Here we are in November. I wasn’t going to blog today…

I’ve got to run a couple of errands. Then it’s back to the house to try to get something done.

Last week I was pretty productive. Then the weekend hit and I haven’t felt like doing a damn thing. It’s getting cold, and for some reason the house feels colder than usual. 

On the plus side, Jesse has taken to sleeping cuddled up next to me. I think he’s worried about his dignity, so when we first go to bed, he’s at the foot of the bed looking out the sliding glass door. Then sometime during the night after I’m asleep he stretches out with his head tucked against my chest. I’ve promised him that I won’t tell other dogs that he sleeps cuddled up next to me.

God forbid that he’d tip his paw about actually liking me!

I’ll admit I like waking up with him next to me.

Both of us slept late today, and we’ve both been sleeping later in general. I’m pretty sure it has to do with the sun. This time of year, the sun doesn’t make it above the mountains to the east until late in the morning. In summer, the sun rises and starts blasting into the bedroom about 5:45 am. This time of year, all you get is an orange band resting on the eastern mountains. It’s very easy to turn off the alarm and just go back to sleep.

IMG 2877The master bedroom never gets direct sunlight from fall through spring.

You can tell time watching the sunlight move up the line made by the wash. The wash itself points almost due north. The shadows cast by the mountains onto the banks of the wash mark the passing of the day. It’s not actually an earthen works sundial but after having been here for so long, I can ballpark the time of day from how much of the wash is in shadow, and which bank, the light is falling on.

I was thinking about the issue of moving. When I had the apartment in San Diego, the bedroom didn’t get light until afternoon. This was a problem because I had to be in bed by 8pm to get up for work at 3am. The room, indeed the whole apartment got, and stayed hot in springtime and summer. The winter sunlight barely hit my apartment so the place was cold as heck. The upshot is that I had to run the heat or air almost all the dang time.

I was thinking about specifications for a new place I’d like to live. I thought perhaps having a master bedroom window facing east would be good. I could wake with the sun, and the room wouldn’t be baking all day so perhaps I wouldn’t have to run the air all the time just to be able to sleep.

I just realized something else. I prefer to have the windows open. I like breezes and the smell of grass, flowers, and rain. This house for example almost always has the windows open in spring and summer. (Unless crazy pants is screaming, or the flood control folks are driving dump trucks, bulldozers, or graders, up and down the street, or the jackass up the road is cutting and grinding metal or running a chain saw at 10PM.)

Still, even with all of those annoyances, we kept the windows open most of the time. The neighbors would open their windows when the other half was practicing harp or piano. Sound carries quite well here. The mountains form a natural amphitheater. It seems too big to be an amphitheater but you’d be impressed at how small sounds echo up and down the canyon.

That suggests that where I go to live should be in a more temperate zone. Northern Florida almost but not quite fits the bill. I think further north might be a better fit for me personally. I have been very surprised at certain friends reactions when I mention that I’m considering or have considered FL.

Almost universally they’re against FL. It’s very strange. When I remind people that I was born and raised in FL until I was 14, the response is, “well you’re different,”

Different from what, I wonder.

Then I remember the continuous hit jobs the media has done on Florida, from the COVID panic to DeSantis running for President. Absolutely nothing Florida does wins the approval of the media. Although, a whole lot of the people of Florida seem pretty damn happy. 

If the media would stop for a minute, get past their bias, and really look at Florida objectively… Well they’d be ashamed of themselves if they had any shame left.

In the media, Floridians are almost universally lambasted as ignorant redneck doofuses. Everyone in Florida drives monster trucks with confederate flags. Everyone is white and racist. (Most of the white people in Miami came from New York… so New Yorkers are racist by that measure…)

It’s gotten to the point that rather than fight it, Florida is having some kind of “Florida Man” festival where it looks like they’re going to lay claim to the caricature the media have created. Knowing Floridians, they’re going to blow the caricature way out of proportion as a huge middle finger to the rest of the country that loves to badmouth the state. I’d also say that many of the Floridians want everyone in the big cities thinking Florida is dangerous, because it keeps the real shitheads from visiting or God forbid moving to Florida.

Florida and Floridians are not what the media says they are. I personally think that Florida is badmouthed all the time simply because Trump lives there. And wherever Trump is ALLOWED to live, must by definition, be simply awful. There’s a whole lot of really weird shit regarding Trump. I’m still blown away by how much venom is spewed his way and how so many people are willing to look the other way when his rights as a person are taken away. There is a lot that is simply wrong on its face.

None of this is why I’m hesitant to move to Florida.

I want four seasons, and occasional snowfall. I want a little more property than most of the Florida homes for sale have around them. Well, at least in my price range… How is it, if Florida is such a shit hole that the home prices have shot through the roof and indeed the availability of homes in the state is constrained? 

Even northern Florida, might be a little too hot for me to be really comfortable with the windows open. As I said, I like having the windows open. That being said, I might still spend a month in Northern Florida before I make a final decision about where I want to live.

It’s got to pass the Jesse test too. He’s probably going to last about as long as I do. I know I don’t have another move in me. Once I get where I’m going, I’m probably going to be there until I die. Not to be all Egyptian about it, but he & I will likely kick off about the same time.

I was thinking about moving someplace based on the governor, or the state legislature but realized that was only temporary. Governors come and go, legislatures change too. I’ve decided that I’ll choose my next home based on the general population. 

It’s people that vote and make a state a good place or a bad place. The majority of California’s people are bordering on socialist / communists and the state reflects that. The majority of Florida’s people are conservative, constitutionalists, obey the law, ain’t nothing free, capitalists, and the state reflects that. I’m way more comfortable with the latter. Having decided that, it’s a matter of degree. 

Where on the scale between Blue (Communist Leaning) California, and say a super RED state like Florida, Wyoming, Montana, or South Dakota do I want to live?

Were It not for the winters in Wyoming, Montana, and South Dakota, (and their house prices,) I’d consider them. Problem is, I just don’t want to do harsh winters. I’m too old to really enjoy them. The snowy winters where I live now are too much. Visiting Wyoming or Montana might be something I’ll plan to do in Spring or Fall.

I don’t know… I’d like to have a destination in mind before I put the house on the market. I think I’ll be spending this Winter, sorting and tossing stuff in preparation for getting out of California.

I’ve gotten to the point where getting rid of stuff doesn’t seem like I’m violating the memories of the other half and our life together. I guess that’s what grieving is about. You have to come to peace with the loss and let the wound heal in its own time. The healing can’t be rushed or forced. You’ll know you’re there when tossing junk your other half just had to have, no longer has an impact on you. When it’s just stuff, you’re nearly there…

I’ve wandered all over the map for a post I never intended to write.

I Promise, I’ll try to do better. But when we move to DST, expect some really wonky posts. 

Time Changes and I do not get along!

Time to get a chorein

HoarderGotta run errands, and then come home to keep sifting through the accumulation of crap.

Yeah, we all accumulate crap, and if it’s allowed to accumulate for 34 years, (Even after a fire…) well there’s a lot! I’ve been at this for 6 months now!

Before anyone gets judgey, I want you all to open that closet that you don’t use much. You know, the one in the spare room that’s the sewing / workout room. That closet that is behind the disused Peloton currently acting as a clothes rack. 

Go on, open it. Now look at the shelf and tell me you don’t have just as much crap as I do! If you don’t have closets that aren’t used much, go to your garage, basement, or your attic, and tell me you’re not accumulating stuff.

Uh huh. 

My place isn’t actually as bad as the photo, but there are times when I feel like it is!

Part of the issue is / has been that we were trying to do the right thing and properly dispose of stuff. Electronics to the E-Waste place, paper and plastic in the recycle bin except the plastic that can’t be recycled, then it’s figuring out what can and can’t go in which bin. Some metals can go in the recycle bin other can’t and to be really honest it’s all a pain in the ass!

So much so that the other half and I would come home tired, hungry, and wouldn’t want to take the 2 minutes to determine what went where. So shit would end up on any flat surface and we’d say we’ll get back to it. Uh NOPE!

Thus began the piles. 

The other half was always busy. There was always the next event to dash off to. I had more time but having to schedule a day to deal with loading the car up with e-waste then sitting in line to dispose of the shit and wondering if I’d destroyed all the data on any storage device is daunting!

All I wanted to do was get rid of some electronics, I don’t want to have the third degree going into the place, I don’t want to have to blow 1/2 of my day screwing around with broken shit that I’m probably disappointed about buying in the first place. Buffalo Technologies, I’m looking right at you!

There is shit in my garage and basement right now, that is almost from another epoch in terms of electronics or computer technology. Why is it there? Because it’s easier to stuff it in the basement or garage than it is to dispose of it properly!

Don’t even get me started on paperwork and bills & statements. I literally found a statement in my other half’s so called, “filing system” that was from 2000.

It was a phone bill from a company that no longer exists, having long since been purchased by a larger conglomerate.

My shredder overheats regularly!

But it’s time to get moving and hopefully get back before the freeway is a mess.

Who am I kidding? The freeway is always a mess and should be renamed to the obstruction way. After all we’re supposed to be fighting mis-information aren’t we…

Have a great day! 

There’s a reason we have voice mail.

There are lots of reasons that might prevent you from answering the phone.

My reasons are that sometime, I’m not in a position to answer your call.  Other times, neither my phone or I recognize the phone number and don’t have the time or desire to listen to some bullshit SPAM call is shitty pigeon English.

I will usually answer if it’s family or close friends. Sometimes if I answer someone’s call and explain that I’m really busy it goes like this.

Me: “I’m really busy right now, is there something you needed immediately? If not, can I call you back in a few?”

Them: “Oh, what are you doing? I called to just chat. Did you hear what Matilda did? I was so cute. When are you going to visit? What’s the weather like there, here its’ been hot and rainy.” And on & on & on & on.

Me: Still up on the ladder, balancing the 40 pound ceiling fan holding the black and white wires connected to the light switch and wondering if I turned this particular circuit off or if I could use it to electrocute myself rather than have to listen to this unnecessary conversation.

Them: “What’s wrong? Why aren’t you talking to me? Are you mad? Did I do something wrong? Are you okay?”

Me: Still looking at those wires that could mean the end of my annoyance, wondering if I’m “Right Enough” with God that I’ll end up somewhere beside Purgatory or Hell… “Well first, I can’t get a word in edgewise, and second as I said I’m very busy right at the moment.”

Them: “Well you don’t have to be snippy about it! All you had to say was you’re busy!”

Me: “I DID and you completely ignored me.”

Click!

Me: Sigh… 


As a rule, and I think everyone pretty much uses this rule, I don’t answer phone calls from unknown numbers.

Voicemail is a great place for those calls to go even if they’re important. If someone has legitimate business with me, then they can leave a voicemail and reasonably expect that I’m going to return the call.

Someone not leaving a voice mail is an immediate BLOCK on their phone number. Clearly they are up to no good and I have no time for them.

I’m surprised that scam calling still exists. You’d think it would go away if no-one was taking their calls.

I’m still applying for jobs and still getting zero responses. I’m considering going to the highest level of call filtering my cellular provider allows. I’d turned off a lot of security measures because I didn’t want to miss a phone call about a job application. Obviously, I needn’t have worried about that one little bit!

With the new voicemail feature on iOS I can read a voice mail as it’s coming in.

I find this amusing because it takes us back to the old days when we’d listen for the person’s voice before we answered the phone attached to our answering machines.

How many answering machines did I have through the years? Honestly I’ve lost count. They tended to break a lot.

There’s one machine that I wish I still had, but it was lost in a fire. That last answering machine had two fantastic messages both stored digitally, not on tape. One was from a hospital ER telling me that my other half had been in an accident, the other was my grandmother screaming into the machine, (because the machine was deaf,) that my Father had shot himself, followed by a ‘click’ as she hung up the phone. 

Yeah she left it there. Just hanging…

So many questions about that statement!

There was another message on tape from many years before, that message was from my Father informing me that my grandfather had died and that he’d been called because folks were trying to reach my mother. (At this point my Father and Mother had been divorced for 30 years?) 

He asked that I give him a call. He also said that he didn’t want me giving my mother this news. He’d handle it as soon as I gave him her number. He told me that he’d be waiting on my call and he was there for me.


All of this is floating through my mind because of a flood of phone calls coming from Orange County. More specifically from Huntington Beach and Cypress.

I think it’s a spoofing ring. The phone numbers appear to be listed to Vietnamese folks all of the numbers are from the same prefix and the first two numbers of the remaining four match. Either these calls originate from the same business (in which case they’d leave a voicemail,) or they’re some kind of scam operation.

Probably the latter.

It just got me thinking about phones, phone ettiequte, and how very different things are now.  Back in the day, you’d call someone leave a message and wait a reasonable length of time to try calling again.

These days, scammers will call, get voicemail, leave no message, hang up and call again & again trying to bust through Do Not Disturb on my phone.

I’ve had bosses do the same thing. There is nothing more annoying than being in a doctor’s office and having your boss or anyone else hammering on your phone. 

There are times when I really do miss land lines!

I miss leaving my home, getting in my car, and being blissfully unaware that anyone was trying to reach me for 8-12 hours a day. 

Yeah, I’m turning up the security! If you change numbers and call me, better leave a voice mail or you’re going to be in the blocked forever pile!