Nephew Time

My nephew Brandon has been enjoying a most awesome summer this year – he’s been touring the U.S. and Canada with Josh Groban!  Brandon has a multitude of jobs to do, and all are behind the scenes.  Though you won’t see him on-stage during any of the shows, you might see him fielding questions during Meet & Greets from people who Josh’s Find Your Light Foundation has invited to the show.

I was very excited to catch up with my nephew when the tour landed in San Diego, but due to a scheduling conflict, the show had to be canceled.  The really great news was this freed up Brandon’s schedule so he and I were able to spend the day together this past Sunday!

Just before noon, the tour bus that Brandon was on pulled off the freeway near my house solely to drop off Brandon!  Look!!!!  Here it comes…

This impressive looking bus is one of seven that are home-away-from home for the musicians and crew.  The buses can sleep 12, but there are only 8 on Brandon’s bus.  I didn’t get a good picture of the bus during its two-minute stop (I was so excited to see Brandon I forgot to take a picture) but Brandon has good pictures of both the inside and outside on his blog.  Here’s the link if you’d like to see.

There’s not a whole lot to do in my area, especially if you’re only here for a couple of hours, but I thought a ride up the side of the Santa Ana Mountains to the lookout would be a cool thing to do.  The day was nearly crystal clear so Brandon could see the whole valley.  He’s such an easy-going guy he was all for it.

At first.

I think he might have had a few doubts on the way up as we were on a “squiggle road” – one that is etched into the side of the mountain and that does not have as many guard rails as it should on the outside to keep you from tumbling straight down.

The outer edge was the side of the CRV that Brandon was on.

More than once he grabbed the door handle as we twisted and turned up the side of the mountain.  I giggled and told him he’d like the ride down much better as he’d be against the mountain rather than along the outer edge.  I also told him that I knew how he felt as I’d done the same thing, even closed my eyes at times, when I was a passenger in a car that was going up a squiggle road to Big Bear.

Once at the lookout the ride appeared to be forgotten as I pointed out things that stretched before us and Brandon took lots of pictures.

I’m looking at my camera, and Brandon’s looking at his, no uniformity there, but it’s a cool shot with the valley stretched out  below. 

After this short road trip we stopped at my house for a bit so I could play show-and-tell, Brandon could visit my felines (Skittles refused to visit & instead remained under the bed), we could get directions to his San Diego hotel (very easy) and we could decide what to do with the rest of our time.

The decision?

A visit to Palomar Observatory!

Even though it’s about 26 miles off the freeway, we had to pass the exit on the way to San Diego so it really was a perfect place to go.  The first 10 miles or so of the side road were a very easy ride, but after that?  The road put our first squiggle road to shame!  Honest!  Not only were we taking super tight turns that required me to downshift to 2nd gear, but we were also climbing a mountain.  I’m not sure what elevation we started at, but after a while we passed a 2,000 ft elevation sign, then a 4,000 ft sign, followed by a 5,000 ft sign and we ended in the parking lot at a 5,550 ft sign.

After we finished popping our ears we walked towards the observatory, which, when it came into view, was quite the site!

We missed the last tour of the day, but there are enough posters and information in the viewing area, along with a guide available to answer questions, that we were able get the gist of the main telescope.  In reading the development history of the Hale telescope that has a 200″ circular lens, I was amazed at the technology that went into it at a time where there wasn’t a lot of it available.  Here’s the link to that info – it’s a quick read and well worth it.

On the way down the mountain we pulled over at a lookout we had seen on the way up so we could snap a few pix.

Once on the flat ground again, Brandon and I snapped pictures as we drove, and I pulled over once so he could get a couple really good shots.

With all of this country that Brandon has seen this summer, it was really cool that he found this part of the country different enough to warrant taking lots of pictures!

The rest of the day was less about doing anything and more about just hanging out and chatting.  It was another 45 minute drive to get into San Diego, where Brandon checked into his hotel in downtown then we walked a block away to enjoy dinner at the Yard House.  I headed home from there, leaving San Diego around 7:15PM.

A couple interesting things I learned about a tour:

There are at least 3 different sleep schedules – musicians, crew and drivers.  The musicians have the most normal schedule; the crew doesn’t get to sleep until the wee hours of the morning (sometime after 1AM) and then they’re often up at the crack of dawn to set up the next day’s show, and the drivers sleep while everyone else is working.  After all, they need to be wide awake while everyone else is sleeping!

Many of the crew members are homeless.  Not homeless in a negative sense, but homeless by choice because their careers are working on tours, so they often go from one to the next with maybe just a couple of weeks off in-between.  They might have a storage unit for their small amount of worldly possessions, do all their banking/bill paying on-line, and during their downtime they visit friends or family since they don’t have a house or apartment to go to.

But the most interesting thing I learned was who my nephew is becoming.  It was so easy to know him as a little kid, talk Legos and life was good.  As he becomes an adult who is just a few short years away from being a college graduate, it was wonderful talking with him about life in general, world events, dreams, life experiences, goals, etc.

And ya know what?

He’s an amazing young man!!

Laundry Room Project

It is with a mixture of joy and sadness that I report the completion of the laundry room!!!  Joy because it’s done and I’m thrilled with it!  Sadness because, well, it’s done!  I started dreaming about this more than 3 years ago, and have chipped away at it for nearly 2 years, so in a way, finishing it is like saying good-bye to a great friend.  Yes, I’ll be able to admire the room every time I do laundry or go between the house and the garage (the laundry room is the pass-through room), but it’s not the same as being able to spend lots of one-on-one time with the room.

Because it’s been such a long process, here are the “before” pictures of the room.  Unfortunately I didn’t take pictures before the blue painters’ tape was up, but you’ll still get the idea.  This was taken in the house looking towards the door to the garage…

…and this was taken looking from the garage towards the house.

After a couple of weeks of painting, this was the view (in the same order):

After the fence and the bird house were added, this is what the laundry room looked like:

That was February of 2010….and in case you’re interested to read more about the whole process, here’s the link to the blog post.

Fast forward to this past July and my first attempt to correct the major flaw with the project — the never-ending blue sky.  I had not foreseen this vast expanse of blue, but I instantly knew I needed to correct it.  After 18 months, I finally opened the paint and set about doing just that. The branches looked awesome – I was thrilled!

Then came the leaves, and I knew a second correction was needed.

Sadly, there were way too many leaves and instead of feeling like I had a spectacular view, I felt the branches were heavy and weighing down the whole project.

*Sigh*

Last week I opened the blue can of paint and “erased” several branches, and lots of leaves, taking the time to step back after each branch was removed to make sure it was looking more like the image in my head.  When I was satisfied that all was right with my mural, I packed up the paint brushes, sealed the can of paint then let my subconscious work on how to complete the wall.

Yesterday the paint supplies came out again and after 3 hours of work, my laundry room is complete.  FINALLY!  And I couldn’t be happier! Are you ready for the unveiling???

Well, let’s start with a close-up of the leaves…

And now for the wall on the garage side…

…and the house wall side…

…and finally, the main wall!!!!

Thanks to the textured walls, which I have otherwise cursed as I’ve painted every room in my 1706 sq ft house, making the clouds wispy was a piece of cake.  Just put a smidge of paint on a sponge brush and zip back and forth along the wall, swooping, zigging, zagging and going in straight lines. I’d really like to add a bird or two, but I absolutely do not trust my skills on that.

BUT…if my artist friends come for a visit again, I’ll hand over paint and brushes and let them add winged friends.  OR, if I find wall stickers that are the right size, I’ll add those.

If that never happens, I’m totally fine with the walls exactly as they are.