My Lefttist Commie-Liberal Rantings

Valentines Day

2012-02-14T19:42:00.000-08:00

Another rainy day, and that is my excuse for not riding the bicycle to work. Cowles Mountain was especially pretty as the blue sky broke out.

Today being V. Day, the boys and girls were scarfing up the candy like, well, like it was candy. I was presented with a blueberry lollipop,, which I tried not to eat for several hours, but eventually gave in to temptation.

I had an idea the other day of an image I could self-shoot of me in a funny-yet-graceful pose.

This would not be it...

This is take two. Take one is of me falling over and bruising my arm. I deleted it.

Walking, Yes Indeed

2012-02-13T18:37:00.000-08:00

In a fit of pique I walked to the cigarette store to pick up supplies. It was about a four-mile walk, I figure, or very nearly.

I saw some interesting stuff along the way.

Saw this nifty Triumph Thruxton 900 at the Chico Club bar. What makes it a Thruston, I ask myself? Well, the name comes from a famous motorcycle race in England, and so many brands have used it to convey a sense of sportiness, I guess.

I thought this conduit run was interesting. I guess one has to be into conduit...

I hadn't notice the Eruv marking line lately, but I spotted it today. Kind of a "secret" layer to the world, not unlike geocaching.

Speaking of geocaching, I made the find on this little booger, one that I hadn't spotted the last time I looked for it, probably because it was early and darkish out. Today, in the light of day, no problem!

But before that I saw this Rolls Royce sitting by a church. A wedding? I don't know.

At the County Health Clinic I noticed there were at least THREE signs warning folks not to bring weapons into the building. THREE!

And here's a nice little '66 Mustang for you!

And lastly, a link (because it's nearly two megs in size) to a panorama of a car repair shop full of old cars. How many can YOU identify?

I see, from left to right: A jeep pickup (like Kelly's), A Nova SS, a MGB, a regular old Jeep, what I think is a Covair Monza, a green Ford Ranchero, another Jeep pickup, more like Kelly's, a white possibly Buick Riveria, and the black Buick outside the fence, which I cheated on and just read the logo on the trunk.

And that's what I did on Sunday.

A Wall Of Shame

2012-02-01T16:16:00.000-08:00

I drove over to the public library after work to pick up a copy of John Ringo's "Live Free Or Die". I tried one of Ringo's book last year, but didn't care for it. Mr. E. recommended this one, so on his head be it.

Anyway, on the way there I observed a "homeless" person peeing on the wall, right in front of God and everyone! Which one of these three do you think it was?

#1 -- A woman.
#2 -- Old man with beard.
#3 -- Young guy.

I took the picture upon leaving the library, so I was unable to catch "the action".

On a more humorous note, I heard Mrs. P. talking about someone who "couldn't spell 'paint' backwards if you gave him the 'p' and the 't'." I told her that was going on the blog, she said it's an old Alabama country-girl saying.

And that is about it for today!

Just Sayin'

2012-01-31T18:26:00.001-08:00

Note to K9LMPD, or maybe it was LMPDK9... your right brake light is out.

Another Geocaching Sunday

2012-01-29T14:21:00.000-08:00

And boy, was it a sunny Sunday!

I headed out to Eastlake, a lovely homogenized subdivision, to look for more of them caches on the power trail, plus assorted others. I found seventeen of them, plus one that was just too high to reach.

I didn't find six. Next time for sure!

I took this Hello Kitty key chain, because, well, it's HELLO KITTY!

I did not make any First To Finds today, but here's a pic I made the other day showing the joy, oh yes, the JOY, one feels when one does...

Well, that's it for geocaching today!

On another note, when my computer boots up it displays various messages, as they do. One of them is mispeled, and it cracks me up every time I see it.

And now you know how I view the world when I don't have my glasses on!

Let's Be Discrete!

2012-01-26T20:19:00.000-08:00

I put some batteries in the old radio at work, and took some pictures of the discrete components. Old school!

It's a jungle in there!

Most of that can be replaced by in integrated circuit or two in modern receivers! Amazing!

From The Royalty-Free Art Book...

2012-01-25T17:54:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday, "Lostguy" was wondering what people must think of the two old guys back there behind the bushes.

Sunday Power Caching

2012-01-22T19:34:00.000-08:00

I intended to bicycle a part of Eastlake where a one-hundred cache power trail was set up this new year, but instead I decided to walk it. Biking and stopping and biking and stopping is SUCH a pain. So I made my way over to terra incognita (I've never been in this part of town), parked, and started looking for caches. Well, caching is caching, you don't wanna hear about that!

On the way to the third cache, I noticed my wallet was not in my back pocket! So, I backtracked to the last two caches to see if I dropped it. No, not there. I noticed a bicyclist stopped up the road. He continued on his way past me, I turned around to watch him and he stopped at the cache spot! I approached him and said I was timing him to see if it took longer for him to find it than I. We laughed and introduced ourselves. We walked to the second cache, as I had not found it. We both looked and he eventually spotted it. He continued to walk his bike and we both looked for the rest of the caches on my list, as he was looking for most of them too! Great minds and all that!

After about four hours we came to where he had started, so he took off and I finished the route I had planned out. Then I drove over to another spot and found another cache. Saw this sad shoe hanging in a tree. I don't think it is "my son John", though.

Then I drove over to another spot and looked for three more caches.

The cache in this spot was strewn all over the muddy ground. I put it back together and hid it in a likely place. I'm guessing the landscapers found and vandalized it. What other explanation could there be?

So the cache count today is thirty-four, a new one-day record (for me)! Total caches found in my entire geocaching career is 1,340. But, it's not about the numbers! One of the top cachers in San Diego is a couple with over 25,000 caches found, if you can believe it!

Crummy Photo Skills Strike Again!

2012-01-21T20:29:00.000-08:00

This was in the bakery department at Albertsons. It looked really cheesy and tempting, but I resisted spending the 49 cents. I am so proud!

But what is it? I can't make out the second word!

Oh, and since no reads the Burnt Pizza blog this is a copy of the post there. You don't know what you are missing!

Although since the formatting is different over there you will have to scroll around to see the whole pic!

A Caching We Will Go!

2012-01-08T13:24:00.000-08:00

Well, just me, myself, and I...

I manned-up and headed over to Paradise valley, which I am sad to say I consider an "iffy" part of town. But I figured how bad could it be on a Sunday morning? And it IS a nice-enough place, so I'm not sure what my problem is. Oh well!

Anyway, I found all eight of the caches, only one gave me any real problems, but I persevered and eventually made the find. It was pretty chilly, I had to put my mittens on! I was gonna take a pic of the frost on the grass, but it turned out I had left the memory card in the computer. So just imagine it!

I wanted to have a perfect ten for the day, so I headed over to another cache about a mile away, and made the find there. It was a good one, one of them fishing-line caches, if you know what I mean. But with a bit of a twist.

I needed one more, so I drove a couple of miles east to where I had seen one on the map last night. I had not loaded nor written down the coordinates, as I thought I wouldn't go that far. But I DID remember the clue, so I looked around a bit in a couple of likely spots, and made the find. Guard rail hides are easy!

The other day I drove past the location of the first cache I placed, and noticed ANOTHER branch has broken on the tree. So here are a couple of pics of THAT!

You will remember that my cache was originally hanging on the branch that fell down previously.

Here's a link to the blog post about THAT.

I started playing Portal yesterday, I'm on level 14 or 15, I can't remember which. It's pretty fun, but I must admit I'm having to resort to a "hint" web site to figure out some of the puzzles. I wish I had ME a real portal gun. It would save me a lot of walking at work!

I just finished reading the autobiography of Theodore Roosevelt. Quite an interesting guy. It said he was in favor of a graduated income tax, and the banning of corporate political donations. He read voraciously, and although his reading was at a MUCH higher level than mine, I found we a few books in common: Huckleberry Finn, Moby Dick, and The Virginian, He mentions reading Tarus Bulba. Well, I've seen the movie!! I am going to see if some of the lighter and humorous stuff (and there is darn little of it!) he lists are available on Project Gutenberg.

That is about all for today! Thanks for stopping by!

2012-01-01T11:49:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year, folks!

I had planned on going on a bike ride/geocache expedition this morning, but I got up late (7:30!!) so I drove to Mission Valley instead and found me some caches.

But first, the tail-less cat caught sitting up. I KNEW he could do it!

I found nine out of eleven caches. Two of the caches I had looked for previously. Several times previously! The one at the brewery tank was in plain sight, cannot imagine why I did not spot it the three times I've been there before! The one at the fish restaurant was very sneaky, and I almost gave up, then I spotted something, and that was it. I pulled on a hook in a pipe, and reeled in a blue wooden fish, with the cache container strung underneath. Very cute!

The neatest location was this cache on the 163 (or the 395, if you are as old as I am!). Nice spot for a picnic!

I couldn't decide which picture was better, so I give you both of them! Can you spot where the cache is? It's at the base of the tree, under a rock.

That's about it for today. Thanks for visiting!

Thursday In Bonita

2011-12-29T21:55:00.000-08:00

I loaded some geocache coordinates into the GPSr today and went a-searching in the Bonita/Sweetwater Lake area. I used the baseball fields parking lot as my base of operations and went east, west, and north, picking up a total of ten caches today.

I spotted this lizard hiding in a crack in an old fencepost. Shades of Journey To The Center Of The Earth! One of three old fence posts (how come spell check doesn't like "fencepost" with an "s" on it?) I looking at. But not the right fencepost. Of course.

The cache, of course, turned out (after MANY minutes and two sessions of searching, coming AND going.) to be in the FIRST fence post I had looked at. It was covered by a spider web!

There were LOTS of horsies about, as Bonita is a big horsie area, and all these caches were on horsie paths. There is even a horsie bridge over the freeway!

Passing the stables I noticed several horsies had their eyes covered. I wonder why?

I also saw a rambunctious mule, which reminded me of Kelly and his mule, whose name I wish I could remember.

Afterwards I went grocery shopping.

The vehicle did not die once, even though I tempted it by driving on the freeway!

Oh, here's a map of the area I just made, JUST for you! The green circles show the caches I found today. All the other smileys are from other caching expeditions. I see I actually found ELEVEN caches today. W00T!!

OK, that is all, you can go now. Thanks for visiting!

Wednesday

2011-12-28T14:32:00.000-08:00

Got me some Hello Kitty stuff for Christmas!

Floormats:

You can't see it from here, but now I know that one side of the truck is narrower than the other side. Who knew?

Antenna Ball:

Thought I better document it before someone steals it. Can I put a GPS locator in it?

I also got the relocation kit for the fuel pump shut-off switch. I guess my son doesn't want me to die if the engine suddenly shuts off on the freeway. Too bad FORD doesn't feel the same way.

Anyway, I manned up and installed it today.

I have NO idea what this clip is supposed to clip on to. So I clipped it on to a likely tab. Too bad the FORD instructions did not have wire routing instructions. Maybe with a picture!

That black clippy-thing there, I have NO idea what it clips to. Again, FORD, maybe better instructions?

This thing holds the kick panel in. Could not get it out in one piece, so had to break it. Thanks, FORD!

Neoprene pieces supplied by FORD to seal up the old screw holes. I would have thought a couple of short bolts would do the job more securely. I have no idea what that weirdness is over to the right, and I'm not crawling under the dash again to find out!

I fired the vehicle up and it ran ok, so I guess I'm good. Time will tell if it is really fixed!

Needlenose

2011-12-22T15:47:00.000-08:00

Hey, I was just looking at 12 Tools Every Man Should Have in His Toolbox at The Art Of Manliness and they mentioned that a flathead screwdriver can be used for getting a broken light bulb out. After turning off the electricity, of course! I'll share a little tip I picked up in the war. Needlenose pliers. Stick the tips in there, pull the handles apart, spreading the tips tightly against the inside of the brass base of the light bulb. Rotate the tool and the brass base of the light bulb will screw right out. How about that? Just MAKE SURE THE ELECTRICITY IS TURNED OFF!!

As it said in the article,"trust me" on this.

Went For A Hike Today

2011-12-22T13:24:00.000-08:00

For various reasons we need not go into here, I decided I better go for a geocaching hike today to maintain my aura of awesomeness. So I hiked up and over Kwaay Paay peak to find a couple of caches I was missing. There are actually three caches I needed, but since I am not a "pro" member anymore, I didn't have the coordinates for the third one. More about that later...

I drove over to the trailhead, passing the HORDES of people going up and down Cowles Mountain. Shot this pic while waiting for the stoplight. See the little ants on the trail? There is NO place to park along here.

I parked at the trailhead on Father Junipero Serra Trail, road, and headed up. It's pretty steep in parts, and flat in others. Mostly steep. Lots of rocks and ruts. I finally made it to the peak in about forty minutes. I ate a granola bar and drank some water. I located a trail heading back down the other side that wasn't marked "Do Not Enter", and made my way down. I went down a couple of false trails (more later), but eventually found the correct one.

The first cache I looked for was Splashette, named after a geocacher. I looked for about thirty minutes and didn't didn't find it. That was disappointing, but I headed on to the next one.

The next cache was named Middle Earth. It takes its name from a nearby rock climbing route. I spotted it easily, to my relief. It had a bit of water in it, so most of the stuff was damp. I dried it as best I could.

Looking DOWN into the canyon.

The view is pretty impressive. If it wasn't so hazy, you could see all the way to Pt. Loma!

OK, so that is not really looking towards the ocean. More to the south.

After finishing up I looked around a bit for the cache I didn't have the coordinates for, and to see if I could figure out the trail down, in case I ever wanted to come back up. I THINK I figured out the trail, but I didn't find the cache. I didn't really expect to. If I just had that pro membership...

I decided to play with the GPSr "trackback" feature, and headed back up the hill to Splashette. I looked around for another half-hour, and was just about to call it quits when my poking stick struck something. Something odd. It was the cache!

Well, NOW I was happy! It was not till I got home that I found out that Splashette is the pro-level cache. So I can't log my find! It was the OTHER cache, the one I didn't have the coordinates for, that was a regular cache that I could have written them down, uh, for. I mixed them up when I was looking at the map. Why did I have a pro-level cache already loaded in the GPSr? Because I used to be one of the exalted! And I will again. I swear it! And why was the other cache not in there. Well, duh, I don't know.

Using the trackback feature on the GPSr kept me from getting off the track a couple times. It was interesting to see that it tracked my false trails from the way down, too.

I really have to stop biting my nails!

I have not seen any other people on the trail, except for a couple of rock climbers way off in the distance.

I made it back to the peak, and headed back down again. Here is a section of the trail I thought was real cozy.

Across the canyon are some outstanding rock formations. The rock climbers would like to be able to do them, but the park guys won't let them. There's a geocache up there near the top, I've looked for it a couple of times but no joy, yet. I heard you may need a rope to get to it, and I don't have a rope, nor the experience to safely work with one.

And here is another steep section.

View of the 52 and the dam area.

I decided to name this rock "The Big Rock" 'cause its big and it sticks out in the trail.

A few feet down the trail I found another rock, which I shall call "The Even Bigger Rock", as it is bigger and also stick out into the trail.

Right about here I sighted my first human being, a woman coming up with two walking sticks. I told her she was the first person I had seen today, and she said it was like having your own private place.

Here we got the 52 and Mast. You can see the trail head where I parked. Down there by that green arrow!

I met a guy and his well-behaved dog, and later on a man and his small child, who had a very nice walking stick. I picked up some trash along the way, but didn't have a bag for larger stuff like water bottles, so I had to leave them Next time!

Some baby dropped his Nuk. There is one unhappy kid out there!

The whole hike took about three and a half hours, and probably covered 2.5 miles. It is claimed the elevation gain is 865 feet. Doesn't sound like much! And yet I am beat!

Well, I don't THINK I left anything out, so that ought to just about do it!

Off My Butt

2011-12-11T13:25:00.000-08:00

Yes, I got off my butt and went geocaching today.

I had to chauffeur C. to church, so since I had to fire up the vehicle anyway, I decided I should go find me some caches. I've had my eye on one in a little canyon off of Fairmont. I've been there before, on the bicycle, but didn't find it. It has been logged as "found" since then, so I decided to make the trek. I figured out I could park in one of the guests spots at the apartments across Fairmont, so I did, then made the dash across the four lanes of road. Not too much traffic on a Sunday morning, thank goodness. I hiked up the canyon to the spot, but yet again didn't find anything. Crud!

I decided to head out to Casa De Oro for another couple of caches I didn't find the first time. I drove up the 8. Traffic was nearly at a standstill near the Lake Murray intersection, so I made the clever decision to bypass it by taking the off ramp. Oh, no, that's where the accident was that was slowing traffic! There was an ambulance there, tending to someone, but the police had not even arrived yet. Of course I was in the wrong lane, but someone kindly let me in.

I headed down the frontage road. I was behind another car that was stopped at the trolley station crossing, where the gate was down. We waited about ten minutes, the gate did not go up. The car ahead of me finally eased their way under the gate. I motioned to a couple of pedestrians to raise the gate for me, and they did! I don't know what all the cars behind did, though.

I continued over to the on ramp near Guava. Fortunately I yielded at the yield, as a rice-rocket came zooming up the ramp at probably seventy mph! I myself wound it up to five grand to merge onto the freeway, and then made my way to Bancroft to look for them caches.

I found the first cache, hidden just as I suspected it would be, and had looked for the last time. This time I spotted it. One down!

I drove over to the other one. Fewer muggles around today, so I made the find quickly. I had to wait out a guy filling his propane tank before I could put it back, though.

I drove back to see how the trolley gate was doing. It was now working, so I drove back on the 8. This time there was an accident on the Fletcher Parkway off ramp! A car was piggy-back on another. There were two Highway Patrol cruisers, and a lot of glass on the road. The car was smoking from the engine compartment, probably radiator fluid.

I, of course, did not bring my camera on this trip, so no pictures. So much for getting on the news!

Wednesday Again

2011-11-30T18:33:00.000-08:00

Drove to work again today. It was a little chilly in the morning, but warmed up during the day. I even turned on the ceiling fans in the library. THEN, it turned chilly again. It turned DARK! I think it's going to rain!

Don't you just hate people that park their old junk cars on their lawn?

Saw that the other day while walking home from work. Hey, my legs are STILL sore from that little excursion!

Tuesday--Continued

2011-11-29T19:50:00.000-08:00

Our Ordereder-Of-Supplies was kind enough to take my request for some cotton swabs "just like the nurse has". Swabs are extremely useful when gluing books back together. The ones I managed to steal from the nurse's office when she wasn't there are pretty much encrusted with glue, and are not too pleasant to hold in one's mouth. So what I want were six-inch unsterilized wood swabs. I priced some at the drug store, but they were a buck fifty for TWO. On the net they are around ten bucks for a hundred. So I asked the OOS to check her catalogs. Also, I don't have any money.

So this is what I got:

Eight-inch OB-GYN sterile swabs with plastic sticks. GIANT, they are! See the wood ones poking out the side, for comparison. I'm sure they will work just fine, but they are so HUGE! Weel, as she said, there wasn't much of a description in the catalog!

Here's an old van I saw whilst heading to the pharmacy after work. I think it is a Ford. For some reason I always thought these were nifty.

I've seen this van before, and I thought it belonged to someone I knew. But today I found out it did not.

That is all.

Torpid Tuesday

2011-11-29T08:12:00.000-08:00

So much for my unstated goal of walking thirty-five miles to work this week.

I woke up this morning at six. Turned out I had reset my alarm to 5:30 PM. And not for the first time!

I need a second alarm clock, one for regular getting-ups, and one for special alarms.

Anyway, I got gas, returned a library book, and drove to work. And I got to listen to the DFC.

Saw quite a few bicyclists this morning, too!

Walking To Work Monday

2011-11-28T19:13:00.000-08:00

I was in a mood this morning, or rather yesterday, or even most of last week, so I decided to walk to work today. It was around seven miles round-trip, and took about and hour and a quarter each way.

A city that outdistances man's walking powers is a trap for man.
Arnold J. Toynbee

I wore my watch, the one with the compass. You will recall, I am sure, the travails of putting a new battery in it. (Time passes) Or maybe not, as I now see I didn't blog about it! Well, to sum it up, I have two of these watches, one with a compass. The non-compass one is really easy to change the battery, the compass one is REALLY REALLY hard!

On the way home I found this hobby blade handle. Compare the quality with my Excel and X-ACTO blade holders.

That X-ACTO holder on the bottom is one of a set I inherited from my dear grandfather.

Here is a closerup. Compare the knurling on the grips. And what's that blue stuff? Plastic!

Well, that is about it for today!

Used

2011-11-19T09:47:00.000-08:00

I was looking around Google image search under my user name and found an odd picture, so I click on it to see why it was associated with my user name. I found that someone had used one of my images (with credit given!!) in a collage of office supplies they had created. Take a look! My picture is the thumb tacks. I found them in a drawer at work.

Crummy Wednesday

2011-11-16T17:51:00.000-08:00

Rant? You wanna hear me RANT???

The other day I took the floppy drive out of the IBM at work and stuck it into my computer, the one with the dead floppy drive. I was trying to copy an olde Quicken from floppy to flash drive. Don't get me started on THAT!

Of course, in sliding the floppy drive out I found it doesn't QUITE clear the CPU fan. So I had to remove the fan.

No clearance!

Now with a bit a spare room to slide!

A silly little quarter of an inch, if that.

I put the IBM back together at work. It, of course, did not work. Dead as a doornail!!

I messed with it and messed with it and messed with. Several hours into the messing I happened to push on the battery a little, and the fan started up. OK, says I, I must have jarred the motherboard battery. Now we're good!

Oh, no, we are NOT good. It wasn't booting up. I pushed on the battery more, and sometimes it would fan up, as it were, and sometimes not. I plugged and unplugged it several times, and eventually it actually started to boot up. I even got to the login! Would not accept my password, though. I pulled out the network cable that I had just borrowed from an old printer I don't use. Blue crud all over the pins!

Yikes! I cleaned the network socket with water and baking soda (power off, of course!), dried it, and fired it up with a NEW cable. It now accepted the login and I was flying!

Or maybe not. When I shut down, it wouldn't restart. Or when it did, it did the F1/F2 thing. So, I took a look at the startup configuration. It looked ok, I hit save, and now it SEEMS to be running ok. We shall see, tomorrow!

We had a LOT of people in using the computer lab. Of course the lab printer started acting up, and it appears it needs a new fuser. I can't switch ALL the printers to the library printer, it would take FOREVER! So I just switched the flat-screen Macs, they are pretty easy to switch.

Tons of kids had problems using the computers, that sucks up a lot of time. One student was using Safari and it kept quitting every time he tried to Google something. I tried to take a look at it, but he was being so obnoxious I finally told him to go find himself another computer, and I left it for another day.

A parent came in wondering why their child had no textbooks. My bad, I ASSUMED they were using ESL textbooks, which I don't handle. Turns out they need regular textbooks.

Another parent came in inquiring about a report that their child had been hit by another child in the library. Well, I didn't see it, but it was apparently on my watch, so I feel bad about that.

There were a LOT of noisy and ill-behaved students running around. It's very hard to concentrate on technical problems with so much disruption. So much different than yesterday, a day that was extremely pleasant.

Well, we shall have to see how tomorrow goes!

Power Tuesday

2011-11-15T19:27:00.000-08:00

We All Scream For Ice Cream!

2011-11-13T17:00:00.000-08:00

On Friday we drove over to Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor for lunch.

I'm eating!

I love ice cream!

While there we tried to figure out the small print on some Mexican money. That's Diego Rivera, it is a self-portrait.

We also went geocaching (surprise) and found three caches in the mall.

After stuffing ourselves and walking off the stuffiness we drove back to San Diego. Did I mention Farrell's is in Mission Viejo? I felt so cosmopolitan skipping off to Orange County for luncheon!

We stopped at Califia Beach so that L. could dip her feet in the Pacific Ocean. I watched the surfers, and the train went by.

Trains a'coming!!

We drove down the freeway a bit and stop at the Las Flores view point to see the pretty setting sun.

And then we headed home!

NOW It's Precipitating!

2011-11-04T10:07:00.000-07:00

It has severely darkened over and is sprinkling as I speak. It's almost like having weather!

Friday The Thunderstorm

2011-11-04T08:25:00.000-07:00

I woke up at 6:20 this morning, which is an hour later than usual. Someone forgot to set the alarum clock. Funny, I remember hearing the upstairs neighbor's alarm going off. Which usually rings AFTER mine does.

It was pretty much perfectly partly overcast this morning. The Winnebagos are heading east for the weekend. I don't see no thunderstorms on the horizon, but they are still predicting 90% chance of rain. It must be our destiny...

This morning is Breakfast Club, so I've been grazing a bit. Back in the library one of the students brought in these evil things (see below), so I flaunted all the rules and ate one, right there at the circulation desk. You should have seen the smile on my kisser

Slightly 'shopped...

So, I'm not sure if the picture is actually there, I think work is blocking it.

Speaking of work, I better get back to it!

Thursday Tomorrow?

2011-11-02T17:14:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's Wednesday already! I hear we are setting clocks forward this weekend. Or backward? Fall back? Either way, I'll have Sunday to figure it out.

Had to ferry the wife to the doctor's office this morning. While waiting I took a picture of the headliner in the truck, as it is coming loose and I just want to document it. One would think it would last more than five years. Come on, it's a TRUCK! Ruggedly built and all that!

I would have engineered some sort of plastic piece to secure it if I had designed it. Just saying, Ford!

Here is my wife coming out of the doctor's office through the rather pleasant mini-jungle-with-giant-stone-ball-fountain, with wooden bench.

I went grocery shopping again after work. The giant vehicle next to mine had three dogs waiting for their mistress, one of whom was very barky.

On the way home I came upon an electric vehicle making a VERY SLOW u-turn on the on-ramp to the 8. I guess he was losing power and didn't want to get stuck on the freeway. Or maybe he was just an idiot.

Just another instance of stupid driving I saw today. I'm glad I'm perfect!

Oh, and made a detour before shopping to my local Radio Shack. What can you buy there besides cell phones? Why, fuses, if you must know! I needed a 1.6 amp fuse for a VCR at work. We shall see if that fixes the problem, or if there was something more serious that caused the fuse to blow.

I also spent two hours at work on YOUR tax-payer's dime to exchange all my loose change from home for dollars. Now we will have plenty of pennies for the next book faire!

Later!

Manic Wednesday

2011-10-26T17:39:00.000-07:00

Lots of craziness going on today!

Got this fish at a Destiny training today!

How cool is that, eh?

Saw skateboarder nearly get creamed today as he ran off the sidewalk into the street on a red light.

A few minutes later, only a block away, I was checking out a chick in hot pants (Hot pants? What year IS this??) who decided she could cross on the No Walk signal as I was turning right. Almost fendered her, did I!

We keep the lights on low in the computer room here at Manic Central, and my keyboard is down in the shadows. There are no nubbins on the "J" and "F" keys, so I keep placing my fingers on the wrong keys and typing ALL SORTS of gibberish. I need a keyboard with lighted keys! Do they make such a thing? Or maybe an under-desk light!

I discovered that one can, if one inserts it at JUST the right angle, slide an SMC memory card UNDER and INTO the bottom of the card reader case, necessitating the removal of said case from the computer and shaking it all about to get the card out.

That is about all I can think of. Cheers!

2011-10-23T19:07:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the generosity of Matt I now have a pretty darn fast computer with lots of memory and disk space. Google Maps no longer takes five (or more) minutes to load a satellite view! Wow!

Here's a picture of Gimli (Son of Gloin), the dog I mentioned the other day over in the bicycle blog. The dog that chewed everything!

Gimli, circa 1976

Cam got him when we lived in the apartments next to the church. She got him at a pet store that used to be near Food Basket on University. She saw him in the window, and just had to have him. A classic impulse purchase! Of course, living in a two-room apartment didn't work very well, so we moved to a house-behind-a-house in El Cajon, where this picture was taken. I was trying to grow rhubarb and berry plants in those wire protectors, by the way. I had hopes of some free rhubarb pie. Didn't work out.

Back in 1970 or so I got a dog named "Asia" from a couple I knew. When I went off to war my poor mother ended up taking care of her. Asia was a Shetland Sheepdog, and every so smart. She was also a very prolific mother. Her is a picture of one of my many brother with her and her puppies.

Asia with puppies, and one of my brothers, too!

Lastly, we have the White Phantom, a Buick convertible my father let me drive. I can't remember the year or model, 1962 or 63, maybe. It had a sensor that would automatically dim the high beams, and a very good heater. Eventually reverse went out and I gave it to my brother, effectively abandoning it. As did he.

Hey, it's the same brother! I wonder how old he was when I "gave" him the car... fifteen? The years, they all run together!

I went geocaching at Lake Murray today, making the find on a puzzle geocache in a very odd container.

I am reading A Tale Of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens. It is dragging on very slowly. Dickens uses twenty words when one will do, in my opinion. He is certainly no Robert Parker! I quite lose track of what is going on at times, and who various characters are. I was quite certain, for many pages, that Monsieur Marquis was not the same person on the Monsignor. I'm going to look online for an outline... Oh, now I see that I was confused about that! Monseigneur was both the person who gave a party (the chocolate episode) and a title of Monsieur Marquis. I think.

Well, that's about it for today!

Monday Is Shot

2011-10-17T17:08:00.000-07:00

I had to haul the cat to the vet for his shot today, so I needed another cat carrier, as he peed in his cardboard one the last time. I saw one at my regular Albertson's, so I naturally went to another Albertson's before work, 'cause it was closer. Nope, no cat carriers there. I decided to get a cardboard one at Petco in the afternnon, as I was short on funds. Nope, couldn't find them. So I finally went to my regular Albertson's and YAY, they had some. I picked one out and took it up to the Express Lane. The cashier did a price check. Yay, it was less than the amount on my gift card, so I bought it. She even washed the dust off of it!

Here's the cat in his new carrier:

I found this antique book of matches yesterday in a drawer. How much do you think I could get on E-Bay for them?

That's about it for today!

Wednesday

2011-10-12T16:14:00.000-07:00

Got the tooth covered with a porcelain crown yesterday. Still need a crown replaced, but insurance doesn't cover it. Not gonna happen soon!

Also found out one of my caches is missing. I took a look, and I can't find it either, so I replaced it with yet another one on the way to jury dooty!

Jury Dooty...

I did not get picked for a trial, and I nearly finished the book I was reading! I got a nice present from the County Sheriff for my services, a citation for not having proper registration, in this case, not have my tags displayed! My bad, I forgotted to put them on! Well, there's $32.50 down the drain! I wonder if they would have noticed the missing sticker if I had backed in when I parked...

EDIT: I put the sticker on when I got home.

Rot13 encrypted comments on the courthouse bathrooms:
V birepnzr zl srne bs choyvp gbvyrgf naq unq n avpr objry zbirzrag va gur pbhegubhfr gbvyrg. Gurl unir n irel avpr g.c. qvfcrafre. Fbzrbar yrsg n pbcl bs Cbchyne Zrpunavpf juvpu znqr sbe fbzr vasbezngvir ernqvat. Vg'f n yvggyr gbb dhvrg va gurer, gubhtu, gurl arrq n abvfl sna be n juvgr abvfr trarengbe. Nf sne nf pyrnayvarff, V engr vg na "8" bhg bs gra. Abg onq sbe n choyvp snpvyvgl! Gur syhfure qvq na rkpryyrag wbo, gbb!

The East County Courthouse must have the worst exit I've ever seen, since El Cajon decided it would be a good idea to make downtown a single lane in each direction. A good plan is to sneak out the back way from the parking structure, which I didn't do, or park over by Rubio's, which I also didn't do.

I'm reading "The Road". I'm not sure why someone decided this would make a good movie. I'm not sure why it got a Pulitzer prize. I'm not always sure who is speaking. I'm unclear on why the author doesn't use quotation marks. I'm certainly not sure why the author doesn't use an apostrophe all the time. Maybe it will be revealed at the end, but I've only twenty pages to go, so...

It sure is hot today! I hear it at the century mark today in El Cajon! Glad I have air conditioning!!

EDIT: In La Mesa right now (3:55 P.M.) it is 97 °F, but the humidity is 22% so it feels like only 95 °F. It's a DRY heat! In Granite Hills (essentially El Cajon) it is 102.4 °F right now, but it feels like only 97 °F, which must be a relief to them.

A New Week

2011-10-10T19:15:00.000-07:00

The weather has changed once again from cool to warm. Warm and SUNNY! Yuk!

I went geocaching yesterday in the canyon off of Federal Blvd. I wore my new shorts. Bad move! Bushwacking in shorts is not recommended! My legs are all scratched up!

And hairy!

I found two of the caches, but one, the bushwackiest, eluded me. Oh, well, the last log said they couldn't find it either, so I don't feel bad. Except my legs!

My shoes, especially the shoe strings, and my socks, were chock FULL of little stickers and seed-things. When I got home I sat on the garage step to pull them out. The tail-less cat wandered by and into the garage. I set the shoes down to fetch the cat out of the garage, when I came back to the shoes most of the debris had mysteriously VANISHED!

I find my pro membership at Geocaching.com has expired. Now I just a regular guy!

Last week at work I bumped my measuring cup/coffee cup into a door jam. It cracked rather spectacularly! I had to toss it, so now I am reduced to using the many regular cups people have bought me over the years.

While getting ready for work I spent twenty minutes looking for my work keys. I found them in the pocket of the pants I had on. How sad is that?

Here's a pic of our miniature textbook storage room.

Most of those boxes on the floor are workbooks that we don't use. I am trying to send them back to the warehouse. See our giant stapler over there on the right? In the foreground, just off the picture, I'm building a pallet of boxes to send back. It takes up most of the rest of the room.

Tomorrow is the dentist, then jury dooty on Wednesday. I'm a bit tire of civic responsibility, but at least I get paid for it!

George et George

2011-09-27T13:11:00.000-07:00

I find, to my chagrin, that I have confused George Sand with George Eliot.

I should twitter this!

Fiesta Island Redux

2011-09-09T17:35:00.000-07:00

Since I had the day off today (THANK YOU, oh power outage!) I decided to head down to Fiesta Island and find all the rest of the geocaches there.

Best laid plans...

I didn't find two of them, but I did set a new personal best of nineteen caches in a day (a far cry from what might be the record of 917 in a day by TeamAlamo).

I met several dogs today. This one came up to me to say hi while I was trying to be incognito.

He was pretty friendly, I just captured him in mid-smile. I was pretending to take pictures of the bay!

Yup, it's a bay. I guess that is Mt. Soledad in the background.

One of the caches we looked for last week required a ladder, which we did not have. We DID spot the cache, though. When I checked the geocaching.com today I found that cache had been disabled and archived as some muggle hurt himself climbing the pole to "see what was up there". People, leave the geocaches to the professionals!

I was sitting on the ground signing the log at a cache in the doggy area when a large friendly and VERY WET dog with curly hair came over to inspect what I was up to.

I also talked to a fellow with a Basenji, a breed I admire very much.

Most of the caches were pretty easy to find, and I even avenged a Did Not Find from a year ago, which was very satisfying.

This cache I spotted from around sixty feet away. Can you spot it?

HINT: It's yellow. I telephotoed (that may not be a verb, maybe zoomed would be the better word) in a bit on this, so I'm farther away then it looks.

My nose is sore, maybe it's sunburned.

Power Restrored

2011-09-09T06:13:00.000-07:00

Woke up this morning around 4:15 in total darkness.

Reached over and switched on the lamp.

It lit! The power is back on!

Grabbed my reading book, The Story Of Edgar Sawtelle, and started reading! It was a long night without lights...

No work today, the schools are all closed because of the power outage. Maybe I'll go geocaching!

Friday Summary

2011-09-02T15:58:00.000-07:00

Rode the bike two days this week, but today I had a massive Charley-horse in the early AM and felt I would be unable to pedal, so I drove.

Finally found a geocache I've looked for several times, but I DID need a massive hint. The massive hint was -- It IS a rock. Here's a picture, can YOU spot it?

And this is just SMALL view of the assortment of rocks available to check!

Saw a motorcyclist this afternoon who DIDN'T cut to the front of the line of cars at a stop light. How about that?

That's about all I've got, have a good weekend. Take Monday off!

Saturday On Pyle's Peak

2011-08-20T15:03:00.000-07:00

Hiked up and over Pyle's Peak to pick up the seven geocaches I still had to get that were north of the peak. Found all seven, although two of them were very tricky.

Panorama I made of Pyle's Peak and Cowles Mountain.

Picture of ME at a flag pole in the middle of erehwon.

Gmaps Pedometer claims a round trip distance of 3.6 miles, with I-don't-know-how-much elevation gain, but it must certainly be MILES! Felt like it! By looking at a topographic map I'm guessing around 1,700 feet of "up", and the same "down", spread over those 3.6 miles.

Thursday At The Other Lake

2011-08-18T17:56:00.000-07:00

I worked up some gumption and drove over to Kumeyaay Lake to pick up some fairly new geocaches. On the way I stopped on one library to return books, took some moola out of an ATM, stopped at another library to check out some books, looked for a geocache that I haven't been able to find yet (Going for the DNF record!), looked for yet another geocache (and found it), and bought some grass trimmer line at San Carlos Hardware (that turned out to be cheaper than Lowe's).
But, I digress...

There were three geocaches at the lake. I've never been to the lake part of the campground, nor the campground part, for that matter. I HAVE plugged up a toilet in the restroom on a dark, dark day in November 2009. I managed to find all three caches, even though two of them had "3" (out of five) difficulty ratings. One of the caches was full of GUNS!!

I spotted only one person at the lake, an artist sketching.

I did a bit of reconnoitering for some caches I need on the north side of Pyle's Peak. I discovered that what I, for some reason, thought was a valley, was indeed a BIG HILL. Topographic maps, how do they work?

Next I went to Lowe's to get some sticky ant pads, checked the price of grass trimmer line and was glad, then I went home.

Not Much Going On Here

2011-08-17T10:12:00.005-07:00

Bacon and Eggs - A day's work for a chicken; A lifetime commitment for a pig.

Tuesday Meanderings

2011-08-16T16:09:00.000-07:00

I walked up Mt Nebo today, up the secret stairs, looking for some geocaches. Geocaches that have eluded me before. I found one of them, but two remained, uh, elusive. The GPS receiver refused to acquire its satellites for an hour. I thought maybe we were at war!

Walking home, I waited at a four-way stop for the first car on my right to cross. I stepped off as he crossed the intersection. The second car, containing Jerk-person, took off and almost hit me as I was half-way across the street, in the crosswalk. I screamed at them, and called them a curse-word.

Up at the nasty University/Baltimore intersection I observed a bicyclist SIGNALING as she changed lanes. Some people!

Check out the action at this odd-jointed intersection. As SOON as the light changes, Mr. Black Car on the right honks his horn. As soon as Mr. Pink car gets NEARLY half-way across the intersection, Mr. Black Car turns left, cutting off Mr. White Car(s) coming from the left, who (is)are going straight. And they complain about bicyclists!

Well, that is enough complaining for one day!

Sat. and Mon.

2011-08-08T23:14:00.000-07:00

Saturday I walked over to my second-nearest cache and replaced the wet log and added a bit of camo. The next day a guy looked for it and couldn't find it. Maybe the camo was too good? See the pic below:

Monday a new cache popped up in my email so I drove over to MTRP to make the find. I was first, so I scored the FTF! As I was exiting the bushes I met the fellow who would be second-to-find (STF).

In the afternoon I had to run an errand, so I looked for some caches along the way. One was called Claustrophobic Canyon, an ominous name! It was deep little narrow canyon just off of Collwood sort of in the Collage area. The water must really run during our "rainy" season, those shopping carts are really buried!

My backpack kept snagging on the overgrown overhead brush and trees. This pic looked much more interesting in real life, the pic is sort of flat. That's the trail, as it were, heading into the canyon.

I finally made the find, and only got stuck a few times by a wicked-sharp agave plant. I suggested in the log that one might need to wear safety goggles here!

Friday Wanderings

2011-07-29T11:42:00.000-07:00

I headed off to Cowles Mountain this morning to pick up that geocache that I didn't get because I forgot to bring the coordinates (not hyphenating THAT anymore!) that other time.

I made the find, and sat for a while, waiting for my heart to slow down a bit. Took some pics.

Looking back down the hill I just came up. You can see the trail going back up the other way from the ravine way down there.

I saw a camera flash from atop Cowles Mountain, so I took a flash picture right back at them!

And one of me, with my demi-walking stick, for posterity!

I continued up the hill to where the trail joined the main trail, and hung a left. I continued for a while, then all of a sudden the trail ended! Whoops, that wasn't the main trail, it was the trail to the view point. So I backtracked until it finally met up with the REAL main trail. THEN, I hung a left, and headed towards Cowles Mountain.

I was looking for a multicache, one with a twist. In the cache are the coordinates for a cache in North Carolina. You have to partner-up with someone there whose is looking for the companion cache in NC. Their cache has the coordinates for the final cache in San Diego. You exchange coordinates, and everyone is happy! I made the find, got the coordinates, now I gotta find someone in North Carolina!

I check another cache that I had found in May 2010. I didn't sign the log then, as it was missing. The log, that is. Actually, the whole cache container (back then) was strewn, STREWN, I tells yah, along the trail. I put it back together, but I didn't have a log sheet to put in. So this time, I signed the log. Gotta keep the paperwork up-to-date, you know!

Coming down from Cowles Mountain peak I took a picture, on maximum tele-photo, of the my vehicle parked WAY down there, parked near the Barker Way trailhead.

Lastly, the rangers have put up this rather nifty thing for bikers going down the Big Rock trail.. You grab a bell from the box before you go down, then drop it off in a box at the bottom.

Well, that was about it. I headed on down the road, and then home.

STATS:

Geocaches found: 1
Waypoints found: 1
Old logs signed: 1
Water bottles consumed: 1

What Day Is IT?

2011-07-27T20:16:00.000-07:00

I ask, 'cause I wrote the wrong date (AGAIN) on both the geocaches I found today.

And it's not like I don't carry a watch, and the GPSr has the date, too.

I went caching to two different spots in Mission Trail Regional Park today. I found waypoint #2 of a five part multicache, which gave me the co-ordinates to waypoint # 3. Which I will attempt another day. The five parts form a giant star shape. I don't count this as a cache find, but there are three more locations to find.

Cache number one was rather near that, just up the powerline road from Oak Canyon to the Fortuna Saddle. It was a puzzle cache, wherein one had to solve a puzzle to to discover the co-ordinates. It was pretty easy, though. I had a lot of trouble finding it, thought maybe I got the co-ordinates wrong. As I was composing the Did Not Find log entry in my head I looked once again in the spot I had looked in several times already, and there it was. Magic! See the pic!

No, it was NOT out in the open like that!

The things I do!

As I was hiking back to the vehicle I saw two guys fishing at the dam. I didn't know you could do that!

I drove back to a spot near the base of Cowles Mountain and quickly made the find of cache number three. Then I drove over to Big Lots to look for a patio-type blind, but I couldn't find them. I didn't ask anyone for help, of course. I see, on line, that they have them. So, I shall have to go back there, I guess. While I was in the neighborhood I looked, futilely, for a nearby geocache. I didn't find it. I guess that's the "futile" in futiley.

The Other Day

2011-07-26T16:49:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning, at 2 A.M., I was awakened by the dulcet sounds of "The Boys Are Back In Town", as performed by Thin Lizzy, blasting from the house next door. Not sure if Richard or his tenants, though. Oh, and accompanied by singing. Just that one song, then it went relatively quiet.

And this is why I hate classic rock!

No, just classic rock radio stations. They tend to play the same stuff over and over and over, ad nauseam.

All this morning I worked on a spreadsheet solution to the vexing problem of figuring out how many of the Mission Trails Regional Park geocaches I have found. There are nearly four hundred on the current list. You get a prize when you have found them all!

Not really, what you get is your name on a list. A very EXCLUSIVE list!

Anyway, I read about conditional formatting and copied the author's technique that highlights the items in one column that re not found in the other. And so I compared The List with my list of caches found. I been doing this manually, and it's a LOT of eye-straining work. The comparison showed me that I had not marked two caches found on the list. A little calculation (probably incorrect) told me I have found 90.8% of the caches.

I spent A LOT of time trying to make the formula work in this document, when I had it working just fine in a practice document. After half an hour I figured out that I was referencing an empty column...

I also found out that a component of Open Office, soffice.bin, doesn't always quit when you exit the program. And that stops you from firing up Calc again. I keep having to off it in Windows Task Manager.

Friday

2011-07-22T15:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went up to the grocery store (up?) to pick up a prescription and some peanut butter and something else, oh yeah, bread. I dropped off another geocache I made. It was found within an hour by two guys, one of which described as, if I may quote, "amazing". Look at the background picture in the link. Don't tell anyone, but you can see the cache hanging down on the limb.

Here is a better picture!

I was thinking about my dad again, and I came up with two awesome times we had, both related to Scouting. One time, in Cub Scouts, we went on a Father-Son camp out and I remember the burnt pancakes cooked on the griddle over the fire. Best pancakes I ever ate! Another time, the Webelos patrol went out to the desert and we got to do some target shooting. That was pretty cool!

And something awesome he did for me: I had bought a big ol' Ford bread van that was outfitted for camping. Flathead V-8, four on the floor, no synchos. The base police (I was in the military) told me to get it off base, as it was quite an eyesore. I was driving it to San Diego when the radiator sprang a leak, so I left it at a gas station along the way. I couldn't get back to it for quite a while, and it turned out the gas station wanted to charge me like a hundred bucks for space rent. He and his buddy went up there in the middle of the night and "liberated" it. How full of awesomeness is that?


Ford Bread Truck

There is the Ford bread truck, and my two motorcycles, on the base. That's is a Matchless 500 single, and the other is a Yamaha 650 twin. Now that I think of it, I hauled the Matchless to San Diego in the back of that van on the fateful trip. I later sold it for fifty bucks when I got married. I think I eventually sold the truck to George for fifty bucks.

Speaking of George, this photo was taken AT George. AFB, that is.

And speaking of the Matchless, here's a lesson I should have learned from this, but did not: Never buy a vehicle without all its paperwork in order. Never!

Yesterday and Today

2011-07-20T13:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I got up early to revisit the rock-climbing area in Mission Trails. I didn't have any new luck finding a way up, and I had a touch of, shall we say, tummy-trouble, so deciding discretion was the better part, blah blah, I went home.

Today, I was reading on Reddit a thread about the coolest thing you've done with your dad. And I can't remember much of anything, except going to a nudie bar when I was 21. Which was actually a little more creepy than cool.

It's not that we didn't do stuff together, it is that I often didn't really want to be there. Golf? No, thanks, I'd rather read a book. Or build model cars. I always seemed to be on a different road than him. And in the slow lane, at that!

I always felt I didn't meet his expectations. He was a "Type A" person, very motivated, ambitious, and a real people-person. A salesman, if you will. I seem to be the complete opposite of him. We never did seem to connect, although he tried, when I was a kid. After I got married I didn't see him very often, and he never met my kids. At his memorial service, I was pressed into action to speak, and I really had nothing to say. Which may say more about me, than him!

I was much closer to my grandfather, who had a myriad of hobbies and interests. He would take me to the hobby shops, the union hall, the stock exchange, that liquor store with the pink elephant hanging in the window. Not always the most interesting places to a little kid, but it was great being with him. The coolest thing I remember doing with him is the time he took me and my grandmother on an off-road excursion through the sand dunes near their home. In his Jeep Forward Control. I got to sit on the engine cover, between the two of them, with the motor warming-up my behind. We got stuck a few times, but he got us out!

Oh, I just thought of another! Now, this was back in the 60s, I must preface, after they retired and moved to the Needles area. We were driving down the dirt river road in his pickup, when he stopped and yanked the rifle off the rack behind our heads, and fired out the window at a coyote. The passenger window. He being on the driver's position, you see. He missed, though. It was a little scary, but it was cool.

Yesterday and Today

2011-07-17T13:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday -- I went to the library to return a book. Saw this sitting by the fence. I have no idea.

Unfortunately, the book I wanted was not at THIS (San Diego County) library, but at the San Carlos (San Diego City) library. So, I headed over there. Unfortunately, they were closed. They close at 2:30 on Saturday. And, they are not open on Sunday or Monday. Yay San Diego! How can the County keep their libraries open Sunday AND Monday, with longer hours, but the City can not?

I also popped over to the Fletcher Hills branch, just on the off-chance, but they did not have it. Oh, well!

I also picked up a geocache in Fletcher Hills Park.

Today-- I went geocaching in Mission Valley, snapped my walking stick in a hole-on-a-hill, then headed over to Mission Trails Regional Park. Here's the poor stick. Now it's more of a cane! At least I found the geocache!

The plan at the park was to get the caches around the rock climbing area. It was a pretty steep climb up, but the views were great!

I followed the trail along the base of the rock climbing cliffs. There were a few people climbing in the early morning cloudiness. I didn't get any good/dramatic pics, though.

Here's a climber. There is another guy above him, out of the shot.

Here's some of the rocks they climb. This picture goes on top of the one before, but the 'above' guy is in the cleft somewhere.

The trails are pretty funky and I had trouble following them. I was kind of lost, actually. I talked to a woman who had the trails maps, which didn't help too much, but reassured me that there WOULD be a way down, when I so chose to go.

Since I never did figure out a way up and over the rocks, and declined the kind offer of the rock climbers to go up their ropes, the last cache I found was, well, the last. But it was the best, too! Can you spot it?

Well, that leaves me with three caches still to find. WAY UP there! Maybe I'll get a helicopter!

Here's a panorama I tried to create. I had to edit the rocks a bit on the left as the pics did not stitch together properly. Click on the image to visit my zooomr page, where the BIG version is!

Heading DOWN the trail to the road I encountered several groups of people heading UP the hill to climb them some rocks. You could tell, they mostly all were wearing their climbing harnesses. They looked like they had garter belts on! And with the sun coming out, they were sweatin'.

Total caches found today: six.

Wednesday Walking

2011-07-15T11:40:00.000-07:00

Wednesday the 13th I walked up to the grocery store to picked up a prescription. Along the way I:

Took a picture of a railroad rail weight mark.

Took picture of guys working on the new elevator at Grossmont Trolley station.

Took picture of pine cones.

Took a picture (edited for rude language) of graffiti under overpass:

The total walk was maybe a mile longer than that visit to Staples the other day, whatever that was.

Walkin' The Boulevard

2011-07-11T20:41:00.000-07:00

I went a-walking again today, nearly all way down to College and El Cajon Blvd.

I snuggled up my Tilly hat so the breeze wouldn't blow it away. It was not too warm, and the breeze helped keep me cool. I brought a bottle of water (unlike yesterday) and kept my hands in my pant's pockets so they wouldn't burn.

Hey, look, Poptarts! Breakfast in a bag!

Many of the utility boxes in La Mesa have been decorated. It's very nice.

I wonder what manner of business is this building near 70th and El Cajon? Not a sign to be seen.

Image from Google Maps. That's why it is cloudy!

Going around the back...nothing.

I had hopes for something interesting on the roof, in view of that break in the roofline up there, maybe a sun deck, with a grill? But no.

Image from Google Maps. Again, the clouds.

Notice the two protuberances that, uh, protrude, on the right, through the fence, and are at least six feet high. Compare on the street-side view. What's up with that?

Nothing interesting happened the rest of the way west. I ran my errand, then headed back.

Up around 73rd, where the county Welfare Office is, I noticed a "medicinal" pot store right next to a taco shop. Planned or serendipity?

Image from Google Maps

"Got Dank", indeed!

A couple of blocks along I saw this camera just sitting there. Took a picture, but did not even TOUCH the camera.

Purty flowers, but the utility box needs some decorating.

I think I over-estimated my little trip yesterday, that one was more like three miles. THIS one was around four miles! (Gmaps pedometer says today's walk was 5.2 miles. And it says yesterday's romp was 4.1 miles. So THERE!)

I'm Walkin'

2011-07-10T18:55:00.000-07:00

I walked up to Staples to pick up on their 1¢ Back To School sale. It took me about an hour to get up there, so it had been opened a half an hour already. Droves of peoples were there. I suspect many of them (the bulk-buyers, anyway) were those leeches on the public, teachers, buying classroom supplies with their own money.

Saw this sign on the way home. Good to know.

At the Heartland Youth For Decency Vietnam Veterans Memorial.I spotted this bench, which I don't remember seeing before, but maybe I forgotted. here's a nice article about war memorials in La Mesa, including this one.

This is the memorial itself, with the camouflaged trashcan that initially caught my attention today.

Total walking today was just under four miles, I figure.

Thursday?

2011-07-07T21:24:00.000-07:00

The summer is wasting away, and I'm getting nothing done. It's too darn hot! It was 95 today, and muggy! I hear tell it's gonna cool down a bit tomorrow, though.

I DID manage to get up and walk over to the parking lot at the strip mall to stash a new geocache. Here's a couple of pics:

The cache:-- I don't know where I was going with this camouflage. I'm talking about the rock. I finally gave up and decided to JUST PLACE IT!

The stash -- It does blend in nicely, though, and the rock keeps it sticking up, like a piece of wood.

I went home and submitted the cache, then chauffeured to the doctor. Nothing was accomplished there, as the results hadn't come in yet. I talked the chauffeuree into riding along to the pharmacy to pick up some meds that were ready. Oh, no, they were not, the doctor (not the one we had just been to.) declined to renew the prescription, for reasons that made sense. Even so, I was a bit miffed at having driven all the way up there.

On the way back I noticed several vehicles clustered around the spot where I hid the cache. Oh, ho, says I, it has been published! So I pull in, wind down the window, and yell out, "What are you guys doing?" One of them finally admitted they were geocaching. It was obvious they were looking in the wrong spot, so I said, "Wasn't the hint helpful?" The hint, by the way, was "not magnetic". A bit of humor on my part. They figured out I was the cache owner, and asked for a better hint. I said, 'On the ground", and they made the find.

I had my darn camera with me and didn't take a pic!

Tonight I finally cobbled together an overhead view (mostly) of the Corson Buoyant Transfer RR. You can click the pic for an image TWICE as large on my zooomr page!!

Heated Reading

2011-07-06T10:47:00.000-07:00

Geez, it's sure warm! Time to unbox that new box fan!

I started reading Shannon Hale's Enna Burning yesterday, but put it aside to start Zen And Now -- On the trail of Robert Pirsig and the Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Mark Richarson. I cannot say enough about Richardson's book, I really enjoyed reading it. I read straight through, except for eight hours sleep, and finished it this mid-morning.

For some reason I had got it in my head the Pirsig rode a Norton in Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZMM). So I'm looking at the cover of Zen And Now, with its vintage Honda, thinking: art directors, honestly! Then, I see an interior illustration clearly showing a man and a boy riding an old Honda. Huh, what is up with that? THEN, I read on to find that Pirsig rode a Honda 305 Superhawk in ZMM. And he still owns it!, but doesn't ride it anymore, no license. And Richardson met the current owner of the Sutherland's BMW. how cool is that?

Did I mention how much I enjoyed reading Zen And Now??

I read Hale's Princess Academy in 2008, and enjoyed it very much. Enna Burning has not really got me going, yet, but I'm sure it will turn around, not unlike Princess.

After I finish Enna I will start up with William Least-Heat Moon's Roads To Quoz, which is quite a large volume, massing 592 pages.

Wednesday Trek

2011-06-29T12:53:00.000-07:00

I had four caches I wanted to find today. Three of them were on the dirt roads near the 52, and one was to the south. So I got up EARLY and BEAT the sun! Took a chance and didn't even put on any sun block. I hate that stuff, it's so greasy!

It was too early for the gates to be opened at the dam, so I parked a bit away from where I WOULD have parked. A bit more walking involved. The first part of the hike was pretty flat, I COULD have taken the bike. The second part of the hike was like a roller coaster, up and down and up and down, repeat ad nauseum!

Here's the view from the SECOND hill! It looks like a straight shot, but there are three more steep little hills between here and the distant "peak", which is where the last geocache is, of course!

The uphill parts are steep and slippery. With the occasional pothole!

I can't imagine bicycling this, but people do! Or should I say, gods on bikes to!

Down hill isn't any better, still slippery, but at least I can hear the sounds of nature, rather than my labored breathing.

On the way back, having survived, I took a pic of Fortuna Mountain. Hey, I was just up there Monday!

I saw several bunny rabbits today. This one was pretending to be invisible.

The final cache was one I've been looking for since last August. The cache owners replaced it last month, so I checked it out and made the find. Which I was signing the log a Cooper's Hawk burst out of a nearby bush, flew over to a tree, and glared at me.

I passed by the dam view on the way back and had to take a pic.

I would have parked over there if the gates had been open when I arrived. But they were not, so I had to walk maybe a half-mile more to the parking spot. Actually, since you can't cross the dam (at least I have not figured out how!), the walk would have been about the same, figuring in the river-crossing points!

I drove over to Loew's and spent WAY too much time looking at tools, then I went to Grossmont Nutrition to buy some birthday cards ($.99 for three!), then to Sports Authority where I bought a pair of Thorlo Hiking socks. For $13.99. They ought to be REAL good socks!

First Monday Of Summer Vacation

2011-06-27T16:02:00.000-07:00

After not doing anything all weekend, except reading, of course, I decided to take a crack at those geocaches on Fortuna Peak in Mission Trail Regional Park. So I got up early and headed over to Tierrasanta. I found an EXCELLENT place to park, and headed out from there. It was REALLY foggy. At the first cache one was supposed to spot some certain rocks where the cache was, but it was so foggy I couldn't see which way the rocks were!

I had to get this cache on the way back, after the fog had lifted. I DID see this strange contraption, though...

This cute little cache utilizes an old Velox bicycle tube repair kit. Or maybe it's for tubular bike tires, the ones racer's used, with the integral tube. I'm a Rema man, myself, but I do like the Velox rim tape.

I think this spider is listening for radio signals from outer space...

I could HEAR the traffic on the 52 as I headed up the trail, but I couldn't SEE it. When I got to the ridge above I could see down into Santee as the fog was clearing on that side.

But on the west side it was still socked in. There was almost a rainbow.

A little more, almost there!

Strangely, the fog was moving from right to left in this picture, for a while. Fortuna peak up there.

I finally made it to the peak of Fortuna Mountain, and started down the other side.

I only saw one person on the way up here, a trail runner passed me as I was rummaging around for a geocache just off the trail.

Down on the (relative) flats I came across this geocache with some sort of nest on it. I'm just glad it wasn't inhabited!

I also saw a couple out hiking, for a total of three humans today!

The last cache of the day was way down in a valley about five hundred feet from where I parked. Horizontal feet...add a couple of hundred more UP and a couple of hundred feed DOWN! Plus a couple of hundred MORE to follow the trail! It was situated on an ant nest. The little red ants were mightily upset when I pulled the top off of their nest!

I posed myself picking up a piece of trash, a mylar balloon. I had the backpack on by one strap, and it slipped off. I was too lazy to re-pose the shot, though! Anyway, as they say, Cache In, Trash Out!!

Finally I was done for the day and headed directly up the hill (not following the trail) to the vehicle. I could see where a pipeline had been buried and followed the fairly-clear path, not having to bushwhack. So my trail-cutting wasn't a TOTAL sin.

As soon as I opened the door to the vehicle I fired it up and turned the AC on FULL BLAST, so by the time I got unloaded it was pretty cool. A relief, as I was pretty warm! Sweatin' like pig. And so I headed home. And on the way home I saw this RV with its steps hanging out. Hope none of those silly lane-splitting motorcyclists run into it!

Oh, and in case you are interested, you can view the route on Gmaps Pedometer. Just click HERE!

Friday On The Mountain

2011-06-24T18:44:00.000-07:00

In a fit of pique I headed off to Cowles Mountain this afternoon to get me some geocaches.

The plan was to walk UP the road from the Barker Way entrance, then hang a right DOWN the Big Rock trail, go about half-way down, then hang a left on a very small trail and go west.

I turned on the GPSr. It said the first cache was quite a ways off, so I kept walking and walking and walking, over hill and dale. Up and down. Finally I got near the first cache, but noticed a REALLY BIG hill up ahead. I KNEW the LAST cache was on that hill, and there was no way there were three two more caches twixt here and there. Checked the GPSr a little more carefully, found I had neglected to enter the co-ordinates for three of the caches, and I had walked right past two of them! Oh, well, at least I had them on my printed list. Well, I had TWO of them on the list, but not the one on that BIG HILL up there. That means I'll have to do the whole thing over again to get it! Yikes!

Here's a picture of where that last cache is. Up on that hill. Somewhere.

Hey, remember you can click on the picture to visit the zooomr site, see the image larger, and ofttimes I geotag the image so you can see where it was taken. How nifty is that?

So, I made the find on the second-to-last cache, then turned around and headed back UP the trail. Took another picture, of the peak of Cowles Mountain, since I've never seen it from quite this angle before.

Since I HAD printed coordinates (is there supposed to be a hyphen in there? I can't decide) the first two, now the last two, caches, I found them with no problems.

And so I walked back UP the Big Rock trail, and back DOWN the road, and went home.

Here's a picture of the cat in the bird bath. Ain't gonna catch no birds THAT way!

Duck Pond

2011-06-23T09:53:00.000-07:00

Went back to the duck pond in El Cajon to search for that geocache, and found it! I took a picture of one of the geeses. That look in its eye is rather un-nerving. I think he (she?) wants to eat me!

I also dropped off my keys at work, for the summer, since I forgotted.

I gotta get one of those little mirrors that stick on the side mirrors. I seem to have some sort of blind spot. Almost merged onto another car today. Again. Even though my mirrors are QUITE carefully adjusted! Maybe because it was white. Yes, it is TOTALLY their fault!

Saturday Walk and Misc. Stuff

2011-06-18T22:47:00.000-07:00

I went for a walk to do a little geocaching this morning, but didn't find ANY! Zero for four! I did see this bottle cap stuck in some roots that tickled my fancy, though.

I thought at first it was the cache, but I guess not. I hope not!

Before that I saw this strange antenna on the wall at the shopping center. It's a magnetic-mount, like one would use on a car. Nice how the cable runs through a dryer vent. Is that to code? The big cable goes to an antenna on the roof, I think.

I made the acquaintance of some gooses at the duck pond near Gillespie Field in El Cajon. I think they were Chinese geeses, they had rather large basal knobs (And how long did it take me to figure out that technical term?). I shoulda taken a pic.

Here is a pic of the tailless cat sitting on the fence.

Here be a picture of a rose from our yard that my wife wanted to share. She took the pic.

Geocaching Sunday

2011-06-05T14:30:00.000-07:00

Got up EARLY (5 a.m.) to beat the sun to South Fortuna Peak. I COULD have got earlier, I find, as it was quite light by the time I got to the parking spot. Speaking of, I had to park a few hundred feet farther away because the park just ain't open this early.

I went DOWN the trail to the San Diego River, which was running a little high, about an inch over the top of the path, so my shoes got a little wet. Surprisingly, they didn't leak!

Next I headed UP the big hill on what seems to be known as the San Diego River Crossing Trail, which is really a big ol' power line road. I saw two young deer. I held quite still, and they came within maybe 75 feet of me.

That was quite amazing! Oh, and there are a few more pics of the deer on the zooomr site. Just click an image to go there.

I continued up the hill, picking up three caches along the way. Up at the top there are a bunch of what I call telephone poles, but I guess they are really power poles. I thought it was interesting that there were different size poles. This may be part of the Sunrise Powerlink project.

I don't know what that big tower thing is, but it was making a kind of roaring sound.

I didn't find one cache I hadn't found before, but I DID find another cache I have looked for twice. This time it was right out in the open. So I covered it up with some rocks.

I made a panorama of the view from the ridge between the Fortuna saddle and South Fortuna peak.

Earlier I heard some rock music way off in the distance, I bet it was the Rock'n'Roll Marathon. On the trail right about here I met a guy with a radio blaring rather annoyingly. Geeze, it's nature, people! Enjoy it!

I also found the cache on South Fortuna Peak, but with a hint from the cache owner. Said hint was a picture of him pointing at the cache, with a big grin on his face!

I visited The Adrenaline cache again, but no luck. It's very scary, right on the edge of a 1,000 foot (800?) drop to the river. Birds are flying BELOW you! I'm gonna need some help with this one, maybe someone with a ROPE!

Going down the dreaded Staircase I met up with a lady who claimed to be hydrating with coffee. I said I don't think it works that way!

I didn't find the last cache I looked for, but the second-to-last, that was an experience. I read what turned out to be the wrong hint, so I was looking for something on the ground. I spotted something in some big boulders nearby, and took this pic. On maximum telephoto, mind you!

OMG, says I, it's my first rattlesnake! I moved around the other side of the boulders to see if I could get a better pic. I took a couple of pics, which didn't focus correctly because of bushes in between me and the snake. I was NOT going to get too close! I wondered why the snake was just sitting there. Maybe it was dead? Then I look at the cache notes, and realized I had been reading the wrong hint. And then the name of the cache made sense. "Heart Attack". I poked at the snake, just to make sure, mind you. It was rubber. Look at the picture again. You can see the Bison container just sticking out of the bottom of the snake's belly, and you can even make out the fishing line securing the snake to a stick so animals can't move it around. Heart attack, indeed!

After all that excitement I headed down the hill, made that last Did Not Find, then headed home.

Of Indexing, And Links, Plus Suduko And Crosswords

2011-06-03T18:23:00.000-07:00

I'm linking all OVER the place to my Corson Buoyant Transfer RR site, in hopes that Google will index it.

I've been doing the Suduko puzzles in The Reader quite often. I timed myself yesterday, I found I did the easy one in nine minutes, the medium in twenty-eight minutes, and the hard one? Still working on it!

I also work on the crossword, but I usually have to look up quite a few of the answers. Is there some sort of ranking system based on how many answers you have to look up?

I usually read The Reader from cover to cover. Though I don't know why I even LOOK at the movie reviews, much less the restaurant listings. I haven't been to a movie in AGES! And eating is just eating. Such a momentary pleasure! You pay a chunk of money, and then it's GONE!

Here's a quote from a library patron:

"I wish all the book in the library were Choose Your Own Adventures, so I wouldn't get yelled at for reading them"--Hannah, grade six

A Great Find

2011-05-27T15:41:00.000-07:00

I took another vacation day today, so now I'm looking forward to a four-day weekend!

I went geocaching this noon, again, over in the Mission Trails area. I didn't find the first one I looked for, one of the accursed Jackson Drive caches, but I did find the next four, including one that I've spent AT LEAST three hours searching for, on several occasions. It turned out to be in plain view, just like the cache owner said. No bush-beating required. Too bad all the bushes have been beat nearly to death, and not all by me!

Here's the cache, in situ:

And here is a side view:

How sneaky is THAT?

Of course, I've been signing all the logs today with the wrong date. I really should wear a watch. I've two, I could wear one on each arm!

After coming home from caching I walked up to the eye doctor to make an appointment. After all, they sent me a letter a YEAR AGO to remind me to come in!

Vacation Day Une

2011-05-25T17:54:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was "Braniac" day at work, the second day of Spirit Week (The first day was "Tie" day, which everyone pretty much didn't know about). I wore my blue "Smart" t-shirt. Unfortunately I was unable to carry off the theme, as I forgot to bring my pants and had to don my back-up pants, a pair of grey corduroys from many pounds ago.

As for today, I took a vacation (because the school district can't afford to pay me for days that I don't use, over the limit of how many I can save) day, finished reading Prodigal Child, by E. David Moulton, and went geocaching in the mid-day. The weather was sunny and warmish, but not too bad. The bees were beeing, the rabbits were hopping about, and an occasional quail sneakted across the path. The path being the dirt access road in Navajo Canyon. My mission? To find the three caches I couldn't find the LAST time I was here. I found the two 101 - Dalmatians caches easily enough, this time, mostly because some fine folks replaced the caches since I was here last. This series, I call them the doggy caches, each have a clue to find the last one. The "one to bind them", as it were. I've found maybe twenty of them so far, but I haven't been writing down the clues. So I guess I will NEVER find poor Rolly! Oh, yes, each of the caches is named after one of the dalmations.

Let us put some white space in here, it makes it easier to read.

Near one of the doggy caches was quite a mess. I guess they had a little leak in the pipe.

The last cache was also the first. But I didn't find it the first time today. But I persevered, and found the booger on the way out of the canyon. The lid was missing, though. Back in one of the doggy caches someone had left a big black plastic spider. This one had a big black plastic bug. Oh, wait a minute, that big black plastic bug is MOVING! Yikes!

I lost my Sharpie somewhere in the canyon today. I'm not going back for it!

Of This, And Of That

2011-05-18T16:51:00.000-07:00

It was drizzling yesterday, and raining today, so I drove to work. And I'll drive TOMORROW, too, blast your eyes!

My favorite pirate expression is "I ve nar", which apparently does not exist, so I must have miss-heard it in my youth.

I put twenty-five bucks of gas in vehicle today, taking the fuel-o-meter just over half-way. I made the misteak of purchasing gas at the closest station, at $4.11 per gallon, when I COULD have bought it at the Emerald Oil on Lake Murray Blvd. at $3.99 per gallon. Oh well!

The truck guy finally came and hauled away the pallets of workbook returns that have been clogging up the textbook room.

Today was Staff Appreciation Day. We had a nice deli sandwich with various fixin's, and a teacher brought me a donut!

I made this little sign from an image I've seen on the internets, more info on the original HERE. My apologies to Net Nanny...

Saw a nifty Triumph TR4 today. Reminds me of what fun it was tooling around in Phillip's red MG.TD. Back in my youth, again.

I am looking forward to reading Zug Island when it comes out. Partly because I know the author, but mostly because it sounds really interesting.

No rain expected tomorrow, but, like I said, I gotta drive, 'cause I have to go to the IMC and get some training.

Fixing TheCache

2011-05-14T17:34:00.000-07:00

I had to go grocery shopping today, so I decided to combine trips, like a conscientious soul, and do a repair on one of my geocaches that had been reported as "in pieces". I did the little hike to find that it didn't look too bad, only the roof was in two pieces. I already knew that, from prior logs. I brought some plastic cement, so I glued the pieces together, and added a little bracing. The last online log had also reported the log was missing, and since I knew the log was in a medicine bottle, that must be missing too. So I brought a new (camoed!) bottle and a new log sheet. Here's a pic:

I looked around and found the top to the old medicine bottle, slightly gnawed. It looks like something with big teeth is denning in the area.

The old bottle did not have the camo tape on it, and the new one does. So maybe Mr. Big Teeth won't be able to spot it inside the barn. Ha ha!

I went to the grocery store afterward. I managed to forget the check book, with the shopping list neatly tucked inside, back in the vehicle. So I had to fake my way through. I KNEW, as I related to an older lady in the cat food aisle, that I needed cat food and salt. And meat. The boss said I did OK.

I just finished reading Pathfinder, by Orson Scott Card. Good stuff. When is the sequel coming out?

Of Pines Cones and Margarita...and Blood!

2011-05-04T11:41:00.000-07:00

I discovered, yesterday, that my pine cone geocache has disappeared, along with the branch it was hanging on. Oh, well, there goes several hours work! I disabled the cache, and have already thought of an extremely clever replacement.

Talked to the new doc (well, not actually HIM) yesterday, my bloodwork, so far, looks good.

Found a new cache (First Date #1: Magarita Azul) on the way to work this morning, right near that Mexican restaurant in Grossmont Center. What an excellent smelling place!

April 31st

2011-05-01T11:39:00.000-07:00

I went geocaching this morning, big surprise. I signed all the logs with April 31, 2011. Thirty days hath September? Silly me!

The second cache I found was really clever, and here is a picture of it. I bet you can't spot it!

I THOUGHT I was in for an easy day on the next three, but because I didn't reconnoiter the area properly I took the HARD way to several caches, slipping and sliding up and down the thoroughly bush covered hills. At least I got to see a lot of really pointy plants, and a close look at some poison oak.

The last three caches were in Rancho Mission Canyon Park, yet again. There are TONS of purty flowers blooming.

I spotted this cache pretty easily. It is right in the center of the picture, almost.

The last cache was the final leg of a four-part multi-cache. I did one part each day (each leg was about a mile apart), leaving the last for today. I was clambering around some big boulders when one shifted and rolled down the hill into those green plants/water below, almost taking me with it. Got to be more careful!

If you are interested, here is a chart of my geocaching progress from 2002 to 2011. Can you figure out when I bought a GPSr?

That is about it, happy May Day! Workers of the World, Unite!

2011-04-30T17:52:00.000-07:00

I walked to the post office to mail the bills, but I missed the pick-up by fifteen minutes, so I walked over to the outside box to see if it picks up later, and it did, so I dropped the bills in there. Then I walked over to the library to see if they had any of the Ranger's Apprentice series, but they did not, so I checked out something else, that I can't remember the title of. I also picked up a Reader, just for the sodoku, even though I'm still working on an Evil one from February.

Then I walked down to Costco to check on my geocache, since I couldn't find it the other day. I thought maybe it was missing. It took a couple of minutes, but it was pretty much where I put it. Here's a pic.

Along the way I checked for that quarter I epoxied on the bridge just outside the fence a few years ago. It is still there. Needs to be shined up, though, probably no one even notices it.

When I got home I was notified that I had to go to the grocery store, so I sneaked off to Allied Gardens to do part three of a multi-cache. I found that one, then went over to the Allied Gardens Albertsons. I remembered there was a cache right in the parking lot which I had not located back in January. I fired up the GPSr to look a little bit, but I could not find it. I went in and did my shopping, then on the way back to the vehicle I took another look and spotted the cache right off. So that was good!

I made it home with no one the wiser for my divagations!

In The Library

2011-04-28T21:00:00.000-07:00

I came across this mystery blob on the library carpet this morning, after the before-school rush. It was a putty-like material, with none of the typical gum stench so common to blobs on the library floor. What could it be? Froggy for size comparison purposes only.

I am consistently amused by my bent, dare I say gnarled, fingers.

The sixth graders are using these redpugs as a mnemonic device to remember successful test-taking strategies. I do not recall any of them, right off hand. Thi/These one('s), courtesy of M.L., is/are named Frank and Bob

A Day Off

2011-04-27T17:54:00.000-07:00

I took a vacation day today. Chauffeured to the doctor, and made a little appointment for myself later in the week. I went geocaching in the afternoon, over at Lake Murray. The wilderness park of Lake Murray. The fabled "Land Beyond The Fence", aka "The Land Of A Million Golf Balls".

I parked at Lake Murray, then headed into land of snakes and weeds. I climbed up to the area of the first cache, near the top of the Del Cerro hill, to find I had lost my maps/hints printouts. I managed to make the find anyway, being the clever lad I am. The trick now was to figure a way to the second cache. What with spring, and the rains, it was all quite overgrown. Oh, and it is back down at the bottom of the hill, near the road. I was able to find a pathway that only required a minimum of bushwhacking. A couple on the road looked at me strangely, being on the other side of the fence, and I shouted out, "I'm on the wrong side of the fence!", which seemed humorous at the time.

So here is a view you won't see again soon. It is beyond the perimeter road turn-around point, so "civilians" are not allowed on that section of the road. Cowles Mt. in the background.

After all that excitement I headed back. It was just as much bushwhacking, but at least I knew I could do it, since I had just, um, done it.

I found those missing maps/hints printouts back towards the tennis courts. You can see them in the grass, there.

I headed west, with some arduous bushwhacking. Arduous UPHILL bushwhacking, at that. I was pretty whacked when I got to the top of the Del Cerro hill. Again. And again, I found I had lost the maps/hints printouts. I did not go back for them. I DID manage to find the cache, although it was a near thing, with much toing and froing, and finally going back to where I started, and Lo!, there it was, just as the half-remembered hint described!

The final cache was the first of a multi-cache, but as I mentioned, I was pretty whacked, so I headed home. Loaded down with a million or so weed seeds and stickers stuck in my socks, shoes, and laces.

Old Stuff

2011-04-26T18:16:00.000-07:00

Found some old stuff whilst rummaging around in the cabinets at work.

These things were pretty nifty, in the day. You cut them off to the length your want, then lick and stick them on a divider page in a three-ring binder. Good to know they are NON-inflammable acetate (yes, yes, I know what inflammable means, it still cracks me up. The thing I DON'T know, is, does one capitalize the first letter within parentheses?)

Should I keep them, or toss 'em?

These are the GIANT staples for the GIANT stapler. A regular staple is side-by, for comparison purposes only! I found I had TWO sizes of GIANT staples, which I did not know. Genuine ACME staples, plus they're the COHERED kind, not them other kind.

I'm going to keep these, but put them in the textbook storage/repair room where the GIANT stapler is, on the other side of the library, oh thank you so very much Mr. Architect!!!

Should NotThis Be On 3d0g Or Burnt Pizza?

2011-04-23T07:40:00.000-07:00

Geocaching.com is having issues with its maps. "Classic" maps won't personalize (show finds), and "Beta" maps won't show Premium caches. I guess I'll just stay home and read Snow Crash.

My nomination for website most stuck in the 90s is: Toy Soldiers Of San Diego. Lots of neat stuff for sale, there, but the web design is very reminiscent of my personal web page. And that is just not good enough, ten years into the new millennium!

Today

2011-04-10T14:55:00.000-07:00

I took off early to do a little geocaching. I visited several caches in El Cajon and Lakeside that I hadn't found before, and found three of them today. The ones in Lakeside are at the River Park Trail. I took along a piece of string with three newly-purchased treble hooks slipped onto it, for to retrieve a cache that I found had fallen WAY DOWN into a pipe. So as to help out the cache owner, you understand. And to see if I could do it. Well, with much line untangling and several sticks of the hooks I found that I could not hook it. Oh well!

Saw this Interesting Vehicle while tramping the trails. Looks like some sort of military RV. Said trail runs right behind that fence there.

I headed over to Santee to look for another cache. That cache turned out to not actually BE in the GPSr (GPS receiver). Probably why I didn't find it the last time I was out here. Another cache popped up, though, called "Zombies Ahead". I'm SURE I didn't put it in the GPSr, it must have been those zombies!

So I ended up with four Finds, and two Did Not Finds.

We have acquired a noisy blue jay (Western Scrub Jay) in the yard. I was waiting for Google Maps (and waiting and waiting...) to load this morning and heard a little meow from the back yard I head it several more times, then noticed the blue jay was squawking, too. I went outside to find the jay sitting about two feet from the cat, who was lying on the ground next to the birdbath. Of course when I ran out with the camera they moved to ruin the exquisite composition I had envisioned.

The blue jay is on the left, still squawking at the poor kitty. That chair broke this morning when I sat on it. The seat material was rotten, and the wood shattered, too!

Here is a better picture of the blue, ahem, I mean, Western Scrub Jay.

Speaking of the cat, here is (one) of his new favorite places to hang out...under the desk!

Someone needs to dust under there!

I'm reading Bill Bryson's At Home: A Short History Of Private Life. It's not that short, and there is an immense amount of digressing. It's like wikipedia, or more like, Television Tropes & Idioms. You go there to look up something interesting, and three hours later you realize you have wandered quite the wandering path and it's time to go to bed. Or eat dinner.

I spent quite a bit of time reading about William Beckford and Fonthill Abbey, the incredible house he built. I spent a lot of time checking out the location on Google Maps (and waiting for said GMaps to load!!).

Geocaching Today

2011-04-07T14:20:00.000-07:00

Headed out to north of Santee to do a little geocaching before it rains. Found twelve caches, didn't find one, twice.

This is the cutest cache of the day, a little bell in a bush.

Lot's of pretty views from the tops of the ridges. Lots of ridges. Lots of up and down!

I could hear a Sheriff's helicopter down in the valley telling the occupants of a house to come out with their hands over their heads. Always exciting times in Santee!

The sun was coming in and out, I thought it maybe was going to rain, but it didn't. Nice sunbeams, though!

Cowles Mountain way off in the distance.

I find power lines dramatically impressive. I don't know why.

Did not see any deer or rabbits, but I DID see:

A hummingbird.

A caterpillar.

And this bird that hovered on that thermal for about two minutes. I took a movie, but it was less than impressive. So you don't get to see it.

Slippage of the terrain is always interesting. These hillsides have been here for zillions of years, how come it fell down?

Oh, I forgot this one, it's Sycamore Canyon north of the Santee Lakes. Ain't that pretty? We used to ride our motorcycles and go target shooting out there. I vaguely recall braving the dirt roads in the Buick White Phantom for a little canoodling, once. Ah, youth!

I found a couple of Monster Energy drink cans. I guess the partakers of the beverage didn't have enough energy to pick up their trash! So I did.

That's about it for today. Only 140 more caches in area to go!

Of Oil, Cents, Sense (or the lack of), and a Glider

2011-04-04T10:42:00.000-07:00

Today was the BIG DAY! I FORCED myself to get up and head over to the Ford dealership (don't trust those quickie places) to get the oil changed. I say FORCED, as it is such a 'guy' place, and I feel really uncomfortable dealing with them. But, I 'manned up' and headed out.

I started up the vehicle and went to wipe the dew off the windows with the squeegee I keep on the floor. Not there? Did that get taken during the break-in? Should I amend the police report?

First, I dropped off Running The Books : The Adventures Of An Accidental Prison Librarian, by Avi Steinberg, at the library. Pretty good book. It occurred to me that working in a school library is not unlike working in a prison library, except one is less likely to get shived in a school. I hope.

I drove the freeway to the dealership, so as to warm up the vehicle. At the service entrance I put myself in the capable hands of the service writer. He looks at my odometer reading and exclaimed (really!), "Is that REAL?" I related the story of how my bike, of a similar age, has a bit more miles than the vehicle. He allowed as I probably did not need a tire rotation, so we settled on an oil change and check of air and fluids. The question came up as to whether I was going to wait for it, or come back later. I said I was going to take a walk for an hour or so (geocaching!). He said it would probably take about that long. I said, "Let's say I'm waiting for it, then."

I started walking down the road. For some reason I checked my pants pocket. Oh, crud, my vehicle keys! I took them with me! So I did a little speed-walking back to the dealership, and met the service writer halfway up/down the driveway. I told him that I am an idiot. As if he didn't realized that!

I started off again. About half-way to the cache I found a balsa wood glider. I picked it up and took it with me, since I had forgotten to bring the camera. I knew you wouldn't believe it without a picture. Which I took at home.

It flied, I mean flew, just as well as I remember them flying in my youth. Disappointingly.

I made my way to the cache location and sat down to stare at the vines growing ALL OVER the fence. Yes, it was one of THOSE kinds of caches. I knew it was low on the fence, and hanging (from the previous log entries). I had to scoot my behind over a couple of times, but I finally spotted it. Wasn't that hard, at all. Just had to ignore the hundred or so cars heading off to work, every driver surely staring at my back wondering what the heck that kook is doing over there.

Headed back to the dealership and sat myself in the waiting area. I picked up a Reader and read it cover-to-cover, backwards, as is my wont. After finishing the mag I went up to the counter to check on the progress of the work. Turns out I was supposed to get a beeper so they could notify me when it was finished. Because it had been finished for quite a while. Oh, well, I got to read the magazine and watch a little informative show on the television about how to buy batteries.

One of the things I hate about the dealership is that I'm never sure how much it is going to cost. I had the idea from the service writer that it was going to be around forty bucks. Turned out to be, with discount (Ford Owner Advatage, $12.00 off), $24.87. They gave me three shiny cents and a dime in change. Two of the pennies (yes, I KNOW they aren't REALLY pennies!) had a different reverse that I had not seen.

The new reverse looks sort of 1800s, doesn't it? So now I've lived through two changes on the cent. I remember when it changed back in 1958 or so. (Wikipedia says it was 1959. Also says it costs 1.79 cents to make a cent. I think I've discovered the source of our financial woes!) Do you suppose the Lincoln Memorial coins will ever become as rare as the "wheaties"?

The little rock was in my back pocket. I wonder where it came from? Some past trek, no doubt.

The vehicle was waiting for me out front, with cold bottle of water sitting in the cup holder. Which I find creepy, for some reason. I'm not a bottled water kind of guy.

I drove on home. The vehicle seems to run better with fresh oil. Or maybe it's my imagination.

Later!

Not Much

2011-03-26T20:57:00.000-07:00

That's right, not much is going on here.

I made a geocache, but haven't placed it yet. I made a run past where I plan to put it, but there was some kind of sporting event going on. I think it is called "Little League." Throngs of little kids were running around EVERYWHERE!

So, I continued on to the grocery store. When I came out, there was a moby truck next to mine. It cracks me up immensely to see the juxtaposition, every time! The owner of said moby truck came by as I was taking the picture. He looked at me, like I'm strange or something, so I explained my humour, and he was amused, too.

Are you not amused, too?

Learning To Count

2011-03-21T19:13:00.000-07:00

I am sure you have heard the old joke:

There are 10 types of people in the world: Those who understand binary, and those who don't.

I was trying to explain the joke to a girl at work, and found out that I am one of the ones who don't. After she left, probably giggling at my discomposure, I decided to try to write down the binary numbers from zero to ten, as it were. It only took me twenty minutes to get it right!

Reading

2011-03-19T09:13:00.000-07:00

I bet I'm the only person in the world reading Burl Ives' Tales Of America right now.

Desktop Defender

2011-03-16T18:48:00.000-07:00

My biggest time waster, besides reading and sleeping, is probably Desktop Defender. I'd like to compare Sprint Mode Best Times with someone. Does anyone play?

Gosh, I just noticed it says "Spint" Mode. Is that not funny!

I wonder why my NA2-NS time is less than my NA2 time? No Selling is somewhat harder.

Typos

2011-03-08T16:58:00.000-08:00

Selections from the Top 50 Searches Without Results in a middle school library 'card' catalog.:

Search Term
dork diarias
nwa
guiness book of world records
learn about gays and lesbiends
nonfiction
twlight
diary of a whimpy kid
diary of a wipy kid
dairy of the wimpy kid
kissed by an angle
simsons
the simsons
5 pillars of Islam
conner o barbra
dork daries
dork diareiys
famous sayings from famous people
fuck
genius world record
gostopolise
lattice polygons

That was fun!

Thursday Already

2011-03-03T19:13:00.000-08:00

This week has flown by, except for excruciating hours of boredom.

I rode the bike a couple of times to work, maybe tomorrow, too.

Yesterday I drove because I had a dentist appointment.

I thought.

Turned out it was TODAY!

So, I drove to work today, too.

And went to the dentist in the afternoon. Three silver fillings replaced. Thank goodness for dental coverage, I can't imagine where I would get $750 to pay for it. My copay was only $100. I got off easy!

Yesterday I saw a murder of crows in a tree at work, making a very artistic photo-op. I ran to get the camera, aimed up, pushed the button, only to find all the crows had flown away!

Crows are the tricksters!

Yesterday there was a lot of Dr. Seuss stuff going on. All our Seuss books got checked out to teachers who read them to their students. I didn't do anything in the library. I'm focused on checking out, processing, and shelving. Deborah F. says we should put the books that have been returned on a cart accessible to the patrons, as they got checked out once, they will get checked out again, and not to worry about shelving, so much.

But, man, I gotta shelve! I'm a shelver! I've alway BEEN a shelver!

I got a Dr. Seuss pin from Dorothy. I SHOULD have worn my Dr. Seuss tie, but alas, I did not think of it.

That is about it for today!

Tuesday

2011-02-22T19:46:00.001-08:00

As it was my Destiny (Ha!) to be in the Birdland area I did a little geocaching before and after the meeting.

Found the twins, unlike the previous cacher.

Found the one on the bridge, too. It was very scary to be up there. I may be scared of heights!

After the meeting I headed south into Birdland proper and found one with a great view of the valley below.

Did I mention I found my Sacre Bleu (Dimitri From Paris) cd? I listened to it during the drive.

That is all for today!

Sunny Day In Lakeside

2011-02-21T12:15:00.000-08:00

I went geocaching in Lakeside this morning. It was a bit chilly, but warmed up after a while.

I looked for twelve point five caches, and found seven. I managed to make my thousandth find (w00t!!) on Chuy! Has Lots Of Friends, an easy find but a scary moment, involving a GIANT SPIDER!!

This was supposed to be in a rusty pipe. A TALL rusty pipe. Nothing around the rim, though. I took a picture holding the camera over my head, down the pipe. I think I see it down there! How far down do you suppose it is?

Nearby I saw a couple of snakes, which was only proper since the cache was named for a boa called "Rosie" that someone let loose in the area.

Yes, they are plastic, you silly!

I was looking for one cache that I neglected to bring the coordinates for, as it was reported missing. I looked anyway, since I was there. I THOUGHT I spotted it up on a gatepost, but I was wrong.

So I've added it to my Watch list.

I utilized a shortcut through a forbidden area to get to one cache. I was encouraged by several dog walkers to do so. They said "Everyone does it. Tell 'em we said it was ok." I found the cache, but a guy in a truck pulled in before I could retrieve it to sign the log. He didn't look like he was going anywhere soon, so I came back in the the truck when I finished the rest (NOT using the shortcut, this time!) and signed the log.

That's about it for today!

Rainy Log Weekend

2011-02-20T16:29:00.000-08:00

I went geocaching yesterday in Parkway Plaza, or whatever it is being called this millennium. I found some caches, didn't find some others. It was rainy.

I went geocaching around central El Cajon this morning. It wasn't as wet as yesterday, although my shoes leaked. I saw a duck. I saw a BUNCH of ducks. Here is one:

That is about it for today!

Sunday Geocaching

2011-02-13T12:37:00.000-08:00

Went geocaching early this Sunday morning around Santee. Some were 'urban' caches, some were in the semi-swamp lands around the glorious San Diego River.

Saw a lot of wild flowers and weed flowers, and little birdies, too!

Over by the WalMart a big pine tree had fallen down. I posed a banana schnapps mini-bottle I found on top of it.

I found Wilson!

To the west of Carlton Hills Blvd. the city of Santee has fixed up their trails a bit. Not like the last time I came through here! Talk about well-manicured!

Now, this is more like the last time!

Can you see the geocache up there? Right about in the middle...

Here is me goofing with a remote control I found on the trail. Cache In, Trash Out!

Found twelve today, didn't find two. Not a bad haul!

Down To The CVS & Back

2011-02-01T16:55:00.000-08:00

I stopped by the CVS Pharmacy to pick up some batteries for the bike computers (and the chicken!). Of course, they only had one that I needed. I shall have to visit Radio Shack, I guess!

Saw this cute little mini-truck low-riderish. Looks real nice, but the turn signals don't seem to be working...

Hmmm, I seem to be low on gas. Hey, is that Zumwalt's over there? I haven't visited them in a while! No time today, though.

You gotta know how I feel about lane-splitting motorcyclists. On the highway in slow rush-hour traffic, it might be ok. Heck, I did it a few times myself, back in the day. But the ones that creep around cars at a stop light to get to the head of the line, that just seems asinine and rude.

This guy, on his manly-sounding v-twin, slipped around the cars waiting for the light at Montezuma and El Cajon Blvd.

Here we are at 73rd and El Cajon Blvd., as he paddles his way forward.

Same light, he has eased his way ahead of the car in front of me.

Now we are at Parks and El Cajon Blvd. He sure is shaving the precious seconds off his driving time!

Finally, at La Mesa Blvd. and El Cajon Blvd, he has sidled his way past the waiting cars and broken free of traffic. Free at last!

What's a "coonie"? Sounds faintly salacious. I don't THINK I've got one.

In fifteen-odd blocks he has managed to get five car-lengths ahead of me. Wow, I am SO impressed! And how many drivers has he alienated? Surely it wasn't just ME!

Hey, I'm an equal opportunity ranter, a bicyclist did the same dumb'n'rude stunt on Lake Murray Blvd. today. He held up five cars crossing the bridge over the 8 when he could have stayed behind me and held up no one. I would have.

I think I'll bicycle to work tomorrow and see if I can irk someone!

I Don't Get Out Much

2011-02-01T12:37:00.000-08:00

A list of books I read in January of 2011:

Bosch, Pseudonymous
If You're Reading This, It's Too Late
The further adventures of Cass and Max-Ernest thwarting the plans of the nefarious Masters Of The Midnight Sun in their search for the homunculus Mr. Cabbage Face.

Bosch, Pseudonymous
This Book Is Not Good For You
Cass and her friends investigate a plot to discover The Secret using chocolate.

Cornwell, Patricia
Port Mortuary
In which we learn a lot about Scarpetta's past in the Air Force. Also, more of how she can't run an organization. Read in one day.

Eland, Lindsay
Scones And Sensibility
Polly is quite obsessed with Anne Of Green Gables and Pride And Prejudice. She tries to manipulate everyone's love life, to great disaster.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott
The Great Gatsby
I only read this because of a referential quote in Painted Ladies by Robert B. Parker. I missed have missed the quote when I read it, though. The story is ok, but I keep picturing Robert Redford speaking as Gatsby. I found The Text Of The Great Gatsby section, by Matthew J. Bruccoli, very informative about textual errors and the editing and un-editing of them.

Gash, Jonathan
The Great California Game
Lovejoy ends up in New York after his Hong Kong adventure. Then on to California. He seems a bit bedazzled by American food and slang.

Harrison, Kim
Pale Demon
Rachel has to travel to San Francisco to proclaim her innocence for using black magic.

Ok, I admit it, I started reading this because of the jacket illustration. Ir you know what I mean...

I wanted to stop reading around twenty, but I kept on reading and stuck it out to the end. Part of the problem is I am not really interested in witchy stuff. I got interested around page two-hundred and ninety-something, at the coven meeting in San Fran.

I think one needs to start with the first book. There was a LOT of background story that I needed to understand who and what was going on. I read the uncorrected proof edition.

Mull, Brandon
Fablehaven
In book one of the series, Kendra and Seth learn their grandfather is caretaker of a refuge for magical beings, most of whom are not very nice.

O'Nan, Stewart
Emily, Alone
I enjoyed reading this recounting of the daily life of an elderly woman. There were no spaceships or battles, (it is not science-fiction!) just an old lady, a classy lady, examining the meaning of her life as events unfold. To be published March 2011, read the advance uncorrected proof.

Reeve, Philip
A Darkling Plain
Fourth book in the Mortal Engines, or whatever they call it, series. I wept at the ending. Twice.

Reeve, Philip
Infernal Devices
Book three of the Mortal Engines series. I was half-way through book four when this come in at the library. And I was lost. I recommend reading them in order, and not waiting YEARS between books. Get the cast of characters from Wikipedia, too. I'm a lot of trouble remembering who is who.

Sachar, Louis
There's A Boy In The Girl's Bathroom!
I read this because a student said it was not like she expected, and it was really good. It IS really good. I weeped at the end.

Sepetys, Ruta
Between Shades Of Gray
In WWII Lithuania, teen Lina and her family are deported to Siberia by the Russians who have invaded her country. A very moving story, easily read, and it will go on my latent list of "So Cold" books! Two maps! Read the Advanced Uncorrected Galley.

Wilks, Mike
Mirrorscape
In a world where the privilege to use color must be purchased as a "Pleasure" (and there are many other "Pleasures" one must purchase, too), a young apprentice artists discovers a secret world in paintings that he can enter into. First of a series, good stuff!

Monday

2011-01-24T19:55:00.000-08:00

Gmaps Pedometer map of yesterday's trek, for your amusement and edification.

At work I have a screen saver on one of the Macs showing various images of motorcycles I lust in my heart for. Four of the guys who are doing computer/Promethean board installs in the classrooms came in to look at their materials, which are being stored in the library. They noticed the screensaver going and they stood there for several minutes talking motorcycles. A totally guy moment.

Sunday Morning In Oak Canyon

2011-01-23T15:33:00.000-08:00

I got to the equistrian staging area around 6:30 and headed west. Saw a couple of deer before I passed under the big bridge over Spring Canyon.

Yes, that is one of the deer in question there. It was dark!

I headed up towards the ridge on the west.

The sun was starting to come up, and the moon was in the western sky.

Or maybe the moon was in the south-western sky...

The sun kept rising, as it will, and I saw my shadow across the canyon.

This was much more impressive in person!

I left this little penguin button-badge at this geocache.

I saw another deer--or maybe it was the same one, in Oak Canyon.

I found all the geocaches I was looking for, plus two I had looked for before, EXCEPT this one.

The sign says Federal Property, No Trespassing.

I found THIS geocache rather easily, however!

There was a note from the Military Police inside warning that the military property line was near, and not to cross it. This cache was a few hundred feet north of that sign.

I saw zillions of caterpillars on the move today. This is one!

I wonder what they turn into?

I left this horsie from a bottle of tequila (My boss gave it (the horsie, not the tequila!) to me, I don't drink that stuff? My strength is the strength of ten because my heart is pure.

I liked that star geocache a lot, but this was my favorite geocache of the day!

I took a toy soldier Travel Bug that had been sitting in it for six months. The T.B. was started by a little boy back east who wanted soldiers to take their picture with it, and pass it on. He wants it to visit Mexico, then to come home to him. The T.B. is in the plastic bag next to the cup, FYI. I'll have to find a more active cache to drop it in.

There have been several fires that went through Oak Canyon, including the Cedar Fire of 2003. I noticed this burnt-out tree trunk had rocks inside. I wonder if the tree originally grew over the rocks?

As I labored up the washed-out "road" out of Oak Canyon I stopped at a few more caches. I left a Jeep at one, so whoever found it could ease their labors...

As I headed down the ridge road, backtracking my route, I came upon many fellow walkers (and bicyclists, did I mention all the cyclists I saw today?).

I talked to this family as I passed them. They had come from Mission Trails via Oak Canyon and were now heading back.

I found an SDI Pencil Knife, whatever that is. I haven't a clue what it is for. Sharpening pencils? What is this, 1850?

As I was leaving MTRP I observed a tyke on a bike crossing a small stream at full speed. Trevor, it turned out was his name. I complemented him on his technique.

Did I mention how windy it was? Here is a movie...

Whoops, I see a typo! I am NOT fixing it. Just deal with it!

Sat. Morn.

2011-01-22T15:42:00.000-08:00

Snuck off to look for geocaches in the 'hood this morning. Found all of them (three), even the one I've visited three times in the last two days. And one of those times was on the trek out this morning. I find one can be much less conspicuous when one is not on the bike. I forgot to take the camera, so you do not get to see the Morris Minor nor the Opel GT I saw. Perhaps another time.

Finished reading There's A Boy In The Girls' Bathroom!, by Louis Sachar. It was recommended by a student who said it was not what she expected, but was very good. I teared up a bit at the end. Sachar wrote Holes, if you recall the movie or the book.

I want to publicly thank the good folks who left their "stamps for pans" at Albertsons. I was a few short of the required number for a small pan, but the cashier said customers had left ones that they were not able to use with her, saying to give them to someone that needs them. So, I got a free pan!

Last night I waded through the morass of the FCC website and renewed my license. Actually, once I got my password reset it was extremely painless. Now, if I could only figure out how to do my taxes online!

Speaking of, I talked to several people who PAY someone to do their taxes for them, just so they can get the refund early. If you have simple taxes, it seems fiscally foolish to pay what one person said was around three hundred bucks. I don't know, do the tax refund people REALLY charge that much for a simple return? I advised them to do it themselves, as a backup, and see if they come up with the same numbers. I remember I missed a twenty dollar refund one year that a professional would have caught, but it didn't seem worth the hassle to file a amended return. I am exceedingly lazy!

And, speaking of, at least in California, how do people not know they have to pay "sales tax" on internet purchases? I know some (most) people blow it off, but really, how do you not know? It's right on the form. Do the professional preparers not ask them about their online purchases? You really should know what you are signing!

Power Strip Blues

2011-01-19T17:57:00.000-08:00

Today I took apart another power strip that was giving me some annoyance. Turned out to be yet another bad solder connection. I don't know if it overheated and melted, or what. I tried soldering it, but it did not look too good. It looks the wire isn't even copper. Maybe I should replace the wire with piece of #12 copper.

Firstly, remember to turn on Macro when taking closeup photos...

Now, with macro on, we can almost see the bad connection. This is before soldering, remember. I could pull the wire right through the hole.

It was so warm and clear yesterday, but today the clouds and fog came in early. You can see a bit of blue to the right of Cowles Mountain, but it was totally gone by the time I rode home. I even turned on the strobe when going under a bridge, a bridge with a diminishing bike lane.

I tell a lie. I just remembered I took that photo after work. Forget I said anything!

I was going to take a photo of the ENORMOUSLY LONG (a foot, two??) curly hair that was stuck in the library front door panic bar when I came in Tuesday, but the custodians seem to have disposed of it. Too bad!

I got email notice that three nearby geocaches went active this morning, but I was at work. So sad! I did a ride-by on two of them. I think I spotted the one in the Mario's parking lot, but there were two many folks around. Maybe I'll check it out tomorrow. The other, I didn't see it. I note the second cacher to log DNFed it.

I found the cat in the garage when I got home. C. says she didn't go in there, and the cat went out around three. Maybe the neighbors (we share a garage) let him in.

I got an email from a purportedly Russian chick:

Hi dear! I am for a decent man.

As for me, I am a young Russian girl
Do you like Russian women?

They are not just beautiful and smart, but very tolerant too.
Russian women value family and try to be with their husbands as much as possible.

It's time to get to know each other!
See you on marriage agency. Cheerio!

Do I like Russian women? I don't know any, right off hand, but I do love the accent! Sounds like they beat the heck out of Chinese Girlfriends who think they are Superior! But what's with the "Cheerio"? Is that a Russian expression? извините!

Today & The Other Day

2011-01-16T18:42:00.000-08:00

As far as the other day, I was "working" on the computer (either reading reddit or playing DTD) and I kept getting distracted by a rustling from the other room. It was very annoying. I thought that either C. was rummaging around in the closet, or we had mice.

I finally got up to look. This is what I found.

A rather despondent-looking cat!

I figured he did not want to deliver Avon products, so after making him wait while I took numerous photos, trying to get him to look up (strike a pose!), I finally took the bag off. Unfortunately, all the photos (except these) had the flash reflection, making him look rather demonic.

Last night I finished reading If You're Reading This, It's Too Late, by Pseudonymous Bosch.

As for today, I went geocaching this morning (big surprise) in Allied Gardens, Cowles Mountain, El Cajon/Santee (my canyon, as it were), and Hillside Park just off of Fletcher Parkway.

One of the caches I found on Cowles Moutain was this one. Can you spot it?

It's behind the fake green leaf, under the smaller rock, next to the larger rock!

The view is nice from up there, too. From the right perspective you can't even SEE the Santee sprawl!

Hey, I've been on that ridge over there!

I talked to a lot of people today, for a change. In an Allied Gardens canyon I talked to a fellow walking his dog about the trails there.

On Cowles Mountain there were a ton of people going up and down the trail from Big Rock Road. Up near the top end of the trail I helped some bicyclists find the correct trail to Mesa Drive. on the way back down I was queried by an Asian-looking woman as to whether I had seen a group of Asian people. I replied in the negative. I encountered a group of people with a group of dogs. One of the dogs was a Basenji, the first I've ever seen in real life, as opposed to television (and the movies--Good-Bye, My Lady, a title I always misremember as Weep No More, My Lady, which I find is the title of the short story that the book, and thence the movie, is based on.). I told her it was my dream dog. Too bad I didn't think to take a picture! Near the bottom of the trail I passed three chubby South Pacific-looking (give or take a few thousand miles) men going the other way, one of whom said "How's you doing, boss", which I thought was rather exotic.

In the interest of journalistic integrity I must clarify that I did not hike the Big Rock Trail all the way to the dirt road that goes up Cowles Mountain, much less to the peak. I went as fair as the Mesa Road trail, then down that trail for four hundred feet. Then I retraced my steps back to the vehicle.

All clear now?

It's Friday!

2011-01-14T16:22:00.000-08:00

My bathroom reading at work is The Return Of Tarzan, by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Excellent vintage stuff.

It is passing strange how much my Happiness Quotient depends on my bowel movements. I'm sure you will be fascinated to learn that I have had a much higher Quotient this week, compared to last week. Last week was...difficult.

Overheard in the library today:

An eighth grade girl to to a sixth grade boy -- "You are a noisy little thing, aren't you?"

I arrived home from work to find the kitchen sink plugged up. BOTH sides. Insert ragetoon here.

On the other hand, I find I have Monday off. Happy surprise! I thought it was NEXT weekend!

Of Pipes & Glass

2011-01-13T17:05:00.000-08:00

Took a picture of the glass from the break in.

I was thinking of collecting it and creating an artistic pile of glass crumbles with a bit of epoxy. Or maybe not.

Sunday last I went geocaching in that canyon off of Waring Road. There was an impressive mass of cactus up the hill from one of the 101 Dalmations caches. I'm glad I didn't have to go up there!

One of the caches I revisited turned out to be so beautifully camouflaged that I ALMOST didn't find it again! I must have spent an hour (total) on this one! Can you see it in there?

For the last cache I was chagrined to find that I had forgotten to load or print the coordinates. All I had was the none-too-detailed aerial image. And I remembered there was something about some pipes. I found the pipes.

Didn't find the cache. Found a camo hat hanging in a bush. Left it there.

Actually, there are four pipes. Big ones!

Turns out the cache is not really all that near to the pipes. Maybe next time!

Cache and Smash

2010-12-30T11:59:00.000-08:00

Stopped by Lake Murray this morning to search for an elusive geocache. When I got back to the vehicle someone had smashed the window and rummaged around inside. They didn't take anything that I could see.

Didn't find the cache, either.

Window guy can't come till Monday, and it's going to rain this weekend, so I gotta tape the window with plastic. That has to be good for the paint!

Over Hill, Over Dale

2010-12-28T15:50:00.000-08:00

I hit the not-so-dusty trail this morning in the dark to search for the geocaches on the west ridge of Spring Canyon, north of the 52 and west of Santee.

It was a chilly and misty morning in MTRP. The frogs were croaking, and there was a bit of water in the streambeds. And puddles on the trails to negotiate in the dark!

On the trail in Spring Canyon.

I keep passing these shot-up cans, I better take a picture to remember them by.

Climbing up the trail out of the canyon I saw a deer, so I got out the camera, but it was gone. Then I saw a hawk sitting on a wire, so I took a quick pic.

But it flew away! So, we get to look at some interesting slippage of land.

Artistic shot of power lines crossing a canyon.

Looking southeast towards Spring Canyon, Santee, and Cowles Mountain, from the ridge.

Elephant geocache.

Blood from getting stuck by pointy things near elephant geocache...

SpongeBob Squarepants geocache. These were the two cuties of the day.

Well, this one was SUPPOSED to test your ability to spot the geocache in the center of the image, but something went wrong!

I reduced the size and saved it at full quality. Pooh!

This dad and daughter duo passed me (with no warning) as I was heading back to the truck. Daughter is not wearing a helmet, and was riding like a maniac!

These guys took the muddy path, and I took the somewhat drier path.

Well, that is it for today. I found fifteen caches, I think. I'm sure I didn't find two. And that makes nine hundred and twenty career total.

Two Posts In One Day?

2010-12-25T20:05:00.000-08:00

His new Hello Kitty blanket and her new Snuggie.

Yes, I realized I have a lampshade on my head. I am quite the card!

Xmas tail-less cat has a Maker's Mark ribbon to adorn him.

And that is all for TODAY!

The Day

2010-12-25T09:04:00.000-08:00

Finished Time For The Stars, by Heinlein, AGAIN, and started The Kedrigern Chronicles Vol. II, by Morressy, AGAIN.

Yes, the library was closed on Xmas eve. Whose stupid idea was that??

I got to the door a few seconds after a woman left. I didn't realized she hadn't come out of the library. The joint was locked up tight. I wailed, "But I need something to READ!!" The lady smiled.

A Caching We Will Go

2010-12-24T20:54:00.000-08:00

I checked my email at ten this morning and found there was a new cache just listed, and no one had claim First To Find! And it was over by College Grove! I printed out the particulars, including a cache at The Grove itself I hadn't looked for yet, then rushed... no, I had to wait a couple of impatient minutes for the Grocery List to be completed--my excuse for sneaking off.

I got there and found I was THIRD To Find. Missed it by thirty minutes.

I went over to The Grove and spotted the cache there, and even touched it, but couldn't open it because of couple of muggles were sitting on the bench nearby, and they weren't moving anytime soon. Oh, well, at least I know where it is!

I hit a few stores on the way to the grocery--Dixieline, Target, Wal-Mart, and Trader Joe's. And Michael's. Couldn't find anything much, gift-wise. I weep.

Got the groceries, headed home. Spotted a couple of women lurking suspiciously around some bushes. I pulled over and approached them, and called out, "You ladies can't be geocachers, you're too well-dressed. Not scruffy enough!" Turned out the younger lady was ZoePDX from Portland, down visiting her mother and showing mom her new hobby of geocaching. I told her it wasn't in the big bush, but I couldn't remember exactly where it was. I spotted it, eventually, and gave her a couple of minor hints, and she found it too. I took off, as the groceries were probably melting.

When I got home I found I had missed Brenda's visit for the second year in a row. But, I still got the cookies and candy!

Rain Rain Rain

2010-12-21T18:21:00.000-08:00

The San Diego River seems to be leveling off at 4,000 cubic feet per second flow and at 11.5 feet. We went for a little drive down to Missing Valley to check out the flood.

In Mission Valley at Camino Del Rio North and Ward Road. Flooded, a car stuck in water. Hey, isn't there a geocache on this corner?

Where Mission Center Road crosses the San Diego River. That car is stuck in the water.

Heading west on Camino De La Reina traffic is pretty well stopped. I wonder why?

Oh, here is why! The 163 underpass is flooded! I thought it was only the connecting road to Fashion Valley that flooded! Everyone has to turn around and go back the way we just came!

A fortuitous break in the turning traffic allows a peak at the flood, it's up to the barricades!

We avoided the freeway madness and came back via University Avenue. It got dark! Here we see University Ave. in La Mesa, nearish to Helix High School, in the rain.

Is the rain over, yet?

Rain Rain

2010-12-21T08:28:00.000-08:00

It's been raining all night, it's raining right now, the San Diego River is flowing at 1,070 cubit feet per second (normally is around 10 CFS) and it is almost six inches over the road at Fashion Valley at 8.43 feet (normally around 2 feet), according to the USGS Real-Time Water Data for San Diego at Fashion Valley site.

I just finished Dewey : The Library Cat, by Vicki Myron. A touching story of a bedraggled kitten found in the book drop of a small-town library in Iowa.

I'm still plodding away at the Pearl Buck Christmas story collection that I haven't mentioned before, I don't think.

Too rainy to go geocaching, I've taken the garbage out, I guess I'll have to go read some more!

Drippy Monday

2010-12-20T13:00:00.000-08:00

Quite by accident, we got a new sink and faucet installed today by Steve the plumber! Now we have non-dripping hot water in the bathroom!

I had turned the hot water off some years ago, as no one seemed able to fix the drip properly. The plumber came by the other week, by misteak, as it turns out. He was directed to the wrong apartment. He saw our situation and talked the property manager into approving a new faucet for us! The old one was the original from the 50s, I'm sure.

I hope I still have some of that yellow paint around!

C. took a picture of the tail-less cat under my shirt.

I just came back from geocaching, that's why my pants are slightly muddy and the hair is mussed. Plus, I'm a slob!

Found this pretty little wheel while geocaching at Grossmont College Sunday morning. The back seems to have a ball-bearing. What do you suppose it is? It's about an inch in diameter.

I watch The New Adventures Of Old Christine at lunch every day. I love it! Here's a line from the show that I thought especially humorous, as I used to be an electrician, of sorts, back in the day.

Richard (the dad, a contractor) to Richie (his young son), as I recall it:

At my job, we hid a bunch of barbeque ribs in the wall. We're gonna freak out the electrician.