Procrastination At Its Best

Wednesday: (07/01) Breakfast was left overs du jour. Ernie baked some biscuits and we had the left over sausage gravy on them. Lou and Dawn had fruit and yogurt.
My morning task was to clean off my desk. I also finalized and filed our taxes and got them in the mail. Isn't procrastination fun?

For lunch I had a ham sandwich with horseradish cheese. This was served with leftover carrot apple and raisin salad.

Dinner was pork ribs, green beans, home made fettuccine noodles or "pasta desasta" as Ernie calls them. He tried making the noodles with our pasta maker but the machine would help and he ended up rolling and slicing them by hand. I told him I usually find them at the market. Some things are not worth doing yourself.

Enough of avoiding outside work. Tomorrow I really need to get to it starting with the removal of a bunch of dirt. The dogs have been very kind by not just running up the to of the dirt pile and jumping into the neighbors yard.

Thursday: (07/02) If we were on the road and were not settled in at some nice campground this close to a holiday we'd be doing that today. As it is, we're settled in at home so no worries.

For breakfast I had a couple of left over biscuits with bologna and cheese. Everyone else had cereal. After watching the morning Perry Mason and then Rachael Ry show, I finally got to work. I pruned away plants in the raised flower bed, move a few tons of concrete blocks weighing from 150 to 300 or more lbs each. Some of these are blocks I moved when I built the green house last fall. Since I'm building yard buildings next to the green house now, I needed to move them again (bad planning) and to move more of them. With a break at noon for a second Perry Mason episode and lunch (hot dogs), I returned after lunch  to complete the concrete block move, then called it a day.  After a nice shower, Ernie and I went out shopping for a couple of hardware items.

Dinner tonight was at Cecelia's Mexican Restaurant up the street. We had a couple of coupons to use.


Friday: (07/03) Dawn's garden is doing nicely. The above is only part of her garden. She has things all over the yard.

Breakfast was cereal. Lunch was sandwiches. Dinner was pigs in blankets, green salad, and French fries.


Yesterday we moved the concrete blocks. Today we moved the dirt pile. The dirt is the collection from previous projects, mostly from the green house project, that needed to be moved before the dogs fully realize how easy it would be to jump into the neighbors yard. I originally planned on moving the pile once directly to the dump.That changed because of time constraints. The dirt had to be moved. Ernie and I will be headed back to Salt Lake City Monday and the dogs are going to stay here.

Saturday: (07/4) Independence Day. Today started out pretty much routine. I washed three cars (Mine, Lou's, and Ernie's) and the RV. Everything was pretty dirty.
I usually wash the RV and Toad soon after we arrive home and if we've been home a while, just before we leave. It's always a good idea to get the bugs off while they're fresh. Seems like I was slow getting to it this time but it needed to be done since washing it once we're on the road is much more difficult. There were lots of pieces of road oil and gravel on the rear wall and the wheels from that bad section of I15 in Utah on the way home. I got the rear cleaned but the wheels still need work. Maybe I'll get it done on the road?


About 2pm we went over to some friends house in San Jose for a potluck dinner/BBQ. The food was great and far too much, as usual. We returned home about 6:30 to save the dogs from all the noise.

Traffic going to and from San Jose was very light, typical for at home holidays but this year was different in that there were very few fireworks displays. San Jose canceled theirs due to budget concerns, Stanford canceled theirs due to "safety concerns" due to too much construction on campus. We need to get a good fireworks show video I guess.

Sunday: (07/05) I spent the day cleaning the RV interior and packing. Ernie spent the day cooking. Lou and Dawn spent the day rummaging at sales.

I also repaired the antenna mechanism on the RV. The shaft that the crank attaches to was stripped. After replacement, the thing works effortlessly. Before it was very hard to turn. I guess it's another item that needs occasional lubrication with silicon spray.

Guests Arrive, of the Fowl Kind

Friday: (06/26) We all started the day with walk in the park. We drove over to Bol Park. This park is on an old railroad right of way and leads through the neighborhood to the high school Lou used to work at. In fact, she usually drove to the park, left the car there and walked the half mile to the school each day. Better access, less traffic and less weird high school age drivers. There are a couple of farmettes along the path. The goats get to watch all the traffic going down the path.


This bike path goes on down th the high school and is a popular walk as well. A little ways down the path toward the school is a small pasture with a couple of donkeys in it. The small donkey is the inspiration for the donkey in the move Shrek. Ernie brought the dogs along and they enjoyed the walk with us. We also stopped to visit some goats in another yard along the way. Unfortunately my camera battery died so no donkey pictures.

With our exercise out of the way, we went to Denny's for breakfast. Their TV adds got to Lou. We haven't eaten there in a while. Ernie thought we had been replaced by aliens but we all had a nice, cheap breakfast anyway. Ernie doesn't have high regards for them, especially since they took over the restaurant at the Wild Wild West Casino in Las Vegas that he calls home.


(Refresh for current picture)
Over the past week or so a group of three birds built a nest in the wreath hanging on our front door. Two males and a female. The nest now has three eggs in it. They aren't too bothered by our use of the door, fortunately. I installed a webcam on the porch today so that they can be seen on our website. I haven't used the webcam in a while and everything has changed with our systems since that time so setting up the camera was an exercise.

My IP camera is wired but fortunately I had a 100' cable already going from the study  outside that could reach the front of the house. Our DSL line used to have a static IP address (like the phone number to our network). Our new DSL connection has a dynamic IP, different each time its used. In order to allow easy access to a live video feed, I setup our router to use a dynamic IP address using dyndns.org. It's free and allows a simple domain name rather that a changing IP address for the URL (web address). All rather convoluted but now the address is easily accessible and it uses our domain rather than someone else's. The address is http://desine.blogdns.net. Log in as user: "guest" with the password: "bird" to see live video of the nest.

The nest is in the bottom inside of the wreath. Unfortunately, the camera doesn't have a zoom lens and the birds are quite small so you can't see too much but it's kind of fun anyway.

Ernie did his BBQ thing this afternoon. We had an early dinner of creamed peas with pearl onions, BBQ teriaki steak and seasoned baked potato wedges. he also prepared a lot of extra meat  on the barbie as well for later meals.


Above Ernie Lou an Dawn posed for this group photo.


The flowers by the fountain are really prolific this year. Above right is an inside view of the wreath and the bird nest.

Goodbye Mr Milo

Goodbye Mr Milo. You are missed.

Good Veterinarian

When you travel you can't go to your known veterinarian. The phone book doesn't really give reliable references. When MR Milo began having problems here in Quartzsite there was only one vet listed and because it was after hours, they referred us to a vet in Blythe. Circle H Veterinary Hospital, 13165 W Hobsonway, Blythe, Ca 760.922.3136. Our vet, Dr Thomas Jones, was new to the clinic but obviously very experienced. You have to worry when taking your feline to a horse doctor. Not too many vets in Palo Alto have corrals, but I don''t think we could have found more caring and competent folks. Rates were extremely reasonable. The total of the four visits, including the emergency visit was only about $205, less than a regular visit at home. Dr Jones had the best bedside manners we've seen. It is unfortunate that MR Milo didn't survive but that in no way is a reflection on the excellent service we got at Circle H. If we were to move nearby, we'd have a good vet.

Pet Emergency

Tuesday: We left the RV around 11am today and scoured the flea markets some more. I returned about 4:30pm to find Mr Milo meowing and stuck on the side of the bed among the stuff. I lifted him onto the bed and noticed he didn't move his rear legs. I called Lou and she and Dawn returned. We thought he might be constipated, but he didn't seem to feel his rear legs. We called the emergency vet in quartzite and were referred to the vet if Blythe. We dashed him over and the vet assumes he may have had a blood clot (Saddle thrombosis). He gave him a shot to try to dissolve it and we'll return in the morning to see what the prognosis is. Lou and Dawn were going to leave Mr Milo and me here tomorrow morning and return to Palo Alto. Their departure is delayed until we know. It's going to be a long night.

Wednesday: We were at the vets door when they opened. Mr Milo had not improved so he received another shot. We stayed around home with "himself" hoping that he would get better. We returned to the vet in Blythe again at 5pm for another shot.
Thursday: Mr Milo got worst during the night, the rest of his body may be affected now. We had an appointment with the vet first thing again and due to Mr Milo's condition and lack of improvement we had him put to sleep. He'll be returned to his favorite place, our back yard, but now he can stay out all night and won't have to be on a leash. He was the best cat. Nice manners, good traveler, able to "talk" (make his needs known). Considering he broke both hip joints before he was a year old and made it to be more than ten years old, he ended up with a good life. We'll miss him a lot.

Mr Milo and Friend

Mr Milo has a friend. For several years now, we've had some birds nesting in our backyard. They hang around most of the time as well. They take turns playing with Mr Milo. Actually, they're protecting there nest but it seems to have evolved into mutual respect and I think they like each other.

Note the bird above Mr Milo at the window asking Mr Milo to come and play.

Mr Milo likes to take walks around our yard, but due to his hip injury, we keep him on a leash.

The fountain looks lovely as usual.

Milo’s Back, Dogs Gone!

MR Milo, the fearless cat, is back to normal, maybe even nicer, now that the dogs are gone.

"Mine, mine, mine!!"

"I heard a flood was coming"

Co-Pilot Training, Mr Milo The Cat

Our cat Mr Milo learned how to co-pilot very quickly.