(Topic ID: 214879)
You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider pinwiztom.
Click here to go back to viewing the entire thread.
Salem, OR
Quoted from Mopar:That does look nice. That was takin' today?
Yes today
Usually May 1st is the peak of springtime bloomage and trees filling out with leaves.
My white oaks out front are just starting to bud out now.
Highs are mid 60s and lows mid 40s lately
though we did have a small hail storm a week ago
and about an inch of snow that stuck to the ground for 24hrs last month.
1 week later
1 week later
1 week later
3 months later
Mother and her two fawns.
Mom is just heading into the trees with babies following behind.
We live on a fairly busy street in center of town.
2 acres behind us, used to be empty lot with meadow & a few trees .
but now currently has about a dozen townhomes going up, (lots of racket);
so surprized they still found their way into our yard.
Not the best photo but subjects would not co-operate and hold still.
deer and fawn IMG_20200810_095848 (resized).jpg 4 weeks later
These shots were taken this morning at 8AM.
Sunrise was at 6:43AM
Sky is dark due to a series of fires about 30 miles to the NE,
Kinda eerie.
Kinda feels like the total eclipse we had here 2 yrs ago.
20200908_075728 (resized).jpg
20200908_075830 (resized).jpg
Update: The ash is starting to fall. Its 1:30PM but looks like 30 minutes after sunset outside.
Quoted from yzfguy:Are your gutters completely full of leaves?
I have not cleaned out the gutters on the backside of the garage as of yet.
They look more full of leaves than they really are, as I have gutter brushes installed,
basically a long length of a 5in Diameter bottle brush
which allows space for water to flow and drain below inside gutter
the leaves just lay ontop of the brushes.
pasted_image (resized).png
Its after 3:30pm now and its nearly dark outside now
the smoke is so thick in the sky.
Woke up this morning and saw the moon crescent about 6AM,
At 10AM was able to discern the Sun thru the smoke and haze finally.
My front porch look like someone emptied their ashtray,
same for my wifes' Honda CRX (ash covered).
IMG_20200910_105556 (resized).jpg
IMG_20200911_061703 (resized).jpgIMG_20200911_093631 (resized).jpgIMG_20200910_180803 (resized).jpgI was going to go camping in South Central Washington next week; area between Mt St. Helens and Mt Adams,
but the Forest Service has closed all camping and no campfires allowed, so will have to wait until next spring I guess.
Here is a couple photos from out my backyard of a deer and fawn, they seem unfazed by the smoke.
mom and two fawns are in back yard now.
probably the same family group i attempted to take photos of a few weeks ago,
fawns are now without spots.
my wife felt sorry for them with all the smoke and haze from the fires,
so she threw them a couple apples and also brought out a pink plastic tub of fresh water.
IMG_0432 (resized).jpgIMG_0435 (resized).jpg
Quoted from TigerLaw:We are cleaning up the yard today and tomorrow.
Sorry to hear of your damage.
Hope your poodle is doing well.
Look on the bright side, you will not have as many leaves to rake up this fall.
Best of luck and be safe.
1 month later
2 weeks later
3 weeks later
1 week later
1 month later
Found an old thumb drive from back when I was working in Africa (in the oil Field).
Some interesting shots over the years,
thought I would share some of them here over the course of the next few weeks.
Some will have a story behind them
others just an interesting shot.
big gator DCP00430 (resized).jpgcamel (resized).jpg
These sequence of shots, were taken in Mauretania I think during a Locust swarm.
locust cloud (resized).JPG
Locust Cloud
locust swarm turns day to night (resized).JPG
Locust storm turning Day to Night
Locust Lunch locust lunch (resized).jpg
Aftermath after the swarm left
what is left of the hedges at the compound
hedge after visit (resized).JPG
When working in the oil fields of West Africa,
I worked at the CABGOC facility located near Malongo, Cabinda, Angola.
There was some wildlife within the compound of about 10 sq mile,
near the beach for all the offshore work we were doing.
Lots of fruit bats, monkeys, deer, jackals, snakes and all kinds of birds.
No big game, like Lions or elephants, rhinos nor giraffes, etc.
Most of those were destroyed and killed during the Angolan civil war to feed the rebels.
Anyway the compound had a significant amount of feral domestic cats,
I befriended a few, at times feeding them.
Though this time, it looks like a snake decided it needed a snack.
I am surprized, the two other cats in the photo are just looking on intently
as their buddy succumbs.
cats & snakes MVC-004S (resized).JPGHere is another snake photo from Africa, this time maybe biting off more than it can chew.
It was discovered while maintenance people were mowing the tall grass in some of the fields within the compound.
I think the deer (fawn) was already dead but the python perished when the mower ran over the snake.
Deer & python 2small (resized).JPG
Did not mean to piss anyone off. No boasting.
The Python was not purposely killed
as it and the deer were not visible in the tall grass at the time the riding mower was working.
Actually I do not know for sure that the snake is dead,
but that was the story I heard (or maybe pure conjure on my part),
when the photo was sent around at the compound at that time,
some 20 yrs ago, my memory might not be the best.
It ( and previous cat/snake pic) just shows the cycle of life.
I do not cherish cats being eaten by snakes, (I have 10 cats)
nor deer attempting to be eaten by snakes or snakes being kill,
but shit happens and these pics just show real life in africa;
being a lot different than suburban life.
Just thought it to be an interesting and unusual photo.
Following are a few photos taken around spring/summer of 2012
when I was living/working in Aberdeen Scotland for about 2 yrs.
Showing the street I lived on (all the buildings were built of granite from nearby quarry about 130 yrs ago).
Also a view of our back garden (and neighbors back garden).
The little silver car on the street was my car, a Toyota Scion IQ.
It took a while getting use to driving on the wrong side of the road,
but having such a tiny car made parking and driving easier.
IMG_0439 (resized).JPGIMG_0441 (resized).JPGIMG_0442 (resized).JPG
Here in Salem OR we got hit on Friday nite with an ice storm. Tons of large branches and trees fallen all over town. One hit my truck in the driveway and crushed the windshield and hood. Everything was covered with quarter inch of ice. We were without power for 24hrs. No fatalities as far as i know.
56D7A797-8501-4CEA-A427-5E585E80CD83 (resized).jpeg5E982700-8659-4BF3-AD8B-84AFEA7A0B25 (resized).jpeg
Finally got internet back.
Though half of Salem is still without power (we got ours back in 24 hrs),
but my powerline is still laying on the driveway.
Truck in the shop for repairs
So worked my chainsaw to death
cutting up debris,
only problem now is that i do not have a truck
to haul it away.
A few photos of the piles of smaller debris.
I consider myself lucky after this ice storm,
it seems Texas has been hit harder by same jet stream system.
20210217_111857 (resized).jpg20210217_111926 (resized).jpg
1 week later
1 week later
A furniture maker showing his wares along the roadside
Also a roadside stand for selling fruit and/or charcoal, etc.
Photos were take about 15-20 yrs ago while working in africa,
not sure if these are from when I was in Port Gentil Gabon or in Malongo, Cabinda Angola.
IMG_0047 (resized).JPGIMG_0050 (resized).JPGThis is a photo of an adolescent Gorilla that was at a zoo/menagerie
next to a hotel when I was working in Port Gentil Gabon.
The menagerie also had a couple baby gorillas, some chimps and various other animals (smaller game) from the region,
biggest being some antelope and a few eagles and some crocs.
Conditions were certainly not up to USA zoo standards.
IMG_0055 (resized).JPGThis is a pic of the GTB SweetHearts I brought over to africa from the states, when I was working in the oil fields in Angola.
It was infested with termites, since the day I bought it, and no manner of extermination method or fumigating
seemed to work to get rid of them.
It might slow them down for a bit, but they always came back,
and I would see evidence of their little shitballs in little piles under the game,
I think the fumigating would kill the adults but the eggs would hatch a few weeks later.
I ended up selling the game to a fellow worker, expat, who had a bar in Nigeria or was it Congo,
where he was going to place it.
The game played very well, and I got lots of enjoyment out of it for the 5+ yrs that I had it and was stationed there.
1 week later
3 weeks later
Started pressure-washing my back deck. (about 15ft x 50ft)
Boy did it need it,
I was contemplating replacing the whole thing as it was looking pretty bad, but after pressure washing it looks pretty good.
I will still need to replace about a dozen boards as some have rotted or deteriorated
but I think most of the deck will be salvageable with a good treatment or stain.
One had to be careful with the pressure nozzles, too far from the deck,
did not remove the grime and too close would actually eat into the wood.
1 to 2inches separation was the sweet spot.
20210413_075249 (resized).jpg20210413_075301 (resized).jpg 20210413_075235 (resized).jpg
Just might last another 3-5 yrs, if I start taking better care of it.
Had not really done a thing to it since moving in, on about June of 2014,
and deck was probably there about 10-12 yrs prior to our purchasing home.
A lot of the debris on the deck is bird and squirrel food my wife tosses to feed the critters,
along with moss growing in the space between boards.
I will need to design and build some new kind of feeding station, to try to keep things tidy.
Also want to build some sort of outdoor area (cage/housing) so our indoor only cats can get some fresh air.
Below is what deck looked like in 2014, for comparision.
We painted the house white (from khaki) a few yrs ago.
pasted_image (resized).png
659758_31_0 (resized).jpg 1 week later
My wife likes feeding the birds and squirrels in our backyard.
She has named this one Elvis for some reason.
Kinda looks like a skunk squirreler, with its very unique white markings.
IMG_9699 (resized).JPGIMG_9702 (resized).JPGIMG_9705 (resized).JPGIMG_9707 (resized).JPG
He has a sibling, with similar white markings but not as pronounced or as many over the entire body.
3 weeks later
We pulled the carpet from our family room months ago,
basically cause we have too many cats and and a couple of them
tend to pee out of the box (for spite or senility) on occasion.
Well we finally got new tile on the floor,
after living with the bare cement floor for far too long.
Here are a couple shots of the new tile floor just installed.
The grout still needs to be applied.
Some may deem it a little busy, but its what my wife wanted.
2 weeks later
The previous post with the owl, reminded me of when my wife and I were living in Scotland for a time about 10 yrs ago.
When visiting one of the local castles, we got to handle an owl as they were putting on a exhibition of birds of prey.
DSCF5486 (resized).JPGDSCF5491 (resized).JPGDSCF5493 (resized).JPGDSCF5495 (resized).JPG 1 month later
Quoted from Sputnik:A deer munching a few of our peaches.
Your driveway looks like a great half (quarter) pipe for skateboard tricks.
Is it really that steep and deep from roadway to the garage doors.
(or optical illusion with way photo is cropped)
Any problems with water accumulation during heavy rain.
1 week later
2 weeks later
1 month later
2 weeks later
I worked on the north slope at Prudhoe Bay AK for about a year about 13 yrs ago,
but was only able to see the northern lights once.
In part because I worked a 2 week on/2 week off schedule, but also cause
during the winter the skies were almost always cloudy or foggy,
and of course during the summer it was daylight 23+ hrs a day.
1 week later
While making a run to pick up some pizza
i drove by a small flock of turkeys (~8-10)
and on the way home a young buck (with some antlers budding)
ran across the road in front of me.
Was not able to get my camera out in time.
next time
1 month later
-40'C= -40'F
only time you do not have to convert.
Learned that back when i was working on the north slope (Deadhorse, Prudhoe Bay)
back in the 2007-2008
Was commuting working rotation 2 weeks on then 2 weeks off
Spent most of my time inside, working in the lab.
Took the xmas tree down today. Totally dried out, despite daily watering. I think the years long drought in the NW , plus the super heatwave we had in June, (115'F) stressed the local tree farms a lot. Normally the noble firs that we buy have fat thick needles , this year the needles were flat and iffy from the start.
Below is what was left of our 8ft tree after filling the green waste bin
1 week later
1 week later
Went to pee the dog this morning and found these guys outside in our front yard.
20220122_095555 (resized).jpg20220122_095920 (resized).jpg20220122_100426 (resized).jpg20220122_100701 (resized).jpg
Looks like about 10 turkey hens with two males, one with a long beard, plus for some reason a peacock.
20220122_095940 (resized).jpgYesterday, driving home from the store, I saw a guy standing by the side of the road,
holding a furry animal in his arms with it snuggled up against his shoulder.
At first I thought it was a large cat or a smallish dog.
But as i got a closer look, i saw a snout too long and pointy to be a cat, and at last look
discovered it was most likely a possum.
Why the guy was snuggling it at the side of the road, who knows maybe wanted to show it off.
The possum looked very content.
About two weeks ago we also saw a possum on our back deck
that had climbed up into our feral cat's cat house we have to help keep him out of the cold and rain,
It only stuck around for a few 15 minutes.
They get pretty big and kinda scary looking.
1 week later
1 month later
1 week later
Quoted from dirkdiggler:south Africa in 1970 and lived in Johannesburg
I work in the oil fields of west and east africa for about 20 yrs off and on as a commuter.
and when I was working in Mozambique and Tanzania, they had the Stoney Tangawizi ginger ale,
It is a brand owned by coca cola, but never marketed in USA.
Closest thing to it is probably Canada Dry BOLD ginger ale,
tends to clear our your nasal passages.
2 weeks later
I was scanning thru some of my old emails and came across some old photos
from when I was working on the north slope of Alaska.
I was commuting working a 2 week on & 2 week off rotational work schedule
These pics are from early July 2007, when the sun was out 24/7.
They include a herd of Caribou migrating thru and a shot of the midnite sun.
IMG_0041 - calves + moms (resized).JPGIMG_0049 - caribou on the tundra (resized).JPGbulk plant IMG_0012 (resized).JPGforest IMG_0007 (resized).JPGfront yard IMG_0014 (resized).JPGmidnite sun IMG_0008 (resized).JPGGot an early start on planting the cherry tomatoes this year.
Normally I procrastinate and things do not get in the ground until Mid May or June.
My wife loves her cherry tomatoes.
She wanted some on the back deck so she does not have that far to go to water or pick them.
20220424_163954 (resized).jpg
Cheated a bit by buying larger initial plants.
Going to plant 6 more tomato plants in far back yard where we have some raised beds,
along with pumpkins and melons and cukes,
maybe plant a few rows of radishes and carrots too.
My wife recently bought a small portable inflatable spa from QVC, for a decent price. She plans on using it all year round to relax on a winter's night in the warm 100'F bubbling water or too cool off in summer if/when Temps get above 90'F plus. I bought from Costco a popup tent screen house to give a bit of privacy and protection from the elements and bugs etc.
20220424_164013 (resized).jpgQuoted from Grayman_EM:No dog? They love to hate those squirrels!
Our dog Dewey is almost 17years old and his squirrel chasing days are over.
We have two outdoor mostly feral cats that live in our backyard.
They ain't doing a very good job of scaring them away.
It is a problem in the first place cause the wife feeds peanuts to the squirrels,
no longer on the back deck, but now throws the food out onto the lawn,
but squirrels now come back up to the deck to eat their morsels.
1 week later
Found these going thru some old email attachments
from when I used to work in oil field in Cabinda Angola.
Outside my office window there were a few trees
which were inhabited by a whole bunch of weavers.
IMG_0061 - both nests (resized).JPGIMG_0065 - bigger nest (resized).JPGbird pecking at my window (resized).JPG
These couple nests fell out of the trees, one with an egg.
Within a few days they would weave a whole new nest to replace the old one.
Some more pics from Angola
Baby Sea Turtles were from a hatching on the beach located
on the compound where I worked.
The african Grey Parrots were some birds that we had as pets
that the locals captured and sold to our work crew, (some since hatchlings)
We built and housed them in a small aviary about 10x20x10ft.
The birds were somewhat talkative, when they wanted to be.
Had to guard your ears when they perched on your head or shoulders.
baby sea turtles (resized).jpgparrots - MVC-010F (resized).JPG
1 week later
Not sure why I am posting this let alone here,
but just got a check in the mail for $113
from some Class action suit against Hertz,
that I totally forgot about since I signed up for it about 2 yrs ago.
Apparently Hertz overcharged for insurance for cars rented in Mexico.
I used to vacation in Puerto Vallarta and Cancun a lot, 10+ yrs ago.
(this suit only covered a certain time span)
Anyway it is nice to have "free" money.
Bet the lawyers share was in the Hundreds of thousands.
I loved driving on the cobble stone streets of PV,
the bumpy rides hid your semi-drunk driving pretty well.
1 week later
Every summer, the Sikh temple about a mile up the street has a parade down the street from the capital to the temple with trucks and tractors pulling trailers and floats full of people and decorated it tinsel and bright colors, with music blaring.
20220618_155534 (resized).jpg20220618_155744 (resized).jpg
20220618_155415 (resized).jpgQuoted from Grayman_EM:No, the drain was working when I first bought the house and I did have a home inspector look at the property. But home inspectors will tell you if I can't see it, they aren't responsible for it. Which I have to agree with. Some advice I have learned the hard way is this. Homes and cars if you are buying used the owner is ALWAYS hiding something. It's a good one to live by.
The last 2 homes we purchased, we paid a plumber (couple hundred bucks) to run a video scope into the sewer line, during the pre-inspection process, and in both cases found root ball issues and we were then able to negotiate the price down or cost of repair into our final bid offers. Saved us thousands of dollars in the long run and much peace of mind.
Quoted from mcluvin:but roots in the sewer line? They knew about that.
I have an out of state rental, that was having continued sewerline problems,
fortunately the tenant was friends with a plumber with an sewer auger,
that would temporarily fix the problem, but it was becoming an all too often reoccurring issue.
Finally I hired a real plumber with videoscope to see what was the root of the problem.
Turns out there was a large root ball in the main sewerline under the city street.
Fortunately any sewerline from the sidewalk to the street is the city's problem to fix,
so after showing the city public works people a video tape of the issue they came out and dug up the street to fix the problem.
Though it still cost me the fees paid to my plumber for his video services (to act as proof for the city to act.)
Also amplifying the problem was that the tenant was using lots of "flushable" wipes
which made the problem worse.
And now my tenants know not to flush "flushable wipes".
The other sad side note to this situation, is that I discovered that this 1960s rental home had
an Orangeburg sewerline installed from the house to the city sewer line near the sidewalk.
Google Orangeburg pipe, for the horrors of that stuff.
It is like a ticking time bomb. It is basically rolled tar paper.
pasted_image (resized).png
In America nearly all home and auto insurance company commercials are amusing, some even more humorous and entertaining and imaginative than the TV programs they sponsor.
Progressive with Flo
Gieco with the Gecko
Liberty Mutual with Little Emu and Doug
AFLAC with the duck
Allstate with Mayhem
Farmers and State Farm with their attempts at humor etc.
Wow, those are truly raised beds, off the ground. They look very nice and healthy. My raised beds in my backyard are built at ground level. So while i have about a foot of contained soil above ground, my plants roots can still burrow into natural ground soil. Only seen beds like yours on places like decks or patios without acess to natures soil.
Quoted from pinwiztom:See post#3732 for photo to compare their growth.
Here is a shot of my backyard raised bed garden.
Plants are about a month behind the plants on the deck.
Tomatoes, pumpkins, zucchini, and cucumbers and some volunteer tomatillos.
20220703_091917 (resized).jpg20220703_091924 (resized).jpg
Please ignore the abundant weeds in the lawn.
3 weeks later
Quoted from dirkdiggler:They're more sweet then sour so perfect for snacking.
Most of the cherries sold in markets here in the NW are black cherries,
maybe occasionally some Rainer cherries (red/yellow).
Rarely have i seen such bright red cherries.
1 week later
When we first moved to the NW, we at one time were looking at moving to Aberdeen WA.
While looking at homes there, there was an old (defunct) bowling alley (~20 lanes) for sale, (closed circa 2010)
At the time it was only $60,000, but it needed a new roof badly and rain coming in had ruined several lanes.
For a time, we were thinking of buying it and fixing up about half of the better condition lanes and
tearing out the rest to then set up or store my then vast pinball collection.
But they had a bunch of lockers and other stuff that the bank (who held the deed) was willing to sell (ad hoc).
We wanted the lockers but unfortunately, they were just too big and heavy for my wife and I to move,
So we settled on some tables from the cafe/grill and a couple of old school high back curved wood benches,
we should have taken a dozen of bowling shoes from the big pile in the middle of the lounge, but they were very grody.
But the prize/find in my opinion, was the cafe menu sign, (backlit with fluorescent bulbs).
We got it all for $100.
Unfortunately, the sign was slightly damaged in transport home and over the years
the sign/marquee being fragile of aged plastic, broke into several pieces.
It might be repairable.
20220808_140208 (resized).jpg
1 week later
1 week later
Some squirrel or blue jay, just ripped to shreads two panels of our screened in tent gazebo cover last night. Or at least that is what I am thinking, as we have not had any strong winds to do that damage. It has only been up for 4 months, but I think the summer sun (UV rays) did do some damage to weaken the nylon fabric.
20220912_114834 (resized).jpg 2 weeks later
House fire about a mile from my house, from last friday about noontime.
No one hurt, except slight injury to fireman.
Started by 16yr old (now arrested for arson and in juvie)
who wanted to duplicate a trend from social media,
on how to make smoke come billowing out of a jack o lantern.
His method was to light some sparklers and place them inside a blow mold plastic jacko'lantern decoration.
Next thing you know the porch was engulfed in flames.
3 weeks later
1 week later
Quoted from dirkdiggler:Can't catch a break. Ughh
Have you ever been truly snowed in for longer than a day?
If so how long?
What kind of stockpile do you keep for a long term shut in if that ever came to pass.?
Part of reason is my wife is asking to look into moving to Canada.
I know real estate ain't cheap, at least on the coast and BC province,
but figure it may be more reasonable the more inland, one goes.
1 month later
The other day early in the morning (near dawn),
my wife heard a thud, then our house alarm went off
a blaring beep beep beep beep.
I jumped out of bed and shut off the alarm,
searched the alarm scroll to determine it was the family room window on the other side of the house.
Wife was sure it was some burglar,
speculating it was some vagrant that knocked on our door 5 months ago, back to rob us.
I check the indicated window and nothing was amiss,
a few minutes later after I got dressed I went outside and found the likely culprit.
The bird was laying amongst the leaves below the window.
It happens about 3-4 times a year, though normally during daylight hours.
2 weeks later
This photo is not mine, but it is fairly iconic of Alaska.
It was published in the Anchorage Daily News in the winter of 2007
when I work working on the north slope
and I remember it getting emailed around.
It is hard to believe that it is real.
It is a once in a lifetime photo.
Taken just outside Nome, while the musher and team
were on a training session in prep for the Iditarod.
FYI: the encounter turned out OK in the end without anyone getting hurt.
Quoted from dirkdiggler:Life long Niners fan and finally snagged a set of NOS 49ers billiard balls. Now I just need to find a set of silver Raiders balls for the wife
I have been a Raider and Niner fan since early childhood
having grown up in the Bay Area.
Was even a Raider season ticket holder for a couple years when they moved to LA and I was living in SoCal.
My dad was a 49ers season ticket holder for years until they started charging fans for seat rights just for privilege to buy season tickets,
but he still went to home games on regular basis with a friend who was still season ticket holder.
Now I would have to say I am more a Niner fan, since Raiders moved to Vegas and of course the 49ers are winning.
Some of my fondness memories was my dad and i going to watch the 49ers playing at Kezar Stadium
near the Haight Ashbury district between 1969 and 1970 when i was in 7th/8th grades
and getting to see John Brodie throw TDs to Gene Washington.
Though back in those days the summer of love was over already (just lots of dirty hippies roaming around)
and the Niners were pretty bad back then too, before Joe Montana.
But after the game my dad would take me bowling, in part to let traffic subside before heading home.
And one of the good things about the bowling, is that they also had an arcade with lots of pinball to choose from.
So that later added to my addiction to pinball.
I feel for you.
The entire neighborhood on a hilltop, where we own a home that we rent out to my wifes neice has same problem with water seepage thru the walls and even up thru the cement floor after heavy rains. Problem exaserbated by an underground aquifer, that raises the watertable. Fortunately the water drains off fairly quickly into the water drain in the basement floor to the sewer. There is even a drainage system with sump pump installed surrounging the perimeter of the home, but not enough to stop the sweepage, when it rains an inch in 24hr period or maybe even 0.25" per day over 3to4day period.
Just got to make sure any cardboard boxes are up off the floor, during rainy season and use plastic bins and strategic use of floor mats and maybe have a mop bucket and squeegy available.
1 week later
2 weeks later
1 week later
2 weeks later
1 week later
1 week later
1 month later
3 weeks later
Quoted from EJS:I like the use of space under the cabinet. Drawers for storage for parts or tools?
I think that is part of the traveling crate for the machine,
like they use for other equipment for their road show, for encasing EQ like amplifiers, drum kits or speakers etc.
It looks like just the bottom of the case under the legs
and there is probably 4 sides and a top piece that attach and lock into place
to fully encase the machine, also guess there may be some foam padding involved.
In California there was a time that they ordered spraying from trucks or crop duster or helicopters for trying to eradicate mediterranean fruit flies.
Now the preferred method of insect control is releasing sterile fruit flies.
Every year on Saturday closest to start of summer the local Sikh temple has parade from the state capitol to their temple about 4 miles away going down the street in front of our house, blaring asian music and with police escort to help with traffic.
IMG_20230617_160117085 (resized).jpgIMG_20230617_160151291 (resized).jpgIMG_20230617_160207013 (resized).jpgIMG_20230617_160227985 (resized).jpg
1 week later
4 weeks later
1 week later
Woke up this morning and my wife says to me, what is that Skunk smell?
I replied, sorry honey, I plan on taking a shower today,
after I take the dog out for a walk.
Well near the end of the walk around the block I see a skunk in the middle of the road, squashed.
I hoped the City or the cops would clean up the mess, but after 4 hrs it was still in the middle of the road,
getting run over again and again by every tenth vehicle.
So decided to brave it and got a scoop shovel and large trash bag and deposited the carcass in the bag and disposed of it,
Most of the stink had dissipated by then.
Thought for a minute maybe I should keep the skin and make myself a cap/hat ala Davey Crockett only with the skunk skin.
IMG_20230816_080532875~2 (resized).jpgpasted_image (resized).png 1 month later
My wife feeds the squirrels on our back deck religiously every day. She has named one "Patches" cause it has patches of white fur on head,neck & back. Anyway this guy apparently got into a fight or was somehow injured, ( left arm shoulder). Looks like it has swollen to size of golf ball. Seems to be be eating well but does tend to favor it when bounding around.
Thought it might be a tumor for a while, but last time we saw it shoulder swelling has reduced in size by about half.
IMG_20230916_094455064_BURST000_COVER (resized).jpgIMG_20230916_094506788 (resized).jpgIMG_20230916_094538270 (resized).jpgIMG_20230916_094621891 (resized).jpgIMG_20230916_094701433 (resized).jpg
1 week later
1 month later
It is that time of the year where one fires up the heater furnace after a long hot summer.
Well a few weeks back my gas furnace did not fire up,
called out a HVAC repair person,
They determined that it was likely my pressure switch being bad,
after a few days waiting for parts to come in and schedule another appt,
The new pressure switch (which works via a couple vacuum hoses to open/close the switch)
was installed, still no power to activate the furnace,
It was then determined that one hose had no vacuum pull,
maybe caused by a bad inducer (blower fan), very improbable.
More head scratching, then the repair guy thought to check the PVC exhaust vent pipe,
thinking maybe a blockage there was causing or inhibiting the pressure differential
that would produce the needed vacuum to operate the switches.
Below is what we found inside the vent tube (pictured on the right side of furnace)
IMG_20231108_150623579 (resized).jpg
IMG_20231108_150603208 (resized).jpg
I convinced my wife now to not feed the squirrels peanuts anymore,
Most of the peanuts gets eaten by Blue Jays and Rats and mice anyway,
2 weeks later
My wife just had hip replacement surgery,
and its just the two of us
so we did not feel like cooking a turkey today,
so we had (bacon-wrapped) Filet Mignon (from Omaha Steaks), with the other fixin's instead.
My mother sent the steaks instead of flowers as a get well gift instead of flowers.
3 weeks later
1 week later
3 weeks later
I guess I did get some damage from the recent ice storm last week, though it was delayed until last night. A bush near my front sidewalk next to the driveway finally gave up the ghost. I think in part due to some parasitic ivy weighing down some branches already weak from moss and decomposition.
IMG_20240122_131741 (resized).jpgIMG_20240122_131747 (resized).jpgIMG_20240122_131804 (resized).jpgIMG_20240122_131809 (resized).jpg
Nature actually did me a favor as I was wanting to trim back and thin out that deseased and overgrown wood/brush as it was also blocking some of my view of on coming traffic as I exited my driveway, especially when backing out.
3 weeks later
Quoted from DCP:Did they keep her overnight in the hospital for that?
She did stay overnite, but mostly at her request.
Though it is not untypical to be in and out the same day
with this type of surgery, from what the doctor told her.
They had her up and walking every 2-3 hrs (with a walker)
within a few hours of the surgery.
She ditched the walker about Xmas time. (about 6 weeks mark)
Doing a lot of pool therapy, walking in 3.5ft of water in a lazy river,
both with and against the current.
pasted_image (resized).png
Our Medicare plan with Kaiser Permanente has a free program (Silver&Fit)
that gives one a free membership to a multitude of health/fitness clubs across town.
Total cost for the operation, including doctor (follow up) visits
so far has been under $500.
(Fingers crossed, its been 3 months and we have received no further billings)
1 week later
Quoted from Tranquilize:Quick reading break trip to Honolulu.
Reminds me of a trip I took to Hawaii about 30 yrs ago,
using a Timeshare that I bought about 5 yrs prior.
The time share units were mostly located in Mexico, (Ensenada, Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco and Cancun)
but this Vacation Club
also had a few units in Colorado, Florida and Majorca Spain as well as Honolulu.
I owned a 1 bedroom unit for 1 week per year.
You had to make reservations about 6 to 12 months ahead of time at the desired location,
and one year, I choose to take a lady friend with me to Hawaii.
The unit was near Waikiki (about 4-5 blocks from the beach) and was in a 15-20 story high rise.
When we got there we were told that the unit we had reserved was being remodeled,
so we were going to have to take a different unit.
Turns out that the different unit was the Timeshare developer's Penthouse 3 bedroom 3bath apartment
with both ocean and mountain views from the wrap around balcony.
It even had a baby grand piano in the living room.
Needless to say we were pinching ourselves for hours, not believing our good fortune,
before we settled in to a fun and adventurous week.
I will try to dig up some photos. Probably in some boxes stashed away, This is prior to digital photography.
Update: Been looking thru 2 boxes of old photos, can't find this trip
but found a bunch of other stuff
(vacation trips to Mexico and partying days of my youth)
for possible posting at later date.
1 week later
2 weeks later
You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider pinwiztom.
Click here to go back to viewing the entire thread.
Reply
Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.
Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!
Donate to PinsideGreat to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!
