Last night's entertainment

Our Xmas present to my BIL & SIL.

As my BIL observed "They don't have this were we live"

Both pictures are of the same individual. At the end they introduced people and where they were from. This is Kevin. Kevin's from New Mexico. It occurred to me that if New Mexico had Lion fish, this is what they would look like.

Click to enlarge (If you dare!)

Job opening?

Maybe a background in gymnastics would be good for this job.

New follower and another old story

Came across http://firefighterparamedicstories.blogspot.com/ the other day, and his posts keep reminding me of old stories, so here's one.

A few months after my "department of origin" was merged into a larger county department, I was put "on the route" which means I had no permanent station, and drifted from station to station to fill in as needed. This was mostly not a happy time. Almost always I was at the station for a full 24 hour shift, but occasionally I had to commute.

One particular day, I got sent midday from a busy 2 company station to a slow 1 company station for 12 hours, returning to the first about 11pm as an extra person. The only bed open for me was the only bed that was in it's own room with a door no less! Atypically for this station I had a nice uninterrupted sleep. The next morning I went out the apparatus floor and noticed the truck I was assigned to was dripping. It had rained after I returned the night before. This is not good, and when I went into the dayroom I was greeting with lots of smiles and "Hey Sunshine! Sleep well?"

For the first and only time in my career I had slept through a call.

Ku Klux Kacti

Every time there's a Kold night predicted, these guys show up. At least they're quiet, but they do have prickly personalities.

A comforting thought perhaps

A synopsis of an old Shelley Berman routine

Due to the process of photosynthesis " No matter how mean, or cruel, or sinful you have been throughout this day (or year?), every time you breathe out, you make a little flower happy"

Another Utube post, I still got nuthin'!

I feel so cheap!

OK so I "stole" this off a facebook post by someone else, but I got nuthin' !

Headline-Restored Caboose saved by string of Xmas lights!

Speeding, reckless, (and probably Godless) teen loses control of his car careening into fence protecting 111 year old caboose then takes off, conveniently leaving his front bumper with license plate at the scene.

(I may have been watching Fox "news" too much. The caboose may have been in less danger than the first pictures shows.)

A weekend in So Cal

Drove down to Palm Springs to visit our former neighbor and return some unsold but potentially high value items. She's doing fairly well. She's staying with a friend in a condo on a golf course. We got a short tour of the area. It was relaxing, but our butt muscles were already bruised from the 8+ hr drive down, and we ended up sitting a lot anyway. While there we visited an aunt of my lovely bride. We haven't seen them in 20+ years, but had a nice visit.

Saturday we drove up to San Luis Obispo and checked into a nice B&B and visited an Uncle. I'm pretty sure we met many years ago, but he did not recall meeting me before. We had a nice visit and lunch at the Madonna Inn, then a drive to Avila Beach. We got there late in the day, but there must have been a school of fish in the bay because the Pelicans were constantly diving for fish. It was spectacular and made the whole trip worth it.

Busy working 4 day weekend

Friday morning, yoga, then 3 hours of site prep for the impending (Monday 7am) arrival of a set of trucks for Car 29

Saturday, Board of Directors meeting in the am (record set for brevity, yahoo!) Another 3 hrs site prep in the afternoon.

Sunday, Rain, Yoga, more rain, early delivery of forklift minus the keys, Rental place never heard of us yada yada yada, got the keys moved it into lot, all in the rain...rain stops when we're through. TV Football, TV baseball playoff (lose)

Monday am, instead of 7am arrival, now scheduled for 8, but not everybody gets the word. We get a WHOLE lot accomplished with the forklift before they arrive at 10 am. Unload and place trucks, then there are a few other things we can do with this cool forklift, so I don't get out til noon.

Incidentally, no persons or objects were harmed in my operation of the forklift, there MIGHT have been a few close calls, but no harm, no foul.

Neighbor update

On the good side, although she apparently tires easily, she seems to be doing well otherwise and still has her hair.

On the down side, her platelets were too low several treatments in a row and she has been "released" from the trial. Her tumors have shrunk significantly, so her doctor is trying to get her on the same standard chemo that she was on for the trial.

Bigger bummer is that the bank is foreclosing on her house. It does not appear she can sell it for what is owed on it. The neighbors have cleared it out.

We still have a few things that we just can't bear to just donate. A schoolhouse clock, a German Box clock and some artwork. The artwork we are going to take down to her in Southern Ca when we visit in a couple of weeks, and the clocks may go to a consignment shop here or there.

Neighbor update and a good deed as yet unpunished

Last Easter Sunday, our neighbor at the coast who had been feeling a little poorly, woke up jaundiced, and by the end of a long day found out she likely (and later confirmed) had Pancreatic cancer. Even before that, she had planned on selling her house and moving to Southern California because the annuity she was living on had been decimated by a local swindler, and she could no longer afford her mortgage. (No fault of hers, the money was given to a local state college and THEY trusted this a-hole)

She is in a clinical trial in Southern California now, and although she was assigned the standard chemo treatment, she seems to be doing well. It wasn't that long ago that Pancreatic cancer was "How long do I have? 2 or 3 weeks?"

The weekend before last there was an estate sale. My BIL & SIL have an estate sale company. They had a very successful 2 day sale despite a wildfire that closed the main road out to the coast from Saturday afternoon until Monday midday. There was also a cliff rescue a block away Saturday afternoon and a motorcycle accident (broken leg) on Sunday. Both times people came running up to the houses Yelling "Call 911!) The problem was that the fire had taken out the phone lines. By Sunday we were able to directly call the fire station but not outside the local area.

So meanwhile I had talked to a friend who told me about doing this with her father and the sales just covered the cost of hauling off the leftovers. This made me think about having a 2nd sale this last Saturday for the leftovers, and saving the cost of the cleanup.

The neighbors were fantastic, both in helping run the sale and in buying things, often paying more than the asking price or rounding up the total. We made over $800 but still have a few things we'll try to sell on Craigslist. The rest will be donated in her name so she can use the receipts as tax deductions.

Trying to find a new home.

Among my late step father's possessions was this bust. We kinda like it, but we wouldn't be unhappy if it had a better home, say, a relative of the artist.

DC HAINES = David Crocket Haines (1897-1980)
Born in Ukiah, CA on Dec. 6, 1897. Haines lived in Oakland during the 1930s
and 1940s. For 40 years he was a draftsman for Caterpillar Tractor Company.
He died in Santa Rosa, CA on Nov. 22, 1980.
Source:
Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"
Index of Artists Supplement (Daniel Mallett); City Directory; Death Record.

I'm posting this more as something to be found by search engines if someone is looking. I did a Google search and found a David C Haines who's a prof back east. I emailed him, but have not heard back, so I assume he is not related.

A Poll

Multiple answers are allowed.

Presuming their existence

1. Which of the following would be most likely to create fear, hate and division.

a. God

b. Jesus

c. Satan

2. Which of the following would seem to benefit from the sowing of fear, hate and division.

a. God

b. Jesus

c. Satan

d. Mass Media

e. Fringe political and or religious groups

A Found cell phone, a new friend....NOT!

So Thursday morning we were walking the beach, picking up trash, when my beautiful bride found a cell phone and charger on the sand. It looked as though it would have been in the water at the last high tide, but it worked briefly when turned on. It turned itself off due to a low battery.

I charged it up and turned it on to check for a number I could call to return it, but it was locked and needed an access code.

So today I took it to the service provider thinking they could ID the owner and give me contact info. All I got was a name and town. So I looked in the phone book, no luck. Then I looked up the name through Google. The first hit was a link to a service that shows recent arrests...and previous arrests...many previous arrests.

It had occurred to me to leave the phone on and see if someone called and I could get word to the owner that way. I got a robo call for a service to repair credit.

Now I'm thinking I don't think I actually want to meet this person, no matter how grateful they might be.

So off to the cop shop to turn it in with the info gathered so far. Let THEM deal with it. It's only fair, they probably are on a first name basis.

NWP baggage car 605 on Utube

This is an updated version of a previous post.

There is a 53 minute video also...

Studly Segal returns!

Just before the picture of Lily and the recently departed mouse was taken, I was celebrating the return of Studly Segal. He had not been around for many months, and I thought he was gone for good.

For those who don't know the story or have forgotten, Studly is the inheritor of a long tradition of spoiled critters at this house on the coast. His predecessor was Charlie who taught my step father to hand feed him a LONG time ago. When my step father died in 1997, we started thinking about how long he had been feeding Charlie, and it had been over 25 years. Charlie trained my mom after my step dad died and when my mom died in 2005, he became less picky and would let several people feed him if they were properly quiet and respectful. Charlie died several years ago, but before he did he brought another bird around to show him the ropes and how to train us.

His name was Studly Segal. He tried to train me for many months, but the best we could do was when he would land with a flop on our carport I would defrost a hot dog and approach the birdbath. But I never got close enough to have him take it from my hand. I always had to toss it the last 3 feet.

Yesterday, after being MIA for many months I heard the familiar flop. I went out and there was a seagull staring at me like "So WHERE is my hot dog?" He walked to the edge of the roof and when I went to the birdbath he flew down for the toss. I'm sure it's Studly because he always hopped down off the birdbath after getting a piece of hotdog, then hopped back up for the next piece. He seemed a little more confident than in the past. Later he came back and I gave him some bread. Still later he came back again when there were several of us in the back yard where there is an alternate feeding spot, the corner of the carport.

This spot offers a way to hand feed that can make him feel safer. Additionally, I turned my head away to not seem threatening.
SUCCESS!

Lily the huntress STRIKES!

Yeh that's right, I'm BAD!
Anybody else in there want a piece of me?

So then it moved and I JUMPED ON IT LIKE THIS!

Notes to self

1. Lift foot 1 inch higher than next step. Particularly when barefoot.
2. When donating blood, and the blood sucker can't find your pulse because he's "had too much caffeine" and you got similar results the last TWO times he's drawn blood from you. ASK FOR SOMEONE ELSE!
3. When using a small screwdriver on a smaller stuck screwhead, put it on something solid! (And I don't even remember what happened with the fingernail)

"New" baggage car in new home

A nice article in the local paper meant a fair number of observers and visitors when 605 reached her new home.

Here, she's leavin' town, heading for the freeway and probably the fastest she's ever traveled. (55mph)