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May 13, 2017May 13, 2017

Caturday: Cranky sea lions and more power issues

Yes, we wound up with more power issues. This time it wasn’t with us or the park. It was the neighbor. Helpless people annoy me and I have issues with them. I don’t mean helpless in the disabled way. I mean helpless as in clueless and with no desire to GET a clue. Our neighbor had her move-out-move-back-in thing. It was her third and she still wasn’t ready when the tow arrived. She doesn’t know how to unhook the stinky slinky, raise the stabilizers, or turn off the propane. In a year and a half, she’s learned nothing and has made no effort to learn. She’s probably in her 50s and she didn’t want to live with her kids after her husband passed. I think a trailer was a mistake for her.

She was being towed back in when I left to pick up Lastech at the station. When we got home, there was no power. Lucky for us, the heatwave had been the prior week, so it was cooler and survivable. It took me a bit to check on the trailer and make sure we hadn’t blown a circuit breaker. I suspected the issue could be with the power inverter, but I really hoped it wasn’t. Then I walked over to check the meter box. Oh my. My meter and two of the neighbors were off, but the neighbor lady’s was on. I noticed that part of the electrical box cover was on the ground. Hmmmmmmm. When I opened the box, I discovered that three of the four circuit breakers had been shut off. The neighbor lady had hers on. I flipped the other three back on and all was well.

I finally pieced it all together. She came home and deployed one of her two slide-outs. The second one didn’t work. She went out to the electrical box to flip switches, not understanding that slide-outs work on battery power. If she had learned anything about her trailer she would know that. Either she needed to let the battery charge up or it was bad. A repair guy came to work on it and got it running. I like my neighbor, but she needs to get a clue, and soon. Had she shut off our power during the heatwave, it could have killed the pointy-eared people and the floppy-eared one. Can you tell I now have issues with my neighbor? I’m not giving her a bad time about it. I think the park management has already done that. Instead, I’ll just be paranoid every time we have to leave home when it’s hot out.

Speaking of the fur kids…

Tito and Jenny saw something

It wasn’t exactly a giant mosquito, but they thought it was. It was a crane fly.

For those who don’t have them, they’re about an inch long or so.

Titanescu didn’t care. He fears nothing. Especially when he’s asleep and using Miss Jenny as a pillow.

As for Miss Pepi, she and Tito had a little love fest.

Oh, and about the sea lions. They’re cranky. Very cranky. Especially when surrounded by the harem and offspring. The have their own docks at the pier, but they haul out wherever they like. With males weighing in just short of 800 lbs, they’re mostly left alone. Lastech had to patrol the dock.

Yep, Lastech skeedaddled right on out of there.

Here’s a bull (knobby forehead) watching over his family

One last thing. No picture sadly, but last evening I was sitting next to my window when a very large bird dove into the shrub about 3 feet away. One of the wings actually brushed the window on the way by. It was a hawk. I figure he/she was after the sparrows that sleep in the shrub. It was amazing though. Tito had a “WTF wazzat?” look on his face.

See ya next week if WWIII doesn’t start.

April 29, 2017

Caturday: Clouds, wind and fur people

Yes everyone, we’re back. I was going to post last weekend until I remembered that we had to do our semi-annual move-out-move-back-in thing. At least the weather was nice. Lastech took last week off so that he could help and have a bit of extra time off to boot. After we were back in place, we took a day trip up Diablo to go cloud watching.

First it’s time for the fur kids to shine.

Miss Pepi the dumpster dog (where she was found)

I never get tired of watching clouds. The rainy season is pretty much over, so I enjoy any clouds that appear. This week, the heat has arrived and the hills will start turning back to their summer tan. It’s also dry and windy and that will accelerate the process.

As you can see, the hills are still green. It won’t last long now.

The turkeys were out too. It’s fun to be driving along with the window open and suddenly hear a chorus of gobbling bursting out of the tall grasses. Turkey gobbles always make me smile.

Here’s the slideshow for the rest of the photos.

[Show picture list]

We made another trip last week to the Tilden Botanic Garden. This is just one of many pics. I’ll save those for next week. 🙂

April 15, 2017

Caturday: Maniacal beeping and a melted outlet

Hello world. Last week was interesting. I was puttering when I heard a loud beeping. I looked around and saw nothing. Awhile later, I heard it again. Aha! The microwave. I reset it and went about my business. It was beeping again. It even beeped at 4 am. I finally flipped the breaker that controlled it and the beeping stopped. Then the modem kept turning off, followed by the power shutting off at 5:30 am. As soon as the sun was up, I went outside to check on things. I was quite startled to find that our 30 amp plug and the outlet it was attached to had burned and melted. Evidently melting shore power outlets is not that uncommon. The manager managed to get the electricians in to fix things up.

Melted 30 amp shore power outlet. It was stinky

Needless to say, the timing for these things is never good. Oh well, the Endurance is powered up again. Now it’s time for the pointy-eared people and the floppy-eared one to shine.

Lastech managed to get a couple of fun pics from the pier and a sunrise

Sea lion getting ready to join the others

We plan on being back next week, provided WW III hasn’t started. Happy Easter to all who celebrate it.

April 1, 2017

Caturday: Spring is here, no foolin’

It appears that I have survived to see the onset of Spring. I’m still mostly deaf these days, but this latest round of antibiotics seem to be doing the trick. I’ll believe it when I can go for week or two after the round without getting another ear infection. My fingers are crossed, at any rate.

The pointy eared people and the floppy eared one are enjoying the Spring weather. The kitties are finding the birdie watching to be excellent, while Pepi enjoys spending time outside on the porch with us.

Spring has definitely arrived. Heavy rains have given way to pretty sunsets, pretty birds, wildflowers, and even a turkey.

California poppies and lupines on Mt. Diablo

My ears were good enough to make going to the top of Diablo a safe trip. From the top, we were able to see across the Central Valley to the snow topped Sierra. Here’s a slideshow with the rest of the pictures. It was a beautiful day.

[Show picture list]

March 25, 2017August 15, 2021

Caturday: is it Tuesday yet? and what is that racket?

Is it Tuesday? It must have been when the doc prescribed Cipro to counter Rudha-an’s (aka Julie-the-nose) sinus infection. I was nodding off in the waiting room, since I’m now back to working nights, drifting off to a scene of the doc plunging swabs painfully up nostrils, expressing a professional opinion summed up as “ewwww!” and listening to faint gurglings and wheezings from whence he plunged his apparatus.

“Is that you?”, he asked her. I’m not sure what he expected. Amoxycillin’s for amateur night, we were talking New York City in 2020, on Tuesday, Soylent Green day, when there’s no damn Soylent Green to be had.

Up that nose, the crushing masses of microbes (the most common first name for male microbes is Mike, Becky for females, as in Bacteria) could not even get out of the swab’s way. In truth, some were already dead, but those sinuses being standing room only, who would know? In came the swabs, like the sanitation trucks brought in by the riot Police, punching through starving crowds of Mikes and Beckys in the sweltering heat.

Cipro might be our only hope, our “Charlton Heston for the truth” shooting Mikes with his .38. Swabs… No wonder Joseph Cotten (no pun intended) couldn’t take the guilt….

Rudha-an here. Lastech is currently sleeping, so I’m going to add the bonus bits. He’s on graveyard shift, but he had to go in early on Thursday. On his walk from the train station to work, he came across a bunch of people taking pictures of a tree.

When he got a closer look, this is what he saw.

Yes, it was a whole bunch of parrots. While both of us have seen the parrots, it’s only been in very small numbers. I’m envious of his luck in seeing so many at once. For anyone who doesn’t know, back in 2003, there was a documentary and book released called The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill. The author of the book agrees that the title is a misnomer as the parrots range as far away as Brisbane. Still, the bulk of them hang around Telegraph Hill where Coit Tower is located. No one is quite certain how they came to be there. As for the type of parrot? This is what KQED (our local PBS station) had to say.

The wild parrots in and around San Francisco are called cherry-headed conures. At one point, a mitred conure joined the flock and bred with the cherry heads. Now the flock is dotted with hybrids.

Here is a video he took that afternoon and you’ll notice that in the middle of the vid, one of those parrots told him to FECK OFF!

This is a vid he took the next morning. It’s mostly to show how many there are and how loud they can be. All those dark spots high in the trees are parrots.

March 11, 2017March 11, 2017

Caturday: Playing in the snow

Ok, we didn’t quite play in it, we did manage to hike in it. While there has been plenty of snow in the Sierra Mtns., the snow level rarely drops enough for it to cover the top of Mt. Diablo. Last weekend, it was cold enough. I was afraid it would be rained away Sunday night, but nope. It was still there on Monday, so off we went. We had a snow day. I know many of you live in snow country and are probably rolling your eyes. 🙂 This was the first time I touched snow since January of 2002.

I’ll post more but right now it’s time for the stars of the show. In light of the fact that this last week highlighted International Women’s Day and A Day Without a Woman, Miss Jenny gets to lead off the show.

Tito: Me? I’m just watching the neighbors

Pepi: What? I didn’t do anything! I swear!

Back to the snow day. We lit out before noon. It was a beautiful day. We were careful to dress for the cold though as we knew it would be cold and wet at the top.

At the foot of the mountain, the hills are bright green

The road to the top was closed to cars at the Diablo Valley view point, so we parked and hiked from there. We decided to take the hiking trail up instead of the road. Lots of people were there along with their kids. We decided that some people are just stupid. I mean really stupid. The temps were nice at the base of the mountain. However, it was cold and wet at the top. Idiots were wearing shorts and sandals. Oh well.

As we climbed, we could see sparse bits of snow

The higher we got, the more snow there was. We were also in the clouds, so visibility was low

We finally made it to the top. It was a bit under two miles and a climb of about 950 feet.

Out of view on the left side of that last photo, there was a microwave tower. It was mostly hidden in the clouds, but there was no doubt about where it was. Chunks of ice could be heard falling though the structure with very loud crashing noises. After taking the trail up, we decided to hike back down via the road. The upper part of the trail was very steep and icy and while we managed it without a fall, we didn’t feel that going down that way would be as lucky. All in all, it was a 4 mile round trip and I’m so glad we got to do it. I’ve included the rest of the pics in a slide show.

[Show picture list]

March 4, 2017March 4, 2017

Caturday: More rain, with kitties and a dog

Yes, more rain. It’s not a deluge this time, I don’t think. The storm isn’t really here yet though, so the cloud watching has been fabulous. We honestly don’t need more rain, but as long as we’re not talking floods, I don’t mind.

Ear report. I’m on day 22 of antibiotics. 5 more days to go. The doc gave a stronger one on Monday and so I think I’m making some good progress now.

A week ago, we made a trek to the lake down at Heather Farms. I posted the pics on Caturday last week. After we were there, it happened that three of the geese got into a bit of a pissy match with some poor guy. He fell and injured his knee escaping them. Maybe one of the culprits was my “lonely goose” from last week. You can see and read the story here. While geese can be very dangerous, they don’t normally go on the attack unless you startle them. Right now, they’re rather territorial as they’re getting ready to lay eggs soon. We heard several goosey spats when were were at the lake. Obviously, keep children well supervised. Oh, the vid is great. I totally lost it with giggles at the end, though I feel bad about the guy’s injury and I hope it heals quickly. 🙂

Anyhow, here are the stars of the show.

Titanescu in the pike position for maximum sunbeam soaking

Since I’m still fighting an ear infection and Lastech is still fighting the flu, we haven’t gotten out much. Still, the arboretum showing signs of spring and bird watching from the trailer is still fine.

Yellow sneezy tree. I love them, but I honk and sneeze. Photo by Lastech

Arboretum kitty. Lastech detoured around with Pepi while I got a pic. Kitty wanted scritchies, so I provided some.

This is how the pic came out of the camera. The only thing I did was resize it. The sky is crazy blue

That’s it for this week. I’m hoping we’ll get out next week, but Lastech needs to be feeling better.

February 25, 2017February 25, 2017

Caturday: kamikaze hard drive and crappy hearing

Yep, I’m losing my hearing and my hard drive bit the dust. In the middle of all that, Mother Nature was trying to reshape half the state of California.

My hearing was always tenuous at best. I was born mostly deaf and even had an eardrum replaced back when I was in high school. I managed my later years without too many problems, learning how to avoid ear infections and things were going well. Then last November when we got the flu, the resulting infection migrated to my ears. It’s been an ongoing battle ever since. On Monday, the doc will probably prescribe a more powerful antibiotic as one of the three bacteria critters is a bit tougher and really, really likes me. Once we get rid of the infection, we can schedule some tests to see how bad the damage is and I don’t expect it will be good news.

As for the hard drive? It was working fine and then it wasn’t. It’s dead Jim. I went out and got a new one, put on my computer repair hat, and went to work. As you can see, I’m up and running again. I lost a lot of pictures that were on the drive. It’s my own darned fault. I’m going to be setting up an account for online cloud backup. That way I’m covered if this ever happens again. Lucky for me, most pics were backed up to Google Photos, although not in their original size. I want to be able to save everything as is. I kept the old drive and when the budget permits, we’ll look into having a pro look at it to see if the files can be rescued.

So that’s why we were missing for a week or so. We didn’t wash away. In spite of the frustrations listed above, life isn’t bad. We rode out the storms and we’re fine here in our little trailer. We’ll see what kind of crucible 2017 turns out to be.

And now for the stars of our show.

Titanescu giving Lastech a stinkeye…with drunk overtones. Hahaha!

Miss Jenny looking reflective. Seriously. Look at her eyes. 🙂

In spite of the rains wreaking havoc, we managed to get out and commune with mother nature. It was cold and wet, but good.

The creek which is usually a trickle, was flowing nicely. Photo by Lastech

Yes, we saw river otters with fishy noms

If you look closely, you can see the other otter peeping out on the left side of the one in front.

Black Phoebe. They’re graceful gnat catchers.

Now for a few birdies viewed from the trailer window

Tufted Titmouse gathering nesting material

Between the time I started writing this and now, I set up an account with Backblaze and my files are backing up as I type. Here’s a good review on Backblaze as well as another one (same author) comparing it with 23 others. So far so good.

February 11, 2017

Caturday: Floods and blinding sunlight

I feel like a vampire. I stepped out into the sunlight and expected to burst into flame at any second. Added to that is the fact that I couldn’t get my eyes open and the sunlight made me sneeze. Yes, I’m one of those who sneeze repeatedly in strong sunlight. I can’t complain too much though. We’re way over our normal rainfall amounts and I needed time to air out the trailer. It reeks of humidity and wet dog. Especially the wet dog part. Ewwwwwwww

Here’s a pic that Lastech took of the Walnut Creek flood channel. The creek is normally only about 12 to 15 feet wide. This isn’t the highest it’s been. It’s been at its highest late at night, so we’ve missed it.

I’m sure you’ve all seen the news coming out of the state with roads washed out and the Oroville Dam spillway FUBAR. It’s a mess out here. We survived fine, but many didn’t. I’m hoping the next round of storms won’t be so messy. Here’s a vid of the problem at the dam for anyone who may have missed it.

Now it’s time for the pointy-eared people and the floppy-eared one to shine.

Miss Pepi watching Titanescu in his sunbeam

The other day I was sitting at the laptop and heard a very loud ruckus in the shrub. It was the sparrows. The male sparrows are wife hunting. There were two of them trying to get her attention. The one on her left started to do his dance, but she wasn’t having it and ran him off. The one on her right was more persistent, but she still wasn’t having it. He wouldn’t go away, so she took matters into her own beak, so to speak. This all happened very fast and I barely got the two pics below. Miss birdy reached out with a claw and grabbed Mr. hotshot by the leg, dangled him upside down, and proceeded to peck the crap out of him.

Mr hotshot managed to get his leg free, but as you can see, she’s dangling him by a feather. Her beak is barely visible at the top.

And don’t come back! She dropped him and his fall was anything but graceful.

Today, the Towhee came to flap and preen on the fence. I love the soft brown and rust tones.

See you next week

February 4, 2017February 11, 2017

Caturday: A view from the window

Yes, the kitties enjoy the view from the windows. They spend a lot of time there watching the world go by. The only view out of the old apartment window was a busy street. They like it much better here.

Jenny was watching the birds from the screen door

Titanescu was watching and wishing he could chase the birds

Pepi wasn’t watching out the window. She was enjoying her chewie.

I’m always posting pics of the fur kids bird at the window bird watching. I thought I might share some of what they’re watching.

While I’m not thrilled about the pruned shrub (it will grow back), we have had a variety of birds come visit and sit on the fence. We’re still having storms rolling through, so we’re finding it harder to get out. As a result, I’m quite enjoying watching the birds along with the fur kids.

This not-a-bird was perched on the fence earlier

I’ll keep watch for any different birds that might show up.