Once More, Into The Breach

I went over to Chollas Lake to do some geocaching, but they wuz closed AGAIN! What is up with that? I shall call the ranger tomorrow and see if I am doing it wrong.

So I went over to Grossmont College to see if I could find those two little boogers out on the plateau.

Came across this peace sign.



Then I sat on this bench, which I had spotted from across the canyon while finding the first cache, the "Evil" one.



Then I headed north on the ol' dirt road.

Saw this rock off to the side.



When I started to replace the rock, I saw this little 'pede scuttling about. I haven't seen one of them since Badger Lake!



I headed on down the road, till it turned into a trail, and a rather steep one at that. I got to the spot, and looked and looked, and looked. And finally I found it. Signed the log, climbed by up the hill and headed back to Grossmont.

Saw this purty bush near the fence. What kind is it?

Here's a closeup.





After I got back to the truck, I headed over a couple of parking lots to look for another cache. I looked all OVER the place, but no joy. When I got home, I read ALL the log reports. I am pretty sure I have a handle on it, now. Famous last words! NEXT time, fer sure!

Rainy Saturday

I planned to go geocaching today, in spite of the promised rain. The INSTANT I finished my bowl of bran flakes, the rain started! In spite of, and with blue rain jacket in hand, I trucked on over to Chollas Lake, but it was locked up tight. Just as well, it would have been fairly miserable clomping around. My feet might have gotten wet!

Since Lucky turned into Albertsons a couple of yars (ten?) past, I've decided to retire this, my Lucky Rewards keycard.



Pepsi now comes in a twenty can pack, instead of twenty-four cans. I forget what I paid for it, but the grocery checker said it would probably rise to the old price, the way things go. He got me a two-dollar off coupon for the Pepsi. That must be my Lucky Reward!

Back to the rain...

Through the screen door this afternoon:

Jungle backyard...



Sun-lit backyard...



Taken with a few seconds of each other, the difference between flash and no flash?

The drainage of said yard could stand some engineering. Flood time on the Mississippi!



No wonder my broom is rotting away!

That reminds me, March 12th is the anniversary of the St. Francis Dam failure. Very tragic, very interesting, and a very pretty canyon. Might be a nice place to live, now that the dam is gone. But, I wonder if the Aqueduct pipe going through the valley broke, would it siphon Northern California dry?

I just finished reading Time Spike, by Eric Flint and Marilyn Kosmatka. I have taken on the task of TRYING to read Anathema, by Neal Stephenson.

New Shoes & Clean Teeth

I bought some cheap shoes the other day, at Target. Two pair for fifty bucks. A kid at work said he paid seventy dollars at Nordstrum. I said his shoes would probably last a lot longer than mine. And his were kind of purty, with their bright yellow accents.



You can also see two Apple servers, a Novell IntranetWare manual, an EICO audio generator (tubes, baby!), and the box our old Winnebago Spectrum library circulation program came in, and is back in. I'm hanging on to the Winnebago Spectrum just in case the internet disappears!

I was perusing the Demo catalog, as is my wont, and noticed the picture for the 3M C-27 tape applicator. It seems to be set up a little differently than mine.



Tape goes where?

The dude from Minnesota (who WAS behind me!(and so was that truck!!) and that truck both are merging from the left lane to the far right lane (an odd go-straight AND right-turn sort-of-lane) so they can turn right at the intersection past the one just ahead. They kind of bollaxed up the flow of traffic. If they had just stayed behind me they both could have easily gotten into the correct lane!



Tourists!

And I'm glad I never make misteaks!

I drove today because I had to get my teeth cleaned. The dentist did not use the ultrasound much, said I was not brushing enough, and scheduled another cleaning in three months. But did not schedule any fillings! I am so happy! And I hereby resolute to brush more than once a day!

Too Bad

I was fooling around with maps last night and found a nifty site, HistoricAerials, with lots of historical aerial photos, at least of the San Diego area. Lots of fun!

I was also over at the Abandoned & Little Known Airfields site. Love that place! Remember the blimp field at Del Mar? I always intended to figure out a way to visit what was left of it, a circular ring next to the freeway.

I could swear I saw blimps flying around when I was a kid, but that field stopped flying them before I was born, so they must have been from Tustin or someplace. Or I dreamed about them.

I looked at Geocaching.com to see if there were any caches there, especially related to the blimp field. I found out that the whole place is now a sewage pond! So I will never get to visit it, now. But the little bridge to the field is supposed to be preserved, so maybe I'll have to settle, as it were, for that!

Last Day

Yes, it's the Last Day of Geocaching, I mean to say, the four-day holiday.

I went over to Chollas Lake to find some more caches. Which I did. Find some, not find some. Talked to a lady dog-walker/geocacher. And saw some stuff. Like:

Pretty view from Collage Grove Drive, to the west-ish. Just missed an airliner landing.



No fear on the BMX course.



I didn't know soccer (football) fields came in two sizes!



I could have parked a lot closer if I had known there was parking down there!



Captain Squeaky braving the tempest, in search of a New Land!



I had two Did Not Finds, so I had to head over to the Federal Blvd. bike path for another DNF, then bushwacked my way to the walking path for my 300th geocache find, which was titled "The Roar Of 94", alluding to the noisy highway passing nearby.

I was playing with the GPSr, learning some of its features. Here are some statistics from today's journey:

The Chollas Lake part --

Distance traveled: 3.13 miles
Maximum speed: 6.0 (Huh?)
Moving time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Stopped time: 1 hour 42 minutes
Moving speed average: 2.5 mph
Overall average: 1.1 mph

Total distance traveled, including the Federal Blvd. path part:

Distance traveled: 3.95 miles.

Ain't that all just as interesting as heck?

St. Valentine's Day

Went geocaching this morning. How cold is that?

I drove to Grossmont College and parked there. Headed out onto the mesa, forth and back, as is my wont. Found some caches. Headed DOWN some very water-weary old dirt road. Wandered around in the bushes for a while. Came to the conclusion I should have searched more at the TOP of the hill. Decided to leave that one for another day. I read the logs for it later, and found that some guy said there is an old car wrecked in the bushes. I'd like to see that! Found a couple more caches, and got my feet wet even more. My sneakers are not water proof!

I headed UP a very steep trail, and took some pictures.

Hey, wasn't I just coming DOWN that dirt road over there?



Whoa, I came UP from down there?



I rode down that road on my Schwinn Sting Ray, back in the day! No, no, the one in the upper left-hand cornerish! Then right over the side, down that hill!



As usual, all those scenic pics look better in the Giganto versions, just click on the image to see them in all their glory on Zooomr!

I found some binoculars in a cache, but they don't work too well. I gotta remember to bring mine with me, next time.



Here are a couple of cat pics, since it's the day after caturday!

Chubby cat with glowing eyes!



Cats having a stare-down.

Saturday At The Lake

I went over to Chollas Lake this afternoon, to get the geocaching bug out. I haven't been there for quite a while. It's pretty nice. I found there was a new parking area that I haven't seen, and a nice little nature trail. The trail could use some signage, as far the the plants and trees. I heard a couple trying to figure out what kind of tree they were looking at. I was no help!

A big tree seems to have fallen down. Since it can't get up, they are sawing it to pieces.



I did not find all the caches, so I will have to return sometime soon!

LATER: I totally forgot to put this in! I was driving down University Ave., just coasting 'cause it's kind of down grade a little bit, when I pressed on the acclerator pedal and NOTHING HAPPENED! What the heck? I pressed it again. Zippo! I finally figured out the engine is OFF! I coasted over to the side and parked. Not much traffic thank goodness! What if this had happened on the freeway? I tried starting the engine. It cranked, and even fired for a instant, then...nothing. I said to myself, what do I do now? I sat for minute, then decided to push the reset button on the you-know-what. The evil Fuel Shut Off Switch. I had to get out of the vehicle and open the passenger door to get a shot at it. I pressed it, went back around, got in, and it started right up.

That is TWICE now that the little booger has done this! I guess it's too late for warranty, it's been five years (but only 7,000 miles). I'll have to buy a new one and put it in myself, I guess. Hey, do I have a birthday coming up soon?

I guess the moral is, know where your evil Fuel Shut Off Switch is.

What Day Is It, Anyway? Part II

Why isn't Wait Wait on the radio this morning? It's FRIDAY, that's why!

I talked Phil into going geocaching today. It's his first time! We headed out to Santee to pick up some caches around Big Rock Park.

We found all the three we were looking for. They were pretty easy. I let him find them, but I must admit I spotted them first. Geopiles are fairly obvious!

It was real purty, the rains have made everything what passes for green in San Diego. The rivulets had a bit of water in them. A babbling rivulet sort-of-thing.



What with my north-south confusion, we had to do a bit more walking than necessary. It was a little embarrassing! I really SHOULD program the co-ordinates into the GPSr!

I took him over to that really crafty hide that I had so much trouble with, just to show him what a hard one was like. He was suitably impressed.

I noticed some sparkly fools gold nearby. It was real sparkly, but the camera does not seem to have captured it. Even in the REAL BIG size!



On my way home I stopped at a new cache location. I saw this sporty Alfa Romeo. At least, I THINK it's an Alfy (Alfie?). I did not see a badge or logo on a cursory examination. I saw a little badge on the driver's side, but I did not want to get too close, you know how people are about their cars!



I had to walk all the way across the park, past two Little League fields, to get near where I thought the cache was. I turned on the GPSr...and discovered I had left the co-ordinates in the truck. Well, I'm too lazy to walk ALL the way back, so I persevered and followed the trail of disturbed long green grass, and I FOUND it! Wow, without even using the GPSr! I am so proud of myself!

But I REALLY should enter the co-ordinates into the GPSr, don't you think?