MISTAKES AND WIRING

LIZARD COUNTER:  15

Good morning good morning!!!  It's a lovely sunny morning and I am ALREADY falling behind.  It was a VERY late night and I'm asleep at the wheel.

But first .... I woke up to darkness yesterday, that turned into this gorgeous sunrise.  Things are definitely changing because we rarely get anything like this.

 

Breakfast was a potato egg taco.  I've been told to watch my potassium with the one pill I have to take every day for blood pressure.  What better way than fried up leftover baked potato!!  Why do I love them so much?  Because I was allergic to potatoes when I was a kid, therefore I HAVE TO HAVE THEM NOW!!

Kitters has decided I'm her best friend.  No surprise, though I have rarely ever seen a cat who wants to be so close all the time.  She parks on the arm of the couch as long as I am sitting there.

Since I picked up the embroidery work for the last four quilts, I went to work putting them together.  I cut off the name so no one tells the recipient.  

That's when I found this!!  I didn't look at all the work before I left ... and obviously I will from now on.  She has to redo this one, but unfortunately, I don't have any more of this blue fabric.  I'm pretty sure they don't make it any more either, which means she will have to redo BOTH top and bottom pieces in whatever color I can find.

And THEN I donned my armor and headed off to Bingo.  Here was this nights problem.  The camera on the machine that projects the picture of the next number to be called, was not working.  They bought a new camera (though they aren't sure if maybe it was just a loose wire) and installed it last Sunday.  

Things didn't exactly go well, but they said it was working.  Too bad they didn't know the setup, because the TV's were not showing the correct picture.  I messed with it for a few minutes before yelling UNCLE to our techno Chef guy.  We figured it out soon enough ... they had the wires hooked up to the wrong connections.  VOILA!!  We fixed it and I took a picture so I would remember the exact locations when it happens again.  And believe me, it will happen again.

Things went pretty well for most of the night.  Only one pitchfork battle arose when one gal won three jackpots.  Sometimes you are lucky, sometimes not so much.  They have to be careful though, because superstition states that if you are not happy that THEY won, YOU will not win.  They love you for winning, but they hate you for winning too.  

The good news is we were also able to repair the microphone system amplifiers.  Those were also fixed on the weekend.  They complained about not hearing previously.  Well on this night I blasted them out of the room!!  I turned them all the way up so they would have to ask me to turn them down!!!  It worked like a charm.  No more flaming knives will be coming my direction over the microphones not working.

That was it ... a rather quiet night, which is how I like it.  Unfortunately for me, I had to stay and help clean up the kitchen, which is why I'm so late this morning.  Late nights make for late mornings.

I was met by Kitters who kept me company, crashing on the bed when I did.  No lizards were encountered on this day .... so far anyway.

The moon was really weird on my last look out the window ... no telling what this is about, but hopefully it means summer is on its way out.  

I have company coming this afternoon, so maybe I'll get in a nap or two.  Just what I need ... washing sheets and actually vacuuming!!!  Maybe some ice cream will make it all better!!!

You've seen this one before.  One of my favorite pictures!

THE INTERNET AND CALLING 911

 LIZARD COUNTER:  15

Yes, with a BIG SIGH, I found Kitters playing with another lizard.  Poor thing ... I feel bad for them, but they should learn to escape instead of standing still, thinking she can't see them.  And so with a very short tail, I put him out under the front bushes.  He ran away, so I guess he was still alive ... sort of.

TODAY when I went to go out the back door ... THERE WAS ANOTHER ONE!!  I guess the good thing is they DO stand still so I can catch them.  This one however, still had all his appendages and RAN out the door the second I opened it.  So yes ... the lizard counter is up to 15.

This is pretty much me ... I just can't stand to see critters starve.  

Back to my trip home on Sunday, since I left early, traffic wasn't bad until I got almost home.  All of a sudden there was this idiot pickup truck driver that I watched in my rear view mirror.  He was going from one side of the lane to the other.  I kept an eye on him as I slowed down a bit.  

Sure enough, just as he was passing me (he was in the left lane) he went ever farther left, over the yellow line into the dirt.  He corrected and went across his lane into mine.  I slowed way down and he just missed me. 

I got his license plate number and pulled off at the next exit.  It's always fun to call 911 ... but when you are trying to talk AND remember the license plate number .......... I finally said WRITE THIS DOWN and repeated the number.  I don't know if they caught up to him or not, but I hope so.  Please DO NOT drive drunk ... or on whatever he was on!!

Next up ... a morning call to Xfinity (Comcast) to get that big dollar amount taken off my account.  The problem was of course that I got a Chinese speaking sweet young gay guy who could not speak English well.  I just could not understand him.  I finally asked for a Supervisor.  Well that took 43 minutes of waiting on line before Rose answered.  

The good news ... Rose said because I was such a good customer (sure Rose) and they wanted to make it right that someone had hacked my account, that they gave me ....... get this ........ One Gigabyte of data (I actually use maybe 40 megabytes), no slowdowns and FREE Peacock for FIVE YEARS.  No contract involved.  I can quit any time I want.  Makes me wonder just what really happened with my account!

I felt so good about it I stuck a big marshmallow in my coffee!!!  Don't do that.  It was terrible.

This was the sight that met me this morning when I went out to run.  A gorgeous sunrise that we rarely have.

By the time I was out the door, it had changed to this.  I ran about 1-3/4 miles before hanging it up.  I just wasn't feeling it.

Kitters and I played hide and seek when I returned.  She is sticking like glue since I got back.

Here's an exciting one.  I found ants in the laundry room getting into the cat food.  I grabbed the small vacuum, only to find the battery dead.  For the life of me I could not find the thing you charged it with.  I tore the house apart before ordering another one.  It's not the ideal location, but I stuck it on the wall today.

The weirdest thing ... I was trying to see exactly where the ants came from.  They made a beeline to the seam between the wood flooring and disappeared into the floor.  I'm guessing there is a crack where they can come in on top of the concrete, but under the flooring.  I sealed the whole seam with my clear fiberglass fingernail stuff before spraying the outside of the house.  Hopefully that does it.

Lastly, it was a long drive two towns over to pick up the embroidery work for the Veteran quilts that have names on them.  She has improved her work and it looks GREAT.  I'm very pleased.  Two are complete, so I will be back stitching these into the quilts, adding borders, quilting and binding.  Luckily I have until November to get them done!!

It was a long day, but that didn't keep me from wishing I could hug this sweet boy.

WINTERS IN SUMMER

 Sometimes you just have to go SHOPPING!  We didn't come home with anything but a full stomach.  Meet the crew from Winters, a tiny old farm town in the middle of big cities.  You can't believe the farmland around there unless you drive it.  And drive it we did, trying to stay out of the I-80 parking lot due to wrecks.  We got lost twice because internet service was spotty.

I mean really ... who couldn't make this?  It's just a long metal box (or whatever container you have) filled with cactus, succulents, flowers and even aloe.  It had some herbs stuck in the middle.  No weeding involved and it was beautiful!

Putah Creek Cafe was our destination.  REAL napkins and Ball jar glasses full of REAL water, not that chlorine stuff.

This gave me a great idea for MY kitchen.  These are grandmothers recipes for soup, framed and hung on the wall with her wooden spoons.  I think I'll try this.

We thought to order a CUP of clam chowder, but it quickly turned into a BOWL.  That was a VERY good choice.  This soup had more clams in it than I have seen anywhere.  No kidding, there had to be at least half a full can of baby clams in each bowl.   THE most tender clams I've had.  I ate every bite and waddled out the door full to the brim.

But NOT before picking up a piece of pecan pie.  This is a 6-1/2" x 4" box.  No kidding ... the biggest piece of pie I have ever eaten in my LIFE!!  We saved it for dinner and breakfast the next morning.  I even brought part of it home!

We did a little shopping here and there, but I didn't buy one thing.  Cyndae found several just her style.  If I were 25 years younger, I might have found something, but not this time.

From there, we took the back roads to her daughter Beccas community garden plot.  This is NOT it.  However, I drove my truck down a super narrow gravel road.  Not the black road on the left, but to the right of that, barely 7' wide, my mirrors almost scraping the fence.  Cyndae was sure this was it.  

Nope ... I didn't think so ... and I didn't see anything that looked familiar.  Finally, after wandering through the entire place, I scanned the map on my phone.

Cyndae .. it's over here.  Three miles away!!  They rent out plots under the big green dot, water included.  We found the exact place we parked before, but could not determine exactly which plot was theirs.  Sadly, we left with no tomatoes or figs.

Exhausted, we headed back to the house.  In an hour, we left for daughter Beccas house/swimming pool.  Did I mention they have beehives?  Do you know what bees like a LOT?  Water in the swimming pool.  We spent the first hour giving CPR to about 50 bees.  We saved two flying somethings, a ladybug and many bees.  They thanked us by flying away.  

Dinner was leftover Mexican food, followed by a crazy movie where the FBI was trying to find out who killed a whole plane load of people years before.   They sent him to investigate his girlfriend.  I'm sorry I don't remember the name of the movie.  We knew who did it, but were fooled not once, but THREE times before the very end.  It was the FBI guy who did it ... and she set him up.  He was killed by the wine.  I TOLD HIM NOT TO DRINK THE WINE!!!!  Turns out he did it to save her from being killed.  Yeah, it was one of those.

More tomorrow about the return trip!!!

Wish I could sleep this well!

EVEN SHORTER POST TODAY

 SO ..... this is what happens when you don't turn your computer off.  Someone got my WiFi address and hooked up to my internet connection.  I figured out how to delete them from my computer, but my WiFi bill is now twice what it should be.  Stinking criminals!!!!

I've leaving for home soon, a 2+ hour drive and I'll deal with my carrier then.  In the meantime .....

Always happy!

SHORT POST TODAY

 I used to be excellent at traveling.  I never forgot anything, cruised right along the highway and arrived on time.  That did not happen on this day.  It did however, start out right with the last of the homemade garlic sourdough bread grilled cheese!!

As for the plums, I took the seeds out, but them in half and froze the entire bag full.  They will be just fine for making jam when I return.

I finally took off around noon.  I THOUGHT I had checked the highways and byways for accidents and slow downs.  I did not do so well in this endeavor.  There was a huge traffic jam on Hwy 99 due to construction.  No problem, I'll go about 30 miles and cross over to Hwy 5.  Easy Peasy.

Well not so much when the GPS kept telling me (about 89 times) to turn around.  Sorry girlfriend, but I'm going THIS way.  It was a two lane rough road with many stoplights.  No problemo ... the traffic was light.

I hit I-5 and cruised right along for maybe 10 miles.  That's when the parking lot happened.  What the hay ...... no construction, no accident, just miles of cars going 20 mph.

No worries I kept telling myself ..... it will get better.  I took Hwy 12 towards the coast, another two laner full of tourists.  It really wasn't too crowded with cars, but the tourists stopped on the two lane bridge, jumped out and took pictures of the water.  You should have heard the honking.

I crossed both the San Joaquin and Sacramento River before hitting the worst road I've ever driven on.  Funny, it was great going the OTHER direction last time, but going North, it was horrible.  Even at 50 mph, my poor truck actually moved from one side to the other because the road was so rough.  

Finally, after 2-1/2 hours I made it to Cyndae's house.  I met her friend Bill before sitting down to talk for three hours about all things Elks.  Apparently they have no paid staff like we do, and are much smaller in size.  It was quite the interesting conversation.

In no tine we were off to dinner.  Surprisingly, this is an old cowboy town surrounded by farm land.  They grow a lot of sunflowers here.  Unfortunately they are also growing lots of new housing.

La Cocina was the destination where we sat down on those huge, very heavy painted chairs.  Our waitress appeared to be the Lady of the House, who waited on us hand and foot.

I had carne asada.  This is not it.  I didn't take a picture, so I just snagged this from the internet to show the great food they serve,  It was delicious!!  There was enough for three people on my plate, so I brought most of it home.

That was pretty much it.  I was exhausted, but we watched a movie, the name of which escapes me.  It was 10:00 by the time I hit the hay.  Of course I woke up WAY too early this morning, bleary eyed and tired.  We shall see how the day goes.  I think I see a nap in my future.

He never leaves my thoughts.

I CUT THE CHEESE

 NO NOT THAT CHEESE!!!  I cut a nice piece of cheddar cheese with that knife and I said "where have you been all my life?"  Wow ... it went through like butter and fell right off the edge.  I'm not sure about the tomatoes, but the CHEESE, it's a game changer.

But first, I was off on a run around the neighborhood.  VERY early since I was trying to miss the heat.  The sun was just coming up through the trees.

We have been getting the weirdest cloud formations this year .....

And even a mini tornado in the sky.  I've never seen anything like this one!

The good news is I actually RAN the entire 2 miles this time.  I really didn't think I could.  It happened mostly because I was so intent on the music I was listening to that I ran right past my turn.  When I finally looked up and didn't recognize the neighborhood, I turned around.  Maybe I should ditch the music!!

This sweet one was squawking, warning the neighborhood there was a crazy lady running around loose.

Back home I whipped up a quick breakfast.  I used the knife on the tomatoes, but really didn't notice that much difference, other than it was easy to cut through the peel.  The peels on homegrown tomatoes are much thicker than the tomatoes you buy in the store.  The piece of cheese I cut is on the bottom.  

Though I should not have, I followed that up with cantalope straight from the field.  Oh my Great Aunt Suzie ... there is nothing better than vine-ripened cantalope.

I followed that up with peanut butter ice cream.  Just kidding ... this was MUCH later in the day and I only ate one little scoop worth.

I wasn't going anywhere because I had a big Elks Trustee/Board meeting on this night.  I try to rest up so I don't scream and yell too much.  

This is the Cascade Subduction Zone outside of Washington state.  I've watched this program on Nat Geo previously.  If you haven't seen it, take a look-see if you can.  This is just amazing.  This is where the earths crust slips below the other crust.  

They go on to show how the last major earthquake happened in the 1700's.  Most likely a 9 on the Richter scale.  This picture show's what it looks like and how the top portion avalanches down on the one going under.  It's an amazing program to watch.  

It's also pretty scary, and why I have not moved to the Oregon-Washington coast.  Turns out we are almost past due for another one of these big earthquakes that will create tsunamis 40-60 foot tall.  

If you see this show on your Guide, be sure and watch it.  It's fascinating.

And then I was off to the meeting.  I knew this was going to be a doozy, and it was.  I literally got booed and applauded.  The problem is these folks have not been around long enough to know what's actually going on, or to know the ins and outs.  And they don't believe me when I tell them.  Thank goodness on this night I had backup.  I literally got out of there at 9:30.  A four hour meeting!!!

The good news is the the gal who has been helping me with sourdough bread, brought my second case of jam jars.  

Along with that came four pounds of Elephant heart plums.  No I've never heard of them either, but the last batch I made was the best I've ever had in my life.  I jumped up and down!!  I get to make another batch!!!

Unfortunately it won't be happening for a few days because I'm off to Sacramento.  At least I think I am, after I take care of a line of business stuff first.  I would not normally go, but I'm trying to make sure Kitters understands that when I leave for a few days, I always come back.  Not sure that's going to work, but I'm trying ....... because ......... I'll be going back to Maui next month.

It still does not distract me from my sweet boy being gone.