Smoke and haze obscure visibility - Day 6

BIG SUR, Calif. - Firefighters bulked up their defenses Friday against a wildfire that threatened parts of this storied tourist town and prepared for more lightning strikes that could ignite new fires across Northern California.
More than 1,000 fires, mostly caused by lightning, burned across Northern California, including two gigantic blazes in the Los Padres National Forest.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked President Bush on Friday for a federal emergency declaration to free up more aid, saying the fires this season had burned 265,000 acres, or more than 400 square miles.

Raw Canice

I have posted a picture of myself . Usually I wonder if I am presentable enough or not. Yet somehow it is liberating to do it, knowing all the while I am posting an image of myself just me. i am almost 55, and remember when i was young that 55 seemed not old, but certainly not young. 25 years in the future i would be 80, and 25 years past I was 30.
Being 30 i know about, 80 is just something i will have to try on when it gets here. I think a lot about age...I am eligible to retire this year, and yet if i worked even 2 more years it would significantly change my retirement years, because I would move on in my career.
Career...what a word, especially for someone who in college just wanted to work a while, get married and be a mom..what a dope i was. I got the job, and the kid, and more work from both than I ever imagined...
So if you you look at me and think silly woman, what is she doing(or worse) think about the fact that you don't know me like i know me...simply huh?

Wildfires

SAN FRANCISCO - Wildfires raged in California on Tuesday, as the state marked the one-year anniversary of the devastating Angora fire, a massive blaze southwest of Lake Tahoe that destroyed 254 homes and charred 3,100 acres.
An "unprecedented" lightning storm Friday was the source of more than 800 wildfires, from Mendocino County south to the Big Sur area in Monterey County.
At least 200 of the fires remained unattended Tuesday as the state's limited resources were directed at the most immediate threats.

Yeah, thats right, california is burning...and my valley is full of smoke. Its like sunset all the time, can't see the sun, and in morning and evening the light turns pinky red.

Vacation ends, let the grind resume

I always feel that returning to work from vacation is the ultimate anticlimax in life. I had one job in my life so far that was the exception. Not any more, all i want to do is retire from the job I have now and do something else. I know thats a bad attitute, but work is pretty aggravating.
I have been saying this for the last 5 years, and then i do the numbers and realize I am stuck working for probably several years more, which is not cheering me up at all.
OH well...there is always the lottery, I think so far i may have won 20 bucks in the last 10 years..

So in the morning, I will drive to work, following a bizarre detour route prescribed by the State because of highway construction, and then resume my work...something that everyone from my boss to colleagues to subordinates all say i am very good at, yet I feel increasingly frustrated by the level of interference the client causes me in dealing with the project vendors...I will have to figure out a way to deal with that.

Democrat Lament

I didn't vote for Hillary or Obama in the California primary, I voted for someone else. I suppose my second choice would have been Hillary. Today I watched this noble woman give a speech to support a candidate she cited over and over again for the last year and a half as unfit to be president. Typical. We saw this in 2004, and every four years going back to who knows when-for the good of the party. I have to question my party, when they give "super delegates" the right to choose for me the nominee. The "evil" Republicans don't have such a rule.

I have to admit, I grew up in a time when people distrusted the government, but didn't define each other as anti-American and evil simply because they were Republican or Democrat...after all, those are political parties, but we are all Americans.

Back to the present, I want to know why the Democratic Party decided to punish two states by holding back half the delegates? I know people talk about Gore getting cheated out of being President, and I actually believe that, going back to distrust the government...I think the voting machines were rigged...but for crying out loud, even though I didn't vote for her, I think Mrs. Clinton was cheated by her own party. My party. How is that supposed to make me feel, that my party, the one I was so eager to join 40 years ago, just took a big dump on a woman who actually might have gotten elected President...
So, much to the chagrin of some, I will vote for someone else

While driving back north on th coast, i stopped and took a picture of

While driving back north on th coast, i stopped and took a picture of this freighter off the coast near Pigeon Point Lighthouse.

I could not make out the name on the side of ths ship.

Yesterday June 5

Ok, before we left, i decided to take the obligatory beach photos.

Ever see a 7 million dollar beach house?

Vacation

I started taking multiple vacations throughout the year several years ago, when my income allowed it, and I had acquired enough seniority at work to earn the required time off. So as my work project started to wear me out a little, i decided to take a week off, and so it was that I was off from May 31 to June 9. But then the gas prices starting go up and up and up, making a typical drive to Oregon more costly, so much so that taking a few days off and going somewhere closer more appealing.

Although I have been there several times over the last 30 years (wow, i never thought of it that way before) the central California coast, specifically Pacific Grove and Carmel by the Sea seemed a good choice. I made a reservation for several days, and off we went.
The trip started well, although I was really distressed enroute when a place where we usually stop when travelling that part of the coast (our daughter lives in Santa Cruz) to stretch and let the dog out was closed, with police everywhere. Honey saw several men in suits and blurted out "detectives" which i recognize as the case, and as the highway ascended the bluff, we could see a lone police officer on the beach near the surf, a sheet outstretched. I eventually read a small article online:

The family of a 44-year-old Santa Rosa woman whose body was found floating in the surf at a San Mateo County beach shortly after she was seen meditating said Wednesday they had no idea how she died.
Michele Keith's body was retrieved Monday near the shore of a Pescadero State Beach after being spotted by a park worker.
The San Mateo County coroner's office said Wednesday an autopsy had been completed, but lab results are pending and no determination had been made about the cause of death.

Going to the beach lost its appeal for us that afternoon.

Next day
We arose before the sun tahnks to our dog deciding it was time for everyone to get up, a trait I had hoped she would relinquish since I had told her over and over Vacation, va-ca-tion...no need to get up, no work, no worries...apparently she had other ideas. So as i was eating breakfast, she was putting that dog mind melt on me,
pick up
the leash
take me to the beach
It worked..actually, finding the crumby coffee in our room barely tasteful, I longed to explore a coffee cafe I had spied in carmel, so we ventured off that way, got some coffee and went to a empty beach south of town.

Third day

Bored with looking at gray skies, ad wind blowing in from the northwest, maintaining a steady cold damp breeze, we opted to got for a short drive inland, and check out the outlet mall- a shoppers paradise. I went to Coach, Eddie Bauer, Nautica and (who knew) Calphalon..I found some stuff..OK, a new purse, a eyeglass case, some tops and some really nice cookware

Crazy Day - May 31 2008

Yesterday after posting on this blog, i set about to do some things i had promised to do..pay some bills, and then drive up to my mom's to see if i could get her computer working correctly. I do this about every six month to year, driving the 75 miles to her house to do routine maintenance on an aging HP desktop running Windows Millenium Edition, a pre XP operating system. I stopped on the way and got some fast food, and while in the drive thru waiting for my order, called her to make sure she knew i was on my way. She told me she was waiting for an ambulance and couldnt talk.
I called one brother, with no answer, so i called the other brother and spoke with his wife. He was with his daughter doing something with some of their cattle, but she filled me in on what was going on, since my aunt had called there right before me. My mom was having another bout with pain and gastric issues. we talked a bit and then after i got my food, I drove a short ways and parked, eating and thinking.

I went to my brothers house and we discussed what to do with mom. She is extremely overweight, is rapidly losing her mobility, and lately has not been taking care of herself. my sister-in-law said that unless my niece goes and cooks for her, she only eats packaged things like cookies, donuts, cakes...all bad for her. Her recent illnesses have all been attributed to poor diet and lack of exercise; she fired the therapist we hired, and refuses to have in home care. I said that although we might not want to do it, we might have to force her to accept care from a non-family member. Finally, my brother and I went to the hospital to see her.

She looked bad. By that I mean my mother has always been a clean person, yet she smelled like she hadn't bathed in awhile, and her hair which is usually perfect was flat, dirty and not at all like she usually looks. They had started an IV, and after we had visited her some, the nurse asked us to leave so they could do some other tests and add electrolytes to her IV. Our aunt was allowed to stay.
My brother and i went, returned to his house and discussed some options our aunt had provided. her husband had been an invalid until he died recently, so she had a lot of home care advice, which my brother will get for us to follow up on.

Upon leaving later that afternoon, I was going to take a back road I remember from years ago, but apparently I was not thinking straight, and ended up on some roads i had never been on before. I did manage to get back to a place I knew where I was, partly due to a map I had, and my car compass (digital basic north south east west)

I also managed to embarass myself- after travelling these roads for about an hour, and swilling water from a quart I had bought on my way up, I was becoming painfully aware I needed to let some fluids back out. So on a deserted dirt farm road, I began looking for a place to "wee"...and finding said place, pulled over, went to the back of my Jeep for some tissue(I travel prepared) I walked off the road a bit and after assuring myself there were no houses around nor any people, I squatted. It was while cleaning myself I looked down the road, and noticed a man standing there about 300 feet down the road staring at me. Where he came from I have no idea. He must have seen me stop, and no doubt watched me. I quickly pulled up my panties and jeans, and walked quickly to the car, and as i drove away, he stood there motionless staring.