Recap

So much has happened this week.  It has been very busy.

Tuesday we went down the hill as usual.  But i didn't go into the office that day.  I saw a new doctor (post of itself, but a good thing, i think).  

Then we went to Pageant of the Masters (& Festival of Arts).  This link is to the history of the event.   And here is the gallery of them preparing.  My FIL bought tickets for the four of us to go.  Pictures are often drawn from real life into 2 dimensional representations.  This event takes real people & puts them into life-size reproductions of a picture, with lighting & make-up they make it real people part of the presentation.  We went the last day of the festival.  I think it ran about 6 weeks. 


Both Tom & Jeanet had been before, but Duane & i never had been.  I didn't have the energy to peruse all the art exhibits.  Honestly, if we do something like this again i will need a wheel chair.  Most folks won't understand that because i can walk, but i don't have the energy to continue walking.  



I'm glad we brought the binoculars.  We had good seats but still were far enough away that seeing the details would have been a challenge without them.  I'm also glad that a friend warned me to dress warmly & bring a blanket.  My FIL didn't think we'd need it, but then he was glad we had it along.  It was an outdoor theatre & it got rather nippy.

Wednesday i had a very busy day at work.  I also missed going to church as i'd been scheduled into the noon hour.   After work i did some quick shopping - an idea i had & Ikea made it happen.   

Duane & i handle warmth & heat differently.  We already had winter weight duvets on our bed, but that is simply too much for me.  I wake up warm in the AM, & my skin is cool to touch, but as the day goes on i get colder & colder & can't handle either heat or cold very well.  I often have to go to bed in the afternoon just to warm up.  So when i first go to bed at night, i need something to help me warm.  But as the night goes on & i warm back up, i need less & less covers & the winter weight duvet just about suffocates me!

Duane is just the opposite.  He wakes up & is putting out heat like a blast furnace (his skin feels like it is on fire to me) but he complains about it being "cold" in the AM.  As the day goes on he can handle either cold or heat just fine & in the evening he doesn't feel as cold as i do or as he did in the AM.  However, he wants lots of covers to sleep under.  


So, i thought that if i bought a lightweight, twin size duvet for my side of the bed, we could take out the second duvet in the big one.  I can sleep under the light weight duvet, & we fold over the big one so that Duane is under "winter weight" with just the one duvet.  When it starts to get colder, i'll keep the heavier duvet across both of us & switch the twin duvet to Duane's side of the bed so he'll have more.  Haven't figured out really cold winter weather yet, but we tried it for the first time last night & it worked well.


I'm told that in Europe, each person has their own duvet, usually twin size.  And that they often don't use a top sheet, but only the duvet, which is covered much like a pillow has a pillowcase.  It is taken off & laundered frequently.  This makes much sense to me, but we've never been able to obtain that.  We use both sheets & the duvet covers are for protection & decoration only.  I do think that changing the duvet cover is a pain & to do it weekly or more often to wash the sheets would be a challenge.  Maybe not if we were using twin size, tho. 

Thursday was another busy, busy day (for me, at least; i know i don't do as much as most people).  We got home & i rested some but i worked on some projects, too.  


Fall is coming!

This was our peach tree last year at the end of September.

This was our apple tree at the same time.


No fruit for us this year.  The peach tree died & the apples all were killed by a late freeze.  

Soon, we will be having the leaves turn, too.  These were taken in early October.  The signs for Oktoberfest are up.  It starts in a couple of weeks & runs thru the end of October.  I always thought it funny that it starts in September, but read recently that that is how it runs in Germany.  


 

Of course, after the color comes this.  Hopefully we won't have it come quite as heavy all at once as happened twice last year. 


I've lots & lots to say, as usual, but i'm ready for lunch.  Think i've said enough for now.  Oh, my sister Elsa may come up this weekend.  I hope so.  




Also, my friend Amrita posted on the Spas & Massage in India.  Fascinating.  Check her out.  She writes about so many interesting things.  


We are staying home next week.  (Hooray!)  :)  Labor Day is Monday (a holiday) but we never go down on Mondays anyway.  And Friday is our anniversary.  Six years now.  Don't know what we'll do.  Probably just dinner.  Duane is going to a training on Saturday (the 11th). 


Thanks for stopping by & i hope y'all have a lovely weekend. 





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High Desert

 (Image by Crazy-Frankenstein.com - requires credit given!)


In the previous post Lisa commented about how dry it looks at our house.  That is true.  We are technically "high desert" & it is quite dry.  When i was a kid, i assumed that "desert" was mostly like this image:  largely flat, sand, dry.  In college ecology, i learned that designations of different regions are based on annual rainfall.  


We get quite a lot of snow, but we rarely if ever have significant rain in the summer, which makes it very dry.  Also, humidity is quite low.  On occasion the humidity will reach in 50-60% but that is uncommon.  Usually our humidity is 10-15%.  This makes us high desert. 


Where i grew up in Montana was not quite the same.  They get much more rainfall during the summers, but it also has the possibility of being very dry if it is a dry summer.  Humidity there is similar to Big Bear.  I'm coming to think that the greenness that is so common on the East Coast of this country is directly  a result of the humidity which is responsible for all the green deciduous trees that populate that green land.  On much of the West Coast, pine trees are the norm.  Any deciduous trees we have are either scrub, or have adapted (aspen & cottonwood) or are ones that are watered by people.  Much of the Western part of the country needs individual watering to keep it green.  


Yes, it is dry where we live.  But right now Sugarbear is looking quite green!  We will never have grass/a lawn, however.


I can tell August has arrived.  The lows at night, which never were over 52F for July, are back to the low to mid 40s again.  The days are still warm - usually mid-70s, but it won't be long before it is cool.  Summer is on its way out.  We kept the duvet on the bed all summer, a light one.  I usually didn't need it, but Duane likes to sleep very warm.  I change the duvet covers for the season, think i have about 6 of them.  It is time to change from the yellow-flowered summer one to a one that is rather more like fall.  (Duane will be happy to see the flowers go.  He's not fond of flowered stuff.)  He will probably soon be asking for winter sheets again, too!


We still have about 6 weeks before the trees start to turn, too. 

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Some pics, some thoughts

I went on a picture hunt - looking for some i've not posted before.  I got overwhelmed.  Having over 10,000 pics on my computer makes the "overwhelmed" easy.  But i've found some.  I'm not sure if i've shared them before.  I think Duane took all of these (which i've now decided to post at the end of this), but i'm not sure.  

I also went house hunting today.  No, we are not looking to replace Sugarbear.  The very thought of it makes me sad.  This was a different kind of hunting.


I first visited Big Bear many years ago.  I started college the fall of 1989, & this would have been a couple of years before that.

We came up to Big Bear in October.  Rented a small house for the weekend.  It was an older house, i would guess it was built in the 20s.  I wasn't prepared for it to be so cold!  The days were beautiful,crisp, with deep blue skies, the trees turning yellow & red.  But the nights were downright cold & the house was not well-insulated.  Getting up in the morning was like getting up in an ice box!

Anyway, i've long wondered just where exactly that house is at.  I've an idea in my head & certain memories, but memories can be faulty.  I've looked for that house off & on before, & today i spent some time looking again.

What i remember is that it was on a street that runs north/south, north of Big Bear Blvd.  It faced east & was on the southwest corner where another street crossed.  It had 2 dormer windows upstairs & 2 bedrooms upstairs tho we didn't use them.  We stayed in the downstairs bedroom.  I think it was painted a light green.  I keep being sure that i just know where that house is, & yet i keep not finding it.  It is almost as if a wicked witch removed it from the scene. 


It wasn't far from a meadow.  I watched the yellow school bus drop the kids off the first afternoon we were there & the memory is poignant.  I'm not sure why the beauty of that scene & the memory of it are so bittersweet & almost painful.  That is probably why it is seared in my memory.  I think that it was just a piece, a window, of peacefulness that was not part of my daily life.  Everyday life was in fact almost unbearable.  That weekend was a jewel in my memories.  

Memories such as they are, however, tend to be fickle.  I could be looking 5 miles from where the house actually happens to be.  I'm not sure why it seems so important to me to find it.  I'm not going to live there, nor stay there.  Maybe it is just the idea of gazing on a scene from a time when i was still quite young, things weren't happy but the world held so many possibilities, a few days of peace.  


I'm not saying my life doesn't have peace now.  It does.  But it has so many fewer possibilities than it did more than 20 years ago.  Many things are set & cannot now be changed.  In looking for the above pics, i looked at a lot of different houses for sale.  Some have a number of things we might like in a house, more room, less money, but the thought of leaving Sugarbear is unbearable.  If we left i think i would look back to our time at Sugarbear with the same sharp memories of the peace we have here.  Humans tend to want something else, not recognizing the treasure they currently have.  I don't want to be caught in that trap, but for some reason the memory of my first visit to Big Bear is very vivid right now.  


The first pic is very much like the house, in color & style but not exact.  The second pic is of the style of house - the dormers & all, but definitely not the house.  The third pic, that of the kitchen, could be an exact replica, except in my memory the checks were blue not red.  That could be the house, except i don't think it has an upstairs & the house of which i'm speaking definitely did.  I'm probably better off not finding it, but i imagine i'll keep on looking. 


We bought some plants that were on sale at the nursery over the weekend.  Mostly herbs.  But we also got a dwarf peach to replace the one that died.  I need to go out & plant some things.

I saw G (pastor) & his family while i was at breakfast this AM.  He said hi, as did i, & i wished them a good day on my way out.  I think it strange that in 3-1/2 years here i never ran into him elsewhere before, but now that we've cut ties i seem to do so frequently.  This is the 3rd time in the last month.  No, i don't think it anything sinister.  Just one of those weird coincidences.  Life is odd.  


I've been tremendously emotional over the weekend.  I cry at the least little thing, from the finishing of a baby blanket for someone (& i hate that blanket - nothing seems to please me these days) i know to the Alfredo sauce that wouldn't thicken.  I don't know what is wrong with me.  Probably a combination of hormones gone whacky & being in pain for several days now.  I'm not normally a tearful person, so i really hate feeling this way.  

Just various pics from around Big Bear, especially the lake, the first year we lived here.  



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Today, when we got to the Farmer's Market at about 9.30, we could see fire on the North Shore.  It was being taken care of.  News reports that it was resolved by about 11.30 AM.  At one point flames were clearly visible (looked like a large tree was engulfed) but i didn't get the camera ready in time to get the pics.

 The copter was dropping water siphoned from the lake, the plane some form of fire retardant.


Which road would you rather travel:

 The first is our trip into OC this AM - & i don't think Duane caught as much traffic as there really was.  At times you can't see all that traffic as well as at others.  Definitely FasTrak (the toll road) paid for itself.  We probably saved 30 - 45 minutes in travel time.  


The second pic is the road into Holcomb Valley taken on Saturday was we were out "picture hunting."


Yes, the second is where i'd much rather be!  But traveling the first means we can afford to live where the second is only minutes away.  :)

I keep meaning to write about the book O Me of Little Faith at my other blog.  Frankly it is so well written i'm having a hard time, because what can i say but to recommend that you read it?


So glad they got the fire contained. 


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Yesterday's Pics

Yesterday we went picture hunting.

I've decided to change the header & a couple of side pics for winter/summer.  I was going to do all 4 seasons, but the truth is spring & summer don't show all that differently in our coniferous part of the country.  If i find i'm wrong next fall i will change, but i don't think so.  


So, here we are:

Yeah, i put them up there.  Jazz stayed for a while.  Mac didn't stay long.  Duane caught Jazz while jumping down, but not quite the shot he wanted.

These are the flowers Duane got me for my BD.  But i have to put them up high where the cats can't get to them & knock them over.  The vase was a wedding gift & i don't get to use it very often.  

Isn't the basil beautiful?  I wish i could say i grew this, but i bought it at the health food store last week.  Duane thinks it smells "stinky" but i like it a lot. 

Just different pics of around the lake & the mountains.  The crane in one of the above pic is building a new bridge to bypass the road over the dam.  The dam is unable to continue to handle the stress of the road on top of it.  

Then we ended up at a steak house for dinner with my BD money, but i had crab.  They brought me lots of crab, so i'm going to have crabcakes later in the week.  :)

I kept trying to get a pic of the moon in the blue, blue sky, but this is the only one that was even close to good.  

Isn't this pico de gallo beautiful?  I worked so hard on this today to go with Duane's fajitas, which were also a lot of work.    I made the pico de gallo with parsley instead of cilantro, because Duane doesn't like cilantro.  Turns out he doesn't care for pico de gallo at all.  Next time i need not bother.  It's ok.  It will go into a spaghetti sauce later in the week. 





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1 June . . . Already?

I've had a habit the past 2 years.  As near 1 June as possible i take a pic of Mt. San Gorgonio as we go down the mountain.  The snow on it varies from year to year.  These were all taken from close to the same spot on the road coming down. 

These two were taken on 2 June 2008.  

These two were taken 1 June 2009. 

And these three were taken today 1 June 2010.  (Rather grey day, today.)

I'm also adding these to the mix, for i don't remember Sugarloaf Mountain having snow on it this late in the season before.  We've had a long winter.  In 2008 we lost all the fruit on our trees due to a late storm (over Memorial Day weekend) & freeze.  But this year we've not had much spring as it has largely remained cold until the past couple of weeks.  And we had snow/freeze the weekend before Memorial Day holiday weekend.  Fortunately, i think we will have some apples.  Many seemed to be frosted, but a couple of days later the tree had a lot of blooms still.  It is not as spectacular as last year, but i think we will still manage some fruit.  :)  


Duane seems to be healing well.  He did come in to have the doc (chiropractor) work on him today.  His L hand/wrist is still very mildly swollen (not much).  I did some lymph work on him when he came into the office.  Also the doc said that he had put out his shoulder & ribs, but only mildly.  


I think i had more to say, but it is late, i'm tired & forgetful.  :)

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