May day utility pole replacement

What did you do for May day?

SDG&E replaced our utility pole.  Larry took a picture of them cutting down a section of the old pole. 

No ribbons or merrymaking, no maypole dance.  We celebrated by being without power from 9 AM to 3 PM.  I can do w/o the computer or TV.  I'm thankful for refrigeration, wanted to open it a few times.  I made do with making a cup for tea.  Green tea bag, water in the mug, turned torward the microwave, Doh!       

Elvis is in the house

We are going to Balboa Park tonight for a potluck with other stroke survivors ("Comebacker's Club"). Then as part of the Twilight in the Park series, we will heads over to the organ pavilion to see Graceland – An Elvis Presley Tribute. See there site at http://www.gracelandsandiego.com/

Because I'm from Cali now, I am dressing warmer for the cold nights after sundown. For the first time, I put on jeans and a white long-sleeved blouse in almost two months. I think that, like Sue Silvester of "Glee', I will stick to track suits. Yoga pants, t-shirt, and (gasp) pajamas are more my style of the moment.

(Reba read the blog and came down for the concert. How-cool-is-that? )

My excuse

My aunt asked if I've uploaded pictures of my trip back east. I really hadn't posted anything since JUNE! I guess I've been too busy with work. And if work has you taking photos of beautiful places and writing about them, well, it's not something you think of doing in your spare time. Not that I'm complaining, just giving a lame excuse.

Spooky Political Signs

I'm on a quest this week to ride my bike around my community and find the combination of Halloween decorations and political signs. Sure, there's political signs and there's spooky decorations, but the combination of the two is as elusive as healthy halloween candy.

So far I've only found three and this is the best of them. Black widow spiders are really intense this year.

Visit from Oregon

Reba's nieces, Halley & Natalie are down from Oregon spending a whopping 17 days with their auntie. They came over for a swim on Sunday and had so much fun. They were laughing and swimming and playing and splashing. By the time they got out, it hit them; they were tired. They do hope to have time for another visit before they leave at the end of the month.

Happy 4th of July

OMG! This is the best picture of Larry ever!
Can I have some of your eye-openness?

At 6pm, we walked over to Lake Murray for their July 4th Music Fest and Fireworks. We met Cynthia & Patti with Angel & Dylan and walked around the lake to get to the community park where they had a big sound stage set up. We caught the last band, Liquid Blue, who performed a wide variety of covers from Madonna to Led Zeppelin. Toward the end of the concert, we started walking back to catch the fireworks and have a shorter walk home. The dogs weren't too bothered by the fireworks. Angel is so old she's probably a little hard of hearing. Dylan was nervous at first, but then he settled down and watched the show.

Compass Lake Block Party

This is the second year that the neighborhood signed a permit to close off the street for the day. They set up grills, canopies, chairs and tables in front of 3 or 4 houses for the block party. Their kids have a lot of energy or the sight of a bouncy house brings it out. We had rain the day before and even sprinkles this morning, but the day warmed up and at the risk of sounding like a broken record, it was another beautiful day in San Diego.

They arranged for our local fire station to make a visit. This is the 1,925th fire engine that the city has purchased (I asked about "1925" on the back; the department was established in 1889.) This truck is outfitted for home and brush fires as well as emergency and rescue at Cowles Mountain. There are two engines at our "34" station. After getting the tour and hefting one of the fire hose nozzles, I am very impressed with their knowledge and strength.

Early Squash in the Mist

When we see tomato plants in the garden centers we get excited. While we may not fully understand the growing seasons here in San Diego, if it's in the garden center it must be okay, right? That day in April we bought some tomato plant seedlings and some packets of seeds.

I planted two hills of squash but didn't label them. One hill has three plants the other has only one. Larry was wondering which was which (summer squash or zucchini) and I said we'll just have to wait and see. Here it is the beginning of May the the three-plant hill has the yellow summer squash. We got some rain last night and it is misty this morning. Still, it's been very dry here for the past month and we collect the shower water to water the plants.

Spring Volunteers

My friend Cherie composes wonderful stories about her yard with the Kodak photo album. Inspired by her, I thought I'd share what's popping up in our yard.

A neighbor gave Larry a small Bird of Paradise. He planted it in one of the many terracotta pots left by the previous owner. I saw some sprouts starting and rather than assume they were weeds and pluck them out, I let them mature to see what they were. Apparently, at one time, the soil must have had some annuals. Here's some sweet Alyssum and some other sweet plant with a red violet flower.

We're keeping the squash hills watered because they dry out quickly. The tomatoes are in little wells, so they hold the water better. The tomatoes have flowers; we'll see if it's not too soon for them to develop into something. Maybe we'll have a little tomato before June, when we'd be thinking about planting that more tropical plant in Connecticut.

Haven't you always wanted a monkey?

Seeing the tree trimmer work, I'm reminded of lyrics from "If I had a million dollars" by BNL. Well, he did have climbing boots and was strapped in good, but he also looked like a monkey up in these palm trees. He climbed two trees and swung or rapelled to the other three. The front palm tree was trimmed by a man in a bucket truck. Hey! That's cheating! I was more impressed with this man's climbing talents, but the owner says because the other guy can operate the machinery, he gets more money.

We had the trees trimmed just in time as that following weekend was a monsoon of a rainstorm for San Diego. Rinsed things off nicely. The neighbor said it was good timing too. The fruits on the palm would have rained down like hail.

New Years Day Spa

Happy New Year! The filter was running. It was a sunny day and fairly mild in San diego. I thought I'd see how long it would take to heat up the spa. It started at 55 degrees. I turned on the heater to high. I waited. some more. Actually, people are surprised to hear that it heated up to 90 degrees in about an hour. We'll be looking into a solar cover for the pool which will extending the swimming season from March to November, our pool man estimates. That, and it helps with evaporation, preventing it.

We took down the fencing that was around the patio. You see just the poles here. It really opens up the backyard. There's lots to do if we want to and a little bit each weekend makes it managable.

Charger Christmas

It's a tradition to get together with Jay & Reba at a Mexican restaurant for the holidays. This year, they came out to east suburbia to see the new casa and dine at Casa de Pico. It was great to see them and catch up and over-eat. It gets us out of the house, out from under the afghans and kitties, too.

On the way home was this tremendous display of lights on Jackson Drive. I ran down there with my camera to get some pictures and met a neighbor who was out walking. The familiar phrase: He adds a little more each year was mentioned. On closer inspection, you can see that he decorated the ficus as a San Diego Chargers football helmet and on a different angle you can see "him" receiving the football. The motion of the lights and the height of the palm tree lighting is quite impressive too!

Feliz Navidad!