Down At False Bay Today

I went down to Mission Bay to do a little geocaching.  I got up at four AM, ate breakfast, then changed my mind about where I wanted to go, so I read for an hour, then left around 5:30.

I walked around for a while, finding and not finding caches.  Near one I didn't find there were zillions of pigeons.  I totally blame them for the Did Not Find.




Lots of folks were launching their stinkpots at the boat ramp, but some were just rowing around.  Very pretty in the dawn's early.



The was a depressed railroad siding beside a defunct loading ramp.  This cool bumper was mounted to the concrete wall to cushion the blow of any errant moves. I've never seen one for sale in the model railroad catalogs.  I could make a million bucks manufacturing, I am sure!



From one cache I saw this old bridge, which I guess, and a bit of research verified, was part of the old Pacific Highway before the 5 was built.  It is a dead-end bridge now.



The wind came up and the fog rolled in, at 9:00 AM!




Unbelievably, it was 78 degrees outside when I got home.  Practically freezing!

I found eleven caches this morning, and did not find two.

How I Spent My Saturday Evening

Watching TV.  Or rather, watching computer.  Hulu, in particular.

I found a couple of shows I had not heard of.  One was The Book Group.  It is an adult (small amounts of very bad language, adult situations, bare bottoms(It's British!)) comedy/drama about an American woman in Scotland who starts a book group to make some friends. She gets a whole lot more than she bargained for.   Here is some commentary about the show.  The  "star" of the show looked very familiar, turned out she later was on House as Dr. Amber Volakis, eventually Wilson's girlfriend.  And played a prominent part in my favorite episode, House's Head.  I was in tears every time I watched it.  I was even a bit teary watching her in this one, thinking of that one! Another of the actors is currently on Game Of Thrones (The Hound), if they haven't killed him off, I haven't got that far in the books.

I find the show to be very very funny, even with the very strong accents some of the characters have.  Thank goodness for the ten-second rewind on Hulu!  Of course, being a drama also, there are some very sad/shocking parts.  I watched the whole first "season" in one sitting.

The second show was an Australian sitcom called The Librarians. It isn't nearly as excellent, more like lesser The Office (I'm thinking of the American one.).  But it was fun to see a sitcom set in a reasonably realistic library setting.  So I will watch more episodes.

Down To The Eastlake Again

Went geocaching early this morning.  Must have been early, I got home by 9:00 AM!

Found sixteen caches, which were all the ones I actually looked for.  Four caches I didn't even try, too many people around, etc.

Saw this sign at the Otay Ranch Town Center mall.  It gladdens my heart to see someone added an apostrophe!



It's warming up, I'm going back to bed!

P.S.  I keep forgetting to  post this, but I found a Mickey Mouse All Century Team baseball. With "authentic stitching" but a PVC covering...  It's going into a geocache for someone.

Post-Geocaching Notes

Since I had mailed off the bills this morning, after attending to all my geocaching triviata  this morning I went to bed and read, then fell asleep.  After awaking, I realized I had birthday cards to attend to, so I heading up to Grossmont Center to visit Grossmont Nutrition.  Oh, but first, I visited Gypsy Treasure in downtown La Mesa in hope of finding plastic ants.  And they did.  And plastic rats, too.  I would highly recommend them for all your plastic ant and rat needs.  I understand they have costumes, too.

I got a couple of cards for an excellent price, then headed over to Target.  I looked kitchenware and travel mugs.  The prices seemed a bit high, so I WALKED over to Walmart.  I looked at their travel mugs.  There was a much better selection, and the same one was two bucks less.  Big deal, huh?  But the big pot, it was EXACTLY what I wanted needed, and ten bucks less than the Target one I would have settled for.  Mom would have loved this pot!  I also got some small storage boxes, since I was there.  After paying for it I WALKED all the way back to the truck, which was parked next to Target, as you might expect.  I drove over to the Grossmont Center U.S. Post Office and wrote the cards, and mailed them off. Then I drove home.

Here is the new pot, and the old one, which has no handles.  The new one has handles! The new one has a pasta strainer, which, having just used it, is FABULOUS!  The new one has a lid, too.  The old one had a lid, but I can't find it.

Also, the new travel mug.  The first one I have ever purchased!



Oh, I forgot, I went to Dixieline to buy some fender washers for the TV antenna project in between Grossmont and going home.

It been warmer here, we had a high of 93 degrees.  It was about as warm in Santee, but for a longer part of the day.  The various weather stations around here can't decide whether it is 74 or 84 degrees.  Let me go check my thermometer........OK, it says 76 outside, and 88 in the spare bedroom.  

Friday Morning In Santee

After doing NOTHING yesterday but moping about all day yesterday, I headed out to the Hills Of Santee north of the 52 (mostly Spring Canyon) to clean it out of my unfound geocaches littering the place. I saw coyote, a lizard, a bicyclist peeing on the side of the road, a deer crossing the road behind the peeing bicyclist, and a bunch of crows. Here's picture of the lizard:



Seeing as how I came down that road in the background, I could be in BIG TROUBLE!



Cowles Mountain in the background, sadly the 52 highway is obscured by the foreground. I did not realize I am that wide.



I do not know why I felt it necessary to drop everything and take a picture of an Osprey flying over head, but there you go.



No, it's not the bird kind, it's the Marine kind.

Driving home I saw scooters!  This is the third or fourth pack to cruise by. Possibly this run is a result of Amerivespa 2013, being held in San Diego this weekend.



I walked 8.2 miles and found seven out of seven geocaches. Ain't I special?

At The Bay

YESTERDAY there was a rainbow in my bedroom!



Found this nifty geocache.  Very well done! I think I am inspired!



The finding of that cache is a long and conveluted story that I will not now tell, as I am fatigued.

I forget what you call this, but there they are.



This cache required the use of chopsticks to lever up the inside container.  I did not have any chopsticks, so I made do with some 1/8 inch dowel I had laying around.  Doesn't everyone have 1/8 inch dowel laying around?



Found nine or so caches, didn't find three.

Out And About In Santee

My mother brought me my Jeannie bottle!



Yes, that IS a clothes pin pirate pulling himself out of the bottle! Would that I had a picture of the pirate ship I built and populated with clothespin pirates.  It was about three feet long and I named it The Rose Of Devon, after the ship in the book The Dark Frigate, by Charles Hawes.  I gave it to my sister's kids.  Maybe they still have it?

I went geocaching in Santee this morning/afternoon, first to the hills north of West Hills High School.  Saw this sign.  I've HEARD tell of people driving Jeeps out here, but a tow away zone?



Saw snake skin, but no snakes.  Lots birds.  Lots of poop on the road. Dog, coyote, deer...maybe mountain lion!  Who knows, I am not a reader of poop. A number of birds, the most outstanding a Road Runner, running away.



I found three out of three caches in the hills, one of which was a puzzle cache that only took me about two hours to solve.  Spread out over a couple of months.  I decided to push my luck and head over to "downtown" Santee for a couple of caches along the river that I needed.  I parked in the shade near the Target loading dock, and headed out.

I found the first one ok, the homeless encampment that put me off the last time having disappeared.  After a short conversation with some typical Santee residents, that is, bare-chested boys on BMX bikes, a-hoppin' over the mounds of dirt (who insisted calling me  Forrest Gump, and that they had seen a black bear over by the river...), I looked for the second cache.  I had no success finding it, but I did make the acquaintance of one "Roger Moore", as he named himself, who helped me look around for a half-hour or so. When I got home I found that particular cache has been missing since the second day of its existence, that is, May 19th.

I did a little grocery shopping on the way home, stocking up on junk food and bread. 

That's about all for today!

It's Summertime

You will remember the picture I posted of the matchbox striker. Here is my new plastic microscope from Lakeshore that I used to to magnify the box. And there is the box, too!




Today was the last day at work for me, I'm taking my floating holiday on Monday, THIS year!

 

Instead of NOT taking it at all!

Take A Good Look

The is the striker pad on a box of kitchen matches, taken through my new magnifier.

  '

It's a rainbow on my foot!  Where's the pot of gold?

 

Well, that's all I've got, still working on The Game Of Thrones.  Down to the last couple of hundred pages.  Of volume one.

Daddy's Day Out

Marcia and Matt and I went to the Mission Trails Regional Park for a guided nature walk today. We learned about the kinds of plants there are in the park, and saw the depressions in the rocks where the Indians ground their acorns. I asked the guide about the "horse coffin" I have heard about, but she did not know where it was. The three of us toured the museum/visitor center afterwards.



That's amazing!



California Rose. With bees!



And then we went to lunch at West Coast Barbecue & Brew, where I filled up on "Q" and potato salad.

Musing

It cracks me up that my farthest north geocache find is in North Carolina. My farthest east find is in North Carolina.  And my farthest away cache find is in North Carolina.  And yet I've never BEEN to North Carolina.

That is all.

Down To The River

But first...

Yesterday I spent a great deal of the day cleaning the black gunk off of these history books, since I'm NOT going to be able to figure out where all those loose pages came from!  Said gunk is composed of skin grease, dead skin cells, and who knows what else.



I think the bread slicing machine at the bakery needs adjustment.



There was some question about this shirt. Here it is. Be amazed!



This guy had smoke coming out from that wheel. THAT can't be good!



Now for today's stuff!

Went down to the San Diego River, west of the hotels, for a bit of geocaching. Link to Google Maps.

Here is the crossing over, or rather, under, the San Diego River.  Apparently the entire might river is channeled through this narrow, uh, channel.



Shoes gonna be wet. That is the lens cover there, in case you were wondering. Ever the professional, am I.



At the crossing, the pond to the east.



At the crossing, the pond to the west.



Into the darkness!  The San Diego River Park Foundation has created myriad  trails all lined with rocks.



Pond under trolley.



Yellow flower. Walking stick for scale.



Tiny flowers.




Pumpkin-color flowers.



Orange flower.



Mural on the bike path.



Found ten geocaches, and met a fellow geocacher who helped me, in that I saw him putting it back as I was pulling in, plus he was tall enough to reach the darn thing, where I was not.  I got to pet his dog, which I maintain is a great deal better than owning a dog.

That and This and That

While walking I saw a couple of Harbor Patrol cars.  I've seen them before, in this spot.  I'm pretty sure we don't have a harbor nearby. Do they know something we don't know? Have I posted this thought before?




Another one of these flowers is flowering. I can't remember what it is. I should have asked my mother, she is the one who noticed it.



This cactus reminds me of Goldie Hawn.



Closer in. Ain't nature cool?



I have seen this cat several times waiting, waiting, waiting under this bush. There is a bird bath on the other side of the bush...



These barrels have been sitting here a long time.  I wonder what is in them?



I'm not the only one to wonder, I see!



That's all for the pics!  I went to the dentist today and had DEEP CLEANING.  What fun!  Next week we start work on a crown!

Got a geocache this morning on Cowles.  Not first-to-find, only fourth.  I think work should let geocachers go if there is a new cache announcement. It would be good for morale.

Got out to the vehicle after work, couldn't find the car key.  Walked all the way back to the library, then found the key in the shoes I was carrying.  Shoes?  Oh, yes, I changed into my "good" sneakers so as to not annoy the dentist with my stinky shoes.

Couldn't find the spare garage key when I got home.  Found it in my spare shorts.  Also, when I got the clothes out of the dryer I found an Einstein Bagels gift card in there, all nice and clean.  And dry!

Out and About With Mom and Matt and Jodi

Trying out thumbnails so that SOME PEOPLE on dial-up (in Pennsylvania) can view the blog without having to go to their local library for a faster connection.

Thumbnails are a lot more work!  Thumbnails SHOULD open in a new window. We shall see...

View to the east-ish from near the lodge at Torrey Pines
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Mom and Matt at Torrey Pines. Matt is identifying plants utilizing his plant book



Sign on bench.  DO NOT FEED THE BENCH!!




GIANT SPIDERS on cactus!



Pretty yellow flowers. I should ask Matt what they are.



Three bees caught in a web. Never saw a bee caught in a web before.



View up the coast from Mt. Miguel whilst sitting on a bench with my mom, eating lunch.



Extreme enlargement of skywriting airplanes.



Jodi and the Giant Doughnut!



I found a lamp harp and finial at The Light Bulb Center located at 7735 University Ave in beautiful La Mesa, California, the Jewel of the Hills, you know. So now my mini-Tiffany-ish lamp is operational!



That is about all I have the Energy and Patience to fool with.