Work And Play; That’s The Way!

Posted on Sunday, August 28, 2022 by Paul

Fact: Months that begin on a Sunday always have a Friday the 13th in them.

Out to the Swim Spa was first on our agenda.  But first, we swung by the wall looking for new varmints caught on the traps.  Alas, the traps were empty so we will make sure they are ready for tonight.

We have proof that there is life on Mars!

We worked in the yard with Mary weeding the vegetables, and I moved cement blocks to get rid of the rats we thought were caught in there!  Scout must have scared them away.  By 10:30 AM, it was hot enough that we stopped and worked inside.  I continued the attack on the closets while Mary cleared off her desk in the office!

We did fine a mess of beans in the garden and they will be in our meal tomorrow!

OMG, I have twenty-four pairs of Haggar dress pants in my size, and about 30% are new still with tags on them!  I must stay away from Amazon after not finding my clothes!

We got ready to go to the Elks for the Jam Session.  Tonight was wonderful, so much so that I didn’t have time to take a picture.  We had a table for thirty, and it overflowed.  We danced until 9:00 PM and returned home to crash.   We did a “rat check,” and the traps were empty; we will recheck tomorrow morning.

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Saturday Was Relaxing

Posted on Saturday, August 27, 2022 by Paul

Fact:  A rat’s teeth grow five inches a year, only maintained by continuous grinding and gnawing to keep from outgrowing the rat’s mouth.

We got an early morning delivery.  We needed more construction materials.  Morning is terrific, and its only drawback is that it comes at such an inconvenient time of day.

I’m sorry for people who don’t drink.  They wake up in the morning; that’s as good as they feel all day.

More blocks are coming!

The backyard has been under construction for so long that we almost forgot where we are headed with this project!

Today we have dirt!

The final result will be similar but slightly larger than the Los Alamitos veggie garden.  We made the paths between the beds wider to accommodate the 90-gallon wheeled trashcans.  We also went to a square look as it is easier to build.  We have water in each bed, complete with a hose and a drip system!

The new garden will have an outdoor stainless-steel sink, a potting bench, and a place for holding the mulch or straw bales.  Lessons learned from the other garden!

In six weeks we will have a garden!

Our property is so big that the new garden only takes up about one-sixth of the backyard and cannot be seen from the house.

It was a great day!

We have been disturbing the local rat population.  Yes, we have some rats because every neighbor has fruit trees.  Scout, The Wonder Dog, has a nose for these little beauties.  We tried to teach him to point to them but to no avail.

Scout was on patrol; he was in charge of rats and mouses!

We went to the hair parlor today.  I got my ear lowered.  Nancy asked me, “Would you like a haircut?” Being a gentleman, I responded.  “No, I’d like them all cut.”

Dr. Mary did the whole shebang.  Mary has come to realize how bad hairdressers are to have as friends.  They are always talking about you behind your back.

So pretty!

We were not hungry, so we decided to go to Aces Bar and Grill and share a house salad with a steak.  It was pretty good, but I could not eat very much.  We hijacked the jukebox and played the 1940s-1960s music that was available.

We met the girl sitting next to us; she was a bartender at a local facility and came to visit Aces.  We told her about Odessey 1908, and she will try it.  She also likes to dance, so Mary sent me over to do a swing dance with her; she was pretty good.

Odyssey 1908; my drink of choice!

We returned home, and Scout had been outside chasing rats; there were;t any, but he had great stories to tell.  Scout asked us, “Where do rats go to replace their tails?  A re-tail store!” We will have to put up with Scout’s joke for the next few weeks.

He was so tired!

Mary made “Shipwreck Dinner” It’s not ‘gourmet,’ but it’s hot, filling, and straightforward.  The prep time is generally limited to how fast your can opener works and how hard it is to unwrap your meat.  The big bonus is that it’s a complete one-pot meal with no chopping unless you want to.

Mary made “Shipwreck Stew.”

After dinner, we watched a movie, and then the two of us went to check on our traps.  Success, we have caught two giant rats so far; more to come!  I drilled the trap and put a substantial piece of wire through the hole, tieing the other end to the fend or wall;  When the trap goes off, the trap generally flies into the air, and now I can retrieve it quickly,

Gotcha!

We finally crashed at about 10:30 PM.  Tomorrow is another busy day.  We are planning for a whole-house fan that will move almost 4,000 CFM per minute, the equivalent of a two-car garage.  Joe suggested upstairs about the stairway as it is far away, and the sound will be negligible.  That location will cool the five bedrooms, family room, and kitchen areas relatively quickly.

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On The Move!

Posted on Friday, August 26, 2022 by Paul

Fact: 60 million cars are produced every year.  That’s 165,000 a day, 6,875 an hour, and 115 a minute.

Alexa went off at 6:00 AM and told us we had to get ready for a doctor’s appointment in Long Beach at 9:00 AM.  We made it over in a hurry and had time to stop by Starbucks and catch a quick breakfast.

The appointment went well, and we are on track to fix the issue!

From there, we went home and sent some data to UCI as I needed a two Tesla scan before the next step.

Did You Know?  As the name suggests, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) wouldn’t exist without the magnet.  Similarly, the magnetic field used by the scanner wouldn’t exist without the magnet.  The magnet field produced by Earth is 0.5 gauss.  The magnet field produced by the magnet in a 1.5T MRI machine is 15,000 gauss, meaning the magnet in a 1.5T scanner is 30,000 times stronger than that produced by the Earth.  The scanner uses this strength to align the hydrogen nuclei and produce the images for a MRI exam.  The scanner uses the magnet to generate a magnetic field, which causes the signal produced by a patient’s body.  The strength of the magnet directly affects the strength of this signal.

We walked into the backyard and did a status check.

The planters are coming along!

We then headed to Laguna to get Mary’s anniversary present.  She wanted a matching item, and we went to a store she has frequented for many years.  We scampered back home to wait for the scheduling call, but it did not happen.

We went to the market and stopped by Jan’s for a glass of vino before returning home for the night.

I got an alarm while at Jan’s, and the security cameras work nicely.

I captured the video, and it was a neighbor returning something!

We crashed, too much driving today!

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Happy Birthday Bob!

Posted on Thursday, August 25, 2022 by Paul

Fact:  It is believed that gift-giving was a primitive caveman culture.  These gifts were not packed in a fancy wrapper, but the gifts were from nature, like tree bark or rock.

Keeping with the caveman tradition, Mary and I gave Bob a box of rocks from our garden!

We went to Girls Night Out after waiving off the insulation folks; they would come too late.

We had a piece of cake brought out and placed a candle on it; we took turns squeezing Bob to get enough air out to put out the flame.

We sang to Bob!

We were in our patriotic best today, and Scout was with us.

Just us!

Yes, folks, it was hat day, and we were all decorated.

Hat day!

We got a text from Gary, and we had some action in the backyard.  We got our first rat; more to come!

We caught a rat in the garden!

The beds should be done by Tuesday, then several days to form in the walkways, and then more cement!  We are getting closer!

We are working hard to get it finished.

We took Bob and Donna to Venada’s Italian Bistro for dinner.  We had a ball teasing each other and talking about upcoming plans.

We ordered another piece of cake for Bob to try to blow out.  I canned the local fire department and told them to be ready.  They drove right over when they heard it was Bob Z.

We had to call the paramedics ahead of time.

I was near Bob to catch him should he pass out again!

We all helped Bob get that pesky flame out.

We are fortunate to have wonderful friends!

A-h-h-h-h-h-h

We brought extra Italian dinners and took them to Jan’s house on our way home.   She is set for at least a week now!

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A Sailing We Will Go!

Posted on Wednesday, August 24, 2022 by Paul

Fact: Duffy boats were invented by Marshall “Duffy” Duffield.  He was a teenager living in Newport Beach, and he took a golf cart battery and a beat-up day boat and created this quiet cruiser in 1970.  These can be seen all over Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, and Long Beach.

When he made his first Duffy boat 50 years ago, as a teenager working in his parents’ Linda Isle garage, he hit an unexpected home run. Today, about 30,000 Duffy boats are in use worldwide, most on the West Coast, with around 4,000 docked in Orange County.

We were looking forward to this afternoon’s adventure, so we diddled around the house while the cleaning folks were here.  A little later, we went to TJ’s to get four cases of wine and do our grocery shopping.  We got all sorts of goodies.

We continued binge-watching “In The Dark” and talked to Colleen.

We got cleaned up and headed to Newport for our adventure; we are sailing on a Duffy Boat around Newport Harbor.  How do you make a boat feel better?  Give it some vitamin sea. 

We are at the dock and ready to go!

Where are we going??

Sailing, Sailing, over the bounding main!

The Captain was ready to go!  I was expecting a nautical uniform, but this was acceptable.  Dan’s legs did scare the birds away!

Captain Dan takes us out into the bay!

Paula kept busy pulling goodies out of the ice bags.  They must have been six feet deep!  We were filling up on cheese, crackers, grapes, and other goodies.

Wine, cheese, and crackers galore!

Mary was glad she brought a cover because the temperature dropped ten degrees once on the water.

It was fantastic on the water!

This home was beautiful and was loaded with flowers; it looked quite Mediterranean!

John Wayne’s home on the bay!

We heard loud stretching sounds and something that sounded like, “Slow down, pull over, we are boarding you!

A birdie pirate boarded us!

Mary, it turns out, speaks fluent Sea Gull and dispatches the little critter within minutes.  He didn’t even get a cracker!

We enjoyed the trip!

It looks like the house is getting a new foundation!

Construction/reconstruction is underway everywhere.

We were careful because watching this building makes dancers break out in a foxtrot within a matter of minutes; we controlled ourselves!

The Pavillion is 120 years old and going strong!

Did You know? The Balboa Pavilion in Newport Beach, Orange County, California, is a California Historical Landmark and a National Historic Place. Established on July 1, 1906, the Balboa Pavilion played a prominent role in the development of Newport Beach by attracting real estate buyers to an area formerly designated as “swamp and overflow” land.

The Balboa Pavilion is one of California’s last surviving waterfront recreational pavilions from the turn of the century. The Pavilion continues to serve the public today as a marine recreational facility and is Newport Beach’s most famous landmark, as well as its oldest standing building.

The names on the boats were quite interesting, some were very funny, and some were a tad on the odd side.

I love the names on the boats!

Did You Know?  USS YMS-328 is a decommissioned US Navy YMS-1-class (YMS-135 subclass) Yard Mine Sweeper (YMS), built in Ballard, Washington, at Ballard Marine & Railway in Ballard, Washington (Seattle).  She was classified as a Mark II design, and her hull is constructed entirely out of 3″ vertical grain Douglas fir.  Sister ships include Jacques Cousteau’s RV Calypso.  After serving in the Navy in World War II, the boat was converted to a private yacht.

YMS-328 was delivered on 26 May 1943.  She served in the Aleutian Islands during World War II, sweeping enemy minefields at Attu and US minefields at Kiska and patrolling out of Adak.

She was en route to Dutch Harbor to be fitted for the invasion of Paramishiru Island in Japan when Japan surrendered.  YMS-328 returned to Bremerton, Washington.

She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in 1946.

In 1962, she was bought by John Wayne and underwent a significant renovation.  Wayne changed her name to Wild Goose.  He kept the ship for the last 17 years of his life.  He entertained a who’s who of the time, including Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.

She is owned by Hornblower Cruises and serves as a dinner-cruise boat in the harbor.

John Wayne’s converter mine sweeper is still in use today.

After the cruise, we went to dinner at The Winery.  We were early birds, so the restaurant was exceptionally quiet.  We ran into some dance friends, Marianne and Craig, and visited for a few minutes,

We had a front-row table overlooking the bay!

Mary enjoyed the New Zealand Venison.  I asked Mary, “Who puts money under the deer’s pillow?” Everyone at the table was puzzled, so I blurted out, “The hoof fairy.”

The game this evening wasNew Zealand Venison.

The 12 Oz steak was quite remarkable; very tender and done perfectly.

I settled for a simple steak!

Our dinner partners had a good time as Paul harassed the wait staff unmercifully all night long.  Sky, our waiter, was sharp as a tack firing back immediately with an excellent response; I may have met my match!

____ and Dan; it was a delightful dinner.

We are having a wonderful time sharing stories of yesteryear!

We headed home and did an hour in the Swin Spa before crashing.

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Not Too Hot Today; Only 85!

Posted on Tuesday, August 23, 2022 by Paul

Fact:  Anteaters have no teeth.

Today was hardly describable as we pretty much piddled around the house.  He heard we were going to do some gardening, so Scout brought us a picture he took of himself recently.

Scout said, “I am an Aussieflower!”

Scout, the Wonder Dog, was taken for the morning one-mile walk, which we do in 0.8 miles!  Daughter Colleen is making us look bad as she walks five miles daily.

After the last few days of activities, I hit the garage and got it back in order.  It looks like a shop again instead of a storage bench for stuff.

I must go through and reorganize the drawers!

Mary weeded the pots along the west wall and used her new two-wheeled carry-all; it is light and convenient.  I may get a bicycle horn for it!

“Work!  I thought I retired!”

I had to clean out our green tomato plant because it just up and died.  We have no reason, but it just turned brown and wilted away in a matter of three days!

We have no clues about what happened!

I did ask Mary, “Why couldn’t the budding gardener grow anything?” She scratched her head and replied, “Because he hadn’t botany plants!”

Then, Mary asked me, “Why do gardeners plant bulbs?” I do not scratch my head for fear the one hair I have left might get damaged.  I gave up, so Mary replied, “So the worms can see where they’re going.”

I cleaned out our green tomato bush!

We watched “In The Dark” in the afternoon and then got ready for the gym at 4:00 PM.  We stopped by Jan’s to bring her some goodies and visit for a while.

Summary: An irreverent blind woman in her twenties, Murphy, drifts through life in a drunken haze.  She has only two friends—Jess, her understanding roommate, and Tyson, a teenage drug dealer who saved her from a violent mugging.  Out for a walk with her guide dog, Pretzel, she stumbles upon a corpse that must be Tyson’s, but it disappears before the police arrive.  When they do not seem inclined to investigate, Murphy clings to the only thing that can keep her together: figuring out what happened to her friend.  She resolves to solve the murder herself while also managing her colorful dating life and the job she hates at “Guiding Hope,” a school run by her parents for training guide dogs.

 

During the visit, we called and sang happy birthday to Leon Brander and also called Mike Andersen to see how his procedure went.

We returned home and went back to “In The Dark” until 10:15 PM, when we hit the sack.

We will dine with Bob and Donna on Thursday as Bob is turning ancient!

Birthday celebration tomorrow!

We are going Duffy Boating in Newport on Wednesday with Mary’s financial advisor.  It sounds like fun!  I must remember to drink a lot because alcohol floats!

 

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We Is Insulated!

Posted on Monday, August 22, 2022 by Paul

Fact: Whoops!  Fiberglass was invented when a young researcher named Dale Kleist attempted to create a vacuum-tight seal between two pieces of glass, and a high-pressure jet of air shot through and turned them into fibers.

The vegetable garden is on hold; a dog bit our contractor!  No kidding, Gary texted this AM with the report a Boxer got him in the ankle, and it got infected.  Gary is OOC for three days!  Damn, just when progress was being made!

The insulation folks showed up at 8:30 AM, right on time.  Mary assisted me in removing about 200 feet of unused cable (old TV twin-lead, old alarm system cables, and old telephone cables.  She kept me from having to go in and out of the attic many times!  She also got an assortment of tools I needed, including steel wire.

Dang!  She is amazing!

The crew showed up and worked a few more hours prepping the attic; they placed boxes over the lamps to ensure they would not overheat.  The job was nicely done; Home Depot, you are our hero!

The can lights were spaced appropriately so the insulation would not cause overheating.

Mid-morning, we got a text from the kids; they were boarding their ship to Alaska!  We miss them and plan to call Nick to see if we can take him out while they are gone.

Did you hear about the red cruise ship and the blue cruise ship that crashed into each other at sea?  All the survivors were marooned.

The kids are in Alaska; we miss them!

Around 1:00 PM, it got quiet, but we saw the big hose moving; the insulation was blown in, and it was done quietly almost dead silence!  I can feel the house get cooler already!

A sea of blown-in insulation.

Thanks to Joe, the verticle walls are well insulated!  The heat in the attic is drawn out because of the fans Joe installed last year.  He is so cool!

24″ think gives us an R-38 rating.

Mary and Robin are planning a Tea Party with family and friends at the Elks, and the theme is “Space.”  Mary went all out, and today her helmet arrived!  She is soo spacey!

Mary is out of this world!!

We skipped dinner and headed for the patio to enjoy a lovely evening without all the heat!  We crashed at 9:00 PM.

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Joe To The Rescue!

Posted on Sunday, August 21, 2022 by Paul

Fact: Plants really do respond to sound.  Talking to plants to help them grow is a well-known old wives’ tale, but studies have shown vibration (like music, or perhaps even the sweet sound of your voice) can affect plant growth.  Plus, the Myth Busters (in an admittedly not-so-scientific study) compared a silent greenhouse to one where they piped in a voice soundtrack and found that plants in the latter grew more.

Today we rest; I think not.  Joe called at 7:00 AM and was on his way over so we could insulate about 300 square feet of verticle wall inside the attic, the two ends, and one of the cathedral ceiling walls.  We went to Home Depot, got the insulation, and then went into the nice cool attic.

I tried to help, but at 78 years of age, the old body’s “get-up-and-go” has “gone-up-and-went.”   Mary called Tom, our handyman, and he came over to help Joe.   I now recognize that I can’t do everything I used to; it was a rough feeling.  Thank you, Joe, for being me!

Scout, The Wonder Dog, has located a mouse somewhere inside the blocks, and he is going nuts trying to get the mouse.  Joe had to get Scout, and they played tag for ten minutes.  I pulled out the video camera and got the “tail-end” of the chase; I was laughing so hard I thought the camera would hit the ground!

Joe has to stop and rest for a few minutes after the game of tag!

Upstair and inside, Joe had to walk in the attic about eighty feet, almost the length of the house, to get to the work area.  After a little bit, he decided to cut the insulation in the ballroom; an excellent idea.

He called us on the phone and relayed the measurements of sixteen wall areas.  He mentioned that we did NOT have enough materials, so I went to Home Depo again for three more rolls.

That is a challenging way to get exercise!

Mary felt terrible about my feeling bad, so she told me what she thinks old age will be like in about another 25 years!

Meanwhile, in the ballroom, Joe and I were cutting insulation; I read the numbers, and Joe was the cutup!

I was attempting to read my writing.

“dad, we are going to run out of insulation.  You need to go to Home Depot again!

Joe marked it up!

Quite a team; Joe carries the piano, and I carry the bench!

Precision slices are found right here.

It was time for dinner, and Mary hit the kitchen running!  Everything except the steak came from our little garden; wait until next year!

Lunch was served.

After dinner, we rounded up some left-overs and took them to Jan’s house, where we visited for an hour or so.  We talked to Mike Andersen and Hans & Kerstin; keeping in touch via phone still works.

Arriving home, it was time for the Swim Spa, so we took our iced tea plastic glasses and headed to the backyard (via the back bathroom door, the spa is six feet away).

By the time we soaked for an hour, we were done for the day.  Night Night!

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Everywhich Way But Loose!

Posted on Saturday, August 20, 2022 by Paul

Fact:  According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, ENERGY STAR HOMES, insulation saves over 600 times more energy each year than all of the compact fluorescent lights (CFLs), Energy Star Appliances, and Energy Star windows combined.

Mary and I were early risers, knowing that we needed to clear the entrance to the attic for the troops arriving at 8:00 AM.  We took a ganf=der at the construction area in the south forty; it looks like Hoover Damn is being rebuilt.

A view from the Ballroom!

People to the left; people to the right; OMG, it is like a Chinese* fire drill around here.  At 8:00 AM, Tom came over to assist me in removing unused wires in the attic.  At 8:30 AM, the guys came in and began cleaning the attic stacking huge bags of stuff in the driveway.  By noon, they were ready to vacuum the entire attic!

* A politically incorrect term for chaos.  The phrase supposedly originated in the early 1900s.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Carlos and his crew filled up another 10-yard dumpster with “bad dirt,” meaning clay and rocks.  At 11:00 AM, that load was hauled off, and another dumpster showed up!  We are likely changing the gravitational field with the movement of all this dirt!

The trucks arrive with a cast of thousands!

First things first, protect the house from all the dust!  They did a good job covering everything up and watching the surroundings.

The work area was sealed up!

It looks like a science fiction movie set complete with hazmat uniforms.

Dustless; it is like a maze in the house.

They brought out bags of old materials.  The bags were probably 80-100 gallons each and made of a tough material, not plastic!

About 1/3 of the bags were brought out of the attic.

We had to eat as we had been busy coordinating all the activities.  Mary whipped up some gruel and fruit salad; I feel healthier already!

Lunch was terrific and healthy too!

Meanwhile, in the backyard, Carlos and the crew were removing the rocks and bad stuff from the beds; it looked fantastic.

The property is on an old river bed and we do see a lot of rocks, which is a good thing.  Our gound will move and not be rigid and snap during and earthquake.

The rocks are gone!!

Meanwhile, inside, the attic is spotless, almost like brand new except for the wiring!  Now all I have to do is put some verticle batting up on the outside walls, a task I will reserve for midnight when the attic is cool!

Sunday morning I am going up and take care of some minor issues.  I plan to be at Home Depot early and hit the attic before it gets too hot.

The attic was clean as a whistle!

The first bed is now empty and ready to receive real dirt!!

Old dirt is gone; we will be ready to fill when the waterproofing is applied!

At the end of the day, we were both beaten by all the activities.  Mary made dinner, and I policed up the yard.  We are ready for Sunday to arrive and perhaps some peace!

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The Weekend Is Here And We Are Dancing Tonight!

Posted on Friday, August 19, 2022 by Paul

Fact:  First archeological proof of dance comes from India’s nine thousand-year-old cave paintings.

Mary’s daughter lost her doggy last night, and it was pretty devastating since it was her first pet loss other own.  Champ was her baby.  We found “The Rainbow Bridge” poem, and Mary sent Becky a card with the poem enclosed.  I remember losing our six Chihuahuas many years ago; it was pretty traumatic, with the oldest being almost eighteen.

Life must go on, and we now face the challenges of the day.

The day started rolling with four helpers loading the first of three 20-yard containers!  We had four wheelbarrows going at once; the guys did an excellent job!!

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The Day Went So Fast! Bed #3 Is Almost Done!

Posted on Thursday, August 18, 2022 by Paul

Fact: Agatha Christie Has Sold Over 2 BILLION Books!  The Queen of Crime was famous for her murder mysteries and characters like Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.  She’s one of the most popular authors ever, having sold an estimated 2 billion books in over 100 languages.  Decades after her death, she’s still the most successful fiction author of all time.  The whole world loves a good whodunnit!

Alexa provided a little relief today; when we asked about the weather, she said, “the high will only be 90 today!”  She was somewhat correct as there was a bit of fog in the air, and it was in the high 60s when we got up.

It was so hot the other day that even the mosquitoes were dropping like flies.

We heard noises from the front of the house, and low and behold, the 10-yard dumpster #1 was being delivered.  Ten yards is 270 cubic feet, and we will fill at least two of them by Saturday afternoon.

Da truck!  Da truck!

The first to go will be the old grass and “topsoil,” which was pretty worthless.  That will just about fill one full bin; tomorrow, we get another 10-yard bin (270 cubic feet)

Goodbye, old sod!

The diesel cranked up and the bin raised into the sky, looking like a rocket launcher!  Looked like O’Slamma Bin Launchin’ was about to attack!

A tandem delivery; we got only one!

We had to keep a video of this process.  Think about it; 10 cubic yards of dirt weigh 22,000 pounds or 11 tons.  That means 110 wheelbarrow trips from the backyard to the front for approximately one-half of the dirt that has to be removed!

Ed came over just after the truck departed.  He worked on the upstairs air conditioner.  Incredible as it seems, a $13.75 part called a capacitor returned the air conditioner to work.  After about 45 minutes, the upstairs was at a cool 75 degrees; we had to turn it down!  Thank you, Ed!!!

Off to Girls Night Out at the Santa Ana Elks Lodge, where we enjoyed the company of many interesting characters; this is also where we coordinate the weekend activities amongst our friends.

Thursday, and it was GNO; Girls Night Out!

The ladies wear hats, and even some of the gentlemen dawn magnificent chapeaus.  Linda had on a beauty this afternoon.   The see-through mesh/lace was perfect.

What do you call a dinosaur that wears a cowboy hat and boots? Tyrannosaurus Tex.

Hello Linda, I love the hat!

We got a text from Colleen, which we passed around to everyone.  She is going to a concert this evening and is wearing the new cowboy hat she got at the fair.  We reminded her, “You know horses are smarter than people, and you never heard of a horse going broke betting on people.”

We had many comments from our friends about the nice notes she sent them, all thanking them for making her stay in California so enjoyable.  Colleen does not mind hanging around us older folks; she learns a lot just listening to the tales of yesteryear, especially when George talks about his battles with the dinosaurs when walking to school from his cave.

Cowgirl Colleen gets ready for her concert!

Note to self: Send more iron-on patches to the poor girl!!

Progress, we gots progress.  The beds are starting to take shape.  Now I need to do some math because the bed does not have to be filled with “good dirt” clear to the bottom based upon the following:

24-30″ of composted dirt should be sufficient!

Each block is 8″ tall, so we will need about 3 yards of soil conditioner per bed, and there are five beds.

Coming along.  This was taken in the morning, around 6:30 AM

After a day’s work, the second bed is forming nicely.  Now I have to either remove the dirt or buy a few yards of compost/soil amendment.  I will try amending the soil in bed #1 and see what happens.  A lot of digging will be in my future; heart, don’t fail me now!

We might take a Master Gardners Course if they offer it on any day but Thursday!

At the end of the day, we enter the construction area and proposed a toast!

We toast the progress!

We popped over to Jan’s, brought some muffins, and joined her in a glass of vino before returning home.  We were pooped, so no swim spa tonight; we crashed after Mary made a wonderful fruit salad for dinner.  I assisted with dinner and told Mary, “No fig deal, I got this!”

I did remind Mary, Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad!

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Hump Day And We Were Busy!

Posted on Wednesday, August 17, 2022 by Paul

Fact:  The bookworms will appreciate this fun fact: Isaac Asimov is the only author to write a book in every Dewey-decimal category.

6:00 AM and Gary is on the job because it will be 90+ degrees today so getting on the job early is a good thing.

He was our alarm clock today because it is Wednesday, meaning we have to get up early and clean the house before the house cleaners arrive, duh!!

Progress check:  The walls are coming along nicely.

The beds are starting to take shape!

Scout is sniffing for a varmint in the same stones from yesterday!  He is convinced it is still inside the blocks, although we saw them exit the blocks and run next door yesterday!  Once upon a time, a friend of mine wanted to start collecting dogs. I gave him a couple of pointers.

Yesterday at Home Depot, when we bought wheelbarrow #2, a lovely lady stopped us and asked if we needed insulation; we replied, “Hell yes!!” We wanted the insulation replaced, but contractors are unreliable.  With Home Depot behind this company, they have to be good.

So the nice man stopped by this morning, and starting Tuesday of next week, the old R-15 insulation dating back 40 years will be replaced with R-38.  It’s a two-day process, but it will make a significant difference in cooling the home.  Insulation is identified and labeled by R-value, and “R” stands for resistance to heat flow.  The higher the insulation R-value, the greater the insulating power.

Our current insulation is a compacted R-21, which is about an R-10.

After the salesman departed, it was time for the cleaning folks to leave; we were by ourselves again!  Mary asked how we would cook the beans, so I went to my trusted source, YouTube!  I wonder if I could explain to my father what a YouTube was; they have everything!!

What vegetable comes from outer space? Green beings!  I could not resist!

We are going to cook up the brown string beans.

We had two good videos to select from.  Mary watched them and knew what she wanted to do!  I told Mary, “It takes 3.14 pastry chefs to make a pie.” I have no idea why!

They were loaded with aphids, but a stream of water cured that issue quickly!

We cut up an onion, a tomato, some garlic, and finally some bell pepper and sauteed them in a pan.  The beans were cut into bite-size portions.  After adding the beans, we cooked them for ten minutes with the lid on the pan.  The results were terrific!

Mary plated them with some leftover stuffed zucchini; it was not only pretty, but it tasted amazing.

We almost ate every bite but decided to take some to Jan for her assessment.

It was hot outside, so we took a short nap.  Mary took off to an appointment at 3:00 PM, returning at 5:30 PM.  While she was gone, I straightened up the office, which looks presentable now!

Jan called looking for company, so we popped over and brought her goodies.  We killed off a bottle of wine with her and discussed the current events.

There was a nice warm breeze when we got home.

Upon returning home, I dragged out my air compressor and cleaned out the condenser unit, which is now spotless.  Ed is coming over tomorrow to replace the starting/running capacitor.

I had to scold Mary for leaving the air conditioning on for the night.  We had a very heated argument.

We crashed early, telling each other we would watch a movie.  Duh, we were both out like a light.

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Tuesday Is Upon Us!

Posted on Tuesday, August 16, 2022 by Paul

Fact: There is a Village Called Dull.  Dull is in Perthshire, Scotland, and to be honest, it does sound quite, er, dull.  There’s only one street of houses and a church!  Slightly less dull is the fact that it’s twinned with Boring, USA, and Bland Australia.  At least they have a sense of humor about it!

The neighborhood roosters called the cops on us for waking them up early with all the splish-splashing we were doing in the swim spa.  That was a fine way to start the day.  When the cops showed up with the complaint, we explained what happened, and they departed in the direction of the hen house.  The pesky roosters may end up as fried chicken!

I was in hot water before 6:00 AM this morning.

We took Scout The Wonder Dog for a walk doing about 0.75 miles.  We dropped him off and did another 0.5 miles around the neighborhood.

We worked in the garden for a good hour, with Mary deadheading the flowers and me doing some strategic watering and cleaning up the workbench; it was loaded with the results of several projects I did over the last week.

When I was a kid, I used to make loads of money clearing leaves from gardens.  I was raking it in!

We decided we needed another wheelbarrow for the guys to move the dirt this Friday, so off to Home Depot with the van we went.

Two wheels is perfect for us!

Did You Know?  According to the history book The Records of the Three Kingdoms, by the ancient historian Chen Shou, the single-wheeled cart today known as a wheelbarrow was invented by the prime minister of Shu Han, Zhuge Liang, in 231 A.D. Liang called his device a “wooden ox.” The handles of the cart faced forward (so that it was pulled), and it was used to carry men and material in battle.

But the archaeological record bears out devices older than the “wooden ox” in China.  (By contrast, the wheelbarrow seems to arrive in Europe sometime between 1170 and 1250 A.D.) Paintings of men using wheelbarrows were found in tombs in Sichuan, China, that dated to 118 A.D.

It was on sale, so we decided that was what we needed; the two wheels make it a) easy to roll and b) easy to balance.  Plus, the wheels are solid, which means no flats!!

Now we have three wheelbarrows, but one is smaller for Mary to use in the garden.!

While working in the yard, Mary found the long brown beans called Red Noodle Yard Long Beans.

Did You Know?  Red Noodle Yard Long Bean Beans.  Non-GMO Warm-Season Annual Heirloom.  Red Noodle beans have an unusual purple-red color and are a well-known variety in southern China.  The bean pods can grow up to 22″ long, do not have strings, and the plant has gorgeous purple-blue flowers.  The bean pod loses its red color when cooked.  This vigorous plant is heat tolerant and perfect for warm climates.  In the Americas, these are mainly grown for their famous black-eyed peas.

We will cook these up tomorrow and see what we get; we thoughts they were green beans!

We are going to cook up the brown string beans.

At 3:00 PM, we departed and did a fly-by at Dianne’s, providing her some tomato pie and other goodies, which she is recuperating from her lousy cold while in Oregon.

We also had some pie for Bob Z. We called him at 4:00 PM and said we were dropping it by, plus taking him to dinner since Donna was working until 7:30 PM this evening.   Bob thought that was a great idea.

The trouble with eating Italian food is that five or six days later, you’re hungry again.

Delicious dining!

Returning home, I looked at the progress being made, which was considerable.  We are attempting to establish the height of the walls, so tomorrow, we will sit Dr. Mary down and see what the correct height is.

Progress is slow but sure.

The stacks gets smaller every day.

Fewer blocks every day.

After dark, we went to the hot tub (swim spa) to soak out our pains and then sat by the firepit for a lengthy conversation about everything under the sun.

Back into the spa before bed.

The fire was terrific; we felt like two moths drawn to the light!  Fortunately, we did not get burnt.

We ALWAYS follow the rules.

I was roasting the tootsies.

We crashed soon after that, but we read for a while.  We now have matching readers and read the same things.

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Getting Down To Work

Posted on Monday, August 15, 2022 by Paul

Fact: Science has a number of different ways of defining time. To cover just a couple: There’s astronomical time, which is measured in relation to how long it takes Earth to rotate on its axis. In astronomical time, a second is 1/60th of a minute. And then there’s atomic time, which dictates the numbers that you’ll see on a clock. According to atomic time, one second equals 9,192,631,770 oscillations of a cesium-133 atom. Measuring the vibration of an atom—which, in simple terms, is the gist of what oscillation is—is the most accurate way to track time.

We had errands lined up starting with retrieving my old Canon 60D from the service department at Canon.  It was dirty and needed a cleaning.  I think I see a new Canon 90D in the near future.

Then we went to the movies to see if I had left my sunglasses there last week; no luck!!

Then off to the market to get some goodies we needed for dinner and finally, we stopped on the way home to visit Jan.  She was missing us.

We took Precious out for a run today!

Returning home we got lazy and watched a couple of movies before crashing.  The new roll-around cart with the 60″ TV is perfect for the kitchen and breakfast room.

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Laid Back Until 4:33 PM!

Posted on Sunday, August 14, 2022 by Paul

Fact: Every person on Earth is living in the past.  This may sound like the plot of some sci-fi, time-travel thriller, but it’s actually a fact of human biology and the trickiness of time.  Our brains don’t perceive events until about 80 milliseconds after they’ve happened.  This fine line between the present and the past is partly why some physicists argue that there’s no such thing as “now” and that the present moment is no more than an illusion.

We were slugs today!  We did get up early, which resulted in us going into the swim spa and having our morning coffee.   After soaking for almost an hour, we walked the garden making mental lists of “to-do’s.”  Dang, we have a lot of stuff to do!

I was pleasantly surprised when I got a text for Bran and Susie-Q (Justus), and they will be doing the Celebration of Life for Sue next month.  They were one of Sue’s favorites, plus they are terrific individuals.

I like birthdays, but I think too many can kill you.

Quite a cake!

Time to dance, and the girls hit the floor first!  You know you’re getting old when you have more candles on your cake than friends at your birthday party.

The birthday crowd was missing Jerry, who was home with his wife, who contracted COVID.

The birthday kids!

We returned home and crashed!

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We Awaited The Arrival!

Posted on Saturday, August 13, 2022 by Paul

Fact: Dentistry goes all way back to when humans first had teeth…well not quite that long. However, one study found evidence of teeth being drilled in skulls that dates from 7,500 to 9,000 years ago. The holes were likely made using a prehistoric bow-drill. Could that be the work of the first dentist? Other biting research conducted by the University of Bologna, Italy on a 14,000-year-old skull found that “one rotten tooth in the jaw had been deliberately scoured and scraped with a tool,” according to the BBC. That makes dentistry one of the oldest recorded professions and is definitely a reason to smile.

The sun was still struggling to get up above the horizon when we were outside having our morning coffee.  8:00 PM was the target time.  He made it just under the wire.

Ten yards coming your way!

The pumper truck was really busy today as it had to move 10 yards of cement from the street clear to the back of the property which is a little over 200 feet. You could tell the pump was struggling to get it back there.

The pumper had almost 200 feet to reach the garden.

It took longer to make the connections with the hose and run the hose clear to the back than it did to actually for the concrete. Those parts filled the entire back of a pick up truck.

Lots of hose!

It looks like a chick attic snake and I know that Scout, The Wonder Dog, was a little worried about it.

I mean a lot of hose.

You’re comes the mud; Gary and his measuring stick right in front of where the concrete came out of the hose so we didn’t have to do much moving of the mud around once it was in the ground.

The concrete pours out smoothly.

Mary to the rescue! I wondered where she was and about 20 minutes later she came out with a big plate of blueberry muffins and I mean blueberry. She took all of the blueberries that we had in the fridge into them in the batter and it was really juicy

Mary baked muffins for the guys.

It took just about an hour to do the poor in all of the beds. This is the first pour and it is setting the foundation for the walls to go around the various beds. Next week we start laying the brick for the beds which will be roughly 22 inches tall, just right for us to sit down and do our gardening.

The mud was poured in an hour.

It was already in the 80s when the truck started pumping the concrete out so we had to work fast to make sure it didn’t totally set up before we leave the first course of brick.

We had to work hard before it set up!

I went inside the house and got my trusty drone and flew it over the property now you can start to see where the beds are. There are five beds each of which are 25 feet long and most of them are four feet wide. The bed at the bottom right is 7 feet wide because that’s where we’ll grow our corn and melons next year.

The next pour will be the concrete between the beds and the two walkways at the top in the bottom of the garden. We expect that to occur in about 3 1/2 weeks.

Our drone took pictures of the hard from about 150 feet up.

I love the construction work it’s time to have fun. Bob and Robin came by the house at around 4:00 o’clock and we headed to the Santa Ana Elks for their 120th birthday party. We got dressed up in costumes.

Fun was had by all!

To the Elks and a visit to Hawaii!

We have a good time together and tonight.

Just us.

We could not get by without doing the Robin pose.

The required pose!

Robin & Bob didn’t have to drive tonight because I acted as a chauffeur so he may have had maybe one little Drinky poo too much.

DO NOT ASK!!!

I did have a drink!

The alley was set up on the stage and Bob bowled two strikes back to back!

Bob does the pineapple bowling activity

The prize you ask, it was a 45 gallon jug of red wine.

Bob won the pineapple bowling activity.

I think the ladies may have been ashamed of Bob and I for what we did. But I can’t really recollect what it was, it must’ve been bad.

Did we make the girls ashamed of us?

We headed for home after 10 PM and ran into two hoochy-koochy girls in the parking lot.

I hope Mary and Robin didn’t see us!!

It was a good night and the food was not too bad considering every serving 170 people in a short period of time. The music was great, and we danced and danced and danced until the wee hours or 10 PM, whatever comes first.

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Great Fun

Posted on Friday, August 12, 2022 by Paul

Fact: Neil Diamond is best known for his iconic song, “Sweet Caroline”, (you’ve definitely heard it at the Drive stadium), along with hits such as “I Am… I Said”, “Song Sung Blue”, “Cracklin’ Rosie”, and of course, “Cherry, Cherry”.

Yeah yeah, concrete comes tomorrow.  I watered the dirt so the concrete will not be affected by the dirt.

Everything is ready to go!

The next project was to replace the 3/4″ casters on the mobile TV stand with 2″ casters so they will roll over the rugs easier.  We have a hardwood floor but the baby, Scout, does not like walking on it very much.

Rolls like a champ now!

We got all gussied up and headed to the Neil Diamond show at the Santa Ana Elks.

Vicky joined us along with Robin, Bob, and Donna.  We had a great time.

Soling the problems of the world.

Yes, Dr. MAry and Donna hit the floor and wiggled all night long to the music of the 1970s.

Bob and I got up and danced to this kind of dancing because the music was so good.  The next morning I knew I had overdone it; my knees were sore.

We had great seats right up front.

The show lasted two hours and by 10:00 PM we were both tired.  Robin came home with us and stayed overnight.

The moon was bright as we pulled into the driveway.

It was a full moon!

I love this quote from my favorite guy.  Tom Sowell is A-Number-One in my book!

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Girls Night Out!

Posted on Thursday, August 11, 2022 by Paul

Fact: One of President John Tyler’s grandsons is still alive today—and he was born in 1790.  How is this possible?  President Tyler, the 10th US president, was 63 when his son Lyon Tyler was born in 1853; Lyon’s son was born when he was 75.  President Tyler’s living grandson, Harrison Tyler, is 93.  Lyon’s other son Lyon Jr. passed away in 2020 at the age of 95.  The Tyler family still maintains the President’s home, Sherwood Forest Plantation, in Virginia.

First, I got the newspaper and checked the obituaries, and I was not in it today.  That’s a beautiful way to start the day.  We looked at the calendar, and no doctor’s appointments, another plus for this fine day.

However, we did have to heat south at 7:30 AM because we had an appointment at the gym.  I go running when I have to – like when the ice cream truck is turning 60, or I need a lift to the bakery.  Ah, Exercise: The joy of flex.

We finished our self-mutilation in about 55 minutes and walked out with our tongues dragging the ground.  We had to get some gift cards from Starbucks, but Mary was out like a light when we arrived there.

When we arrived home, Ed and Betty stopped by, and Ed took a look at my upstairs air conditioner.  We decided it was probably the running capacitor, but we had no way of checking it here.  Ed took it to the running capacitor hospital!

Now down to serious business, Girl Night Out at the Elks.  Someone took a movie of our antics.

Upon getting home, Mary got the cooking itch again, and off we went.  We cooked until 9:00 PM.

Neil Diamond will be here tomorrow evening, and we have a table for ten set up!

Yes, we are going!

Bob came in on the Honda with wheels burning rubber and bugs in his teeth!  He looked better; the butterflies gave him that “ridden look.”

Bob took the training wheels off before the picture was taken.

Mary hit the kitchen again, doing a stir-fry with meatballs.  The yellow is from the yellow squash, which was delicious and pretty.  Squash are classified as either summer or winter varieties, depending on when they are harvested.

Summer squashes!

Summer squashes are harvested when immature while the rind is still tender and edible.

Yummy!

Spicy meatballs to go with the squash; can’t beat that!  Why did the meatballs tell the spaghetti to go to sleep?  It was pasta bedtime.

Oh boy!

Mary plated everything up while I got the vino ready.  We watched a movie called The Age Of Adaline.  A young woman, born at the turn of the 20th century, is rendered ageless after an accident.  After many solitary years, she meets a man who complicates the eternal life she has settled into.

Time to dine!

We watched “Montford: The Chickasaw Rancher” during dinner; it was an excellent movie.  A remarkable story inspired by the life of renowned Chickasaw cattleman Montford T. Johnson, a man who overcame incredible hardships to establish a ranching empire along the famous cattle highway of the American West, the Chisolm Trail.

By the time dinner was over, we had decided to crash.  It’s going to be a busy weekend.

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Hump Day! We Are Off And Running!

Posted on Wednesday, August 10, 2022 by Paul

Fact: Just over 96% of the total amount of the world’s water is held in its oceans, according to Water in Crisis: A Guide to the World’s Fresh Water Resources via the United States Geological Survey (USGS). However, that’s primarily saltwater. To find the bulk of the world’s freshwater, you need to trek to the poles, as 68.7% of it is encased in ice caps, permanent snow, and glaciers

I could not resist poking fun at another of Biden’s brilliant appointees.   How can one man surround himself with such a collection of poor choices?  Oh Well!!

The perfect idiot!

We were up again at 5:00 AM and headed to the Los Alamitos hospital for the pulmonary test; this time, the machine worked.  It was done in the radiation department for a reason I do not understand!  The technician was outstanding.

I was locked up!

There were eight tests, two of which were repeated after eight minutes of breathing activity. Spirometry is one of the most common pulmonary function tests. Spirometry measures how much air you can breathe in and out. It also measures how fast you can empty the air out of your lungs.  Spirometry helps diagnose breathing problems such as asthma and COPD.

Then I did a body plethysmography test, which measures how much air is in your lungs when you inhale. It also checks how much air stays in your lungs after you breathe out as much as you can.

That was followed by a lung diffusion capacity test measures how well oxygen moves from your lungs into your blood. This test is similar to spirometry. You breathe into a tube attached to a machine. The test can help diagnose a disease of the blood vessels between your heart and lungs, and it can show the amount of damage done by a disease such as emphysema, a disease in which your air sacs are gradually destroyed.

After four BM’s this morning, I nearly melted the plastic hoses.  Oh, BM means Bloody Mary!

I blew a 1.2!

On the way home, we stopped at a place two blocks from our home to look at dirt.  We can buy 20 yards of soil mix for about $1,200.  We figured another $500 for amendment and we are good to go. The people were very helpful.

We know where to get dirt!!

The day was HOT!  Being fairly smart, we had a little lunch at home and headed to the movie theater.  We left the air conditioning on so that Scout The Wonder Dog and our house cleaners would be OK.

It is four miles from our home.

We arrived at the theater and made our way to screen #9 with our little pile of concessions; M&M’s and a hot dog for daddy!  We saw “Elvis,” which was a story of how Colonel Phillips bamboozled Elvis for many, many years. The movie was quite good and told the real story.  Tom Hanks did a magnificent job.

The show was not out until almost 6:00 PM so we went to Donna and Bob’s for the Starlighters Board Meeting, where we spent two hours planning for the next few dances.

While taking a picture, my cameras revealed what I looked like two years ago!  I was a fizzy little bugger back then.

Two years ago !

Donna came in the middle of the dates and dance-type discussions.  She volunteered to figure it our; we are in trouble now.

Don’t ask!

We finally had to give the job to the adult meeting supervisor, Vicky!   We finally have a not-so-firm idea of what we might be doing, maybe.

Figuring out the dance types (formal, semi-formal, or casual)

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Just Plain Busy!

Posted on Tuesday, August 9, 2022 by Paul

Fact: Few odors are as pleasing as “new car smell”—and not just because it’s nice to be in a brand new car.  But while the scent may be strangely satisfying, the fact is that it’s pretty much just a combination of 50+ chemicals (known as “volatile organic compounds”) that are released into the car, decaying quickly over time.  The concentrations found in a typical new vehicle aren’t dangerous, but among the VOCs that make up much of that new car, smell are those found in nail polish, auto fuel, and petroleum.

The day began with us checking out the drip system as two of the pots seemed dry.  After I removed the 1/2″ line and blew into it, the water flowed freely.  I added a sprayer to the end instead of the dripper.  The water covered more area, and the plant was happy.

Tom, our handyman, dropped by and did several small jobs.  We left him at our house while we did a quick errand.

Tom to the rescue!

We covered all the chairs from the Saturday swim party and got the remaining water toys inside their little house.  It was off to Home Depot to get a new pot, a screen door, and some other goodies.  We decided to call a screen door installer and have them do the job.

I got a new faucet for my bathroom as the one that came with the house was slipping.  We got an excellent Braun system that will last for years, and Tom installed it for us; he hates plumbing also.

Then the outside temperature was 90 degrees, so on came the air conditioning, and we stayed inside the comfortable 76-degree house until it was time to go to the gym.

I showed Mary a recipe from Facebook, and she had to try it.  The recipe called for hollowing out cabbage and placing meatballs inside with a sauce.  The cabbage goes into the oven for 90 minutes at 400 degrees!  I did have to ask her, “What do you call Chinese cabbage that composes music?  Bach Choy.”

We had extra meatballs, so they stayed outside in the pan.

The lady needs a chef’s hat complete with 101 pleats!

The creation is ready for the oven!

We went to the gym at 4:00 PM, and on the way, we saw a truck overturned, spilling cabbage all over the highway.  It was horrific!  We slaw it happen!

Come on, Doc, I am trying to exercise!

After departing the gym in great pain, we dropped by Jan’s at 5:00 PM to enjoy an afternoon visit and glass of wine.  We left Jan’s at 6:00 PM and raced home to put Mary’s creation into the oven.  While it was cooking, we watched a movie on the 60″ portable roll-around TV.

Dinner was served at 7:30 PM, and it was magnificent!  Again I asked Mary, “What’s the difference between a unicorn and a head of cabbage?  One is a funny beast, and the other is a bunny feast!”

The result was fantastic!

We opted out of the swim spa this evening as we have to be on the road at 7:00 AM for another try at the pulmonary function test at 8:00 AM.  It was a good day.

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