Third Try at Tomatoes

Most of you know that I love home-grown tomatoes.  Just the best thing in the world - fresh, juicy, tasty and delicious.  What more could you ask?   Ventura has great weather for people, not so good for tomatoes which need heat.  Summer temps here are 65 to 75 degrees average and for a sweathog like me, it's wonderful.  I've tried for 8 years to grow tomatoes and, like our neighbors, never have a good crop.  Small tomatoes, few tomatoes.  The alternative is store bought ones that are picked green, turned red with propane gas and are hard, tasteless things.  If you could find anything resembling real ones, it would be at the weekly farmers markets and cost a fortune.  Nah, I'll build a greenhouse to grow them right.  So, in May, 2008, I did just that. 
Here's a photo of the beginnings:

At the end of our backyard, behind the garage is where I started.  I've never been good at exact measurements so I just planned in my head and measuring was kept at a minimum.  After a week of digging, some Internet ordered Greenhouse film and lots of trips to Lowes, it looked like this:

Then, in the next week, it all came together.  We have a large gopher population in the neighborhood so I had to dig the inside of the greenhouse down several feet and lay galvanized hardware cloth (coarse screening) to keep them out.  I dumped 27 bags of soil, peat moss, cow manure and mulch on top of the hardware cloth to fill up the planting area.  The inside growing area is about 6' by 6'.  Then, up went the roof and walls and door.  Finally, it was done:

It was now the middle of June, a month or so later than when I normally planted tomatoes but as you can see, inside the greenhouse, 5 plants are growing, along with several bell pepper plants.  The greenhouse worked well.  In a month, stuff was growing like crazy:

All 5 plants went crazy, growing to the roof and eventually fell over.  They smothered the bell pepper plants which I could never find again.  The tomato plants were continually loaded with big, red, juicy tomatoes.  Every weekend, I'd fill 4 or 5 plastic grocery bags - almost 20 pounds each. Wonderful tomatoes!  I shared them with neighbors and they agreed these were the best tomatoes in California, ever.  Finally, about the end of October, it was finished for the year. We had harvested hundreds of pounds of great tomatoes but the plants were starting to die.  I  ripped out what was left, cleaned the walls and waited for the coming year.  What a success!.

The following February - the 28th to be exact- I replanted the greenhouse in hopes that tomatoes would be on our table by May.  Here is the hopeful planting picture taken in April.  Only two plants this time and several bell peppers.

But it was not to be.  I had planted too early in the year and there was not enough sunlight to make the plants grow properly.  Yes, they grew tall and bushy thanks to fertilizer but were stunted or mutated by the lack of sun.  There were no tomatoes.  In June, I ripped everything out and started again.  As the summer progressed, we had heat wave after heat wave and the temperatue inside blew past 105 degrees daily, even with the door open and vents installed.  We were lucky to get 20 pounds for the entire season.  Such a disappointment.

I wanted to wait until the first of May this year before planting but was tempted by two 80 degree days this past weekend.  Against my better judgement, I started the 2010 growing season.  I hope things go better this time around. 

Mysterious Notes Appear.......

Remember, click on the photo for the uncropped larger version, then use your browsers 'back' arrow to return here

- - - - -  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

From time to time, Nic, Trav or I would walk into the bathroom and notice that Charlene had taped a note to the bottom of the medicine cabinet mirror.  A quote from some author, something to enhance our lives or just something to think about.  This week, we walked in and found something weird that made no sense:

Some kind of medical studies stuff from her homework assignments.  We looked at it, baffled.  I guess it's some kind of study aid for an upcoming test.  Totally non-inspiring for us (and her, I'm sure).  It's one of those 'Whatever it Takes" to learn something for RN College.  Nic, Trav and I just kind of ignored it.  But, like a disease, a cancer, it's spreading.  A few days later, walking into the kitchen in the morning to make some coffee (at precisely 192 degrees), another of the same notes, this time stuck to the cabinet above the kitchen counter, right over the Bounty Towels:

So we confronted her and yes, it's a study aid for an upcoming test.  Things to check and what they mean.  Here's a straight-on view so you can read it:

Pretty gruesome trying to fix coffee, toast or a meal with all this blood work running past your eyeballs.  But, 'whatever it takes' to pass the test is what counts so we have learned to ignore it.  Even "The Cat" takes no interest as you can tell from the following photo:

Go, Charlene, Go!  Pass that test!  Take the notes down........

Top o' the Mornin' to ya!

As I was getting dressed this morning, I remembered that it was St. Patrick's Day and put on a green shirt.  I swear, it's the first time in over a decade that I've remembered to wear green on this day.  Always felt dumb throughout the day as everyone is wearing something green and I'm not.  Today was very different.  Very few people I encountered were wearing green.  Most wore Black! 
Something I should explain about the culture of Southern Califonia.  The people here wear black year round.  There is none of that, "fashion faux pas if you wear Black between Memorial Day and Labor Day" stuff out here.  In Southern California, any day of the year, the motto is, "I'm wearing Black 'till I find something Darker".  Go figure - this Midwestern Boy still doesn't fit in........

Red light Thursday, Green light Tuesday, Dropped screws Wednesday......

We've all had one of those days where everything goes great or everything goes wrong.  In the last week, I've had three of those days.

Red Light Thursday.  These days always start out normal.  Wake up early, get ready for work, pack my lunch and have some toast.  Kiss Charlene goodbye, give goodbye hugs to Nic and Trav and head out to ol' Blue, my pickup.  That's when 'those' kind of days start.  Either gonna be good or gonna be bad.  Red Light Thursday was a bad one.  Start to finish, as I approached a traffic light, it turned red.  All day long.  It really didn't bother me as I'm used to 'LA' style traffic - 75 mph, stop, 5 mph, stop, 75 mph, stop.  After 10 years of this, I can take it in stride.  I'm not rushing to the airport to catch a flight or on the way to the hospital with a trauma emergency, it's just driving around for work.  But every light was red.  And then..... and then, people started pulling out in front of me on the side streets, on the freeways, everywhere.  And when I was working, I swear, everything I touched just got worse.  Seems like I should have stayed in bed.  I eventually made it home safely and it ceased being a bad day, unsafe day, frustrating day.  Red Light Thursday.  I'll remember that one for quite a while.

Green Light Tuesday.  The name says it all.  I think I hit every traffic signal green or turning green as I approached it.  Traffic?  Very light, no stop and go stuff, doing the speed limit.  Work?  A breeze!  Everything just went great!  Love to have more of those days.  Green Light Tuesday was a wonderful experience.

Today was Dropped Screws Wednesday.  I have a magnetizer in my tool bag that I use to keep my screwdrivers and cordless driver bits magnetized to hold screws whether I'm taking them out or putting them in and it's a lifesaver..... except today.  Maybe the magnetic North and South poles reversed today or something but I just dropped screws all day long.  Thank God screws fell onto the floor instead of inside the machines.  That's a real pain in the butt!  Sometimes I'll spend a good half-hour extra taking things apart to rescue a screw that can fall on a circuit board or into some gears.  Not a good thing and it's frustratingly time consuming.  But I fixed everything quickly, had a great attitude about it all and considered Dropped Screws Wednesday a pretty good day.  No, it was a very good day!

We all have up days and down days and I hope yours are bright, happy and Green Light Tuesdays!

Exchange of E-Mails on the last blog post

From my long lost Xeroid friend who first trained me at Xerox in 1970:

Kelly: Excuse me if I'm being dense, but Is that really YOU in that photo hugging the keyboard ? It looks like your hairy arms and hands, but your face looks 10 years older than the picture of you sitting on Santa's lap. What am I missing here ? Did you post a young picture with Santa, and I thought that's how you look now ? Set me straight here.


John
---------------------------------------
Here's my reply:

John, you bastard! Yes, I'm old. Yes, I have thinning hair (there's even a hole in my haircut in the back). The Santa pic was from about 5 years ago and it was the 'prettiest' pic I could find without photoshopping a newer one - and, it's not a close-up. The red marks on my hands/arms are old-guy-skin that bruises easy and since 1) I'm still a clutz and 2) I just banged my arm between a finsiher and copier as I was 'mating' them in a tight spot on carpet. So, send me a pic of you, un-photoshopped........


But, I still love ya'....

....kelly

Goodbye Dear Friend

I lost an dear old friend tonight.  Known him for years, always there for me when I needed him.  Right from the start, we just 'clicked'.  Lately, he showed signs of failing health.  Not answering me correctly, not really sounding correctly.  I knew something was going down but I just couldn't bring myself to face it.  You know how it is when someone you've known for years suddenly has health issues and goes downhill rapidly.  And here it was, happening to me - my friend was dying right before my eyes.  He was dropping letters and numbers left and right - keys sticking now.  Yes, I'm talking about my decade-old orginal IBM AT keyboard.  The kind that made that great clicking sound when you pressed a key.  With the big 'Enter' key that couldn't miss.  Not like the new kids on the block with no sounds, no big 'Enter' key.  My friend is large and heavy - made to last for years.  Years have gone by, its time has come.  Yea, I've got 3 or 4 new style keyboards in the garage and I'll have to get one to replace my friend.   Charlene saw me hugging my friend goodbye and had to take a picture.  She wanted to know if I wanted to bury it in the backyard.  I thought about it but realized I'd have to ask Shaquille O'Neil for one of his size 27 shoe boxes to bury it.  Nah, my friend will retire to the electornic waste recycling center nearby that the State of Cowlifornia requires.  Goodbye my dear friend, you've served me well..........  Dan was beside me, agreed and said goodbye as well.  (That's him, or part of him in the pill container on the right).  Remember, if you click on the photo, you'll get the full size, un-shrunk version)

Mmmmmmmm! Onions!

Having lived in the Midwest for most of my life, I was never influenced by hot sauce, hot peppers or any of that 'hot spicy' stuff, including Buffalo Wings.  Just not my style.  Oh, I'd have Tommy's Subs with extra hot peppers (not really hot banana peppers) and Tommy's Pizza with some crushed red peppers sprinkled on top, but not like my Dad.  I remember his weekend breakfast of eggs covered in black pepper and drowning in Tobasco Sauce.  I tried a drop of Tobasco Sauce once back then and have stayed far from it ever since.  Onions, now that's my favorite.  I cook with onions but especially LOVE fresh sliced/chopped onions.  On hamburgers, hot dogs and salads, fresh onions.  Charlene may be the Garlic Queen but I'm the Onion King.
But now, I live in Southern California of which the vast majority are Hispanic.  Oh, my God, do they love HOT.  Not temperature wise, rather spicy-wise.  My introduction to Hispanic Spicy-ness was my friend Omar.  Shelley, Sister Pat, Cuz'n Kent, Scott and Nathan have met Omar.  We all love him.  He's like a big puppy, kind and gentle.  He used to give me his Mom's burritos at lunch and then he'd go out and buy something to eat.  For years, his Mom would take dinner leftovers and make burritos for him to eat for lunch.  I guess he was a little sick of them.  When Zachary spent a summer out here, when Scott spent a few years out here, when Shelley was here, when Sister Pat was here, I'd bring home what we like to call, "Omar's Mother's Burritos" and have them try them.  All of us just love them.  Better than anything you can buy.  She could make a fortune opening a "Omar's Mother's Burritos Shop" in the Midwest.  If Omar decided to eat them, he'd drown them in Tapatio Sauce followed by Tobasco Sauce.  Ahhhh!   Just thinking about it makes my tongue burn.  Omar would buy a bag of potato chips, dump them on a paper plate and do the same.  I mean he would drown them in Tapatio and Tobasco Sause and eat them like it was just plain chips to us.  Wouldn't bother him at all.  I do, however, remember that whenever he would buy a sandwich that had fresh sliced onions on it, he would pull them off and give them to me.  I'd eat them raw, just pop them in my mouth and chew away.  It really freaked him out.  He said they were too 'Hot' for him and didn't understand how I could eat them.  Talk about an oxymoron!
Ventura County doesn't have a lot of industry that makes stuff; it grows fruit and vegetables and has processing plants for all the produce grown here.  Lettuce of all kinds, onions, cabbage, strawberries, raspberries, celery, beans, lemons, oranges - - I could go on and on.  Lots of fruit and vegetable processing plants that take the stuff grown locally, process it as fresh or make juice and ship it all over the country.  One of the places I love to take service calls is anywhere on Pacific Avenue in Oxnard.  There are lots of processing plants in the area but the one that makes me slow down, roll down the window and take a giant sniff is:

I ask all my customers in the area how they like the aroma of onions every day, all day and they just find it repulsive.  Of course, they're Hispanic.  The Midwest guy, he's floating in onion aroma, smiling..........

Lap Time

As most of you know, we have a cat.  I don't know her name that Charlene and the kids gave her, I just call her, "Cat".  I mean, why name them when they don't pay attention to you, don't come when you call them or anything else.  Totally opposite of a dog.  If you hold a snack out for a dog, you're lucky to come away with most of your hand intact.  Cats are weirdly different when you offer them a snack.  If they don't see movement, if they don't feel it with their whiskers, they really don't know how close they are to the snack.  They move up slowly until their nose bumps the snack, back up a little, sniff it and then figure out whether or not they want it.  Oddly enough, most of the time, I'll whistle at the cat (like you would to a dog) and say, "Come here Cat" and she comes!  I've tried to raise her as a dog 'cause that's all I'm used to for many decades.  We all notice her 'dog-like' qualities and refer to her as Catdog.  She really knows the word, "Food".  If anyone says it, she turns her head, wide-eyed, ready for the run to the food dish.

Everyone says she's 'Daddy's little girl'.  I guess I just give her what she wants:  I don't pick her up as she usually dislikes that.  She does jump up on my lap and no other's.  I skritch her where she wants to be skritched, stop when she just wants to sleep ( she'll turn and do a pretend bite on my hand which means stop now or the next one will draw blood).  She just plain enjoys 'Lap Time'.  Sometimes, in the middle of lap time, I want to get up and do something and I'll tell her that I want to get up.  She'll look at me and then I point to the floor and tell her again that I want to get up.  Usually, she'll jump down allowing me to get up.  Once in a while, she'll utter a small 'meow' meaning stay put, I'm comfy.  I'll move a little and tell her again and then she'll jump down and walk away.
A few days ago, she was settled in for the long haul, refusing to get down.  I'd tell her I'm getting up and she'd meow.  I moved my legs to make her get down and she just meowed louder.  I even used the word "Food" repeatedly, loudly, to no avail.  This went on for a few minutes until even Charlene in the next room heard Cat's refusal 'meow'.  Charlene took the following picture of Cat refusing to get up.  Disgustingly spoiled:

OMG! Is that what's wrong with me?

If you've ever been to our house, you'll notice a magazine rack in the bathroom.  It's loaded with various magazines to which we all subscribe.  You'll find Surf Magazine Nic and Trav get, Discovery Magazine, Time and Popular Science that I get.  When Cuz'n Kent comes down from Pismo Beach, he'll grab an Atlantic Monthly.  Charlene always has a collection of " O Oprah" magazine and Real Simple magazine.  In the last month, though, a new one has shown up:  AJN.  American Journel of Nursing.  Cool, something else to read that's different.  After reading a few, though, I think I'm starting to come down with all the diseases discussed in them.  I feel my pulse, check my temperature, poke and prod areas described in the articles.  Sometimes, it's rather scary so I think I'll stick with the death, destruction and terrible news in Time Magazine.  I feel healthier that way.

Strong Coffee

Most everyone knows that I like strong coffee.  Started at age 14 doing the coffee and expresso thing.  Now that I'm 448 dog years old, I like really strong coffee.  Maybe with an expresso chaser.  Years ago, when my late son, Dan would spend time at my place, I'd make coffee for both of us.  He dubbed it, "Dad's Rocket Fuel".  Well, I can appreciate his point of view.  He was just a beginner at the coffee thing.  Since this past Christmas, I've tried various brands of coffee in my new Keurig coffee maker.  It's the one that takes those 'single serving' coffee pods (actually, they're called K-Cups).  There's about a million different kinds of coffee made for it and I'm searching for the best, strong, non-bitter coffee.  Something that tops Starbucks house blend.  Most of the brands and strengths are just, "O.K."  A few are just great, what I've been looking for, but the search goes on.  I stumbled upon the following and it just reminded me of what Dan said.

Let me tell ya', this really was "Jet Fuel".  Way, way too strong.  Dan would have agreed.  Right now, we doing French Roast but my favorite so far is Emeril's Big Easy Bold and Green Mountain's Dark Magic.  The kids love the hot cocoa and Charlene has become addicted to Earl Grey Tea.  Of course, all served at a precise 192 degrees........

Attack of the Boatpeople

After I posted my last Blog, I got an e-mail from my good friend, Andy, who lives in the frigid central Ohio area.  I met him decades ago, late 1980's I believe.  I was living in a 2 bedroom townhouse when Andy, his Mom, sister Amy (with baby), brother Tim, friends Greg and Perry moved in several doors down from me.  My first thought was, "2 bedrooms and a ton of people.  My God, they must be Boatpeople."  You know, where 8,000 people crowd into a rowboat to escape some despot country.  In time, we became great friends, party animals supreme.  They're all very talented musicians, by the way.  We used to go to the Indycar races at Mid Ohio Race Track and have gone to several Inianapolis 500 Time Trial weekends.  I dubbed us the "BoatPeople Racing Team".  Had signs made and all.  We've gone camping together, flown cars through the air into people's yards (well, Greg, son Dan and I did), gone on non-stop trips to help sandbag the great Mississippi Flood of '93 and driven to south-central Pennsylvania just to be in a Blizzard (36" of snow in 12 hours after we got there).  Lot's of fun.  Charlene has met them and gives them (mostly) two thumbs up.  Anyway, back to the e-mail Andy sent me after my last blog about movies.  Here's what he wrote as he quoted one of my lines:

And I quote "Julie and Julia again? Hey, I've seen it 4 times so far."

WHHHATT??? We gonna have to have a redneck boat people racing team intervention and get you out of California before it's too late!!!!

I almost died laughing.  Years ago, Andy and I had a discussion about the kind of movies we liked.  Me, I like 'Chick Flicks' and Andy likes 'War movies, Action movies'.  I ask him why he liked War movies and he replied, "They're historic, they're educational and they blow shit up!".  Yea, great Boatpeople answer.  So, I guess Cows and Boatpeople rock!

But Andy must remember that my all-time favorite movie still is, Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now"................

Recent Movies including Avatar

Nic, Trav, Charlene and I just returned from seeing the movie, "Avatar". Long movie, very good movie, astounding scenery, watched in 3D. Why anyone, even wearing glasses, would watch it in non-3D is beyond me. I worried that Charlene, who has a brain the size of a entire dinosaur and a bladder the size of a walnut would miss a lot, trotting to the restroom. She stayed put and glued to the giant screen. (That was more amazing than the movie). I was the only one that returned the 3D glasses on the way out. I thought we were supposed to........Nic, Trav and Charlene didn't care - they paid extra, they're keeping 'em.


After we got home, I got to thinking about the top movies we've seen in the past few months. Would I watch Avatar again? No. Once was enough, beautiful wide screen movie theater in 3D just cannot be replicated at home. Would I watch Julie and Julia again? Hey, I've seen it 4 times so far. We saw 'Up in the Air' a week or so ago. I'd watch that again, at least several times. So, obviously, Really, really loved "Julie and Julia", really loved "Up in the Air". "Avatar" was astounding, once, in a movie theater. Oh, I've seen, "The Hurt Locker". Very good, very depressing, but very good. Hell of a "message" movie. I have it on DVD and will probably watch it again tonight.

Revolving side Pictures

All my kids, wife and very close crazy friends know I love cows.  I just think they are so innocent and so cool.  Raised 'em for years when we lived in the country in Ohio.  Plus, I love milk!  Since the name of my blog includes "Cow", I figured out I really should put a picture of a cow on there somewhere so last week, I added some California Cows that I stole from their website.  Most of you know that I really like the band Pink Floyd and I stumbled upon some of their old albums at Amazon.com.  I used to have just about all of them including Atom Heart Mother, Ummagumma, Meddle and others on LP's (33 1/3 vinyl).  When I finally gave in to CD's, I gave/threw the albums away.  I know, I know, dumb!  I did keep one vinyl:   Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of H.G. Well's 'War of the Worlds'.  Marvelous album.  I even downloaded the digital version when illegal downloading was sort of, well, not quite so illegal.  Anyway.  I decided that every so often, I'm gonna change my Cow picture on the upper right side of my blog.  Hope you notice, hope you enjoy.  Cows rock!

Birthday, the aftermath........

6 A.M. breakfast.........

The best present................

Enough said.........

Old Fart Thoughts

A friend of mine in Florida sent me an e-mail today and it got me thinking about my (ug!) birthday tomorrow.  It was all about the benefits of walking as you get older, the exercise and what the benefits are.  Here's some of the highlights:
1.  Walking can add minutes to your life.  This enables you at 85 years old to spend an additional 5 months in a nursing home at $7000 per month.
2.  I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.
3.  I have to walk early in the morning before my brain figures out what I'm doing.
4.  Everytime I hear that dirty word "exercise" I wash my mouth out with chocolate.
5.  We all get heavier as we get older because there's a lot more information in our heads.  That's my
story and I'm sticking with it.

To keep this short and sweet, now that I'm older I thought it was great that I seemed to have more patience.  Turns out I just don't give a shit .........

Get that Copier out of the Living Room

Three or four years ago, our company was going to throw out some used trade-in copiers.  I looked and grabbed one as did a couple of other techs.  I had our driver guy help me load it in the company truck and immediately took it home.  Charlene wasn't home at the time so we just left it in the living room and returned to work.  When I got home, there was no excitement, no joy in mudville.  Instead, it was, "You're not putting a copier in our living room."  Sigh......  I explained it was a 20 page a minute copier, network printer and a super fast fax.  No dice.  "Put it in the garage".  "Honey, I can't, it will get ruined out there".  So, a compromise was reached.  I took off the auto document feeder and replaced it with a flat platen cover (lid).  Then I took it off the stand and put it on the floor sitting on a piece of plywood.  Now, it was pretty much hidden from view sitting on the floor behind the couch.  Especially with a cover thrown on top (one of the cat's favorite sleeping places).

    It was little used at first but it replaced our small laser printer on my desk.  Then, Charlene decided to become a RN.  Gotta get the Associate's Degree first, then 2 years of intense (put mildly) Nursing College.  All of a sudden, the volume started picking up.  An occasional fax, mainly copies and computer prints.  Now, years later, SHE goes through between 2 and 4 reams of paper a month.  2000 sheets!
Not a day goes by (7 days a week) that she's either printing or copying stuff.  We joke about it often but she's glad it's here. 

Here she is, last week, copying articles from AJN (American Journel of Nursing) for class and study material. 
Dealing with I.T. guys in the network part of my job, I run across used equipment they're trying to get rid of so I've picked up an HP 4050 laser printer and stuck it in Nic and Trav's room.  Both are 'networked' so anyone can print to them.  When Charlene has problems with paper jams she can't clear, she'll turn it off and wait 'till I get home and just switch her print jobs to the HP.  God, I love Technology, especially when it's free.

Gettin' Near the Top......

Charlene reminds me that my birthday is coming up.  Yuch!  Another birthday.  Maybe it's a old fart thing, maybe it's just me but birthdays don't excite me anymore.  She asks me what I want for my birthday every year and I say the same thing, "Nothing, it's just an old fart's birthday".  She goes out and gets something anyway.  This year, the same question, "What do you want for your birthday?".  Thought I'd play a trick on her this year.

Her:  What do you want for your birthday?
Me:  If you promise to get me what I ask for, will you?
Her:  Sure!
Me:  I want Nothing, will you get it for me?

Yea, it was a nice try.  I started to go into the bedroom a couple of days ago and she said, "Stop!  You can't go in there yet, I have something for your birthday and I haven't put it away.....

So, with the lyrics, "Will you still need me, will you still feed me?  When I'm 64" running through my head as I'm reading the newspaper comics, I glanced at the column "Today's Birthdays".  I've read it for decades, noting all the famous/infamous people listed with their ages.  When I first started reading it, my age was at the bottom (youngest).  Now, I'm getting near the top of the list.  Ewwww!  Everyone asks me, "So, when is your birthday and I always reply, "Same as Thomas Edison's".........

Attack of the Study Halls

First, I'd like to say that if you double-click on any photo, you'll get the bigger, uncut photo.  Then use your browser's 'back' button to return to this page....
I've sent many e-mails and even a blog or two about Charlene's continuing assult on RN Nursing College.  She's just started NS30, the 3rd of 4 half-year classes toward finishing her RN degree.  The first requirement was an Associates Degree which she finished in December, '08.  She thought Algebra, Chemistry, Anatomy, Physiology and Micro Biology were tough but she was unprepared for the tremendous amount of homework and studies involve in Nursing College.  Throughout all of undergrad school, she mostly hogged the desktop computer we both shared, leaving me to my company laptop.  I bought her a laptop two Christmases ago and took back the desktop for my own.  Worked out well with the wireless thing allowing her to use it in the bedroom, living room and even the back patio.  Even at her study sessions at the coffeehouse with fellow students with the free Wi-Fi.  The biggest problem now is the incredible mass of study materials she uses, including her 'medical-app' loaded iPod Touch.  (I think it's a toss up between the laptop and the iPod Touch as to which is more valueble).  Here's a picture from a week or two ago.  Travis was sneering on pupose as he saw me raise the camera.  They're both doing homework.  Notice Charlene's laptop and the iPod Touch right next to it.  Medical apps are invaluable - better than books, sometimes.  Notice all the books surrounding Charlene (including the big textbook on top of her even bigger 3 ring binder).  And yes, she's wearing her 'famous' Sock Monkey jammies. 

Here's another picture of the same area, while she's in her student nurse uniform, complete with her "stinkin' badges".  More books consuming space in the living room.  That little woven basket used to hold our remotes (we all have way too many remotes, don't we...) but now it holds weapons of mass instruction - scissors, markers, pens, pencils, post-its and sticky tabs.  Her study hall has out grown the living room.......

So, she decided she needed a bigger and more efficient study hall.  Hey, just around the corner is the kitchen with a huge dining table.  Well, guess what!  No more meals served in kitchen until the middle of May when this quarter ends.  I think this picture says it all (complete with dual monitors which she finds she cannot live without.

Books piled everywhere, a plastic basket full of paperwork and....... well, you get the picture(s).........

Organic - Huh?

Most everyone seems to be on a health kick, doin' the excercise bit, eating right (whatever that means) and trying to live longer.  The big thing I see is the new 'Organic' push.  You all know what I'm talking about.  You hear it on TV, read it in the newspaper (remember those?) and they even have an Organic section in the grocery store.  The other day, I was looking at the giant selection of frozen pizzas and low and behold, there it was:  Organic Pizza.  My first thought was to laugh and I did.  Organic Pizza.  Uh, let's see, organic usually connotates heathy.  I've eaten enough pizza to know that it ain't healthy.  It's chock full of artery clogging animal fat even before you add pepperoni and sausage and ham and other animal meats.  Organic pizza?  I don't think it makes a difference whether pizza is organic or not, it's still gonna kill you. And, as far as this "Organic" thing goes,  just remember that Hemlock is organic, too.........

Bagpipe Guy

I usually take a shortcut home using back roads to our street.  About a half a mile from home, I cross under the 101 Freeway and for the past couple of years, I occassionally see the "Bagpipe Guy".  I don't know who he is, where he lives or anything about him.  All I know is that about once a week, I pass him as he practices under the freeway.   He's got long silver-blond hair, always wears sneakers and he's kind of an old fart like me.

As you can see, there's also an operational railroad track there, too.  I don't know if he's married or lives with someone but seeing as he practices his very loud bag pipes under a freeway, next to a railroad track, uh, I think his musical practice got kicked out of 'home'.  It's kinda cool, though when I come around the corner and see/hear him playing.  I took this picture out the truck window 'on the fly' so it's a little blurry.  Hard place to pull over to snap a better pic as it's a blind curve at this location.  One of the local good guys I guess and it's always fun to see him 'pipe-ing' away.

LIttle Baby Car

I was over in Camarillo yesterday and saw this cute little baby car. It's a tiny bit bigger than a motorcycle (and some states require a motorcycle license plate instead of a car plate). It was just so damned cute! One seat only and not much room in the passenger area for anything else. I went to the company website today and found out that it has about 6 cubic feet of storage (somewhere) for carrying stuff other than your body.

I never did see the owner to ask questions but I peered in, took a picture of the dashboard and about died laughing.  Check out the speedometer.  Yes, the big white numbers are miles-per-hour.  The company website says it has a top speed of 76 mph.  That, my friends, is the average speed (when there's no traffic jams) on California Freeways regardless of the posted limits.

These sell for about 25 grand.  Uh, I could buy almost two Toyota Corolla's for that price.  Of course, according to the latest news, you just can't stop the Corolla...... maybe I'd buy two Kia Rio's and pocket the 3 grand difference.  But, as I said before, this was just so damned cute and such an attention getter - every passerby was stopping to look at it.

Wild and Crazy Weather

What a wild and crazy weather week. We'd heard the dire warnings last week about the impending doom of multiple storms throughout the week causing floods, mudslides, earthquakes, poverty, pestilence, despair and all sorts of mean nasty things...... except firestorms. Yep, no firestorm warnings for this week, finally. Officially, we have changed seasons: Firestorm Season is over, temporarily, and Mudslide season takes front row.

We did have multiple storms all week. Pretty much a major all-day storm hit us every day. The worst were Thursday and Friday. Lots of rain, thunderstorms, hail and a tornado just a few miles from our house. We got somewhere between 4-7" of rain total for the week which was less than expected. That's a good thing as all the major wildfires burned vegetation from the hills making them extremely prone to mudslides. The outcome for the week was good. Just a few Tornadoes, rain and minor mudslides. The rain was much needed as Southern Cowlifornia is still in a major drought. And, we didn't have to water the lawn or outdoor flower beds. Also appearing for the first time in almost a year is the color Green. For nine months or more, the hills and mountains have been 256 shades of brown from lack of water. Now, Green is sweeping the areas and making it look like Ohio. Far out! Yesterday, Saturday's sky was the clearest it's been in a week. And it was a cold start at 34 degrees. Yikes, we even had frost!

Here's a picture of our dark red garage roof. Sparkly diamonds instead of red shingles. I had an errand to run just after dawn and I was hoping to get a great winter picture of Topa Topa, the local mountain that is over 6000' high. In the winter, when we have a 'cold' rain at sea level, it snows in the mountains and today would be the first day the sky would be clear enough to see the upper half of Topa Topa. Sadly, we had 'warm' rains everyday except for Friday's very cold rainfall and there just wasn't much snow. I did take the following picture at a stop light getting off the freeway. If the snow was more dramatic, I would have gone to a better location for a photo shoot but it just wasn't worth photographing. Anyway, we had a beautiful Saturday and ditto for today (Sunday). Gonna rain again next week thanks to the El Nino weather pattern that has finally set up. Keep dry and warm, Weedhopper. If you double click on the Topa Topa picture, you'll get a bigger view. Then, use your web browser's 'back' button to return here.

Mudslide Season

Well, the Jet Stream finally picked up it's typical El Nino pattern. It's right overhead and roaring 180 mph. Starting last Sunday, we've had a storm-a-day come through and dump about an inch of rain each. We got one more to go, tomorrow. It's supposed to be the strongest of them all. Another one to three inches of rain for us, eight for the foothills and I don't know how many feet for snow for the elevations above 3500 feet. There's been concern of mudslides where last fall's wildfires burned pretty much everything for 400 square miles just north of LA. When a wildfire roars through, it chemically changes the soil in a way that just seals it. When it rains a lot on this bare ground, almost 100% of it runs off, downhill. Pretty soon, lots of mud, water and rocks are roaring down the hills. Then, boulders join in, knocking down trees and, well, you get the picture. Never live at the top or the bottom of a hill in Cowlifornia. Anyway, there has been major preparations everywhere for this series of storms including concrete K-Rails, sandbags, diversion walls, cleaned out storm drains. The media has already dubbed their coverage "Stormwatch 2010!". They always do that kind of thing, don't they? Giving some goofy media label to an event. When I moved here 10 years ago, the first sprinkles of the season demanded TV reporters everywhere, umbrellas open, talking live, promoting, "Stormwatch 2000"...... With one more storm to go, most of Southern Cowlifornia has survived. There was a waterspout off Huntington Beach that came ashore and did some minor damage yesterday, a waterspout off Manhattan Beach (next to where Cuz'n Ric lived) and a white-out in the Grapevine (Interstate 5 going from LA to the Central Valley) causing the Interstate to be closed for hours in both directions. Thunderstorms here. That's a rarity. I think we've had about 3 or 4 thunderstorms in the last 10 years. Lots of your normal run-of-the-mill idiots who drive like it was 70 degrees and sunny. I see 'em a few miles down the freeway, upside down in the guardrail. By today, almost all of the drivers were using common sense, driving safely. Of course, it was pouring down rain and nobody could drive faster than 40 mph even if they wanted to. We need the rain in Southern Cowlifornia badly and it's very welcome. Just remember, don't live on the top or bottom of a hill out here.
Here's a picture I took at the beach late this afternoon. Today's storm had just passed and the waves were about 8-10 feet at the biggest. I added contrast to the raw photo which made the jetty rocks look fake - their not. (Yesterdays storm had 20 foot waves and damaged the pier. It's closed for repairs right now). This picture is 'shrunk' by the blog to fit this page so if you want a nice biggie to scroll around and catch all the crashing and smashing, lemme know and I'll e-mail it to you.

Pressure Cooker

There's a local website called, "Freecycle" where you offer things for free or ask for a specific item for free. Keeps stuff out of the landfill. We've given and gotten using Freecycle. Today, I saw the following post:

" Wanted: Camarillo, Pressure Cooker ".





I immediatley thought of Charlene reading this and thinking, "You need a pressure cooker? For Free? Here! Take this NS30 Course for me!"................

Exchange of E-Mails on a Saturday Morning

Pat:
Isn't coffee on Saturday morning just the best cup of the week?
Of course, I'm retired so everyday is Saturday....

Me:
I have a Kuerig Coffee Maker. Today, I'm drinking "Emeril's Big Easy
Extra Bold" coffee, made by the cupful at precisely 192 degrees. Every Cup is a Saturday!

Pat:
Touche!

Pat:
Mine is leftover from yesterday afternoon. I zapped it for one minute. Are you gagging yet?

Me:
Oh, My God! Gag me with a spoon! Tho Up! Yesterday's coffee, even the finest, stored in a thermal carafe', refrigerated, tastes just like the 'shavings' box of a pencil sharpener......always.

Me:
I don't usually make a habit of eating the shavings of the pencil sharpener box....but if I did, that's what the nuked old coffee would taste like....

Then, out of the blue comes Charlene, who has been buried in studies all week. She had breezed through the kitchen and then the living room and returned to her study hall (the bedroom) and sent the following e-mail:
I was going to say I'm having English Breakfast Tea at precisely 192 degrees, but I went out to the living room and forgot why I was there. Is it Saturday???

New Years Eve/New Years Day

Charlene had to work a 12 hour shift on New Years Eve day, seven in the morning 'till seven in the evening. By the time she got home, she was beat up, to say the least. I decided that for New Years Eve, we'd have a fire in our 'fire pit' bowl. Got some of those 'bun length' Oscar Meyer beef dogs, gobs of buns, Coney Sauce (kind of foreign in California), chopped onions and shredded cheese. Out here I guess they call them Chili Cheese Dogs but the Victors of the Rose Bowl this year call them Coney Island Dogs or just "Coney's". We even had Jalapeno Hot Peppers for the brave souls. Yea, we all tried the peppers on one dog and went running for the milk - ouch, hot, burn- gimmie some milk, quick! Shopped Target for only the finest bundled firewood. Nic and Trav had their friend, Ryland, spending the night, the three of them gaming, iPod-ing and chugging Dr. Pepper. As expected, Charlene came home beat up and took a hot shower, removing all traces of hospital germs and frustrations. Then, into her 'sock monkey' jammies to continue the evening. It was in the very low 50's outside (cold for us, tee shirt/shorts weather in Ohio) so the fire felt good.





I must say that we really did pig out on the coneys. There's just something about a campfire and cooking 'dogs' that makes such a wonderfully festive party atmosphere. Hard to believe that we went through the entire bundle of firewood but it was worth it. Lots of 'dogs', lots of talk and reminiscing



We all celebrated the New Year/Decade at Midnight. Of course, they all had to wake me several times in the last few minutes before the Giant Ball lowered and announced the end of a very weird decade.

New Year's day was fun. I took all our patio furniture and scrubbed the stains and dirt with bleach and Scotchbrite pads while Charlene took the ornaments and lights from the tree. Throughout the process, I was checking on the Penn State game (Yea! A Big Ten team wins a bowl game!). I took the tree out and Charlene and I cleaned up the mess of needles, put the furniture back in place and she revamped her 'nursing college' bookcase that was overloaded with textbooks. Then........then........ it was Rose Bowl time. Living in the PAC-10 territory, I take a lot of ribbing when Ohio State loses to USC and goes on to lose a bowl game. After USC beat Ohio State early in the season, Ohio State got better with each game while USC got worse. The Rose Bowl this year was a great game - especially the outcome. The 'Ducks' were famous this season for coming from behind and winning the game so I kept thinking, "It ain't over 'till it's over". Hey, WE KICKED ASS, didn't we! I now have bragging rights throughout Ventura County. I think that on Monday, I'll wear my Ohio State sweatshirt all day at work. I won't be sweating bad mouths this time - just sweating as the temps will be in the 70's.
Bitter cold in the Eastern US, nice and warm out here, especially with a warm fuzzy win at the Rose Bowl. A very good New Year's start!

By the way, throughout my blog, if you click on a photo, you'll see the same photo but in a bigger size - hit your browser's 'back' button to return to the blog.

Best-O-Show

Down the street from the 'Power Drain' house is just the most perfect and beautifully lit house. These pictures don't do it justice. The color is right on but the lights and lighting effect are blurred. Sorry, had my cheap camera with me. This house is on a corner lot. I'm on one street aproaching the corner. The next picture was taken just around the corner. Halfway down is an alcove and the lights follow the contours of the roof through it. It's just gorgeous. The last picture is past the alcove and looking back.These lights are those 'dangly' icicle type lights but very dainty with a powder blue clear bulb. Just beautiful.

Terrorists. They really piss me off. Flying used to be bad enough, stuffed in an airless plane for hours, terrible food and service, no respect as a human being. Now, thanks to that Damned Shoe Bomber, we all have to stop at the security scanning area, take our shoes off, put them in a container to have them scanned for explosives. Then, after walking through the beeping scanner thing, we have to wait for our shoes, slow the line down by putting them back on. Shoes? Explosives in shoes? Damn them! Why couldn't it have been a Bra............

Now that the Christmas season is winding down, I think of all the outdoor display of lights, reindeer, Santas and assorted baby Jesus paraphernalia neighbors set out. Some are quite beautiful, others, tacky. Really Tacky! Here's a perfect example of someone forgetting to say, "When!" It's about a quarter of a mile down our street. I'd be embarrassed to live next to them. The only thing missing is, er, uh, nothing. They've got it packed with crap from Christmas Hell.....

Then, there's another house up a different street that goes way overboard in a different way. Way too many lights but done in a 'Tastefully Tacky" way. When night falls and they turn on their display, there's a major power drain in Ventura. But tasteful....... I swear that it looks like white hot Christmas lava flowing through their yard. Yea, Tastefully Tacky.

Even Nic and Trav.......

On Sunday, Charlene and I went to Blockbuster to rent a movie using the 99 cent coupon I had received. We walked in and started to look around. She went one way, I, the other. I don't know what she was looking at but in my mind I was trying to choose between the new Star Trek movie and District 9. Action stuff. Blow up stuff. Guy movies. How can I talk her into watching something like that? I rounded a corner, still scanning the shelves and there it was: Julie & Julia. Action movies disappeared from my brain. I picked it up and walked toward her. "Find anything?", I ask. Before she could answer, I held up my pick and she smiled, agreed and we walked to the register. She had to work that afternoon so I figured we'd watch it later in the week. Later came sooner - tonight to be exact. She invited Nic and Trav to watch and they had agreed to sit with us, forgoing Xbox and iPods. I found this to be totally astounding. Kind of like Arabs and Israelites making peace. We ate dinner in front of the TV as we watched. That was followed by totally excellent hot cocoa for the boys, coffee for Charlene and I, all fresh brewed and served at precisely 192 degrees. Nic and Trav watched the whole thing, credits included. They laughed out loud at the humorous parts, felt bad when Julia shunned Julie near the end and really enjoyed the entire movie. I had explained that it was two true stories rolled into one movie and that Julia's husband, Paul was a 'spy' with the OSS. That intrigued them from the start. Charlene and I saw this when it first came out, saw it again on Thanksgiving Day (at the cheap theater, eating jalapeno hot dogs and icey's instead of Turkey dinner). I don't know why but it was just as enjoyable tonight as it was the last two times we watched. Even more so because we shared it with Nic and Trav and they enjoyed it, too.
If Meryl Streep doesn't get the Oscar for this role, well, I think the voters are crazy. Charlene agrees.
Again, if you haven't seen it, do so.