La Jolla Seals and Shores

Jackie and her daughter Jocelyn and Hailey and my other granddaughter Megan went to see the seals at the children's pool in La Jolla. They are so cute. But people in La Jolla want the children's pool returned to the children. The pool was made when a breakwater was built in the early 1930s. The money to build the breakwater was donated by the newspaper heiress Ellen Browning Scripps. There was a natural shallow beach from rocks that partially enclosed the area. The seawall was built over the rocks. This web site tells the story:
http://www.lajollaseals.com/history.html

Jackie drove us there. She parked by the Cove and we asked where the children's pool was from there. About a ten minute walk we were told. So the three girls walking in front, we set off toward the seals. It took us more like 20 minutes to get there then we walked the breakwater to get a really good look at the seals. If the latest court decision stands the seals will be removed and sand dredged out of the pool area to turn it back into a pool instead of a haul out area for the seals. The seals bask in the sun and have their babies there.

I took photos of the seals. The day was overcast.Then we drove into La Jolla to find a place to eat. We ate at a coffee house. I had delicious clam chowder and the girls each had a large slice of pizza. I don't remember what Jackie had. After lunch we drove to the Shores. The girls and I found a place on the beach while Jackie parked the car. The girls walked to the water and got their legs wet, turned around walked back and flopped down on their towels. By the time Jackie got there the girls wanted to leave. I told them that Jackie deserved some time relaxing on the beach after driving around finding a parking place. Here is a link to the photos I took: http://www.dotcombs.net/show/seals1.html

We enjoyed our time at the beach. The sound of the surf is soothing. I wore a hat and I didn't mind too much that the sun was hidden by clouds.

There are a lot of beaches in San Diego. So La Jolla wasn't one we often visited. I didn't know much about the area. I grew up in Lakeside. In the early 1960s I went to San Diego State. Didn't graduate. Lots of reasons for that. One was my family had some problems. When my younger sister decided to go to State my father and stepmom moved into a house in the College area. My father had a swimming pool put in and the house was really nice.

Then I was let go from my job at Liberty Mutual Insurance Company because I was asthmatic. No company could get away with a thing like that now. Anyway I had taken the entrance exam for State...my sister's idea and passed. I had decided not to go to college. I would have stayed at my job. Fortunately the end of my job came just in time for me to apply for college. I only had a few days. So I moved into the new Bixel Street house too. Looking back I don't think that made my sister happy. Going to college was a good thing. We joined a soroity and I made a life long friend there.

Barbara had a boyfriend named Don. I remember Don's sister bringing her little girl to swim in our pool at Bixel Street. Don's sister put a float vest on her and let her jump off the diving board. That little girl would paddle to the edge of the pool, get out, and run back to the diving board to jump off again. She loved it and had a great time.

When my father and stepmom started having marital problems, my stepmom moved out. One day my dad sat my sister and I down and told us that he decided to keep the marriage together and he was moving back to Lakeside with Marlise. He said later that a divorce would have cost him too much money. When they were both old he told me that he was very glad that they stayed together. They really were best friends.

We had to find a new place to live. We found a two bedroom apartment on University Ave. and got two roommates. I shared my room with a girl named Sally.

Barbara and Don broke up before our move to the apartment. My sister went out a lot and I didn't. I was tall and very thin and not very good looking. I also had a lot of problems with self image. One evening when I was alone at the apartment, Don showed up looking for Barb. When I told him she wasn't there he asked me to go down to the beach. Meaning find a bar in the area for drinks. I let him talk me into it. He said it was only as friends and I believed him. Don was shorter than me...Barb had a lot of short boyfriends because she was only 5'1" tall. We were so different. I was tall with blue eyes and thin as a rail, and Barb was short with big brown eyes, pretty with a good figure. Not the same at all. Later we found out that we had different birth fathers.

Anyway after Don and I drank a few beers and talked we seemed to be having a good time. I always was a happy drunk. He drove us to the children's pool at La Jolla. It was dark night and the surf was crashing against the sea wall. We walked out on the seawall and couldn't see anything. I held on to the railing and said that this wasn't a good idea and I wanted to go back. Don wanted to stay there. He picked me up and held me over the railing. I hung on to him for dear life. He seemed to loosen his grip and I really thought he wanted to drop me into the surf. I would have died and I knew it. Finally he pulled me back across the railing and shaken I talked him into going back to our apartment. I guess I let him think I would sleep with him. I did kiss him. When we got home, I tried to say good bye at the door but he came in and sat down on our sofa. I got him a beer and he asked me to sit down next to him. I did sit on the sofa but kept some distance. He asked if anyone was home. I said no. I didn't know our room mate, Sally was sleeping in the bedroom. Don told me to take off my shirt and I said, "No!" When he got it through his head that I wasn't interested he left. I never saw him again.

This whole incident seems harmless enough. Several years later I married E.R. Combs. E.R. worked at Rohr. One day E.R. came home from work and asked me about a boyfriend named Don. I told him that I never had a boyfriend named Don. I never thought about that again for years. E.R. and I had a lot of problems. He was angry at me a lot for no reason. We went through years of that. We had three children and adoped our nephew. In the early 1980s when our marriage was finally to the point of no return E.R. asked me again about Don. This time he told me Don's last name which clicked in my head and I finally remembered who he was.

I remembered that Barb had a boyfriend named Don...not me. It seems that when E.R. told the guys he worked with at Rohr that he had married Dorothy Toston, Don bragged that he slept with me and that I was his girlfriend. All lies. Later I asked Barb about Don an she also never slept with him. Why he lied, I don't know, but the lie caused me a lot of heartache for a lot of years. Now all this is not why E.R. and I broke up. The breakup was more about the fact that something like this could upset E.R. and cause him to make my life miserable. Sometimes I wish I believed in Karma...what comes around goes around. Maybe life would not be all that kind to Don.

So while going to La Jolla Children's Pool to see the seals was fun it did bring back some bad memories.

Waiting for the peacocks

Update on Tuxie. After being gone two weeks she came home. She was on top of our garage building at the back of the property. She walked accross the roof and jumped down on the open door and then down on Elizabeth's old van and then to the ground and walked up to me like she'd never been gone. We worried that she may take off again but has been staying close to the house and sleeping in at night.

Hailey was home most of the week with a cold. She went to school Monday only to have me come and pick her up from the nurses office. She had a slight fever and probably a light case of flu. She went back to school today. There usually isn't a lot of traffic on the roads up here in Eucalyptus Hills. Today a white van at the corner started to back up saw my car and drove on pretty fast. I made the stop and then followed. Around a curve there was an old man with a cane and a black standard poodle on a leash standing in the middle of the road. He totally stopped and waved us ahead. He looked confused. I waited for him to cross. The white van must have whizzed right by him. Probably why he was standing in the road. After he walked passed I stopped next to him and rolled down my window and told him he had a nice dog. He said thank you back. We see many people out walking in the mornings and most of them have dogs. I watch out for them because the roads are narrow and sometimes the dogs and the people too walk out on the pavement.


Dropped off Hailey at school and then I decided to swing past Jack in the Box on the way home for some coffee. At the corner of the building a man on a tall stepladder was replacing the metal flange that edges the roof. Must have been met with a motorhome driving too close. They just take down the damaged piece of metal and replace with a new one from the truck. Must happen a lot.

On the way up the hill I drove back Valle Vista and saw that Valle Vista was blocked off with a detour just past the fire station. That doesn't change my path because I always turn at the fire station to take Pinehurst to Manzanita Road. About half way to Manzanita two peacocks were crossing the road. I totally stopped. They stopped too and turned back the way they came. So I waited. Then when they finally got off the road I saw that another vehicle was coming up behind me. I took off for home.


I bought a Garmin GPS and when checking it out found that the little voice can't say Valle Vista. Old timers here pronounce it Val Vista. Newer folks say Valley Vista. I sure don't know what that little voice says but it is not an understandable utterance.


I got the GPS because we plan to take a trip up to Washington state and it will be so much easier finding where we want to go than a road map. It has been fourty years since I've been up there. E.R. has made several trips up over the years. As a child we went up there many summers with our mom. Her family is all from there. E.R. has a lot of family there too though they were from Kentucky originally.


My cousin Valerie and I have kept in touch all these years and haven't seen her since she made a trip down here in the mid ninties to stay with my sister. We talk on the phone often though.

My photoshopping board is having another challenge. This one is turning out quite interesting. We have two photos of Hailey that I posted and we are changing and editing the photos. So far some really nice work. For the photo sections the theme is pets or animals.

I've cut down on the spam bots registering on my board by banning most of the free email servers. That has helped a lot. Most people have an isp address that they can join up from. If they don't I will help them get on the board. Spam bots suck and it is surprising how many free email servers let the spam bots use their servers to sign up on forums and boards. Hotmail and gmail are two that a person would think would have some screening to prevent the spam bots from signing up.

Things Change

Our cat Tuxie is missing. She took off a week ago Saturday. She has been seen twice but wouldn't come when called. So we will just have to wait and see if she ever comes back.

It looks like we will have to pay for our wonderful spring while much of the country was still having storms and snow. Now we are having 100 plus days and it looks like a long hot summer on the way. The only nice time is evening when it starts to cool off. It is nice sitting outside then.

I can remember what summer was like when I was growing up. No air conditioning. San Diego would still have been built up along the coast, but inland where we are would never have developed like it has without air conditioning. It would be a different world. I liked it like it used to be. We had to drive to El Cajon to go to stores. Lakeside did have a store grandly called a department store but it had old stuff to buy and sometimes we had to blow off the dust. Everything smelled old.

My mother built a concrete brick house on the foundation when I was in high school. It had tiled floors...no carpets. I remember laying on that concrete floor for coolness with a cold wash rag on my forehead. We grew up in the little concrete block house next door. The old foundation was poured first and then left for lack of money.

My last stepfather got the place when my mother died and then later when he died his current wife got it. By then they had borrowed money on it to buy a new place. She called me and told me a sad story about her financial condition. That was years and years after my mother died and I couldn't talk to her. I think she was worried that I would put in a claim on the estate or something. I hadn't talked to her in all those years or my stepfather either.

Things change. One day someone is part of your family and then they are not.

My forum for Photoshoppers is getting a lot of fake members...ones that sign up with a robot. They call them spam bots but they are not the e-mail type bots. The join forums and then post ads. Some are innocent enough but then there are the drug pushers...Viagra and such and the porn pushers. I've fixed my forum so new members have to be activated by me. That has stopped the posts but not the fake members signing up. Yesterday I had a legitimate site sign up for my forum using a bot. What is with that. I looked up their site and filled out a mail form and told them what I thought of them. Maybe they will get the message. I can't believe that legitimate sites would use spam bots in that way. What is the matter with them. It sure doesn't make for good will.

Another Week Gone By

Moved my computer into my room, and E.R. has his set up in the dining room where mine used to be. His new computer is really nice and fast. He is happy with it and can play games on MSN like Spades.



The new challenge on my Photoshopping Board is going pretty well. Some really nice entries. I haven't done anything yet and may not...we will see.



Our weather that was so nice the last few weeks has been cloudy and cool. It is the marine layer that comes in from the ocean. They call it May Gray...in June they call it June Gloom. We seem to have weeks of it every spring. We did have rain a few days ago too. It got very wet but no one would call it rain unless they lived here. My cats stayed in that day...all day.

Photoshopping Board

We had a great flower challenge. Many pretty pictures. I made a page for the winners though so far only one person has done an acceptance speech. And it wasn't me. I need to do one. Joanne won twice. She does such nice work. I was happy with the way it came out. NIK did the voting form and counted up the votes. Also very happy to have won for a pure photo of an apple blossom.

The spammers have caught up with the board again. The board is fixed now so that I have to approve membership before they can post. Hopefully I will continue to recognize the spammers and delete them before they ever post anything. It is lots easier that way...still I have to go to the trouble of zapping them. One spammer rejoined after I deleted him the first time. Just didn't get the message! Even when they know they can't ever post they think that just getting their web page or message in the member list is doing something. If this wasn't my board I would seldom look at the member list. I don't think anyone else does either.


A few more members from Janee's board have joined and I've a few new people too.

The new May challenge starts tomorrow. I've already put up the page for it. It should be a fun challenge too.

I finally got E.R. a computer so that I can have this one to myself. In case anyone doesn't know about my bad temper...last year he was complaining to me about his computer and our grandson Cody using it like it was my fault and that I should do something about it. The computer was hanging up from all the programs and stuff like My Space and too much being open at once. It might have gotten a virus. I reinstalled the operating system and it seemed fine for awhile. Then Cody got back on it and all the problems started over. Finally it just got on my nerves and since I had bought the darn thing to start with I threw it out the door and ruined it. I warned E.R. that I was going to toss out the computer and he said to go ahead. I really don't think he thought I would really do it.

Anyway I need to get the new computer set up so I can put mine somewhere else. I wanted to get the voting and the new challenge started before I move everything. It might take me a day or so to get back online.

Thursday again!

Last evening we went to Barona for the buffet. We took Hailey and her friend Jennifer and Cody too. The prime rib was so good. I love the buffet but never think I can eat enough to get my money's worth. I didn't have seconds and no dessert either. Cody was good company. The only thing I don't like about the place is having to walk through the smoky casino. Now that all the laws prevent smoking in public places it seems strange to be in a place that lets people smoke. I rather love the no smoking laws. I grew up in a home that was often blue with smoke. My having asthma didn't stop my mom from smoking or anyone that came to visit. She kept the house pin neat and clean so that the dust wouldn't make me sick. Yet everyone smoked.

Hailey's Show Choir class is serving dessert tonight at her school. Saturday they are in the Lakeside Rodeo parade. Back in the late 1930s my mother and three other girls led the parade one year. My father tried bull riding but decided he wasn't cut out for rodeo when he landed with his face in the dirt. As far as I know the rodeo wasn't held during the war and only returned in the late 1940s. We plan to go to the rodeo Saturday afternoon. I haven't been to a rodeo in years.

Lakeside used to have a built in rodeo grounds with white wooden fences and a look of permanence. In the early 1960s the freeway was built through there and then the rodeo was gone for a while. The freeway stops not far after the old location and was never built any longer. Wonder why they couldn't have quit building sooner? Now the rodeo grounds is on leased property from the highschool, and it is mostly pipe corral. It never seems the same to me and it has been over forty years. Elizabeth and I went there to see Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson when they toured as the Highwaymen some years ago. It was a really good show.

Thursday and Friday

Thursday is a day for thinking about all the things I planned to do this week and haven't. It is not the end of the week and still it is too close to the end. Where the freshness of a new week starting has worn off...a sort of nothing day. The sky out is clear and it looks like a bright sunny day about to begin even if it is Thursday. People who live paycheck to paycheck are out of money on Thursdays. Thursday means one more work day to look forward to until the week end. I'm retired but I have a granddaughter in school so I'm up thinking about waking her up and getting breakfast ready. Then it is the off to school morning drive down the hill. I'm one of those parents that crowd the drop off at the school. There is room for three rows of cars to slide through while watching for children threading their way between the cars.

When I went to that school we road the bus when we were with our mother and then later the times we lived with our father and step mother we walked to school. The school is now a middle school. I went to kindergarten there. That little one room building was behind the main school and was taken down years ago when the original school building was flattened. I was in fifth grade when the building came down and our teacher let us go to the windows and watch it fall. We were in the new building then which is now the old building now. Even that was not the original Lakeside school. The one room school my father went to is down the road and still stands. It is where the district offices are. I'm not sure what it is used for. I know I was actually inside the building back in the nineteen fifties.

Took Hailey to school. That was yesterday and she is back to school today. Last evening was the school's open house. The orchestra and the band played in the auditorium and then the show choir performed. Enjoyed the show except when the orchestra was playing a couple two rows behind me kept yapping...mainly the woman. The louder they played the louder she got. I did turn around and give her a dirty look but it didn't faze her.

Hailey was smiling and looking good during the performance. This is probably the last year that I will be at the school ever. It seems strange that I went to school there so many years in the late 1940s and early 1950s and then drove past the school for so many years and never as much as walked on the grounds. My children didn't go there. It has been Hailey's school for the last three years. I got to see the changes made to the school and buildings. My eighth grand graduation ceremony was on that same stage. Now there are too many students for that and graduations are held out side at the back of the school.

The best part of spring seems to be fading fast here. I know it is cold in the north and places could still have snow falling. Here our spring is almost over. The green hills are turning gold and then they will be brown until next year.

Cooler Days Ahead?

It was over 90 here yesterday and they said a 100 in El Cajon. Hailey spent Saturday night with her friend Haley T. The family went to a play at the school and invited Hailey to go with them. Sunday morning I picked up Hailey and Haley and her little sister Tyler. They spent the day here and then it was back down to Lakeside to take Haley and Tyler home.

A Beautiful Day

ER and I had brunch out on the front patio. I never know what to call that area. It was a small front yard that is enclosed with chainlink. My stepmom, Marlise, tried for years to get a lawn to grow there. The small area was dry and dusty and miserable. So a few years ago we paved the area with sandstone. A homemade job...very uneaven but I love it. There was already a drain put in by my Dad years ago that runs under the carport. Otherwise paving that area would be a disaster waiting to happen. The house is in a low spot. So without that drain the patio would turn into a pond when it rains. I bought two table umbrellas at Home Depot for the Walmart plastic furniture that I had bought. It made a lovely place to sit and watch humming birds. I have a feeder hanging from the small porch overhang at the front door. The only downside is that the umbrellas blow over in strong winds...if I don't get out there quickly and roll them down. After three years the umbrellas needed replacing. Was going to do that this summer but happened to see just what I wanted at Wallmart. Love that store.

There was a tree in the corner of the yard that finally just got too old. Branches were falling so now it is a stump. We planted yucca around the stump so it doesn't hurt me so much to see it.

And of course the fire pit that Elizabeth bought for me at Christmas. The area is perfect.

My Dad got this place back in the late 1960's. He had made a loan to a friend...a second mortgage. The friend defaulted on the first and the loan company was forclosing. That meant my Dad would loose the money he had loaned on the second. So he went to the loan company and took over the first. The house is very old and started out as a two room with a large round rock fireplace. Mostly built with redwood. It was added on to in 1940 and then my Dad made some changes too. They used the back bedroom and changed the front room into one larger room. In the late '70s he built a new master bedroom and bath.

The ceilings are low and since my dad was 6'2" wondered how he liked living here. It was planned to be temporary. He owned a hill off Woodside Ave. and always planned to build a big house up there. After he moved here Marlise didn't want the big house. She liked it here. This place has a special feeling that is hard to describe. He died in 1985.

He liked the look of palm trees and palm lined drives. This property has a long driveway to the road and he planted palms along both sides. The neighbor on one side would like them removed. The neighbor's property is higher than our drive and I think it would make a real mess to remove the trees...and it would ruin the look too. I love those trees. The people that owned his place sold out and moved to AZ. He and his wife bought when property values had hit the high mark. They paid a couple of hundred thousand more than the place is now worth.

The previous owner had gotten permission from my Dad to drive from his back yard down into our driveway. Then after my Dad passed away he built a paved drive way down into ours and built some sort of building there. Marlise, was so mad about that, but she never said anything to him. I made it very plain to him that new owners would not be using my drive. That there was no easement to our drive and that it would be closed off. That didn't make me flavor of the month when the new owner asked me to relent on that and I refused. Though when they wanted to put in an above ground pool in the back corner of their property I let the work men drive up the bank on our side of the fence and even take our fence apart so that they could take all the supplies for the pool in.

After my Dad passed my stepmom lived here until she died in the summer of 2000. I bought the place from the trust. I like living here too. Marlise let the little house in back to ER. We separated in 83. Our son Dave was living with him too. Then two years ago my Daughter came with her two children. Now she is living in the little house. Hailey and I were on our own for so long it seems strange to share a place now. I have my own space and spend a lot of time there. Otherwise I would go nutz. Last year Megan went back to live with her father. So mostly it is just Elizabeth and Cody.

Yesterday I visited Jackie and had lunch there. She has new puppies and so had some puppy time. The big girl puppy is so cute. I could fall in love, but since I lost my dog because ER left the gate open don't want to get another. I will stick with our cats. We have five.

Fluffy was the only one that wasn't fixed. He started catting around, yowling, and pissing on everything. So off to the vet. Over $400! He has been very quiet since and now even lets me pet him. To get him to the vet we had to get him into the carrier. He ran under the furniture and finally Dave and I cornered him and got him secured. I think he knew.

Spring Break is Over

We had a nice Easter weekend. Elizabeth's friend Dennis was here with three of his children. Nice kids. On Friday evening we cooked hotdogs and roasted marshmallows. It was nice having a fire in the fire pit. E.R. brought the marshmallows and he bought a bag of tiny marshmallows. Six year old Carly thought they were wonderful and just for her. She had a great time putting them on the metal roasting sticks. The children were very well behaved. It was nice having the kids making noise and having fun. On Easter Sunday we had dinner and everyone was invited. David didn't sit with us for dinner though. Sunday the children went home to their mom.

Today Hailey is back to school.

Photoshopping

Stayed up to work on an entry for our little challenge on my Photoshopping board. The theme is movie poster. So I worked on an idea but it wouldn't come together and I was interrupted about a million times...so quit. Tonight managed to do something else. It is not too bad but with the talent already entered...don't stand a chance of winning. Still it is fun to do.

I entered some photos in the MyOlympus Group contest and did dreadfully. One entry got a big fat goose egg on votes. I'm just happy to have gotten a few votes on the other two entries. Next month's themes are birds, trees, and minimalist...whatever that is. Trees is unlimited which means photo manipulations. The other two have to be straight forward photos. Only some croping and brightening etc. I might enter this for April. All photos have to be taken with Olympus cameras listed for the group.

We have a pretty happy group on the Photoshopping board. NIK is running the Movie Poster Challenge. I plan to have a flower theme challenge for April. Hopefully that isn't too early for all the northerners still covered in snow.

Our days have been wonderful. I sat out today and watched the humming birds and enjoyed the fresh air. Tomorrow evening we are going to light up the firepit and let the kids burn marshmallows.

Sunny Days

That's what we are having in So Cal. A beautiful spring. Yesterday Janey and I had lunch at a new Thai resturant in Santee. Jackie and I went there on Friday and the food is wonderful. The lady said that they had only been open six months. They don't have much of a lunch crowd but she said the dinner crowd was very good. The resturant is on Mission Gorge Road almost to the 52. It is in an old strip mall that is almost overlooked when driving by. It was worth going again for the wonderful food. Will for sure go there again. I had the cashew nut. It comes with choices of chicken, beef, pork, or shrimp...I had it with the shrimp. YUM!

Elizabeth and Hailey had a spat the other day and Elizabeth wanted an apology from Hailey after Hailey told her that she never liked Elizabeth...just a kid saying that though when upset. So yesterday Elizabeth was taking Dennis' children to the park and Hailey wanted to go too. She decided to apolige to Elizabeth. She asked me if it was all right to call Elizabeth on the phone because she didn't want to make the apology in front of the other kids. So they went to the park and had a good time. All of Hailey's friends are on a school trip to Washington DC and New York. Hailey could have gone but I couldn't talk her into it. She has talked to her friends on their cell phones. Hailey seems pretty cheerful but I think she is a little sad.

ER is home and said his visit with family was pretty good. He was very tired though. Still he went out yesterday to do some tractor work at a neighbor's place. He keeps busy. We also went to Home Depot yesterday morning to get some metal to fix a broken chair. I just had to go through the garden section and I bought a nice cactus. We also got some tomato plants. Growing a few tomatos is about all the gardening E.R. does.

Another Sunny Day in So Cal

A bit hazy today but gorgeous all the same. A white crane flew down near the wood pile this morning. Than another one flew down too. They must be a pair. The first one seemed like it wasn't doing very well swallowing something. I took some photos and the second crane flew away. I didn't get any photos of it flying. Then the first one seemed to recover and it flew away too.



When I put the card in my computer card reader it wouldn't work...the photos still show when the card is in the camera so need to find another card reader and try again.



With Hailey off to school, E.R. still in KY, and David down the road on his bike, I'm in the house by myself. Doesn't happen very often. It seems so quiet here. Well a cat walks through the house once in awhile but then they are very quiet walkers.



E.R. called me and said he would be headed home on Friday. He has been in the snow storms back there. Had to drive several hundred miles on black ice. On the way to IL His brother said he could drive better being he was a truck driver. So E.R. let him take the wheel and they wound up in a ditch waiting for a tow truck. Someone came by and volunterred to pull them out with a chain and E.R. said OK to that. Paul, his brother, thought they were all going to get killed. It worked out fine though and they were back on the road with E.R. driving. E.R. said it was cold in KY but he is having a nice visit back there with his family.

Cats

We have five cats. Tuffy is a big black shorthaired cat. His fur looks like satin. He is a miniture black panther. Tuffy was purchased at a pet store from an animal rescue group. We got him an his sister at a discount because they were all ready five months old and no one had offered for them. It was late August and they don't like to be selling black cats near Halloween. They were both living in the same cage and were both wary of people.

Hailey renamed them Tuffy and Angel. Their birthdate was listed as March 30, 2005. Not too long after their first birthday Angel followed me outside one evening when I was bringing in things from my car, and was never seen again. Tuffy ran back into the house with his fur standing out like a plush toy. We knew Angel must have crossed paths with a coyote. One sometimes comes through our yard at night.

When I bought this house it came with a gray and white cat named Katy. Katy belonged to my stepmom. My stepmom passed away in 2000. Since E.R. was renting her little house and living with our son David, he stayed on and took care of the property for the trust until I bought it from the trust. We took care of Katy for those years until this place was mine to move into from the storage I used to manage. I had dreamed about going to Arizona or New Mexico, but since it is hard to move David I stayed here. I didn't only get the place I got my ex too. It has been interesting.

David met some people down the road that had to move and couldn't take their cats with them. So I said OK we will take them. They came by soon after and handed us two cats, and mama cat and her six month old son. They didn't even tell us their names. The mama cat was friendly and liked to be petted but she growled at Tuffy and Katy. Hailey was told to leave her alone. To let her get used to our place. Didn't listen and got bit on the arm. Trip to doctor and antibiotics for Hailey. I named the mama cat Stormy. Stormy is a short haired silver colored tabby. She fits her name. Stormy settled in and Katy and Stormy ignored eachother. Not Tuffy. He took all that growling personal and the two have disliked eachother ever since. I named Stormy's son Fluffy Boots. Fluffy is fluffy what else and tabby colored. Tuffy and Fluffy don't get along but mostly stay away from eachother.

In the spring of 2006, Stormy went catting around and got PG. On July 5th she had five kittens. Lots of photo ops. We couldn't keep all those kittens. My daughter and her two children Megan and Cody moved here that spring too. Hailey and Megan both wanted a kitten. So we kept two.

We named the fluffy kittens Tuxie and Smokey. Tuxie is black and white and Smokey is an almost black sooty color. Katy was about eighteen or ninteen and one day went to sleep and she was gone. So we now have five cats. After the experience loosing Tuffy's sister Angel we try to get all the cats inside the house every evening. Once in awhile one will refuse to come in. Then we worry.

Sunny Day

Spring is really here. Every thing is growing and green.

I've been fighting off a cold and lots of coughing and Hailey too is not getting over her cold. This must be the cold that doesn't go away. It starts with a very bad sore throat and then feel bad for a couple of days and then the coughing and sneezing. About the time it seems all over it all starts up again with a head ache, aching bones, and sore eyes that feels like the flu but not quite as bad. Then it goes back to feeling like a chest cold. I once was sick the whole month of December and pretty much missed Christmas because of something like this.

Hailey just talked me in to letting her stay home today. I've been making her go to school all week because she has missed so much. This week end we need to buy her some camouflage pants and a black tank top for her dance class. They wore this costume last year but Hailey has outgrown her stuff. Finding camouflage pants for a teenage girl is not that easy to do.

I titled my blog, "What I Think," but so far haven't put much of that in. I've been thinking about the election. Clinton and Obama are truly fighting it out. I know a lot of people like Obama but I'm not exactly sure he would really be good for the country. I thought Hillary would have an easy time getting the Democratic nomination. Not so. Which ever one does get it I think that if the other would agree to run on the same ticket as vice pres they would have a good chance of going all the way. But I wonder if that could happen with the animosity they are showing to each other. And if they did join up would anyone believe in them. Both have a lot more money than Mc Cain. Though it looks like Mc Cain will get the Rebublican nomination. That will make a big difference in how much Mc Cain will have backing him. I'm thinking now that Huckabee will run as vice pres with Mc Cain. It all comes down to women, race, and white America. And who do you trust? We will just have to see what happens.

So much for political thoughts.

Killed My Board

When I started my Photoshopping board I tried very hard to install phpbb3. I downloaded the program and did everything said to do but nothing would work. Finally I found that a program on my brand new server would install phpbb2. It worked and we were up and running. Many old friends from Janee's joined and some new ones too. The only down side was the spam bots that swarmed like the plague. They can actually join a board. Then later come back and post their muck. Most were pill pushers but one was a hard core porn pusher. I did write about all this. Adding a mod to the board was said to help stop the spam bots from joinning a board. Which I was afraid to do in case I messed everything up. One mod changes the place that the generated letters show for visual conformation. It is said bots are now being programmed to over come this.

So I would check the board several times a day and if I saw a strange new member with jumbled letters for a name and strange hobbies for a graphic board...like camping and skiing instead of working with graphic programs and one other sure sign that I don't want to tell...I knew to delete them. Which I did often. That cut way back on unwanted posts. I read up on these spam bots and they will join a board and then come back later and post. That gives the bots time to check their e-mail and log on. It really seems to me that there might be human hands involved in this process.

My phpbb2 board has a warning in red print that says it needs updating. Dumb me! I tried and killed the board. So had to install a new one in a new directory. I did try to recover the old data but my backup was flawed and the board wouldn't install over itself on my web site. These things are tricky. Anyway many of the members have found their way to my new board and so we are again happy campers to have a place to stay connected. The new board still has that red warning print but I'm going to ignore it for now.

The only good thing is a reprieve from the spam bots. They haven't found us yet. I did make an index page for my site with directions to the new board and after the first day I got a brain storm. I put the link in a graphic.

Another trip over to Borrego Springs

Jackie, Jocelyn, Hailey, and I drove over Saturday morning. Then instead of driving out to the desert through Julian we turned left at Santa Ysabel and drove out past Lake Henshaw. We stopped at the Santa Ysabel mission too. I've been passed there many times but have never stopped before. We looked through the little one room museum and at the artifacts and photographs there. Very interesting.

In Borrego we went to the park visitors center first. Hailey wanted a book "Fossil Treasures of the Anza-Borrego Desert." So got that for her. We walked around there for awhile and then we drove up to Coyote Canyon. Good place to see wildflowers. Then we drove back to a really nice resturant and sat on the terrace for lunch. Lunch was great. We had Chinese food and Hailey enjoyed Broccoli Beef and I had lovely Cashew Chicken with steamed rice. We shared our food around. There was too much for just us. Jackie got pork dumplins and Joyceln a noodle soup with lots of chicken and vegetables. So was glad they ate some of ours.

Then we went to a gift shop...what else?...and looked through the rocks and things. Hailey got a bag of polished rocks and a carved stone butterfly pendant. Jocelyn had spilled some of the liquid from the food Jackie had boxed up on her lap and wouldn't get out of the car. So I bought her some silver earrings. Hailey can't wear earrings now because she let her pierced ears heal closed.

Then we decided to head back out of Borrego a different way than we came in. We went out towards Julian. We stopped at a monument to the Butterfield Stage stop. We talked about maybe driving there on another trip sometime.

This was the view of the mountains from the Monument

Before getting to Julian I had to drive up Banner Grade. That is one winding road. Not as narrow as it used to be but still dangerous to speeders. I took it nice and slow. We stopped in Julian but the wind was so cold that we didn't walk around very long. The town was full of tourists as usual.

We enjoyed seeing the wildflowers too but I got better photos on Monday. Still it was a nice trip over and back.

Just the Middle of the Week

Hailey will be back to school today. We are fighting it out though. She did have a cold and I did let her stay home yesterday, but give a little and then she doesn't want to go back. Her cold is gone, and she has already missed too much school. Like I said before when she was in sixth grade I believed her too much when she said she didn't feel well. She missed so many days the school was ready to turn me over to the sheriff's department. They threatened me with arrest. Even after I kept Hailey from missing any more days the attendance clerk had me scheduled to visit with a deputy. I managed to convince the clerk that I had turned things arround and she could see that Hailey had not missed a single day since. So didn't have to have the meeting with the sheriff deputy. Very scary.

Well that was this morning. Hailey stayed at school and went with her Show Choir class to perform in La Mesa. She still felt under the weather and was coughing when I picked her up from school. I feel really bad about it all. She pretended so much it is hard for me to tell when she is really sick or not.

E.R. and his brother Paul stopped by for a little while before they left to stay over night at Barona. After the races in Las Vegas E.R. is going to drive Paul back to IL.

There used to be a small stock car race track in El Cajon. It was near the airport. In the beginning it was a dirt track and my Dad was the contractor for the original grading. It was one of his first jobs as a grading contractor. The race track was on a long lease from the city of El Cajon and the city was really sorry they had ever leased the land. Over the years the track was paved. Most races were on Saturday evenings and only during the racing season...spring to fall. Then houses were built on the hills. People were not happy about the noise from the track. So all the races had to be over early. The owners would not give up the lease so the track stayed. E.R. used to like to go to the races on Saturday night. On the Fourth of July every year the track had a really good fireworks display. We used to drive over and find a place to park along the road...one year we parked in the parking lot. That year I got some nice fire works photos. Once, Hank Williams Jr. played there though it wasn't a very good place for a concert. Some of the drivers that got their start at Cajon Speedway went on to Nascar racing. The lease was up in 2004. A couple of years before that the owner was shot and killed at his front door by robbers. The killers were caught tried and sent to prison. I have always wondered how some people can think it is all right to harm others and throw their own lives away too. Now the track is gone. Things change.

I've been working on my photos from our quick trip to Borrego on Monday. Will post some tomorrow. Some came out pretty good and I managed to get some flowers I haven't photographed before. I got my CF cards mixed up and thought I had lost all my photos from Monday. It was a sinking feeling when I put the card in the reader and nothing! I found the missing CF card on the floor of my car...but not until after I spent the rest of Monday and part of Tuesday being pretty depressed about it. I've been looking through the book I bought Monday to identify some of the flowers in my photos. I like to shoot raw and that gives a large file size. Which can be a really good thing. In one of my photos a flower was sitting there near the one I was focusing on and it was so different. I'm sure I've never seen that one before. With a big file size it is easy to make a nice size photo out of a small part of the bigger picture.

Borrego Springs

Sunday morning I had breakfast with Sarah from Hemet and her daughter. They were down to spend the weekend at Barona. We planned to take photos around Lakeside but the weather was rainy with low clouds and was totally miserable. Still we had a lovely time talking.

My father used to own property in Hemet and my mother and stepfather at the time, Don Lease, took us past their place to visit on our way to Washington state. My Dad and stepmom lived in a small trailer in the middle of farmland. There was lots of empty space there in 1949. My dad was growing watermellons and also working as a heavy equipment operator.


My stepfather had a job at Hanford and we were going to get a house in Richland Washington. Don had a coupe and he made a place behind the seat for Barb and I to ride. There was no place for us to put our feet down. We pulled a rented trailer with Mama's stuff in it. Don wasn't happy that Mama had agreed to visit my Dad. Then they had a time finding the place. We didn't visit very long. Don drove us up Hwy 395 and since it was March it was cold. We stayed one night at a motel. When we got into Northern California it was snowing. Somewhere Don and Mama stopped and shipped our things and turned in the rented trailer. That took awhile to arrange and the lost time upset Don. We drove through Oregon in the night. It was slow going. Don kept having to stop to wipe the snow off the windshield. Mama kept wanting to find a motel and just stop. Finally in the very early morning before day light we came to the Columbia River and the ferry was not going to open for hours and Mama was angry because Don didn't get us that motel room. So we sat in the cold car waiting for the ferry listening to Mama and Don be mad at each other. My legs and feet cramped up and it was too wet and cold and dark to get out and stretch. I was crying. Then Barb started crying too. Mama made us be quiet.


Hemet doesn't look any thing like it used to look. All the fruit orchids and fields are gone. All Covered with track homes now. Before I left the casino I just had to loose a little money. I seldom play the machines at Barona because I'm not much of a gambler and I usually loose. . . well doesn't everybody? . . . most of the time anyway. So next time Sarah and her daughter are down we will try again on the photo taking. . . and I will stay away from the machines at Barona.


Monday morning E.R. and I drove over to Borrego Springs to see the wildflowers. They are wonderful. First I've never seen the hills around Borrego so green. So there is lots of water. I took lots of photos and will get some posted soon. I will add them to my other wildflower photos from past years. This year saw some flowers we've missed in the past by being just a little to late. The ocotillo isn't blooming yet. That is the way it has always been for me. . . getting over there once or twice during the bloom. There are always some flowers we see every time, but then there are some we only see once. Every year I always wish I lived there.

On the way back we stopped for lunch at Santa Ysabel at the Apple Country Restaurant. They serve pies from the Julian Pie Company. After beef stroganoff for lunch, I had the rhubarb strawberry and E.R. the apple. Yum!

Hailey went to school with a cold and Elizabeth brought her home from the nurse's office. We arranged that before we left for Borrego. In sixth grade, Hailey missed so much school that they threatened me with arrest if I didn't change things. After that unless Hailey has a doctor's note I have to send her to school sick or not and let the nurse send her home. Seems a little hard to me but that's what we do. So even if Hailey says she doesn't feel good I send her off the school.

She stayed home today and is a very crabby girl. I told her if I'd known that was how she would be I would have made her go to school anyway!

Parrots and Other Stuff

Jackie and Jocelyn came over yesterday afternoon. We decided to go out for a late lunch at the Valley House. Hailey always has the grilled cheese sandwich. My stepmom, Marlise, and I used to take Hailey to the Valley House. Hailey was in a high chair back then. Later a booster seat. She used to take the booster seat back to where they kept them as we were leaving. She was so cute. The waitresses always made a fuss over her. We lunched there often. Marlise came by the storage almost every day after my Dad passed away. She was the boss so I could close up the office and go to lunch. After Hailey came we took her with us. Marlise died in the summer of 2000. For a few years we didn’t go back to the Valley House. Then three years ago, I had a birthday party there for Hailey. It was fun.

Elizabeth worked there for a few months after she came out from Colorado. Yesterday was the first time back since Elizabeth quit working there.

After lunch we brought the girls back here. Then Jackie and I drove up to Jackie’s house. She has a young African Grey that she is keeping. Her name is Bug. Jocelyn named her. So Jackie let Bug out of the cage. Bug has not had her wing clipped so she flew around the living room. Jackie’s living room has a very high ceiling. Bug landed on my head. Playing with Bug made me miss Charlie. I had to give Charlie up because of our cats. Charlie got upset and began to bite me. He used to let me pet him and was a very loving bird. Then Fluffy got on the top of his cage and scared the heck out of Charlie. Nothing was the same between Charlie and me after that. Charlie lives back at Jackie’s now. She says he still says things that sound like me. Charlie and I used to talk a lot.

Bug landed on my lead a couple of times. It feIt strange having a parrot walking around on my heard.

Jocelyn got an iPod for Christmas. She couldn’t get it to work. Finally Jackie took it to the Apple store. They checked it out and it seemed all right. The store clerk put a song on it.

Still it wouldn’t work on their computer after they came home. They need a newer version of iTunes and the store had it set for a Mac not a PC with Windows. Jocelyn left the iPod at a neighbors house up the hill so Jackie and I drove up there to get it. Then we came back to my house. I fixed the iPod. It just needed to be reset.

While I was having a good afternoon some scuzz put some very hard core porn photos on my Photoshop board. Yuck! I got rid of them, but one of the members saw them first. I feel bad about that. Seeing porn should be a choice. It shouldn’t be shoved at people that are disgusted by it. I’m going to send bad thoughts to that porn pusher wishing him bad luck, bad times, and a miserable life. Bad Karma for sure!

Clear Skys for a Little While

Woke up to clear skies. Weather says rain tonight and tomorrow. This will be the third storm and since it is supposed to be windy probably the worst. We will just have to wait and see. Was so hoping for clear weather tomorrow.

The desert is in bloom and plan to visit on Monday or Tuesday. The peak of the wildflower season is supposed to last through the first two weeks of March. So am hoping for more than one trip over there. E.R. is going to the auto races in LV next weekend. He is leaving on Wednesday after picking up his brother from the airport. They will stay the night at Barona. Then it is up to LA then to NV and then on to IL for a couple of weeks. So he is not going to be here later for a trip to Borrego.

Yesterday morning I opened the door for my cat Tuffy and he took one look at the rain pouring down and backed up. We lived in Washington state my freshman year of high school...the winter of '55-'56. While we spent many summers up there that was the first winter. I still remember the long rainy weeks. My stepfather at the time was a fireman at Ft. Lewis. He worked 24 and was off 24. My younger sister, Barbara, and I went to school at Fife. Fife was a combined school of elementary, junior, and senior high.

We had first gone up to Milton Washington in the summer of 1954. Bob came down to get us and we drove up the coast route and saw the redwoods. We drove accross the Golden Gate bridge. Bob kept getting lost and it took him awhile to find how to get to it. Bob and Mama were supposed to get married that summer, but they were not getting along. Bob's daughter was there and things were tense. There was a custody hearing and they sent me with Bob and Anita to the court house in Tacoma for it. The judge talked to Anita in his chambers and when he came out he let Anita go with her mother. Bob was upset by that and it meant that he had to pay child support for her too.

My father and stepmother came up to visit us that fall and it was decided that we would come back to California with them. They drove us back in their car. The previous school year we had lived off and on with them. Because my mother was testifying at a family custody and kidnap trial. But that is another story. I graduated from eighth grade at Lakeside. Same school Hailey goes to now. I liked living with my Dad and stepmother. I loved my mother but life was always tense with her. She got angry easily and it was hard.

Mama came for my eighth grade graduation and then we went back on the train to Washington. That trip we went on the ferry across San Francisco Bay to meet the train on the other side. The summer was peaceful when Bob and Mama were not fighting. Weekends when Bob wasn't working, they used to take us to Auburn to stay over at our aunt and uncle's place. Then go out for the evening. Most times they would come back angry. My aunt and uncle fought too. One time we were all sleeping in our cousin's room and heard them arguing. My aunt would say she was going to stand on the train tracks and let a train hit her. Then she slammed doors through the house going out. Pretty soon she slammed the doors coming back and they would yell at each other again. I don't remember how many times they did this before it got quiet. Anyway Mama started letting us stay home while they went to Auburn. We used to hear them come back because they would be arguing. Until we stayed with Daddy and Marlise our bedtime was 7:30 at night. that was much too early but Mama wouldn't change it. Marlise let us stay up later. First eight and then 8:30. Mama wasn't happy about that. When Mama and Bob went out she made us promise to be in bed by 8:30. We used to stay up watching TV and when we heard the car we would run upstairs and pretend to be asleep.

The second day at Fife I had an anxiety attack. I sure didn't know what was happening to me. Someone from the school drove me home and everyone pretended I had the flu. I stayed home the next day and then went back after the weekend. I was fine after that.

My stepfather, Bob Bloomquist, burned himself in a backyard trash fire. This was in the fall of 1955 before Christmas. My mother was cooking fried chicken and it was almost dinner time. Bob came in the house with his shirt all burnt and skin dripping from his arm. Mama didn't drive, but Bob's brother in law was next door. Ralph drove my mother and Bob to the hospital in Auburn. My sister and I waited for them to come home and they didn't. The chicken got cold on the stove. Finally Mama called and told us to go ahead and eat. The chicken was cold and we didn't feel hungry. The next day Barb and I went out to look at where the fire was and saw where Bob had run after he was burned. He ran through the yard until he threw himself down and rolled to put out the fire. He later told us that he had thrown an old paint thinner can into the fire and it had exploded and set his flannel shirt on fire. Back then they didn't sell clothing that was sort of fire protected.

Bob was in the hospital for weeks. Ralph used to drive us over in the evenings to visit Bob at the hospital. Mama didn't work and so money was very tight. I remember the cold storm that was unusual for Western Washington. We had an oil heater in the living room and the pipe under the house froze from water in it. To get things going the pipe had to be heated up. With Bob not there my mother had to crawl under the house and light a rolled up news paper to warm the pipe. She was so scared that she would set the house on fire or blow it up that she made Barb and I stand outside in the back yard in the cold.

We had icicles hanging from the house and a rose bush by the house was covered in them. It was beautiful. Barb and I lived through the days. My Dad sent a small amount of child support and Bob must have gotten some sort of disability. But things were tight. I don't even remember our Christmas. Finally Bob got out of the hospital, but he couldn't pass the physical to go back to work. He had to go in for therapy. Bob and Mama argued a lot.

Bob went to work at Boings for awhile. He still couldn't get back on at Ft. Lewis. Fife had a ninth grade graduation and I wasn't even going to go to it. My teacher drove me home to change into a nice dress and I did go to the graduation. The dress was one I had made in Home Ec class. They were big on all the girls taking Home Ec in high school up there. No family was there. I had it all the year before so it didn't seem important to me. Barb totally missed out on a grade school graduation ceremony.

The next summer wasn't much better. We started school in the fall. That October my Dad and Stepmom flew up to see us. My mother talked them into taking Barb and I back on the plane to San Diego. We had to change planes in LA. Barb and I had put our clothes in two big suitcases. We rolled them up real tight so we could pack everything we had. The next flight was going to Miami with a stop in San Diego. That was back when no flights originated in San Diego. Then they told the San Diego passengers that San Diego was fogged in and that we could pick up our luggage from a cart. Ours wasn't there. My dad got them to stop the Miami flight take off to get our stuff. We came down to San Diego in an old bus. Miserable trip.

We started school at Grossmont. Since I was already in Home Ec they made me stay in it even though at Grossmont it was an elective. The teacher didn't have enough books and she gave me one that belonged to a girl that was moving. Something happened and she came back for awhile. So I had to give the book to her. She moved and took the book. Three years later I had to pay for that book to graduate. The teacher marked me down as having the book. Not fair. I tried to tell them that, but they were not interested and the teacher was not there anymore. My first experience with bureaucracy.

Here I Am Again

Rainy days again. In winter we expect rain. It is good for growing green things...trees and grass and flowers. I am hoping there is a good wildflower season over in the desert this spring and that I get over there to see it. Some flowers are already blooming there. It is all timing. The rain has to be enough and at the right time.

Here everything is green. Our hills are covered in green grass. Lawns are looking shaggy. Tall grass and weeds grow along the roadways. So the rain is needed. It is just that I am used to sunny days and get a little down when it stays gloomy too much.

Hailey had to write some poems for her English class. She needed six poems but only did five. I couldn’t get her to do the last one. It is hard to just sit down and write a poem. Well unless you are a professional poet. What ever that is? I do think she could have done the poem but she just wouldn’t! Stubborn or what! I used to write poems. Over the years I saved some of them. Most went into the trash. Then I put what was left of them on my web pages. I haven’t added to them in years. Just a few poems and that represents over a half century of living! Then Hailey has to write six poems in a couple of weeks.

There are two ways to write a poem. One you just sit down with a pencil and paper and think up something to write about and make yourself do it. If it has to rhyme then you let the rhyming words rhyme in your head and make them into lines that hopefully make some sense. Of course there is more to poetry than rhyming words… or not. There is structure and rhythm.

The other way to write poetry is to let it write itself. The words float around in your head born of some deep feeling that just has to flow out of your brain like water out of a bottle. Some might say wine instead of water. But we are not made of wine, and we are made of water.

So, for ordinary people , writing poetry is not something easily done especially when you are forced to do it. I do think learning to write is important and should be a good positive experience. Everyone has the ability to be creative. But when we force children to be creative we are pushing them too much. They can shut down and start feeling like failures. Creativity should be fun, and exciting. Learning should be fun and exciting. We put so much on our school children it is a wonder we don’t have more problems with them than we do. We are not giving our children a good place to learn or teaching them the skills they need to survive in adult life.

It is three am here and my big black cat is sleeping beside me on the bed. I have this tablet laptop and can write these words with a digital pen. Just like writing a letter. In not a bad typist. I learned to type in school back in the ‘50s. My dad bought me a portable typewriter. My typing speed was never spectacular. I could do sixty words per minute. I also had problems because my little fingers are crooked. I was born with bent little fingers. My mother and her father also had them. Not my children though. Then from my Dad I got slight dyslexia. We could read just fine but writing words and transposing numbers caused us problems. When typing, I have a problem typing i for e and vice versa. My daughter also is slightly dyslexic. She is more so than I am. She can read because we took her to therapy when she was young. My Dad stuttered when he was young and I still do that a little when I’m stressed. My daughter too. She has to sometimes slow herself down. I think the stuttering happens when our brain is thinking faster then we can talk. I used to hate to get called on to talk in class. Most of my teachers were kind enough to not call on me and I didn’t raise my hand either!

Having a typewriter handy all my life was great for when home computers came into daily life. I didn‘t have to take a class in keyboarding when I went back to school in the late 1980s.

So now I’m writing words on my computer screen, and this way a person doesn’t even need to know how to type. I do need half way decent handwriting. This program sort of guesses at the words. I write my name, Dorothy, and sometimes it comes out toothy or slowly or Dowdy or….

Missed the USA 193 Satelite

The news said it would be over head around 7:30 and it was really six thirty. I should have checked the internet. It went right over here and we had a clear sky too. Darn. Today is hazy so hopefully it will clear up and give me another chance to see it. They say it will be shot down sometime next week before it enters our atmosphere.

I've been making Hailey work on her school work to catch up with assignments she didn't turn in. So it is war around here. There is one of those little traveling carnivals in Lakeside. They have one every year and she couldn't go with her friends and that made her mad at me. This is a three day weekend and she is going to get that work done!

There was a shooting in Lakeside the other night. A young man who used to live in Lakeside was back here working for the Carnival. He went to a local bar and then decided to walk to get some food. When he was leaving the fast food place some people in a car shot and killed him. They were not caught. As far as I know there has never been a street shooting like that in Lakeside ever. The victim had warrants so must have made some dealers mad at him. This bad stuff seems to be everywhere. Not that Lakeside was ever the average nice little small town. It was a roudy place in the olden days. Shootings at the Lakeside Hotel. The hotel used to be quite notorious with call girls upstairs, but is now a drug rehab. The Tumbleweed bar was also notorious and was said that pot was sold over the bar. The owners made enough money to open up a better place. The new place is now a Mexican restaurant. The old Tumbleweed is part of the hardware store. Things change.

Some people still get that little back street hotel confused with the original Lakeside Hotel. That was a very large posh place near the lake that people from San Diego used to visit in the late 1800s when the train tracks came to Lakeside. Another story is the original hotel burned down...also not true. The original hotel was torn down in the 1920s or '30s. My great uncle helped with the tearing down. Lakeside is really a beautiful place.

Most of the main street named, Maine Street, has old buildings with the false fronts still visible under the plaster and fixing up that has been done over the years. There is a wonderful white frame church, now owned by the historical society too. Best of all there is a park two blocks from Maine Street with a small lake that is truly special for a small town. A few years back sites around Lakeside and the park were used for filming a TV show called Renegade. I was at the doctor's office one day and the nurses were all talking about seeing Lorenzo Lamas. One scene the show did was a car going into the lake. Though I never saw any of the filming I sure heard all about it.

The old church now the Historical Society.

A view of the lake.

Hailey is going to the carnival with her friends this afternoon. She better get her work finished first though.

Sunshine and Frost

After that middle of the night post...well very early in the morning post...I went back to sleep. Woke up to a blue sky sunny day and frost. My car temp said 41 on the way to Hailey's school. As soon as I got back, got my camera and took some photos of the wood pile...the frost was going fast but still got some frosty pics. The cats had to come out to see what I was doing.

Tuxie standing on a frost covered pallet.

Tuffy acting like a panther in the jungle.
Then it was back inside and some warm oatmeal for breakfast. Yes, I'm still eating oatmeal every morning. If I live as long as my great grandfather...the one who ate oatmeal everyday...I have thirty years ahead of me.

I do some searching on Ancestry.com and last evening found another trace of him in a Washington state ...a census from 1883. His name was Dexter Bryon Clark. I know he was in Arizona in 1880 with his father and half brother. I had thought he went to Washington much later than that. He didn't marry for seven or so more years. He is listed with both his half brother, Ruben, sometimes spelled Reuben, and father, John W Clark, and mother, Susan...though I was always told that was his stepmother and his younger brother's real mother. Susan must have stayed in California while they were in Arizona.

Dexter married a half Native American, named Matilda Greenwood. She died when my grandmother was a baby. Later he married his brother's widow.

Elizabeth called and is going to bring me some coffee when she gets off work. She opens the bar early on Friday mornings, and gets off at 10am.

Pouring Rain

Night before last, I said it was going to rain. The weather report on TV said no rain. We wake up to very light sprinkles and the car radio on the way to Hailey's school said not to worry it would be warm and sunny by afternoon.

By mid morning it was pouring. I went to lunch with Janey. I don't mind driving in the rain and my car was getting a free carwash too. She drove from her house to a little Japanese, Thai, and sushi place in Santee. Same place Jackie and I lunched last week. The food was just as good. Janey and I have been friends since college. Her real name is Marna Jayne. She never let any one call her anything but Janey. Time sure changes our looks darn! Janey has a head of long curly, wavy not fuzzy, curls. Hair that is white now... it used to be red. Was the kind of hair people paid lots of money to the beauty shops to get only her's was natural. She keeps an old drivers license in her wallet, there is a good reason for that, and her old photo made her look like a teenager. Our current license photos are dreadful. So we laughed about that. What else is there to do? When Janey's hair first began to lighten up it turned gold red. Someone once asked her where she bought her wig from.

I used to dye my hair red. I had a streak of white on the top that always looked lighter red. I was asked more than once how I did it. Then they changed the dyes and I couldn't get the color right anymore so I quit dying and let it go natural. In the meantime I went even more silver on top. A lady once asked me how I got my hair to look like that. . . at least she didn't ask me where I got my wig!

After lunch we stopped by Barnes and Noble so I could buy a book on algebra. I need to help Hailey with her math. I bought Algebra for Dummies. There is a Dummies book for everything! It was pouring rain so hard Janey didn't want to leave the store. So we watched the rain a few minutes. Finally we just gave up and took off for the car.

Driving home there was lots of water on the roads. I splashed some pretty good puddles. I remember one rainy day my Dad driving us through puddles while Barbie and I had a great time watching the water splash up from the car tires. My Dad didn't often do stuff like that. Guess that's why I remember it so well.

Elizabeth picked Hailey up from school. We have the counseling appointment in El Cajon Thursdays so Hailey and I were off to El Cajon. The road over there is usually bumper to bumper traffic... pouring rain and the roads have a lot less cars. ... Well unless it is rush hour and then it is totally dangerous out there. Some drivers creep along and others drive like it was sunny day on the race track. On the way up the hill from lunch the car ahead of me came to a dead stop in the road because some old dead palm fronds had fallen on the road.

There is no place like Southern California.

Thinking up these titles is hard to do.

This morning is a little foggy. Here the sun is burning the haze away, but will probably find more fog when I drive Hailey off the hill to school. There is a mouse in my kitchen! It poked its little head around the back of the stove when I was cooking bacon...scared me. I scared it too. Now I am going to have to get rid of it. I have five cats. That means no poison. Glue traps work pretty good as long as I can set them where the cats can't get to them. I hate mouses in the house. This one probably came in in a cat's mouth and got away. We've had live birds, and a live squirrel so it is not too far out to think they would bring in a live mouse. Last spring Tuxie brought in a baby sparrow hawk. We saved it...it was taken to a wild life place in San Diego. The next day we found another baby under a tall palm tree by our driveway...taken off to the same center. I like to think they are big birds flying around the county somewhere.

A few days ago I saved a robbin from Tuxie only to have it fly out of my hands when I got it outside and down into the paws of Stormy. It happened so fast. The robbin flew toward the wall of the house and Stormy jumped straight up paws extended and took the bird in the air, and that was the end. I tried to catch Stormy but she ran off.

On the way down the hill, I told Hailey about the mouse. She said not to tell her that, but I said it was really there. Then she said we should give it a name. Hailey is fourteen now...do kids really ever grow up? Anyway she suggested some names, but I said we should call it Timid. She didn't like that so we settled on Timmy. Then she said what if it is a girl...can't name a girl Timmy. Anyway how do you tell if a mouse is a girl or a boy. She said if they start having lots of baby mouses...I really don't like that idea! So I will be off later to the store for glue traps!

Hailey likes to name the stray cats that come around. They might have real names but we know them as Mystery, Spotty, etc.

Another Beautiful California Day

All the girls from Hailey's party were picked by parents by ten am yesterday, except for Haley T. She stayed until this afternoon. Today was a school holiday so she got to spend one more over night. Yesterday afternoon, Hailey and Haley had a good time on iTunes spending some of Hailey's birthday money on more songs. Haley is a sweet girl. She had a hearing problem as a child so her speech is sometimes difficult to understand. She laughs a lot. She talks a lot too. She goes to a different school than my Hailey so the girls don't see each other that often.

Went to Walmart to shop and there was a clean cut young man outside trying to get signatures for a petition to prevent gay marriages. I Was just reading that California wants to tax same sex couples. Marriage is messy. Some people are lucky and it all works out, but most marriages are miserable. I cannot understand why any one these days would want to get married! Times were different when I was young. I guess I would do it all over again maybe. Then maybe not. Marriage is important for economic security when raising children. That is different now too. Mom's are expected to earn a paycheck and pay support when a marriage with children self destructs.

Marriage is a romantic ideal that is really all about money.

Last night, I woke up about one am. Two cats were taking up the foot of my bed. When I can't sleep I get on the computer or read. I've been checking my board for the spammer. There he was... same spammer or spam bot using a different name... same stupid movie gif saying "Click to see Movie," as if anyone would. Deleted both post and fake member.

I don't worry when I can't sleep, I just find something to do until I get sleepy again. If I have a tired next day I just go to bed early. It all works out. I don't believe in taking sleeping pills.

The two girls were tired out by this afternoon and both took a nap.

Sunday Morning Early

Another Photoshop gradient sky. Bright peach at the horizon to a deep blue green higher up.

Yesterday was a busy day. Hailey had a performance with the Show Choir from her school. The performance was for the Lion's Club and was over in El Cajon. They let us parents in the room to see the performance. We had to stand along the wall.

Then I picked up most of the girls for Hailey's sleepover birthday party. Jennifer is in Show Choir so she came home with us...though we did have to drive her past her house to change and pick up some stuff. Jasmine and Haley T were picked up too. We went through Jack in the Box before coming home. Jocelyn came over and Ashley. I talked to Jackie, Jocelyn's mom for awhile and she said she would be back later and bring me coffee. Figured that by that time I would need it.

The girls were really good. Ashley's little brother and sister were here too. I have a lot of space for kids to run around and so they all had a great time. Also the girls were on the trampoline. Mostly just sitting and talking. I fixed Hailey's iPod to play on my boombox with my iTrip. Some of the other girls brought their iPods so we listened to everyone's favorite songs. The girls arguing over who they like and don't like. E.R. built a fire in my fire pit. Was a Christmas present from my daughter, Elizabeth. So the girls burnt marshmallows. Ashley's little sister, Carley, liked burning those a lot so we kept a good eye on her to keep her safe. Jackie and Jim, Jocelyn's parents, came about dark and we roasted hot dogs. Jackie brought me cinnimon coffee from 7 11. It was a super nice night. Only a little bit cold so we could stay outside and enjoy the evening.

Elizabeth's son Cody stayed too. Cody is a year or so older than the girls. Most of the girls all have crushes on him, except Jasmine...she spent a lot of time texting her boyfriend. Then we had the cake. E.R. had both Hailey's name and Elizabeth's name written on the cake.

Elizabeth's birthday was yesterday. I gave Elizabeth a silver and cubic zerconia neckless from Lenox. It is a pendant of four hearts in a circle and then it pulls apart and mades a line of four hearts. Sterling silver isn't magnetic so there are tiny magnets to keep it together when worn as a pendant. Very pretty.

Candles and singing and then everyone had cake. I think the girls were stuffed. All the girls and Cody talked around the trampoline for awhile. Everyone had a good time. Of course they stayed up late so expect them to sleep in.

Early Morning Spammers

Was up at 4am working on my Photoshopping board. More spam posts from the same source. I activated the authorizing code...so am pretty sure it is a real person and not a spam bot. And I don't think a spam bot would be back so soon...then could be wrong. I read fast and can zap these very quickly. I will just keep doing that until they get tired of it all. We have a little over 20 members so wonder why anyone would take the trouble to even spam us in the first place. Very strange.

The favorite work of this pill pusher is Viagra. I fixed the board so every time that word is used the board will read iamanidiot.

Now am waiting for Hailey to get ready for school. The news says that the way we usually go is blocked with a very bad accident. A big truck hit a power poll. The driver was arrested for being under the influence. So we need to take off a little early.

Maybe be back a little later.

Wednesday Night

Awhile ago I set up a board for us Photoshoppers from Janee's. So we have a few members now mostly the old gang from Janee's.

Then found we had been spammed by some porn pusher. Rats! So had to find out how to delete unwanted members... took me awhile but I did it! Can't understand why these sneaky people try so hard to spam boards like ours. When everyone knows that anyone who wants to see smut can find all they want all by themselves on the web. Now I feel like I have to keep checking the board all the time.

Hailey called from school. She needed to stay over for a make up exam. She is having some problems with her school work and she was getting really good grades last fall.

We had hamburgers for dinner. I fixed mine and took my plate to the table. Then wondered why it tasted so cold. After three bites realized that I had forgotten to add the hamburger to the lettuce and tomato and bun. ER saw and laughed and so did I!

This morning early David called me outside to see the sunrise. I got a couple of pretty nice photos. It was cold. We still have some snow on the mountains twenty miles east of us. I came back in feeling like an ice cube.

I thought this looked like a watercolor painting.

Early Morning

The sky looks like a Photoshop gradiant...from a gray blue green to a pinkish red orange above the dark silhouette of hills. It is cold out so the cats are not ready to escape the house. It is going to be a clear day.

Hailey came home from the nurse's office yesterday. I don't think she is still sick but it is going to be hard to get her back to school. Am going to try again this morning. She is behind in her work and is very stubborn. She missed so much school in 6th grade that she almost didn't go on to 7th. The school was upset with me and threatened to turn us over to the sherrif's office if I didn't turn things around. After that she had to go to school even if sick and only if the nurse sent her home could she miss. Last year she only missed two days. Next year she will be in high school. Things are different here than in most places. We have a very large high school district that covers many smaller seperate elementary districts. When my mama went to high school here there was only one high school...that was Grossmont. By the time I went to high school there were two more added then a fourth. The last year my sister was in high school they had opened a fifth high school here in Lakeside. I have no idea how many schools they have now...more than ten.

A few years ago they wanted to separate the high school district and turn the high schools over to the local elementary districts to run. The problem is money. The areas the district covers has some places that are very well off and other places a lot less valuable. So the elementary districts wouldn't all have the same tax money coming in and that would mean some high schools would have a lot more money than they do now and some would have a lot less. So the system we have now is not likely to change over.

Well it is almost time to get Hailey up and moving...

Back again...after some grumbling Hailey is off to school. She says she is going to the nurse and call me to come get her but I told her to stay there! So we will see.

Raising a Teen

Trying this again. Everyone should be asleep...except for me and a cat or two. I did see Fluffy walking through. It rained most of the day. The kitties didn't like that much, and they stayed in.

Yesterday I drove down to the mail boxes and happened to see Tuxie in the neighbors yard. She didn't come in when we called and then later she was making noises outside Hailey's room and scared Hailey. I opened the door and there was Tuxie...she ran inside happy to be home. There is a yard with dogs between us and the place where I saw her. She is taking chances being out so late.

Today Hailey is fourteen years old. I looked at some old photos of her. One shows her in her highchair with chocolate pudding all over her face. It seems such a short time ago she was a cute little girl. I never thought I would be raising another child. It has been fun and sometimes frustrating, but never dull. Children make life interesting. Just think in two years she will be driving a car...I don't even want to think about that. When her father learned to drive I thought thank goodness that was over with. They don't have driver's ed in the high schools here anymore. If someone under 18 wants a driver's license they have to pay to take a class. Once they are 18 they can just take the tests and get a license to drive. Wonder what happened? I always thought driver's ed was important...guess it just isn't. They would rather teach algebra which I took and never once used than something as important as how to drive which most of us need to learn...just think about all those young drivers out there that didn't have to take driver's ed...and I was trying to not be too scared of other drivers on the freeways.

Hailey didn't get to have her friends over...her cold seemed to just hang on. Guess there is a bad one making the rounds. So next week we will have the sleepover. She did get an iPod and fifty dollars to spend on iTunes. After all what good in an iPod without the music. She surprised me and downloaded 50 songs. All in all she had a happy day and she gets another cake in a week too.

If anyone has ever looked at my pages they see I'm a country music fan. I've got music that goes back years and years. When CD players came out I started replacing my records. Vinyl just didn't sound very good. And yes we did have some eight track tapes. They sure didn't last very long. Now I've gone from old 78s my mama had to to 45s and lots and lots of LPs with some tape thrown in and then CDs and now an iPod...can buy music on line so no more CDs. Back in the 1980s I took all my records to a used record store and sold them for about a buck apiece. Some they wouldn't buy. I'm keeping my CDs...at least they don't take up the room my LPs did.

I once had a 78 of Elvis singing Heartbreak Hotel. It got broken...that was the bad thing about those. Very breakable. Anyway I would have kept that! And still I have the Elvis 45s I bought when I was a teen.

Some people are happy about the Super Bowl. I guess a few of us in San Diego enjoyed seeing the team that beat the Chargers get the same back. My daughter had a bet on the Giants so she is a happy camper.

Friday Jackie and I went to a Thai and Sushi resturant in Santee. Very nice people and the food was good though we didn't have any sushi.