Wordless Wednesday 12-13-23

 

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Me, Myself, and I! 04-19-23

 This first picture is just a pretty picture showing how full the reservoir is with all the rain this winter. Sitting in traffic gave lots of picture taking time!

San Luis Reservoir on CA Hwy 156 - Pacheco Pass.

I was stuck in construction traffic en route to Empty Spools. I get irked at myself when I don't check the direction of the lens and take a picture of myself....

....instead of what I mean to be aiming at, the traffic stopped in front of me.  This was before all these cars narrowed into one lane.   One hour, one mile!  Soooo frustrating.  

Here is another "back facing" shot.  I have not idea what I meant to take.

And this is what I look like asleep, frequently with my glasses on.

Sooo tired tonight.  Will try to do better tomorrow.

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I am going to have another spinal injection tomorrow morning.  My third epidural for sciatica, which started last year about this time.  It has taken a month to get an appointment and this time it is down in Irvine.  Not good that it is for 8:30am check in - right at the high point of traffic which is always stalled on the 55 Fwy.  But I took the first appointment I could get.   I had to go to my primary doctor for a Covid test (negative) and an EKG.  While waiting for the nurse to set up I noticed this fancy, sparkly thing on the counter with the Q-tips and cotton balls and tongue depressors.  What was that doing in an exam room?  Turns out it is a "room refresher".  I could not smell it, thank the Goddess, but it didn't appear to have an opening for an odor to escape.  Weird.  

There are two new nurses in the office.  I think they are both about 14 years old!  Things have greatly changed in the 30 years I have been going to this office.  The new doctor is Uzma Ahmed and I think she is about 25!  I'm feeling really old (and cranky) these days.

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Traveling 06-27-21

Today was another face-to-face meeting of the art quilt group and I made a weekend of it.  I dropped KoKo with his kind keepers, Cherie and Jim, and drove down Saturday morning.  With one thing and another I didn't leave until 10:30am and the traffic was horrible.  The drive was three hours and twenty minutes, instead of the average two hours.  We just crept along and crept along - I rarely got up to 30 miles an hour.  VERY difficult.  And when I arrive at Visions Art Museum I discovered that they close on Saturday at 2pm.  I had about 20 minutes to look at the exhibits.  Not enough time, but I'm glad I was able to see them in-the-fabric (instead of online).  Showing until July 3rd are "Deed Not Words", quilts about woman's struggles; a one woman exhibit of Jill Kerttula's amazing photographic quilts; and a small showing of cyanotype pieces by Hillary Waters Fayle.  So little time and I took no photos.  Go see the exhibits before July 3rd..

Cars creeping along beside me, in front of me and behind me.  Grrrrr.

When going so slow there is a bit of time to see the surf in several places along I-5.  This is one where the white line of gentle waves shows just beyond the greenish weeds. 

I met my friend Beth Smith for lunch at Solare, almost next door to VAM.  It was so special to eat there again after at least a year and a half.  And the food was delicious and presented so nicely.  This is Beth's beet salad.  

The curled "towers" are cucumber slices.  

I had the mixed seafood/veggie plate with shrimp and calamari - "Frittura di Pesce all'Italiana".  Not as elegant looking as Beth's salad, but oh-so-good.  No dessert.   But we had a great visit sitting on a bench in the shade beside VAM.  Wonderful weather. 

I stayed with the hostess overnight and we had a lot of inspired show and tell at the art qroup meeting this morning before our box lunches.   We are working on quilts for a special exhibit at PIQF in October.  Hope it works out. 

Traffic wasn't too bad coming home, so I picked up KoKo about 4pm.  After I put most everything away we had a little nap.   It was a lovely weekend, but tiring.  I need to work harder at rebuilding some strength - PTherapy on Wednesday. 

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Ten years ago in the desert 01-04-21

Ten years ago I was in Lake Havasu City with Corky, the poodle I took care of.  His "parents" had a lovely home with a view over the lake and always went out for the holidays.  This time of year the sunsets are amazing, so I have a vast collection of pictures.  How can I decide which to delete?  The moon is just a tiny crescent high in the image.  The lights on the other shore are in California, not much of a settlement over there.  .  

Corky went over the Rainbow Bridge just before Thanksgiving in 2013 and soon after everyone's life changed and eventually the desert house was sold.  Partially because it is a very long five to six hour drive out there from Long Beach where the family lives.  

Most of the drive is on I-40.  Sometimes there are other cars and trains (the light streak across the middle of the image) and, of course, big rigs.  There is a line of five big trucks going around the left curve ahead.

But usually there is not a lot of traffic and the barren desert stretches out on all sides.  Not a route to take without A/C in your vehicle.  I remember driving it in a VW Beetle with all the windows rolled down, gallons of water to drink, and wet towels to drape over our heads and necks.  That must have been about 1965.  Such a trip would surely kill me now!  I luxuriate in A/C, Cruise Control, and recorded books.  But now with Covid I am not going anywhere.  There is a huge surge of the virus in SCalifornia so I am really sticking close to home.  Wish I knew when I could be on the road again!  

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Home from our travels 05-03-20

I was just too tired to post last evening after the drive home from San Juan Bautista.  It was an easy drive with mostly big trucks on the road.  More cars than Tuesday's drive up, but some of them were doing the 100mph drive - whoosh.  There was lots of room for them and other drivers just pulled over, out of the way of the speed demons/  We were all doing 70 to 80, which is pretty standard on I-5 any time traffic will allow. Without the stops it was a 5 hour drive. 

This Elizabeth Busch quilt was on an online auction to support the school her g'boy attends in California.  She had posted about it so, of course, I made a bid.  And I won.  So, now there are three of her pieces in TCQC.  The picture is not very good, although I tried to enhance it.  When the quilt arrives I will photograph it and post it again.  

Caterpillar Hill   Elizabeth Busch - Maine  1991

32.75" X 33.5"

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Placentia to San Juan Bautista, CA 02-19-20

On Feb 1st I drove home from my last trip to San Juan Bautista and there were very few almond trees in bloom.  Today, driving the same route north all the trees are in bloom.  Didn't see many wildflowers, but some uncultivated areas had swaths of tiny yellow flowers growing very low on the ground.  Unfortunately the photos from the moving car did not turn out well.  Traffic was not bad and the trip was just about six hours with two stops, one at a rest stop near Buttonwillow and the other for gas in Santa Nella.  I usually have about 30 miles of gas left when I arrive there so it is prudent to fill up.  And nice to pay $2.099/gal.  

It is nice to be with Mary again, in her lovely new house.  And tomorrow we will go to Back Porch Fabrics in Pacific Grove to hang quilts from the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection.  Lunch is, of course, in order before driving back to SJBautista. 

Always traffic getting anywhere in Orange County.  This is where two freeways slip together and then apart in different directions.  Always lots of trucks.  Dare I drive between these to bemouths?

Over the Grapevine and into the miles of orchards, mostly almonds, blooming wildly.  Notice the tumbleweeds piled against the fence and the white beehives on the right.  Many farmers rent the beehives to fertilize their trees.  

Where there aren't orchards there are pastures which are GREEN now.  The bare area behind the fence posts is a dirt road for farm access. 

 More almonds blooming and another stack of beehives on the right. 

Here is a fallow field that used to have almond trees.  Once the land is prepared another crop will be planted  Maybe more almonds. 

Untilled land with sagebrush and weeds.  I thought that I might be seeing the Sierra in the distance, but looking  closely at the picture, I think it is just the clouds over the Sierra.  

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Wordless Wednesday 01-15-20

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Drive to San Diego today 12-08-19

The Art Stream art quilt group in San Diego met today and I drove down to join them.  It was an easy drive without much traffic - what a surprise!  Rain off and on all day, but not usually very heavy.  Each way was only about an hour and 45 minutes.  It was sort of like driving in the 60s. 

 This is going through Tustin about 8:20am.

I want to give credit to another very common street tree that brightens our autumn here in Southern California.  The Crepe Myrtle trees wait until we have temps under 40F to turn a quite brilliant red.  And they have that lovely peeling bark.

Here is something we haven't seem much of for quite a few years - moss growing in sidewalk cracks! Bless the recent rains, which continue.

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Friday Food 12-06-19

Today the small (only 4 of us) art quilt group I belong to met at The Farmhouse at Roger's Gardens in Newport Beach, CA, for our Christmas lunch.   This is the third year we have met here on the first Friday of December to laugh, talk, eat, exchange gifts, stroll among the wonders for sale, and just have a good time.  

The food is delicious, the service excellent, the surroundings beautiful, and the place was packed with ladies.  Only two male guests that I could see.  

We started out with the Cauliflower steak shared between the four of us. I was so anxious to get my share I didn't take a picture - next year!   We have had this every time we eat there, it is amazing.  

One of us ordered:

Grilled Asian Beef Short Ribs

butter lettuce, green papaya salad, sweet & spicy dipping sauce
(Notice the yoyo garland necklace purchased at SQG November Fest.  Meant to go on a tree it looked great around her neck.  I made it.) 

I ordered:

RG Burger

pancetta, cheddar cheese, butter lettuce, red onion, tomato, brioche bun, house made pickles, house made fries 

(And I brought half of the burger and half of the fries home for dinner)

The other two ladies ordered the special of the day:  

And I didn't write down what was included, thinking I could get it off the menu online, but the specials are not listed there.  I think the fish on the top might be Icelandic cod, but I will have to ask one of the ladies about that.  It is served on a bed of veggies and......

Only two of us saved room for dessert, there are always exciting offerings.  I ordered:

Lemon Mascarpone Cheesecake 
graham cracker crust, berry coulis

The other lady ordered:

Flourless Chocolate Cake 
fresh berries, sweet cream, red wine berry sauce

A lovely day, despite the rain and the terrible traffic - it took me almost twice as long to get home at 2;30 -3:30 then it did to drive down there in the morning. 

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In

In San Diego tonight.  I drove down this afternoon (three hours) to attend the opening of the new exhibits at Visions Art Museum and am spending the night at HIE for a meeting of an art group tomorrow.   The traffic was terrible, as it usually is on a Saturday after noon, but that is what I could do this trip.  As I mosied along I had time to look at the scenery, which is pretty drab this time of year.  And I thought about visitors who think they will have views of the Pacific Ocean as they drive on I-5.  Not so.  The land is fairly flat and the view is of stretches of dried vegetations with an occasional distant glimpse of the ocean.  

Even dried up flower stalks. 

That dark grey line between the dried landscape and the sky is the ocean.

Stuck in traffic (with a dead bug on the windshield) the ocean is visible on the far right. 

More of the same.

This is about the best view toward the middle of Camp Pendleton. 

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A visit to VAM in SDiego 09-03-19

For some unknown reason the drive to San Diego and back was very easy today.  It was about an hour and 45 minutes each way.  A great contrast to the times it has taken three hours on the road - each way.  I went down to have lunch with my friend Beth Smith and to see the exhibits at Visions Art Museum.  They are worth the trip, especially the Carol Larson/Marion Coleman exhibit.  It is a very personal expression of their lives and their art.  

We had our favorite sushi rolls at Ikiru and visited for several hours.  It was 84F in SDiego today, but not so hot at Liberty Station.   However, it was 97F in Placentia and the humidity was about 50%.  Doesn't seem like much to those of you who live with almost 100%, but I am not used to it and it saps my strength.  At 9pm it was still 84F, so KoKo and I had a very short walk tonight.  

This is the lemon roll which has paper thin slices of lemons in the cuts. 

This is my favorite, the Ultimate Crab Roll which is broiled rather than raw. 

All the way north on I-5 I could look at this huge pile of clouds which was centered over the San Bernardino Mountains.  May be what created the humidity. 

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Oh, the silence! 07-19-19

"We are going where?"

I don't think KoKo has ever been on a Road Trip and he is not sure he ever wants to go again.  After all the days of getting ready we were finally ready to go and he gives me this look.  Instead of leaving on Monday as originally planned we left on Tuesday since I couldn't get ready to go.  And then we hit the road and stopped on the 210 east of Pasadena to crawl along for two hours in an enormous traffic jam - a true SigAlert.  Some poor motorcyclist lost his life at Lake Street and all the lanes were closed for a while.  It was blocked for miles.  Our about 6 hour drive turned into more like 9 hours.  NOT a good start. 

We spent the night with friend Mary in San Juan Bautista and Wednesday morning we joined the millions of other people driving north on I-5.  The traffic was very heavy most of the way to the Oregon border with lots of construction to slow us all down.  That night in Ashland, Oregon, at a HIE that accommodates dogs, but it was another nine hours driving and I was too tired to blog.  

Last night were in Vancouver, WA, at a La Quinta, that always takes dogs.  However, it was another nine hour day due to horrendous traffic north on I-5, and an absolute crawl around Portland on the 205.  I even called a friend in Portland and invited her to come over and walk along the car so we could have a visit.  It wouldn't be too much exercise because we were stopped more than we were crawling.   But when at last we were in our motel room I thought I should just post some sort of short note so  you all wouldn't be worrying, not hearing from me all those days.  Then I discovered that I had left my mousie behind in Placentia.  Can't switch back to the keypad without a mouse, too late at night to go out and buy one.  Besides, I was soooooo tired.  

Up and out this morning and slogged through the traffic from Vancouver, WA,, through the Seattle creep and arrive at my friends' house about 2pm, I think.  KoKo was so thrilled to be out of the car and in a real house, he ran through every room and jumped on every one's lap and was "over the moon".  He just made himself at home.  Such a good dog.  

I will be here until Sunday afternoon when I drive to Coupeville on Whidby Island where I have a cabin reservation and then start Sue Benner's dyeing class on Monday.  Meanwhile, KoKo will stay with Mabel and Mac and I'm sure he will be happy and comfortable.  After the class ends on Friday KoKo and I will stay a few days with Mabel and Mac and then head home with sincere hopes that southbound traffic will be easier.  Dream on, I could see the heavy traffic on that side of the highway.  

I will try to blog over the next few days and every night after class.  But no promises, I am feeling my age on this trip and will probably need to go to bed early every night.  I am excited to be in the class and hope I have all the material and equipment I need.  Naturally, as is my ilk, I brought too much of everything, but it is better to bring it than to need it and not have it with me.  Right? 

KoKo sleep with Froggie's support - half in his carrier and half out.  He mostly just sleeps and doesn't give a bean about what is going on outside.  

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To Oceanside for lunch 11-08-18

Oceanside is approximately half way between Placentia and San Diego, so it is a good place to meet my San Diego friends for lunch.   Today we ate at St. Tropez which is located where the old Yellow House restaurant was located.  Traffic was heavy going down, I had ten full stops, but not too bad.  It should be about an hour both ways, but today it was more like an hour and thirty minutes - both ways. 

Going south on I-5 - that thin blue line in the middle of the image is the Pacific Ocean. 

Traffic back up shown in mirror. 

Going north through Camp Pendleton.  The light colored multi-story buildings are there for trainees to learn how to fight in city structures.  

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