2012.05.19:

Up in Northridge, Cassie's iris are slowing down after a pretty good show of blue and blue-purple blooms. I really enjoy blue flowers, and also this reminds me of one of the traditions of my childhood. Every spring we'd go visit the commercial iris gardens in Canby. These were near the ferry, and we also enjoyed that part of the ride.

Blue iris are iconic, and I think Van Gogh concentrated on those, but there were lots of colors in Canby, with the rows making broad stripes of yellow and white among the blue. I bet there are slides from these among the pictures my dad took; I'll have to start digging for these.

The iris gardens were on the east side of the Willamette, as was downtown Canby. In the early 1960s, this was still pretty small. I vaguely remember the meat locker we rented, and I'm pretty sure there were some buildings that today would be considered "classic".

Some of Cassie's Iris.
Douglas Iris at UCLA's Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden.

We usually took the ferry in the homeward direction; the west side at that time was a narrow country road with lots of trees with lots of shady leaves keeping it cool in the summer. Maple and vine maple were probably a big part of those trees, close to the road, while the oak and douglas fir would be further back.

2011.10.09: I am not putting up much in the way of horse show pictures this year. The schedule didn't work out for San Diego, Ventura, Grass Valley, or the mini's at Chino. I did get to see some of the show at Pomona, but even on the day I went I missed many of the classes. I did shoot the costume classes, and the 2 classes of 6-up, but the latter shots are very smeary — the camera I had with me was not the one good at low-light shooting, and couldn't handle the after-sunset events. (One of the shots may be good as an abstract pattern. Huh.)

2011.08.30: My dad was one of those who took care of the house maintenance himself. He had handyman skills (his offspring inherited those skills, but not equally). I remember some of the big tasks. Like roof work.

The first roof work I remember was at "810". I was probably 4. And I don't remember much besides the ladders reaching up, and the roof jacks knocked together and used for perches. I think my oldest brother helped. I don't remember much of the first time at Reese Rd, either. I think that was a case of putting new asphalt shingles on top of old asphalt shingles.

I remember a little more of when my aunt's house was reroofed. That was a big job in a couple of ways: the house was a full two stories, rather than garret-and-dormer, and the ground sloped away on both sides, so taller ladders were needed. It was a wood shingle house, with graphite coating. Most of the help came from a fellow named Harley, a handyman who was a family friend. This time the old shingles were stripped off ... and a big part of my memory is the time I spent gathering the old shingles up. I think the ones that didn't break we put in bags for future repairs. Some of the splintery pieces were used for starting the woodstoves. But most was hauled away, I think. And there was a lot to pick up.

Sometime later, Reese Rd got a new roof. I might have been in junior high. This time the asphalt shingles got stripped off. A neighbor named Joe helped. He was a retired fireman (the firefighter type) and had roofer or carpenter chops as well. There was a few repairs to the rafters, maybe then the tar paper, and the shingles. The old asphalt shingles were an easier clean-up job for me than my aunt's wood shingles. And I got to nail some of the new ones in place.

The fourth roof that I remember was Joe's. This might have been one of my college breaks. Joe had had a stroke by then, and Dad was returning the favor to an old friend, and I was the main assistant. Asphalt shingles (again, 2 layers, I think), but cleanup was easy with a dumpster under the north eaves ... just peel everything right into the bin. Joe wanted sheathing put down, so we fit the plywood on the rafters, rolled out the tar paper, and lay down the rows of shingles. It sure was satisfying to see them laid out nice.

2011.04.09:

Ah, Spring! Or is it Winter today? After being roasted in December, it feels like Southern California has had more winter in the last 3+ months than I've experienced in ages. I should have been adding an entry on President's Day about the year we went to Big Bear for President's Day, and got treated to that season's first big snowfall.

2010.08.28: Yeah, I've been busy with writing entries in other places than here. And summer is almost over. So before it's too late, it's time to celebrate ... Del Taco's summer-themed souvenir cups! This year, they've gone to a taller, slimmer design, and it fits the hand well. They've also moved away from "color print on white", using solid color cups with a single-color print in a silhouette effect. The colors are blue, green, and orange &emdash; full-strength color as bold as your first set of crayons.

Oh, yeah, August is also when we went to see the draft horses and the mini's compete in their respective shows. Chino Hills on a beautiful Saturday, then up the road to Ventura. Good stuff, even though I had to use my backup camera, and that only did so-so. The drafts and carriage horses were driven in singles, pairs, teams of 4s, and also 4 abreast. The mini's were driven in singles only, but also had a hunter-jumper course and of course the halter classes. "Want!"

2010.06.27: Had a great time with the 6M band during Field Day! Out with FVRACES and helpers from WCARC at the Fountain Valley Sports and Recreation Center. The other VHF/UHF bands didn't seem as active this time around, but had some good 50 MHz contacts in the last hours, and logged several Colorado operators, a New Mexico station, and even a shout from Iowa.

Helped out a bit on 80M, too, in the middle of the night. But the 40M station was well staffed without me. Even the band captain got to take long breaks!

2010.02.17: Oops, there was a Valentine's Day zooming past just now ... hope you had a good one. SoCal has been alternating torrential downpours and summer-like baking days.

2009.12.24: Season's Greetings! Happy Hula Daze! May you emerge from the depths of Winter ready to spring up and grow anew. And may Spring not come to early, despite the greenhouse gasses.

I recently acquired a new trash receptacle for my kitchen. It's slim, and almost waist high -- and the pop-up lid makes a great bench for a cat. Mr Beans was taking his turn this morning while I was fiddling with other kitchen gear. All of a sudden, I hear a sliding sound and a scrabbling. I turn to look just as Mr Beans, hanging at arms length, finds he can't pull himself back up because the TR is tipping over on him, and on the cat water dish, and OH MY!. I've put a couple of water bottles in the bottom to weight it down better, and I think he's forgiven me for laughing.

Meanwhile, I continue to not quite have the LA County Fair Draft Horse event pictures added. Coming soon, I promise! Right after I jump on Farm Town to get my harvest before it turns brown and wasted ....

2009.09.03: Okay, it will be a few days before I make a second attempt at a true poached egg a la "Julia/Julie". But egg feathers are ... interesting.

2009.08.24: I'm catching up with a few notes about our trip to this year's Ventura County Fair. We like this fair because the Draft Horse people show there, and the weather is usually milder than we find in September at Pomona.

It's a pretty drive once you get onto the 101 (US 101) route leaving Los Angeles, rising up above the (West) Hollywood area and through the hills skirting Moorpark, pouring down the pass into Oxnard and Camarillo and running from orchard to beach as we approach Ventura.

This year we went on Friday (the 7th) but we miscalculated the time on our chores, and so we hit the road in synchronicity with the early homeward-bound office trekkers and got to spend plenty of time with our "neighbors" thanks to the usual number of stalled vehicles and TCs on the Hollywood Freeway (and the Ventura Freeway, as we progressed).

This shortened our time with horses, but we got to see several fine rigs and some nifty driving, especially the tandem class. And we did have plenty of time after the last class to survey the food vendors (staying clear of the chocolate-dipped bacon). The midway people were disappointed that we didn't try the rides or ball tosses, but when you're short on time you have to prioritize. Unfortunately, the blueberry bushes were already locked away for the night when we left the horse arena. Some disappointments are so difficult to handle.

The next day, we went in the opposite direction — over to Chino Hills for the Southern California Minature Horse Club's Hot Summer Daze event. There were some very stylish horses there, too! (But the harness was a little different from what the Clydes wore ....).

Again, the setting was very pleasant — especially in the shade. There was a picnic atmosphere at the show, the hillsides were very tree-y, and there was lots of pretty pastures on the adjacent properties.

2009.07.24: Walking into the stables from the parking lot, I usually go up the main road, and then turn down our aisle, passing the horses of our nearest neighbor. As I make that turn, usually after sunset, I catch sight of a small figure by the gate of one of their horses. As I first spot it, I think, "There's a cat sitting there." But it isn't a cat — it's one of those plastic owls used to scare away smaller but obnoxious birds. I guess that this one is supposed to keep the pigeons away from the horse's fodder.

Tonight, as I worked on cleaning our stalls, I glanced over at the neighbor's other stall and thought, "They moved the owl over." Then the reflective eyes moved — this time, I was looking at a cat, and the cat was watching me.

2009.06.18: This is where the prose hits the page. Exactly what prose, we'll find out as we go. I'm used to spewing in usenet groups (hi there, AFCA!) but the deathless prose that's supposed to live forever takes a bit of getting used to.

You've probably gathered that I like cats and horses, trains and sailboats. Dogs get admitted on an individual basis, and some cars.

Speaking of cars, I grew up with a couple of family traditions: First, when you go through a tunnel, you're supposed to say "Ahhhhhh ..." and to try and get through the whole tunnel on a single breath. Second, you're supposed to keep an eye on the odometer for "mirror mileages" — palindromic readings where the odometer digits are the same from front to back as back to front. Here's an example: odometer-image.

Needless to say, this was one of those things, like license plate bingo, that my parents used to make travelling with kids a little more palatable, and which I've given a life of its own. My own children laugh at me for keeping records of when I see the mirror, and laugh even harder when I get mad at myself for missing one. I have also taken to tracking mileages with translational symmetry, like this one: another-odo-image. And sometimes just the plain-old-cute mileage: odie-cute-img. I still get a kick from spotting 8085 and similar numbers.

My current tunnel practice comes only in a very brief one (underpass/overpass crossing). It doesn't take 10 seconds to get through the tunnel (except between 5 and 6 pm), so the "ahhh" doesn't get interesting unless I stretch it out into daylight as far as I can. Oh well.