Category: Good Things

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December 1st ????

This year has flown by!

Pretty soon it’s going to be snowy again.

I guess it’s not really surprising. Time seems to slip by faster as we get older. (At least I’ve noticed it more.) I’ve had a lot on my mind and been working through a bunch more emotional stuff. With those kinds of distractions it was easy for the time to slip  away.

On the plus side of things, Over the past week or so, I’ve been feeling lighter,  while I’m still unsure about a lot of things I don’t feel as weighted down or crushed as I have for the past year.

This isn’t just because we’re in the “Festive Season”. I haven’t even decided if I’m going to do the tree thing this year or not. It’s just me and the dog and Santa isn’t likely to come down my chimney.

I think there’s been enough time pass that there’s distance between Jerry’s passing and right here, right now. I miss him but it’s not the sharp dagger that it was. 

I make no guarantees about how I’ll feel mid January. But this first year of holidays and seasons changing has been hard. Two more to go and I’ll have survived them all. 

I’m not trying to rush the season, but I feel like making it to mid January is a milestone and somehow after that, I’ll be less burdened or sad. I have no proof that will be the case but it “Feels” that way.

It’s time to bust out the Die Hard Franchise, and Lethal Weapon just because they’re Christmassy I know Bruce Willis would disagree but Die Hard has been such a tradition for years I can’t resist.

It’s getting easier for me to toss things in the trash. It sounds stupid but after spending years worrying if I was throwing something of the other half’s away that was important. I was having a tough time getting over the habit. Nothing of his is important to him anymore, the only important any of it has is that which I assign to it.

I’m noticed I’m happier because the house looks less cluttered. There’s still a long way to go but it’s better and improves my general outlook on life too. 

I’m moving in the direction that I want to go. Whether I keep this place, or pack everything up and move, I’ll still need to be free of tons of useless stuff. Long range, my plan is to clear enough of the garage out that I can move my stuff from a storage facility up here. That will save me some cash monthly, and allow me to sort, sell, or trash stuff I don’t want or need.

If I’m going to move, I want the moving truck to be as small as possible.

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Well yesterday was interesting.

I got up, filled the car with gas and washed it, came home, walked the dog (as best I could given the heavy equipment running incessantly,) ate lunch, showered and played ball with the dog for an hour or so then saddled up and drove to Palm Springs.

I was expecting the grueling stop and go traffic that has become so common every hour of the day or night here. So I left early for an appointment out in PS.

Thing is, traffic wasn’t the usual insanity. In fact it was a pleasure driving. That’s something I haven’t experienced in California for a very long time.

The last time(s) the freeways were this open I can count on one hand. Sept 11, A day without a Mexican, and the height of COVID panic. 

No, Really, I’m not being racist. The organizers called it, “A Day Without a Mexican”. It was a protest organized by an organization that helped illegal aliens and they wanted to make the point about how many Mexicans provided various services such as labor, to the Los Angeles region. The whole thing backfired spectacularly. 

As requested, the Mexican labor force didn’t show up to work. And the freeways were blissfully wide open. No broken down cars or trucks littering the I-10. No gardening equipment was bouncing randomly on the 405 during rush hour. And no one was inconvenienced at all at any of the fast food joints. The whole thing was so noticeable AM and FM radio personalities were saying we needed to have “A Day without a Mexican” on a regular basis.

I think the organization the set the protest up is no longer around. I haven’t heard anything like their rhetoric for a very long time.

Anyhow, I was moving along so well, and the online freeway maps were all showing green, that I dropped into the Apple Store and purchased this nifty little charging stand. It was inexpensive and super neat, ( I wish I’d thought of it!)

If you’ve got an Apple Watch, you’re familiar with the magnetic charging puck you set your watch on to recharge. Apple makes a bigger version for charging iPhones. I’ve had the iPhone charging puck for a few years. The problem with the thing is that it’s not anchored to anything and it’s light enough that if you pick your phone up, the puck stays attached to your phone, so you put stress on the cable, and if you’re in a hurry you’ll pull the phone off the puck and the puck lands on your desk, nightstand, or counter, with a bang. 

In my case the wooden nightstand. The puck has enough weight to ding the top of furniture. Especially if it lands edge on.

IMG 0078The nifty little stand I purchased lets you snap the Apple charging puck into it and then holds your phone via the magnetic puck at a nice viewing angle. It also allows you to use a new feature in IOS that turns your iPhone into a very nice bedside clock.

I like that the phone is up off the nightstand, (so I don’t put my water glass on it, mistaking it for a coaster in the middle of the night,) and I found a clock face on my phone that is nostalgic. This particular face is reminiscent of an old Sunbeam electric alarm clock in my parents room when I was a child. My mom kept that bedside alarm clock until the grinding of the gears kept her up at night. Yeah, we’re talking analog, with a gear train and it was always warm to the touch due to the a/c motor and neon lamp inside.

Goofy as it sounds, seeing that face in the night makes me feel like “I’ve Arrived…”

Arrived at what, I don’t know. Perhaps the stage where nostalgia puts a smile on my face.

Apple Store purchase completed, I got back on the road to Palm Springs. And I flew! Just being able to drive without dealing with morons blocking the freeway because they were texting, jerking off, smoking dope, or finger banging themselves was bliss! 

I love my car, but I really love my car when I can open it up.

Admittedly, there were a couple of times yesterday when I punched through the inevitable knots of stupidity before those knots fully formed and “solidified”.

I punched through these tiny annoyances at 95MPH. 

FUN!!!!

I wasn’t in a hurry, I was just enjoying the power and smoothness of a machine that I really enjoy. 

The down side to my enthusiasm, is that I arrived at my appointment 30 minutes early. It would have been 45 minutes early, but for the Apple store stop!

After that appointment, I’d planned to meet a friend at one of the bars in the area. The plan was to have a couple of drinks and then wander off in search of food. Whoops! Last weekend was Palm Springs Pride. The weekend before that was Palm Springs Leather Pride. Several of the bars that I like were closed on a Tuesday night due to “Pride” fatigue.

REALLY!!???

Pussies! In my misspent youth I was the energizer fucking bunny! Party Starting Thursday Night go to work Friday Morning, with clothes stashed in the trunk of my car “just in case”, and party right on through the weekend, go to work Monday morning and I was driving all over hells half acre to bars and friends places.

(Honestly, I don’t know how the hell I did it. Oh, right… There was speed involved! Uhhh, well, okay, I retract my earlier “Pussies” comment.)

I met my friend outside the closed bar we were planning to meet in, his dog recognized me after 3.5 – 4 years of not seeing me. My friend recognized me too, which felt amazing since he looked so damn nice and I feel that I’m aging poorly and at an accelerated rate!

We negotiated the bar closures, and several restaurant closures to find ourselves sitting out on a patio having a lovely dinner & drinks. 

We caught up, and enjoyed each other’s company. Then as these things go, it was time to call it a night. My friend had an early morning and I had a long assed drive. 

Fortunately, I was once again able to enter the time warp on the freeway, and got home at a decent hour.

IMG 2933

Jesse was throughly displeased with me.

I think he might have thought he’d been left alone forever. He was outside, it wasn’t too cold, he had food and water, but the house was dark and he might have remembered the events of January. Maybe he thought he’d lost me, I’m not sure.

When I got home, the lights turned on automatically, the garage door opening may have woke him. When I stepped out onto the deck I was greeted with happy zoomies, then several balls were dropped at my feet. 

Then… My dog slut shamed me!

No I hadn’t had sex, but I had been with another dog so for the next 15 minutes every inch of me was sniffed. The look on Jesse’s face was really funny. On the one hand he was glad I was home, on the other hand he’d caught me cheating. Last night, he wasn’t letting me out of his sight. He went so far as to keep grabbing my arm. 

I learned that I don’t like being away from him for extended periods. All told I was gone about 8-9 hours. I missed him. I think we need to start going places together. This is going to be a pain in the ass at first, but I would like for him to be able to be a good traveling companion. I think it will be worth the time and effort.

I need to find some decent seat covers!

I was planning to head out to the grocery store this morning. But as upset as Jesse was last night, maybe I’ll wait to do that until tomorrow. There’s a Petco near the grocery store. That would give me the opportunity to shop for seat covers and a padded harness that wouldn’t hurt him in an accident or hard stop if he was secured via a seatbelt.

Now I’m off to make amends by sharing my breakfast.

Have a great day.

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There are times…

IMG 2882When I’m very thankful for the Dog.

Sometimes, he’s an absolute pain in my ass!  Other times, I catch a glimpse of the world through his eyes and see beauty.

This morning was one of those mornings.

I did laundry yesterday. As part of that process I changed the bedsheets from the summer lightweight cotton to the winter flannel. 

It’s been cold enough here at night that I have run the heater a few times. I hate getting up to a house that’s 55°F. 

I was even able to pack the last summer sheet set, into its original package. That was cool.

There’s another chore that I need to do. I’ve got to match up the sheet sets. I think I lost one if not two top sheets back in January. That wouldn’t be bad except that they were from the king size sets, not the queen size sets that I thought they were. It doesn’t matter a lot because when the time comes and I move, I’m getting rid of the king sized bed and going to a queen. At that time I’ll buy new sets for a new life. Hey, I’m trying to put a positive spin on it. But in the mean time… I’ve got mismatched sets of sheets that I need to sort out and dispose of, to minimize confusion and frustration.

Anyhow, flannel sheets in place, I went on with the day doing just usual puttering around. I haven’t been sleeping well and my head has not been “in the game” for much of anything lately. 

Bedtime rolled around and I crawled into a nice warm bed. I’ve recently instituted a moratorium on bedside alarms on Sunday. Meaning, I’ll sleep if possible until something wakes me up or until I wake up naturally. This morning, I woke up completely naturally. The dog was curled up on the foot of the bed and there was silence. I sat up, looked at the phone next to the bed and it was after 8am. Sweet! I slept straight through the night. 

I got up, peed, and by the time I was done the dog was ready to do his morning rounds. I let him out, poured myself a cup of coffee, and pulled on some sweats. After a few minutes enjoying my coffee the dog is at the door. I let him in, he heads for his equivalent of morning coffee.

He’s asking for his morning Greenie. 

I give it to him, he starts to trot toward the back door again. “Fine,” I say, opening the door. He heads out trotting to his usual spot (The spot where Greenies are consumed,)  Then he turns back and sits at the door looking at me. He’s still got the Greenie in his mouth.

Because the behavior is “odd” for him I open the door and step out onto the deck to see if something is wrong. 

The dog starts tossing the Greenie at me then playing keep away. I set my coffee on a nearby outdoor table and engage in the game. He’s wagging his tail and challenging me, we’re having fun.

Then he’s a little too rough picking up the Greenie to toss it at me and bites it in half. Game over! Now it’s time to eat it.

I’m standing out on the deck, the morning chill is being displaced by the sun and I’m struck by how pretty the day is.

In fact it’s a spectacular day. Not too cold, it’s clear and crisp and quiet. That’s one of the things that really strikes me… The silence. 

We’ve been living in a construction zone for most of the Summer. There’s been heavy equipment running from 7am to 4 pm every week day and some weekends. It’s annoying because of the dust.

I haven’t been able to paint the trim or the stairs of the house, and now it’s getting too cold at night to do the painting especially the back stairs and deck because they’re in shadow much of the day.

But the noise is also a factor even when the equipment is at the far end of the wash, the sound reverberates right back up the canyon, and it’s constant. Dumptrucks driving 25 or 30 feet from your front door all day long create a wall of noise that you can’t escape. The dust blowing off their loads, and being kicked up by their passing is quite possibly bad for us.

In the height of Summer we tend to have our windows open, most folks here don’t have air conditioning. So we’ve been living with never ending dust to the point that every morning stepping into the shower I can feel the grit under my feet. I vacuum every day and I simply gave up dusting. What’s the point? I have to rinse every dish or pot before using it, or leave everything in the dish washer. 

But breathing all this dust can’t be good for us. Not to mention the possibility of Valley Fever. The sides of the wash are populated by thousands, if not millions of rodents. Valley Fever comes from rodent poop, it’s usually something a person gets if they’ve been out clearing land and kick up a lot of dust. Folks weed whacking without a mask, or using leaf blowers commonly get it.

IMG 2886It’s not the county workers fault, they’re doing what they’ve been told to do. They get paid by the flood control district and even the supervisors think they’re doing the right thing. Although I contend that had they done what had been done in the 1920’s that lasted 70 to 80 years, everyone would have been better off and the county would have saved a shit ton of money.

Not that the county gives a damn about saving money or using it wisely. I have no reason to believe that the County of San Bernardino will take any more responsibility for health issues they’ve caused in this neighborhood than they will for the private roads they’ve damaged, the environment they’ve destroyed, or the degraded quality of life issues their poorly designed and executed “Flood Control Project” has caused.

As I think about it, enjoying my coffee and the beautiful morning on my back deck. I think that I should probably write a complaint letter to the County describing all of this, I suspect that OSHA would shut this down if the neighborhood was a worksite. But since we’re a neighborhood I doubt there are any regulations. Nonetheless I should get a letter on file so that if I develop some disease caused by breathing granite dust I can point to them as responsible.

In the mean time… I’m going to sit here enjoying my home for the first time in 4 months. I’m glad the dog dragged my ass outside this morning. He’s snoozing in the sun occasionally raising his head to survey the world.

Have a happy Sunday.