 2 days to get the last of the small twigs from the front.
Even with the list of “honey-do’s”, Rog found time to make some more bokkens. He made one out of black walnut and another of black oak. At the end of the month, Rog tested for aikido brown belt. We practiced his forms at home about 3 times a day for 2-3 weeks prior to testing and he and his friend Jim practiced with him before aikido class twice a week, so he was feeling pretty good. He made it through the test with flying colors but the test totally exhausted him. He came down with a fierce cold the next day and spent 5 days recuperating.

Tuesday, October 3, 2023

September 2023

We started the month with what may become an annual trip with Ryan and Beth,,,,doing to an Indycar race. This year, we headed south to Laguna Seca. Rog and I drove to Salinas Friday and checked into the Salinas Elk’s Club campground. Ryan and Beth stayed in a hotel about 3 miles away.. They picked us up after breakfast the next morning and we headed to the raceway to check it out for the big race on Sunday. We watched some practice laps and NXT and NTT races. A highlight for Rog was getting up close and personal in the pit lane, watching the officials checking the cars. We headed back to Salinas for a short nap, then went out to eat together. We blindly picked Stonie’s Taphouse and Bistro which ended up being a doggone good choice. Great meal and great first day! On Sunday, we got picked up about 9am and headed south. We got a pretty decent parking spot, but took advantage of the shuttle service and took it over to the main grandstand at the starting line. We watched the NXT race and the warmups. A little after noon, the main race started. It had almost a record number of safety laps due to crashes, which made it less fun than it could have been, but it was still exciting. Beth had to pick up a rental car at the Monterey airport before the agency closed so we caught the shuttle at 2:30 back to the parking lot. Coming back from the airport, we had to pass the exit from the race but luckily got there just before the end of the race so didn’t get caught in dead traffic. Ryan dropped us off at the van and headed home, Beth headed to Fresno and we headed out to refill our propane tank and get more coffee for Rog. The next morning, we got an early start planning to get home before noon. Unfortunately, we got delayed in Walnut Creek with engine problems. Mercedes Benz wouldn’t even look at it, the diesel shop referred us to a mechanic about 3 miles wavy. We spent a little over an hour there while he worked hard to get us back on the road. Problem was with injector #2. He removed the loose bolt and temporarily replaced it with a standard bolt and we were on the road again. Needless to say, it was late afternoon when we got home. When we took it into our mechanic the following week, he said the fix was pretty good and he sealed it up and gave us the green light. All good.
The following week, I had a fine needle biopsy of a lesion on my lung that they have been watching since April. In at 6, out a little after noon. Rog pampered me the rest of that day and I was back to normal the next day. Biopsy results showed precancerous cells but no definitive cancer. So the plan is to remove the lesion but no need for follow-up chemo or radiation. We took Michelle and Eric to Boudin’s for an anniversary lunch. Weather was perfect so we ate outside. Beth’s mom was having lunch here so we got the bonus of seeing her as well. Afterwards, we walked down through the Fountains to Pete’s coffee for dessert caffeine. Rog had made a bokken (wooden sword) out of some scrap poplar he had. It turned out so well, he bought some black walnut and made another. This time, he carved a dragon into the handle. Looks pretty nice. Not quite as hard as he would like, so he may try some oak, but it is quite the piece of art!!
We made the final choice for tree trimmers and they are scheduled for the end of October. Rog also did some annual caulking and paint touch up on the house exterior. Finally, we met with Joaquin and Martin to start planning the driveway project for next April. My project this month was to clean out the hydroponic system and plant the winter crop. This time we went to Green Acres for the plants and I am switching to Fox Farms fertilizer. I covered the new plants with empty milk containers for a week and all are thriving. so we will see!! We have already harvested some Romaine.
At the end of the month, Max was treated to 4 days at College of the Atlantic as they tried to persuade him to make them his first choice. He flew out Wed night and was home late Sunday. He attended classes, hiked in Acadia National Park, took a boat ride in the Atlantic and ate with the dean. All with room and board on their dime. What an adventure!