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!