Rudha-an – jellybeansofdoom.com

March 10, 2018

Fog, cats, a dog, and a country run amok

Karl the fog came to visit and the leadership of my country has run amok. Of course I’m thinking of one in particular, but that name shall NOT contaminate this blog. He’s running amok and no one will stop him. They’re either silent about him or aiding him. It’s the same either way. I’ve tried to keep politics (aside from social issues) out of the blog, but it’s going to creep in and this is one of those times. Between threats to our LGBT friends and our friends from sh#thole countries, I’m just sick. Sick and tired of the bigotry and racism from a jerk running his “mouth” off on Twitter and enabling all the other bigots and racists. I can only hope that the 2018 mid term elections bring about some much needed change. It’s going to take years to correct the damage that’s been done. Of course, that’s provided he doesn’t get us all blown up before then.

In things, life hasn’t been all bad. Karl the Fog decided to pay a visit for the last few days and Lastech got some cool pics.

This is from before the fog rolled in with Coit tower and the Bay Bridge lit up

The fog makes everything look quiet and mysterious

Not fog, but it fits in with the others.

Of course, we haven’t forgotten the critters. They’re doing fine. They didn’t appreciate the cold snap we had, but I told them it could be worse. They could be living in the NE part of the country or in Canada. They have a heated blanket, so they don’t suffer.

Titanescu gets two pics this time.

Not to forget the dawg. She doesn’t have an electric blanket, but her crate in well insulated and she has a blanket collection.

Well, that’s it for now. I’ll try to post again sooner.

December 17, 2017

Holidays, La Posada, Kitties, and a Doggie

Yes friends, we’re still alive. We might just survive the season. The smoke was better for a while, then the stuff from So. California moved in. It has been a busy month with La Posada, holidays, and busy work hours. Here’s a bit of holiday cheer. Lastech took this pic at night.

We took advantage of a lull in Lastech’s training schedule to enjoy the La Posada celebration at the Martinez Adobe which is located at the John Muir National Historical Site.

The adobe was built by Don Francisco Martinez in 1849. Later, John Muir’s daugter, Wanda lived there.

La Posada is a 400 year old Christmas tradition and has an interesting history which you can read about here.
They had a procession and music. Traditionally, it takes place over 9 days, but this one just had the one day. There were piñatas, snacks, and music. It was delightful

This is a traditional nine-pointed star.

Here is a slide show with the rest of the pics.

[Show picture list]

No we haven’t forgotten the critters. While we don’t really celebrate the season, we still get into the groove a wee bit. We got a hammock style car seat cover and seatbelt for Pepi to ride in the back seat where she can look out at the world. The hammock style prevents her from falling into the gap between the front seats and the back. She seems to like it.

Titanescu has been posing for us lately. The others have been napping.

Here’s Miss Jenny looking out from her favorite spot.

November 12, 2017November 12, 2017

Kitties, dog, sea lions, flowers and birds

Yes, we have kitties and the dog along with sea lions and more. There’s a bonus arachnid tossed in, but I’ll merely link to it so that my friends who are phobic won’t be triggered by it.

I intended to post sooner, but the world wouldn’t stop for me to get off. I’m still here. 🙂 Despite a couple of trips to the dentist’s office, our last month wasn’t awful. We had a couple of small adventures, the weather is changing, and the sea lions have been posing for Lastech.

First off though we must take care of the stars of this show. The pointy eared people and the floppy eared one need their chance to shine.

Here is Tito perfecting the art of the ‘dead bug’ position

This is our lovely Miss Jenny looking a tad smug

And here it the pissy tyrant Titanescu, looking (don’t tell him) adorable.

This is the goofy Miss Pepi giving us the profile pose.

Yes, as you can see, we managed to get photos of the critters this time. Speaking of critters, Lastech has been getting some nice pics of the sea lions at work. Working graveyard shift can make that a tad tough at times. Still, he got a couple of great ones.

Here’s a closeup of a young male (I think). He wasn’t as close as it looks though.

On some of the docks, they have placed the strips as a deterrent. Those strips don’t go quite all the way to the end.

The strips left room for one sea lion. The docks visible in the background are all set aside for the sea lions. The deterrence is so that people can get to and from their boats safely.

“Wait! Where are you going? I was going to make Espresso..!”

Sunrise was beautiful and the drive home was rainy. The rain has been helping with the fires up North, so it’s a good thing.

After the rain, we went off to Martinez to get some fresh air, cloud watch, and bird watch.

Snowy egret enjoying the sun. You can see the head of a turtle doing to the same at the bottom left side.

Before Halloween, we drove down to the Danville Library for a nature talk. It was all about the nocturnal creatures on Mount Diablo. Trivia bit: The Gray Fox is the only American canid that can climb trees. They have claws like a cat. Anyhow, while there, I got to meet a lovely tarantula named Scarlett O’Hairy. If you click on her name, you can see the pic.

That’s it for this week. Hopefully I won’t take so long until the next post.

October 28, 2017

Can we stop the world? I want off

Ok, maybe the world isn’t that bad. Still, I like the idea. We’re getting ready to move from dry summer into our rainy season, but the world got to have one last hurrah, if you can call it that. We had some nasty awful fires just north of us. While we were in no danger, one of our close friends came within a cat’s whisker of losing her home. Some of her friends weren’t that lucky and they lost everything. While we were safe enough from the actual fires, we were not able to avoid the smoke. It blanketed the area so thickly I couldn’t see more than a quarter mile. I thought it was bad a month ago. This was many times worse.

Smoky sunrise. There are no clouds. Just smoke

This is Alcatraz as seen from Pier 39. Yes, that’s smoke

I said a lot of bad words. Somewhere in the middle of all that, I had a tooth that decided it definitely wanted off the ride and turned into an abscessed debacle. I managed to go to a dentist only to find out that she can’t pull a tooth (?!?) The office was less than stellar even without that bit of news. After more bad words, I managed to find my old dentist and I’ll go see him on the 8th. I won’t go back to the other office.

I guess to make a long story short, the world got ugly and I cursed up a blue streak. But wait, there’s more. In the middle of all this, we had to do our bi-annual move-out-move-back-in mess and the check-engine light came on in the car. Blargh!

I’m not even going to ask if anything else can go wrong, as there are plenty more things that could.

Now for the critters.

Miss Jenny about a split second before going off her nut with a serious case of the zoomies.

Titanescu looking vaguely menacing. He does that look well.

My friend got a new puppy. It’s a Great Pyrenees/Newfoundland mix. It’s going to be huge. Pepi could smell Max on me.

Yes, I got the side-eye look from Pepi. She has since forgiven me.

We’ll try to return sooner next time. My apologies for being AWOL for so long.

September 16, 2017

Bleeping ‘canes, effing distracted drivers, and cats

A distracted driver, two hurricanes and more storms to possibly follow. Holy cow! I’ve spent the last couple of weeks keeping track of my friends and/or their families that were in the path of these things. Now there are more storms to worry about. Ugh! As for us, we appear to be past the worst of our heatwaves, thank goodness. Along with that, our air quality has improved as well.

As for the effing distracted driver? People need to put down their phones and pay attention to the road. If you need to read a map, pull over. If you need to text someone, pull over. Distracted driving is becoming a bigger and bigger problem. My phone lives in my pocket when I’m driving. I don’t even have it hooked to the bluetooth as I don’t want to answer it. Whoever pings or calls can wait. My life and that of others is more important.

I don’t like driving, at least in the city, but out in the boonies, I’ve no problem. It’s leftovers from an accident back in 2006. Anyhow, I’ve been doing ok with it. I was on my way home the other day though when it happened. I was sitting at a signal waiting for green light when WHAM! She never hit the brakes. I calmly said a bad word, then we pulled over to exchange info. She was young (18-20) and headed home from school. I was patient. She was uninjured and I was fine. Our poor car goes into the shop on Monday for repairs. I think the damage is just to the back bumper and muffler/tailpipes. We’ll know more then. I will have to bite the bullet and get behind the wheel again.

As for the girl, I don’t know that she was on her phone. It’s merely a guess, but I had been stopped for a good 15 seconds before she hit me, so she had to have been distracted by something. Sadly, the car was registered to her parents and I’m guessing that, like us, they’re working class. That makes the loss of the car harder for them. Lord knows what it will do to their insurance rates. I wouldn’t have wanted to be in her shoes when she showed up at home with the car. Ouch.

It’s a ’99 Mercedes. Or it was. I think it’s totaled. Our car looked much better, in spite of the damage.

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

Everybody look right! I mean left…your left.

No Pepi! The the other way!

Never mind! You’re all confused.

Speaking of confused, I can hear a male Anna hummingbird doing his mating dive outside. The normal breeding season is Dec thru June. Go figure.

September 4, 2017

Bleeping weather, fecking smoke, and Pepi

The smoke from the fires has blown in and is awful. Back to that in a minute. First, the weather

A very odd thing happened Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It was hotter in Concord, CA than in El Centro, CA. El Centro sits near the Mexican border in the Sonoran desert and is below sea level. These temps are normal there. Not so much here. San Francisco broke an all-time record with 106 degrees on Friday and we topped out at 109. Blech! We did the same on Saturday. In plain English, the weather is hotter than hell.

The fecking smoke was almost worse than the heat. It was blowing in from the fires up North. Then it blew in from the fires to the East. I couldn’t get two feet away from the inhaler, but I was ok. I used it when I needed it.

Lastech took this photo of the smoky sunrise

Continue reading “Bleeping weather, fecking smoke, and Pepi”

August 12, 2017

Caturday: Arty cats and Costco he11

Costco was hell yesterday with all the back-to-school shoppers. I can handle the crowds. That doesn’t bother me as much. I can handle moms with 6 kids in tow. That’s fine too. However, when the mom with six kids runs into the mom with 5 and they stop to visit while blocking access to more than half of the meat display, I have a problem. There were people trying to reach around them to get what they wanted while the chatty ones completely ignored them. We decided to do the rest of our shopping and go back to that section later. 30 minutes later they were still chatting. I saw people saying “excuse me” while trying to get stuff, but it fell on deaf ears. If I had to make a bet, these people leave their shopping cart in the middle of parking spaces rather than put them in the return stalls. I love Costco, but not the shoppers so much.

Speaking of shopping carts, my other beef is with the people who refuse to push their carts by the handles put there for that purpose. Instead, they walk alongside the cart and pulling it with them. They hog the aisle and they’ve run over Lastech and I more than once. This is a Costco constant.

I think really prefer being a hermit

Anyhow, now to the pointy-eared people and the floppy-eared one. They look artsy smartsy this time because I didn’t have a good pic of Pepi, so I got creative. Then I decided to have fun with the others.

That’s it for today. I would love to say it’s a nice day as the weather is good. However, my news feed says otherwise. I really despise Nazi assholes.

July 30, 2017July 30, 2017

Summer: Lazy days and lazy critters

Yes, it’s still hot out and the heat has made us all lazy. I’ll be glad when the season changes and we can turn off the air conditioner and open the door and windows. In the meantime, we live with it. Pepi is snoring. Lastech is snoring. The pointy eared people are lazy and sleeping, but not snoring. I’m not snoring either, but then I’m required to be awake in order to cater to the beasties. I mean, it’s not like they’re spoiled or anything.

On Wednesday, we’ll be celebrating our 8th year smoke free. On August 2nd, 2009 we smoked our last cigarette and never looked back. It wasn’t our first go at quitting, but it was our final one. We don’t miss it.

We didn’t read the whole book, but we read enough. 🙂

Anyhow, back to the lazy critters…

Here’s Titanescu looking anything but lazy. That’s because he just woke up and wanted noms

While at work, Lastech found a busy bird hunting for a meal

Black crowned night heron hunting for fishy noms

That’s it for today. I’m feeling lazy

July 23, 2017July 23, 2017

Kitty cats, goofy mutt, and a sunset

Maybe it’s goofy cats, mutt and a sunset. Meh, they’re all goofy. Even the sunset was pretty, but with clouds going in some pretty goofy directions. I imagine my friend Dennis (aka Weatherdude) could explain them well.

Everything is going well, though it’s a bit too warm to get out as much as we would like. I’m finally really getting the hang of using my Instant Pot and rarely bother with recipes anymore except to get ideas. Last night we had stew, which would normally take hours. It took an hour and that included prep time. Being able to brown the meat and sauté the vegetables in the same pan is wonderful and I have fewer dishes to wash later. 🙂 It’s also insulated well enough that I can cook without adding to the heat in our little trailer. Win win

The pointy eared people have been any goofier than usual except that in this trailer, there is NO SNOOZE BUTTON! That’s right. No snoozing here. My alarm goes off and Tito lands in the middle of my chest and starts bonking madly. He weighs about 20 lbs, so he can’t be ignored. It can be a tad painful at times, but it’s hard to get annoyed with such a happy lovey guy.

About three seconds after getting this pic, Tito woke up and with a loud MEE! and a bunch of chirrups. He wakes up happy

The lovely Miss Jenny ignores the alarm. She doesn’t care and will keep right on sleeping…unless she’s hungry and then she’ll give me a baleful look and try to look sad.

Titanescu doesn’t care about the alarm either unless he’s hungry and then he’s more likely to stick a claw in my eye or nostril.

Part of Tito’s morning exhuberance is because he wants me to get up and let his girlfriend out of her crate. Seriously. It’s part of his routine.

One nice thing about living in the East Bay. We can see the sunsets more often. In the city we had buildings in the way. These are from last night.

In this one you can see that the air currents were taking the clouds in goofy directions

That’s it for this week. This should have been Caturday, but I forgot what day of the week I was on until it was too late. It’s just as well as that sunset was last night. See ya!

July 15, 2017July 15, 2017

Caturday: OMG! We’re finally back

We didn’t exactly go anywhere, but my hard drive (replaced in February) decided to die again. This wasn’t a matter of just slowing down. That’s a memory issue. Nope. This was a I’m-gonna-quit-working-now sort of problem. In fact, the last time I tried to turn on the laptop, I got a message that it was attempting to repair the drive. Ten hours later it was still trying. I decided that whatever killed the first drive was probably what killed the second and so I replaced the entire laptop. Thank goodness for cloud backup.

I mentioned Backblaze after I replaced the hard drive in February. Well, I got to put it to the test. Once I had my new laptop, I downloaded my restoration files. It took me three different unzip apps to get it done right, but I got my most important files back. It’s well worth the $5 a month I pay. If you don’t backup your files to the cloud, you should. Especially if you have photos and whatnot. Ok, nuff said. We’re back and running with gas again.

Now it’s time for the furkids to shine.

Miss Jenny peeping out from under the sheet

We’re always going on about what a tyrant the old guy is with his resting stinkeye and lightning fast paws. Well, you might get the wrong impression when it comes to his size. This is a photo of Titanescu and Miss Jenny. Miss Jenny is a normal sized kitty 10-12 lbs. Titanescu is (as mentioned a while back) 3 lbs of “F&%K YOU”.

We must not forget Pepi either.

And this is just a lounging kitty we found behind the Polish deli/grocery

Kitty was trying to stay cool in the shade. Lastech guided me out of the parking space so that I didn’t hit that one or the others that were there.

While the job isn’t always fun, Lastech never gets tired of the view. Here’s a little vid he made and it’s all pics he took while working.

We plan on being back next week provided we don’t melt first. 🙂