I’m tired of the constant, relentless wind; if it were a gentle breeze, I might be able to tolerate it, but it’s been continual high winds with gusts between 20-70 mph for the past month.
I don’t go outside in the wind as it peels the skin off my arms and pits my face with sand, leaving a grittiness behind that has to be showered off and calmed with oceans of lotions. My windshields are dangerously pitted and have to be replaced, which is not going to happen until the winds calm down. My plants are so dry they appear to have been blow-torched, but it’s just the ferocity of the desert winds attacking them 24/7.
The wind gives me a tension, a headache, a crabbiness I don’t need in my life. I find myself short-tempered and responding to minor happenings as if they were a much bigger deal. Evidence Mia, who came back from her week away refusing to use the doggy door. She scratches on the glass sliding door and won't come through the doggy door even when I tempt her with a pupparoni stick, one of her favorite “good girl” treats. I began screaming at her to stop it, which didn’t work at all. I’ve tried to ignore her, but that’s as much a challenge as ignoring the metallic dissonance of the hot water heater enclosure that has been rent by the wind and reacts noisily to each and every gust. One night the metal banging and clanging outside the house next door was so overwhelming that I slept in the guest room!
What’s odd is that how strongly the winds blow depends on where in the valley one is. At my house, the winds are ferocious; however, across the highway there can be nary a breath of air moving while I’m battening down the hatches for another onslaught. However, one thing is sure: if it’s time for either world-class tennis or golf, the wind is going to blow wherever the games are being played!
This is the time of the year that I like to open the house and let in the fresh air, but even that pleasure has been curtailed by Mother Nature. If the wind doesn’t stop soon, I’m going to throw caution to the wind and indulge in another chocolate chip cookie binge! It won’t make the winds die down, but it might lessen my reaction to it.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Woodja Believe It?
Yesterday was an interesting day as I had another close call at the "Death Corner," an intersection that probably would be safer if no one ever had to use it!
What is it about drivers who have to stop at a T-intersection? They are coming cold onto a very busy thoroughfare--cars that do NOT stop at the same time they do--so they need to be sure it is safe to pull ahead of cars traveling the speed limit: in this case, a posted 55 mph.
Nah, it's more fun to see if you can beat the oncoming traffic onto the road, even when it means that the speeding traffic has to slam on brakes, swerve, and pray that they will live to finish the morning commute. This time, I also put my brights on as I screamed up to his back bumper, hoping to provide the driver with a visual realization that he just pulled in front of a vehicle traveling much faster than he had figured.
Later in the day, I was walking through a parking lot and a balloon fell out of the sky and landed on my head! Really. It plopped onto my head and then fell to the ground in front of me. What are the odds anyone will be hit in the head with the remnant of a celebratory balloon?
Finally, my friend, who insisted on driving to the fast-food restaurant of her choice for our weekly Friday night feast, swerved across a double-lane turning intersection and came very close to side-swiping the car next to us. Fortunately, that driver saw what was coming and avoided the collision. My friend isn't a very good driver, one of those who speeds up, slows down, changes lanes, talks constantly--and screams at other drivers who don't act in accordance with her perception of how they should act.
Needless to say, I'd rather do the driving. That wasn't an option this time, but I'll be more insistent in the future.
On the good news side of life, someone showed up with trucks and trailers and actually began cleaning up the remains of the former next-door neighbor's tenantcy. I saw 3 loads leave the area, but there is more to remove. The man doing the cleaning said the property has gone into foreclosure, so I'm wondering if the other tenants at the back of the property will also have to vacate. That will be too bad as the one man who lives there is nice, quiet, and likes my dog. If I had the funds to purchase and renovate the property, I'd do it.
Finally, I replanted some of the plants that didn't make it through the desert winter. In the process, I uncovered the small black hose used for the drip system, so this morning I'll go out and recover it by reraking the stones. I'm so pleased with how nice the yard continues to look and how easy it is to maintain.
What is it about drivers who have to stop at a T-intersection? They are coming cold onto a very busy thoroughfare--cars that do NOT stop at the same time they do--so they need to be sure it is safe to pull ahead of cars traveling the speed limit: in this case, a posted 55 mph.
Nah, it's more fun to see if you can beat the oncoming traffic onto the road, even when it means that the speeding traffic has to slam on brakes, swerve, and pray that they will live to finish the morning commute. This time, I also put my brights on as I screamed up to his back bumper, hoping to provide the driver with a visual realization that he just pulled in front of a vehicle traveling much faster than he had figured.
Later in the day, I was walking through a parking lot and a balloon fell out of the sky and landed on my head! Really. It plopped onto my head and then fell to the ground in front of me. What are the odds anyone will be hit in the head with the remnant of a celebratory balloon?
Finally, my friend, who insisted on driving to the fast-food restaurant of her choice for our weekly Friday night feast, swerved across a double-lane turning intersection and came very close to side-swiping the car next to us. Fortunately, that driver saw what was coming and avoided the collision. My friend isn't a very good driver, one of those who speeds up, slows down, changes lanes, talks constantly--and screams at other drivers who don't act in accordance with her perception of how they should act.
Needless to say, I'd rather do the driving. That wasn't an option this time, but I'll be more insistent in the future.
On the good news side of life, someone showed up with trucks and trailers and actually began cleaning up the remains of the former next-door neighbor's tenantcy. I saw 3 loads leave the area, but there is more to remove. The man doing the cleaning said the property has gone into foreclosure, so I'm wondering if the other tenants at the back of the property will also have to vacate. That will be too bad as the one man who lives there is nice, quiet, and likes my dog. If I had the funds to purchase and renovate the property, I'd do it.
Finally, I replanted some of the plants that didn't make it through the desert winter. In the process, I uncovered the small black hose used for the drip system, so this morning I'll go out and recover it by reraking the stones. I'm so pleased with how nice the yard continues to look and how easy it is to maintain.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Desert Beauty
Last night, driving up the hill to teach class, I was amazed at the miles of sunny yellow flowers carpeting the desert sand. The wildflowers are profuse this season, the bushes taller than I recall seeing them in years. The lupine is also lush this year, an anomoly in the desert as it requires more humidity than other desert dwellers, but the abundance of rain this year has brought the purple blossoms to full bloom.When the unusual yucca plants bloom, it is a sight to see: the plant itself presents as barren leaves until the huge flowering part appears on a stalk, multiple blossoms covering the stalks until they look like huge ears of corn. Again, I don't recall seeing so many yuccas in bloom in years and years, and it is a wonderous sight to behold.
The desert cacti are flowering, some of them a bright splash of red that is unexpected in the desert landscape. Others have smaller, more delicate blossoms, but it appears as if there is not a cactus not in bloom this year.
Although the desert isn't for everyone, for those of us who share it with Mother Nature, she has done her best to dress up for Spring this year.
PS: I'll take a picture of a yucca ... this weekend.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Spring is Sprung
Spring break this year was spent out of state, visiting with my dotter and g’son. We had some excellent adventures together, making memories to replace some that need to be put away. To wit:
I forced my dotter to bond with me during Enchanted, which we both enjoyed watching together, although dotter chided me for talking too much during the movie. I gleefully plugged in my own headphones for the in-flight movie on the trip home: Enchanted! I enjoyed watching it the 5th time as much as I enjoyed it the first time, and will probably watch it again this summer.
G’son and I went shopping and scored some major book buys, as well as a replacement chiminea for the one that literally fell apart on the outside deck. We added 2 bags of chiminea wood and had the first fire of the season, complete with a bottle of wine and a visit from the neighbor who saw the fire and couldn’t resist joining us.
G’son glommed onto a pair of my hand-knit slippers in my suitcase and sent me an email request for 2 more pairs, one in red and the other in mustard. I’ll work on that this week. He also loved the crocheted washcloths I made to match the kitchen, which was repainted a year ago, so I made him 3 new washcloths for his bathroom. It’s nice that someone enjoys the fruits of my labors so enthusiastically.
We played pirates with the 3-year-old from next door, an exhausting experience for a young sitter and damn near fatal for this worn out g’ma! I also took care of him while his dad helped dotter replace the furniture and reconnect the electronics in the living room, for which she had prepared by tagging all of the cords. I talked him into watching Free Willy, which he loved. He turned the carpeting into the ocean, made a fish tank out of an afghan, and convinced himself that a soccer ball was a huge ocean rock. Even though he didn’t understand the part when the fish tank broke, when Willy jumped the breakwater to freedom, we both cheered!
G’son’s guitar playing is pretty darned good, so I filmed him during practice one day and am sharing the amateur video with both G’pa and Uncle J. There are also some now-current photos of both dotter and g’son that can be printed and hung on the wall. Hint-hint.
Dotter and I repainted the deep red living room, a process that involved spackling the holes, covering the deep red with tinted primer, painting the first coat of the chosen color, and then custom mixing our own version of the chosen color when it turned out to be more yellow than gold. Fortunately, both of us are HGTV enthusiasts, so we added brown to the yellow and achieved the perfect gold we thought we bought in the first place with nary a twinge of worry whether it would work.
We stopped by an Amish furniture store and I bought a stool. It’s going to live in the kitchen, where it appears to serve several functions quite nicely, but when I’m there, it’s MY stool! I also now have a free calendar that features photos from the area, a nice bonus.
We ate chicken for almost every meal, including the special chicken dinner barbequed by the Boy Scouts the day before my departure. When I cut up left-overs, I realized that we had 3 different preparation methods in the storage bags, as well as some Chicken Caesar Salad. The lasagna served one night was a refreshing change of food group, as was the total pig-out dotter and I shared at the Outback the night before I flew back home.
We also talked about the summer adventure g’son and I are planning, making some changes to the original ideas and then drawing up a contract that we both signed. As I explained to him, I’m investing some serious money in airline tickets, rental car, hotels and food, so don’t want the day to arrive and find out that he doesn’t want to go with me after all. He used the camera I bought for our trip to document the living room project, some of it from underneath the piles of stuff moved to the middle of the room, but the movies he took didn’t turn out, so we’ll have to work on that skill.
Dotter’s neighbor cut about 6” off my hair, which feels funny and doesn’t look right (yet), but I’m sure it was necessary and probably looks better than it did before it was cut.
We talked as there was much to talk about this trip. I continue to wish I lived closer, but that isn’t going to happen at this point in time, so we’ll have to continue our conversations via media. It’s important for us to stay connected—and we will do so, one way or another.
And, although one flight was 1/2 hour late arriving at its destination, the connecting flight left 1/2 later than scheduled, so it worked out just fine. My ride was waiting, my bag arrived on time, and I slept in my own bed. Mia came home this morning, spent an hour sprawled across my lap, and then retired to her old, smelly floor pillow, where she is still snoring away the afternoon.
I forced my dotter to bond with me during Enchanted, which we both enjoyed watching together, although dotter chided me for talking too much during the movie. I gleefully plugged in my own headphones for the in-flight movie on the trip home: Enchanted! I enjoyed watching it the 5th time as much as I enjoyed it the first time, and will probably watch it again this summer.
G’son and I went shopping and scored some major book buys, as well as a replacement chiminea for the one that literally fell apart on the outside deck. We added 2 bags of chiminea wood and had the first fire of the season, complete with a bottle of wine and a visit from the neighbor who saw the fire and couldn’t resist joining us.
G’son glommed onto a pair of my hand-knit slippers in my suitcase and sent me an email request for 2 more pairs, one in red and the other in mustard. I’ll work on that this week. He also loved the crocheted washcloths I made to match the kitchen, which was repainted a year ago, so I made him 3 new washcloths for his bathroom. It’s nice that someone enjoys the fruits of my labors so enthusiastically.
We played pirates with the 3-year-old from next door, an exhausting experience for a young sitter and damn near fatal for this worn out g’ma! I also took care of him while his dad helped dotter replace the furniture and reconnect the electronics in the living room, for which she had prepared by tagging all of the cords. I talked him into watching Free Willy, which he loved. He turned the carpeting into the ocean, made a fish tank out of an afghan, and convinced himself that a soccer ball was a huge ocean rock. Even though he didn’t understand the part when the fish tank broke, when Willy jumped the breakwater to freedom, we both cheered!
G’son’s guitar playing is pretty darned good, so I filmed him during practice one day and am sharing the amateur video with both G’pa and Uncle J. There are also some now-current photos of both dotter and g’son that can be printed and hung on the wall. Hint-hint.
Dotter and I repainted the deep red living room, a process that involved spackling the holes, covering the deep red with tinted primer, painting the first coat of the chosen color, and then custom mixing our own version of the chosen color when it turned out to be more yellow than gold. Fortunately, both of us are HGTV enthusiasts, so we added brown to the yellow and achieved the perfect gold we thought we bought in the first place with nary a twinge of worry whether it would work.
We stopped by an Amish furniture store and I bought a stool. It’s going to live in the kitchen, where it appears to serve several functions quite nicely, but when I’m there, it’s MY stool! I also now have a free calendar that features photos from the area, a nice bonus.
We ate chicken for almost every meal, including the special chicken dinner barbequed by the Boy Scouts the day before my departure. When I cut up left-overs, I realized that we had 3 different preparation methods in the storage bags, as well as some Chicken Caesar Salad. The lasagna served one night was a refreshing change of food group, as was the total pig-out dotter and I shared at the Outback the night before I flew back home.
We also talked about the summer adventure g’son and I are planning, making some changes to the original ideas and then drawing up a contract that we both signed. As I explained to him, I’m investing some serious money in airline tickets, rental car, hotels and food, so don’t want the day to arrive and find out that he doesn’t want to go with me after all. He used the camera I bought for our trip to document the living room project, some of it from underneath the piles of stuff moved to the middle of the room, but the movies he took didn’t turn out, so we’ll have to work on that skill.
Dotter’s neighbor cut about 6” off my hair, which feels funny and doesn’t look right (yet), but I’m sure it was necessary and probably looks better than it did before it was cut.
We talked as there was much to talk about this trip. I continue to wish I lived closer, but that isn’t going to happen at this point in time, so we’ll have to continue our conversations via media. It’s important for us to stay connected—and we will do so, one way or another.
And, although one flight was 1/2 hour late arriving at its destination, the connecting flight left 1/2 later than scheduled, so it worked out just fine. My ride was waiting, my bag arrived on time, and I slept in my own bed. Mia came home this morning, spent an hour sprawled across my lap, and then retired to her old, smelly floor pillow, where she is still snoring away the afternoon.
Raising an Alarm
It's alarming to be on the other side of the country and be informed that the home security system is detecting an intruder via the motion sensor.
This was the news not once, not twice, but five times during three successive days of my trip. Of course, there was nothing I could do about the situation and the police were dispatched to secure the scene, but I was concerned that my emergency contact was not called by the alarm company. She would have gone to my home immediately, key in hand, to surveille the situation, and then call me to see what I wanted done.
As a matter of fact, when I called the alarm company to complain that my contact had not been contacted, the rep claimed that there was no emergency contact listed with my information.
"That's strange," I replied. "The last time I was out of town my alarm went off too, and you contacted her that time to resolve the situation." I immediately requested that her name and 2 phone numbers be added to my information and verified that the information is correct. I left instructions to contact me at both phone numbers, then her 2 numbers if there is a next time.
I now have to account for a total of five false alarms, each one of which will cost me a $75 fine payable to the local police department.
I called the alarm company before I flew home yesterday, and the reps showed up this morning to determine what caused the situation. Sure, it cost me a $25 trip fee, but I was vindicated when the technician discovered that the motion sensor was installed incorrectly, which caused the false alarms! I'm sure I'll still have to pay the police department for deploying deputies to my home each time the damned alarm went off, but perhaps they will cut me some slack when I present them with the written documentation that it was an equipment failure?
The only aspect of this situation that concerns me is that the alarm went off at the same time 3 days in a row, 7:30 pm. It did not go off the first 2 days I was gone, but then went off 3 days in a row, and 3 separate times the third day of that sequence. I don't believe in coincidence because it's all too often cause and effect, but I'm stumped to figure out the cause for this series of events.
This was the news not once, not twice, but five times during three successive days of my trip. Of course, there was nothing I could do about the situation and the police were dispatched to secure the scene, but I was concerned that my emergency contact was not called by the alarm company. She would have gone to my home immediately, key in hand, to surveille the situation, and then call me to see what I wanted done.
As a matter of fact, when I called the alarm company to complain that my contact had not been contacted, the rep claimed that there was no emergency contact listed with my information.
"That's strange," I replied. "The last time I was out of town my alarm went off too, and you contacted her that time to resolve the situation." I immediately requested that her name and 2 phone numbers be added to my information and verified that the information is correct. I left instructions to contact me at both phone numbers, then her 2 numbers if there is a next time.
I now have to account for a total of five false alarms, each one of which will cost me a $75 fine payable to the local police department.
I called the alarm company before I flew home yesterday, and the reps showed up this morning to determine what caused the situation. Sure, it cost me a $25 trip fee, but I was vindicated when the technician discovered that the motion sensor was installed incorrectly, which caused the false alarms! I'm sure I'll still have to pay the police department for deploying deputies to my home each time the damned alarm went off, but perhaps they will cut me some slack when I present them with the written documentation that it was an equipment failure?
The only aspect of this situation that concerns me is that the alarm went off at the same time 3 days in a row, 7:30 pm. It did not go off the first 2 days I was gone, but then went off 3 days in a row, and 3 separate times the third day of that sequence. I don't believe in coincidence because it's all too often cause and effect, but I'm stumped to figure out the cause for this series of events.
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