The Chime Tower Story

Here's one I keep meaning to share, ever since I heard the tale, way back in 2013!!!

That was the year we vacationed on Catalina for the second time, and on that visit, we did a behind the scenes tour of the Casino. Since that was so long ago, I don't have any of my own pictures available (I know ABOUT where they are, likely on the hard drive from my old Toshiba laptop, but I'm in no mood to dig through. Should buy a external HD and consolidate all my pictures!!!), so these are all web-sourced.

The Casino is an amazing classical building, with a theatre downstairs, and a huge dance floor on the top level. Of course, along with a lot of other stuff there, it was built by chewing gum magnate by William Wrigley Jr. If you notice from the ariel view, it has a couple of wings on either side. Instead of having staircases, these wings house ramps to ascend about 12 stories worth of height, the same style as he has at Wrigley Field in Chicago. I had a much better shot showing the ramp, but this is the only image I was able to find.

In a previous post, I had mentioned that the Catalina Buffalo had been brought over for the film adaptation of Zane Grey's "The Vanishing American", and that Zane had lived on the island for a while. He loved fishing, and built himself a Pueblo style house, or more accurately, a compound overlooking Avalon and the sea beyond. He also did some correspondent work for a Chicago newspaper, writing for the society page, as there were several of the rich and famous who visited Catalina.

One evening, the Wriglys were hosting an event at the Casino. Ada Wrigley was coming down one of the ramps, and her shoe hooked on the carpet and she ate it. Zane Grey witnessed it, and the incedent was reported in the newspaper. Naturally, Mrs. Wrigley was not amused. You'll notice there isn't any carpet in the picture of the ramp, she had it removed.

Not long after, Mrs. Wrigley announced that she was presenting a gift to the city of Avalon, the Catalina Chimes Tower, which chime every 15 minutes from 8 AM to 8 PM.

Located directly across from the Zane Grey compound.

Nesting Season

Here's one you could file under the heading of "instant blogging", or one I've been sitting on for a while. It's actually I'd guess close to a month and a half coming.

To start off, this was at my parents' house. Just outside the walk-in door to the garage, a hummingbird couple had made their nest. Looks quite a bit, to me, like they found a good deal of the material in a paper shredder!!! That's my mom's hand in the first picture, with the tiny little eggs, smaller than your standard size jelly bean.

And there's momma bird, sitting on her eggs.

I don't know how long after they'd hatched this was, but that's the chicks a while after having hatched.

And, the final shot of the hummingbirds, I was holding up a smallish key, not in the foreground, but right next to the nest, for scale.

Around the back yard, there's a cow skull decoration mounted on the wall. Turns out to be a perfect place for a dove to build her nest!!!

This was while we were having a lunch there, probably for Easter. My younger tells me I should do a selfie with the dove on her nest... so that's what I did!!!

And, finally, I got to watch almost the whole process on these finches!!! This is right outside my work area, turning my head about 30° to the left from my monitors. I saw when momma and daddy started showing up, bringing nesting materials and weaving them into a nest.

Within around 2 1/2 to 3 weeks, they'd hatched, and the finch parents were bringing them noms. They grew up quick, and within a couple of weeks had left the nest.

I had been wanting to re-string the lights I'd gotten for my hanging Christmas tree at the end of last year, to run them all the way along the awnings, but I didn't want to disturb them, so I held off until they were gone. Speaking of disturbing them, back when it was the egg-sitting phase, I'd let the cat out into the front room once, and he would get up by the window, and stare at them, and they would get spooked and fly off. When I had the ladder set up, re-stringing the lights, he was at the same window watching me!!!

C-C-C-Combo Breaker!!!

- OR -

The time has come again, to shop for and replace a car. Jade has been super reliable and runs great, but, like many a Saturn, goes through the oil. More than any of the others we've had. When starting, it's a big puff of oily smoke, and then again anytime you take off from a stop. I was thinking it was last year my wife had taken her and got a smog check, so we'd have until next year, but apparently I was off. Another thing, my wife does have mobility issues, and getting in and out of Jade had become more difficult, especally when she'd be on the passenger side, and the curb would encroach on the door. I had been thinking about a Toyota or Honda mini van, so I could have the option of hauling 4' x 8' sheets of plywood if I wanted. She wasn't crazy about that idea, a good deal of the objection being getting worse mileage. I've driven Mazda 5 mini vans, which are quite mini, and thought that might be a good option, but there aren't many out there, and they don't get great mileage, either. It's getting increasingly difficult to find S-series Saturns with low miles. Honda Fits get pretty good mileage, but it seems like many of them have a lot of miles on them. Civic hybrids seem to be one of the few hybrids that the price is low enough to consider. I was also still thinking about possibly stepping up to a Fiat electric, until I took a look at the back seats on one, and realized they are mostly for appearance only. Chevy Sparks, they had a few with electric powertrain, too, but the price wasn't much better, and damn they are kinda ugly! Various conventional Civics and Corollas are also on my list.

I've been trying to get in touch with people advertising what appeared to be good options, but as usual there are many flakes out there. One of the first guys I was able to actually start a dialouge with had a Saturn Astra 5-door, red with a sunroof under 100k miles, with the price reduced about $400 from a previous ad. The Astra is a rebadged Opel, and I'd always liked the look of them. It was located what would have been an hour to hour and a half north of us, so I did a good amount of research first, even running a Car Fax on it, since it has a salvage certificate. The price was low enough that I was ready to buy it sight unseen (in the flesh, at least), provided it didn't crab-walk when I test drove it. Since it was such a drive, I asked the guy if he could get a smog before I came out. He said he would, then later messaged me saying he wanted me to test drive it first, then he'd get it smogged right then. WELL, after I get off work, and make it out there and tested it even 15 minutes, it would be getting close to 5, right around when smog places are shutting down. You know what, I don't have time for your games, get bent. The search continues...

Now these, the Toyota Matrix-Pontiac Vibe twins, they're kinda nice!!! High sitting, with a roomy hatch area and what turns out to be a very upright seating position, all built on the Corolla engine and suspension!!! They are another one where a lot of them have a lot of miles already, but we found this one with only 125k miles, just getting started for a Toyota, if you are to beleive the hype!!!

The asking price was $3,900, way above where I would have liked it to be, but for the lower miles it has, I'd take a look and see if I could get him to move. In person, it appeared a little more rough, with a fist-sized dent in the hood and a scrape on the passenger side rear door and quarter panel, and faded bumper paint and the front of the roof, but still fairly decent. Inside looked pretty nice.

I'd been getting cash together to get something for a while, and had $3,200 in cash. Told the guy the asking price is a little rich. I'd really like to get it under $3,000, which is the most I'd ever spent on a car, but I understood that was quite a move. He countered with $3,500. I considered, then told him I have $3,200 in cash, and he agreed!!!

So, there it is, the combo breaker, the first car in the last five that hasn't been a Saturn, my first return to Toyota since the 90's (also our first Toyota that hasn't been a Celica), and the first ever car I've spent more than $3,000 on. I'm not sure about the "newest" car I've had, it's 2006, so 15 years old, I'm pretty sure when I bought my dad's Camaro off him, it was newer.

As we were out driving the other day, the discussion of naming it came up. I felt like it was too early, you kinda got to get to know a car before a name comes to fit. However, I did start the red pill dialouge, you know, since it is a Matrix. My wife says it could be named Neo, or be named after the guy who played Neo... you know... Ashton Kucher!!! I was losing it laughing, and she was all but convinced that was who had played him!!! So, I kinda like Keanu Kucher for her!!!

Oh, and the front liscense plate frame, it has an inset on the top that has gone missing, but that's the lower half, "Reload"

Seems appropriate, and familiar...

Flushing More $$$

A few weeks ago, we had another clog in the plumbing. As I have previously stated, old construction sometimes has these issues.

The main area it tends to clog seems to be the upstairs toilet, where it goes from horizontal to the vertical drain pipe. When we had first moved in, I had un clogged it by going up on the roof, and using a long pipe down the roof vent. Later, I made up a weight with spikes around the outside with an eyebolt on it, that I would attach to a rope and drop down the vent.

I broke out the weight and used it, for the first time in a long time, and cleared it out. Over the weekend before last, it happened again. I returned to the roof, and tried again. I could tell the clog was moving down, but it didn't seem to break through like it has on previous occasions. Sure enough, the water had gone down in the toilet, so I tried flushing it, and it started backing up into the tub!!!

I called the number of a drain cleaning company I'd gotten a card from when they were out clearing my neighbors' drain, but they said they would have to come the next day. I called the same company who had done the outside line back in 2013, and they were out in an hour. They ran their camera into the pipe, and declared it was not only clogged, but had a break in the line down under the basement. Well, you know, a man will pay a good amount to have his fancy indoor plumbing!!!

In the first and fourth picture, you can see a 2" PVC pipe with a rubber adapter to the 4" steel pipe. That was one of the first plumbing jobs I'd done not long after we had moved in. That's the drain from the washing machine, which was broken by the first guy who'd came out last time. When we moved in, it was dropped into the 4" pipe, with a bunch of rags stuffed around it, and it was one of the first things that would back up. I added the rubber adapter. I always kind of wondered what happend under the concrete, it's right next to the pipe from upstairs. Once it was dug up, I got to see what happens. This is in the water heater room, and the other shot is in the walk in closet or pantry on the other side of the wall, just behind the downstairs bathroom.

Anyway, they shunted the washer drain right into the main pipe, with a clean out added in, replaced most of the pipe, and did a trenchless coating on the remaining stretch between the inside and the outside. These guys aren't cheap, but they are about the only home service repair people that I haven't had any complaints about, so I'm OK with it!!!

And, once the concrete was replaced, I was able to put the mark and date on it!!!