IT'S FREEZING!!! HOW DID THAT HAPPEN!

 Our weather has been erratic.  I imagine it's the same all over.  We got a few clouds from the latest hurricane which is causing flooding and coastline disintegration with about six drops of rain this morning. It's a chilly 45 degrees, meaning I was up several times looking for blankets.  I guess it's time to drag out the quilts for the bed.  It was so cold, even Kitters slept on the bed next to my feet.

I think I'm still on Hawaii time.  I was able to sleep an extra hour.  That's a miracle!!  My morning cup of microwave hot water for fake coffee always brings up the same dilemma.  Where to put the huge microwave.  This is actually where I do 99% of my cooking.  

About the old one having a fuse.  It ran just fine when you turned it on.  Light worked and everything.  It just would not heat up the food.  I unplugged it over and over, checked it top to bottom and tried again.  Nothing.  I even tried all the quick internet fixes, but it appears it's something to do with a broken switch inside the door that allows the magnetron to turn on.  Anyway, I like the new one and it heats up much faster than the old.  That's good because I was late for an appointment.

Who in their life would think dermatology ... that's a good occupation!!  Certainly not me, but I'm glad they decided to help people with small annoying growths.  I had two to be removed on my arms, with a quick check to be sure no skin cancer was slinking around.  After all, I do spend a lot of time out in the sun.

Just as I parked the truck, I heard sirens and saw flashing red lights.  Uh oh ... I quickly looked around for smoke.  They went to the far end of the parking lot, so I figured I was safe.  I think it was a medical thing in the next building over.

My appointment was an example of how doctors offices should be run.  I went in the door, sat down for two minutes and got called back.  In the blink of an eye, the good looking hunk came in the door with a big smile and said HELLO!!  

WOW ... not only on time, but EARLY!!  It took less than five minutes for a quick check before freezing two spots.  I of course was almost to the panic stage.  I'm sorry, but that HURTS!!!  YIKES!!!  I was actually out the door EVEN BEFORE MY APPOINTMENT TIME!!!   And not because they weren't busy ... the waiting room was full to the brim.  That's a FIRST!

I thought I might celebrate with a nice big burger, but instead I just drove home to Kitters who was waiting at the door.  She parked right next to me on the couch for the next two hours.  Truly, she is a sweet affectionate kitty.

I fielded another six phone calls about the Lodge, all lasting at least 30 minutes.  One was concerned about what we call "Elkdom".  The place where everyone gets along no matter what, we believe in helping each other out and even politics don't enter into the building.  I told them that's a thing of the past.  That's the Old Guard ... we were raised completely different from today's "it's all about me" generation.  They don't seem to have the respect we have nor the love of tradition, and nothing is going to change that.

In between calls, I worked on the second of four quilts.  I have no idea when they will be handed out because "they" have cancelled the meeting on the day we normally celebrate Veterans Day because they won't be there.  Of course there are plenty of others who WILL be there, so we are having the meeting anyway. 

That's it folks ... that is all I did the entire day.  Hopefully today is much better, but as you probably already guessed ... it's time to put on my heaviest set of ARMOR.  It's bingo day and I'm just not feeling it. 

 It used to be so much fun ... looking forward to having a good time with great people.  I guess nothing stays the same.  Hopefully there's a good reason for this all this mayhem.  It's just hard to see it amid the commotion.

Now to figure out how to set my thermostat to HEAT!!!

KITTY ANYONE??

 A good Monday morning to everyone out there in internet land.  It's a VERY cool 49 degrees this morning.  Where did THAT come from??   Just like McDonalds, I'm LOVIN' IT!!

I finally got some sleep, though I think I could have used another hour or two.  I did a few brain games before picking up the critter cam.

Yessiree ... the Kitty Saga has come to an end.  I knew it would.  In the beginning, I was trying to feed just one little stray cat who was as skinny as Kitters was.  Sadly, she apparently got hurt and never returned.  

Oh but wait ... SIX other cats did.  I knew there was bound to be a female, and I had no intention of having more than ONE cat.  This is her.  There were 163 videos (no kidding .... that many) of all the boys courting her around the yard.  Anyone want a kitty??

I have since removed all the food.  All of those partaking, were plenty fat when they got here, meaning they are being fed somewhere else.  I will try to catch the female in my skunk cage to get her fixed, but I don't hold out much hope.  She is THE most skittish of all and I sincerely doubt she will be caught.  I guess that remains to be seen.  

There was nothing else going on except to head out and find lunch/dinner.  I was given a ticket for a drive through dinner at the local Catholic Church.  It was not exactly what I expected, but hey ... it was for a good cause.  I bought TWO extra and just like Uber, delivered them to a friends house.  

I sent her a text message later ... "it needs a salad".  I already tested the chicken wings, as you can see, and did a taste test of the chili.  Not bad ... not bad at all.  This made three meals for me and it was free, so I can't complain.  And look ... OREO cookies!!!  You can't beat that with a stick.

I spent the rest of the afternoon sewing on this quilt.  All the big squares have become one large piece.  The side pieces look uneven, but you cannot actually see the last beige square.  There will be two inner borders and another outside border before it is complete.  Though complicated in the beginning, I like the end result.  

I hope to finish up two more borders today, but I have an appointment at 10:00, followed by a meeting with the bookkeeper at the lodge.  That will be a good one!!!  There were a lot more phone calls today from people wanting to know what went on.  I used the no-holds-barred method before I finally turned my phone off.

With nothing else going on, here are the last pictures of the little town of Lahaina on Maui.  This is a picture of the huge Indian Banyan tree, the center attraction of the town.  It was planted in 1873, a mere 8 feet tall.  It is now .66 acres big.  This picture of course is before the fire.

They did everything they could to save the tree, and even though it was scorched, the tree guys from all over came to give it everything it needed to survive.  It is 153 years old and hopefully with good care, will live another hundred years. 

I have a table full of paperwork spread out as I plan my next few trips, because I will soon have lots of time to TRIP.  There is one already in the works.  I'll be flying to Denver mid November.  To be honest, I would rather be sitting on the couch with my sweet boy, just like this.

OH THE PHONE CALLS

 WHAT???  It is 51 degrees this morning in sunny California with a high of 74. Apparently we are doing the yes-no-yes-no dance with fall.  It just cannot make up its mind.  In four days they predict we are back to 92 and it's already the middle of October.  

Miss Kitters must have had a late night out.  It's early and she's already sleeping.  It's funny how she changes her sleeping spot from the window chair, to the chair behind her, to the bed, to the pile of quilts on the bedroom chair ... always a different spot every day.

She must be sensing my stress.  Or not ... it's most likely she just wants to be petted.  This is her FOOT notice.  I'm here ... pet me.

Which soon turns into THIS if you don't cooperate.  Just look at those claws!!  She actually is much more careful with those daggers since she got swatted the first time for leaving claw marks on my arm.  Now she reaches out, but doesn't touch.  She's a very smart kitty.

This is the latest addition to the group.  I haven't seen him or her before.  Very curious these guys are.

I didn't really want to sit on the couch, so I got my act together and hit up Target.  I wanted to go to Marshalls, but when there is no parking, you know it's a bad day.  Target had maybe ten shoppers.  My kind of store.  I roamed around and came out with $10.00 worth of stuff.  Not hardly worth the trip, so I headed home.

There were many phone calls asking about the Elks problem, to which I responded they are in big trouble now ... BIG.  Everyone works ... so just who is going to run Bingo?  I have my personal opinions, but I won't go there now.  And I assure you it WILL NOT BE ME.

I took a few antacids and hit the fridge.  It was time to feed my starter.  I find it interesting that between these two, originating at the same time, both have a different sourdough flavor and smell.  All the same flour, but different levels of sourdough flavor.  I can tell the difference in the taste of the bread too.  These hit their peak and are on their way down, so into the fridge they went.  Maybe I'll bake next week.

 I try hard not to couch sit too much, so on one pass through the sewing room, I spotted this.  Time to get back to stitching the squares together into bigger squares.  There is little sitting involved, since you have to get up three times to iron each piece.

Lunch was a treat.  My first grilled cheese made with the sourdough sandwich bread I made.  When getting my hair cut, I was gifted the biggest green tomato I've ever seen.  She told me to make fried green tomatoes.  I prefer them red, so it sat on my counter for over a week.  YUM YUM!!!

Back to sewing, all the little squares are done, now to sew THEM together.  Then there are probably 200 2 x 2 inch squares to stitch together to make the outside rows.  This one turned out much better than I expected.  

There were two more hours of phone calls where I explained I'm not doing anything about the problem.  It's theirs, not mine.  The good news ... I can go on any trips I want now and not feel guilty because I'm not at Bingo.  There's only one other person who knows my job, and her health doesn't allow her to work that long.  I think they are in for a big surprise!!

I wish my little buddy was here to make it all better!!!  This is the "chase me" look ... see if you can take my toy away!!!!

BYE BYE BINGO

 WHOA!!!  It's 58 degrees here.  What's going on!!  My doors are open and the fans are bringing in the COOL.  

I'm praying Dave and Marcia are not getting hit by the hurricane in Florida and that Arizona will still be on the map from the tropical storm from Southern Cali.  At least Arizona can use the rain, maybe fill up Lake Mead again.

Around here we just had a lot of white clouds.

With nothing going on, which is a good thing since I was trying to recover from that terrible Board Meeting we had, I spent much of the day sewing binding on.  Here's one down and three to go.

The entire rest of the time, I have been on the phone.  Below are my thoughts for the lodge.  Sadly, the King of the Magic Castle has resigned because all the discourse (CRAP) going on has affected his health.  He is also resigning as Treasurer after maybe twenty years.  

With that, 90% of the bingo volunteers, including me, are quitting.  They just could not leave well enough alone.  They wanted to be in charge ... to be the boss.  They have gone above and beyond to make trouble for those running the program and making over $100,000 a year so our lodge would be the biggest donor to charity.   They got their wish.  We are done.  Good luck ... you're going to need it.

We will still be doing bingo for a couple more weeks ... I wish he had told them no more at all ... so there may be a few more stories, but to be honest, I don't want to go back even one night.  They made their bed, now they can lie in it.  Absolutely no one knows how to run the place except one other guy and I.  Neither of us are going to help them.  There are consequences to your actions in life.

I know ... it's a shock .... but WOW ... I will now have Tuesdays free from all the stress.  It's too bad such a great organization has come to this.  

No more worries about getting a backup cashier!!!!!!!

BYE BYE BINGO!!!!!

BINGO IS ON THE LINE

 4:00 am sure comes early in the morning.  That's when my eyes pop wide open and no matter what I do, sleep escapes me.  This time it was because of the worst Board Meeting we have ever had.  It's no fun any more.  But first ... let's look outside and see what the weather is doing today.

It's dark, with a little light from the tiny town a few miles away.  Stars are visible, so I guess it will be another hot day in spite of the 64 degrees on my patio.

The van got some new digs on this day.  I exchanged the black wheel covers for white, and these fit MUCH better.  The last time I drove it, the windshield was so covered in dust and dirt that I had to wash it with a hose so I could see.  I purchased a cover, but the lining was black.  In less than two weeks, it had completely disintegrated into a pile of dust.  This one is much heavier and comes with heavy magnets to hold it in place.  I admit I'm not quite tall enough for an easy install, but I got it done.

Cyndae and I discussed the microwave placement.  This is where it used to live, about 12" off the floor.  You had to bend over to see the control panel and remove anything after heating.  I admit, it is MUCH easier to use when it's on top of the counter next door.  It is also SO much quieter.

I like Dave's idea of a big drawer here, or maybe I'll get a wine cooler like the last owners.  It might help me with the Elks Lodge Board Meetings.  I could have used a GALLON last night.

I have been putting off showing you these pictures for the last week.  It's just so sad.  This is what Lahaina, on the island of Maui, looked like when I spent more time there.  It was old, quaint, full of little nooks and crannies where locals sold their trinkets and artists sold their paintings for huge dollar amounts.  This is the Main Street of town.  I have walked every square inch.

This is the exact same street today, looking to the right in the picture above.  You can't even begin to recognize where you are on the street because it is all gone.  

Lahaina will never be the local hotspot again.  There is nothing left on either side of the road for a couple of miles.  Two concrete buildings remain, but they are gutted and will have to be torn down.  I'm so very sad for Lahaina.

On the other hand, there is nothing like going to an Elks Lodge meeting with people that don't like you, to make you forget everything else.  There was lots of screaming this time, and I mean SCREAMING!!  It's ridiculous to get to a point of calling someone a liar.  The Board makes all the decisions, but they don't seem to understand that concept.

It got so bad that three people walked out and left the building.   I'm pretty sure five people will quit Bingo come January 1st, or probably before that.  I will be one of them.  It used to be a blast and we had lots of fun, but that is no more.  It was a four hour marathon of folks yelling because they did not get their way.  It's like kindergarten all over and I'm too old for this stuff.  It's time I took everyone's advice.

 This morning I will try to recover with Kitters and my fake coffee on the couch.  Though I felt great yesterday morning, I'm a tired wreck this morning with a splitting headache.  Maybe a PEPSI and a couple of cookies will jazz up my constitution for the day.

If Cooper was here, he would make it all better.

LIZARD CITY

 LIZARD COUNTER:  24

It's morning once again and a fabulous 68 degrees.  Maybe we will survive this heat wave after all.  There is certainly not much to see today.  Just a dark clear sky.

The day began with a record breaker.  At 4:30 am I grabbed my first cup of caffeine and headed to the computer.  Out of the corner of my little eye, I spotted it.  A LIZARD ON MY COUNTER!!  NOOOOOOOO!!!!!

How the heck did he get up there.  No, Kitters has never been on the counter.  Nor have I ever seen ANY lizard hanging out on ANY wall.  They don't have the feet for it.  Why am I inundated with lizards?

I distracted him with one hand while fast as lightning I grabbed him with the other.  Okay, not quite fast as lightning, but I CAUGHT him and made an unceremonious trip to the front yard when he jumped into the bushes.  NO MORE!!!  Please NO MORE!!  Let's get with the rain and cold so they go away!!

Sadly, that's all I've got today folks.  I was so tired yesterday, still trying to get back on the right time schedule, that I did absolutely nothing.  I even had company coming and didn't even vacuum.  

She showed up in time for dinner at Habit Burger.  Upon the last complaint about no chicken on the salad, they sent me coupons for TWO Char Burgers.  I got this instead ... the Santa Barbara Char.  I couldn't even eat half of it.

Hopefully today is just as exciting as yesterday so I can rest up for an epic Lodge Board Meeting tonight.  I'm not looking forward to it one bit.  Then I will have three glorious days of also doing absolutely nothing!!!

Sorry Kitters, but a kitty can never take the place of a puppy.

BINGO FAIL

 A good 3:30 in the morning to ye.  That's when I started this.  There's nothing like a rousing night of Bingo to give you three hours of sleep.  

But first ..... I have to wake up.  This was the view this morning, though much darker than the picture shows.  I did everything I could to go back to sleep, but with all the crap ... I mean happenings .... at Bingo last night, it was a lost cause.

Kitters spent the morning sleeping on the bed.  Not much of a watch cat, right?  In fact, she spent more of the night on my bed than I did.

I got a big surprise about 11:00 am when someone knocked on the door.  I hate it when that happens.  It's usually someone selling something I don't want and I'm not dressed for the occasion.

Amazingly, there was my new microwave on the porch.  See this hole?  It was once a wine fridge, until the previous owners took every appliance they could out of this house (and then some) when they declared bankruptcy.  This is where my microwave lived.  Out of the way and off the counters.

This is where the new one now lives.  It was delivered a day early.  Lucky I was home or it would have been stolen right off the porch.  Why is it on the counter?  Because I could not find the dimensions when I ordered it and it is too deep to fit in that hole.  I lost all of my mixing/baking countertop, but I now have a microwave.

The good news is that it works.  Of course nothing works the same as the old one, but it IS much quieter.  Company will appreciate not being woken up at 4:00 in the morning by the microwave.

YAY I CAN COOK AGAIN!  So what do I have for lunch?  A BLTT.  Bacon, lettuce, tomato and turkey sandwich.  I'm trying to use up the turkey and lettuce before it goes bad.

In a flash, it was time to head off to Bingo.  Mostly because I got a phone call asking me to please get there now.  Everything bingo is always an emergency.  Come to find out, someone ... and I will make this sound as nice as I can ... got some guy to come in and completely redo our sound system.  The important part is they did it without the Board's approval.  I hope they have a lot of money in their bank account to pay for it.

The entire system was locked up tight, so I could not set it up for bingo.  Not only that, but all the components were new ... well not new, they were USED ... but new to us.  Nothing even looked the same, let alone worked the same.  I made a phone call.  That did not make that person very happy at all.  She screamed at me and walked out when I told her she did not have approval to do that. All of a sudden, it wasn't done without permission ..... it was ON APPROVAL.  No it wasn't ... she already had the invoice in her phone.

She had to call the installer to come and explain how to set it up for us.  With it finally working for Bingo, we began calling the games.  An hour later there was a big POP and the system died.  She was called again to get it fixed.  We had to wait for the guy to show up, who had no idea about Bingo's requirements.  Maybe someone should have asked?  It blew some circuit because he had two microphones on the same frequency?  

The caller tried to call just using his voice, but that doesn't work in the back room.  No one could hear.

And so bingo ran 45 minutes late, meaning I got home at 11:00 and in bed at midnight.  You know how stuff you really want to say goes through your mind ALL NIGHT LONG.  Yeah, that's how it was last night.  I was awake at 3:00 and finally just got up at 3:20.  I'm hoping my morning cup of caffeine either wakes me up or puts me back to sleep.  I really don't need to deal with people like that and my Bingo career may be short lived!!!

OOOOOH KETTLE CORN!!!!

 It was a very warm 78 degrees by 9:30 on this lovely California morning.  There was no running, no sunning and no funning!!  

ALMOST anyway.  What to my wondering eyes did appear on my front porch at 6:00 this morning but TWO bags of popcorn.  Kettle corn to be exact, fresh from the Pumpkin Patch.  It helps to know your neighbors!!  It was like Christmas morning!!!

Then I grabbed the critter cam to check out the kids.  Good grief ... there were 67 videos this morning.  These guys keep a very close watch out, for what I don't know.  But every time they move, the camera starts a new video.  This is one of the scaredy cats ... and a piggy at the feed trough.  He's the one I chased into the culvert.  As much as he eats, I'll be surprised if he can fit for long.

 

With that done ... and having watched half of those 67 videos, I waited for the "business is open" sign before calling on my underwater camera gear.  It's a 2.5 hour drive to the store, so I thought to get some info ahead of time.  Maybe they can help me with the Olympus, and if not, they do have cheaper cameras with housings other than the Nikon Z9.  I mean really, who has an extra $8,000 to spend on a camera and housing?  BTW I did order that Olympus charger from Amazon.

Then it was on to rodeo.  These big guys can easily push through just about any corral you have them in.  They weigh well over 2,000 pounds and have those pointy things on their heads.

Worse than that is the Git Off.  The riders are taught to get on their hands and knees as quickly as humanly possible and crawl away while the "bull fighters" keep the big guy distracted.  This guy didn't quite do it correctly and got stepped on with both hind feet, one right on his neck, that smashed his face into the dirt.  Lucky for him, he got up in one unbroken piece.  All I can say is his guardian angel was watching out for him.

Enough of that.  The van was screaming at me to drive it before its battery went dead.  That is definitely the downside to van life.  So off I went to the quilt store to pick up the last four Veteran quilts.  These are the embroidered ones.

I'm not sure who quilted them this time, but it left a lot to be desired.  I had to get creative in cutting off the excess because it was rather stretched out of shape.  Apparently they have a new quilter.  

That was followed by cutting and stitching the binding pieces together before attaching them to the quilt itself.  These are the two I finished that are now lounging on the back of the couch to remind me to hand stitch them over the next few days.  Oh the fun!!

That was it for the day.  It's too hot to do anything else.  I would be praying for rain, but instead I'm praying for sunshine until my gutters get fixed and the window sill painting is done.  

September disappeared in a poof of dust, and October is melting away from the heat.  Maybe November will bring us a little rain ... you know, like the El Niño guys keep telling us is going to happen.  They have even already declared a National Emergency in parts of our County ... and we have yet to see one drop of water.

I know, you've seen some of these pics before.  I look at all of them every day.  My sweet Cooper.

PANIC SETS IN

It's morning and I'm kind of dragging.  I must be catching up on sleep because it's WAY past my get up time.  I'm burning daylight as my dad would say.  So let's get going!! 

Here's two of the kitties that visit me every night, and sometimes during the day.  Quite by accident I found that this one hides in the culvert under my driveway.  I've no idea how he gets in there because it's VERY small.  I might have to get out my shovel and clean out some of the dirt for him.

This beauty lives in the tree line between my house and the neighbor.  I've no idea where the little one hangs out.

At any rate, it was time for breakfast to wake me up.  While Walmarts veggies used to be perfect, they are sliding downhill.  I got five small avocados, all of which are totally overripe.  Makes them more spreadable I guess.

This was my first problem of the day.  Anyone else have this SHOE problem?  It's just such a long walk into the closet at the far end of the bathroom.  This is right next to the bed so I just slip on a pair and go!!  Okay, I cleaned it up ... which was a mistake because that's when I realized I had not vacuumed in a while.

And THAT brought up another problem.  What the heck happened when I was gone?  The robot guy didn't want to leave the dock.  After resetting him three times, he took off, went four feet and ran around in circles.  Nothing I did would change his mind.  I even turned him upside down and cleaned everything.  I paid a lot of money for this thing and it hasn't even lasted two years.   I actually had to get out the REAL vacuum.  Well that was no fun.

While doing that, I ran across this monster.  Back in my scuba diving instructor days, I took a lot of trips to Hawaii and Mexico, hauling along a huge camera setup.

This is a Gates housing for a film camera, along with all the crapola that goes with it.  I knew that somewhere I had the actual film camera.  I began the search.  Who knew I had not one, but THREE.  I've no idea if they work any more, because no one does film nowadays.  It's all digital.  These should probably go in a museum somewhere.

That's when I found THIS housing.  To be honest, I don't ever remember even using this one.  It requires a Olympus C8080 camera, which I just happened to find in the closet.

This is a digital camera, which I could probably still use today except I can't find the battery charger.  You know when you have that drawer completely full of cords and crap ... and you don't know what the heck they are for so you throw them away?  Yeah, I think that's what happened to this one.  Trouble is, it's 20 years old and no chargers can be found now, not to mention the fact that I could not get it IN the housing.

I even found this.  I swear I never bought this camera.  At least this one uses AA batteries and it WORKED, so I may get some use out of it.  In all, I found three video cameras and two digital ones.  Maybe I can donate them to a camera museum.

Then I got completely distracted with the new Z8 and Z9 cameras from Nikon.  Mirrorless they are, lightweight and fantastic according to every camera guru out there that uses them.  

That's when I realized I had wasted an entire day.  Maybe some of those chargers are in my current camera backpack.  But where is it?  I literally searched this house from top to bottom ... every closet, under every bed.  PANIC SET IN.  WHERE IS MY GEAR?  My D4, my D300, my 500 mm lens???????

I vaguely remember hiding it, but WHERE?  All of a sudden, my saddle rang a bell.  It sits on a rolling stand that has a big shelf underneath.  I pulled back the blanket.  YES!!!!!  You dummy, next time write down WHERE you put it so you don't forget.  What a relief that was!!

With a big sigh, I finally fixed dinner.  Another leftover meatloaf special with the last of the Elks baked potato.  

Here's hoping better things happen today.  I've nixed the idea of a Nikon Z8 or 9.  They are quite pricey, and since none of my old camera gear is really workable, I may just get a simple point and shoot  underwater setup, if I can find such an animal.  Yes they do have cheap plastic bags you can put your phone in ... or even your little camera, but they most always leak.  

Today I'm off to pick up the last four Veteran quilts from the quilt shop.  Since I don't have an ocean here to swim in, I'll be sewing instead.  Hope you have a GREAT day!!