Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Oh! The Horror!!



84 years ago today!!

I beat feet, during my morning walk, to see what Wall Street is up to now!


Pretty darn spooky!










Much better this time.  Well done Wall Street!

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

ADA and Safe Streets to Schools project photos.

There has been a lot going on around Fort Bragg lately.

Traffic calming projects...,





Which seem to piss off a lot of drivers and,

ADA "bulb-outs"



 And sidewalk improvements which have to work around existing infrastructure.



At least the former mill property will have a fresh start when it comes to installing roads and sidewalks.

We'll see.

Sort of makes you wonder.

Spotted during this morning's walk.


Monday, October 14, 2013

Lookin' for Scarecrows.

My brudder has been looking for scarecrows, during his morning walk around his wee town of Coupeville and blogging about them..  I thought I would give it a try.


I got off to a bloody start!!

But soon found a bunch.




All at one residence and all looking hand made.


Nice!!


Saturday, October 12, 2013

Thursday, October 10, 2013

S'pose?

S'pose we will ever get to walk through this gate and visit our Fort Bragg waterfront?


That's Soldier Bay, right out there and I'm getting tired of waiting.

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Ms. Scruffy

Last year Lolli and I noticed a Raven with damaged feathers.  


She can not fly.  She is quite a mess.  We call her Ms. Scruffy.



She gets around on phone lines, cable and power wires and, roof tops.  We started feeding her dry dog food but a local wild life expert told us it was better to feed her protein, scrambled eggs, for instance.

A friend recently emailed me to ask how Ms. Scruffy is doing?

Here is my reply:

"
Yep, Ms. Scruffy is still among us!

Lolli and I were gone July and August but asked a neighbor to continue putting scrambled eggs out for her while we were gone.

When we returned Ms. Scruffy was missing for a couple of days but she realized a steady diet  of scrambled eggs was back in town.  Soon she started showing up several times a day and if we didn't notice her she would call us!!



Her primary feathers never molted this September, as we hoped, but it seems she did replace her body and secondary flight feathers.  For a while, last month, I noticed she would run and partially fly, over and over, along roof tops, into the wind, and I was hoping she was getting better flying feathers but, now it is October and I don't think "real" flying is in her future.

Since her territory seems to consist of only one block I thought I would be able to figure out "her day" by following her around.  I have tried that several times but it gets real boring and I usually give up and move on to other things.  She seems to eat at our place and then go elsewhere on the wires to sit and gaze off in the distance and groom herself.  Sometimes she hunkers down on a wire and does, what I call, "brood" for an hour or so.

There has been a lot of recent activity what with houses being re-roofed and streets being repaved.  She doesn't like all the commotion and her appearance for scrambled eggs gets sketchy for a day or two but, once the activity dies down, she re-appears.

The routine:

In the morning I will look for her and if I see her I will get her scrambled eggs out of the refrigerator and go outside, walk around the corner of our house to our garden to where her food "platform" is located; calling her name and holding up the container of scrambled eggs for her to see.  When I dump the eggs onto the platform I always "tap tap tap" the container against the platform to make sure it is empty and also signal that food is ready.  She responds, hopping and flapping across roof tops, running along wires and then onto our roof, over to the garage roof, down to the gutter, hop onto our fence and then walk, while "looking looking looking" to make sure if is safe to approach the food.  Finally she arrives and gets to it.  



She will eat most of it, or all of it, except for one largest piece which she likes to take in her beak and then walk along the fence back to the garage; then hop up on the garage roof where she will finish it off and then get on with her day. 

I really get a kick out of her when I walk out of the house sometimes and she is waiting right beside and above the porch, leaning over to look at me; just her head showing.  I go back in and get her more scrambled eggs and she follows along on the roof as I walk to her food platform.  She definitely knows who I am and what the drill is!!"





When the wind is blowing it is amazing how she can walk the wire and not get blown off!


She is not our pet but she sure is entertaining.

Ms. Scruffy.


Monday, October 7, 2013

Sunday, October 6, 2013

We SOB's accepted the Challenge!

October 5th was the 24th Annual Konocti Challenge.  There were three bicycle ride opportunities, 40 miles through the vineyards, 65 miles around Clear Lake, and 100 miles for those with nothing better to do!  This year five SOB's rode the 65 miler and one SOB rode the 40.

The start and finish is in Lakeport, CA.


7:00 Saturday morning.  45 degrees and no wind!!  There had been strong winds the previous week!


Gathered at the start line and rolling at 7:30AM.


Passing through Clearlake we spotted a sign that could meet all our needs!!


Rest Stop #2 not only had all the snackage one could want, they also offered free massage!


Rest Stop #5 with it's French Revolution Theme offered beheading which is a perfect way to eliminate suffering!!


3:30 PM and back at the Finish.  66.4 miles traveled at a moving average of 11.7 MPH.
Pretty darn good for us old farts!


Post ride dinner, by the lake, provided by Konocti Challenge.
An excellent day, great people, all the snackage, power drinks, and support one could want.
We all agreed, "We don't feel too bad!  Let's do it again next year!!"
Whoot!  Whoot! Go SOB's!!

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Those SOB's.


In the beginning there was retirement and the time to finally get off ones ass and do something healthy.

And thus, the SOB's were born.


First there were three.  Three of us who discovered we liked to ride the Skunk Train Haul Road quite regularly.  We soon decided to start meeting at the Skunk Train parking lot at 10:00AM for, pretty much, daily rides.


And soon there were more SOBs and the tradition started of ending our daily ride at the Cookie Company (Zappa's) for replenishment of lost calories and caffine!
Sort of a post ride debrief.


Soon we started exploring around Fort Bragg and beyond and doing longer rides on Fridays.


After a visit to Glenn Blair.


Tomki Road from Willits to Ukiah.




Gathered together in a burnt out Redwood Stump up Big River Haul Road.




Bob's Sunset Ride.


Westport and beyond, ride.


Yep!  We are the SOB's.


A great bunch of guys and, so far, one great gal!
We do not discriminate by age or sex.  All you have to do is show up at 10:00 AM on a work day!!