St Patricks Day And A Play

Saturday:(03/17) St Patrick's Day. Lou Dawn and Meili were off to more garage sales this morning. I worked on adding some pictures to recent posts.

• Cedar Tree removal In San Jose


• San Francisco History At The Mint


• Garden Preparation


• San Francisco, Rather Cool

We had leftover Spanish rice for lunch. At 2pm we went to Menlo Park to the Menlo Atherton High School to see a play. "Once Upon A Mattress" the variation on the "Princess And The Pea." They have a new theater that is really nice and the play was very professional. All the actors were really good but the girl that played Princess Winnifred, Hanna Berggren was outstanding. We expect to see her on the big screen sometime in the future. Of course she's only a junior so that may be a while.


For dinner we had corned beef and cabbage. How original. Lou usually cooks it in the slow cooker but baked in the oven this time. After dinner we watched the movie Darby O'Gill And The Little People. The evening was topped off with strawberry shortcake for desert.

Rain and No Power

Wednesday: (03/14) Today is one of Lou's days off. Breakfast wasn't memorable, yet?
Dawn and I were headed to Costco for a few things and lunch but ran into a problem. The Jeep's battery was dead. It started fairly easily when jumped using the old Volvo but wouldn't run. Something more seriously wrong, probably the new battery we got at Walmart in October. But it's raining today so no hurry to fix it because no emergency to go anywhere. I don't trust the old Volvo enough to drive it anywhere even though it started easily for the first time in weeks. I don't really feel like walking home. We're looking to donate it pretty soon to make room for a new car. The other Volvo was busy elsewhere. Dawn made olive loaf with horseradish cheese sandwiches for lunch. We met with an energy consultant to confirm there is no way to make solar power work here at the house. Too many big trees on the South side. Seems the sun needs to hit the panels, or something like that. Who knew? No way to mount them elsewhere. I made creamy ham, onion, and potato soup for dinner.

Thursday: (03/15) Breakfast burritos for breakfast using the leftover kale omelet from a couple of days ago. Today is another of Lou's days off so she's busy doll making. I played in the office. Lunch was cottage cheese and fresh pineapple. I hooked up the Jeep's battery to the Volvo and ran it during lunch to charge the battery. Unfortunately it seems to be OK meaning the problem is deeper in the jeep. We had a good rain yesterday and last night but today has just been overcast with no rain. After lunch, the battery was charged enough and held it's charge. Darn, can't blame the battery.  I reinstalled it in the Jeep and the thing started right up. Gremlins? Actually there was a bit more spark than I thought was right so I checked and it was drawing 2.4 amps. Seemed high. I thought it might be the sticky brake light switch but it wasn't. More checking disclosed that the interior lights were staying on. Should go out after about a minute or less. They didn't seem to go out. Might just be a symptom of reconnecting the battery but I removed the fuse for the lights as a precaution. I then took it for a spin to get some run time on the engine. I still need to get the smog check completed and can't do that until the car decides to finish it's internal diagnostic tests. The dead battery causes the computer to reboot in the Jeep so the tests begin again, so no progress in the past week. I made Spanish rice for dinner.

Friday: (03/16) Dawn made toast and ham for breakfast.  Lou, Dawn and our neighbor Meili were out at the Stanford rummage sale and other shopping details in Redwood City. I took the Jeep to the shop but it still isn't ready to get it's smog test, of course. I hoped it might have had a miraculous cure,. It didn't.  The two diagnostics still haven't completed. I also installed some LED lamps in Ernie's trailer. We had leftover Spanish rice for lunch. We all returned to Redwood City for more shopping as the rain started. Lou made Chinese vegetables, tofu and noodles for dinner. In the evening the storm really picked up to deluge mode, the heaviest rain in quite a while. It stopped by midnight and was gone.

Cedar Tree Removal In San Jose

Tuesday: (03/13) We used the alarm clock, a rare use for us since retirement. We headed to San Jose to watch the removal of the cedar tree in front of Dawn's house. We had requested the city to remove it. We stopped on the way at La Victoria Taqueria in downtown San Jose for breakfast. We both had the chorizo breakfast burritos with their great orange sauce. Lou shared hers with Dawn.


We made it to the house just on time. The tree crew was there waiting for 8am when they could start making noise. Lou and Dawn got ready to watch. It really didn't take long (by 10am) for them to have the tree stripped of most of it's limbs and ready to bring down the rest.


All the lower branches were brought down either thrown by hand to the street or lowered with a rope to the street.


It was a very tall cedar tree, much higher than their aerial truck can reach so it made it more interesting to watch how they removed the top without causing damage to the picket fence in front of the house. The aerial lift truck only got the man up so far so the top 30 feet came down in one piece and broke in to 3 foot pieces when it hit the roadway.


Chipping the pieces of the top of the tree. Those chipped limbs filled the truck so one of the men took the load to the dump while the other two men removed the rest of the tree. They brought down the main trunk of the tree in about 3' chunks each with a rope attached. They successfully removed the tree and caused no damage to the picket fence below.


Ready to fell the main trunk. By noon the rest of the tree was on the ground. Lou headed on home but I remained to watch. While they took lunch, I returned to the La Victoria for a milanesa torta (breaded steak sandwich).


In the afternoon they chipped up the rest of the tree, all of it. Rather a waste of good cedar. It would have made for an awful lot of good fire wood or lumber but I certainly couldn't make good use of it. Too bad that they couldn't use it. The main trunk of the tree was cut into pieces small enough to pass into the chipper (less than 18" in height)


Go head, count the rings. I counted the rings on the tree and it's between 90-100 rings, a very old tree, probably older than the house, which was built in 1917. It's amazing how large of pieces they feed in to the chipper. They ended up filling their truck with cedar tree trunk chips but still had more unchipped and not enough time to do it so they loaded the chunks of wood onto their other trucks and swept the rest into piles left in front of the house.


The tree's all gone, only sawdust and a stump left as the trucks drive off. They'll pick those piles up tomorrow. In a few days, after the utility companies can locate their lines, they will grind out the stump. Since we wont get notified of when they will be back we'll probably miss it.  I caught the bus home as it started to rain. Lucky crew. Lou made some Chinese noodles with vegetables ,bacon and nuts for dinner.

Some videos of the tree removal below:

• Video: Felling the top of the tree, most of it above the highest reach of the aerial truck.
• Video: Preparing to fell lower portion of the tree.
• Video: Felling the lower portion of the tree.
• Photos: Movie of the photos taken during the tree removal

Less Power To Us

Wednesday: (03/07) Oatmeal with peanut butter and honey for breakfast. LUU Noodle House for lunch. We shared a Pad Thai, a combination Won Ton Soup and egg rolls. Lou was busy in her doll shop making dolls. I was busy installing my latest tech device. I ordered a TED5000 system to monitor power usage in our house. Our power bill is out of control. This is the first step, providing feedback on how much it costs when something is turned on. It's sort of like a speedometer for power usage. We just have to learn to take our lead foot off the electric panel. It actually installed quite easily. Since it communicates over the power lines there was some tweaking needed to get it all working. I still need to get a line filter so I can turn on the florescent lights in my study where the monitor is. Our power use can be monitored via an app on my phone as well. Cool! Dawn made sausage and kale soup for dinner.

Thursday: (03/08) I started the morning taking Dawn to the trolley in Mountain View. On the way we stopped at the Hong Kong bakery to pick up some breakfast. Dawn enjoyed her's on the trolley. Lou and I enjoyed ours in the back yard.

Today is the second day of Lou's weekend. She picked two days a week to not do any cooking or cleaning and to just spend time doing what she wants to do, like doll making. Sort of like Dawn and I act all the rest of the week. Imagine! So either myself or Dawn needs to cook or? That's why we tend to eat out more often on her days off. Lou and I went to lunch at the Sunny Buffet in Sunnyvale. Very good as usual.

I spent the afternoon working in the backyard. I moved some garden planters that will be used for Wolfie's garden. Wolfie is one of Ernie's dogs and he likes to eat fresh vegetables from the garden. He is very careful picking only what he wants to eat. Usually he works on our garden. This year he'll have his own. I also moved our swing. I made some room for a new dirt pile I needed to start. When I dig out for the new sidewalks and storage shed pad, I'll create quite a lot of fluffed up dirt for the pile. I'll get even more when I do the last three sections of the fence. Now that our city dump has closed, getting rid of the dirt will have to be done in a dumpster, so since I work slowly, I'll need to collect a pile to add to the dumpster all at once. I also replaced some hardware on Lou's new glider chairs.

This afternoon, I received the other part needed for my energy analysis. A Kill-A-Watt meter. It's a device that plugs into an outlet and you just plug whatever you want to monitor into it. I intend to check everything that plugs in to see what the residual and on usage is for each item is.

For dinner I made spaghetti and fresh asparagus.

Friday: (03/09) Lou made latkas with apple sauce for breakfast. We worked in the yard and garden this morning. I worked in the office the rest of the day. Chili Beans for dinner.

Saturday: (03/10) Lou was off to a rummage sale with Dawn and then Dawn went to the library sale. I walked over to the bank and stopped for breakfast at Jack In The Box. haven't been there in a while. i had their egg, cheese and bacon melt sandwich. We did some gardening. Lou and Dawn  transplanted the asparagus. I worked some more power monitoring stuff. it's now working well. Lunch was a Chinese cashew chicken salad.  Dinner was leftover spaghetti and asparagus. We watched the first two Indiana Jones movies this evening.

Sunday: (03/11) I made Don McMuffin's for breakfast with a couple of leftover biscuits, an English muffin, a sausage, fried eggs, cheese, and some latkas. We placed some unneeded Olallieberry plants out front with "Free" signs on them. They were gone in less than an hour. Lou worked in the yard fertilizing the lawn. I worked in the office on the energy audit. They were served open faced for a change. Lunch was leftovers again. Chili and corned beef hash. For dinner we went out to Applebee's with Ernie for their TwoFor$20 dinners. I had bourbon chicken and shrimp. Lou and Dawn had steaks, and Ernie had ribs.

Monday: (03/12) Lou made an oven omelet for breakfast. Kale, red and green peppers, onions, avocados, ham and eggs. Lunch was chili. I was busy today working on my energy audit. I measured everything that was plugged in with the kill-A-Watt meter. I still have a few things outside that need to be checked. I think I found three major players though. The refrigerator, the RV, and the waterbed. Lou and Dawn were out on a thrift store run and didn't return until very late. For dinner I had leftover baked potatoes and steak. When they got home they had chicken and baked potatoes.

Garden Preparation

Sunday: (03/04) More French toast and sausage for breakfast. Lou and Dawn were busy working in the garden today. It's all prepared to plant now. I tinkered in the shop a little. Leftovers for lunch, corned beef and cabbage, savory coleslaw, and stew. In the afternoon I worked in the office. Lou made chili for dinner.


Monday: (03/05) Corned beef hash for breakfast. We worked in the yard most of the day. I unwrapped the strawberries, plucked them, and planted replacement plants as needed. I also cleaned out the front flower bed, pruning the geraniums. Lou was busy in the garden. Chili for lunch. We also moved some of the hanging plants out of the green house to the arbor. Tacos for dinner. For March it's more like summer. I hope it stays this way now. The bare naked arbor will hopefully soon recover and provide shade. It usually does. Lou and Dawns garden on the right. We should get a good berry crop this year.


Tuesday: (03/06) Granola for breakfast. A breezy and cold morning. Lou was busy planting the garden today. I trimmed the hanging basket plants in the arbor getting rid of the dead leaves. Quesodillas for lunch. I tinkered in the office much of the day. Salmon with rice and a green salad for dinner.

San Francisco History At The Mint

Saturday: (03/03) Lou made French toast and sausage for breakfast. We caught the train up to San Francisco. Lou and Dawn shared a gyro from the Oassis Grill at 200 4th St at Howard St. I could bring myself to have a gyro so I walked a block and found the Cravory Pie shop at 829 Mission Street and got one of their chicken pot pies. We then all went to the Old Mint for a history expo, a collection of all the historical societies in the city. The Old Mint building itself is quite interesting but is also the home of the San Francisco Museum And Historical Society. The building was built in 1870 but it is one of the few buildings in San Francisco that survived the 1906 earthquake. The architect recognized early the potential danger of earthquakes and built the buildings foundation to float the building and it worked. Of course that was 36 years after it was built. It performed as the  US Mint in San Francisco for another 30 year after that before a new mint building was built.


I didn't take many pictures at  the mint except for this bad one in the basement vault area. Now it is a generally vacant building on its way to becoming a museum. The various rooms were occupied by representatives of all the historical societies in town as well as speakers. One presentation we attended was about all the old garage buildings in town and what an architectural treasure they are. If only the buildings being built now days had a little of their style. When they closed down and we were thrown out we went over to the Amoeba Music shop on Haight Street by Golden Gate Park. They are a realy good used CD and DVD shop. Dawn thoroughly examined their stock and picked up a couple of things as well. We stopped at the nearby Siam Lotus Thai Cuisine restaurant for dinner (1705 Haight St). I had the Pad Thai while Lou and Dawn had coconut soup. For desert we shared a coconut ice cream and fried banana desert. This neighborhood is the famous Haight Ashbury neighborhood and there are still "interesting" people on the street. It was getting late as we hopped onto the Muni bus to the Muni Light Rail Station which took us to the Caltrain station and home. Interesting day! The weather was much nicer today than on my Tuesday visit just 4 days earlier. Today was clear and warm.

Pampering The Jeep

Friday: (03/02) Leftover biscuits and gravy for my breakfast. Lou had stew. When I finally got moving I took the Jeep in to get smogged. Somehow the paper work got lost. It was due in January. This will probably be the way it goes from now on though. California DMV won't be sending out notices after January 1st this year. That pretty much assures they'll be getting a lot of penalties. Probably part of the effort to balance the budget, though in a rather dishonest way. Anyway, they could do the test because the on board computer hadn't completed 2 of the seven tests needed before they can actually do the test. They said it was probably because the battery had been "recently" disconnected. Well recently was back in October when it was replaced. So this probably means we are going to be having problems getting this test done? They recommended we take a drive on the freeway for about 30 minutes and come back. Interesting that it passed the Alaska smog test with flying colors in July. After a run up to San Bruno and back, I took it back to the garage and the two diagnostic tests still had not run. So then reset them all to see it they complete. The two troublesome tests are a test the car does on the gas tank to check for leaks and a test on the catalytic converter. If any diagnostic test fails it is supposed to turn on the service required lamp but we haven't had an such indication. All this means no smog test, no registration, and lots of potential troubles. I did get it's oil changed and got it washed. At least something was accomplished today! For dinner we had chicken, corn on the cob, asparagus, and mashed potatoes.