Category Archives: Home

Emptying the fridge

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As you might expect, with the power out for almost 48 hours that I really didn’t have much in way of refrigerated/frozen food which survived. In many ways, I was luckier than most. Since effectively neither George nor I were in the house for the last five weeks, I had almost nothing on hand. I bought a few things after we arrived home on Thursday and planned on catching up over the weekend. As the weather changed, the winds came up, and the threat of power loss increased, I decided to go day by day.

Then on Friday, it looked clearly like we would be in with the rest of those lucky individuals whose power was going to be cut for the weekend. The fact that it didn’t happen until late Sat evening just put of the inevitability. I had the container in which George’s meds had been delivered along with all the freezer packs. After moving over enough meds to take us through to Monday morning, neither the fridge or freezer were accessed again till Monday morning. 

And, since Monday was a clinic day, I felt perfectly justifiable in putting off the task for another day. So there I was, neither cheerful nor energetic, but dutifully clearing out the fridge. Cheese went. Not temperature stable for 48 hours? Out – cheese, hummus, yogurt, cream cheese. You can see the trend? Oh, yes, and the container of Half-and-half. 
From the freezer, obviously the popsicles which had thawed, leaked and refrozen landed in the sink. Unfortunately, so did two containers of very good ice cream and some single servings of quiche and crumble that Shana had made. Same disposition for the single servings of home made noodle soup (again from Shana) and a few other still in the original packing treasures. 

Then I made the run down to the garbage cans – no way did I want all that melting and smelling up the kitchen – even if our bio container would have been large enough to hold everything. 

It was just one of those days which we all have, necessary tasks which feel so much better once they are completed.

Magic Flamingos

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I know that I have shown you my solar powered lawn flamingos. They certainly helped last evening when we had to climb the flight of stairs to our house. Most of us who live in cities are so used to the light pollution that we don’t even notice it. Until the power is out and block after block of houses are dark. As we drove from Shana’s home in Richmond back to Berkeley, there were lights, traffic signals and a significant amount of traffic. Starting from San Pablo onto Marin, at the traffic circle we head up Los Angeles which comes to end at Spruce. The west side, the downhill side, is brightly lit. The east side is totally dark. Right onto Spruce, left on Eunice up the hill to Euclid. Dark, all dark.

Inside the house, it was really dark. Borrowing a couple of matches from Dani (she and Alex had tea lights every votive they owned arrayed on their kitchen counter) I found a couple of large scented candle jars. This is fire season – I only wanted flames safely inside glass containers. I could have done without the scents – but hey, you use what you have,

Then I remembered the birthday present Shana gave me (correction – she says Carmen is to blame! Carmen emailed, she swears that flamingo is Canadian. But then it would be like the Canada geese, no passport. Canada Flamingo? The final estimate is that I can jointly blame Carmen and Stu).

A plastic flamingo

No biggie, right?

But it turns out he does this!

LED Flamingo

which is very bright in a dark room

Bright enough to use as an alternate to a phone for a flashlight. Just about bright enough for me to start and monitor George’s IV antibiotics (which will finally finish on Wednesday).

And bright enough to use as a nightlight as I staggered around the place this morning, getting ready for the drive into San Francisco. The traffic was horrible. Ok, probably not as bad as DC, NY or LA, but I am not driving there now am I?

As it turned out, the trip was well worth it – platelet transfusion as expected. But no blood required so we were back out of the city before noon. Even better, he doesn’t have to return till Thursday (rather than Wed & Fri) so I am more than pleased. There is actually a chance I might actually get a chance to sleep in one morning.

It was about 1430, Dani and I were upstairs looking for potential costume materials for her when my stereo started blasting. We looked at each other. She flipped the light switch – there was LIGHT!

The power was back on. I am not going to count on it lasting. The winds are due to pick up again tomorrow. But I am taking advantage of it for the moment. Shana is spared having to feed us supper again. There is hot water! The kettle works! I can actually see to hook up IVs. For that matter, I can even charge my phone.

Power out is not powerless

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Trust me on that. But just after I emailed last night – first one set of lights blinked out. Less than a minute later, all the other circuits went dead. And it was quiet, a very quiet 2230. Good writeup in the Berkeleyside which is an on-line only Berkeley newspaper.

At least it was quiet in my the house. Most of the time, none of us notice all the background noise produced by various machines, electronics, and appliances. I wasn’t able to say the same for the renters up the hill from us. Quiet? No – they had been partying hard since 2000, complete with barbecue from the smells of things. Suddenly they were literally (as apposed to aware of their affect on others) in the dark. More noise, complete with laughs, shrieks and giggles.

Rather than starting WWIII in the neighborhood, I just shut my window. Plus, I finally realized that it was Saturday night. If you are young, I guess Saturday night is for partying.

Which takes us to this morning when I started smelling smoke in the house – nothing burning near us – just the wind had changed. It was now blowing from Sonoma to us. We still have no power and I am expecting the situation to remain unchanged through tomorrow. The dividing line turns out to be Spruce Street runs parallel to Euclid only  four blocks further down the hill. Peet’s was packed this morning with hordes coming down for coffee, wifi and a chance to charge their phones.

I am sure that there are still those who don’t believe PG&E should have shut off power. But then, perhaps they are not paying attention to the brush fires this afternoon along HWY 24 near Walnut Creek. Or the continuing spread of fire in Sonoma. Or all the trees down along the route we took from Berkeley to Richmond (California) due to the high winds.

Practically speaking, all of us are going to have to make changes. It isn’t just the US. Or some areas of Canada. There were massive wild fires last year in Sweden destroying millions of acres. There have been fires across huge swaths of Russia. My intrepid friends in Australia note that fire season now starts two months earlier. There are fires burning in New South Wales and Queensland.

We can also hold our politicians accountable. Yes, I moved back to a country with a leader who epitomizes the “everyone for themselves,” attitude. Who has cut safety funding, who has cut both education and senior citizen services and benefits. And doesn’t believe that it is anyone’s responsibility to leave the world in a decent shape.

Me? I am reading regulations, I will vote, I will play my part. But I believe in leaving the world a better place than what I found it. I won’t pat myself on the back for reducing my carbon footprint this past year – my decreased travel was not voluntary. But it has made me stop and think about waste, cost, and where I spend my precious dollars as well as who I want representing me.

PG&E

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Depending on where you live, you may/may not have followed the massive Northern California wild fires last year. Paradise (the town) was destroyed completely. Other communities and scattered homes were also affected, either directly by the fires, by blowing debris, by the efforts to control the fires, etc, etc. At minimum 86 people died. It might well be more as this has long been an “off-the-grid” area where weed has traditionally been one of the largest cash crops. At best guess, one of PG&Es transformers blew, starting the fire which spread extremely rapidly due to high winds and drought conditions.

There has been a lot of finger pointing for the last year. A lot of he said/she said. A lot of “no one is personally responsible.” What I do know is that PG&E, like some of the other massive industries (see Boeing) underwent a culture shift in the last 10-20 years to an emphasis on making money and paying dividends to stockholders

Honestly? Maintenance and upgrades of an aging electrical system aren’t cheap. Money spent on maintenance isn’t available to pay high salaries to certain executives and stockholders. At the same time, no one seems to want to pay the real costs of the energy they use. So – no win all around and more finger pointing.

None of this is helped by the fact that this fall, we once again have extremely dry conditions, high winds, higher than normal conditions, coupled with areas of brush not cleared and trees interfering with power lines. Yes, PG&E is making progress on clearing trees and branches away from power lines and transformers, but it isn’t realistic to expect that years of neglect are going to be remedied in a few short months.

Parts of the area have already gone through one power outage. To say that the communications were terrible is an understatement. As it turned out, most of the areas that “might have to be turned off” were not. And, of course, there are all those whose very lives are dependent on electricity who suddenly realized they were going to have a problem. Now, I can understand the issue if you are living in one of the accessible buildings – it is part of the cities responsibility to make sure that your respirator will have power. That you have a location where you can recharge your electric wheelchair. But for everyone else. Hello? What part of living on a portion of the Hayward Fault don’t you get? An earthquake could easily knock out your power. What were you planning on doing?

The city of Berkeley has been desperately trying to identify those at highest risk and assist in plans. For a city of independent people, leftover hippies and the like, there seems to be a huge element of “you need to take care of me.”

With PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric) literally supplying millions of customers, I would have expected some confusion. After all, I guess it is too much for some people to understand that if some portions have to be taken off the grid – everyone downstream is going to be without power. Because of the cost (see above) most areas are supplied by a single source. You turn off that grid area because it is in a high fire risk zone and ……. you get the idea

Which leads us to today. It is unseasonably hot. It is windy. The hills in which I live are fairly high fire risk. Not only is it dry, but over the decades, people have planted eucalyptus, a lot of eucalyptus trees. Originally, our power was scheduled to go off at 1700. Now potentially it is 2000. We have made plans: Richmond is not affected which means that I can drop off everything that needs to stay cool or frozen with Shana. I have a couple of coolers. Because of George’s med supplies, we have lots and lots of cold packs, all of which are frozen.  We will leave only if there is an actual fire. Everything is charged, and frankly – I can get internet on my phone if I am desperate.

Berkeley for a night

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Since my friend, at who’s house I have been staying, arrived back in town, I am freed from cat sitting duties. Not that the cat was willing to be “sat.” This particular cat is high on complaining from under the bed, scolding me, and evening whining. But not being willing to come out for a visit. So I was perfectly happy to leave her lording it over me (she thinks she won because her person is back and now I can just shove off – thank you very much) and head to my own bed for a night.

What was also on the agenda for the day was a stop at UCHastings for an afternoon seminar on current California legislation (in the Trump era). The time was well spent, informative, and reflective of the fact that California, by itself, is about the world’s fifth or sixth largest economy. Scary that. Which explains why a certain regime is so unhappy with the state’s willingness to maintain all the rules which have been applicable for the last 30-40 years. (and no, I won’t go any further down that soapbox or rabbit hole). Not that many people showed up, which means there was a lot of food left over. Cannelloni, yum.

North Berkeley BART to 29 Sushi to home. And laundry, and house clean up. and sorting stuff out.

Nothing exciting there…

Not an easy castle

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From Artifact Puzzles comes this lovely

should be easy?

what it doesn’t say is that the border is not straight – oh no, not at all. Randall Spangler created the original painting. I have mentioned him before – he is the one who designed those two impossibly cute dragons dealing with computers.

any way –

there are both whimsy pieces and edge pieces

the whimsy is easily seen in the crown – what I wasn’t expecting was that all those curlicue pieces turned out to be the border…

not as easy as it first looked

and there were a lot of fairly small pieces to tuck in here and there. I started this puzzle then detoured for a while.

Lugano

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Part of the joy of starting a new puzzle, especially one from LibertyPuzzles, is opening the box and gazing at the heaped up pieces just waiting to be freed. I am not compulsive about jigsaw puzzles; I neither lay them all out, or start with the edge and work in. Rather I enjoy seeing what the whimsy pieces of this puzzle represent, which often coordinates extremely well with the puzzle picture or theme. If a few edge pieces happen to tumble into their own pile, that is also fine.

that first look

 

In the case of this puzzle, there is the easel (the painter showed up later), various people, sailing vessels and a pair of crossed swords.

some of the more interesting shapes

there is a kind of peace in fitting things together, not being in a hurry and knowing that – at the end – there is actually a reward – the view of Lugano.

right before that final piece

 

two shirts and an owl

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or should that be owl followed by shirts? Nah, the shirts were completed long before dark when I started on the Owl

Feeding my puzzle addiction, I discovered a new purveyor of wooden puzzles. This particular manufacture has only a few available, and, as it turns out, they are made in China. Less expensive than the US made ones certainly. But the quality of the puzzles is certainly not the same standard. The owl wasn’t all that difficult to assemble, but the pieces didn’t fit as smoothly as I would have liked.

unique pieces, but no whimsy ones

The shirts – the theme today was books.

there is the elegance of reading

Books & Roses

which didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped

and then there is the reality of what is appealing to certain members of the family

the front still in the hoop

the back just prior to finishing

and before you scratch your head – the clothes pins are to keep excess fabric out of the way and avoiding it being caught either under the hoop or in the stitching area. I know this because…..Both shirts still need to be washed and a few threads trimmed. It is all progress as I am working my way down my bin of “garment blanks.”

We had a break in the middle of the day – I had a sewing machine in for service. George proved that his feet are up to par since he drove both down and back. Remember that we have a standard transmission, so if he was going to have foot pain, I am sure that it would have been triggered by the drive.

Screwed

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and no, there is nothing in this post about sex, the government, or politics. It is my summary as I sit here with an ice pack on my wrist wondering why I wanted to put together rolling carts. It is not that I can’t do it, mind you, but why I wanted to. Did I think I was a mid-20s guy with strong hands and wrists (think Engineer Guy who is currently  in Connecticut happily working and likely playing with lasers).

Perhaps I should go back to the beginning and explain myself? Right.

Phase one was cleaning up the studio. That totally chaotic room that I had claimed as mine when we relocated to the US West Coast from Germany. I have no clue how I had planned to jam in spinning wheels, a loom, sewing machines, a serger, needlework frames and supplies for all of the above. Oh, yes, and a dress form, ironing board, some kind of working surface and perhaps the knitting machine that has been boxed now for 15 years..

You see the problem? I also shipped a couple of plastic bin storage containers on wheels. Next I added a couple of small drawers cabinets;

three drawers each

oh, yes and bookshelves – tucked those in along the wall with the worst of the slanted ceiling. As I mentioned last month,, I did a major cleanup and organize–donating several good size boxes of crafting supplies and some containers to the local arts&craft recycle shop.

new cabinet with machine

Then my new sewing cabinet arrived, which meant moving things around once again. Next on the list is getting the shelves organized, the piles off the floor and into clearly marked containers, and realistically culling. Having vertical storage seemed like a great idea in a room which has zero for closets. Hence, my purchase of a couple of carts on sale from JoAnn’s on a day which boasted discounts plus free shipping. They arrived on Saturday, abandoned next to our mailbox and had to be hauled up to the house.

Each one of these lovely little things came in pieces/parts + screws and fasteners. I can put things together – easy, peasy. If I have the tools. Several hours of searching led me to the conclusion that the red tool chest was somewhere, probably in the garage beside hundreds of kilos of other stuff. It simply was not worth spending hours excavating. Indiana Jones I am not, and we currently have the garage of doom. One day if I am feeling brave, I will share photos. Meanwhile, there I was–all those parts and me without a screwdriver.

Monday when I hauled the boxes (cursing about the weight) up to the second floor, I put together the first cart. Not that hard, just attach cross pieces to the side frames (two of them on the bottom) place this assemblage upside down on the reverse side of the top and fasten with four bolts (Allen wrench provided), turn right side up, add wheels.

Today I decided to take the plunge and buy a screwdriver. Heck, while I was at it, I bought a set since I wasn’t sure exactly what size I would need and had a sneaking suspicion that there just might be more than one size involved. Oh, was I right. Construction went something like this:

take side piece #5 and attach to back piece #7 with two screws from the bag labeled #14.  Now take side piece #6 and attach with two #14 screws to the other side of piece #7, insuring that the grove in all pieces is on the lower edge. Now slide in bottom piece #9, putting that grove to good use..

With me so far? Next attache connector #10 on the inside of each forward side piece with screws from bag marked #15. Next find that Allen wrench and use it to fasten bolts #13 through the connector to the front piece (#8) making sure that the bottom is securely in its grove. Finally, fasten drawer pull #18 to the front of the drawer (with the screws provided – magnifying glass recommended by me. 10 screws, five pieces of particle board and two bolts. I needed three sizes of screw drivers in addition to that aforementioned Allen wrench.

drawer ready to be put together

And that is just the first drawer. As the instructions say: Repeat steps to assemble three more drawers…..

one drawer done, three to go

It took an hour. Not all that mentally challenging, just hard on my wrists. After finishing the first cart, I decided to hold off on the second.

Instead putting together a small six draw cart (metal) that I picked up at Costco today (much cheaper, FYI). The side pieces were fastened together with four cross pieces. The attachment being a bolt and padded washer on each side. Allen wrench, turn – Repeat. Pop on the wheels, tighten them down. Stand up right, slap on top, slide in baskets. Less than 15 minutes from start to finish, including loading the baskets with stabilizers and interfacings.

rolled into place next to one of the decades old plastic containers

I think my fun meter is pegged.

 

Just Ducky

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From Artifact Puzzles comes another delightful design from Justin Hillgrove. The box titles it “Overwhelming Odds” but I just adore the sense of humor. Perhaps you remember all of my go-rounds with rubber ducks? No? Never mind, just be aware there was a time when there were rubber ducks invading the hot tub, the shower and making cameo appearances in the kitchen.

this is the puzzle

and yes, it comes WITH its own little duck

Then there are Ecru puzzles – this one has pieces with a complicated structure, a definite trend toward cats

and looked like this when completed (note, this is one of those “mystery” type puzzles…)

the finished puzzle

the challenge here was two fold – first not knowing what the puzzle would look like when completed. The second was that 90% of the pieces are identical in shape. Even more fun to have to pull out a piece when you realize that the color isn’t exactly right for that location …..not

Skunk

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I am not sure why a skunk wanted to live in our neighborhood. It is not car free, people free, other animal free. But apparently this particular skunk has been hanging out down the back hill from our house for the past several years. I saw it a couple of times on the stairs and gave her a wide berth.

Unfortunately, that skunk decided to chitter at one of Dani’s dogs. A German short-hair pointer, she doesn’t have much of a sense of humor about being scolded by an animal she thinks of as pray. Alex had the dog on the leash, the skunk scolded, the dog took off.

It was a draw – the dog got the skunk, but not before being sprayed.

It is a day or so later. The dog has been bathed, groomed and both upstairs and downstairs have been aired out several times. There is still a definite whiff of skunk in the air.

We are not amused.

summing up July

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actually isn’t all that hard.

A lot of driving involved to and from UCSF. Household tasks. A baseball game or so. Not much else.

But I suspect August will be more of the same.

And, in many ways, being stuck at home in July is my norm. There are few, if any, professional meetings held in July. I don’t cruise in July – just too many families with small children and a complete lack of any decent deals on sailings.

but the twilight sky is lovely

and hey – baseball!

Organizing space

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I am not going to provide a picture of my upstairs studio/craft/sewing room prior to my recent organizing and cleaning spree. Let me just leave us with – it was not pretty. I was able to walk through the room, sort of. Other than the fact that all the items in the room are actually in excellent condition and useful, it could have been a demonstration for an episode of craft-hordes.

I have supplies for: quilting, sewing, cross-stitch, machine embroidery. Oh, and knitting and spinning. Does that sound like a lot? I never think so until I write it all down and look at it. Familiar with the abbreviation “SABLE?” Stash Accumulated Beyond Life Expectancy. You get the idea. If I devoted all my time and effort for the next, oh, let us say 10 years, I could not complete everything on my “want to do list.” Practically speaking, it means that I need to hone down that list, share supplies with others so that I don’t feel guilty, complete all those UFOs and otherwise develop a more realistic view of what I can manage.

Right. And then there are those two papers which are hanging over my head….

Back to the more fun of creativity. End of last week and over the weekend I spent time cleaning and organizing. Dani helped me move several boxes of cables, electronics and “who knows what” down to the garage. I relocated the contents of one cupboard and proceeded to fill it will all the hard copy audiobooks which freed up some shelf space. Taking the time to put all the embroidery threads back into their boxes – I marked the top of each in order to better locate particular colors –

thread box

That was the easy part. More complicated is the fact that the room is upstairs with a ceiling that slants on both sides (if I can locate a picture of the room before the 2014 renovation. For whatever reason – most of the photo links vanished when I imported  ww.proseknitic.de to this site about three years ago. One more thing on my “todo list” – find those photo archives, upload the photos and activate the links…

anyway –

looking toward the door

and toward one of the two windows

I was delighted to find that there was still a nice hard wood floor in reasonably good condition once threads, debris, and the occasional spot of temporary adhesive had been removed (hint–it isn’t all that temporary when used as manufacturers’ recommended amounts..)

Among the projects completed today are these –

Robo Warrior

Once Upon a Time

they have been added to the Georgia bound box leaving me only short 1 item….

Oh, right. we made the run to UCSF this morning. In spite of leaving home at 0800 it took barely more than an hour including a coffee stop at Peet’s. The secret was to drive by the North Berkeley BART and pick up a ride share passenger. This meant HOV lane and reaching the Embarcadero Exit 25 minutes after leaving the house. The rest of the time was devoted to wending our way through the traffic choked streets of SF without getting back on the freeway.  Everything went excellently, George was able to walk from the car up to the clinic, around while up there and back which meant the old wheelchair has been removed from the back of the car and is now residing in the garage. Next week should be the last of the 2x/week visits.

Flamingos? I can explain

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the whole flamingo thing started in 2003 when this particular set of wind chimes, seen hanging from an internal second floor window here in Berkeley, arrived in the mail while I was serving in Kuwait

flamingo wind chimes

I still don’t have a clue as to why Carmen thought I needed a wind chime. No one ever spent time outside except in transit between trailer, office, mess hall, meetings. I arrived just as we were headed into the warmest part of spring where temperatures often hit 40*C by lunch. It definitely severed  served as a conversation starter, hanging from my ceiling light in the middle of the room.

A bit later in the year, the flamingo was joined by a menagerie of origami animals courtesy of Pat. Unfortunately, I can’t offer a picture as they hid from packing when getting for my move back to Germany in summer of 2004.

Since that time, I have been gifted the occasional flamingo ornamented item, such as birthday candles, dish towels and a pair of leggings. I have, on occasion, also purchased the occasional flamingo decorated socks. Additionally, I have accumulated a number of machine embroidery files, should I really, really need to add a flamingo to something.

If I want to be honest, the whole flamingo thing started in 1978 when George and I received a couple of pink plastic flamingo lawn ornaments for a wedding present. We included them in our house hold goods for years, but some time in one of those transAtlantic moves they were lost.

The single metal flamingo that was standing guard over the lemon tree when we purchased the house is still in its location atop the retaining wall. Looking down, it can see my own flamboyance of flamingos, four with solar collectors to light the night and the other two anchoring both ends of the small area between the patio and front door.

 

The latest bird

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added to the flock

the kind delivery guy actually managed to drop off the box containing this metal bird at the downstairs door. I am impressed. Not tossed in the bushes, not left next to the mailbox, and certainly not left in the driveway where someone might run over it.

The only downside of this pretty pink creature is the tail feathers. They are not suppose to rotate. But I am sure that they should be facing out, rather than toward the bird. Now, if the small bolt by which the tail feathers are attached were the right length, that would be the case. But it is too short to hold the wing nut in the correct configuration leaving me with the choice of a bird with a naked rear or one with the feather pointing forward.

In the manner of Joe Pike (in the series by author Robert Crais) – forward is the only direction to travel.

I am working on shoveling out and organizing the sewing room as I am finally investing in a decent sewing cabinet which arrives next week. Since it might be nice if I could get it up the stairs, through the hall and into the room….. otherwise, some knitting, machine embroidery, and the As game this evening….

Flamboyance

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of Flamingos according to a lovely, and slightly sarcastic reference that I found. Apparently the simple word of “flock” just wouldn’t do for something that is so obviously eye catchings. After all, they aren’t LBJs (little brown jobs in birder parlance) or high flying scolders/mockers like ravens and crows. They are that fun, bright pink color that comes from their diet.

I drifted over to Wiki to learn that there are six extant species of flamingo. The funny looking, long-legged birds really aren’t related to any other bird except maybe the grebe. They are scattered through out the world – from Africa to India, to South America, Asia, the Caribbean + Florida. (well, there are some that consider Florida it’s own separate world). Looking at the list, I think I have actually seen four/six – not the Andean or the James.

If you wonder why I am nattering on about Flamingos – just look back at the last few posts and my current entertainment.

Otherwise, I would need to focus on getting up at 0500 to drive into the city for George’s 0730 appointment (everything is going well), returning through much less traffic followed by a trip to the pharmacy, the grocery store, a couple of load of clothes, emptying the dishwasher, lunch, taking out boxes, rescuing the garbage cans …. and so it goes.

It is barely 1430 and I am tired. If I still didn’t have a list of chores, I might just take a nap…

oh – the boys are back…

you light up my night

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Yes!

the solar collector works!

both heads and bodies!

 

Not bad for 0dark30. The birds don’t provide enough light to be able to navigate, but, hey – they are fun!

I am thinking about getting

 

(the game was much harder fought today with the As pulling out a 3:2 victory in the bottom of the 9th thanks to the White Sox’s short stop who bobbled what should have been a double play ball, with the subsequent throw being off. Pinder meanwhile blasted past second and kept on going. Crossing the plate with the winning run – it was secondary to an error rather than a hit, but no one cared. It was incredible to watch and it is great to have the Sweep. Jon Jay? Left field today – but we chose to use his name rather than Tilsen who pulled right field duty. Never let it be said that we don’t know the name of the opposing team’s right fielder.

 

two is a lonely number

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I looked at those two flamingos – and all the empty space around them.

Sad.

two for the price of one

 

so there are now four birds (these two also have solar cells attached).

I am taking my entertainment where I can find it – and it normally is in small and quiet moments. These make me smile.

(As did the As game – it was a 13:2 rout.   Then there was the issue of the White Sox’s right fielder. Jon Jay. Apparently he couldn’t understand the post run cheer – “we love you Oakland, we do (x3), not you [right fielder’s name]” and filled in something else in his head. Complained. Security came to talk to us. We looked at them like they were insane. Said they should talk to any of the security who had been working the park for more than a day. Like the cheer hadn’t changed in at least 10 years. The end result is that there was a replacement right fielder starting with the 7th inning. Didn’t change the cheer – nor several repeats of “we want Jay….

I don’t think the White Sox have been in Oakland for a few years. Certainly this particular right fielder seems to have played for enough different teams over the years that he should have know about RF149. My prediction is that he will be in left field tomorrow. Since the left field bleachers had been know for flags, chants, and noise makers, I don’t think that will be any more peaceful….

and a solar friend

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lights up!

One flamingo, all alone, that just wan’t right. You don’t see single flamingos, but small numbers to huge numbers. But not a single flamingo. The Eldest and I attempted to locate a companion by checking with the local gardening stores and hardware stores. (I attempt to buy local before reverting to amazon). Apparently it is just too late in the year and they had all flown off. After checking JoAnn’s, East Bay Garden Supply, an Ace Hardware and looking on line at Home Depot- I gave up.

This lovely bird has a solar cell (that black thing part way down the stake) which charges over 8 hours, then is supposed to light up for at least eight hours.

We will see….