Category: General

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Here we are again! Power is out.

Edison claims they’re replacing power poles.

The power will be out until 4PM but Edison being Edison, means it will probably be out longer.

I powered everything down this morning prior to them turning the power off. The power doesn’t just go off. There’s this weird dribble effect. It’s like someone is rubbing two bare wires together but not holding them still.

I don’t think that’s what is actually happening. I suspect, it’s all the solar panels on the houses around here. I’m betting that their switching systems aren’t all detecting the power outage the same way, and are allowing the various panels to feed power into the grid for a minute after the power is gone.

Technically, that shouldn’t happen, all the systems should switch over to either battery, or disconnect the panels from the grid instantly, that may not be happenig as designed. I don’t even know if my panels switch off properly because I wasn’t here when the installers were doing the final inspection.

The dribble effect is interesting because the alarm on the stove grumbles to itself until the power is completely gone.

I’ve got the HAM rig running on battery, I’m listening to a country music station out of Las Vegas. Which means my Ham Rig is a very expensive FM radio at the moment. Oh well…

I can broadcast on battery, I just don’t want to talk to anyone. It’s times like this when I do wish I had the bluetooth mic but obviously I don’t want it bad enough to have spent the money on it. I could lose the whole day playing on the radio.

When the power is off, all the usual interference is gone and I can hear, and talk to folks a lot further away, even with my shitty little antenna.

I’d planned to get a nice “Permanent Antenna” and mount it in the back yard. But there’s not much point in doing that if I’m gonna move. I could do some kind of portable long wire solution but I don’t need another distraction. I other words, if I could screw around all day on the radio I would. I’d get nothing done! Looking stuff up on the computer is bad enough. I swear I’ll try to look up one little thing to help with cleaning or fixing stuff. Then I look up & 2 hours have gotten by me.

Nah, I’ll wait on antennas, and radio gear till I get fully settled, either here, off the mountain, or in another state.

I’ve been doing chores around here, those that don’t require power. I’d reached a point of annoyance / frustration with one chore and decided to take a break to finish my coffee before it got cold.

Time to walk the pup.

Have a great day.

Update: They didn’t get the power back on until 6:15 PM or so. Gee Thanks Edison!

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Jesse got to ride in the nice car yesterday…

I get to spend some time cleaning the nice car today.

Jesse had a Vet appointment yesterday. I hadn’t really thought about the fact that it had been a while since I last drove the station wagon and we’d had a cold snap.

OOOppps. The combination, and I suspect the age of the battery in that vehicle combined to “Surprise!” Make the car not start.

Goody!

I thought about using the nice car to jumpstart the wagon but If I’m going to have to pull the nice car out of the garage grab jumper cables start the wagon, then put the nice car back in the garage, get the dog loaded in the wagon, and do all that in less than 5 minutes so I can make the appointment. 

Too much stress!!!!

Ah well, Jesse was going to be riding in the nice car sooner or later. I flip down the rear seats, toss a blanket on top of the  platform and load him up. 

He was mostly good. As usual, he wouldn’t settle down and kept pacing like he couldn’t get comfortable. Coming back from the Vet, I tried having the rear seats in their normal position. In a way that might have been better because Jesse tried to curl up and lay down. Something kept him from staying curled up or getting comfortable for more than a minute or two.

It might have been the stop & go traffic or just that he was too spun up from the excitement of going somewhere.

I suspect, that if we were on a long freeway trip he’d find a way to curl up. Lately as long as he can see me he seems to be content.

We had an incident last Friday with another dog that was totally out of control whose owner had zero control over. As is always typical in these situations, the idiot owner was letting their dog run free off leash. Great!!!! 

Their dog really came after Jesse and I both. To his credit, Jesse kept himself between the aggressive dog and me. Jesse’s attitude toward me changed on Friday. I’d had enough of this aggressive dog biting and snapping at both Jesse and I and got aggressive back. I made a sound Jesse has only heard once or twice, on those occasions it was directed at him because he was out of control. This time he looked up at me and realized I wasn’t angry with him, I was fixated on the other dog and when I moved toward the other dog Jesse moved with me.

It only took him a moment to connect the dots he and I were going to fight this dog together. The dog’s owner finally got their fat ass to where Jesse & I were making a stand and her dog ran off up the street, the minute she reached for its collar.

She offered a lame weak “sorry” to which I bellowed “Sorry my ass! Your dog attacked us, it went out of its way to follow us and was waiting for any opportunity to bite one of both of us.” I was very mad about it. We were less than 300 yards from our house. Jesse picked up on my being pissed off. He checked to see if I was angry with him and when he figured out I was yelling at the lady, (another human,) it seemed to give him pause.

At this point her dog ran in front of a delivery truck narrowly missing being hit and causing the delivery truck to lock up the brakes on a downhill run. 

Jesse & I continued our walk. I needed to clear my head, and perhaps so did Jesse. On the walk, I noticed Jesse was sticking much closer to me than usual. Every subsequent walk since, Jesse hasn’t been pulling on the leash or trying to drag me up or down the mountain. He’s been paying more attention to where I am versus where he is and we’ve been waiting on each other. He’ll wait for me to navigate rough terrain and he’s not dragging me into the underbrush but I’ll wait on the trail for him to investigate intriguing smells in the underbrush. 

Somehow the whole incident on Friday changed the dynamic between us.

That change in dynamic also carried over to the Vet visit.

He was more obedient and relaxed. Oh he didn’t like being there and really hates waiting for anything but he was more mellow. He got on the scale with no production then sat when I asked him to, 69 pounds! He laid down next to me in the waiting room and was mostly obedient even when he heard the kitten in a cat carrier and really wanted to know what that thing was. He was good with the Vet, & the Assistants. I was super impressed. The only thing that was annoying was him doing this high pitched whine that he does when he’s anxious or not getting his way. 

People in the waiting room were laughing when I was talking to him. “Jesse stop that whining. Look you can talk about it all you want but the whining is really annoying.” For some reason he chose that moment to “Talk” and it was like he was back talking me. We became the entertainment in the waiting room.

He’s got a clean bill of health. I’ve got the documentation that he’s had his boosters, so now I can take him to the groomer.

When we got home he was tired, I also noticed his head seemed a little warmer than usual. I think the booster they gave him may have made him feel a little punky. He napped the rest of the afternoon and wasn’t interested in his usual sunset ritual. He tends to want to be outside on the deck to watch the sun set and I guess he’s keeping an eye on the critters.

Last night he was curled up on the couch next to me with his head on my thigh. He wasn’t interested in rope, or ball, or anything other than my scratching his ears every once & and while.

Even this morning, he’s not fully himself but I can see him improving since we’ve gotten out of bed.

I know, too much information about the dog.

You know what? The Dog is way more interesting than the Washington D.C. follies!

Have a great day!

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When I was young, and my life was an open book…

I’ve lived a few places. I’ve spent way too much time in California. I ended up in the California town I live in for two reasons. 

1) It was where my love, wanted to live.
2) It was, 30 some odd years ago a compromise. Living here allowed me to stay in California without losing my mind, be able to work. & provide for my love.

In truth way back in the day, I was on my way out of California. I got sidetracked for 30+ years. Oops!

I visited this little town originally because I was gonna get laid and figured it would be a fun diversion for a weekend. Strangely, a relationship bloomed. We dated for 3 or 4 years, then I moved up to this picturesque mountain town.

When I first got here, we had a police substation, the fire department, a general /hardware store, grocery store, several bars, more churches than I thought reasonable for the size of the town, and an odd collection of shops & services.

It was the hardware store that always caught my attention. It reminded me of the general stores of my childhood. There were always older men sitting in front of those stores smoking pipes or cigars discussing the events of the day. 

This hardware store often had similar older men sitting on a bench chatting although they weren’t usually smoking.

At the time, this hardware store sold ammo, and snake rounds. They sold hunting slingshots, a couple brands of arrows, & I think one model of recurve bow.

Wandering around the town in those first few months, I felt at home. I told my love, “This is country enough for me,” and it was.

We built a good life here.

Now that I’m older… Okay much older, I find myself thinking about those older men from my youth sitting and chatting amiably in front of the old country store.

They knew everyone coming & going, the rare stranger to whom they’d provide accurate directions. (It might take a while, if there was a discussion about which landmark was best to turn left or right at.)

Cows grazing.It was quiet at the country store, sometimes the men would sit contemplatively lost in their thoughts, looking out on green fields with cows lowing in the distance.

At the time, I didn’t understand them. Now, I begin to, and wonder if they were looking at the fields, or out over the years of their lives, recollecting and thinking what they’d might have done differently. While appreciating the luck or divine intervention that informed the parts of their lives they’d not change.

I’m not ready for the chair in front of the general store quite yet. I do however want a country store close at hand. It’d be nice if that store had a “guest chair” that I could try on.

My town still has a hardware store that’s a lot like a general store. They no longer have a porch with benches or chairs.

Times have changed, even in this little town. We have homeless people, they’ll create makeshift camps in odd places. They’ll sleep on benches or stairs here just like they do everywhere else in California and perhaps other states as well.

The response is to remove the benches and put gates over vestibules to encourage homeless people, vagrants, and drug addicts to move along. I don’t think this response is a good one. I think a more proactive approach is needed. Unfortunately, I know that my little town will never adopt one.

Over the years, my little town which used to be very conservative, has become a pretty liberal enclave. Now it’s about using the “Approved” names for things. Homeless should now be called “Unhoused” and that sort of thing.

278975855 Arrogance.More power to them!

None of their Neo-progressive crap is of any interest to me at this stage of my life. I’m looking for a country store.

I’m looking towards shedding this California persona I created to blend in. Due to my Southern accent, Californians treated me like a moron when I first got here. Well I was smart enough to see the problem and correct it, you arrogant pricks. Most of the people I dealt with in my career never knew I was from (gasp!) a flyover state in the South… 

I know, scandalous!

Now in the years that I was hoping would be calmer which have turned out to be more contentious than the Vietnam era, I’m longing for a little country store like those I remember from my youth. 

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.