Christmas Eve 2014

I went geocaching this morning, because I am weak.

I went down to Robyn's Egg Trail, to start, in Mission Hills.  I drove down, not on the freeway, but on El Cajon Blvd. the whole way, not wanting to deal with traffic.  And it wasn't too bad, either.

After parking the vehicle and the obligatory DNF (Did Not Find) at Pioneer Park (where the bodies are!) I headed down the trail.

And I have no idea why it is named Robyn's Egg Trail, Google was un-helpful.

Parts of the trail are in not-so-great condition, I must report.  This might be a good place for some enterprising Boy Scouts to place old Christmas trees to control erosion, as I read in Boys' Life oh-so-many years ago.

As you can see the trail narrows and is collapsing.  Which way to fall, into the ditch or into the cactus?

Yikes!  I was so scared I jiggled the camera during the taking of the picture!

Spooky and narrow, this is a fun part!

We can see all the way to the airport down there!

My first selfie today!

I like this one, too.  This is another of our San Diego "Sewer" canyons as I decided to call them.

Zoomed in a bit, there's a light at the end of the canyon!

At the bottom of the canyon I walked around the commerical area to find four more geocaches, including one at the brewery complex.

I then returned back up the canyon, making one more find there, a multi, for a total of three in the canyon proper.  I ate a granola bar and headed over to Balboa Park.  I went down Richmond St. to the secret dead end bridge and found the cache there.  Last time I went for a cache at that spot I rode the bike, not knowing you can drive there.

Next I drove over by the golf course and found some more caches there.  Found these stairs, too.  Grumpy cacher wants to know what they are for, as they don't go anywhere in particular.

You may have seen this pic on The FB

I tried to get as much as possible into this picture.  There's an airliner going by, a city truck doing something noisy to the sewer down there, and a selfie, of course.  The stairs in the picture above would be up that draw just to the right above my hat.

I lay on my back to get this shot of a different airliner, not the one above, silly!

I found eleven caches today, near as I can figure, so that is enough of THAT!

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

Floodtime In National City

I decided yesterday today that I would go down to National City and see the King Tide.  So I did. I left the house around 5:30 AM and got down there around six.  I knocked off a few geocaches, then one hour before the King Tide peak, about 7:00 AM, I stopped by THE SPOT and took some picks.

First thing I did when I got there was take a couple of selfies.

Trying for something not scary, but with ducks.  Yup, there are some ducks there, some where.

The water is high, but not super-high, yet.

There's a nifty walkway so you can get right out there and see stuff.

There is a lot of trash floating around, and the playground nearby isn't looking too good.

 

Here are some ducks!

Did I mention where this is?  No?  It's West 18th St. and Hoover St. in National City.

Here's a couple of shot of the road crossing, a little bridge, if you will. One with car...

And one without.  You can see the tide is quite high, but remember there is still an hour to go!

Okay, I left for an hour and found some more geocaches, then I came back around 8:00 AM.  The water is now out into the street.

I parked here on Hoover St. first.

Yikes!  I wonder how clean that water is?  Good thing for this business it is Sunday!

Headed towards the walkway, but looking back over there, I walked around that corner earlier to get the "bridge" shots.  Not now!

Yup, I think we are full-up here!

I drove the truck around the big puddle to get these "bridge" shots.  Gently hitting an underwater curb in the process.

The chain-link fence is filtering all the trash in the water!

Flood time on the Mississippi was an expression I used a lot in my youth.

Gotta have one shot with a car in it, makes it more interesting.

This last shot is completely out of order, but I'm too lazy to change it.

I found eleven geocaches this morning, and did not find five, I think.

Then I came home and had pancakes and coffee.

On Sunday we went to Pottery Canyon Natural Park in La Jolla.  It's a little park, there aren't any tables or benches or play equipment.  Just a nice little walk and some historical interest.

Plenty of eucalyptus trees and their leavings on the ground.

In La Mesa, by the Auto Zone, we saw this truck with a load of a couple of drop tanks, I guess.  Probably for the La Mesa Air Force.  Just seemed unusual enough to warrant a pic.

At work I took these pictures (as opposed to the pictures above, which M. took) of a flowering...WHAT?  I have no idea, and nothing shows up on the internet.

I finally figured out that the stick into the ground is not a root, just a stick.  So obviously someone set this up.

But they certainly look like they are growing out of what ever that is.

Thanks for visiting!

Reading The Print-Out The Doctor Gave Me

Well OF COURSE broccoli is high in potassium, why would it not be?

Slightly Drizzle-ly

I saw a new geocache pop up EARLY this morning, around six-ish, so I was inspired to go for it.  Except I wanted to do some caches on El Cajon Blvd. first.  So I did.  And those caches, for the Cake series, were delicious!

Then I headed out to Tierrasanta.  Along the way I found it had rained, and the rising sun reflected blindingly on the road. 

First I went to the new cache but didn't find it.  Too bad, because it was titled "12/13/14", and that's today's date.

Next I went to the creepy swimming pool cache.  No one was there, because, RAIN, so a quick find was made and I was outa there!

After that I drove up the hill a bit to a Nano cache, but didn't find that  one.  I DID find this view across Mision Gorge to see the fog coming through the pass from Santee.

I found another cache, then I went for this one down this abandoned road.  It turned out to be my 3,000th find, and so have reached another of my geocaching goals for this year.

File size:  TWO megs!  But you can REALLY zoom in!!

I found this cache very amusing.

I then drove home, and now that this blog entry is finished I'm going to take a nap!

Feels Like Friday

Hey, it stopped raining again!

Well, it was raining this morning!  When I came to work this area had all that freshly compacted red dirt that you will remember from yesterday, and a few minutes later the men (You men?  You Orelly men?) had covered it up with this plastic, and you will notice that one corner has blown over from the tremendous morning wind.  

I think I had maybe four students come to check out books today.

Upon leaving I spied this cable television splitter that predates my starting work here.  No longer in use, I'm afraid, just a little bit of history.  The bungalows are going to be demoed next year, I hear.

Under the library bungalow there is palm tree struggling to survive.

Driving to my medical appointment  I spied a Kalifornia Christmas Tree! Not really, it's been there for several months.

The elevators were temporarily not working when I arrive so I went up the stairs.  Nice view out the windows.  Of Walmart.

I took the stairs coming down, too (my choice, this time.), and it was much easier. Going down the stairs.  Going WITH gravity.

I went to the Staff Holiday party and had a nice time, but I missed the White Elephant gift exchange.  But I didn't miss the food!  Ate too much sugar, I'm sure!

Oh, my doctor gave me a referral to a neurologist, for my weird foot-thing.  She said one muscle is pulling enough.  So I don't have that going for me.

Also, when I got home, there were reminders of next week's medical stuff.  How fun it's gonna be!  At least there will be geocaching!

P.S.  You gots to see the socks I received today!  Soon, it will be soon...

Still Thursday

Yes, it's been Thursday all day.

I heated a toasted cheese sandwich in the microwave at work the other day.  When biting into it I realized I hadn't removed the white piece of paper from the mozzarella cheese slice I used.

Some pictures from around work, and especially the library-in-exile, as I've taken to calling it in The FB.

So, we have here the entrance to the library.

Peering through the doorway to the left side of the room.

Peering through the doorway to the right side of the room.

A giant (large file size) panorama one end of the room.

And a giant (large file size) panorama of the other end of the room,

The view out the library window.  They started working this morning on preparing the ground for the eventual pouring of a slab.

Bobcat (I think) bringing in the dirt, and you will notice the man working the dirt-stomping machine.

That green machine, I don't know just what it does, but there it is.

Earlier this morning I immortalized the surviving speaker on the auditorium roof in a digital photo, along with the colorful fall foliage, and having now posted said photo on the internet, it ain't NEVER gonna go away.

And lastly, we have a peaceful-looking space between two buildings, newly landscaped after construction finished on that part.  Will the ugly chain link fence be restored?  Who knows, I hope not.

Pearl Harbor Day

December 7th has a number of significances to me.  And that number is two.  It's Pearl Harbor Day, of course, and it was my mother-in-law's birthday.

I read in a fark.com thread about the problems at the Arizona Memorial, and some poignant accounts of visitors there, not all American.

Here is the picture of the manzanita bush at work that had the tent over it.  They took the tent off when the rains had stopped, so I guess it was rain-related.

I went geocaching today Santee Lakeside, El Cajon, and Blossom Valley. Here is yet another panoramic view of the El Monte valley from high up above Blossom Valley.

File size: 1.7MB

The walk up the hill to where I took that panorama was QUITE strenuous, but I needed the exercise after my slothful day yesterday. I found ten geocaches today, and didn't find two.

Matt came by after I got home and we went to La Torta.  I had a #10, a "Camelia", which was pretty tasty.

Back to work tomorrow!

I Chortled

from Archer season 5 episode 13

  "...Not a big Robert Newton Peck crowd, huh?..."  -- Pam

Past It

Apparently I am completely senile, as I just got off the phone with the clinic who I called to see when my next vitamin injection was, and they told me I had missed my injection on Nov. 26th.  I could have SWORN I went there, what the heck else did I have to do that day?  I checked the blog entry and there is no mention of getting the injection, so I guess I didn't.  I guess I need a personal assistant, or a minder.

Our manzanita bush at work now has a big tent over it.  I do not know WHY it has a big tent over it, but it was mentioned that people appear to be cutting branches off of the poor bush.  I'm too lazy to link to the picture I took of the Big-Tent Manzanita, or indeed, even to upload it.  Probably because of the senility thing.

The First Day Of Work After A Week Of Vacation (Some Of Which Isn't Paid)

It looks like it might rain.  One hopes.

As promised (or threatened), my poor battered legs.  One should wear long pants when wading through brush.

Today's cache was on some nameless hill in Lakeside, but it had a nice view of El Cajon Mt. off in the distance.

Still waiting on the rain.