Odds and ends

Wow, dancing all night under the Blue moon was exhausting!  Early to bed for me tonight!

The clouds were moving quickly across the moon.

The fox did not want to share with the racoon

We've been dumping the fallen, damaged, rotting asian pears up on the hill for fast consumption hoping to keep from attracting the bear.  We discovered with the trailcam that the fox love them.  We've gotten pics of the entire family, mom, dad and two kits.  They carry them off.  We've seen a jack rabbit carrying one off, the deer, raccon, skunk and squirrel have all feasted.










For the last two days we've been smokeless here, so refreshing.  I feel bad for whoever is having to deal with it.  Now with more fires starting with the thunder storms going through I imagine the smoke will be back.  The fire Larry is working at has no containment, and the earliest they expect containment is in October.  He's had smoke there of course, but has the bald eagles, egrets and herons for entertainment.  They all hang out there.  Larry told me an osprey caught a fish out of the river...the Trinity by the way... then dropped it in a pool and two eagles swooped in trying to get it.  Larry said one eagle swooped right over his head with talons down and wings outstretched, "Cool", he said.  The osprey came back to try and recover his catch and it and one of the eagles got in a battle and Larry saw the eagle, while in flight, turn on its back to try to get the osprey.

coyote squating to pee

I've done a lot of nothing the last few days.  Took some pictures, but mostly just sitting around being a lump.  Not getting very good rest, we had a big wind the other night, dumped over some plants and yesterday I discovered a branch full of pears had broken on our tree.  Sad, I dragged it up to the hilltop in the wheelbarrow.  The animals had a feast overnight and today.  That big limb is already leafless, the four legged land piranha got to it.  There will be a lot of pictures on the trailcam.



I am still going to pilates twice a week, the instructor has been ramping it up and boy am I tired and sore but in a good way now.  After a year and a half I have strengthened to the point that I can now get everything stronger without the focus being on just getting my body to move without pain.

I am noticing that some of the oaks around here are beginning to change color already, awfully early.  Enough for now.  I'm turning in early.

They were busy watching whatever
we were doing, we never even noticed them.

Are you looking at me?!  Which is my better side?

Open Letter

July 2013

Open letter to all Human Beings,

Dear Human,

Many of us have experience with the incompetent worker; maybe you are now or have been one in the past.  We talk to them on the phone and behind counters and desks.  If you get a person that doesn’t just blow you off, they may run you through the  hoops of many questions.  You may even get moved up the line of “technical” help.  You’re told that the problem is either fixed or that a work order will be submitted to their repair/technical group, they’ll get on it right away…blah, blah, blah.

You wait, you call back, and you get a different person that you have to explain the entire situation to and on and on.  After a week a person DOES call you back but with a different interpretation of what the problem was and you discover that the technical department wasn’t addressing the issue you called them for.  WHY?  Because the first person you talked to didn’t write the work ticket properly and everyone else working with the ticket was working from what was written, IN SPITE of conversations with you that clearly didn’t match up with whatever had gotten written on the work ticket.

So here’s my beef fellow human.  Clearly many of us don’t understand these three important words:  BE THE CHANGE.  Many read those words and think “yeah, whatever”; maybe some think “I am, but what about everybody else”, or “that’s just to save the world, little old me can’t do that all alone”.

Simply put it means if every SINGLE one of us did our job, whatever IT may be, with pride and competence the world would spin for every single one of us as smooth as silk.

Quit passing the buck!  Quit waiting for tomorrow!  Step up!!!  Take responsibility!  JUST for YOURSELF in your job and your life.  Think about it. 

Think how that would change not only YOUR world but mine and theirs and theirs and theirs!  Our time could then be better spent with the other aspects of our lives, maybe even making another little change for the positive in our personal world.  If every single one of us just focused on this one thing, right now (I hope you didn’t forget already),  BE THE CHANGE.  WOW!

Stop whining, it’s not that hard.  Quit blaming your boss, your co-workers, your parents, your kids, your partner, the economy, the weather, the lineup of the planets!  Quit the blame game!  Has that worked for you?  If you say yes, I say you are in DENIAL and that isn’t a river here.

I could give you a few helpful hints here if “Be the Change” is too ethereal or foggy of a concept for you.  Why don’t I just give you a start, human to human?  I’ve got time right now as I can’t send texts on my expensive new smart phone, I’m waiting on the phone company to get back to me on getting the problem fixed, freeing up a bit of my time so I’ll help you out.

First, do this.  When you are dealing with ANYONE, imagine, that in front of the face of the person you are speaking to is a mirror.  Don’t get sidetracked, any old mirror will do.  Now, you are hearing their voice but seeing your face.  Would you talk to yourself rudely?  Do you like it when others treat YOU that way?  Seems simple, but not many of us remember to do this, treat others as WE want and expect to be treated.

This goes for all humans; the unemployed, the managers, bosses, CEO’s, judges, priests, athletes, politicians, stay at home Moms/Dads, kids.  Just because you have the big bucks, the comfy chair or the corner office doesn’t mean you are above “Be the Change”.  You are just as guilty of speeding through life disregarding the humans you come into contact with every single day as insignificant.  The lesson here is if you are not helping those around you, you are not helping yourself.

If talking to yourself in the mirror feels stupid or if you can’t even be nice to yourself, then put someone’s face there that you love and wouldn’t offend for the world.  A face you wouldn’t want to disappoint.  Would you speak to them rudely?  Would you do less than your best for them?  If that face on the person you are talking to was the face of whomever you worship on your holiest of days would you speak to THEM in a short, impatient, degrading way?

We need to understand that it is the easiest thing we can do to change our world.  We forget that every one of our lives is a world that is but a smaller piece of the whole big world.  That big old desert, that beach, that mountain is made of individual teeny tiny grains of sand, dirt, rock that all alone might seem insignificant, but all piled together make that beach or mountain.  That teeny tiny dry stream bed can change quickly as single drops come together continuously to form a raging river.

We’ve all complained about those DMV workers, the “customer service” (said tongue in cheek) representatives, the service call people, but they are all simply people like us.  Living their lives in their own little worlds but the worlds all touch and bounce off of each other, sometimes interconnecting for a short while.

Think about that rare time that you or a friend experienced a helpful, friendly, kind efficient person in one of these places or on the phone.  They did their job happily, quickly and shockingly efficiently!  Remember how that made you feel!  You were happy, buoyed up.  It was as though you had just spotted a unicorn!  Look, a unicorn!  They DO EXIST!

Are you starting to see the picture?  Can you begin to see that if more and more of us became the change, became a competent worker, a compassionate human being, how our world would become more magical?!  It would become a world full of Unicorns instead of trolls!!

Second, (I’m still waiting on the fix for my phone), do your job to the best of your ability.  If you hate your job, change it.  If you believe you can’t, you’re right.  If you believe you can, you’re right.  It is always up to you.  If your job is just sweeping the floor, sweep that floor with everything you have in you, be the best ever.  Love that you are getting that paycheck.  Just finding the teeniest thing to spark a glimmer of joy in your job will create a shift. 

If the best of your ability doesn’t seem like enough, find out why.  Quit believing you can’t do any better.  If you don’t have the answer the person you are trying to help needs, then quit blowing smoke and find someone who does have the answer.  If you aren’t able to fix that gizmo thingy then say so, don’t just slop it together to make it look good, charge your regular fee and then leave.  Where is the pride in that job?! 

If you don’t care about your job, your little world, who will?  Why do you think our world seems so dark and full of trolls?  It isn’t THEM…IT IS US!  THEM is YOU and ME!  THEM is all those drops of water, those grains of sand, the “they saids” and the because of “thems” that make up our world.  Your worlds, my world; repeat after me, IT IS UP TO ME to change my world, my day, my health, my job, my unhappiness.

Third, (the phone company is trying something else) ask for HELP.  There is no shame in getting help with something you do not know or do not understand.  We didn’t just land here all grown up knowing everything.  Once we do know everything I figure that is the day we go to our maker, to that big bodiless energy field, so why is it we believe it is wrong, silly, and stupid to ask for help.  Hmmm, maybe because we learned somewhere in our life to think less of anyone who does ask for help, that it makes them look weak.  How has that worked for ya?  Science is now learning that we humans are not a species of survival of the fittest, not a species of kick the weak to the curb, but that we need, that we thrive on our connectedness, that we flourish with the support we give one another by helping each other.

Gotta wrap this up, my phone seems to be fixed.  YOU and YOU alone ARE the CHANGE!  I believe in you because I believe in me and without you there would be no me so YOU CAN DO IT.  Be the nicest, kindest, helpingest human you can be.  It will take some time, it will take some practice, you may still deal with trolls, but I bet before too long those unicorns will seem pretty ordinary.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Valerie Moniz

Human Being 

A lovely Birthday day!

The day has slipped away from me today, so this is just a quick one to say thanks to everyone for the cards, calls, emails and birthday wishes I received yesterday.

Larry surprised me long distance with my gift that he had hidden in his shop.  A beautiful vintage mirrored frame that I had spotted in town.  It is 8X9 and the opening for the pic is 3.5", the pic of it here doesn't do it justice.

Where we have our breakfast.
That rug I put there for Gracie and you see where
she lays.

I received a birthday call from my Bestie just as I started fixing my breakfast, we talked through my prep and we talked while I ate my breakfast out in the garden with Gracie and the birds.  It was nice of Mary to join me for breakfast even if only by phone!






I then decided that 54 years without ever experiencing what many women consider a treat was long enough.  I got on the phone and made myself an appointment for my very first ever...pedicure.  I LOVE my cute red painted nails and my feet look very pretty, though I kept scaring myself as those red piggies flashed while I was walking.  I'm not sure I totally loved the entire experience, so I'm reserving judgement until I go and try it again.

Then I closed the day off with another first for me, a float on the American River.  My friend lives on the river in Coloma so we walked with the dogs down the slippery slope, my breath hitched when my feet hit the water, I turned and very awkwardly plunked my butt in the middle of the float tube and Gracie flew from the shore into my lap.  I floated for about two minutes and that was enough for me...too dang cold.  It might be better in the middle of the day.  We had a lovely dinner outside with only candle light and the light from the half moon.

You know I can't have a post without a flower somewhere!

A good day!  Thank you.

Tonight's sky after the sun set with the moon already high,
 the bats were winging silently to and fro in the still bright sky
before the hummingbirds left to roost for the night.
Weird to have those two night and day species out
there flying about together.

Last hurrah for the garden

Watching the birds while eating breakfast.
The finches and hummers are very busy in the morning.

Summer has about five weeks left and the garden is starting to wind down.  I did the seasons last fertilizing of the roses this morning and started tidying up.  I pulled out some cosmos and I'm going to plant some rudbeckia there for fall color.  There is other stuff I am going to start ripping out here pretty soon, it is looking tired.















Larry got called to a different fire back up at Willow Creek yesterday.  He's in a nicer spot right on the water, we aren't sure what it's called though yet, Willow Creek or a river, he's up 96 just a tetch.  If you know what it is drop a comment or email.  He emailed some pictures, rough place to cool your heels, the draw back is the smoke.

Breakfast table in the shade

After my yard work and after enjoying breakfast out in the garden I decided a field trip was in order.  Up to Georgetown I went for my annual visit to the Frog Pond, its a lovely little shop of vintage, used and new stuff and Fiesta ware!  I like to add a few pieces here and there to my collection and I found a pair of sunglasses that fit and were only eight bucks.  It is a pretty drive up higher into the mountains.  Then I drove slowly through a shopping complex there and discovered a thrift shop, so I parked and scoped it out.  I scored three pressed glass round Christmas platters for fifty cents each!  They will be nice for cookie trays and I found a blue crackle glass vase.  It was marked seven and I got it for three and a half dollars, a bigger score! All my purchases were products actually made in the USA...so rare nowadays.




Off to get my zzzzzz's so I can be fresh for whatever I decide to do tomorrow.  Par-tay!

My new to me vase, its a pretty clear cobalty blue.

The wines I bought weekend before last at local wineries.

These tomatoes share a stem.

 Uh oh, dogs are going crazy...bear must be lurking.

Summer is winding down

It was eau d'summer this morning, the smoke from a forest fire heavy in the air.  Instead of breathing crisp morning air, we were coughing and had burning eyes until the sun rose and a breeze kicked up and moved the smoke out.  The fire is between Foresthill and Tahoe in really tough terrain.  Yesterday they flew tankers on it all day, they flew over the house back and forth, back and forth until sun down from the tanker base to the fire.  Today they didn't have much flying the fire at all and the smoke has really been bad in Reno from what we hear.  Larry just showed me pictures on the internet that air attack had taken of the fire and it is inaccessible.  Very steep canyons and if you can't get crews in I guess they don't make drops.






We got Ian all packed up and then we played Uno until time to leave.  Gracie was not happy with the events, she lay down by the car as Larry and Ian put Ian's stuff in the trunk. We met Scott in Woodland.  Ian is home now and Connor and Chloe were hanging all over him.  Andrea told us they were looking forward to seeing us, but after big hugs for us and flowers from Chloe they were all about Ian...so cute.







After we got back home, Gracie was crazy to see us as usual, but then she ran out to the car looking for Ian.  She sleeps with the boys on their bed when they are here.







Last night was a gorgeous summer evening and before bed Ian and I went out with the flashlights and stargazed.  Ian was excited to see the milky way, the big dipper and wow, he saw his first shooting star.  He was over the moon about that.

New petals breaking out.

Now I hope to get back into some sort of regular routine.  The entire month of July was taken up almost entirely with tech stuff and into the first week of this month, not what we had planned for sure.  I have yet to finish knitting my July mystery square and August is almost half gone...Larry says I'm going to knitting square jail...hahaha.  I have a sock I just need to knit the toe of to finish and a summer shell in progress still.  I have fertilizing and weeding and pruning to get to in the garden, though there are a couple months left the garden will start winding down soon.  (stupid blogger, I did something that made this paragraph different and can't undo it)

Oh, I may have to buy a sewing machine.  I found a wonderful quilt shop, I love fabric and wandering around in there looking at all the pretty colors and prints takes me back to childhood.  I spent a lot of time with Mom in the fabric sections choosing fabrics, she was quite the seamstress.  I'd be crazy, I can't even get to the projects I have with my current interests.  I need a manager.




I snapped some pictures in the garden this morning.  This sunflower is large and the textures and color are gorgeous.  The finches sit on the leaves and rip little pieces out of them and leave the veins.

Hanging out

The weather has been nice though I haven't been out in it as much as I would like.  Ian isn't an outdoorsy kind of guy.  We've had fun though and I've seen a lot of movies I wouldn't have otherwise (he loves movies) and a few were even moderately entertaining.  We've played Uno and dominoes and while Larry was gone I let Ian talk me into playing chess.  I have never been a fan because I never had the patience for it, but I didn't do to badly and Ian was good at explaining what the various pieces could do.  Ian goes back home tomorrow.

Larry returned home yesterday (Sat) morning.  He may go back out this week, who knows.  No he wasn't gone very long and it is too complicated to go into here as to why.

There have been tankers flying back and forth over us all day, there is a fire outside of Foresthill again, not very far from the fire they had there a year ago.

Out on the trail this morning for a short hike.

Just wanted to check in before I forgot too much.

Ian didn't want to go because he would get
to sweaty yet he wore a sweat shirt, crazy boy.

Crazier few days

Friday after breakfast Larry's new Acer laptop locked him out, it was a nightmare and he had to wipe the entire thing out and start fresh......twice.  In the midst of that our smart phone,  the second phone, Galaxy s4 was still acting squirrely over the SD card, it kept unmounting itself.  I said bye bye to Larry, saddled up and took it and myself down to the store in Placerville.

Playing with the camera features on my phone.

Well, manager "tech" bozo decided that I might be having an app conflict and factory reset my phone.  He was convinced that would fix it.  Weeelllllll, of course it did not, but now the phone was wiped out and like Larry's computer I had to reload and rearrange everything, but something told me to just do the basic as it didn't seem "fixed".  Larry said, never let them do that, well, live and learn and Larry couldn't be in two places at once, so I just had to deal.  I just wanted the danged thing fixed.  So Friday, we were sucked into tech stuff all day.

Saturday morning Gracie got her year exam and shots.  Saturday afternoon I spent with a friend visiting two of our local wineries.  Both had lovely wines and nice people and we had a wonderful relaxing day enjoying the different locations.  Jose Caves is perched on top of a hill and had incredible views.

My view from the table at Hart 2 Hart winery

Sunday morning Larry and I headed back to the Verizon store for their class.  We didn't need it but the guy that was teaching it was the one that had made the exchange for us to the second phone that was giving us problems too, and he told us that something had to be set on the phone so we wouldn't have one of the problems we were having with the SD card unmounting when we would hook it up to the computer.  It needed to stay "awake" and because it wasn't, the computer would disconnect from it.  The other issue, he figured was....um hmmm, the phone.

Hoping the third time would be the charm we had our phone exchanged for a second time, so phone number three.  The phone did a long update at the store, our kind young man remembered to turn on the thing we needed for the phone to stay synched with the computer and viola, we were in business.

Now, Monday we figured out that our contact list was messed up and spent hours and hours, all day really, figuring out how best to get it configured and where to back it up to.  The backup software that is always saying everything has been synched doesn't do a danged thing we want it to.  Then we had to make sure that however we set up the contact list in the phone is recognized with the Fusion's system (our car) so it would place the phone calls properly with voice commands.  You need to know whether to say first name last or first and all that to get it to dial the right person.  We kind of have it figured out, but still haven't had the time to get it right.

Caught the last rays of the sun as it sunk away
and a doe and a fawn came through.

That would be because on Tuesday afternoon I met Ian's paternal grandparents in Grass Valley for the grandson handoff.  Why I?!  I forgot to mention that throughout all this other stuff over the weekend our internet kept dropping offline.  Oh my, oh my!  It is all coming back to me now.

Monday Larry was on the phone with Hughesnet for over an hour because the hour long phone call he had with them three weeks ago to SHUT off and CANCEL us meant lets keep sending us a bill/debiting our account.  ACK!!!  Listening was painful.  I wish I had kept a chronicle of all the calls he has made in the last several months to all these different places and how horrible it has been and with the passage of time I could write a black comedy of the whole thing.  Now of course after that grueling phone call, where he finally had stuff confirmed that it was all taken care of BUT they would NOT send any kind of written verification but to TRUST her, it had been done.  Larry told her, thanks but that is what the last person said, so he wasn't holding his breath.

Then he was on the phone for an hour to ATT about the stupid internet and they sent another tech out Tuesday morning and that is why he didn't go with me to Grass Valley.  He was hanging with the tech to discover what the problem was.  A woman tech showed up and was determined to find the problem, she was from the Rocklin office and they don't have a lot to do, she likes to work and was all about getting this fixed.  There may be a couple of problems, but so far we seem to be working and to get one of the issues fixed would mean another go 'round with someone on the phone.

View from Jose Caves Winery

So back to Grass Valley, I tried to use the car to make a call and ended up calling Larry's Aunt in Nevada...I couldn't make it stop!!!!  LOL!!!!  At least I was parked.  I finally got it disconnected, but they called several minutes later and we had a good laugh because Uncle Robert has the same thing happen with his car.  I'll say right now, sorry if we do it to you!

The weather is cooler for August, but I love it.

Yesterday was a very weird day...no tech issues, we stayed online and the phone is working.  NO ONE BREATHE!  Ha ha ha.  It was nasty, all this tech crap.  We were cranky, got snarky with each other a few times and we were both ready for a tropical island with no tech, mai tai's in coconut shells and smoke signals for communication with the outside world.  Getting this stuff set up takes SO MUCH TIME.  Fixing stuff takes SO MUCH TIME.  Listening to Larry go on and on about how business is now run in this country and that all us sheep just keep buying the products and putting up with it all took up SO MUCH TIME.  Ha ha HA!  He's right, but how do you fix it?

More of the view

Good thing everything has fallen in line because as it usually works, Larry got called out to his first fire job of the season up near Willow Creek on the Six Rivers National Forest.  Ian says with the drama of a kid, "how come whenever I'm here Grandpa has to leave?".  Only in the summer, boy and not every time, but to kids it seems like it I guess.

Wow, I was just rereading what I wrote and realized I forgot a chunk of Sunday's adventure.  After getting the new phone and hanging in the parking lot to make sure it was all working we headed to Folsom Costco so Larry could return something. All good there.  Then we were hungry and I picked a Chili's; I had a hankering for their grilled tilapia with mango/avocado salsa.  We were part way between two, I knew this because I used the new "smart" phone.  We headed for one in Folsom but after a bit decided to just head for the one that was "on the way home" in El Dorado Hills.

We are relaxing, we order, the waitress brings us our food, I take a couple of bites of the edge of my fish, but go to get "into" it and the fork doesn't penetrate it.  WTH?  Tilapia flakes with a fork when cooked.  Well I scraped the salsa and sauce off and tried again, but it was sushi.  Larry goes and gets the waitress and she asks me "isn't it hot"...hot doesn't mean cooked chickie.  She was either new, or poorly trained but everything out of her mouth was worded so that I was the idiot.  After that comment she takes the plate to the back.  THEN, she returns, holding my plate and makes a comment about the sauce being pink...like that was the issue, just the color of my fish being pink from sauce not from being raw.

Now, my problem is I just play things out.  Right then and there we should have left...next time, and I'm sure somewhere there will be a next time, I will remember and act accordingly.  She asks me what I want, do I want something different, I say okay. Then she says do you want another plate of this, I say okay, if it comes out cooked (this all took longer and I'm shortening).

So, Larry sits there with his meal cooling, while we wait for mine to come out, she sets it before me and says would I like to check it to "see if it is how I want it"???!!!!  Um, yeah, you mean COOKED?!  Then she practically whacks me in the face with the bottom of the pitcher that she tipped up over my plate and in my face to fill my water glass.  Larry was livid by now.  He says I am talking to the manager, who never showed up at our table I might add, though half the price of my entree was being comped.  I said to him, what he always says to me when I tell him he should write a letter of complaint somewhere, I said, what difference will it make?

I stood outside after we were finished, no tip for chickie, and I facebooked our encounter while Larry was inside having a conversation with the manager.  She said all the right things, comped our entire meal and said she hoped we would be back.  NOT EVER.  The people behind us didn't get their food (steak maybe) cooked the way they wanted and declined getting it fixed because they were half way through their meal...so BIG problems at this one for sure.

AND the bear was back Sunday night, garbage night.  The first time it has come to the cans for two consecutive garbage nights, maybe it has gone high tech and is carrying a calendar.  We were in bed and heard the can thunk to the ground so we went out to see for sure and it was back in the trees, was the BIG bear and slowly moved away.  Only our can had been tipped, but the next day by the debris left by the bear we can tell that it had come back and gotten the neighbors can or just ripped up their recycle bag because there was a dog food can in the meadow.

Wow, I bet you weren't expecting a book!  I'm having typer's cramp!  I'm off for food and then I have to come back to upload the pictures for today's entry.  Sorry for any glaring typos or errors, but with the boy here, I need to get off of here.

Ian and I making zucchini bread.  He grated
the giant zucchini without grating his fingers.

Sunny Days

I don't know if you want to hear about the technical difficulties we are having with computers and the phone still, so I won't bore you with the details, suffice it to say that we are ready for a tropical island with coconut shells to hold the mai tai's and leave behind the technology.

Beyond the invention of electricity, I think the single most helpful thing invented that I wouldn't want to give up would be the washing machine, oh and the clothes dryer.  Those machines make our modern lives so much easier and they don't crash, lock you out, do uninvited reboots, or card unmounts.  I also don't have to stand over a bucket to wash the clothes on a washboard.

My "new" vintage bowls!

It was a lovely day though neither one of us got out to enjoy it much.  We sat in the garden for breakfast and that was about it.

These pictures were taken with my phone's camera.

Look at all that pollen on the leaf.

Awesome geometric stuff going on in a sunflower.

The next one getting ready to open.

My cute little five buck yellow vase with
the three tillandsias (air plants) I found at the
garden store yesterday.