Where did the grass come from for Super LX and other questions.

Q: Where did the grass in Levi's Stadium, site of Super Bowl LX, come from?

A: West Coast Turf in Livingston, CA. 

Q: Where the hell is that?

A: About 10 miles southeast of Turlock. (Does that help?)

Q: When was the grass for Super Bowl LX planted?

A: 18 months ago.

Q: How many square feet of sod was sent to Levi's Stadium from Livingston?

A: 80,000 square feet in 570 rolls with each roll weighing about a ton.

Q: How did it get there?

A: 32 trucks.

Q: How far did it travel?

A: 100 miles.

Q: How long does it take from harvest to delivery, unrolled onto the field?

A: Less than 24 hours.

Q: Where did West Coast Turf originate before expanding to Livingston?

A: Indio, CA.

Q: Who are some of West Coast Turf's other clients?

A: The list is extensive but it's very likely you're familiar with West Coast Turf even though you didn't know it.

Q: How can you read more about grass?

A: I thought you'd never ask!

• SFGate: NFL tears up entire 49ers field ahead of of Super Bowl
• Los Angeles Times: Rain-soaked field gets turf trucked in from Southern California to repair it in time for NFC championship game between Cowboys and 49ers
• West Coast Turf

While Supplies Last

My local Costco still has Assorted Ghirardelli Chocolate Squares for sale which is significant because they are not available all year long. This assortment usually comes out during the Christmas shopping season and consists of Milk Chocolate squares, Milk Chocolate Caramel squares, Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramel squares, and Dark Chocolate Mint squares.

The bag says the serving size is two squares. Yippee! And, there are about 24 servings in each container. I wonder why "about." Are there sometimes 23? Or 25? I guess it depends on how many one eats at a time. I only eat one so I guest that means there are about 48 chocolate squares per bag.

There are about 73 days left until April 15, not counting weekends. So I could be working anywhere between 73 and about 85 days in the coming weeks (if you include the weekends).

Meaning, there is no way one bag of chocolate will get me across the finish line.

I better get two.

And, soon. They're on sale for about twenty bucks ($19.99 while supplies last).

Back to Work

For real. I'm going back to work starting next week doing what I did before. Taxes. (Different company.)

I literally applied for this gig voluntarily which is insane. Why would anybody do that?

Why would I do that? I guess, at the heart of it is boredom. I've be out of the work force for three years and I've enjoyed it. Treasured it, actually. While I thought I would write more (I clearly haven't), I did read more and walked more (having completed several half marathons). I picked up knitting and baking and I spent a lot of quality time with my grandkids whom I absolutely adore.

On the other hand, summers can be long and boring here in the southern California desert. When it's 90 degrees outside at 6 am, you just can't go outside for much of anything. That's when I order my groceries online because leaving a car in the sun for even a few minutes drives up the car's interior temperature well above 100. Door handles are too hot to touch. Seatbelt buckles are a hazard. There's not much to do unless you can do it inside where it's air conditioned.

It's not bad for short periods but for months on end, it can get a little tedious. A summer job or a part time job would be great solutions where I'd have something to do and could earn a little money.

But tax preparers are in demand in the Spring. So, what started as a search for something to do turned into a full time job (albeit a seasonal one). Go figure. The job will end just about the time I'll want to find something to do indoors.

I think I'll enjoy the work if I can manage the stress. Knowing there's an end date helps. (The gig is only 10 weeks long.) I've already reached my half marathon goal for 2026 so I can scale that back until next winter. The job is paid hourly and I will be working from home. For those reasons, I'm hoping it will be flexible enough that it won't interfere with my time with my grandkids.

And if it doesn't work out - if it doesn't make me happy - I don't have to do it. That's the beauty of it. Also, gobs of stress does produce some funny material for me to write about so I may end up writing more after all.

Wish me luck.

(I already have a supply of chocolate on hand and plenty of coffee.)

Monday Morning Walk

This is what my walk looked like this morning:

If you are using an Apple Watch to record your workouts (running, walking, biking), you can use your phone to see a map of the route you took.

1. Open the Fitness app on your phone.

2. Scroll down the the section labeled Sessions. Click on the (>) located to the right of "Sessions."

3. Scroll to the workout you want to review.

4. Scroll until you see the map. Click on the word "Map" or the map itself to enlarge the view. From there you can share the map via text or email or you can save the image to your phone so you can post it on your blog! 

5. You can close the map view by clicking on the X in the top right corner. That will bring you back to your session's Workout Details. There is a lot of information you can review there.

Have fun and get outside! 

Obsessed much?

I've been thinking about this. For a long time. 

I think you will have no trouble concluding that, yes, I am obsessed.

When I first rolled through this intersection (below), it occurred to me that the sign that pointed to Quartzsite, Parker, and Yuma had most of the hard-to-find letters in the classic roadtrip game, Alphabet - the one where you look for letters of the alphabet on signs or other vehicles.

The next time we drove through that intersection, I snapped a picture of the Quartrzsite, Parker, Yuma sign. In the background there was another sign, this one for Carl's Jr. Charbroiled Burgers and Drive Thru.  In that one snapshot, I had all but three of the letters to complete the Alphabet game. (I posted a that picture here.) I was missing F, W, and X. 

That got me to thinking: Does a place exist where one can find all 26 letters of the alphabet in one, outdoor location?  

Luckily, we were due to go through that intersection again in a couple weeks. I just knew they all had to be there on that corner. We were in PhoeniX after all, traveling on I-10 West.

Here's a video as we exit the freeway, heading west on I-10:

It's a little fuzzy but on the right side of the intersection is the Quartzite, Parker, Yuma sign I posted before with the Carl's Jr. sign in the background. Then, I swing left, where you can see the sign for I-10 East, I-10 West, and AZ 95 North.

That gave me the W.

If you look closely at the video, you will note the truck that turns in front of us is hauling for HeartLand Express.

That gave me the X.

Then, right at the end of the video, I zoom in. In the background are a couple of billboards. The yellow one on the right is for some king of car protection. At the bottom in a read area it reads, "RV and Off Road" giving me the F.

There you go. All 26 letters.

But I still wasn't satisfied because if the truck hadn't rolled through I would still be one letter short.

So I took another video. (If we haven't already arrived at "obsessed," I think I can say we have arrived now.)

In this video, we are approaching the intersection from the north and the first sign you see points the way to Phoenix and Los Angeles. There you go! I have the X!

From there, you will see the I-10 West sign, the Quartzite, Parker, Yuma and Carl's Jr. signs, finally followed by the Off Road sign.

Ta dah! All 26 letters! 

But not from one vantage point. The search continues.