Sunshine Today...Well Some Anyway

The rain seems to be over for a few days. Last weeks rain storm broke some records...though I don't know exactly what...maybe more rain on the date than was recorded for the same date in the past. Anyway everything is turning green. I looked on Google Earth for Eucalyptus Hills and saw that the photos were updated last August. Everything looks so brown. My pool shows up now...the photos from before showed the above ground pool and we took that down in the spring of 09. I posted photos on my blog when we dug out the old in ground pool. It was so much work and not really worth it. My daughter wanted it so bad and this last summer she moved out of the little house so I don't even see her very often. Hailey only swam a few times and I didn't at all. Since my heart attack I'm a little scared to do much of anything...well it is always cold when first getting into the pool. Maybe next year I will feel better about going in the pool...

My birthday is in Novemember and E.R. asked me what I wanted...I said peace and quiet. He said he didn't have enough money to give me that. Living in the same house with someone that is schizophrenic is sometimes very stressful. Dave has been pretty good the last few days after about two weeks of misery. Then there is Hailey's dad living out in the travel trailer with his ho ho. They fight all the time. URF!

I looked through my old photos and found some of my palms. The tallest tree really stands out and now it is gone. Here are a few of the photos. The first one was from about five years ago. I stood in the rain to get the photos of the rainbow over the palms...I had my umbrella tucked under my left arm while I held my camera.

I was up early and saw the palms in the fog and ran to get my camera...didn't know how they would come out but the palms show up pretty good in the photos.

This was a pretty sunset. We seldom see pretty sunsets as there are hills in that direction and most sunsets are below our horizon. I've posted one of these before if it looks familiar.

Today E.R. John and Dave took down the rest of the palm tree. now it is laying in the yard in pieces. I went out and looked at the top the other day and think that the fire probably would not have killed it. The trunk looked very solid even where it was badly burned. I guess it is better to have taken it down than to risk someone's life or property if it fell in a wind storm though.

I look out and don't see it now and still expect it to be there. I think from my photos you can see just how much this palm will be missed by me.

Goodbye

Wrote about my tallest palm hit by lightening. Today it came down. A friend of Hailey's dad climbed the tree. The tree waved back and forth as the climber went higher. The climber went far up above the burned area of the trunk.

He tied a rope to the trunk and the other end of the rope was tied onto our little tractor. Then he began to cut the tree with a small chain saw.

The top of the palm landed just inside our fence.

My drive is lined with palms. The neighbor next to my drive on the other side would like to see them all taken down. I just can't do it. Part because of the expense and part because I love to see them there. Then the neighbor's is at least eight feet higher than my drive and taking out the palms on his side would make a mess out of his bank. He doesn't realize that the trees were there before his house pad was graded and his house built. Taking out the trees and stumps would take the stability away from his side yard.

Liberals, Muslems, and Americans

Liberals feel that we should respect Muslims. We are conflicted over this. Anyone that believes in women's rights should have a difficult time respecting the Muslim religion. In their heart of hearts Muslims have little respect for Christians or Jews. Yet they want the respect they cannot give back. They know that they are right and everyone that is not a Muslim is unclean. I don't know why they choose a location near the ruin of the Twin Towers to build a Mosque unless it is to create controversy. Bottom line they have no respect for the people that died there. I do want peace and for them to have the right to live the way they want...let us do the same. I do not approve of the wars this country has gotten involved in. I felt so bad for the women and girls in Afganastan and at first it may have seemed that we should do something. Still it wasn't our job to fix things. It is not our job to fix the wrongs in this world.

Can we separate the Muslim from his beliefs? Can we respect the person while questioning the religion? Can we expect our people to welcome a Mosque near the Tower site when we know that the principles of that religion brought the towers down? We expect our people to take on the guilt of things gone wrong. In the same way the Muslims should have some respect and understanding when it comes to building their Mosque near the twin tower site. Oh! I forgot they really don't have any respect for us as Americans, or Christians, or Jews, or just as people.

On Whoopie and O'Reilly...they have different ideas about the tower location. I remember when Whoopie defended Vick on his involvement with the pit bull fighting. So what she thinks has no credibility for me. I used to like her.

So while as an American I will respect the right of the Muslim people in this country to have their beliefs and their way of life, I cannot approve of the way they treat their women and girls.

Mission Trails with Jean

A couple of weeks ago we went to Mission Trails Park to walk and take photos. There is a small lake named Kumeyaay after the Native Americans that lived in this area. It is a great place for taking pictures. Was having computer problems and finally today worked them out. I did have my laptop to use but it doesn't have any phtoto editing programs. So now can process my photos. Here are some that I took.

A Bottomless Pit

The state needs money. So the state of Californina is going to sell the Del Mar Fair grounds, among other things. Will this be the end of our county fair? The fair has been held in Del Mar since 1936 though the tradition of our county fair goes back to 1880. The fair grounds were chosen by Arnold because of their value. Much of the value is location. And good management has made the grounds profitable. It doesn't run on tax money.

Still, once the fair grounds become private property will profits from the current use be enough that a buyer can afford the property taxes and fees connected with running a private enterprise, while getting the payment price back in a reasonable time? If not, the location of the land would make it necessary to find a more profitable use for the property. That means development.

If the fair grounds are turned into condos it will break my heart and same for lots of us who remember a lifetime of good times at the fair and the Del Mar races.

Why should we loose our fair so the state can balance their budget? This is just the beginning. What will they sell after they take away all our parks?

 

I'm very glad that I didn't vote for Arnold!!! And I hope this isn't a scam for some people to get their hands on the fair grounds...if it is I hope they spend their old age in prison.

Update: The state is selling the fair grounds and the race track to the city of Del Mar for $120 million. Hopefully this deal will save the fair for future generations.

Another Update: The Del Mar fairgrounds and race track not going to be sold to the city of Del Mar just yet...if ever. Too many people not happy with the deal. Some say price is too low. Yet the state wants taxpayers to pay for what the people already own. The people that run the fairgrounds are angry. They feel left out. But what if the grounds are just sold for condos...won't they be out then anyway?

A little B&C that I posted on Facebook...

I like the heat! Last week we had 100 plus days and everyone complained. Not me. Then Thursday we had the thunder storm from hell and my favorite palm tree was hit by lightening. I saw it happen too...called 911 for the fire department. Then yesterday it got cold enough to hunt up some socks. Now it is raining. Summer really is over. I hate cold feet!

Stormy Day and Other Things

For the last week have been using my laptop. My big computer is sick...it won't load windows though it tries very hard to do so...So right now can not download my photos,..

Thursday we had a big thunder and lightening storm. While I was sitting on my porch watching it all, a bolt of lightening hit my tallest palm tree.  I've taken many photos of that tree but didn't take photos of it on fire. I was too busy trying to get the fire department to come put out the fire and also to convincing my son David to stay out of the yard. Then I had to tell a couple of neighbors to go home. All I need is to see someone actually get hit by lightening,

Anyway I love that tree. E.R. is away on a trip to IL so he will probably take the tree down when he gets back.

Friday a friend Jean and I went to Misson Trails to take photos. Lots of walking and I haven't been doing enough walking these days and I felt it yesterday. I will get some of the photos posted whem I fix my computer problems.

My laptop was sitting unused since before my health problems last January. So was surprised to find my old Scrabble disk in the laptop drive. Spent a lot of time looking for the game disk, but my daughter had re arranged my room while I was in the hospital and packed up a lot of my stuff...

This Scrabble game was hi-tech once. Better than the computer Scrabble game that came before. This one has pretty graphics but has to change the rez to 256 colors to work and it looks dated for sure. But I love it. Sometimes old is better than new.

Windmill House

A third grade friend lived in the Windmill House. That was back in the late 1940s. I was invited to spend the night there by a girl named Kathleen. I remember the house very well. My mother took us to Washington State in March of 1949 and for some reason though we moved back to Lakeside I was never friends with Kathleen again.

I did not see the house again until many years later. In the early 1970s  my children's grade school class went to see the Native American grinding rocks that are on the property. Some of them  are very deep into the rocks.

The house is now surrounded by an RV park. The land was once part of a Mexican land grant and before that it was a Native American village. Los Coches creek crosses the property and there are springs near by. It was quite wonderful all those years ago before it was covered by trailers and RVs. The whole area should have become a real park.

A person can just drive in and see the windmill house. Jackie and I did that yesterday after our lunch at the Italian resturant near there. She was surprised as most people can live around here for years and not know the Windmill House exists. There is a sign that gives some of the history of the house. I had always thought it was much older than it is. It was built in 1925 and the windmill was built to generate electricity. I had always thought it was to pump water. Two of the owners of the house were listed but not my friend's family.



I remember that we had to leave the house and go out to a separate building to go to the bathroom and that seemed scary at night. Kids remember stuff like that.

Bird of Paradise

Taken with my Olympus E3 and an old Minolta Rokkor 50mm lens.



 

Quiet Morning

Up before sunrise this morning. A little piece of quiet to enjoy. School starts on Tuesday and that means a quick trip down the freeway and then a slower trip through a few red lights to her school. Had a cup of coffee in my hand by the time the sun came up in the clear sky. It will be another hot day...yesterday was a 100 plus.

I noticed the bird of paradise beginning to bloom so got the camera.

Looking forward to taking more photos...