Saturday - A bit warm, 90F+, and
humid. Bob had to go into the office - one of his guys had a serious
workplace injury, so I mostly just worked through to the hot part of
the afternoon demolishing the old brick wall.
It had no foundation at all below ground level, and was leaning over
about 30 degrees. Sometimes the bricks would just fall away as the
mortar failed, other times you had to bash with the sledge.
Interestingly while there was a double layer of bricks showing at the
top, this continued for only the top three courses - the lower four or
five layers were a single brick layer thick. It might be that the upper
courses were added later, or possibly a contractor back-in-the-day
cheated the home owner. In any case it lasted a long time - we've had
the house 40 years and it was there and looking old when we moved in -
so everyone got their money's worth.
I had hoped to save the square pier at the west end, but it was in
worse condition than the wall. A motley collection of bricks of
different types, including fire bricks, broken bricks, half bricks, all
held together by habit and a the merest smattering of mortar. After Bob
returned we looked at it together and decided to demo it as well and
make the wall continue in a curve to meet up with another (failing but
not as bad) retaining wall. It means more 55# landscape blocks will be
needed, carried up those stairs, though. More base and pea gravel as
well.
Beach Books. Just two this year, off the Kindle.
Book #56 was Caliban's War, by James S.A. Corey. This is the second book in the Expanse series, the sequel to Leviathan, and pretty good.
Book #57 was Double Share,
by Nathan Lowell. Again, pretty good. The Ishmael Wang series is about
star travel & starships, but not in the usual veins of exploration
or war, but commercial. Which is what the bulk of shipping is, even on
this single planet. Reasonably well done. I have a couple of issues
with this book, but nothing too serious.
Friday 6 July
2012
Friday
- Pretty tired. I got up late, and Bob had to work, so that was OK. In
the afternoon I potholed the backyard, tracing the water line that runs
alongside the failing retaining wall. It will have to be moved, since
the landscape blocks for the repaired wall have a significant setback,
about 6" for the 24" high wall. It was hot and, as I always forget
until I get here, humid. But I found the line(s).
I picked up a couple of rib-eye steaks, and we had a nice dinner, and watched the A's win in the eleventh on TV.
Bob's cat Rita, enjoying the morning sun.
Thursday 5 July2012
Thursday
- At the beach. Lunch at Hoppe's, good as always.
Since N realized her next photo shoot was this Friday, not Saturday,
I volunteered to drive her up to SF. I was going to head that way
anyway, on Friday (and this way I get to avoid the Friday morning
cleanup at the rental).
We left fairly late, about 2:30 or 3:00, and got to her place in SF at
6:30. We quickly unloaded her stuff - including a replacement microwave
- and then I was on the road and arriving at the Grandview house at
7:00. My brother wasn't there, understandable since I was 24 hours
early, but a quick call established that my old key still worked, and I
made myself at home.
Wednesday 4 July 2012
Wednesday - Happy Fourth of July!
The parade was nice, perhaps a few less entries than last year, but
still lots of fun. Our rental location is pretty much perfect for
viewing!
A late lunch of BBQ Tri-tip from the grill was delicious. It was so
good that we ended up eating all the meat, so no sandwiches for dinner
with the left overs. Though we were essentially too full for dinner
anyway.
The truly horrible judgment by the Supreme Court this week, essentially
allowing Obamacare to stand, sort of puts a damper on things for me,
but I didn't go on about it to my friends, I guess time will tell.
But up to this point the government could only impose on the average
citizen two basic duties: (1) Jury duty, and (2) Selective Service
Registration (for men).
Certainly if you made money you had to do taxes, if you owned property
you had to obey the EPA's rules, if you fly you have to deal with
whatever harassment the TSA feels like imposing, and so on and so on,
but these were the only two fundamental duties.
That number is now however many Congress and/or the President wants. No
limits, except for things explicitly covered under the Bill of Rights.
Well, 236 years, nearly a quarter of a millennium. It was a good run.
Tuesday
3 July 2012
Tuesday
- At the beach.
Monday 2 July 2012
Monday
- At the beach. We picked up K from the San Luis Obispo airport, then I stayed in Cayucos while the parental units went off to pick up N
in Salinas, where her boyfriend was dropping her off. Apparently they
met at a BBQ in what appeared to a fairly industrial part of Salina,
but was actually good food.
Sunday 1
July 2012
Sunday
- At the beach. It's typical weather, a nice soothing fog in the
morning, burning off to blue sky in the afternoon. There have been some
high winds, and interesting lighting when the sun shines under the
marine layer onto the more/less disturbed sea.
I drew up a little plan of inexpensive improvements to my sister's back
yard and sent it to her the other day. It isn't a fancy layout, but
it'll be better than what's there, and can be improved by her,
bit-by-bit, as time goes by.
Picture of
the Week Photo Notes: Dancers at the 2012 Greek Festival at the Camarillo airport.
