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!!!