June 26th: Trying to plan the summer given the latest COVID restrictions

I am hoping to be able to get in to Canada at the end of July. That would give me a month to spend on Guppy with friends. Hard to say if it will open up but I think it's possible. San Juan Capistrano Craig will join me for a while if we can enter Canada. We'll meet up with our Canadian boating friends. Keeping our hopes up. 

When I returned home from San Juan Capistrano the last time, I received a text from Craig saying there was an oil spot in his driveway where I was parked. Yikes! I felt bad. I looked under the car and sure enough something was leaking. Took it in to the car repair place and found it was transmission fluid leaking out of the axle seals. They needed to keep the car overnight. I had physical therapy the next morning and Matt was meeting a friend for a major bike ride. Fortunately, my physical therapy was not far from where he was riding. I checked it out and found I could drop him off, hike for an hour, get to my PT and return to pick Matt up afterward. 

Live oak and a nice creek

It ended up working out great. It was yet another nice place to hike. Canyonside Community Park. Info and pics of the park There were numerous live oaks along a stream that actually had water in it. Unusual in most places this time of year. I was surprised to come across a grave site just off the main path. Here is the history.

If you enlarge and look closely at the top
 of the cliff over the water you'll see people

Fortunately, California is doing very well with vaccinations. That means things are starting to open up. Craig came to Encinitas to join me for a hike at Torrey Pines State Park. I love hiking there. The hike starts with a climb to the top of the cliffs, quite a hike, but then it is mostly downhill to the ocean. We walk back along the beach for the final leg of the journey. I know I've had pictures on the blog before but it has been a while so here are some more.  

This erosion reminds me
of Bryce Canyon National Park

Rockslide at TorreyPines Beach

There have been many signs I've seen over the years warning people to stay away from the cliffs when hiking back along the beach. This time I saw a real good reason to take it seriously. I had not seen the results of this landslide previously. Notice the slight green at the top of the cliffs on the right. That is tall pine trees. It gives you a perspective of how high the cliffs are.

I have been going up to Rebecca's to catch up on projects. Things are moving along nicely but the list seems to keep growing! A new white shade screen over the patio was ordered and installed. The white screen makes the patio much brighter and still blocks the sun. Plus we readjusted the cables so it covered the patio more effectively.

The next morning, I of course took the dogs for a walk. I went past the local rabbit in a neighbor's front yard.. It doesn't do much but does look at me when I stop. I'm waiting to see if it ever plays with the ball. I tend to doubt it.

Rebecca's Roses

This time of year the flowers are gorgeous. Roses seem to do particularly well here, or the homeowners know what they're doing. Here are some "Spring flowers" pictures. There really are seasons here, they just aren't very obvious.

We next worked on some scratches on Rebecca's Grand Jeep Cherokee, which she was selling now that her Jeep Liberty Limited is up to top condition and running. She described the scratches in the description she sent to Carvana, but we wanted to feel comfortable that they wouldn't kill the deal when they saw the car. After doing some research she found Carvana had excellent reviews and the highest offers. Plus they come to your house, load up the car and haul it away. Everything went very smoothly! The car has low mileage and is in great condition so someone will be very happy to get it.

An ongoing project was Rebecca's doorbell. She had purchased a Nest doorbell with camera so she could see who was at the door on her phone. During the construction project it was installed but never worked correctly. First the camera worked but not the chimes. Then the chimes worked but not the camera. Eventually she had had it with construction workers in the house and decided we could fix it ourselves. I agreed. How hard can it be? It's just a doorbell. I removed the doorbell to see what was behind it. No help there. I didn't have the correct key to open it and had to duct tape it back together after checking it out. I checked the power at the chimes. I couldn't find any. Rebecca said "Can't we just replace the wires?" I said theoretically yes. I was close to leaving so we left going into the attic to find the power source for another day. Now nothing worked. That was many months ago.

Attic crawlspace

So I decided to finally check it out. I climbed the ladder into the attic crawlspace and decided it was time to hire someone. There is only partial flooring so you need to crawl along the joists and not fall through the drywall ceiling. I spotted the wiring and it looked shaky. The roof came down at a very sharp angle where the wires would go to the doorbell and I knew I didn't want to crawl in there. Plus the largest issue was I didn't know what I was doing. I learned there is a transformer to make the ancient doorbell work but that it probably wouldn't work in the new situation. 

I was reminded of Rebecca's grandfather Drouhard. He was preparing to call a plumber, when I offered to fix an issue in his bathroom. He said, "If you can afford to hire someone to fix something you should hire someone. They need the work." Works for me! We got online and found a Nest Doorbell installer. He could come Sunday, Father's Day. We were surprised but said great.

I had envisioned this slim, fit electrician who could crawl around the attic like a monkey. The electrician, Mike, arrived. He was very, very heavy and anything but fit and trim. Probably in his late fifties. Very nice guy but I thought, "If I wouldn't crawl in there, there is no way he is going to." He said "Well let me take a look." He checked out the power to the bell and confirmed there was none. He climbed the ladder and went into the crawl space. We looked at the wires running across the roof to the back doorbell and found they were completely shot. The insulation had dried out and crumbled off when you touched it. He confirmed all the wiring would need to be replaced. 

He also said, "I don't think I can fit in there where the wires go down into the wall!" 

Old transformer and corroded wiring

Rebecca to the rescue. She said, "I can get in there and do the work, just tell me what to do." We gave Mike a lot of credit. He went into the now quite warm attic to find the old transformer and see if we needed to replace it. He needed to test it. Definitely needed a new transformer. 

Rebecca and I were genuinely concerned about his well being. His face was very red and he was clearly struggling. (Afterward, Rebecca said she had visions of the EMTs cutting a hole in her kitchen ceiling to get Mike out!" But everything ended well. Mike said it was the most interesting installation he ever did and again complimented Rebecca. He worked through several issues for several hours while Rebecca was in the attic trying to feed the wires to us below. Mike told Rebecca that she has a career as an electrician if she wants one. Bottom line, after cutting several new holes in the wall and Rebecca and Mike Facetiming so Rebecca could install the new transformer, Rebecca expertly feed to wires to us and we got everything working. 

Doorbell chimes, working well

Nest camera Doorbell top right,
I think London is looking for me

Mike even fixed the camera doorbell so it no longer had to be duct taped.

I had a very enjoyable Father's Day at Rebecca's. Matt and Wendy joined us on their way home from a trip to Bear Mountain Lake. Also, Jill joined us Saturday and Sunday for dinner. Jill likes my salmon with dill sauce so I made that Saturday night. (Not Matt and Wendy's favorite.) Then we had barbecued chicken on Father's day. And as usual, Jill brought some of her fabulous cookies.

This is the first time we were able to get together to play with Rebecca's Oculus Quest 2, a virtual reality game. It is truly amazing. When you put the headset on you believe you are in another world. It is so realistic you would swear the scenarios are real. Here are a couple videos of Matt playing. 

Sunday night we watched the new Pixar movie Lucas on the big screen. It was a perfect night and our fire felt good.

Monday morning I suggested we go out for breakfast. It had been a year and a half since we were able to do that. There are a couple great breakfast places within walking distance. I didn't think to take pictures but here is a link that has plenty. We sat in the little courtyard on the side. The food was very good. Aroma breakfast place

I have been swimming at the YMCA and just started playing pickle ball also. A very nice group of people. They are patient in teaching me how to play as well as the rules. Not the same as tennis. the ball hardly bounces! I kept missing it, waiting for the ball to come to me. After a while I got the hang of it, sort of.

My succulents are doing pretty well. I've recognized that they don't grow very fast, but here is a before and after, of the ones I rescued from Rebecca's. (Of course the real credit goes to San Juan Capistrano Karen who helped me replant them and gave me obviously "expert" instructions for care because they are doing well.)

Succulents day 1 rescued

Happy succulents

I was shopping at Lazy Acres, a very good grocery store with a lot of organic and healthy options. These onion rings caught my eye so I tried them. They are excellent. I highly recommend them.

I am still riding my bike but not as often. I am still working on getting my shoulder back in shape, (No, not the one I broke, it's fine) I don't know what I did to my left shoulder to cause the original problem but thanks to great physical therapy advice twice a week I'm almost back to normal. (Okay, I hear all the comments about "Normal?" My shoulder anyway! I know swimming helps so I am swimming almost every day. I went for a nice ride along the ocean a few days ago after swimming. It was a beautiful day and I knew there is a taco place where I typically turn around. I thought about stopping once but didn't have my wallet. This time I was prepared. I had a great fish burrito lunch in this very nice little park. I'm often very appreciative of the efforts of Californians to preserve natural spaces for all of us. This plaque is just one more example. It's difficult to read but if you enlarge it you should be able to make it out.

I think this has potential for my next t-shirt.

June 16th: Busy enough

Since my last blog  it seems like time is passing quickly, but I am not sure why. Fortunately, San Diego County has opened up quite a bit due to the high vaccination rate. I am still going to physical therapy twice a week and doing about an hour of shoulder exercises every day. My shoulder is getting much better and now the YMCA is open so I can swim which is definitely helping. Take my advice and get competent advice if you have a  limb, muscle, shoulder problem. I never had a specific big problem, but my shoulder just seemed to be getting worse. My Florida PT, Rosie, explained that everything I was doing to try to "Stretch it out" was aggravating the muscles even more. She further explained that my body was now compensating for the problem muscle issues for so long, that I needed to retrain my shoulder muscles to do what they are designed to do, rather than compensate for pain. My point is, don't wait to go for advice!

So I am continuing physical therapy twice a week here in California, swimming almost every day, and getting some bike rides in. All in all things are going well.

Back yard after the trim

When I returned to Encinitas from Craig and Karen's last week, I found Matt in the back yard cutting up the remains of a massive Giant Birds of Paradise trimming. You might have noticed in previous blogs that they were getting quite massive! When grilling, I used to be kind of in a cave under the giant leaves. I missed the hardest work, cutting and trimming the plants/trees, but I was at least able to help chop the remains into small enough pieces to put them into the green waste bins. Note there are six of them!

I returned to Rebecca's the following Friday to enjoy her company, to walk the dogs, and to "help" with the latest. Rebecca agreed to foster three puppies for 12 days. They were 8 weeks old. She was to foster them for 12 days, take videos to help get them adopted, and take good care of them. The pups arrived shortly after me on Friday. They were very cute! Very lovable. Very untrained! Rebecca was prepared with a sleeping pen and a fence that helped contain them when in the house. They had lost their mother and needed a lot of attention. Fortunately for me, they "slept" in their night pen in Rebecca's bedroom. I heard them a few times but no big deal. When I got up Rebecca said, "What was I thinking?" I'll spare you the details but she was clearly wondering how she was going to survive the next 11 days. I asked about a return policy. She said that was made very clear upon agreeing to take them, no returns before 12 days! I was there to help for two more days. They were very cute and lovable but also very needy. We took turns taking them out to play, and then being puppies they would conk out for a couple hours. Rebecca figured out a sort of routine which helped. 

London hiding from the puppies

London wanted nothing to do with the puppies. She looked rather forlorn the whole time. Her dog collar allows her to go in and out and a door opens and closes. She would hide inside when the puppies chased her

Poor London!

 

But Trevi enjoyed playing with them.

Mail slot pattern

In spite of the puppies, some projects continued. I had started on a thru the door mail slot before I stopped going to Rebecca's in the fall. Craig had some nice tools and we had prepared everything we needed for the installation. I mailed everything to Rebecca and told her she could install it. She decided to wait for me to do the install. Because everything was prepared ahead of time, the project went surprisingly well.

Measured three times!

The door was very high quality and I was a little nervous as I cut a hole in it. But all went well

I replaced the electrical outlets in the kitchen with outlets that also had USB ports in them. One was easy, one was not, because the box was not installed correctly. I corrected the box installation and then things went well.

Single home property

Monday I said good bye to the pups, and Rebecca and headed to Craig and Karen's. We wanted to look for a trip during the summer if we weren't able to get into Canada. We settled on Big Bear Lake as an alternative. 

Craig and I went for a very nice hike the next morning. It was on a preserve right on the ocean shore by Dana Point. The preserve is surrounded by huge multimillion dollar homes. 

This green space exists because of the Pacific Pocket Mouse. It had been thought extinct and then was discovered at Dana Point before the building was in full speed. The Pacific Pocket Mouse is endangered and an agreement was reached to set 70 acres of land aside to protect them and offer green space to everyone. The trail became loose sand for a while. Craig and I wondered how that happened. A ranger explained that the Pocket Mice need the loose sand for some reason. We can thank the Pacific Pocket Mouse for preserving at least this area for all to enjoy.

Read to the bottom of this link to learn about the work of  the Marine Corp at Camp Pendleton and the Dana Point City Council to preserve 70 acres for this effort. Pocket Mouse info

As we were walking along part of the trail we came across this sign. 

We did not spot any Pacific Pocket Mice but we learned at the visitor center they are nocturnal so that wasn't surprising.

This sign was at the end of the trail.

The trail led down to the ocean which by law has to be open to the public, despite the multimillion dollar homes. Craig and I walked the beach for a while wondering what would possess people to build /own such humongous homes. The ocean view was beautiful. 

It was another fun trip and hike. I headed home and enjoyed being back at my place.

After being home a week, I heard from Rebecca that thanks to her videos all three puppies were spoken for. She was very happy to deliver the puppies back to the shelter at 7:04 am at the end of the 12 days. The shelter opened at 7:00am.  She has made it quite clear she will never do it again. But, they were awfully cute! Of course I was only there three days!

June 2nd: Another fun visit with Karen and Craig in San Juan Capistrano

It's always fun to visit with Craig and Karen in San Juan Capistrano. I hadn't gotten together with them for a couple months given my trip to Florida, Ohio and back to Florida. Craig and I went for a nice bike ride along the river. We once again ended up at the ocean and the harbor. 

We rode to a museum where there is a tall ship docked alongside it. Craig informed me that a man built the ship in his back yard. It's amazing. He was running out of money to finish it so he sold it to the city and was able to finish it. It is now available for boat rides. 

After a very enjoyable evening we planned our hike for the next morning. We went to O'Neill regional park. We had planned to go there on an earlier trip but there was a mountain lion sighting and Karen said, "No way you are hiking there!" I made a joke about the mountain lion not being interested in a couple old guys, but then I realized she was very concerned and serious. 

Craig wisely chose an alternate site for us to hike back then. But it had been three months since there was a sighting so we felt very comfortable going now. 

I will admit that we were so distracted by these signs that we missed the entrance to the trail we wanted to take. We walked up a steep incline and the trail just ended. There was a nice young woman at the end who hikes the hill for exercise. She told us people often miss the trail, especially if they see her heading up the hill. She also informed us that she had been hiking here for years and had never seen a mountain lion. In general, mountain lions do not like to be around people. She also gave us some good information about the trails. We told her our hike route. She asked, "Are you sure you want to go that far?" Hmmmmm! Craig said, "Oh yeah, we'll be fine." Okay then!

The park has a lot of open spaces and hiking from sea level to 1500 feet. There is enough wilderness that mountain lions do hang out there.

Craig walking the trail
through the Live Oak Trees

There were many beautiful live oak trees along the river at the start of the hike. There was a lot of shade and it was very comfortable for hiking. Live Oak info

10 acres of the park had been the site of a ranch property. We came across this sign giving some of the history.

Here is a picture of one of the succulents that Anna had planted many years ago. It is about six feet tall. 

Saddle Back Mountains

The views from the top of the ridge were spectacular. The hike was fun because the terrain changed quite a bit from along the river where the Live Oaks were to the top of the ridge which had no shade at all. Fortunately it was not too hot that morning. 

When we returned to the house Karen had some drawing supplies ready for me. I told her I was interested in learning to draw. She gave me some great materials to get started.

I returned home to Encinitas and found Wendy and Matt working on the house. Wendy was painting the trim and Matt was replacing the molding around the windows. Matt, Wendy and I had put the original molding in place many years ago. It was due to be replaced. Matt and Wendy did a great job and the back room looks very nice. I missed most of the action but I arrived in time to hold the molding while Matt nailed it to the wall. 

I began drawing the next day. I highly recommend this book. I'm just getting started but it is going well. Here are my first three subjects. (I did several attempts at each to get to this point, but each took no more than 30 minutes.)

I joined the Encinitas YMCA which is a fabulous facility. I'm told it is the largest in the country. Fortunately, the Magdalena Ecke family donated a great deal of money to build the facility. The Ecke family raised and shipped a very large portion of Poinsettias across the country and were very successful. I have been going to physical therapy to get my left shoulder back in shape. I did something to it months ago and couldn't get it back in shape. Turns out what I was doing was making it worse. Swimming at the Y has been helpful as well as working with the PT who is telling me what to do and what not to do!