Sunset

Continuing on the theme of this year, it's been strange. Since options are somewhat limited, my wife and I for our anniversary returned to the same place we had gone last year. Instead of dining at the great Italian restruant and seeing a movie, we got Carl's Jr, pizza, and watched TV. It was a nice getaway, nonetheless.

It's up in Oxnard, a pretty nice resort right on the beach. Really spacious rooms for the price, and they have a breakfast buffett.

The last time we were there, the wind was whipping in off the ocean, freezing cold, and the visibility wasn't great.

This year, it was a lot nicer, and clear. I headed out to the beach the first night just as the sun was setting, and it was stunning!!!

I couldn't stop taking pictures, and they for the most part came out great!!!

This family with two girls were heading out to check it out, too, and I happened to get them silouhetted against the water. I considered showing it to the parents and offering to text it to them, but decided against it.

The moon was just a sliver, and I was trying to get it in several pictures, and did, but it's pretty small in most of them.

In case you were wondering, those are the channel islands out there.

The water receding with the sky reflecting was a good subject, as well as the waves crashing sending up plumes of spray, and the occasional sea birds.

And, as I headed back, I decided to mess with the night shot setting, and got this dramatic shot of the sand!!!

The Catbird Seat

Another thing I ended up doing on Christmas day here!!!

The day before my younger son and I were cleaning off the patio in preperation for having people over. One of the things that was back there was the foot rest from another recliner that we'd trashed. This was probably over a year ago, I'd saved the foot rest with the intention of just such a project as this!!!

I'd done it before, and it's still in use. Since cats tend to like high perches, I thought the boy cat would like this!!!

Once again, I mounted the rest to some wood bars to span the width, then mounted it to a couple of angle brackets, and ran one long to add a pad to lengthen it, and put it close to the 2 x 4 claw post I'd mounted to the end of the original perch, with the thought that it might be used as the egress to get up to it. It all mounts above the back door, and he should have a view into the boy's room from up there.

I placed him up there, and he investigated it for a bit, then appeared to make himself comfortable up there for a while. I stuck him up there again today, and he watched as the boy exited his room. I have yet to see him head up there on his own, but he doesn't have a problem getting down, so hopefully he gets some use out of it!!!

Interior Design

Welcome to the day after Christmas post!!! What a Christmas it was!!! I don't think I've posted about it here, but around the time we were swapping engines, my mom ended up having to go into the hospital. From around the time my father died, she had been having quite a bit of pain in her hip. Turned out to be pseudogout, and she had surgery for it. While she was in a rehab place, her implanted defibulator went off, and after that they didn't want her going home unless there was someone else there. I asked my first born if he thought he could handle it, and he's been living with her ever since!!! She says he takes very good care of her, and he's always cooking something fancy up. Anyway, we'd had Thanksgiving at her house, and that was overwhelming for her, so she wanted to come to our house for Christmas. My sister and her son also came, as well as my wife's uncle. Said uncle and I were out on the back patio when my mom and firstborn showed up, and we were heading down to give her a hand up to the house, as the street is sloped, and then there's the stairs. While we were on the way down, she got out of the car, and promptly fell over!!! Got her up, cleaned off the pine needles and detrius, and got her an ice pack. Apparently, she's doing much better today. Later on in the afternoon, the cat attacked my nephew and sister!!! My first born ended up getting a long scratch down the length of his arm while breaking up the attack, then, appalled at the state of the cabinet under the sink while my wife searched for gauze, re-organized that!!!

But back to Christmas and the topic at hand for this post. The younger had been mentioning that he'd like to get a New California Republic flag from the Fallout game series. I picked up on that, and had one thing to get for him for Christmas. We hung it in his room that very day.

And, while on the topic of hanging things up, at the same time I went ahead and hung up this tapestry he'd come across back before his last birthday, which we got for him back then. I knew I had a box of screw in hooks, but I couldn't locate where they'd gotten off to!!! Bought another box, and a week or two later, I came across some loops with clips on 'em, which I thought would work out good for hanging it. That was a long time coming!!! I'd actually written it down on a list of things to do after I got off work, along with painting the front steps that I recently had replaced, just a couple of weeks ago.

I was trying to get a picture with them in it, but they were showing up as white when I tried. Last year for Christmas we'd gotten him an LED rope light that you can adjust the color by remote with. Orange is his favorite color, so that's the color he almost always has it on. Originally, we'd stuck it to the celieng with the enclosed adhesive squares, but that lasted less than a week. That's where the first box of hooks came in, screwed several in, and have the rope swagged around the room with them. It makes the tapestry look pretty nice!!!

One of his friends had visited, and noting that his room is the only one with the wood paneled walls, that it's like a man cave!!! Got manny in there, too!!!

I'm Dreaming of a Hillbilly Christmas

The day after Thanksgiving I set up the outdoor Christmas decorations. Previous years, I've had Christmas lights, starting soon after we'd moved in with strings of incandescant lights. I bought a few strings, and later found some true vintage ones that came with the house. In the last 5 or 6 years, I replaced those with LED lights. The last couple of years, I hadn't been able to find them, since the firstborn moved into the basement and moved a lot of stuff around. Last year I picked up a laser pattern projector for a very reasonable price. It's a great little device, easy to set up and makes a good look.

Right before Thanksgiving, one of my co-workers had their Christmas tree set up in the background in one of our video meetings. It got a little attention, and got me to thinking... I've got my workspace set up in the corner, one of the best seats in the house, with windows to my left and behind me. I could do some decoraton behind myself, some lights or garland or possibly a wreath, but there's no way I could set up a Christmas tree. Or is there??? The wheels began to turn...

We have aluminum awinings over the windows, and we have a fairly campy and hideous pink artifical tree. A few years back, we replaced pinky with a white one to work with the color wheel that was also in the basement that came with the house. It's fairly lightweight. I took some bailing wire and wrapped it around the upper part of the tree, and suspended it from the awining, just over my left shoulder while I'm working. The second picture, you can see some of the laser projections on the house.

I also bought another string of lights, solar powered LED with a remote, that I used on the tree, as well as about half of the awning along the front. I set the solar panel up on a board under the air conditiong unit for now. I may just keep the lights on the awinings permanent, and if I do, I'll make up a better mount. I'm not sure if I will, the remote doesn't work very well.

When we have our morninig huddle, it's still dark out, so I can turn the lights on for it. It shows up nice in the afternoons on the video, too. My co-workers have voiced their approvoal, and I'm pleased with the way it came out. From the outside of the house, though, I have a feeling it may look more than a little bizzare to passerby!!!

Met the Man, Shook his Hand

I had a dream thanksgiving night. It was interesting & pretty vivid, so I thought I'd share it here!!!

We were in a hotel on a vacation. It was south of here, part way to San Diego, probably around the Carlsbad area, but in my dream it was in Chula Vista, even though that is pretty much right by San Diego. It was a large suite with seperate rooms, and a large living room area and full kitchen, a nice place. It was around 11 AM and we were just getting up (you know, because we're on vacation!) My wife had made a small batch of oatmeal cookies the previous night, and she had gotten up and said she was going to make another batch up for breakfast. OK, sounds good!!! I had a couple of other places I was thinking of going to to eat, one of them Smash Burger, don't remember what the other was, and figured we'd make those lunch and dinner.

About 10 minuites later, I realized that it was our last day there!!! Ut oh!!! I told everyone to start getting their stuff together, but I'm going to call the front desk and see if we can get a late check-out. I picked up the phone that was on the bar adjacent to the kitchen, an old style touch tone phone, and hit the button for the desk. I told the lady who answered it is our last day, but we're not quite ready to go, could we get a late check-out? She replies, "I can give you a $20 credit". I ask what does that mean? Is there a charge to stay later, and we'll get a credit towards it??? Do we have to pay for another day, but we can apply the $20 to that??? She's not sure, and is going to check with someone and puts me on hold. I'm holding, and thinking I'm OK with paying for another day, I've got more time off and wouldn't mind staying another day. I grab an apple out of the fridge and start eating it, because there's no cookies yet, and I'm a little hungry. I don't know if she'd stopped making them or they just weren't ready.

Sometime around this, while I'm holding, the scene shifts, as sometimes happens in dreams. I'm still at a counter like the bar the phone was on, but now I'm in what looks like a large, open concept office. There's very few people there, and some of the lights are off. Then, in through one of the doors, comes Alex Trebek!!!

It's a younger Alex than we've been seeing lately, he has the bushy black mustache, but his hair is short and slicked to his head. He's walking into an office just by where I'm at, and I must have said something to him, because he stops and we talk. I tell him I'd shake his hand, but I've got apple juice sticky all over that hand. He replies something to the effect of, "Apple juice washes off, but you won't have a chance to shake my hand again."

So I reach out and shook hands with Alex.

And I tell him, "You son of a bitch!!!", because I'd realized right around that point that I was dreaming.

Golden Hour

A week back, I took Scruffy for an alignment. Having the front subframe removed had messed it up. The update on the swap, I ran into an issue bolting the transmission to the engine, and ended up damaging the pump on the transmission, so, since I've never had too much luck working on transmissions, ended up having it towed to the transmission shop. When I picked it up, started off with the oil warning light on. That spooked me, I shut it right off, and checked the oil. All the way full. OK, must be the wire to the sensor or something, right? Start driving it back, and after a while, it goes off, but the low coolant light starts blinking. That doesn't concern me much, I hadn't had a chance to do anything with the cooling system other than fill it with water and cooling system flush, and the needle is in the normal area. It turned off a few miles later, but then the temprature light went on, and the gauge heads to the top!!! I'm in traffic, and before I could even start working my way off to the side, the gauge drops, and the light goes off. Then the oil light comes on again. Once I got it home, I drained, rinsed and filled the cooling system, and checked the oil pressure wire. Everything looked good, and it never came on again. Passed smog with no problems, and other than the alignment, everything is fine!!!

The alignment shop I use is in Glendale. I had gone after I got off work. I asked the tech about how long he thought it would take, and after he told me around 45 minutes, told him I was going on a walk. Since I've been seeing it for years but had never been there, I headed straight for the local graveyard!!!

Imposing brick walls and an iron gate surround the property.

Within, there is much beauty among the dead.

Many statues, and great views of the surrounding area.

It's been years since I've gone through a graveyard taking pictures. I remembered why it works out so well.

I haven't been getting as much walking in as I would like to these days, with the time change it's not as easy to get out in the afternoons before it's getting dark. This was a great one, not only did I cover a good amount of distance, but I got to do a bit of uphill walking, too!!!

On the subject of it getting dark early, it so coincided with my walking time that I was in the right place for the "golden hour", as the sun makes it's final descent on the horizon.

I was glad to have been there for it!!!

All in a Day's Work

I've been wanting to get the engine pulled out of 3 for a while, but as always happens,life gets busy. The plan, of course, was to swap it into Scruffy. Well, smog check time is coming up, and the P0410 air injection code has been coming back on and off. Took it over for the check, it had been a good spell without the light coming on. Less than a block away, it comes on. Sigh. I pull off onto a side street and reset it, then for the check, it hadn't gotten enough data to re calibrate it, so it failed. He checked the exhaust afterwards, and it's got a little smoke coming out, and he says it fails for that, too, but I think he wouldn't have gone there if the computer check had passed.

So, this weekend took it down to my parents' house where there's a big, flat driveway and went to work. It drove way better than I'd thought it would, with the steering wheel all tweaked. To make things easy, the hood comes off first, and since it was tweaked, pulled the whole front bumper cover off, as well as the headlights. The bumper core had an amazing crease down the middle, and the side of the frame rail was nicely accordioned, but I didn't get a shot of that.

Of course, it's not a one-man job, at least not for me!!! I enlisted the younger boy, and he comported himself quite admirably, considering he has close to zero experience working on cars. There's a multitude of little stuff to disconnect and remove, and he helped with a good amount of it, as well as the actual removal. Pretty much got all but one thing disconnected, the connection from the steering rack to the column. Started lowering it down, and that side wasn't dropping.

Speaking of dropping, that was the method I elected to go with, disconnect everything, unbolt the subframe (only 4 bolts!!!) then lower it out the bottom. I'd heard of people doing it with lifts, and figured I'd have to drop it, then the weight would shift more to the back, and I'd probably have to raise the body some more. Got it dropped, and it's within a couple inches of clearing. Got on the back bumper and bounced on it, and it looked like there was close to enough room to slide it out. My son couldn't get it moving, so we switched, and got it rolled out!!!

There it is!!! Gotta do the same to Scruffy, and I'm planning on unbolting the engine from the transmission, and swapping it to the recently rebuilt transmission in Scruffy.

All in a day, I couldn't be more pleased with the progress!!!

Critter Country

Something unique about visiting Catalina, even in the "big city" of Avalon, you always seem to be pretty close to nature. You've got the ocean to the front, and hills and mountains all around.

As you get out of the city, you are more apt to see wildlife, but even within, there is some to be seen. The day we arrived, we went over a block to get some lunch, fairly late in the afternoon. My wife finished all she could of her sandwich, and left a fair amount of bread. There were a few sparrows, so we began tearing off chunks, as you do, as tossing them to 'em. Didn't take too long before a crow picked up on the free buffet!!!

Usually you don't see them that close, but we lured him to the next table, and then he hopped up on the railing. I've heard that crows have great memories, so perhaps we've made a friend for life!!!

On the way over to Descanto Beach on our first evening walk, I got a shot of a bunch of gulls roosting on a breakwater, with a glorious near full moon!!! After I took my shot, my boy ran out after them and scattered them while I took a video. I thought it would have been a funny vengance if one had circled back and pooped on him, but that didn't happen.

The next day when we were at Descanto Beach Club for breakfast, a gull came and perched on top of an umbrella directly at eye level with us... Hope they don't have long memories!

That evening, we walked out on the pier. Earlier in the day, we'd been out on the pier and several people were fishing off the end. The kelp bass were biting, and we got to see several get reeled in. As we left the hotel, my boy spied a dollar on the ground!!! He thinks it's a lucky dollar, because afterwards we saw a couple of the kind of animals we'd never see back home!!!

Out there, you've got the noise of the surf on the beach and the pilings, and the surrounding boats in the surf. Heard some splashes off the side, and looking over there, there's a gray blur under the surface... Then it pops up!!!

There was a porpoise, or several of them, in Avalon harbor!!! Didn't think I'd ever see that!!! Not a great picture, but I took some video, and it came out a little better, even though there's a lot of it with not much going on.

After that, we headed to the back of the town. One of the streets lead to a park as it goes back into the hills. If I'm not mistaken, as a teen when we'd gone on a couple of family vacations over there, my brother in law and I had biked back to the same park in the evening and sat there for a while. Anyway, as we walked back there, we caught sight of this guy!!! It was a Catalina Island fox, native only to the island!!!

Got a few pictures of him, and a video of him doing his thing. Then my son goes, "I'm going to see how close I can get to him!!!" OK, hold on, I'll take a video of that. Started the video, he starts towards him, and Mr. Fox skitters off up the hillside, all in about a two second clip!!!

Armored

I finally got this together last week!!!

You may recall I had the rocker panel on the exhaust side had melted down, after the exhaust had bottomed out a few times.

It was a messy looking meltdown. I'd trimmed around the top edge, so it had a hole all the way through already.

I bought some aluminum tube, and trimmed it to fit with the clearance.

And there's the mock-up!!! You may notice a couple of little button head screws on the back. I added a 1/2" x 1/8" aluminum bar back there.

In the mock up picture I had button heads holding it on. From the beginning I'd had the idea of using square neck bolts. Here's after I'd filed one of the holes square.

And some high-temprature paint on the guard and the bolts. Also pictured, I bought a plug for a piece I always remove from the air filter box.

Putting it back on, I had trouble locating the back hole, so I was using the camera as a mirror to see what I was doing. Ended up with a working selfie!!!

Came out pretty decent!!!

Today I did an oil change in preperation for an upcoming smog check, and while I had her up on stands, took the pipe off to give it a fresh coat of paint.