Green, Green, It's Green They Say

I wish that everyone could have been here to enjoy our magnificent spring season. It was finally GREEN around here! Though somewhat late in getting here, it was nevertheless appreciated beyond measure. What a marvelous contrast between this verdant display and the burnt toast color that you well remember that assails our hills in summertime. I am speaking in past tense because the temperature just hit 93 degrees and the hills are already starting to wither.

Connie and I try to drive over the Yokhol Valley hump at least once per year (once in each direction if we can) and take the obligatory 6 thousand pictures of the magnificent array of wildflowers. If possible, the 30 mile trip is also used as an initiation of any friends who have yet to discover the glory of the wildflowers in that region. We haven’t been able to fulfill that duty so far but have at least discussed the matter. We say it like this:  “We’re moving towards moving towards doing it”. Perhaps if I recharge the batteries in the big Sony Mavica and reload the AA’s in the smaller digicams I will somehow derive the impetus to overcome my work schedule and tired airframe and just go shoot some pictures. We’ll see but, judging by our lagging energy level and lack of time (my responsibilities somehow keep getting in the way of my fun time) it won't happen any time soon. *SIGH*

Speaking of digicams, OL' Rancho Ran and his side-cook, Sweet Connie, aren't lacking cameras. Between yards sales and such, we have probably six or seven nice cameras. On one particular yard sale, we picked up a high performance camera that was, get this, just too complicated for the teenaged gal to mess with. So, she dumped it for a fin!  It was a 150 dollar camera! Another camera obtained at a yard sale (at Pismo Beach) was a beautiful 6 mega-pixel Panasonic model. It had been in storage for awhile and the batteries had leaked. I purchased it, took it home, cleaned it up and it works like a Swiss watch. Not bad for ten bucks, eh?

I was scheduled for flight instruction this week in Livermore but the weather changed on us…again. We postponed twice already but the weather changed again so we postponed again. I’ve yet to have confidence in the weatherman except in California and only in mid-summer when I have great trust. “Well, Gina, the forecast for tomorrow is ‘HOT and DRY’ just as I predicted. Don’t look for green grass on the hills any time soon”.

The new schedule is for the middle of the last week of this month going into the next. I did take the SportStar for a spin around the pea patch. It’s a fun ship to fly but it’s not a WACO.

It’s interesting to note that I wasn’t feeling all that well anyway. I told Connie that I was feeling “weird” but wasn’t aware of the cause. Can you imagine feeling seriously goofy and trying to fly an airplane? Me neither.

I had thought that hypertension was sneaking into the picture. In fact, it wasn’t unreasonable to suspect that given that I had recently availed myself of the blood pressure cuff at the local CVS Pharmacy (formerly Long’s on Henderson). Thankfully, the auto sphygmomanometer was brain dead and lied to me. I was shocked at the reading and was ready to head straight to the doctor’s office after such an insane reading.

This reading actually led me to ultimately make a doctor’s appointment albeit not without being prompted by Connie. DUH! I have a particular dislike for doctors. So, it isn’t often that I submit to their quackery and ham handed chicanery (statistically, doctors kill a thousand times more people each year than do people with guns).

Being a former paramedic, I knew that about the worst that could happen by going to the doctor would be an exam and some blood work. That is exactly what happened. He looked me over and ordered some blood work. That was done right after the visit to the doctor. My blood was draw by the cutest brown haired vampire I’ve seen so far. She had an ebullient personality and was quite friendly. I kept her away from my neck, though.

There was a bit of a surprise, though. I had a sinus infection! Say what?! I knew my head felt goofy but…..a sinus infection? There may have been a sinus infection in my quiver twenty years ago but only once! Who woulda thunk? A real poser is why the doctor said, “You have a sinus infection” but then made an appointment for the next week without addressing the matter. No antibiotics or such. Reckon I’m chopped liver or something. Maybe he was going to let the bugs grow into a real mess so that he would have more to do. He would make more money by having to take a jackhammer and a couple of cherry bombs to my sinus cavity so he could FIX things, don'tcha know.

The good news was that my blood pressure was “only” 137/ 90. Not quite “normal” but a far cry from the potentially eardrum-breaking reading at CVS. 

The lab report showed that my blood was fine so there was no cause for concern there. So, the doctor tossed some low-tech bug killers at me to overpower the invading and offending infection.  Yo soy mucho mas major ahora.

The training in Livermore is in a late model WACO YMF5C. She’s a biplane beauty to fawn over, to be sure. She’s sporting a big Jacobs R-755 radial engine that easily pumps out 275 horse power. Radial engines are my friends. You can take a gander at her here: http://www.attitudeaviation.com/waco.html

We still haven’t been able to get our above ground garden built. A friend of ours advised that the compost supply (from near Exeter) is now somewhat spotty. Not sure what that’s all about but another friend has some extra compost available for the taking. The lumber is parked out back and the chicken wire is near the lumber. Chicken wire will be used as a flooring and is used to keep out the (many) California pocket gophers. The little interlopers feel that they are entitled to our veggies and that they have mineral and mining rights to the property. They’re probably illegal Mexican gophers.

The Ranch Rino tractor is fixed. Friend and fellow Spring-villain, Rudy Paine, a top-notch mechanic, straightened it out for us. I had previously ran over a smallish pile of brush while rounding up tree trimmings and such into a large burn pile and had managed (without any assistance) to break the exhaust pipe at the manifold. No telling what a professional would have charged me to make a break like that. It’s back to being quiet again and I’m back in the good graces of my neighbors.

Not much farm work being done but at least I cut the grass. But, I have yet to take the weedeater for a long walk and do the clean up required after mowing. The big lawn tractor is doing its part but the grass has been wet a lot so I can’t use the grass catcher. In fact, it started raining within 15 minutes after mowing two weeks ago. Not only could I not use the weedeater I couldn’t use the Roundup on the weeds that are trying to hijack my driveway. Oh, well. I was tired anyway and probably wouldn’t have done it. At least I had a great excuse.

The computer biz is steady. Steady is good. I don’t want to expand and don’t want to hire someone to help. The way things are, I can pretty much work my own schedule and still have a two to three day turn around. Down in P’ville, the turn around time can be up to two weeks. Once in awhile it takes as long as a week to fix a box. That usually means I have to order a part or such. Most of that dynamic concerns a laptop because I don’t stock parts for them. There are just too many makes and models and I don’t have the room.

Connie and I got to spend the night in Fresno a week ago. We were going to attend a friend’s birthday part. However, we did so because we wanted to get an early start on the yard sales. Fresno has always had great yard sales. I can’t even begin to recount the many treasures I’ve run across when I lived there. Not much you can find if you just look. The weather was perfect for yard sale’ing so we had a grand time. I may be tempted to take “Heffalump”, the big white covered trailer next time. We’ll see.

You can bet we will take the trailer when we head to Pismo Beach this summer, though! The yard sales at the coast are unreal! We loaded the trailer last year! Good stuff!

Stay tuned to the adventures of “Captain Cornball” and his sweet side-cook, Connie