La Jolla

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We survived the drive from San Luis Obispo to La Jolla. I am smart enough to know that I didn’t want to be on the road prior to 0830 or so – my intention being to miss as much traffic as possible (neither morning nor evening rush hours – thank you very much,).

Good ‘Ol Maps gave me two choices – stay with HWY 101 South, or head east and pick up I5. The difference? About 2 hours and 100 miles. Not seeing any reason to take a route any longer than needed, I picked the HWY 101 route. Admittedly, it is not freeway most of the time. The road did have construction, there were uncontrolled exits on part of it. All of those = not very much fun. But the lovely part? For some reason maps took a jog on HWY 154 which travels through incredible scenery to include Las Padres National Forest

Once we returned to HWY101 the traffic started to pretty much suck for the rest of the way. All of it was made marginally tolerable in some sections. Southern California considers 2+ as HOV. So I was able to avoid a fair amount of idiocy by being able to bypass the worst of a few sections. 

Even with a fuel stop, we rolled into La Jolla about 1330 which I considered not bad at all. 

Had a lovely afternoon invading Noah’s place and sent the guys out to pick up supper. 

I survived listening to the As game – I think it may hold the record for number of pitchers used (The White Sox were even more excessive than the As, for the number of times the bases were loaded, and general frustration on the part of the fans. For a 9 inning game – it lasted well over 4 hours with a final score of only 6-4.  This is the first time in over a decade that the As have won anything in the playoffs. They just might even survive the Astros…

Finally – today starts Halloween Month. Embroidery.com is once again running their Stitchy Witchy Challenge. This year the requirement is 30 minutes a day – but a minimum of 27 days have to be completed with the 31st required. I can manage 30 minutes easy – and will be using two projects 

The Halloween Calendar by Tiny Modernist –

so, square a day. Each square is 32×32 internally… so more than 30 minutes….

and Halloween 2020 from Stitchonomy.

I have other projects underway, but I can count on wanting to stitch on these every day….

San Luis Obispo

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I think is how it is spelled. More than 200 miles south of San Francisco for sure. 

It is early, but not too early to get some sleep. My day started with a drive to the SFVA which wouldn’t have been all that much of a hassle (we had been making the run from home to UCSF about 45 minutes including the coffee stop) except for one little bitty problem.

Well, it was more than a little problem. Someone or another hand managed to have an accident on the Freemont Exit Ramp right after the Bay Bridge. It closed down the two right lanes for several hours. And yes, that means west bound. So, instead of traffic flowing smoothly, the backup prior to the toll booth was horrible and the merge wasn’t any better. The ramp was declared clear about five minutes before we drove through that section. How long? About an hour and 45 minutes…..

Then I was entertained from 0900-1400 at the VA. George had come along since we were planning on heading south from there. It hadn’t made any sense for me to spend an hour driving home, then turn around and head south.

So there we went, down the Crosstown Highway followed by ?85? which merged into 101 upon which we drove for a long, long time. And yes, at 1430 in the afternoon – there was rush-hour traffic lasting all the way to Morgan Hill (which I think of as most of the way down Silicone Valley).

By the time I did the “continue on for 143 miles” I was pretty sick of driving. So we stopped here at one of those motor inns that seem to have sprung up like mushrooms across the west. Drive your car up to the outside. Climb the stairs on the inside. 

After that – it was divide and conquer – I am stitching on a cross-stitch piece while George is watching the Cleveland Indians struggle against the NY Yankees… it was sooo close for a while.

Tomorrow we head to San Diego!

Pecking away

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No, not me on the keyboard. Nor me sitting there unpicking something that I thought I had stitched correctly only to find the mistake several rows further down the cross stitch.

No – this pecking was for real. A slightly red on the bead real.

I was sitting on the back deck, the first day we have had in just about forever that the air was fresh, clear, and cool. Somewhere ahead and in the redwoods was this irregular tapping sound. Hammering coming from one of the houses on the road above us?

No. One each small woodpecker busily excavating, stopping for a second or two before resuming his work.

His head was not as bright as the picture in the Audubon Bird Guide  which leads me to believe (along with the fact that red-crested woodpeckers are found in the SE and not the Pacific Northwest, that this particular young bird is a different woodpecker. Or sap-sucker? No black and white strikes Anyway – he provided more than an hour of entertainment.

Un-pik’d

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Since we all have come to the conclusion that, whatever it was that went wrong for George in early June – it is probably not infectious – he doesn’t need the pik line anymore.  He has been off the IV antibiotics for more than a week with no change. So today – I got to drive him to UCSF so that he could check in with the Infusion Center. They confirmed he was fine and pulled the line.

Followed by pressure dressing x 30 minutes just to make sure that there was no bleeding around the insertion site in his arm.

Which means that Noah and I hung out for about 90 minutes all together. Since we found a nice, free, shady spot in Golden Gate Park it was not as onerous as it could have been. He had his phone + ear buds. I had the baseball game + stitching.

The As won, which was just the icing on the cake.

Or perhaps the icing is that George is fixing dinner while I sit here and type.

Memorials

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It is true – memorials are for the living. An attempt to remember with occasional side trips into glory or honor. Not counting in these particular numbers, those that provide a stark memory to how things go wrong.

When I was stationed in the UK, it seemed that there was one thing consistent in every small town and village. A memorial from WWI stood in the center square or entrance to the town, that, though it might have had a patriotic saying or three, always had the names of those local who had left for the war and never returned.

For remember, in former times, soldiers were buried where they were killed. No one had the ability, resources, or thought to bring home the bodies of those who had failed. It is in this vein that we [the US] still have cemeteries in Europe. It is for the same reason that there are Commonwealth cemeteries outside the UK where you can read the names not only of the fallen, but of the countries from whence they came.

When we make a huge fuss and production, it is more to show the importance of those in the ceremony than it is for those who have actually lost someone. Nothing is going to bring back my colleagues from 11 Sept. Nor my National Guard soldiers killed when when their ambulance was hit in Baghdad in 2003. Nor the countless sons, daughters, wives, husbands, parents who have lost their lives in service to their country, just in my lifetime alone.

But if you want a memorial that stands cleanly and starkly for the toll that was takes – The Wall is it. Stark, listing name after name after name without decoration; the dead from a war that never made sense.  Speeches are not needed. Flowers are for the living.

Names can be remembered.

 

 

11 September

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There are 19 years separating us from those horrible events. There are voters now who were no t even alive when those planes came down: into the Twin Towers in New York; into the Pentagon; into a field in Pennsylvania.

I do not need to reiterate the stunned, shocked, non-understanding of how this could have happened. Over the next days and weeks, as the toll of the dead mounted and names were attached to those lost, pieces of the puzzle were put together.

But it didn’t change anything for those lost, for the families and friends who were forever changed. It did change everything for all of us. How we viewed each other, how we traveled, how suspicion of anyone from the Mid-East skyrocketed. This change, unfortunately has become permanent. Imbedded so deeply that it is hard to remember how things use to be.

I had colleagues killed at the Pentagon. Individuals with whom I had served just a few short months prior. Sitting at meetings, sharing a coffee. It is now hard to pull faces out of my memory, harder still to think of all the changes that have cascaded through their families in the intervening years.

All I can say today is please, hug those close to you. Make a few phone/skype/zoom/internet calls. Tell them that they are loved, appreciated, though of no matter where they are or their current job.

Sometimes, you just don’t get a chance to say goodbye.

Bodega Bay

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Since, as I keep whining, we are not cruising the Pacific for our 42nd Anniversay,  an alternative was needed. A safe alternative, one which did not involve burning grasslands, torching trees, or billowing clouds of smoke.

I also nixed the idea of trains, buses, or planes. Since I am the one driving, I also did not want to spend a huge portion of my day behind the wheel. Hence, Bodega Bay. Located in Sonoma County, it borders directly on the Pacific.  At least for the moment,  it is south and west of all the fires. The fog is dense, providing a protective layer from the smoke traveling on the high winds.

Yesterday, when we arrived we walked along Doran Beach. Absent of just about everyone I kept imaging the size of the creature who could have discarded this on his hike along the beach.

the Giant’s Kudgel

Today we wandered into and through town out to the head where, munching on the succulents, we found the usual suspects.

black tailed deer

and looked down to the bay carved by the ocean out of the sheer rocks

with the tide on the way in

and just to prove that I exist – (note, George’s phone pix, unedited, and, I suspect uncleaned lens)

hiking along

We picked up take-away from a lovely place which specialized in locally caught fish. George had their Fish & Chips while I went for the fish tacos.

We spent a quiet evening. I had finished all the Zoom stuff earlier while he was on board calls and just caught the end of the As afternoon game.

We head home in the morning.

Modor?

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This is what the world looks like this morning

The time is 0844 on US Pacific Daylight Savings Time. Right now, that “daylight” is an obvious misnomer. Traffic is light, there is ash on everything. The photos were captured on my Cannon 5-D. Cell phones, as it turns out, even the new ones, are not equipped to capture orange sky secondary to reflected sunlight off ash.

The high heat of the last few days obviously has resulted in new wildfires as well as hampering CALFIRE as they desperately attempt to control multiple extensive burning areas.

So far, we are physically safe, but I am making sure that we have everything prepared for a sudden evacuation.

This is the current map –

current fire map from FireTracker

Nor boarding the Radiance

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Even if we had somehow managed to finagle our way into Canada without serious, bank account disrupting damage – the Radiance of the Seas simply wouldn’t be at dock. She never made it back from her Down Under Summer. Obvious if you think about it – her season was cut short prior to end April which is her normal trans-Pacific travel time. Her usual route has stops in Tahiti and Hawaii.  This year was different.

But, like so much else, it isn’t happening.

Leaving for Vancouver?

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Or, actually not.

Much earlier – in fact before the whole pandemic started, we had planned a cruise this fall. The “we” being George and I. It was going to be a reward to the two of us for having survived this past year. 

This was a replacement for the one we missed last fall. That lovely Windstar Cruise was to leave NYC on 26 Oct 2019 and sail over 16 (?) days and end in Barbados. It was a one off and repositioned the ship for their winter season. Obviously, with George not even a full month post transplant, it was off the books.

So I looked ahead and found one of my favorite ships – Radiance of the Seas. She was sailing from Vancouver at the end of the Alaska Season via Japan to Singapore. What an opportunity. Again, this was a one-off route with it appearing that she was headed to dry dock at the end of the second leg,. 

Australian/New Zealand friends of ours were going to join us I was considering taking George for a spin around Australia before flying back home (he hasn’t ever been). 

And then SARS-COV2 hit and we aren’t going anyway.

So – tip of the coffee cup to our heading to Vancouver today. Even if I really, really wanted to visit that lovely city – the Canadians wouldn’t let us in….

Finished that one

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I can’t post it yet, since it is a present for a birthday at the end of Sept.

Imagine that – something finished – ok, the main portion done, now just the final finishing to go – this far ahead of a birthday.

Taking deep breath, I took an hour out from stitching and sorted out two three bins of supplies so that I might actually be able to find something/anything when I needed. Dumped most of my fabric supplies a bag which was then added to the bin of those which come in those long, stupid wasteful plastic tubes. OTOH, that is probably no worse than the tendency of just about everyone to mail off supplies in plastic zip lock bags.

But I digress – not that you wanted to hear me rant about organizing or anything.

Then I went and counted stitched but not finished projects. Several are years old, some this year. There are an even dozen of them. Leading me to decide that tomorrow will be a multi-prong attack
1) finish part 1 of a Halloween stitch along before the next section drops on Monday. 1-2 hours
2) do a color-a-day on Blackwork SAL – which will get me caught up in about two weeks
3) finish the critters on this segment of the Weaver Band before Tues so that I am ready for the next segment to drop. 1 hr
4) finish the Aug section of Family & Friends SAL (also Tues, but it really is Monday in California since we are talking 17 hours time zone difference between the designer and me). 1 hr
4) sort out what I need to finish all those unfinished cross-stitches – and perhaps get the missing supplies (unknown time)
5) and then there is the family stuff, baseball and other insanity.

But small goals are do-able!

ok, there is the small issue of cat in the lap…

decided it was bed time…

which sort of stopped this evening..

simple but enduring

Holly Doyne Posted on by  
As I dropped a “new” table cloth on our breakfast nook table this morning, I took a good look at the placemats. But first, the tablecloth was simple. Blue and white patterned, ocean themed upholstery fabric rescued from the bargain bin shelves at JoAnns. The bit left on the bolt, the two ends serged and it look just fine.

But now we come to the placemats. We have gone through a lot of placemats over the years. Picked up here and there. Not one set of the store bought ones have survived years, children, spills and multiple moves including transatlantics.

The two sets which have survived both date from the mid to late 1980s. (which means that they are older than 3 of 4 offspring. Handwoven – the first set was my first attempt at weaving placemats. The warp was perle cotton and the weft a cotton filler. I didn’t know much at the time with the result that I didn’t use as fine a dent reed as would have been sensible. They have become stained over the years as well as surviving multiple trips through the washer and dryer. But they still bring a smile to my face.

 

mid 80s

The second set is even more special. They were a gift from Carmen, woven on her rather large Gilmakra loom which took up a significant space in her Wheaton, Maryland home. There were at least eight in the set, maybe more. Since they are scattered around (table, tray, side table) I think I still have them all.

mid 80s

 

They graced the table this evening as four of us enjoyed Indian take-away. A visual reminder of enduring friendships and well made household items.

neighborhood visitor

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at 1600 in the afternoon

Last night was a complete chorus. This afternoon, Dani & Alex’s dogs were going nuts.

Looking down over the fence at the end of our parking area to our neighbor’s driveway, the cause was obvious. No clue why it was out in the middle of the day, but worried that this particular coyote is not well..

Helper?

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The guest bedroom also functions as the TV room. And then there is Kitty Ramon; aka Chicken Little –

who apparently thought that something interesting was on the front of the advert.

This particular bright and shiny brochure was produced and distributed by one of the many small ships on rivers and Great Lakes. I forget which one, but they are actively advertising for business. Not sure that they are being realistic with their offers of sailing from Chicago to Toronto, but who am I to speculate?

Anyway – he has his opinions, the cat that is.

including when

my lap is to be devoted to him, rather than stitching or knitting.

Fifty-one minutes

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of a support call to Apple and I finally was able to resolve the computer glitch that had been driving me nuts since earlier this month.

What should have been simple turned out to be a bit more complex than either the supervisor or I had thought. The starting problem was simple – you remember that I was complaining about not being able to use Air Drop to move photos from my phone to the laptop? No, well, half the time the phone didn’t “see” the laptop and the other ½, well, my laptop didn’t want to deal with accepting anything.

From there we progressed to “hard drive full” please …… no more than 10-15 minutes into trying to get anything done.  Several days of this was driving me nuts. There is a limit to how many times I care to hard reboot my system.

When I looked at what I had on the computer – I could account for less than 200GIG of my 499+GIG hard drive. So what the heck? It wasn’t in any of the files, folders, or system. But there was this category called “other” which had LOTS in it – ranging from 350-400Gig. What the??

.The lovely supervisor tech and I walked through location after location on my hard drive. We went into all the systems files & containers & libraries. It took about fifty minutes, but we located the issue. Believe it or not, apparently one of my dozens of Zoom sessions had been recorded, then stuffed in an archive where I had neither access or clue. This sucker was huge. Just deleting it solved the problem.

I took notes…

(and Apple care has just paid for itself. My other option – of course, would have been to wipe the hard drive and start over…..

another bad air day

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No, we are not at fire risk, But the smoke? That is another complete story. The last several days have fallen into one of the following:

  • bad
  • worse
  • horrible.

 

the air quality a couple of days has won us the award of “the worst place on earth.” Which, considering Beijing and Delhi are frequently seen at the top, you can get the idea. Even the incredible sunsets can’t make up for it. That is when I can see as far as the water. 

In case you hadn’t heard – we have 32,000 acres currently burning and less than 5% under control. And just to make it clear -these fires have NOTHING to do with deadfall or heavy forests – these are grasslands, open area, housing areas. The fires are the result of lightening strikes – over 10,000 in three + days due to the insane weather. 

Did I mention dry lightning? The rain never fell and everything was already super dry before this happened.  Dani is not headed to Dixon – the fires are within four miles of where she works. Travis Air Force Base went into Evac mode early today – which potentially compounds the fire fighting challenge (air base, reload, refuel, National Guard etc). 

California didn’t need this, didn’t cause this – and certainly does not need political abuse from Washington DC when there is an obvious clear lack of knowledge on what has actually transpired. We can only be grateful that the surrounding states are helping to the best of their abilities. But everyone is short this fire season which has started 2-3 months early.

Oh, and there is COVID-19 which is making evacuation, shelters, support, and fire fighting that much more challenging. 

I am almost afraid to ask – what next for fear the San Andreas or Hayward Faults might decide to scratch an itch.

 

 

 

Coffee Compendium

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It may be late in the evening – but it is DONE!

Coffee Compendium

A not small sampler stitched on 18 ct Fiddler’s cloth with various shades of 12 ct Sulky, mostly blendables.

The pattern is courtesy of Tempting Tangles, originally issued in 16 parts as a stitch-a-long back in about 2011. It is more or less stitched as the pattern suggests, except for me inserting the creamer and sugar bowl instead of one phrase – “Chai Latte” which doesn’t have to do with coffee. Deborah, the wonderful designer, came up with a couple of other graphed alternatives. But the problem is that anything else would be out of alphabetical order. So, I faked out the creamer and sugar bowl – and “borrowed” the graphic on it from the Tea Sampler she has…

Drop it again

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Not.

After being totally accepting of snapping the occasional photo with my phone, AirDrop decided not to work. Not from my phone to my laptop anyway.

Sneaking up on it from either side didn’t accomplish anything, nor did rebooting both devices. My laptop could “see” George’s phone. For that matter, it was also registering Alex’s from downstairs.  Several days into this, I checked for updates. Nada.

Makes trying to update project pages, send emails with pictures, or, for that matter add anything bright and cheerful to this post.

Let there be light

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Miriam decided that she had had enough of walking up our drive way in the dark. Me? I have my phone, and besides, less light means few people. At least that was my excuse.

new drive way lighting

Intelligently, she didn’t ask. Just ordered and installed a series of solar powered lights along the edge of the drive way. They are pretty…

Since that wasn’t enough, she added a string of lights to the lemon tree… I guess they will keep the flamingo wind chime company

and in the lemon tree

Now, why would I do that?

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I must have been totally asleep or feeling guilty when I signed up to join an orientation panel late this afternoon. Admittedly, I like and respect the faculty member who asked me to join in. Unlike the year I started UCHastings MSL program, there are more than a dozen signed up this year. I was an only which actually worked out well for me since my peer group became the incredibly interesting class of LLMs (Master of Law – non-US law degrees).

So what words of wisdom could I offer this bright eyed and shiny group of 20s and 30s who are looking for ?what?

My purpose in doing the degree was … what? To not waste my GI bill? To be challenged by a program? To learn how lawyers think? Which, since I had been married to one for 40+ years doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

In any case, I spent time late this afternoon watching faces I mostly didn’t know on Zoom. And, being an active participant – stitching and knitting were out of the question.

Bummer