Home again 02-22-20

It was a rather easy drive from San Juan Bautista to home.  Light traffic and only a few of those 100 MPH drivers.  I had two stops of about 1/2 hour each, so the driving time was about 5 hours.  Rain periodically, but not very severe.  I picked up KoKo and he now wants to be on my lap every minute.  He is such a lover.  I will skip the San Diego meeting tomorrow, I hate to miss it, but I am very tired tonight and I will have to drive down on Wednesday for a scheduled docent tour of the Ruth B. McDowell quilts at VAM. 

I took lots of pictures along the way, but they were definitely "point and shoot", so will need to be edited.  One of my two stops was at In & Out Burger at Laval Rd , just north of the Grapevine.  The burger and shake gave me a boost to get over the mountains and home!! 

It was just at lunch time so they were very busy. 

"What does fresh really mean?"  Well, they peel the potatoes and slice them for fries.  And the ground beef is never frozen.  I never worry about getting sulfites in my meal. 

I had never noticed that the crew wears giant diaper pins to hold their aprons on.  Must be four inches long! 

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Microwave and Friday Food 02-07-20

YES!  I did it.  Moved the microwave into the place it will occupy on the counter.  I think the old microwave is heavier than the new one, but the new one is overall larger.  I  used the collapsible dolly that I have to move my sewing machine.  Piece of (cup)cake.  And I used the new microwave tonight to heat up the leftovers from last night's Indian/Napalese dinner out. I failed to take pictures, so I have stolen some from the Internet.  There were three of us and we all tried everyone's choice.  All was very good and only the Biryani was almost too hot for me.  But delicious. 

Chicken curry with whte Basmati rice. 

Lamb Biryani with seasoned rice. 

Chicken Tandoori

Naan (ours was plain)

 Raita - so cool and soothing with the spicy Biryani. 

The restaurant was Everest Cuisine in Placentia, CA.  

We will go back! 

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A splashy farewell to June 06-30-19

On our evening walk these pictures are one minute apart.  Taken looking west down the cul de sac across the street. 

Very disappointed in the color, the originals in my phone are much brighter. 

But this was an amazing sunset for this time of year.  

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Drive home San Juan Bautista to Placentia 03-09-17

It was a long day and though I took a nap when I got home I am still wiped out.  Age, I guess.  The drive wasn't bad until I got to Pasadena on the 210 Fwy.  Then it was creep, creep, creep.  During non drive time it takes about thirty minutes, today it took an hour and 45 minutes and I arrived home at 4:45pm, making it seven hours and 45 minutes on the road.  So tiring.  But earlier in the day it was an easy and pleasant day - sunshine and not too hot outside.  Stopped for gas and also to return a phone call.  The law in California now is that you cannot hold your cell phone in your hand whilst driving.  You need to buy a gizmo that attaches to the dashboard to hold your phone and I haven't done that yet.  Can't imagine where I will put the gizmo as the dash is pretty well filled already.

 

Road Trip Maine - home again. 09-07-16

I arrived  home last night about 7:15pm after driving 782 miles in 11 hours and 15 minutes.  From Albuquerque to Placentia.  I intended to stop along the way - Flagstaff, Kingman, Barstow -, but I was feeling good and not too tired so I just kept driving.  Filled up with gas in Kingman which was enough to get me home and leave enough fuel to get to the filling station today.  I called the people I needed to call and just went to sleep - for eleven hours!  Of course, there were three pit stops during the night and once I woke up because I was chilly, only to realize I had forgotten to cover back up when I got in bed.  That's tired! 

All day I have been slowly unpacking and putting away, but the car still seems full!  I have things for three different students from the class which I hope to deliver this next weekend.  The heavy things it would have been hard for them to take on the plane.  I went out to dinner at Fish in a Bottle as I have been craving sushi (it was yummy), filled up with gas, picked up a few groceries at TJoe's, and picked up KoKo from his caretaker.  We were both excited to see each  other.  He looks great and the people who cared for him are willing to have him back when I am out of town again (this coming week for a couple days).  I need to plan KoKo  into my schedule when I accept an out-of-town presentation or want to go off for a night  or  two.  In fact I need to check everything already on my calendar and be sure I have arranged care for him.  He chased Froggie for  a while and let me rub him all over, then went to sleep on my lap so I couldn't type.  The result is just these few pictures from yesterday.  I'll detail the long last day, a boring drive, tomorrow.  And give you some statistics.  It was a great trip, everything except the rain storms. 

 

 It was the strangest sunset last evening about  7pm.  There was a huge grey cloud over the Los Angeles basin and the sun set in a crack along the horizon.  It was quite brilliant.  All that grey in the upper part of the picture is cloud.

As I was making the transition from the 91 Fwy to Tustin Ave, I could see the last light beyond the palm trees and the pillars of the freeway overpass.  I took a least a dozen pictures, but driving in traffic while taking pictures is difficult and only these two are worth saving.

 

Looking to the east the cloud is still there with just a slit on the horizon.  Here I am back in the land of white cars and palm trees.  These are just where my Starbuck''s is located.

 

I will edit pictures tomorrow in between unpacking and putting away and doing laundry.  I expect my mail will come in a big box tomorrow.  I had them save it at the PO because my mail basket is not large enough to  hold three weeks of mail.  Hope there aren't too many bills to pay!

KoKo is in bed and soon I will join him.

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Inspiration 07-01-14

Now that the SQG July newsletter is finished and posted, I must get busy with the Ruth McDowell quilts I'm sending to Marion, Indiana, for the exhibit that goes along with Ruth's induction into the Quilter's Hall of Fame.  And, at the same time, get ready to go to Indiana for the festivities.  I always leave too much stuff to the very last minute, but I am trying to do better this trip.  I had the Lexus serviced and a "trip check" and tomorrow morning I will write a stack of checks for bills due and about to be due.   And then there is laundry and....... so much more. 

 

So, I am going to do about a week of "Inspiration" showing pictures I have taken to inspire a quilt or two.  Who knows, I might be seriously inspired and make a quilt..  or two sometime this summer.

 

 This is a fence next to a dilapidated garage in Placentia.  In many of these older areas the Asparagus Fern Plumosus (the one used by florists so often with roses) has become a noxious weed.  As you see it is doing well vining through the fence cracks

You see how dilapidated the door is.  I wonder if this hinge would survive it someone tried to open the door. 

 

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Rain!  Real rain - it was lovely.  But not in Placentia.  I drove up to San Juan Bautista yesterday to have a little visit with Mary and Joe before my Empty Spools class starts tomorrow (Sunday).  Unfortunately, Joe is in the hospital for some more tests, but should be home mid-week, so maybe I will be able to see him before I drive home. 

 

As I drove into the Fort Tejon area it started drizzling a bit and by the time I was going down the Grapevine it was a full downpour.  Fortunately, everyone slowed down and we crept down the mountain.  It rained lightly periodically for several hours then and Mary said it had been raining at their house.  Driving across the flat part of the valley there was a beautiful cloud cover with black clouds above, but the sun was shining on the horizon. 

 

 

Fluffy black, rain filled clouds.

 

 Yet, there was the sun shining on the horizon.  When I stopped for gas at the Buttonwillow turnoff a horizon to horizon double rainbow was glowing to the southwest.   No picture.

 

My automatic windshield wipers came on and off and on most of the rest of the way north.  Here you can see the long line of vehicle headlights all the way to the horizon - heavy traffic going south, but fortunately the northbound traffic was light.

 

No rain today, but cloudy and not very warm for someone who has been living in temps up to the mid 80s in the last week or so.  I have layers on - all night, too! 

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Driving home from Empty Spools 03-07-13

It was a beautiful day to drive home on I-5.  Mostly sunshine, but little rain showers near Coalinga and for some miles south.  The speeds were pretty average, although there are always some drivers who go as fast as they want - guess they can afford hundreds of dollars to pay off their tickets! I just get out of their way as quickly as possible!

There were very few wild flowers either direction, possibly because the drought continues.


I spent last night at HIE in Santa Nella on I-5.  Not the best of the 'breed', but clean and quiet.   Directly across the street is this field of wild mustard, the only one I saw on the whole trip.  Again, possibly lack of rain fall.
 

In some places the highway is higher than the surrounding farmland, which gives a nice view of the tops of the blossoming almond trees. All one sees is pale pink "foam".
 

When the  highway is on more of the same level the almost black trunks contrast nicely with the fluffy pink "foam".
 

On the left a fully blossoming almond grove, on the right a newly planted one.  Although the spacing makes me wonder if these might be grapevines!
 

I don't know what kind of tree is in the foreground, but more almonds behind.  At the rest stop just north of the Buttonwillow turnoff I pulled off for a little nap.  Only 15 - 20 minutes will give me a second wind.  The rest area is surrounded on three sides by almond groves - the fragrance is lovely.
 

Looking down rows of almond trees - the fallen petals are like delicate pink snow on the ground.  

Some building going on. 01-03-13

This is a sight that once was very common in Orange County, but I haven't seen any new building going on for several years.  I was surprised when I drove up a street that I rarely take and discovered these townhouses going up.  I honestly don't remember what was on this property, but I think it might have been a golf course.   Maybe the economy is on the up swing.  I hope so, for all of us. 

 

 

 

Sunset in Placentia 10-29-10

I couldn't decide which was the best one.

What a difference a day makes... 03-30-10

After three days of clear skies and the temp around 85F today was overcast and only about 63F with rain expected tomorrow night and Thursday. Perhaps our last little rain of the season (which ends July 1st, I believe). The Department of Water and Power (DWP) in Los Angeles is considering financial rewards for people who tear out their grass lawns and put in something that is less thirsty. It is something I have thought about doing since we moved into this house in 1986. I sometimes drive around looking at front yards and thinking what could be done to ours.

The dark clouds above and the light ones below that block the view of the hills are rather colorful. This is basically the view from my kitchen window and the slider where I sew, but I went outside for the pictures so there is more foreground than I usually see. Where you can see a flat end to the road in the distance is a major north/south four- lane road. When the trees are bare I can see, just to the left, the hospital where I had my "procedure" last Friday. Of course, I have to go around by the roads which amounts to about seven blocks - so close and yet so far. On the right in the foreground of the picture is the little park where Corky and I sometimes walk.

Every evening when it is not raining these three ladies bring their dogs to run and play. They each have two dogs and they are very careful to pick up after them.

While I was standing there taking pictures there were several lesser goldfinches feeding on the sow thistles gone to seed just over the short wall at the back of the patio. I do love to watch them, but I suppose the neighbors hate me for letting the thistles go to seed - they replant themselves everywhere. This is the best image I could capture and it makes me determine to get out the book on my new Canon camera to see how I can improve my pictures.

If my head wasn't so soggy I might do it this evening, but this head cold has my brain dulled down to almost stop, so it will have to wait for another day. I finished the Surfside QGuild newsletter last evening and Nancy Ota posted it today. http://tinyurl.com/y96unyy With three pages of templates for the Block-A-Month it comes to 19 pages. Isn't it wonderful that we can post in online instead of mailing it - with the cover page it would be ten double sided pages and that would cost a lot to mail to our members since we are not large enough to apply for bulk mail. When I trained on computers in the late 60s I didn't dream that they would become a very large and important part of my everyday life. Life is change. Whether we like it or not!! I like it - I like it!

No excitement 09-30-08

I'm still working on digging out my house. How on earth did I collect so much junk? Now it is mostly papers which will have to be shredded. I think I will probably have the shredder some here so I won't have to schlep all these boxes to a brick and mortar place.

The yellow glow from the sun setting shines on the trees to the east of our house. Makes it look very much like autumn, but today it was 103.3F and tomorrow is supposed to be the same. After I took this picture I noticed the graffiti on the wall just below the Pyracantha (almost covered with berries). As you can see, we have had this problem before and sections of the wall were repainted. But it has been at least twenty years. I'll call the City Works department, but since it is on the wall surrounding the Patio Homes, I suspect they won't do anything about it. I thought that after they put in the wall closing off the dirt pathway along the cyclone fence that it would be so difficult to reach the taggers would leave it alone. Dreaming.

This fellow is becoming a regular. Almost every week day he comes in shorts and shirt carrying a towel. He removes his shirt and folds it nicely then lays face down on the towel with his legs spread open. Previously we have had girls sunbathing topless, druggies, couples making out, couples going all the way, and lots of people running their dogs. Seems as though they would recognize that people look out their windows now and then and they would be more circumspect. But I only call the police about the druggies. The rest is like a soap opera outside my windows.

Today's excitement was a 7:30am appointment at the garage for regular servicing of the van. Not really all that exciting, but at least I got out of the house. The mechanic working on my van thought I was a little odd with my picture taking. He also said, "Looks lighter (in weight) when it is up there, doesn't it?" He's right.

By-the-way, my license plate is the same as my e-mail address, minus the "aol". When I am at a quilt show people know I am there before they even see my hat. I think it is fun.

View from our house - Sep 18

I always enjoy pictures of Blogger's surroundings. So, I am posting a couple pictures of my surroundings.

This is the view from my porch looking across the street into a cul-de-sac.
I rushed out and took the picture when I heard the sound I hate the most - a chainsaw! But it turned out that the homeowner had hired someone to just trim her trees. When we moved here twenty years ago there where many large trees which added a lot to this suburban SCalifornia neighborhood. But as the original owners retired and moved away, new people moved in and the first thing everyone seems to do is cut down all the trees. I don't know why - perhaps because they are messy and drop leaves and things on the smooth green lawns. These two long-needled pines are the largest trees remaining, except for those in the park behind the house.


And this is the view out the back. There is a steep slope down to the coyote fence, a dirt road that belongs to the water company, a chain link fence, a cement lined flood control channel, another chain link fence and, to the left behind a block wall, some patio homes with well tended landscaping and, to the right, the park w/redwoods and deador cedars. When standing back from the low wall at the top of the slope none of the above can be seen, just a green view into the park and the trees and roofs of the patio homes to the left. This picture shows blooming pyracantha (sometimes called fire thorn) on the block wall.
I took the picture last April when I was trying to describe to a cyber friend a police chase along the flood control channel and through the park. It was a very unsual event, but quite exciting - I just wish it hadn't been at 6:15am (or so)!! No sleeping when helicopters are buzzing around overhead. They did, by the way, catch the fugitive a couple blocks away.

And here is an amazing bit of trivia. Connectivity - It took 46 years to wire 30 percent of the U.S. for electricity; it took only 7 years for the Internet to reach that level of connectivity to U.S. homes.