Category Archives: Castle Willett

January 14, 2018 · 23:53

Group Mind Question – January 14th

Two things happened this weekend that got me wondering how much life in Los Angeles might be different from life elsewhere. The two incidents involve using phone apps and the Internet to do routine things and I don’t know if that’s a “La La” thing (or at least a big city thing) or something that’s happening everywhere – so I’ll ask.

First incident – I needed a haircut. Desperately. I don’t get my hair styled, I get it cut. Helen Keller could cut my hair, so I don’t go anyplace expensive. I believe I’ve ranted about this before. Bottom line, Fantastic Sam’s and SuperCuts are high end for me. The new Great Cuts chain is $3 cheaper and gets me the same results.

Saturday is a busy time at these places, but now they have this app where you can “check in” well in advance and then just walk in and be next, or close to it. I found out about this one time sitting there for about a half hour and watching three or four guys come in and get started within a minute or two while I waited. And waited. And waited. It was really annoying. But now I use the app! So when I was leaving the hangar, thirty-five miles and forty minutes away, I started the app, checked in, and when I got there I was in the chair in about a minute, bypassing the two or three guys who were there waiting.

It was great! Of course, whether or not using the app is “fair” all depends on whose ox is being gored, obviously!

Second incident – we wanted to see a movie, but our schedule was sort of up in the air. Almost every theater around here now has the advance ticket sale option where you not only buy your ticket but also reserve your seat. Even if you just walk up to the window, you still pick an assigned seat. Since you’re stuck with the system one way or the other, we usually log in and buy tickets and pick seats in advance. But today it was more of a spur of the moment thing, so we didn’t.

Walking up to the window at 11:28 for a 11:30 movie we found there were only four single seats available for the movie we really wanted to see. We ended up seeing another film (“Molly’s Game,” which we really liked, BTW) at noon instead.

Question – if you’re living in a smaller town in the US (Vermont, Maryland, Texas, Arizona… I know you’re out there) or outside of the US, is this level of online or electronic scheduling and ticket purchasing as routine or even required these days? It happened here quickly, within a year or two at most, but I was wondering if I would be looked at like I had two heads if I wanted to buy movie tickets on my phone in West Smalltown, Ohio?

Just curious.

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January 12, 2018 · 21:30

The Fungus Among Us

In the cool, damp morning light, the humongous organism living under our yard poked up a few scouts to see if it had really, really rained the other day.

When I first saw the yard covered with mushrooms decades ago after we had first moved in, I did the usual all-American thing and tried to figure out how to kill them. After all, they destroyed that putting green look that I wanted for my yard!

I found out that all of the various fungi and similar fauna and flora are interconnected underground and it’s almost like one huge organism that’s far larger than any elephant or whale. I also found out that my yard looks just fine when it more closely resembles a salad than a carpet.

And, yes… That makes it the humongous fungus among us!

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January 6, 2018 · 23:22

Fading Of The Lights

This is the weekend that the Christmas lights come down, so tonight’s the last chance to see them. As has been true for the last couple of years, it means that this might be the last night of the last big Christmas light display for us in quite a while.

In the end, we were able to put up about 65% to 70% of our “peak” displays of past years.

For example, the birch tree with the two strings of white stars in them would normally have those plus at least two or three strings of plain white lights and white icicle lights.

The bushes below the white stars would normally have at least one more set of lights and the big berry tree to the left of the white stars would have at least a couple of strings up high in the branches.

But in the years we did those displays I was also either working far fewer hours or, for a couple of years, not working at all. In many of those years I also wasn’t in my current position at the CAF SoCal Wing, which is almost another full-time job. Priorities, man – this adulting thing can really suck.

This view usually has a nice image of Orion rising above the house, but the clouds tonight ruined that.

We we can see at the top center (red & green stripes) is a trans-Pacific jet of some sort climbing out of LAX.

We joke that there’s a danger of one of the jets coming into Burbank (we’re right under one of the main approach corridors) mistaking us for the airport.

Tonight’s threat was more of an Earthbound sort.

As I was taking these final pictures, standing right next to the street, I heard something on the sidewalk behind me. Nails or claws clicking on the concrete as something trotted along.

Fortunately, I froze instead of abruptly turning around.

One of the neighborhood skunks, about the size of a Maine coon cat (i.e., pretty good sized), was not more than four or five feet away, oblivious to my presence. I wanted to keep it that way, so I stayed “vewwy, vewwy quiet.”

Our bold-as-brass visitor turned into the neighbor’s yard and disappeared underneath their fence gate into their back yard. About then the neighbors drove up and started to pull their trash cans up from the curb to put them into the back yard. I quickly suggested they might want to leave them out in the front until morning.

With that, we bid a fond adieu to the 2017 Christmas lights. Who knows what Thanksgiving weekend 2018 holds?

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January 2, 2018 · 22:39

Woodpecker

I could hear it, but couldn’t see it. But the sound was unmistakable to someone who knows it.

Being way up top in the tree made it tough to focus the camera. (Different kind of focus than what I ranted about on Sunday.)

There it is! No sign of a red patch on the head, so it must be the female. I’ve seen the male around from time to time and they form monogamous pairs, so it makes sense.

This tree’s started to die off in the last six months or so, just like the matching one did about ten years ago and the birch tree did three or four years ago. In each case, I always saw the woodpeckers pounding away as the trees turned brown. I don’t know if the trees get sick and the bugs move in on the weakened tree, or if the bugs move in and are the primary cause in making the trees get sick and die. Either way, it’s a meal for the woodpeckers.

What, better hunting up there? Okay!

Even though it’s fall, much of this tree is still covered in leaves. Except for the parts that have turned brown and brittle. The sound from her hunting and feeding wasn’t tremendously loud – I only heard it because I was standing under the tree. I’ve heard woodpeckers in the neighborhood “drumming” in the spring (I’m guessing it’s these two, they’re not that common here) and they can be quite loud, heard from a couple blocks away.

Hunting for dinner at the very top, just before she flew off. As you can see, this tree might not make it to the end of the year. It’s a “city street tree,” planted by the city in the median strip between the sidewalk and the curb back when the houses were built. I suspect this whole housing tract had the same species of tree used everywhere, but now about 2/3 of them are missing. Instead we have quite a variety of trees that have been chosen to replace them.

The woodpeckers don’t care. They’re just here for the bugs.

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December 13, 2017 · 22:03

That Moment, December 13th Version

…when you wonder WHAT FREAKIN’ PLANET do you have to come from when a Hummer is considered a “compact” car?

…when you wonder if you paid enough attention in that one yoga class a few years back to be able to actually have the skill needed to bend and twist and suck your gut in and contort enough to get in through the driver’s door – or should you just say “fuck it!” and climb in the passenger side, hoping not to disembowel yourself on the gear shift climbing over into the driver’s seat? (Good thing I had all of that practice back in high school, if you know what I mean… I know I was paying attention then!)

…when you get home after a long day topped with the above, only to realize on the first bite that you topped your enchilada with cranberry sauce instead of chunky salsa.

My taste buds were surprised!

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December 11, 2017 · 21:50

I’ve Been Working On The Railroad

Along with the neuvo faux Tannenbaum and accouterments, this year features the premiere of our under-the-tree railroad line.

No one was more surprised than I was when it actually moved, stayed (more or less) on the tracks, and went (more or less) around the tree as designed.

I’m gonna need me one of those corduroy engineer’s hats and overalls!

 

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December 8, 2017 · 22:36

Yes And No – December 8th

YES

I am still checking the toilet for visitors every time I lift the lid.

NO

He hasn’t come back.

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December 7, 2017 · 23:57

What To Take, What To Abandon

(We’re still fine – the winds of last night caused some serious problems up in northern Ventura County [35-50 miles away] and tonight the winds have kicked up down in San Diego County [80-90 miles away] but things near us seem a bit more calm. Still many schools closed for the rest of the week, still some scratchy eyes and sore throats from smoke, but that’s the worst of it. For us. For now. Things can change in an instant.)

Back in the day I used to love playing a computer simulation game called Outpost. The Earth’s going to be destroyed, you can put together one ship to go elsewhere and build a colony, and so on. Sort of like Sim City with a bit of Armageddon thrown in for kicks.

You started the game by figuring out what you want to take. It’s all a juggling act limited by mass and physics. Lots of people? Great, but you only get to take enough food and water for a month. A couple years’ food and water? Great, but you only get to take a dozen people. More seeds or more machinery? A full nuclear power plant, or a windmill (plus a lot of food and people) and hope you find a planet with wind? A set of weather and communication satellites? Or take your chances with ignorance and whatever comes over the horizon, just like the good old days?

Last night was a bit like that.

Scenario One: You wake up at 02:34 AM with the fire department pounding on your door and the sky orange, smoky, and making it almost impossible to breathe. You have thirty seconds to get out with your life. You take…

Without preparation, you pull on clothes, take your car keys, wallet or purse, phone, maybe a briefcase that might have an iPad or other valuables in it, and you hope to get out with your car and your life.

If you’re playing the game, you do all of that and you grab that “red” box that you put by the front door with the credit cards, passports, birth certificates, death certificates, spare cash, and a few days of your medications.

Scenario Two: Same, except you have five minutes…

Without preparation, you run around like a lunatic and get to safety, only to spend the rest of your life second guessing yourself, wondering why you left this and that to burn to the ground while you took clothes you hardly ever wear, a television that you could have replaced in five minutes for $300 at WalMart, and a generic set of pots and pans.

If you’re playing the game, you have a list and you’ve double checked where items on the list are and verified that they’re ready to grab and go. (If the fires are a bit closer and more likely to move in your direction, you probably have everything on the “five-minute list” in the hallway by the front door, right next to the “red” box. If the fires are really threatening, you probably put it all in the car now, just to be safe in case five minutes turns into thirty seconds.)

Also, if you have pets, plan for them. Do you have carriers for them, or leashes? Food? Water? Treats? Toys? Meds?

This is where the juggling starts. You can play these scenarios all night long. What’s on the “five minute” list? What slips to the “fifteen minute” list? What do you jam into the van if you have an hour? Two hours?

For me, five minutes gives time (with proper preparation) for the wedding photos, jewelry, computers, photos, suitcases of clothing (if they’re pre-packed), family movies and video.

Fifteen minutes lets me start grabbing the unique and irreplaceable items, as well as the simply expensive. Signed books. The good wedding china and silver. Paintings. Sports memorabilia.

Once that’s done, depending on time and space (sound familiar? do I need to bring a backup lander or hospital?), once I’ve secured all of the one-of-a-kind items that simply can’t be replaced at any cost, then it’s time to start prioritizing what to take that can be replaced but would be expensive or difficult to replace.

Play the game now. Do it in your head. Take notes. Play it in slow motion with no actual life-and-death emergency staring at you right outside the door. Run through it again and see what you missed. Re-weigh your priorities. Walk around and see again what you might have missed. Then make those five minute, fifteen minute, and one hour lists and put them someplace where you can grab them in thirty seconds.

It doesn’t matter where you live, there is something out there that’s gonna bite you in the ass one of these days. Fire, flood, hurricane, tornado, mudslide, volcano, tsunami, Republicans – something’s coming that you’re going to have to run for your life from.

Be ready.

Clock’s ticking…

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December 3, 2017 · 23:20

Nuevo Faux Tannenbaum

For those of you not illiterate in three separate languages, we got a new artificial Christmas tree this year. Today was the day to put it up!

Yes, we need to get that ornament at the very top a bit more straight as seen from this side.

From this side it looks much better.

What did you do with your weekend?

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November 27, 2017 · 23:22

Hanging Christmas Lights 101

Actually it wasn’t 101 – barely made it into the low 90°s on Saturday! Gotta love that SoCal weather!

Spreading racks of lights across the lawn – which do we run out of first? Lights, power outlets, or daylight?

Ladders in position – it’s critical to take the high ground early!

Bins of more lights, with power cords starting to get laid out.

The first sets of “big” lights along the western gutters go up first.

Getting power from where it is to where it has to be takes hours at the beginning, but after 25+ years, I’ve learned a few tricks.

Those are NEVER going to work if that doesn’t get plugged in somewhere!

A different view of Hissy. What? You want me to be hanging on to the ladder and/or tree instead of taking pictures?

The big, long, ugly, orange extension cords are a necessary evil – but we wrap them in garlands to make it a bit more palatable.

I love those sunbeams cutting through the palm tree!

This is how you get all of your power cords strung and about 60% of your lights up in one day with just two people.

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