Written on
December 27, 2006.
While I was doin’ some woodworking, I was listening to KGO. I heard that it was gonna be very stormy tonight all the way through tomorrow. Apperantly, up in the skiing hills, winds picked up to 88MPH and gusts at 105MPH. Rough stuff.
Anyway, this morning, I got awoken by heavy pounding on the windows and the whistling of wind. I looked at the clock and saw it was 2:00AM. I got outta bed and looked out the window. Man! It was raining liquid sunshine! It wasn’t actually raining that hard. The strong wind made it look more powerful though.
I went back to bed and I slept a few hours until it was time to wake up. When I got up again, I looked out the window. Unfortunately, the rain stopped but it was still pretty windy. 30MPH. Perfect cape weather! Breezy enough to let the folds flap in the breeze. We took a walk to the beach. I put on a rubbery poncho. It was very gusty at the coast and the poncho folds were whipping around. Cool! . . *Ahem.*
It was a little chilly though. Just a tad.
Written on
December 19, 2006.
Boy, there was lots of free food at Costco today! Normally when we are at Costco, there are a few samples. Some are not too great. For example, a few nuts (which I can eat at home), apple sauce and a cookie. I mean I’m not complaining. It’s all good but some days are better than the others. And it’s our goal in life to strive for the best, right? (right.)
Well, anyway, today, we came at the right time (1:14). We first hit the gourmet alfredo. After that, we came across bread with a big hunk of gorgonzola cheese. I was still munching on that when we ran across chips and some sort of spinach dip. By that time, I had just polished off the cheese so my hands were free to get a corn chip/dip combo. A few steps later, there was pita chips and hummus! I was already eating the chips/dip so I put that in my pocket (I carefully put it in so it wouldn’t spill ['cause the sample had a paper napkin holding it]) and then grasped a mini cup of pita chips and hummus.
Then—oh lordy—came aisle after aisle of dessert… Continue reading ‘Free Food’
Written on
December 19, 2006.
We took a family trip to Costco today to sample the free samples and to get the stuff on our list.
You would not believe what happened! We were looking at this electric piano that looks and feels like the real thing. We had parked our cart by the electric heaters (only 6′ away) and in front of my very eyes, this group of thugs came by and said, “all right! Yes!” (I don’t know if they were talking about the cart or the heaters) Then, he proceeded to put two of those heaters in our cart! I was just about to walk over and take the cart right under him but then I saw Pa was pushing the cart. I was thinking, “Whew! I’m glad I didn’t take the wrong cart! That would have been embarrasing!” So we were pushing “our” cart for a while when somebody came up and said that we had taken their cart. We apologized and gave them back their cart.
So I was right! That dumbelled ding-dong did take our cart! I knew it! I looked around for him every aisle we went to but I think he just took the two heaters and left.
Written on
December 13, 2006.
There’s something of a problem I have with oxygenated water. You know, when you normally turn on the water, normal, full water spews out. But, when you stick a special nozzle on the spigot, this light, bubbly water comes out. Now, that’s fine and well and it saves water (at least that’s what I heard) and I’m all for saving water. But, water is especially satisifying when drunken in big gulps. So, my only beef with the special nozzle is when I put my head under the sink to get a mouthfull of refreshing water. I turn on the water ’till I get a mouthfull and when I close my mouth to swallow, all the bubbles dissipate and all I’m left with is a dissapointing thimble-full of H2o.
Written on
December 7, 2006.
Well, I’ve been waiting for two years to prune the giant birch tree out in front and today was finally the day. Since it’s tall and doesn’t have many strong horizontal branches, I had to use the harness and carabiner (which is half of the fun right there). Jorge was working on one of the three parts of the birch tree. I went in the greenhouse and belted up my pruner, loppers and saw and put on my harness (feels like putting on a diaper)and got the rope. Climbing the tree was a piece of cake (and fun to look out at that height). Securing the loop around the branch got ever so slightly panicky. My feet were hurting a bit ’cause they were stuck in the crotch of the branch and the main trunk (which kinda hurt) and I couldn’t unclip the carabiner from my harness. Finally I got it off and that was relieving to m’ limbs. (if you know what I mean) Then, one by one, I started knocking off some of the limbs (’cause it has gotten just too tall to manage).
When we took a good amount off of it. I lowered myself down to the ground (with the rope/carabiner hooked on a branch. When I landed on the ground, I disconnected myself from the rope and started cleaning. After that, I saw that I still left my tools up in the tree and the carabiner/rope hooked onto the limb.
Before I continue, I must say one thing. There’s a part of the climbing gear called the Self Locking Device (or something like that). It’s connected to your belt and the rope goes through it so if you slip off the tree (or rock or whatever you are climbing), it will lock the rope so you don’t fall. By pulling a lever, you can lower yourself down. However, when you climb up, you have pull the rope through the SLD to match your level. If you didn’t do that and you fell, you’d fall down to your last level of ascent and then the rope will catch (and give you a nasty whiplash). So that’s why, when you ascend, you want to pull the rope through so if you fall . . . you get the idea.
Anyway, I attached myself back on the rope again I climbed up. Since I was on the bottom and the hook was on the top, I had to climb up. At a certain point, I kinda slipped a bit and I hadn’t yet pulled the rope through the SLD so since I started out on the bottom, I’d have to hit the bottom before the SLD could catch me.
Anyway, I grabbed onto the rope. The rope looked real sleak but my hands could really grip it. I climbed up the rope ’till I got a good branch to hold onto. Then I unhooked the rope/carabiner, threw the tools on the soft pile and climbed down.
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