Stayed Inside All Day

Everything is still very smokey outside as the Station Fire continues to burn. It is east of us and right now seems to moving northeast away from us. We are about 25 to 30 miles from it. I cannot go for my walks because they tell us it is very unhealthful air and that it is not good to exercise outside. I did my housework this morning and then I've spent the rest of the day scanning photos for my three nieces. They wanted photos of when they were little and they know I have a lot of those. They are now all grown with kids of their own. Darrah will be 32 in November, Stephanie will be 30 in April and Candice will be 27 in march.

The Station Fire

Here is a link for anyone who is interested in following "The Station Fire" which is raging out of control in SoCal. The fire quadroupled in size last night and we do not even have any wind!

http://www.inciweb.org/incident/1856/

Smokey Skies Part 4

The smoke that was covering our sky has now blown to the northeast and is no longer over us. It is now 104 degrees here.
The fire is growing and way out of control. I went out and drove around the area to shoot some pictures of the smoke plume.

Smokey Skies Part 3

I was able to go for my walk this morning. Even though the sky looked "overcast" from all of the smoke from the "Station Fire" in Angeles National Forest near La Canada, I could not smell any smoke, so figured it was safe to go out for my walk.
After I got home, the air started getting worse and I stared to smell the smoke again and it just keeps getting thicker and smellier. This fare is 30 miles away from us but the smoke makes it look like it is right here in our valley.
Here is a photo I took from the parking lot of the Target store above the 14 Freeway this morning. This is looking northeast across Canyon Country. You can hardly see anything.

Smokey Skies Part 2

This is how the sun looks from our front porch from the smoke from the "Stage Fire" over in Angeles National Forest, which is 30 miles away from us.

Smokey Skies

There are four brush fires burning in SoCal today. Two of them are within 30 to 50 miles from us and the smoke from them is blowing over our way. Can't even see the sun because of the smoke.
They kept saying our temperature today was going to be 109 degrees, but because of the smoke, it's only 86 degrees.
I'm glad that it's cooler, but can't even go outside because I don't want to breathe in the smoke. This is the fire that is closest to us:

Name: Station Fire
County: Los Angeles County
Location: Hwy 2, 1.5 miles north of USFS Angeles Crest Station
Administrative Unit: Angeles National Forest
Status/Notes: 1,200 acres - 0% contained
Date Started: August 26, 2009 3:30 pm
Last update: August 28, 2009 7:15 am

Been Busy All Day

I've been busy all day running scans and cleaning up both my desktop computer and my laptop computer. I do "minor" scans weekly, but once a month, I do "detailed" scans.
Yesterday, we were gone all day as we took a day trip up to San Luis Obispo. Had a very nice time playing "tourist".

Day Trip

We spent the day along California's central coast. Left home around 8:00 AM and headed north up Highway 101. Had a little fog here and there along the way but as we made the curve at Gaviota, the sky was so blue and the hills were so green, just beautiful Spent most of our day in San Luis Obispo site seeing. Saw the mission and old town. Had lunch at Frank's Famous Hot Dogs, drove up to Atascadero and then turned around and came home. Very nice day.

The Last Of An Era

REST IN PEACE TEDDY

Quiet

It's quiet around here today. Don't really have much to blog about. I'm trying to catch up with some of my friends on the "Not Over The Hill' web community. Our neighbor's cat, Marmalade, is lying over by our fireplace curled up on the floor and fast asleep. They have been gone again for about 4 or 5 days and he just roams the neighborhood, so whenever we can get him inside and settled down, I feel like he is safe. Those girls should not even have pets if they are not going to be home with them most of the time.
I won't be on the computer much tomorrow, probably not until early evening, as Ben and I are taking a day-trip up to San Luis Obispo. It's been so hot here, we thought maybe going up to California's Central Coast would be a nice drive and that it would be cooler up there. We plan to walk around the Mission Plaza where the original town started, check out some of the historical sights, have lunch somewhere and then head home.

Spider Web

This morning when I looked out the sliding door from our bedroom, I noticed a spider web between the tree and the fence. I has always amazed me how one spider can create these beautiful works of art in just one night and how they can "string" them between to objects without touching the ground.
When I first went out to take pictures, the spider was sitting right in the middle of the web, but when it saw me, it took off toward the fence.
Unfortunately, the sprinklers came on and totally destroyed this masterpiece.

Quiet, Peaceful, Sunday

Not doing much today. Went for my morning walk and that's about it.
We are planning a day trip up to San Luis Obispo on Wednesday. Our friends Karren and Wally were supposed to go with us, but something came up and now they cannot go, but since Ben and I had already planned on going alone before we asked them to join us, we figured we'd still go up, just the two of us.
Three weeks from today, we will be leaving for our trip to Northern California, so that is on my mind and I'm really looking forward to going.

Corriganville

I've been trying to find other areas to hike for when Fall gets here. I came upon some trails over in Simi Valley in Corriganville Regional Park. Corriganville once belonged to cowboy actor Ray "Crash" Corrigan. It was a "movie ranch" and many movies and TV shows were filmed there back in it's "hayday". Most of the movie sets are gone now but there are now many trails for weekend hikers.
Ben and I drove over there this morning to check out the area. There were a bunch of people there and a couple of "docents" dressed in cowboy garb. I guess they provide guided tours through some of the area.
Anyway, once the weather gets cooler and my brother comes up from Orange County for a weekend visit, he and I will go over there to try out some of the trails.

http://employees.oxy.edu/jerry/corrigan/history.htm

Am I Still In SoCal?

This has really been a strange August for southern California. Our "normal" August is very hot, usually between 100 and 110 degrees, and very, very dry. We don't usually see clouds in August, just blue sky and a hot sun.
This year our August has been cooler. We've been averaging temps of 85 to 90 degrees and we've had nice breezes. I'm lovin' this!
Yesterday I posted "cloud" photos.
Today on my walk, I took a few photographs with the camera on my phone, so keep in mind that these are not as clear as they would be if I had taken them with my Canon.

It's Friday!

Ben and I have been out running around most of the day. Went to WalMart twice, to the grocery store and had lunch at Carl's Jr.
When I got home, I check the "snail mail" and found a note from an old school friend of mine. We were BFFs back in Jr. High and High School, but lost contact with each other after graduation. I have not seen her in probably 40 years. Anyway, she was doing some house cleaning and found an old letter that I had sent to her on July 12, 1967 while I was on vacation with my family visiting my Aunt in Wichita, KS way back then. I was only 17 years old then. She said she doesn't know why she kept the letter, but thought it was funny when she found it and wanted to share it with me, so mailed it to me.
It was so funny reading something I wrote as a teenager back in our "hippy" days. I mentioned some other school friends in the letter that I have not thought about in years.
Nothing like a trip back in time.
It is not even 2:30 PM here in SoCal and it is getting very dark outside. We are having something we do NOT usually get here in the summertime.....humidity. The sky is covered with thunderclouds and it is very "sticky" outside. Not used to this.

Finally Out And About

I have not been out for a morning walk since last Friday because of the pain in my lower back last weekend and then the pain in my lower jaw the rest of the week.
Decided this morning I was going to get out there!
I walked over to the Canyon Center Strip Mall and went to Big Lots. Looked around the store for awhile and ended up buying a 4GB USB Flash Drive I've been wanting to get. Then I walked back home. Did 2 miles in about 40 minutes total.
When Ben and I go on vacation in 3 1/2 weeks, I want to upload and save any photos I take each day from my camera to the flash drive to guarantee I'll have plenty of memory on my camera card for every day we go out. There are so many photo ops in the northwest corner of California. Now I'm just kind of laying back, waiting for lunch time and for my soap "The Young & The Restless" to come on.

My Latest Slideshow Video

Yard Looking Pretty Good

If you remember, I was out cleaning up my flower bed last Saturday morning before I pulled something in my back and before my jaw pain put me down for the count. Didn't go for my walk this morning because I still do not feel up to par, but went out and looked at the yard to see how things are looking.

The front yard is looking pretty good:

The flower bed is a cleaned up now:

The back yard looks great:

The side yard passes:

And even Marmie (Marmalade) our neighbor's cat

gives his approval:

Feeling Somewhat Better Today

The throbbing pain in my jaw has gone away. Must be the Ibuprofen working. Feels like some of the swelling has gone down too. Jaw and gums are still pretty sore though. I'm really surprised that it's improved this much in just a few hours, but I sure am glad it has.

Home From Two Dentists

Went to my regular dentist at 1:00 pm. He took an x-ray but could not see anything wrong. He did the "hit the teeth with a small hammer" test to see if the tooth nerves were OK. No problem there. He didn't know what to do next, so he sent me to a Endodontist. The Endodontist looked at the x-ray I took to him, then he too did the "hammer" test. Nothing. Next he sprayed C02 on each tooth in the area to see if the nerves reacted. Well they did! The Endodontist said that this meant that the nerves were not dead and that I did not seem to need a root canal. He felt the swelling near my jaw bone and said that he thought it is possibly just inflammation of the muscle that runs from the lower jaw to the pivot of the jaw just in front of the ear. He said that there are so many muscles and ligaments in the face that it could be just about anything. He gave me a prescription for Amoxicillin (an anti-biotic) and told me to take three Ibuprofen (an anti-inflammatory) every 4 to 6 hours as needed. He said even though they tell you to take only one Ibuprofen every 4 to 6 hours, that three is the prescription strength.
He said if I'm still having throbbing pain by Friday, to call him back to come in and see what else he can do. Otherwise, he said the anti-biotic should make the pain go away within seven days.
Hope he's right.

Dentist Day

We went and did our "monthly" grocery shopping this morning, but I sure was not in the mood to do it. The pain in my jaw is just "killing" me this morning. My dentist appointment is at 1:00 pm and I sure hope that he can figure out what is causing the pain. I don't know how much more of this I can take. I've been taking Tylenol but it doesn't seem to be helping any.

Hiking Video

Put together a slideshow video with some of my hiking photographs.

Pain, Pain, Go Away

Well, my back is a little better today. Didn't feel that way when I first got up this morning, but as the day has progressed, the pain has subsided some, but I still have to get up slowly and turn slowly.
I also have pain in my right bottom jaw. I have an appointment with my dentist tomorrow at 1:00 pm to have him take a look at it and see if he can figure out what is causing the pain. I've been researching on the Internet and I think it might be TMJ. Below is a link describing what that is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temporomandibular_joint_disorder

I'm hoping that is all that it is, but hopefully, after he takes some x-rays, he'll be able to figure it out and prescribe something for it. I've had popping and clicking in my right jaw for years, but all of a sudden, I've started having this pain.

Seems like the close I get to age 60, the more I'm falling apart (LOL).

Butte County, CA

I made this slideshow video from photos I have taken while visiting the Paradise, CA area.

My Back Went Out

Well I guess working in the flower garden yesterday did me in. My back has gone out on me and I'm "listing" to the left. The pain is at the bottom of my back just above my hips.
I have had this kind of trouble with my back for about 20 years now. For no reason, it just goes out. I'll go to bed one night and the next morning, I can't get out of bed.
I am a little more limber now than I was this morning.

Beautiful Northern California

Created this slideshow movie with a bunch of photos I have taken of Northern California through the years.

Keeping Busy On A Saturday

This was Ben's Saturday to work at the Auto Parts Delivery place. I was trying to figure out what to do with myself all day. Decided to go out and clean up my front flower bed as my glads have all died and I needed to cut out the dead stalks. Also cut back the 2 rose bushes I have in that bed. In the Spring, the flower bed looks so pretty, but by mid-summer, it looks like a jungle.
Finished that chore and came in to have breakfast, then decided to take a drive over to the Placerita Nature Center. Did go to hike this time. Just wanted to be outside in the beautiful weather. I walked along the Heritage Trail over to The Oak Of The Golden Dream and then back to the picnic area under the grove of oak trees. Sat on the bench and watched a few squirrels and then just walked around the grounds of the nature center.


The Boy Scouts put these bird houses up to attract the native birds of the area.

The beginning of the Canyon Trail.

Window of the Walker Cabin.

Walker Cabin.

Walker Cabin.
_____________________________________________

God's Oak Trees

Afternoon Drive

We went for a drive up into San Francisquito Canyon this afternoon. Along the way, we saw this unusual windmill. Neither of us had ever seen one like it before so we stopped so I could take a few photos of it.

Lunch

Had a great lunch out with my retired girlfriends. We met at the Hometown Buffet and naturally, we all made "pigs" of ourselves. We get together about 3 or 4 times a year and our lunches last about 2 or 3 hours. We just sit there and talk and laugh and remember old times. We ask about others that some of us see and other's don't.
These are ladies that I have known for many many years. One of them I have known for 41 years and they others I've known for over 35 years.
It's so nice to have friends like these.

Girl's Day Out

Today I am driving up to Palmdale, CA to have lunch with some of my retired girlfriends from Lockheed. We try to get together at least 3 or 4 times a year. Should be fun.

Running Late With Today's Blog

I need to order some new filters for our evaporative humidifier. It's warm at night but we don't like to sleep with the A/C running, so we run our fans in the bedroom. However, they dry us out so bad that we also have to run the humidifier. I've been searching the Internet for a place to buy them. The cheapest I've found are $7.99 each. About 3 or 4 years ago, I ordered 4 of them and I know that they did NOT cost $7.99 each at that time. I think they were about $4.99 or so back then. Problem is, they need to be replaced in about 30 to 90 days, so it gets a little expensive replacing them after awhile.
I'm a little miffed at "hubby" this afternoon. I know that he needs to have his eyes examined and probably needs glasses, but he keeps insisting that he "can see just fine". But yet he'll ask me what something is that he cannot see very well, or he'll ask what time it is because he cannot see the clock on the TV Cable Box. But he just keeps being stubborn and will not go to the eye doctor. He drives for a living and I'm afraid that he cannot see as well as he should out on the road. His drivers license comes due next year, so if he has to go into the DMV, he may not pass their eye exam.

Getting Warmer Again

We had some nice cool days last week. It was so nice, felt more like Fall than summer, but now our hot weather is on it's way back. This is the thermometer on our patio.

I did get out for my morning walk. It was nice a cool out at 7:30 a.m. There was even a dampness in the air, but that's gone now.

Love Music?

If you are a music lover and you liked the first 25 years of Rock & Roll, don't forget to check out my blog "Boomer Songs". It is nothing but Billboard's #1 songs from that era. I have uploaded some videos from YouTube there and will be adding more as days go by. Maybe you will find your favorite "oldie" or your favorite singer from a time gone by. Stop by and leave me a comment to let me know what you think.

http://boomersongs.blogspot.com/

Monday Again

Got up and went for a 1.5 walk this morning, had breakfast and then headed over to the mall. I just cannot find the bras I like. I like the Fruit Of The Loom wireless T-shirt bras. I used to be able to find them at my WalMart, but they don't have anything but the ones with the wires anymore. I checked Kohl's, Target, KMart, Sears and JCPenney. Ended up buying some Haines wireless ones at KMart. They were on sale, so I guess that's good.

Ben At The Wheel

New Music Blog

Check out my new "Oldies Music Blog" at:

http://boomersongs.blogspot.com/

Hope you will start following this blog.

Drive In The Country

The weather has been so cool and nice the past 2 or 3 days, it's almost "Fall-like". Ben and I decided to take a drive in the country. Drove up SR126 through Fillmore, CA and Santa Paula, CA and over to Somis, CA and back.


Orange groves along SR126 near Fillmore, CA

More citrus groves

A barn in Somis, CA