Are you ready to test your skills?

OK…Friday afternoon’s drive home from work gave me the first clue.  This scene was repeated several times along the road.

Though I snapped a couple of pictures I put this out of my mind.

Until Saturday morning when I went out front to do my yard work.  The front yard had several unexpected twiggy visitors scattered about…

Lest you think it was just a front yard issue, here are pix from the backyard!

By the time I finished cleaning up the front and back yards, my yard waste barrel was filled to the rim with these dried out twiggy things.

There was also a teeny problem with the butterfly bush in the front yard.  I had to do some pretty serious pruning before tying it to a couple of stakes to once again make it stand upright.

And all of this pictorial evidence points to?

One heck of a wicked wind event!!!

So where did these unexpected visitors, also known as tumbleweeds, came from?  Well, the ones on the wires relocated themselves from the field next to the poles, whereas the ones in my yard came from a field down the street or the one behind my house.  In order to get into my backyard they had to climb up an 8′ tall block wall OR scoot across two backyards, up and over two 4′ tall cedar fences and one 4′ tall block wall.  No matter which direction they came from, it’s a good thing they are covered with tiny little spokes that give them some grip as they scale telephone poles, block walls and everything else in their path!

Even when the tumbleweeds are green…

…they are NOT soft to the touch.  I’ve pricked a few fingers in my weeding ventures when these guys need to be pulled out of the ground.  They grow and grow and grow to all different sizes.  I’ve seen a few green ones tumble around, but most of the time they are dried out brown masses of twigs – the plants dry out then one good gust and they’re off and running.  One day last year I drove into a marching army of them.  I was laughing so hard I forgot to reach for my camera.  It soooooo looked like the western movies (except for the paved roads and moving cars of course).

Rarely do I have tumbleweeds in my yard, maybe 2 or 3 times in the six years I’ve lived in this house, so to have so many in one day clearly points to a wicked wind event.  Too bad I wasn’t home to watch it!

But now, here’s how I’ve been feeding my creative soul this past month.

See this pretty baby yarn?

I made a really pretty baby afghan for a friend who’s going to be a first time Grandma!  Are you ready for the really “interesting” tidbit?  I forgot to take a picture of it before I handed it over to the USPS!  YES!  Can you believe it?  This camera-crazy person FORGOT to take a picture!?!?!?!?!

UGH!

My next project is this sleeveless cowl neck sweater…

I made a light green one last year so this year I’m making a maroon one.  All I have left to do is finish the cowl neck part and knit a 3-row band around each sleeve then I can wear it!

I also need to figure out how to photograph maroon so it looks maroon.  This is the right color but nowhere near dark enough.

Next up is this cardigan…

The knitting is all done but I’m having some assembly issues.  It’s not hard to assemble, but for some reason my brain is not into assembly right now.  It might have something to do with the fact we’ve been over 100 for the past 7 or 8 days so even once it’s all put together, the sweater will be too warm to wear right now.  That’s my excuse anyway.  Here’s a shot of the knitting…

I think the mish-mash of color will be fun!!!

Now on to the projects that are figured out but not yet started.  My needles will be in overdrive again beginning Saturday so I really need to figure out which sweater will be next.

This ribbed cardigan…

…made with this yarn.

Or this diamond patterned cardigan…

made with this yarn…

Or this short-sleeved cable cardigan…

made with this yarn…

Or one of these two turtlenecks…

made with this chunky yarn…

I also have this shrug pattern in my “to knit” stack…

…but I don’t have any yarn for it.

Yet.

I’ve told myself that when I get 2 more sweaters off the to-knit list, including their assembly as well as finishing the 2 that are already to that point, then I can buy yarn for the shrug.

The deadline?

Hobby Lobby opens on the 30th of this month and I’m gonna be there with charge card in one hand and wish list in the other.  Anyone care to guess how I’ll be spending my free time over the next 2-1/2 weeks?

I have written about a dozen posts…in my head…I even have the pictures to include…but there seems to be a serious detour that is preventing the posts and pictures from arriving on my blog for all to read.

If it makes you feel any better, the same detour is preventing me from enjoying my gardening activities.  The past 2 weekends I’ve done the bare minimum required in the front yard and have completely ignored the back yard.  And this past Labor Day Weekend?  Well, I skipped the front yard too.

I am mentally preparing myself to putter in the front and back yards Thursday and Friday nights – not before because it’s going to be quite toasty after work.  I’m also determined to write at least two posts this coming week.  I’ve made a promise to myself that I canNOT play in detour-land until these aforementioned things are done.

Here’s hoping I find some discipline…!

Oh…and what detour has kept me so busy that I’ve been ignoring two of my favorite creative outlets?

Check back Tuesday!

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!!

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.

Saturday morning I checked food shopping and gassing up the CRV off my to-do list by 6:45AM.  Next up was my weekly chat with my Dad, who was in rare form – so rare that I actually wondered if he was tipsy.  He was filled with things to talk about and was bouncing from topic to topic, all the while commenting on how much he had to talk about…and laughing about it.  I know he wasn’t tipsy, but his rare form kept me smiling while I worked out back for the next couple hours.

I finally finished the last path in the backyard…sort of.  Here’s the completed path…

and here’s the sort of…

I still have to break the scored corner off this block and put it in place.  Ummm…the block not the corner 

Once that’s done I’ll sweep play sand between the blocks in that area and be really done.  I’m going to check the tools at work for a chisel and try using that.  If that doesn’t work, or the office doesn’t have such a tool, I’m going to stop at Lowe’s and see if they can break it for me.

I had to stop my outdoor fun by 11AM and take a shower so I could sit and wait for the automatic garage door repair guy.  For a year or so, when I hit the button to open my door, it go up 5″ then stop.  This didn’t happen all the time, just when it felt like it.  In the past couple months, when it had this hissy fit and I hit the button to close the door, it would go down then immediately go back up…and stop…again.  Since it didn’t happen all the time and I could manually lift the door when it did occur, I kept putting off getting it fixed because no one I knew could recommend a service company.

Then Friday morning happened.

After the hissy fit, I pulled the release and was lifting the door manually when the header bolts that hold the center track against the house popped out and the track dislodged.  I was still able to lift the door, and it worked when I came home Friday night and left Saturday morning for food shopping, but I knew the time had come to get the door fixed.

I did on-line research and found a couple of small local companies.  When I searched the contractor’s license number for the first one, the license had expired, ditto for their bonding and insurance.  Fortunately the second one was in good standing so I called them and made an appointment.  Mike was here by 1:15PM and fixed the problems (the up/down was due to the two springs not having the same tension) and did a complete service on the door.    I did my usual and asked lots of questions, but he didn’t mind.  I even treated Mike to the info of how I found his company – he literally stopped in his tracks when I related my search information.  Not because I found him on-line but because I actually followed up and checked the licenses.  He said no one has ever told him that they actually check that stuff – to which I replied, “My Daddy didn’t raise no fool.”  Mike was also surprised at how easily I found the info.

I spent the rest of the day doing pretty much nothing.  I did make mac & cheese in the crock pot, trimmed about 1/8″ off the bottom of 10 vertical blinds in my dining room window that kept getting hooked on the window sill (yeah, window sill isn’t perfectly level), watched some TV and watched then deleted several programs on my DVR.

When the TV watching was over I had phone chats with friends Lois and Laurie, then went out back, slippers on my feet and blanket in my hand, and laid down on the swing.  I covered myself with the blanket, swung for a bit before practice-sleeping for an hour.  I went inside, fed the kitties then went straight to bed for the non-practice sleeping.

After an hour-long chat with my sister Sunday morning, I went out front to do my weekly maintenance.  Not only was this relaxing but it was full of surprises!!!

Remember Carlton, Jr?  That’s the pad I cut off backyard cactus Carlton, Sr in October, rooted then planted in the front yard in April.  By mid-May this guy thrilled me with 9 new pads.  Guess what?  He’s sprouted 7 more new pads!!!!!!  Carlton, Sr only adds pads once a year, why his son is adding some twice this year is beyond me – all I can say is he must be ecstatic with his new home!  Here are a couple of the new additions…

I also noticed that the white flowers on my buckwheat plant are starting to die.  This isn’t a bad thing – in fact this is part of the awesomeness of this plant!

Why?

Because they turn a stunning rust color when they die.  This plant will look so awesome when it’s covered with the rust flowers!

My next two surprises were of the bug variety.  First up…a white-ish cricket (or grasshopper)…

and a baby praying mantis!  This guy was only about 1-1/4″ long and buried inside a gazania plant.

After the yard work was done, I spent a couple of hours cleaning off my cameras while watching shows on my DVR and then programs on TV.  I caught up on some e-mails, did some work-work, washed dishes, cleaned the bathroom and played with the kitties.  By the time I was done with all of this, the sun was sleeping so I followed suit and headed off to bed.

It may not have been an exciting weekend by most standards, but it was a wonderful one by mine. 

And now for your viewing pleasure, here are a few pictures that I found when I cleaned off my cameras.

January 7, 2011 sunrise…

September 24, 2010 full moon…

My felines…

Snow covered San Bernardino Mountains, January 7, 2011

I was thrilled – everyone was safe and dry.

For a few months, there has been a rumored second wave.

If my street is any indication, the rumor is true.

Yesterday when I came home from work a “For Sale” sign had been planted in the front yard of yet another house.  There are only 14 houses on my street…5 of which now have these signs decorating their yards like trees.

Two of the houses are in foreclosure and have been empty for about a year.  Their moving to “For Sale” status is a good thing, so I smiled when the signs became part of their landscape.

One house was a foreclosure that was sold last December, and that buyer is now reselling it.

The house next door to me is a short sale.  The on-line status of the listing has changed from active to back-up offer, so I’m assuming that my neighbor has accepted an offer and is waiting for the bank to approve it.

The fifth house, the newbie in the for sale department, is so new that the listing isn’t even on-line yet.  I’m fairly confident that it’s a short sale as well, but I won’t know for sure until the listing is on-line.

There are other houses for sale in my neighborhood, but those don’t bother me nearly as much as the five on my street.  There’s no way to avoid the reality of the economy whenever I putter in the front yard or leave/return to my house.  Though new families will see their home-ownership dreams realized there’s still a sad heaviness for the five families whose dreams have been crushed.

Everything at my house is fine and dandy, but as the view from my front yard reminds me, that can change at a moment’s notice.

So just what is causing this Carmageddon?  The 405 Freeway is being widened, and as part of this project, a bridge that spans the freeway is being knocked down and replaced.  While the destruction happens, the freeway is shut down – from 10PM last night until 6AM Monday.

I bet your first thought is that it’s the weekend, so what’s the big deal?  I bet your second thought is “like they’ll have it reopened on time”.

As a Southern California resident, my first thought?

Thank goodness this is more than an hour west of me!!!

My second thought?

HAHAHAHAHAHA for all those locals who think they can outfox the closure, and     for all the tourists caught in the mess.

Back to  your thoughts…

Even though it’s the weekend, this freeway is HEAVILY traveled.  How heavily?  Umm…about 500,000 cars per weekend day!  Imagine all of that traffic trying to get anywhere on side streets!  Seriously!  Any wonder why Carmageddon survival kits have popped up everywhere?  There are the kits for your car (blanket, food, clothes, etc) and then there are the kits that direct you to businesses in the surrounding areas that are offering awesome deals…many of which include the numbers 4, 0 and 5!

As for your second thought?  Think about a fine in the amount of $6,000 for every 1o minutes each side of the freeway is not open after 6AM Monday!  That translates to $72,000 per hour…and no credit for early completion.

Back to my thoughts…

I get to watch all of the chaos from the comfort of my house, and even if I ventured out, I wouldn’t encounter any of the traffic.  Not one single tire of it!  The local TV stations will be airing constant traffic updates throughout the weekend, and since all have helicopters, I’m confident that an aerial view every half hour will be available.

PHEW for me.

If any So. Cal. residents get caught up in the traffic nightmare, well, they DESERVE it!  Carmageddon has been talked about incessantly for months on-air, on-line and in-print, so there’s absolutely no way any local could be oblivious.  As for the tourists, well, YIKES I feel badly for them!

The bad news?

The bridge span that’s being demolished is the south side – we get to go through this again next year for the north side!

The really bad news?

Though the new bridge will be 10 feet wider and more earthquake sturdy, the main focus of this project is to add one carpool lane to Northbound 405 traffic.

Yep, that’s it…just one lane…in one direction only…carpool to boot…  A project that started January 12, 2011 and that is scheduled to be completed in 2013.  An expansion that will not benefit 85% of traffic, and that by the time its complete will be considered obsolete due to traffic volume increases…

I predict this is the first of dozens of Carmageddons.  Hopefully each one is less painful than the previous.

I was outside by 7AM, had the remaining plants in the ground within an hour then spent the next 3+ hours working on that last section of backyard pathway.  I worked until I ran out of supplies, which, between you and me, timed out perfectly with the end of  my end of my attention span.  The path area was fully in the sun by this time so things were getting a bit toasty.

Here are the drought-tolerant plants, in order from the block wall towards the arbor.  This is a Gold Spot Euonymus…

Rosemary (with a neat stake I found at Joann’s)…

red fountain grass (which will stand fully upright once it gets over the adjustment period)…

Lantana (flowers should be red and orange-ish)…

New Zealand Flax (another plant that will be upright once adjusted to it’s new home)…

Golden Goblin Gaillardia (also known as blanket flower)…  If I plant those dead heads they’ll sprout new plants…at least they did in New England.

and lastly for the raised bed area, a fairy duster.  This guy’s kinda hard to see but it’s there…

In a couple of weeks, once the plants have adjusted to their new digs, I’ll take a picture of the raised bed so you can see how they all line up.

Across the yard, in the corner opposite where the swing is, I put in a white oleander.  I have a pink one behind the swing and love it, so I decided a white one would be a nice complement.

Now the path.  I was able to get it half done!

The blocks in both paths are the same color even though they don’t look like it in this picture (the patio area on the left did use different color blocks).  The white stuff on the new path is play sand that I used to sweep between all the blocks to fill the gaps.  Where these paths meet, I need to break off about an inch of the square block in the old path as it is in the way of the new path.  Then I need to fill the triangles of space with broken bricks/blocks.

As for the far end of the path…

I need to move the row of bricks you see beyond the path so they line up with the row of bricks between the path and the patio.  Once that’s done all I have to do is continue in pattern until I get to the block wall.  Any gap between the wall and the path will be filled with pea gravel, as will the area between the path and the raised garden bed.

I did some calculating and determined that I need 8 more of the smaller square blocks (12″ size) and 53 bricks.  I don’t need any of the larger blocks (16″ size) and I don’t think I need any more bags of sand, but I’ll do one more double-check on that before I pick up the blocks/bricks.  I hope to be able to find the broken brick/block pieces at the same time so I don’t have to break any.

I’ll gather the needed supplies in the next day or two so I can finish the path this weekend…or maybe putter on it a little bit at night once all the weeding and dead-heading is done in both the front and back yards.

After packing up all my supplies I took a shower, ate lunch, lazed for a couple of hours, work-worked for several hours then lazed for another hour before heading to bed and closing the book on this Staycation.

*sigh*

More importantly, the project-umph has deserted me.

I wend outside just after 9AM to put the plants I’d bought in the ground.  I planted the white oleander then spent time dead-heading the butterfly bush.  My reward?  For the first time I saw a butterfly enjoying the bush!!  It wasn’t beautiful like a Monarch or Swallowtail, but it WAS a butterfly…and I stood and watched it for a couple of minutes.

I re-focused on my planting task and was able to put three more in the ground before I packed it in for the day.  Two of the plants went in easily, the third required some axe swinging in order to dig through the clay and remove some rather large rocks.  It was hot and very dry outside, the first day of my entire vacation where we had our normal weather.  Unfortunately instead of enjoying my time outdoors I was very aware of how parched I was…even though I’d downed nearly 60 ounces of water over the course of 2 hours.

Because my mind wasn’t enjoying the planting, it also wandered indoors to the work-work I’d brought home and had successfully ignored all week.  After taking a shower and enjoying a cold steak and macaroni salad lunch, I spent 5 hours in front of my computer working.  Is it done?  Ahhh…no…barely qualifies for 1/2 done. 

One more Staycation day left…hopefully it will be more productive than today was!