Beach Boys

I've previously mentioned that one of my favorite things to do is to go to the beach. Ordinarily, I only end up making it once or twice a year, sometimes on or around my birthday, and sometimes when I'm on vacation.

It so happens that surrogate son also happens to love going to the beach, and since I've had some latitude in my schedule these days, I've been able to go several times this summer!!!

I think this may have been on the trip I'd previously posted about. Surrogate son was forming perfect spheres of the sand!!!

There's a pile of them in the foreground, in the shadow.

This was another trip we made to Horny Corner, with surrogate son's sister and another friend. I think his mom may have been there that time as well.

I know one time, maybe two times, my younger and surrogate son had gone when I had something else I was doing. We have a large duffel bag that has our beach towels, swimsuits, and sunscreen in it, and he'd taken a smaller bag with just his towel, suit, and sunscreen. One of the times, he didn't get the sunscreen swapped from the smaller bag, and got a sunburn. This time, he looked like he'd been slapped on the shoulder by someone with a lot of sunscreen on their hand, and that area didn't burn or tan!!!

This is the sand structure that we made on that day. I started out by drawing the moat, then removed the sand and piled it up in the middle. The moat wanted to cave in. The setting sun made for a cool effect on it!!!

Something else I'd not mentioned, Grill 'Em All has relocated down to Horny Corner!!! They used to be next to a theater in Alhambra, and I'd been there at least once. I was familiar with Grill 'Em All because they would help out at the Oinkster during Burger Week, and I think Oinkster may have featured some of their burgers during it.

They've still got the metal theme going, but now with a beachy locale and vibe!!! I may have been craving a premium gourmet burger... Anyway, on the same day, we ate there, and it was awesome!!!

I like the picture of surrogate giving his sister the side-eye!!!

Surrogate son got the Behemoth, which is served on two Texas Toast grilled cheese sandwiches!!! It was too much for him!!! I got the Witte, which has cream cheese, deep fried bacon, sriracha, malt vinegar aioli, and grilled onions. It was glorious!!! Also got an order of Primate Fries, basically In-N-Out's animal style fries, but the fries are better.

Got this picture of the seagulls in the run off channel from the showers on another trip to Horny Corner. In the background, you can see the inflatable play floats they've got set up out there. They only let a limited amount of people on at a time, of course, and depending on the day, there can be a line to go on it. We went one time, and on our most recent time down there they'd taken them down for the season.

We've also gone a few times to Santa Monica beach. I like it a little better, it's got some surf. The first time we went there, surrogate son had wanted to walk out on the pier, so after the sun had gone down and we'd changed, we did. It drops down on the end for a fishing platform, and when we were heading down, one guy had his pole bent down, so we had to stay and see what he caught. Turned out to be a spiny lobster!!! I'm pretty sure you're not allowed to catch them with a pole...

Got a nice sunset picture...

And the fabled pier...

Last time we were there, a Coast Guard chopper doing maneuvers. It was kicking up a good amount of vapor with the rotor wash!!! Stayed around for a while.

Another beach selfie with another friend!!! This was on the time before the last time we went to the beach.

Oh, I had a cooler that I would usually take that came with our house. It was old, and as it got used more, the plastic on the edges and the lid started cracking. I bought a similar size replacement, and then a couple of weeks later, I was taking a walk, and one of our neighbors had a give away pile that had another similar sized cooler, but with a split lid, so now I've got two. They also had a nice boogie board that I grabbed, but we only made it to Santa Monica one time since I got it, and the surf wasn't great for boarding, the waves would crash as soon as they formed.

We stopped by a Taco Bell on the way back. Next door was a donut place, and on the side wall, they had the donut angel background!!! It has a little curb that you have to hop up onto, and it's not easy to balance. Took pictures of surrogate son and myself in front of it, but we were both off center. I moved the donut on his picture!!!

Going Back to Grandview

A couple weeks back we took another vacation. I'd had the week sceduled off for some time, and leading up to it, I was considering where to vacation. The Disney parks are doing a locals special where you can go 3 days for less than $100 per day, and it's been years since I've been there, so I was thinking of doing that. My wife was on board, but when I ran it past my son, he was less enthused. See, for several years his school had gone on regular outings there, so he's had a pretty good fill of them. He opined that for himself, Legoland was some true nostalgia. It's been a while, and I've always liked it, so we decided to go there.

The first night we were in the area, after we ate and checked into our lodgings, the boy and I headed over to Encinitas to revisit the beach we'd gone to five years ago, and this time to take some pictures!!!

Once again, it was dark by the time we got there, but the stairs are illuminated, and phone cameras actually do an amazingly good job of gathering the available light!!!

The tide wasn't at it's highest this time, but there still wasn't a lot of beach showing.

After taking several pictures, we stashed our phones and put on our swim trunks, but didn't do much more than getting wet up to our knees.

The water wasn't nearly as warm as last time we were there, but we still enjoyed it.

One of my favorite pictures is this "shadow selfie", that I hadn't even realized I'd gotten until I looked at it later!!!

Boomerang

Back towards the beginning of this month, we heard from the firstborn. He's coming out from where he's been in upstate New York, driving out. Wow, we haven't seen him in a while!!! A little more than a year.

So, he shows up, with his old lady friend from school following along. She's moved out to Ontario, and she followed from there. Surprise, he's done with his Navy career!!! Apparently, he took the test for the position he signed up for twice, and didn't quite pass, so they offered him to either go forward with a lower paying position, or he can bail. He opted for the latter. General discharge, and he thinks he can get it changed to honorable after six months.

My parents wanted to visit with him, so they came up and took us all out to lunch at Slaters 50/50. That's where the top picture is from.

He doesn't seem like he's got much plan for doing anything right off, but he's got some skill set and education now, so hopefully that translates into something good for him. He's finally moved into the basement. Actually, that's not true, around a week back his girl and him both headed off to Frisco, and he hasn't been back since.

Back on Friday the 13th, a local tattoo shop was doing a special where you could get a tattoo for $13. Low cost of ink, indeed!!! Well, a tattoo the size of a quarter for $13, so a scaled larger for a scaled up amount. They went down and were waiting all night for their ink. I forget how much it was, but it seemed like a very reasonable amount. Ironic that the boy got a naval looking one after he's out.

His lady got the eclipse one on her wrist.

Night Surf

A couple weeks back, we went on a vacation with extended family down towards San Diego. We actually stayed in Encinitas, a ways north of there, just south of Carlsbad. Our hotel was only a block from the ocean, which was a good part of the reason we'd stayed there.

Every single day we did some sort of touristy thing, which was quite a drain on my parents. The second day we went to Legoland, and my parents and my wife had had enough by late afternoon, and were ready to head back. I could keep going, and my youngest and niece and nephew were all good to stay until closing, so they split and we closed that place down. On the way back, we talked a bit about going to the beach. There are houses all along the coast, so I checked and saw that there was a beach access just a couple blocks north of where we were staying, and, of course, that block over. We all decided that the four of us could go for heading over and checking it out when we got back.

It was a bit different than we'd expected. Instead of the block over sloping down to the shore area, it rose up quite a bit. At the end, it came down a bit, but not as much as the rise. From there, it starts off with a concrete path, with areas of steps going down at intervals. From there, it transitioned to wood steps heading down. Straight down, at the end, and DIRECTLY INTO THE OCEAN!!! Well, we weren't expecting THAT!!! Turns out, we caught it right at an extreme high tide!!! The beach has bluffs that rise up from the back of it pretty straight up.

The waves would recede and reveal the sand of the shore, and just to the right around 50 feet, there is a lifeguard tower, backed right up to the bluffs. My niece was the first to decide that she would make a run for it when the waves receded. She made it, of course getting splashed a bit in the process. The rest of us headed over, and stashed our gear on the tower and did a bit of shore wading. The water was very mild, and the evening was pretty warm, too. My niece had brought her purse (go figure), and among the things contained therein was a GoPro camera, which she broke out to shoot a little bit of video. Don't know how that came out, but I'd like to see.

Of course, I didn't bring a camera, so the two actual "beach" pictures are stolen from the web, and the first pic is image searching the title of this post. By the way, said title was lifted from the Stephen King short story that spawned "The Stand". Grandview Beach is what this beach is called... I cannot attest to the view, but even from the shore area, you could see a lot more stars than back home.

Good times!!!

Delayed ARRRR-gain!!!

Aye, there be no good reasonin' that I'ma not sharrin' about me vacation yet. Truth be told, aye've the pictures & much text just a-waitin' aboard. Howbeit, we were on a voyage o 7 days, aye we were, yet here it be "talk like a pirate day" again, and aye were constrain'd to be puttin' up a proper pirate-y post!!!

So, here be it!!! One of me souvenirs of me voyage. Right pirate-y Aye do say!!! Every time I be passin' the window, I'da be admirin' it. Avast, when I actually be gettin' in the shop, turns out the scurvy bilge rats be carryin' no stock but in youth sizes!!! Betimes, aye were layin' me eye on the first that I came upon, and it be a youth XL... Perchance it be fittin' on yer old pal Aye!!! Indeed, it 'twere!!!

Keep an even keel, more be a-comin' over the horizion!!!

Mysteries of the Deep

As mentioned in my previous post, when we visited Leo Carrillo State Beach last week, we'd found the lid to a baby grand piano. It worked as an incredibly effective, if somewhat cumbersome and heavy, skim board. I got fairly winded dragging it back to a good start point over and over,



Of course, the underlying question is how did it get there to begin with???
Was it on a ship from whatever the country of origin was that was caught in a storm??? The piano from the Titanic??? (Not likely on that one, I suspect it had a concert grand) A wild party at someone's beach house??? Being an affluent area most anywhere along the beach, could it have been a mishap while a piano was being delivered??? Insurance fraud, disposed of the evidence in the murky depths??? One of the images I found was actually of a mystery piano that appeared in Biscayne bay... I notice the lid is absent in that picture, could it have come loose there and migrated to the West coast???



Since this encounter, I've been considering making a smaller skim board for next time...

Cowboy-Ninja-Pirate-Knight

A little something I found on the desktop of my desktop from a while back... Hardly ever use the desktop now that I've got the laptop!!! Isn't the test title enough to make you want to try it out???

Your result for The Cowboy-Ninja-Pirate-Knight Test...

a Pirate

You scored 6 Honor, 4 Justice, 6 Adventure, and 8 Individuality!

Arr matey. You may belive in honor, and justice, and you certainly have a sense of adventure. But mostly, you play by your own rules. Your code is your own and you are flexible in most situations.

Dress flamboyant and look into a parrot. I think you'll do fine.

Take The Cowboy-Ninja-Pirate-Knight Test at HelloQuizzy

Lego Somali Pirates

As tweeted about last night, here's the Lego Somali pirates!!! I literally laughed hard for about a minute at the end!!!

A Million Things Run Through My Mind

This could be a random post, for the small bits of various things I've got going on. Or I could just focus on what all the pictures are about. Probably a touch of both. Halfway through edit of the opening paragraph: Make that the first four pictures, if you get tired of reading about my fabrication, scroll down for random.



I did the sketch at the top on Friday at work. It's for the vacuum bleed valve assembly I'm rigging up for Janice. The next picture shows it's current incarnation. You can see how I've welded the arm onto a shaft collar, and hooked it into the throttle linkage. For testing purposes, I used a little C clamp to hold it in place. Nice thing about the shaft collar set up, all you have to do to adjust the initial static position is loosen the allen bolt.



The next two pictures are of the action. I'm holding it at full throttle (full fuel??? Not really throttle on a diesel) and in the other one, it's at the idle position. Seems to work pretty good, for the most part. I'd like it to open a little bit slower, it tends to drop the vacuum signal rather suddenly, and I'd like it to open a little farther at the end, as it doesn't make it all the way to zero vacuum. Other than that, it works great. The position of the original valve is mounted on the injector pump on the side of the engine, with a teeter totter type linkage running it. Of course, the first thought was to keep the needle valve somewhere in that area, but I realized I'd have to do something to flip it around the opposite way, because the linkage would want to close rather than open it. If you look at my sketch, you may notice that I put the L pivot part backwards, where I'd be doing exactly that, too.



However, the modification that I've incorporated in the sketch is what it was about, the means to get it there is just in the details. I can vary the open-close speed ratio by going nearer or farther from the pivot. The idea I had was to put a simple spring loaded dump valve on a T into the same vacuum tube, and position it to where the linkage would activate it at the near full throttle position, dropping it to zero vacuum. It might just be crazy enough to work!!!

Indeed, I had planned to work on at least fabricating a more permanent mount for the needle valve today. We went down to Long Beach to visit with my parents and niece and nephew, as well as work on that. On the way, I dropped off Baby at a tint shop to have the windows re-done. Same place that did the tint on my dad's Studebaker not too long ago. We visited for a while, then all got in the pool (it may be the last time this year of 90°+ water for the year, even though we're in a bit of a nice Indian Summer right now) and the next thing I knew it was almost 4:30 and the tint shop closes at 5!!! My dad drove me back there and dropped me off. I could tell the guy wasn't done, and the proprietor told me it'd be another 20 minutes. Turned out to be about three times that long. I wasn't amused, but the guy knocked a lousy three dollars off the price as I was peeling off my cash. Ironically, that took it to exactly the same amount as I'd gotten for the scrapping of the Storm!!!

Needless to say, by the time I was back from there, there was no time to do any actual work on Janice. At least I got a few pictures to help me envision the mounts and assembly.

The expansion of the bins is nearing completion. They've got an expansion crew moving stuff into the third level of the red bins, and they've got numbers to the extended rows on the other floors. The old numbers were just white letters applied to the ends of the rows, but these are full circles with black numbers on a white background. I rather like them better!!! Wonder if I could get a couple like this to slap on Baby???

One of the stock keepers saw me doing the sketch, and I had to explain it to him. He looks at me and said, "You're one of those guys who looks like a big dummy, but you're really smart, huh???" One of the other fillers in earshot laughed, and I said that was a rather backhanded compliment. Next time I saw him, I told him, "I'm an electro-mechanical genius, thank you very much!!!" The whole thing was rather amusing.

Now who will take over the salad dressing empire???

A shot from the Las Vegas area at Legoland, the Treasure Island pirate ship battle. Hey, that's right!!! We're supposed to sing about pirate-y things!!!

There's a new guy in the bins who looks quite a bit like Odd Thomas. Can't remember his name, but it's neither Odd nor Thomas. I don't think the lingering dead visit him, either, but if they did I don't suppose that's the kind of thing you'd go telling people. I could picture another Odd Thomas novel set in the bins.

As I was driving into work on Friday, the neighbor at the bottom of the hill was coming out of his garage. The streets are quite narrow, so I had to wait. As I did, I saw a young lady with a backpack on walking down the street, past and beyond us. As we proceeded down the hill, coming around a bend in the road his car was drawing up even with her, and at that instant she was startled. At first I thought it was from the car passing her, but as I rounded the corner I saw what she had seen, a dead raccoon with its mouth open and feet up. Looked almost taxidermied.



I happened on this photo shopped image of Sarah this evening. Even though I know its not real, I rather like it!!!

I loaned Odd Thomas to my mom. She's almost done with it, and likes it so far. Now I'm going to have to dig out the next one!!!

And I never hoist the mainstay and I never swab the poop deck, and I never veer to starboard 'cuz I never sail at all, and I've never walked the gang plank and I've never owned a parrot, and I've never been to Boston in the fall.

Yarrr!!! Cupdate!!!

Yarrr!!! Iffen ye not be knowin', Friday bewas 'Talk like a Pirate' day!!! Bein as Aye is a good an' proper name for thissen pirate, thought I'da be a-sharen' some of the inkwerk of the day. Aye, Aye started out by inscribblin' the likeness of one of them there flesh-eatin' plants from "Little Shop of Horrors". One of the scurvy wenches was a-sayin' how Aye could be a-designin' tattoos fer me mates. Now iffen ye not been havin' figgered by now, me werkload was a consid'ble tad lighter than the nermal today (an' yar, the deck wern't gettin' any mer cleaner fer all 't swabbin' it were gettin'), and aye, Aye had a chance to do yet more!!!

On t'the nother side, in honour of the times, aye, Aye sceetch'd yer ol' pal Gasher!!! Iffen ye can't make it out with yer one good eye, it be sayin', "Now, woulja be havin' any lines fer yer ol' pal Gasher???" Yar, a fine day 'twas to be a pirate!!!

What Kind of PIRATE AM AYE???

Tonight may just be a two post session, first time I've done that in a while!!! If not, enjoy this instant blogpost!!!

Your result for The What Kind of PIRATE Are You Test...

LONG BEN!

Henry Every, or Jonathon Avery, or Captain Bridgman, or Long Ben, you were the most idolized pirate of your time. You were the Micheal Jackson of piracy. In more ways than one. While the plunder you picked up in the Red Sea and the ease with which you sailed off is legendary, so is your 'relationship' with fellow pirate Thomas Tew. I understand: you're on a ship for months at a time with no women in site... it drives some pirates to blood thirsty killing, and some to... boys. There. I said it. You are an amazing pirate, a legend in your own time! It's just your personal life that bothers us other pirates. We're fine with the boys, I mean when you've been on the ocean for a matter of months even the stoutest cabin boy starts to look good... it's just that, do you have to slice open every wench in every port you attack? Some even have all their teeth still in, and a good wench is hard to come by, even in the best of times!

Take The What Kind of PIRATE Are You Test at HelloQuizzy

All that said, don't know if I agree with all that. Here's the breakdown versus other test takers:

You scored 56% on Treasurer, higher than 42% of your peers.
You scored 62% on Seafairability, higher than 47% of your peers.
You scored 56% on Bloodlusting, higher than 87% of your peers.
You scored 48% on Wenchwanting, higher than 89% of your peers.

I scored higher than 89% of your peers in wenchwanting, yet they go on about the hot man on man action??? Something strange going on there... I work in a bin structure with a high percentage of guys, but haven't gone there yet!!!

Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine

This was a strange thing. At work, they are doing additions to the bin structure where I work. They already lengthened them on the first level, and now are lengthening the remaining levels, as well as adding a third level to the red bins. Previously, working on the second level red bins was a bit like driving a convertible, having nothing immediately over your head. Yesterday I was in the second level red bins for a bit, and they had put in the bracing for the third level. that alone was a strange feeling, having something up there. Today, I was there again, and they'd added a floor for the third level, or a roof for the second level depending on how you look at it.



They had strung incandescent lights along the length of it. Very strange, as everywhere else has florescent lighting. There was something somewhat familiar about the look, and what came to mind was how the lighting in a mine or a submarine would be. Someone came over, and thought it reminded them of a garden party. All that was missing was their lawn chair. One of the other guys said it was like the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. That seemed like the closest match, after I heard that.

Disneyland After Dark

Cuz it's after dark now
And Disneyland is closed
We've been served
Ice cold beer
And Walt is our host

It's after dark now
And Disneyland is closed...
The party is over
The night is here
Let's bring out a toast...

Well, here it is, the recap of our Disneyland trip!!! The event was on Thursday night from 9 PM to 1 AM. We left to get there early, and it was a full half hour before that we arrived. Good thing, because there was a HUGE line to get the tickets from will call. By the time we made it through that and got from the tram and through the security check it was around 9:45. There was also a bit of a line to turn in some recyclable plastic bottles to get a Mark and Brian treasure map.

Upon arriving in the park, there was a touch of the surreal. Disneyland after dark is usually somewhat strange anyway. I remember one time when I was probably around ten or so, we went to the theatre in Fantasyland to see a play while the park was closed. Very strange. This was also strange, we got into the park, and walking up Main Street USA, they have the broadcast of KLOS playing. Tying into the Stones reference once again, the song playing upon our entrance was "Paint it Black".

Our first area that we wanted to visit was the New Orleans Square area, because last time we were there the Pirates of the Caribbean ride was closed, as they were re-tooling it to add in Jack Sparrow. On the way we passed by the Indiana Jones ride, and I asked the firstborn if he wanted to go on that. He did, so I left him and momma in the line and set off with the younger to find something to do in the meantime. On our way through, we came across the first of the treasures that we had to find on the treasure map. Five different lands were specified to have a treasure hidden in them, and we needed to write down the color for each. This one was a projected image on the ground right outside of the Golden Horseshoe Revue. Cool.

The Sailing Ship Colombia is one of those attractions that I have seen for years, but have never been on. It was docked a bit from there, and he wanted to go on it. The attendant invited us aboard, but informed us that it wasn't sailing that night. It was very cool, anyway, great detail, and the boy enjoyed playing pirate for quite a while, until I got the call that they had gotten off the Indiana Jones ride. Met up with them, and they had spotted another treasure projected over a shop opposite the ride.



After that we went to the Pirates ride. I have to say, they did a great job of adding in Jack Sparrow while retaining the original feel. The cannon ball shots are much better than they used to be, and they added in a really awesome Davey Jones effect.

We had figured that going on Splash Mountain would probably be a very short line, because who wants to get wet at night??? That was our next destination, but it was closed when we got there!!! Bummer. OK, what next??? Space Mountain, pretty much on the opposite side of the park. OK, we'll catch the train from there to the other side. Got to the train station, and it's closed, too!!! Fine, we'll walk that way, and ride the Matterhorn Bobsleds on the way. Guess what, those are closed down too!!! Looked like they were working on it, though. Onward to Tomorrowland, and surprise of surprises, Space Mountain is actually open!!! While standing in line, we saw the third of the treasures projected on a wall. I was a bit surprised that the younger wanted to ride it. On the last part of the ride, I looked around to see how he was doing, and he's shaking his head "NO". Guess he didn't like it so much.

We headed back towards Fantasyland, and the Matterhorn is up and running again. Once again, the oldest and momma get in line while the younger and I head off to see what else was of interest. He wanted to go back to the pirate ship (not the Pirates ride, but the Sailing Ship Colombia) but on the way there I spotted the Jungle Cruise (with a very short line), and he was up for that. I'd never been on that after dark, either, and it was cool, with a whole new set of their famous corny jokes.

As we were getting off that, I got the call that the other half had finished up their ride (actually got to go twice) so I told them to make their way to Sleeping Beauty's Castle (which has gotten a whole new pink and purple lighting scheme, looks pretty nice) and we'd meet up there. Wandering through the castle, I spotted the final treasure projected on one of the back walls of the castle.

There was a bit of a line to turn in the completed map for the prize, but took care of that, too. The prize was a VERY cool Mark and Brian pirate flag. I now have a new most valued possession.

The boy was getting hungry and momma was thirsty. None of the pretzel or churro stands were open, so we ended up going to the Royal Street Veranda for some of their AWESOME clam chowder and gumbo in sourdough ball bowls. That was the only part of the evening that cost us a thing, even parking was free for this night.

By the time we were done eating, it was a few minutes until closing. We weren't too far from Thunder Mountain Railroad, so we headed that way. We made it in time for the last run of the night, and got to choose our seat and everything. The younger boy was a bit unsure about it, and wasn't going to go until he saw that it was a train. Afterwards, he wasn't so sure about that ride, either!!!

So, we only got onto a few rides and were out until well after 2 AM. Still, last time I went to Disneyland I was out $228 by the time we got into the park, so this was still very cool. And I got a new centerpiece for my Mark and Brian shrine!!!

Thanks, Mick!!!

Mark and Brian are doing a promotion for the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Funny thing, their station is owned by ABC, which in turn is owned by Disney, so there is a lot of tie in between them. They are having a private event at Disneyland where they will be closing the park to the public and having an exclusive event for their listeners who win passes. Back in 1998 (I think) I won passes to their grand re-opening of Tomorrowland. The winning of the passes isn't the hard part usually, just call them up and go on the air with something fun or entertaining. The hard part is getting through on the phone!!!

One thing they have been doing every day is having a "kid's break" where chilluns (or rather their parents) call up with some kind of talent or tell a joke or something. Yesterday I managed to get through, and had my youngest sing The Stones' "Get Off of My Cloud". So, you see the way this whole thing comes full circle??? A Pirates event, Johnny Depp based his Jack Sparrow character loosely on Keith Richards, and I get into the event by having my boy sing a Mick Jagger Lyric!!!