Month: August 2015

rDay One-Hundred-Thirty-Nine: Safety First

With wildfires in the mountain forests surrounding the valley and smoky haze in the skies, Ivi waits until today’s 96 – 100 degree temperatures subside a bit to wrap up the work on the 103 entrance.  The ramp gets strips of 3M no-slip tape under the watchful eyes of Janet’s neighbor’s dog.  Ivi also secures the rug just inside the sliding door with its own no-slip treatment with other material.  Then, after a root beer float toast, we drive off into the sunset.

rDay One-Hundred-Thirty-Nine

Today, life at random …

rDay One-Hundred-Thirty-Eight: Adventures with Ivi

First, let’s get the semi-obligatory car stuff out of the way. While Ivi stopped for a few minutes at her bank auto-teller, I took a look at some of the cars at the adjacent Historic Texaco Station, something devised by a local preservationist/entrepreneur.  The Station is usually littered with a number of old cars in various states of being.    Today I saw a faded pink ’57 Oldsmobile and a circa ’49 Chevy (with the Fender Bender? sign across the street).   I also bumped into a woman who was photographing the cars as well, and our brief chat revealed that she was trying to document a Thoreau quotation bumper sticker that appeared on one of the cars.

Then less than a block away, I spot a circa 1939 Buick parked in front of the GM dealer.  Next was an otherwise nondescript Subaru painted in the Subaru rally racing team livery colors. Finally, as we drove up Island Avenue, I sighted a Cayman (any Porsche model is a rarity in these parts), but thought I was too late to capture it.  Nevertheless upon later inspection, I found that it can be barely seen in the extreme right of my blind, over-the-shoulder attempt (like fishing, the photograph not taken — the one that got away — doesn’t count).

One of our major errands was a trip to the local shoe repair shop — apparently one of the very few still in existence in the entire state — where we discussed the economy and made plans for recycling comfortable old footwear. And right outside we also get the Dog Photo of the Day and, once again, I capture the local retro-bus (I could explain about this: a few years back, when I built a website for the city, part of the package was to be photos of, among other things, local public transit. But I never did get a proper picture of the old buses, so I keep trying whenever an opportunity presents itself).

Finally, we check on the status of the 103 entrance deck. Looks quite different, depending on the angle of the light, but one thing is for certain. The experiment to embed non-slip grit into the finish is less than successful, so Ivi intends to install 3M no-slip tape as a better alternative. Maybe tomorrow morning.

What I don”t present here was the continuing and often hilarious running commentary provided by Ivi on all these events.  Need movie mode, maybe …

rDay One-Hundred-Thirty-Seven

We abruptly change our early morning hiking plans, and decide to revisit Deal Canyon.  Charlie meets and greets a new acquaintance in a civil manner.  Then we continue on our way, revisiting what is probably the most difficult — i.e., relentless elevation gain — constant uphill grind except for a patch of a few yards, then a knee-pounder on the way down — of our usual hikes.  After a couple of hours, it was a relief to walk through the neighborhood (spotting an old Saab, the Guards Red 944, and some other miscellany) on the home stretch.

rDay One-Hundred-Thirty-Five

The big events today were going down to EONI to retrieve Ivi’s new phone and a biz/pleasure luncheon meeting with ex-colleague Tim.  While walking to and from lunch, as usual, we took in the local scenery.  At one point, someone yelled out, “You better watch where you point that thing!”  This led to meeting a guy named “Dave” who showed me his point & shoot camera and told me that he had worked in a darkroom in the 80s.  And pizza for dinner tonight.