Tehachapi, CA

Yesterday (Halloween), my brother Keith and I drive up to Tehachapi, CA which is about 85 miles northeast of where I live in Santa Clarita.

I had been there once many years ago with my late husband Ben.

Our first stop was the train depot, which is now a museum.

Their train depot has been rebuilt twice due to it burning down in fires, but it has always been on the original site where the original building was.

They have a few interesting things to look at inside.

After leaving the depot, we drove out of town and up into the mountains to see the Tehachapi Loop. No trains were running through the loop yesterday because crews were repairing the rails on the train tracks. The view was still beautiful.

 If you are interested in more information about Tehachapi and the Loop, here are some links:

Visit Tehachapi

The Loop

Harvest Festival Time

Up at 6 am for a dog walk with my neighbor Jean at 7 am. Came home and had a bowl of cereal and then Jean and I headed up to the Ventura fairgrounds to the annual Harvest Festival. We go every year.

The weather was so nice up there. Sunny, in the 70’s and a nice cool sea breeze. After the festival, we headed over to Ventura Harbor Village for some fish and chips at Andria’s and then we walked around the shops in the village.

On the way home, we stopped by the Dollar Tree store in Fillmore and then headed home.

Hiker was so happy to see me. She greeted me at the door and was jumping all over me trying to kiss me. She followed me into the bathroom and kept trying to kiss me. I think she just wanted some treats (LOL).

Went up to get my mail and got the results from my mammogram. Everything looked normal. I was surprised to hear from them so soon because it used to take 2 weeks before I would get the results back. It’s only been 4 days.

Was still hot here in Santa Clarita. Was 99° when I got home from Ventura. They keep saying we are supposed to get down into the low to mid 80’s. Wish that would happen soon.

I'm Pooped!

I watched a movie on Netflix last night called “The Core”. It was pretty good. It was about the core in the center of the earth stopping which meant “the end of the world”, so these professor, an astronaut, some other intellects decided to go through the earth’s crust, down into the core and restart it with explosions.

Since it was Sunday, as usual, we stayed in bed until 8 am this morning. I usually watch “CBS Sunday Morning”, but this morning I fell asleep and missed most of it, which made me mad because it was Charles Osgood’s last day on the show and they were celebrating him.

After eating a bowl of cereal, I started do some housework. From 8:30 am until 11:30 am, I was non-stop. Mopped my floors, vacuuming the carpet, washing my sheets and towels. Also decided to wash my bathmats. I also changed from my summer comforter on my bed to my winter comforter, even though it’s still warm here. I usually change my comforter twice a year…in the spring and in the fall. So I also had to wash my winter comforter. Also decided to wash my bathmats. I put clean sheets on the bed with the winter comforter and the finally sat down. I was pooped!

After all was done, I had some soup and a salad for lunch. Watched the Dodger game. Today is Vin Scully’s last day of announcing the Dodger games. It was so cool how each Dodger player saluted him in the booth as they came up to the plate their first time today. I will miss hearing Vinnie call the games. I’ve listened to him all my life. He can describe the game so well that a blind person can picture it in their mind.

Happy Friday!

We got up early this morning to go for a dog walk with Jean. It was only 47° at 6 am when we got up, but by the time we left for the walk, it had gone up to 52°. I actually wore sweat pants instead of shorts. We let the dogs play for a while and then Jean headed home.

I made some eggs for Hiker and myself and then Jean called and wanted me to go to the Dollar Tree store with her. We actually ended up going to all 3 Dollar Stores in the Santa Clarita Valley.

I put up a few fall outdoor decorations then settled down to watch a little TV. Still haven’t done the housework I need to do. I’ll have to force myself to do it this weekend.

After lunch, my neighbor/friend Christiane called me and said she just received the new Windows 10 Anniversary update, so she wanted me to come over and make sure everything downloaded and installed properly.

Was nice here temperature-wise all day, but supposed to get really hot this weekend. They are saying it will be in the 90’s at the beach and in the 100’s here inland.

First Day Of Fall

So I started watching “Designated Survivor” last night. I liked what I saw, but I fell asleep the last 10 or 15 minutes of the show, so I missed the end of it. If anyone watched it, you can email me or FB message me and let me know what happened at the end. I think I got as when the Iranian ships were heading “somewhere” and the military guy wanted to attack them and the new president didn’t want to do that.

I was having some kind of crazy dream when Hiker woke me up this morning. As usual, I was out “searching” for something so I felt exhausted when I woke up.

Hiker and I went out for a morning walk. The weather was nice. Cool and totally overcast. Perfect for the first day of Fall. However, the weather is going to change this weekend and it is going to be in the 100’s Sunday and Monday. Will it ever stop?

When Hiker and I got back home from our walk, we got in the car and went to get my lottery tickets and when we got back, I put a few Fall decorations out on my porch and in the front yard. I was going to put some Fall themed magnets on my garage door, but the ones I had from last year were so faded, they had no color to them, so I tossed them in the trash. I got them at the Dollar Tree, so it’s no big deal.

I need to get myself into a “house cleaning” mood this weekend. I have some cleaning that absolutely must get done.

#NeverForget

Aftermath Of The Sand Fire In Canyon Country, CA The Last 2 Weeks of July 2016

The last 2 weeks of July 2016, the valley where I live was covered with smoke and falling ash from the huge Sand Fire (the name CalFire gave to the brush fire). For several days, the fire raged in the canyons around the Santa Clarita Valley. It came as close as 7 miles from my home. I could see the flames and watch the aerial attack on the fire from my front porch.

My dog Hiker and I love to hike the Placerita Canyon Trail in the Placerita Canyon State Park when the weather is cooler. It is beautiful there. In the spring it is lush and green with huge old oak trees and when we have rain, there is a babbling creek running along-side the trail.

Below is how the Canyon Trail looked when Hiker and I were there in February 2016.

Here are photos of the fire when it first started a couple of weeks ago.

Day 1:

Day 2:

On Day 3, the fire was only 7 miles from my home. It had grown very large.

Later on Day 3, the fire fighters attack the fire from the air with planes and helicopters.

After the attack, it seemed that they had gotten this part of the fire under control.

The fire burned in the Angeles National Forest for about 2 weeks. Thankfully, they had it 100% contained as of yesterday.

Today, Hiker and I drove along Placerita Canyon Road. The park is closed do to the damage caused by the Sand Fire. I took photos along the way to show the destruction.

This is what the canyon looked like as we drove through.

 It will be a long time before Mother Nature brings this area back to the way it looked not long ago, but one day it will be lush again.

Route 66 Museum - Victorville, CA

My brother Keith and I headed out into the desert today to visit the Route 66 Museum in Victorville, CA. Had a great time. The docent, Lou, was a fun guy and he told us the greatest stories about bootlegger tunnels under Victorville, and about the ghost they have in the back room of the museum that locked them inside one time. He was really funny. Had a great time.

This place had so many cool items to look and and play with. It's only 3 rooms, but the items brought back a lot of great memories.

Stuff that I remembered from my childhood and from road trips we took as a family on old Route 66.

Caught my brother Keith at an awkward moment (LOL). Sorry Keith.

Here's me in my "new" car (LOL).

Here's Keith and I running from the cops back when we were hippies in the 1960's.

Thanks Lou, for such a fun time. You are a great docent.

Trip To The Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens

A few days ago, I had the honor to receive a personal guided tour of the zoo led by my friend Lynn Toler whom I used to work with at Lockheed. After Lynn retired, she became a docent at the zoo and the animals are her passion.

We spent the entire day walking around the zoo and gardens, checking out all of the different species of animals there. It had been about 4 or 5 years since I had been to the zoo and there were several changes and new exhibits.

The Los Angeles Zoo is located in Griffith Park which is one of the largest urban parks in the United States. The zoo was founded in 1966 and is owned by the city of Los Angeles. The zoo originally opened as The Griffith Park Zoo back in 1912 and only had 15 animals.

I took a lot of photos, but I shared just a few to share with you here on my blog. I hope you enjoy them.

The entrance to the zoo is huge and spectacular. I reminds me of the wall that was built to hold back King Kong.

The zoo has animals from all over the world and tries its best to make the animals feel at home by recreating an atmosphere that is close to their original homeland.

Here is a kangaroo mother and her little joey. She actually had twins, but the other one was wandering around when I took this shot.

I love the giraffes. They have several at the zoo as they seem to be very fertile. The giraffes have such beautiful, long eyelashes.

I always enjoy watching the gorillas and the chimps. They are so much like us humans.

I think the big cats are my favorite animals at the zoo. I am a dog-person, but I think that large cats are so cool.

The zoo has one male lion and one female lion. They were both asleep when we came by. Here is the male.

One of the most beautiful animals on earth is the tiger and the one at our zoo is spectacular.

If you are every in Los Angeles, the L.A. Zoo is a must to see.