Jan 31st AM - Yesterday's Activities

Yesterday Kathy and I finished cleaning up the pile of debris left over from my tree/bush trimming. Actually we still have 5 or 6, 3-4" diameter by 4' long, pine tree limbs to cut up. We didn't know if Drew wanted them or not and the trash/recycle people would pick they up as they are. He thinks he might burn them in his fire pit so we will cut them into smaller pieces. He realizes that they will probably be pretty smokey when he burns them, even after drying out.

We worked at that pretty steady and were tired by evening. I was rewarded when Kathy made potato soup for supper. I love it! Drew also seemed to enjoy it.

The excitement yesterday came when we saw men walking around on the back of the lot next door. One of them was the lot owner and the others were guys who were here to do some clean up work.

The building next door looks pretty run down from the outside. The electricity and natural gas have been disconnected. It was last used as a church, although I have no idea how many years ago. This is what the backyard looked like when they started. It was MUCH junkier that it appears. They found a bicycle frame, old furniture, couches, a flat screen TV and more. The corrugated metal shed, on the left, belongs with property on another street.

 This is what it looks like now.

After I took the photos they brought in several cubic yards of pea gravel and put it in a pile.

The owner is going to salvage the existing building and put an addition on the back. He said when he is done it will be around 1900 sq. ft. He is a developer and will sell it once it is done. His target asking price is $400,000! If he follows through that can only be good for the value of Drew's property.

My initial, mid-western, thought was that 1900 sqft would make a nice size home for someone. After thinking about it I now wonder if it won't be split into two units. A common thing here would be for someone to buy the place and then rent out the other half. On the corner, actually adjacent to the front of the property in the photo, a younger couple are sinking everything they have into an older multi-story home. They plan on living in a small loft apartment, in the old attic, and renting out the other levels.

Have a great day everyone. May God bless you and yours.

Jan 31st - Old Photos

When downloading a couple of photos I took yesterday I noticed that I had never downloaded these.

I previously mentioned some of the scenery on our trip up though the San Joaquin valley, from the Los Angeles area to the San Francisco area. It was a drive that was interesting, but only for one trip through it. In addition to the citrus and nut trees we saw quite a few cattle feed lot operations. Below are photos of a couple of them. There is row after row of roofs apparently to provide shade for the cattle.

 

 This was a feeding area.

 Our parking space at the Alameda county fairgrounds.

Jan 29th - Jack London Square

This morning we went to Jack London square, on the Oakland "waterfront." There is a Farmer's Market on Sunday morning's and that was part of the reason we went, but it was also just a sightseeing trip.

It was a very pleasant morning. The waterfront area is a very nice place for a Sunday morning walk.

In the original of the photo below you can just see the San Francisco skyline in the background, through the haze.

Just another photo of the area.

We went out on one of the piers and watched some of the activity. Lots of sailboats appeared to be headed toward the bay/ocean. There were also a couple of rowing teams practicing by going up and down the "river" in sculls. We saw 5 or 6 people in kayaks and another guy who looked like he was standing on a surf board and using a long handheld oar for propulsion.

We didn't do much in the afternoon. Actually I had a very nice nap <grin>.

For those of you who might be interested in my take on yesterday's Occupy Oakland attempt to take over several buildings in the city check out my other blog at:
http://bertdspoliticalcommentary.blogspot.com/

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

Jan 28th - House Washing

It was another sunny day in CA with a high of 63.

I spent about 2 hours in the morning, and another hour in the afternoon, washing part of the front of the house, including the porch ceiling. Drew worked in the house doing odds and ends.

Kathy is still fighting a cold. She and Drew went to a restaurant supply store to pick up a few things he wanted. On the way back they stopped at a hot dog vendor and bought hot dogs for lunch. Mine sure tasted good.

Kathy is cooking a roast in the electric skillet, with potatoes and carrots, for supper. I can hardly wait. It is one of my favorite meals.

Nothing to exciting today, no Federal Marshalls doing surveillance on Drew's deck like we had a few days ago. He was watching the back of a house on the next street while other Marshall's broke down the doors on a house in the next block. I was oiling woodwork while he was out there and it was kind of funny when he came to the door and told me not to get concerned if I heard loud noises because it would be them breaking down the door. Then he said that if we heard gunshots we should hit the floor. (I think he was kidding.)

In case you are wondering. The guy was a nice young man and he asked if he could stand on the deck to look at the back of the other house.

Actually there may have been some excitement in downtown Oakland. I think the Occupy people are running amok again. During lunch we noticed two helicopters (news choppers?) hovering over the downtown area. We haven't watched the news so we don't know what actually was happening.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

Jan 27th - Farmer's Market

This morning we went to a Farmers Market in downtown Oakland. They block off two intersecting streets for 2 blocks each way and set up stands. This was the first time we have been to the older section of downtown Oakland. The buildings were impressive.

The building below was quite interesting. It stands all by itself. Someone spent/spends a LOT of money keeping it look this great.

In the afternoon we cut up more branches, still working on the pile of debris from my tree trimming. I finished priming around two of the windows. Kathy packed more stuff that was left at Drew's. The "basement" is looking bigger all the time.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

Jan 26th - Camping World

Today we drove to Vacaville to go to the Camping World store and get a cost estimate for replacing the fabric on our main awning and one of the slide toppers. The main awning isn't to bad yet but the slide topper cover is ready to fall apart. The estimate was a little over a thousand dollars. They want around $190 for the fabric for the slide topper. I think I can find the same material for less money and replace it myself.

Vacaville is about an hours drive from here, toward Sacramento. Most of it was a scenic drive. We had lunch at an oriental buffet. The place was nice. The food was okay, not exceptional, and the price was great. Our check was only $14.50.

Kathy has caught the cold I had a few days ago and it isn't fun. My nose ran constantly and so is hers. She still just keeps plugging along. She made scalloped potatoes for supper, something Drew had suggested. After we had supper I helped him with some water line modifications. I think all the water line leaks are now fixed. The shower drain still leaks a little and water still gets in behind one of the shower controls and leaks into the wall. We still have to fix those but the number of drip catching cans in the basement has been drastically reduced.

She and I, mostly her, attacked the pile of tree limbs I had trimmed this afternoon. The only way to get rid of them is to cut them up into small pieces that fit in the trash can that has compostable material or in large paper bags that can only contain lawn/yard debris. (You have to have three different garbage cans here. One for recyclable material, one for compostable material and a third for anything that isn't supposed to go in one of the other two. On top of that you have to take things like light bulbs to a hazardous waste facility.) Trash day is Friday so we wanted to get the green (compostable) can full.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

Jan 24th - Doug is Home

Doug left today and is now back in Indy. Kathy did some more cleaning, and yes there is still a LOT of cleaning to be done. I changed out another deck support post and added some knee braces. This is the 3rd post we changed and I think it will be the last.

Drew got rid of a large, HEAVY, cabinet this evening. It had been left by the previous occupant. Doug put in on Craig's list as a freeby. He told people that there would be no one to help them move it, that it was very heavy, and that they would have to carry it at least 100' because a dolly would not work in the yard. A Hispanic couple came to pick it up. She stayed in the truck with their young child. He had a dolly but even with Drew and I helping it was a chore to get it out to his truck and loaded in the truck. Drew is happy to get rid of it because it opens up more room in the "basement."

The weather was great today. The high was a sunny 58 degrees. The next week is supposed to be mostly sunny, no rain, with highs above 60 and lows in the mid 40's.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

Jan 24th - I'm Tired Yet - There But For the Grace of God Go I

I recently received a copy of the piece below. It was incorrectly attributed to Bill Cosby.
In fact it was penned in 2009 by Robert A. Hall. Mr. Hall is a Marine Vietnam veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts state senate.

I'm pretty much in agreement with everything that Mr. Hall says and yet check out my comments at the end of the piece.
***********************************

I'm Tired

I’ll be 63 soon. Except for one semester in college when jobs were scarce, and a six-month period when I was between jobs, but job-hunting every day, I’ve worked, hard, since I was 18. Despite some health challenges, I still put in 50-hour weeks, and haven’t called in sick in seven or eight years. I make a good salary, but I didn’t inherit my job or my income, and I worked to get where I am. Given the economy, there’s no retirement in sight, and I’m tired. Very tired.

I’m tired of being told that I have to “spread the wealth around” to people who don’t have my work ethic. I’m tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy or stupid to earn it.

I’m tired of being told that I have to pay more taxes to “keep people in their homes.” Sure, if they lost their jobs or got sick, I’m willing to help. But if they bought McMansions at three times the price of our paid-off, $250,000 condo, on one-third of my salary, then let the leftwing Congresscritters who passed Fannie and Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act that created the bubble help them—with their own money.

I’m tired of being told how bad America is by leftwing millionaires like Michael Moore, George Soros and Hollywood entertainers who live in luxury because of the opportunities America offers. In thirty years, if they get their way, the United States will have the religious freedom and women’s rights of Saudi Arabia, the economy of Zimbabwe, the freedom of the press of China, the crime and violence of Mexico, the tolerance for Gay people of Iran, and the freedom of speech of Venezuela. Won’t multiculturalism be beautiful?

I’m tired of being told that Islam is a “Religion of Peace,” when every day I can read dozens of stories of Muslim men killing their sisters, wives and daughters for their family “honor;” of Muslims rioting over some slight offense; of Muslims murdering Christian and Jews because they aren’t “believers;” of Muslims burning schools for girls; of Muslims stoning teenage rape victims to death for “adultery;” of Muslims mutilating the genitals of little girls; all in the name of Allah, because the Qur’an and Shari’a law tells them to.

I believe “a man should be judged by the content of his character, not by the color of his skin.” I’m tired of being told that “race doesn’t matter” in the post-racial world of President Obama, when it’s all that matters in affirmative action jobs, lower college admission and graduation standards for minorities (harming them the most), government contract set-asides, tolerance for the ghetto culture of violence and fatherless children that hurts minorities more than anyone, and in the appointment of US Senators from Illinois. I think it’s very cool that we have a black president and that a black child is doing her homework at the desk where Lincoln wrote the emancipation proclamation. I just wish the black president was Condi Rice, or someone who believes more in freedom and the individual and less in an all-knowing government.

I’m tired of a news media that thinks Bush’s fundraising and inaugural expenses were obscene, but that think Obama’s, at triple the cost, were wonderful. That thinks Bush exercising daily was a waste of presidential time, but Obama exercising is a great example for the public to control weight and stress, that picked over every line of Bush’s military records, but never demanded that Kerry release his, that slammed Palin with two years as governor for being too inexperienced for VP, but touted Obama with three years as senator as potentially the best president ever.

Wonder why people are dropping their subscriptions or switching to Fox News? Get a clue. I didn’t vote for Bush in 2000, but the media and Kerry drove me to his camp in 2004.

I’m tired of being told that out of “tolerance for other cultures” we must let Saudi Arabia use our oil money to fund mosques and madrassa Islamic schools to preach hate in America, while no American group is allowed to fund a church, synagogue or religious school in Saudi Arabia to teach love and tolerance.

I’m tired of being told I must lower my living standard to fight global warming, which no one is allowed to debate. My wife and I live in a two-bedroom apartment and carpool together five miles to our jobs. We also own a three-bedroom condo where our daughter and granddaughter live. Our carbon footprint is about 5% of Al Gore’s, and if you’re greener than Gore, you’re green enough.
I’m tired of being told that drug addicts have a disease, and I must help support and treat them, and pay for the damage they do. Did a giant germ rush out of a dark alley, grab them, and stuff white powder up their noses while they tried to fight it off? I don’t think Gay people choose to be Gay, but I damn sure think druggies chose to take drugs. And I’m tired of harassment from cool people treating me like a freak when I tell them I never tried marijuana. Update: People have written to tell me I'd have more sympathy if this was close to me. It is exactly having seen the destruction of alcoholism and heroin addiction in my own family that makes me pretty intolerant of people who are willing to destroy the people around them to indulge themselves.
I’m tired of illegal aliens being called “undocumented workers,” especially the ones who aren’t working, but are living on welfare or crime. What’s next? Calling drug dealers, “Undocumented Pharmacists”? And, no, I’m not against Hispanics. Most of them are Catholic and it’s been a few hundred years since Catholics wanted to kill me for my religion. I’m willing to fast track for citizenship any Hispanic person who can speak English, doesn’t have a criminal record and who is self-supporting without family on welfare, or who serves honorably for three years in our military. Those are the citizens we need. Update: A few people have taken this to indicate some bias against Catholics, based on events 400 years ago. While I think they are either too touchy or fail to understand, I was only trying to say that I have zero problem with Catholics wanting to come to the US, but that I have great concerns about Muslims, as a good % of them do want to kill me, or force their religion and moral code on me.

I’m tired of latte liberals and journalists, who would never wear the uniform of the Republic themselves, or let their entitlement-handicapped kids near a recruiting station, trashing our military. They and their kids can sit at home, never having to make split-second decisions under life and death circumstances, and bad mouth better people then themselves. Do bad things happen in war? You bet. Do our troops sometimes misbehave? Sure. Does this compare with the atrocities that were the policy of our enemies for the last fifty years—and still are? Not even close. So here’s the deal. I’ll let myself be subjected to all the humiliation and abuse that was heaped on terrorists at Abu Ghraib or Gitmo, and the critics can let themselves be subject to captivity by the Muslims who tortured and beheaded Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, or the Muslims who tortured and murdered Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins in Lebanon, or the Muslims who ran the blood-spattered Al Qaeda torture rooms our troops found in Iraq, or the Muslims who cut off the heads of schoolgirls in Indonesia, because the girls were Christian. Then we’ll compare notes. British and American soldiers are the only troops in history that civilians came to for help and handouts, instead of hiding from in fear. UPDATE: It has rightly been pointed out to me, several times, that I should have included Canadian, Australian and New Zealand troops here. My apologies for slighting these gallant allies of freedom.

I’m tired of people telling me that their party has a corner on virtue and the other party has a corner on corruption. Read the papers—bums are bi-partisan. And I’m tired of people telling me we need bi-partisanship. I live in Illinois, where the “Illinois Combine” of Democrats and Republicans has worked together harmoniously to loot the public for years. And I notice that the tax cheats in Obama’s cabinet are bi-partisan as well.

I’m tired of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers and politicians of both parties talking about innocent mistakes, stupid mistakes or youthful mistakes, when we all know they think their only mistake was getting caught. I’m tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or poor.

Speaking of poor, I’m tired of hearing people with air-conditioned homes, color TVs and two cars called poor. The majority of Americans didn’t have that in 1970, but we didn’t know we were “poor.” The poverty pimps have to keep changing the definition of poor to keep the dollars flowing.

I’m real tired of people who don’t take responsibility for their lives and actions. I’m tired of hearing them blame the government, or discrimination, or big-whatever for their problems.

Yes, I’m damn tired. But I’m also glad to be 63. Because, mostly, I’m not going to get to see the world these people are making. I’m just sorry for my granddaughter.

**************************************

As I said before, I agree with almost all of the points made by Mr. Hall. At the same time I wonder, and I am reasonably certain that he does also, how we are going to get out of this government created mess. We have allowed government to take more and more control of our lives, as the price for receiving more and more handouts from the government. The evidence is clear that this just isn't working. We have created the Entitlement Generation, people who think that it is government primary job to take from those who work and give to those who won't. But the rot goes much deeper.

There are a LOT of panhandlers here in California. I'm pretty good at brushing them off, not necessarily a thing to be proud of. Yesterday morning it was cool with a light rain. A few blocks from our son's we stopped to fill up with gas before leaving to do a little sightseeing. A dishelved young man, probably in his 20's, carrying a back pack (probably all he owned) came up and asked for money. My hearing is bad and he spoke very softly. I actually didn't even hear what he had to say. I just brushed him off. He shuffled away looking for someone else. The young man had stringy wet hair, tatoos down his neck and across his fingers, etc. He happened to be white, but that isn't all that important. As I finished filling up I watched him shuffle, huddled against the cold rain, across traffic to stand on the island between opposing lanes of traffic, no doubt hoping that a passing motorist would have him a hand-out while stopped at the traffic signal.

Got spoke to my heart. He used a combinaton of Mt 25:40 "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' and the story of Papa Panov's Christmas. You can read the story at

http://classiclit.about.com/od/christmasstoriesholiday/a/aa_papachr.htm if you so desire. I walked out to the island and gave the young man $5. There were tears in his eyes as he thanked me before hurrying across the street to a small grocery.

The reason I tell this story is because I wonder how we, as a nation, can deal with young men and women like this young man. No one can seriously believe that the massive, bureaucratic programs that we have, or that are constantly being proposed, are going going to solve the problem. Trillions of taxpayer dollars have been squandered since Johnson started the "War on Poverty" in the 70's. The problem is worse today than it was then.

It seems to me that the first step is to get the federal government completely out of the welfare/charity, income redistribution business. The same with State government. Local people in local communties need to be the ones who take care of one another. It is much more likely that on the local level better decisions can be made as to the worthiness of recipients. If on a local level we are not willing to take care of one another then we no longer have a nation worth saving. Politicians need to be saying, "You need to shoulder the responsibility of solving local problems on the local level.", instead of their continued efforts to increase the size of their domains at the State and Federal levels. 

As a side note, I am not a supporter of Romney. If he is the best Republicans can offer I will again "waste" my vote on the Civil Libertarian candidate. I heard last night that his recently released tax returns show that he donated around $7 million (17.1% of his income) of his two year $41 million income to tax deductible charities. Romney is one of the nasty, rich, greedy, conservative who doesn't care about poor people, according to the main stream media.

I find it interesting to compare his giving to that of the who "feel the pain" of the poor and down trodden. According to the New York Times the Clinton's made $109 million over 8 years ending in 2007, they gave $10.2 million (9.4% of their income) in "chraritible" contributions to a trust controlled by them. Obama's tax returns for 2000-2006 the Obama's had an Adjusted Gross Income of $3.9 million. They had charitable contribution of $148,000 (3.8% of their income).

Until people like the Clinton's and Obama's, who make far more money than we do, start contributing a higher percentage of their income for charitable purposes that us, I refuse to even consider that they are sincere about "helping" the poor and downtrodden. All they really want to do is take more of our money so that they can use it to buy the votes with payoffs through government programs.

 

Jan 23rd - Sightseeing

Yesterday we rested, for the most part. Drew cleaned gutters in the rain. Doug did some work inside. I am fighting off a cold and did virtually nothing all day.

Today Drew went back to work. Doug, Kathy & I did some sight seeing. We went to Pier 14 to see the Raygun Gothic Rocket ship that Drew had worked on. In the background is the bridge between San Francisco and Treasure island.

 Below is a larger photo of the plaque that you see in the above photo, between Kathy & I. I drew the box around Drew's name.

After seeing the rocket ship we walked through one of the shopping areas at the pier. Kathy & Doug tried out the coffee at the Blue Bottle. The place is supposed to have better coffee than Starbucks.

From there we went to Golden Gate Park. We had hoped to go into the Conservatory but found that it was closed on Mondays. We walked around the neighborhood and found a "greasy spoon" for lunch. The place was on the small side. It was fairly crowded the entire time we were in the place. The food was good and reasonably priced.

After lunch we drove north, up across the Golden Gate bridge and back around the bay to Oakland.

There was a fair amount of drizzle during the day, with occasional sunshine.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

Poltical Commentary Posts - Location Change

I have copied past Political Commentary posts to the blog site noted below.http://bertdspoliticalcommentary.blogspot.com/
All future Political Commentary posts will be on the new site.

Jan 22nd - Political Commentary - Drug Laws

I have considered myself a Civil Libertarian since the Republican party moved left after the Reagan presidency. More importantly I am a born again, fundamentalist Christian.

I am aghast at the way we have let the federal government ignore our Constitution and take away our rights to make our own decisions. I believe that God gives each individual the right to decide where he/she will spend eternity. All other decisions that we make pale in significance to that decision. Individuals should be allowed to decide how we want to live our lives right up to the point that those decisions infringe on the rights of others.

With the above in mind I want to discuss the issues of drug/alcohol laws in the United States. Drug laws should be revised to be similar to laws regarding alcohol use. Each adult should have the freedom to make decisions concerning the use of either product.

I am a sheltered, conservative, mid-westerner so I my observation that the people who live in one of the houses on block where my son lives are selling drugs may be incorrect. As I set here Sunday morning I see vehicle after vehicle pull up in front of that house. Someone from the house climbs into the passenger side of the vehicle for a minute or two, the horn honks and someone else comes out of the house and shakes hands with the person in the car. The people in the cars, and also walk-up customers, vary in race and age, although the majority appear to be blacks under the age of 50.

We have been here over a week now. The people in this house, several, related (I think) "families", respond politely to a hello or wave when we are out front. They have given us no reason to be concerned about them (fear them) being neighbors.

There is a park across the street. It appears that it would be quite easy for the police to set up surveillance cameras on the next block over and monitor the activity, eventually leading to the arrest of at least some of them. When I consider this I also must consider what would be gained by such an action. Taxpayers would bear the cost of trying and incarcerating more young black men. Taxpayers would bear the cost of raising the children of these young men, which we may already be doing since they probably have no legal income. We would have more young black men hit the streets with prison records, thus making them even more unemployable. The end result would be that the business would just move down the street, or over a block, or somewhere. It might be operated by someone else but it would certainly continue.

Most of us can understand the motivation, and even be sympathetic, for someone who illegally enters our nation, because of the belief that they will have a better opportunity to make money. Are we blind to the concept that as long as there is demand for a product, legal or illegal, someone will provide that product?

Spending billions of tax dollars spraying poppy fields in Asia, assisting with apprehension of drug kingpins in Mexico and South American is insane. Can any of you remember reading about Prohibition in your history books? Look it up. Government couldn't control alcohol then and it can't control drugs now.

As long as there are obscene levels of profits to be made someone will provide the supply. One of two things need to happen. Legalize drugs and tax the hell out of them, just like alcohol, while actually enforcing/imposing VERY HARSH penalties on anyone who provides drugs to children. The other alternative is to stop the demand. The only way to do that is to impose HARSH penalties on those who buy the drugs. In our current namby, pamby world, which considers that no one should be held responsible for his/her actions, only the first option seems viable.

For Christians who are considering what I have said, can any of you point out to me where Christ, or any New Testament Christians, supported having Rome, the government at the time, impose morality laws?

I urge readers to leave me a comment on this site, whether you agree or disagree with me. Also, let us know why, and suggest alternatives.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Have a great day. May God bless you and yours.

Jan 21st - Drew's Open House

The open house was a huge success. No one tried to count the number of people who showed up but it had to be close to 100, if not more. The open house was scheduled for 1-5. We thought the last people left just before 6 but then a guy showed up after 6.

I walked though the house and took photos of some of the people who were there during my quick walk thru. Many people were coming and going during the entire afternoon.

Kathy and I are both pretty tired tonight, we make take tomorrow off, after helping do some clean up in the morning.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

Jan 21st - Drew's Place

Below are some photos of Drew's (our younger son) place.

First, remember that all this is at what we midwesterners would consider the 2nd floor. There is a full "basement", on a slab, under this level.

The bay window faces the street. The front door opens on to a small porch and the stairs down to grade. Along the left edge of the photo you see the wood burning stove that you will see in the next photo.

The office. The boxed out corner on the right is for part of the front porch. There is a big closet behind the woodburner.

The dining room. Note the edge of the woodburner on the right side of the photo. There is a shelving unit built into the wall across from the right side of the table. The double door opening you see on the right goes into the kitchen. Behind the table is the open stair going down to the "basement". Actually only the part above the floor is open. The stair area below the floor is fully enclosed to separate it from the basement. Behind the wall at the back of the stair is the main bathroom. The glass door you see at the end of the hall opens out onto a large rear deck. The door between it and the kitchen doorway goes into the bedroom

The right side of the kitchen. Kathy has spent a LOT of time washing the wood cabinetry and other woodwork. She was also oiling it. Yesterday I took over some of the oiling. I oiled woodwork for at least two hours in the morning and another hour and a half in the afternoon. We still have more to do.

The left side of the kitchen.

The "conservatory". Note the large wrap around deck. Yes this is a fully operational bathtub. The drain had previously been connected and we finished the water connections.

This is his new washer/dryer unit that we installed in the bathroom. The drain line was already installed and the water lines were stubbed off in the wall. We just needed to extend the gas line for the dryer, install the dryer vent through the wall, and add connections on the water line stubs. The unit is in the bathroom.

I didn't take any photos of his bedroom, which is nice sized, or the half bath off his bedroom. The toilet was out of the half bath so that Doug could do repairs to the grout in the tile floor and so that a new wax ring could be installed under the toilet. This morning it is operational.

Today is his "open house". I think he said over 80 people have "RSVP'd". It is from 1-5.

Have a great day. May God bless you and yours.

Jan 19th - Washer & Dryer Working

Today it started raining. The rain is supposed to continue into next week. It is more like a drizzle.

Today we got Drew's washer and dryer running, made some plumbing and gas line changes, put in a vent for the gas dryer, did some yard work before the rain started, washed trim, etc. We made good progress on his list.

Not sure what the priorities are for tomorrow but I'm sure that there is still plenty to do.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

Jan 18th - Painting Day

Yesterday we scraped and washed part of the house. This morning I washed some more of it. Then we started painting.

We got two sides painted, actually primed. The final colors will be much more "exciting" than the putty color of this primer.

It got down to 33 degrees both of the past two nights. Highs have been in the 50's. Yes it was cold getting wet while washing down the sides of the house <grin>. It is supposed to be much warmer tonight, 45. The highs for the next 6 days are all mid/high 50s and the lows are mid/high 40's.

Below Doug, our son who lives in Indy, is spray painting.

Kathy is going some touch up work with a brush.

  The p;rimed back of the house.

It is about time for supper. After that, comes a long, hot shower and probably not much else before bed. Last night after we finished work and ate we got cleaned up and went grocery shopping at the huge grocery a few mile from here.

It is supposed to start raining tomorrow and rain for 4 days. Drew is hoping it will hold off another day so that we can put a finish coat on these two sides.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

Jan 16th - Tire Repair

I went to Big O and had the CRV tire repaired this morning. Fortunately it held enough air overnight so that I could drive the mile to Big O. $25 to plug a tire here!

After the tire repair I went to the closest Walmart to get a prescription refilled. Hard to imagine that the closest Walmart is over 10 miles from here. The prescription that cost me $10 in Lebanon cost $24 here. I asked about it and was told that different states have different drugs at the cheaper price. The cost of living out here is stunning!

Kathy put Thompson's Sealer on the exposed wood around Drew's sun room. He calls it his conservatory. It is actually a room with glass wall and a glass/clear roof. The only thing in the room is a bathtub.

I did some spackling and "bagged" some yard debris. I also removed some deteriorated trim from the "conservatory.

Sears delivered Drew's stackable washer and dryer this afternoon. We will probably wait until Wednesday to hook it up, since it is supposed to rain then.

Drew had a meeting with the 5 Ton Crane group tonight. Check out the rocket ship and submarine at http://fivetoncrane.org/ The group has been asked to provide displays for windows at one of the San Francisco museums.

Tonight Drew took back the car he had borrowed over the weekend. I followed him to give him a ride back. The trip into San Francisco at night was pretty.

Our son Doug, who lives in Indianapolis, is flying in tomorrow to help work on Drew's house for a week.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

Jan 15th - Parked at Drew's

We arrived at Drew's, in the RV, around 11 AM yesterday. There was a car parked across the street from his gate but we gave getting in a shot. We didn't even come close to being able to get through the gate. Drew only has neighbors on one side, the building on the other side of him is vacant, (there are a LOT of neighbors living next door). He asked them if the car was theirs and, if so, would they move it. It was one of their cousins who lives there, or at least in the car, an old station wagon, some of the time. He wasn't there but they said they would ask him to move it when he returned.

Kathy stayed at Drew's and did more sorting through the stuff left by the previous tenants of the house. Drew and I made trips to Home Depot, then Orchard Building Supply (a nice hardware store), and also to a local grocery store that is huge (local being maybe a 15 minute drive).

It was almost dark when the neighbor got home and moved the car. We provided entertainment for the neighbors trying to get the RV into Drew's drive. At one point I was almost ready to give up and head back down the 35 miles to the campground where we had been staying. Kathy showed the patience of Job as she kept following my directions on "sawing" the RV back and forth to the point where we finally managed to get into the driveway. When we finally made it in we had maybe 4" clear between the side of the RV and the steel gate post on one side and on the other side we had ropes tied around the trees/bushes and had them pulled over towards a porch post as far as Drew and I could manage.

Below are photos of the RV in the driveway.

We have 3 of the 4 slides out but without totally cutting down the tree/bush I have been trimming, we can't put out one of the bedroom slides. That isn't really much of a problem.

Today we went to Lowe's & Harbor Freight looking for a basement shoring post. We needed something to hold up areas of the deck while we changed several of the 4x6 posts. No one out here has them. Lowe's ended up calling their store in Knoxville, TN and got an item number for the posts. The best either Home Depot or Lowes could do was order us one. We would have had to wait two weeks for it.

Drew talked to one of the sales people at Harbor Freight and they had a device that worked better than a basement shoring post. We changed two posts after we got home while Kathy did more painting.

I noticed that our CRV had a low tire and drove over to a gas station and put air in it. I looked it over and noticed a screw in it. Tomorrow I will have to find a place to have it repaired.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours

Jan 14th - Political Commentary - Stupid Politicians or Crooks

Things must be bad when politicians/bureaucrats use the excuse that they are stupid, not corrupt/criminals. Howard McKeon and Elton Gallegly, both Republicans from southern California; and Edolphus Towns, a New York Democrat; are now being investigated by an ethics committee (I doubt that anyone in government actually understands the concept of ethics). There is a fourth person but no one has released his/her identity yet. These politicians received “VIP” loans from Countrywide Financial Corp, one of the mortgage giants that helped cause the mortgage crisis. They actually claim that they were unaware that they received any special treatment.

Countrywide’s VIP loan recipients received lower interest rates and/or lower costs that regular customers. I guess you can’t call the action a bribe unless you can prove that the recipients gave them some favorable treatment, No doubt the recipients were good enough crooks to not let that happen. In 2010 their chief executive, Angelo Mozilo, paid $67.5 million in penalties, apparently to buy off the feds from pursuing charges against him. He never admitted doing anything wrong.

How much more evidence to we need before we vote all the scum bags out of office and vote in some people who want to get the federal government back to doing only what it is empowered to do by the Constitution. I challenge any of you to find the Article and Section of the Constitution where “We the People” gave the federal government the authority to go into the home mortgage business.

One of my guys from TN might actually have a functioning brain and be worth re-election.

“Addressing realtors in Nashville and Chattanooga this week, Senator Corker discussed his proposal for long-term housing reform and sharply criticized recent comments by New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley who has advocated using Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to write down the principal on home loans where the borrower owes more than the home is worth.

“Reducing the principal on home loans for borrowers who put no money down amounts to a massive wealth transfer from places like Tennessee, where most homeowners have borrowed responsibly, to places like California and New York, where exotic mortgages were widely used to finance a speculative housing boom,” Corker said.  “It is absolutely egregious that the Federal Reserve would insert itself in this manner and ask people in Tennessee who played by the rules to bail out reckless borrowers in other parts of the country. A program like this one that reduces principal for a few million underwater borrowers would come at a substantial cost to American taxpayers and responsible borrowers everywhere.”

Senator Corker has introduced the Residential Mortgage Market Privatization and Standardization Act in an effort to start a real conversation in Washington about the need to responsibly unwind government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and gradually end dependence on the government for housing finance.”

I urge everyone to support Ron Paul. What more evidence do we need that he is the best the Republicans have to offer than the news media ignoring his astonishing numbers in Iowa.

Jan 14th AM - Moving Day

Yesterday we arrived at Drew's a little before noon. Kathy started work inside and I pruned bushes and trees. We left and headed back to the campground shortly after he arrived home around 6 PM. Today's plan is to pack up and head to his place.

This is the before pruning photo from yesterday.

This is the after pruning photo. I may still need to take off more, hope not. Note that you can now see the tree across the street and the full posts on the right side of gate at the end of the driveway.

 From the backyard. The glass room is off his bedroom, the only bedroom. It has a bathtub in it. The drain is hooked up but the final water connections were never made. All the living space is in the upstairs. The house is supported by 4x4's and then the lower level was sheathed/enclosed. The lower level is his workshop. It is more like a basement even though it is not below grade.

These two redwood are magnificent. The trunks are about 3' in diameter. One is on his lot the other is on the lot line. Note that it is built into the fence.

 Backyard. The pile on the right is part of what I pruned.

 The driveway side of the house. This was recently totally covered in vines. The bay window is in the kitchen The front window is in his office.

 Front of the house from across the street. The left side of the house is built right on the lot line. You can't get to it without going onto the neighbors property and they aren't all that friendly. The neighbors must have a LOT of friends who stop by for a quick howdy. There is an almost continuous stream of traffic that makes quick stops in front of the house. Just long enough for someone to walk up the the rolled down window, shake hands and say hello. More on that subject in one of my political posts.

Hope you all have a great day. May God bless you and yours.

Jan 13th AM - Busy Yesterday

Yesterday we went up to Drew's place. It is a 45 minute drive from where we are "camped" but this is the closest place we have found that we can get our 40' RV in and out of.

His place is nicer than I had expected, but it does need a LOT of TLC. It is easy to see that he has already done a lot of work. I will include some photos tonight or tomorrow. There are some nice places in the neighborhood, but most are fairly run down. We didn't see many white faces, although the few people we spoke to were friendly enough. We had a late lunch at a BBQ place a couple of blocks from his house. It was finger licking good.

We bought a pole saw, I left mine in TN, and will be doing some serious pruning today so that we can get our RV in his driveway. Looks like we will have several feet to spare lengthwise but width will be a problem with the slides. We may only put out 3 of our 4 slides to reduce the amount of trees/bushes that we have to cut down/back. The yellow vertical "line" is my tape measure, it is the clearance line to get the RV into the driveway. The gate is 12' wide and the street is 35-40' wide, and not real busy, so we can get through the gate OK.

He has a sewer cleanout where we should be able to reach it without much problem, we may need another length of sewer hose. He has outside hose bibs so hooking up to water should be easy enough. He already has a 30 amp 220/240 breaker in a panel for his welder. I think I have enough 50 amp cable to be able to reach the panel and use that breaker. 30 amps on each of two 110/120 legs should be all the power we need.

Night before last, here at the fairgrounds where we are camped, the temperature got down to 30. Last nights low was 33. The lowest low forecast in Oakland for the next week is 37 and the highest high is 62. With the bright sun 62 make the RV warm and toasty. Since we only set the thermostats at 55 in the front and 50 in the back when we go to bed the heat pumps should not have to work to hard with 37 for a low.

Got to get to work.

God bless you and yours.

Jan 11th - Alameda County Fairgrounds

We arrived at the Alameda Country Fairgrounds at 1 PM today. It didn't take long to get parked and hooked up.

We didn't know it when we decided to try this place that there was an RV show going on. In the afternoon we walked over went through it. Today was Senior Citizen's day and two got in for the price of one. We had hoped to find a couple of places that did work on RV awnings. One guy said that they install/replace awnings, along with a lot of other RV work. There actual place of business is quite a ways south of here but I will probably call them to get a quote.

It was nice here today, high in the 70's and sunny. It was easily warm enough for shorts and a short sleeve shirt. Tonight it is supposed to get down to freezing. Tomorrow's high is supposed to be 65.

I don't know why but it seems that both are vehicles are getting better fuel economy. The CRV mileage has increased from around 24 back east to 27 or 28 out here. The RV mileage has increased from 7.9 to 8.6 on the last two fill-ups. The CAT engine must like climbing mountains. Yesterday one of the grades we climbed was long and steep. We feel a lot better about the ability to handle mountain grades now. Our speed was only 35 climbing the grade but the RV maintained that speed quite easily. We enough semi's to know that the grade was a difficult one to climb.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

Jan 10th Photos

For some reason I was able to upload photos this morning. These phone photos don't come close to doing justice to the scenery, but they at least give you an idea.

Kathy said she would try and get right next to this truckload of oranges if I wanted to try and reach out and grab a couple.

In the San Joaquin valley we have seen cattle feed lots, surrounded by fields of what looked like 4-6" tall wheat. We have also seen oil wells, lots of oranges still on the trees, harvested cotton fields and grapevines. We saw lots of trees with no leaves and we think they may have been almond or pistachio trees. In general I5 us pretty boring after you get 75 miles north on it.

You do get to see some interesting things early in the morning. At 6 AM I was walking up to the truck stop restaurant, which I found out is closed, and I saw this big boy maneuvering around the truck stop parking lot. I don't know what it was carrying. Didn't look like a transformer, and I was withing 50' of it for awhile. The trailer is one where a guy with a joy stick walks around and steers the axles.