Fun Photo Hunt Subject Photo Scavenger Hunt #111

      

Photo Scavenger Hunt #111 will be due on Sunday, June 10, at 11:00 PM EST. From Val standing in for her sister Krissy.

Our subject this week will be:  "animals - live or inanimate"

Please note this is an extended Hunt.  You will have ten days.  I gave you the subject so late this week and I wanted you all to have time to take your photos.  Val

Well, everyone who's read my journal for any length of time would know that the one and only animal I would feature would be my girl "Gabi Lin."  Not that there aren't other cute and sweet animals out there, it's just that she's the nearest and dearest to my heart.   I'll tell her history here because if you're a new reader of my journal you may not know her story.

First of all, Gabi (means "God Is My Strength" in Hebrew) has been with me since October 4, 2005.  At that time it had been determined that she was approximately 2 years old.  So I gave her a birthday of October 4th.  She had been picked up by the Humane Society in August of 2005 on the streets of Seattle,  matted, filthy, starving and scared.  The Humane Society kept her long enough to scan her for a microchip and get her stablized and then they put her in the care of a feline foster mom just south of Seattle. 

This dear lady is a breeder of Persians and Exotic Shorthair cats.  Gabi is an Exotic Shorthair.   The foster mom put ads in all the local papers for weeks and no one called to claim her.   meanwhile, a co-worker of mine had an older male Persian that had to be put to sleep.  She also had a female exotic that was about 14 months old at the time and got really weird acting after the older cat was put down.  So she decided to get another cat.  She called this lady and asked if she had any exotic kittens ready to be adopted and the lady said all she had at the time was this rescued female that was approximately 2 years old.  She emailed some pictured to my friend (who promptly emailed them to me) and I knew when I saw them that if my friend didn't want this cat...I did.  She captured my heart the minute I saw those pictures.  I've always had cats, but all those past cats were regular cats...not smooched face cats (aka SFC).  But I thought she was so cute, I didn't care if she did have a flat face. 

My friend really wanted a kitten but told the foster mom, she'd give this two year old a try and see if she was a good fit with her other cat.  One thing that came out when Gabi (my friend and I actually decided on her name together before she went and picked her up)  was handed over to my friend was that she need moist food twice a day because of not having a good diet for so long, she had lost some of her teeth and needed more than dry food to keep her going.  Now my friend only feeds dry food so for two days she had to keep these two cats apart at feeding time and she finally got so frustrated, she came into work one day and said "if you really want this cat, you can have her.  It's just not owrking out for me."   I was so thrilled....I took an extra half hour at lunch, went to Petsmart got a carrier, some food, litter and all the other goodies you need for an indoor cat.   My friend took my new carrier and went to her house about 3pm that afternoon, got Gabi and brought her back to me.  She's been with me every since. 

She is a very sweet little girl...she follows me around most of the time like my shadow, sleeps on a blanket at the end of my bed, and at time, she thinks I retired to sit on the couch and hold her all day.

I know she has had something traumatic happen to her, she's terrified if anyone picks her up but other than that does not seem to be afraid of anyone, except real young children.  I've tried to get her to tell me her story, but she doesn't want to talk about it.

How a little 5 pound pure bred exotic shorthair ended up on the streets of Seattle, I guess only God knows.  But I'm happy she survived and even happier that she ended up at my house.  She is a dear sweet little kitty.

And yes, a couple weeks after Gabi came to live with me, my friend found a beautiful exotic shorthair kitten in the Portland, Oregon area.  So both of us ended up happy with loving cats.

             "Happiness is being owned by a cat !"

So that's my "animal" story for the Photo Scavenger Hunt #111.

Terror On The Beach

After an afternoon of shopping and sight seeing in Solvang, we headed back to Highway 101 northbound.  We had heard that there was beach camping at Grover Beach (just a few miles south of Pismo Beach).  We arrived in the little city of Grover Beach about 6:30pm, tired and hungry, thinking of the steaks we had back in the camper's fridge.  We planned to get settled and fire up the BBQ.  We stopped at the very official toll house and the end of the city's main street and paid our $8 for one night of beach camping.  The young man (in a California State Park uniform) told us to drive down on the beach going about 2 1/2 miles and we would "see the others."  Now we have both driven, since we were in high school, on the beaches of Washington state.  Bob knew what he was doing...but as we drove along the surface of the beach began to get so rough.  It was literally like driving on an old fashioned washboard.   He was having a hard time finding the right kind of sand to drive on..not too loose & dry and of course not out in the surf.  We had slowly gone about two miles when up ahead we saw a river coming out into the ocean.  A 4-wheel drive truck was heading our way and as it came thru the "river" we could see that the truck dropped down about 3 feet, went thru fairly deep water and then up the other bank about 3 feet.  At that point Bob decided to abort this mission.  There was no way we could get thru that area with the big camper on the truck and just having 2 wheel drive.  So he turned around and we headed back.  Both of us were already mad at this point that the park employee hadn't warned us of the rough conditions.  We drove along for awhile and we met by another big truck with camper, and pulling a heavily loaded trailer behind them.  Bob slowed down a little and motioned to them not to continue.  At that point, we came to a halt in very soft dry sand.  Buried in the back up to the camper steps.  The other guy stopped and came over with a shovel and started trying to dig us out.  Bob told the man he had AAA and that he would just call them and someone would come and tow us out. 

(The time was about 7:15pm, it was starting to get dark and the tide was coming in.)  Meanwhile the other guy got turned around and told us he was going back to the toll booth to report that we were stuck. Pretty soon Bob's cell phone rang and it was a very nice man letting us know that his towing company was not allowed on this particular beach.  He said the state of California had an exclusive contract with a local towing company and we'd have to call them.   About this time the good Samaritan came back and told us he'd gone to the toll booth and told the young man that we were stuck and the kid just shrugged his shoulders and said there was nothing he could do. So he'd come back to help us get out.  As he turned around to try and pull us out.....he got stuck ! 

By this time I am freaking out !! It's getting darker, the water is getting closer...believe me I was sitting in the cab of the truck praying hard.   Finally two 4-wheel drive trucks with "locals" in them came along and Bob & the other guy waved them down and they did get us out of the sand.  Bob gave the guy that pulled us out $20 and the other man gave his "life savior" some cash.  We were out and not any too soon. The waves were coming within 6-7 feet of the truck. 

 We did stop and Bob asked for his $8 back but the toll taker  wanted him to fill out a bunch of forms and he was so mad, he wouldn't do it.  I was afraid he'd strangle the young man at the toll booth but he restrained himself. The young man did tell us that the local towing company charges between $250 ~$300 to tow a vehicle off the beach.  Hmmmm..  not a good incentive for tourists to come to their State Beach Campground.  

After we got home I wrote a scathing letter to the city council of Grover Beach and advised them that they should have some sort of warning signs and not let anyone on that beach that doesn't have 4 wheel drive.  It's just not safe.  They did reply and said "they'd look into to it."  We passed several big motor homes after we were freed and Iwonder what happened to them when they got further down the beach....did they float off to Japan ?

Needless to say we had no BBQ'd steaks that night...we had In-N-Out, just north of Pismo Beach.  When we stopped there I opened the door to the camper and almost passed out.  It looked like a bomb had gone off back there.  There were broken dishes and items out of all the cupboards littering the floor. After we ate, we spent another 30 minutes cleaning up the mess.  We were finally on the road again and soon found a nice, quiet  rest area about 187 miles south of San Francisco where we settled in for the night.

Until next time....Linda

 

Time To Head North

Tuesday morning, April 24th we said our goodbyes and sadly left the Pasadena home of Jerry, Hope, Nina and Emil until our next visit.  This family is such a joy to be around...it's always sad to leave them. 

We headed for Highway 101 northbound for our first campsite on our way home.   We stopped and took in the grandeur of the beautiful Pacific ocean just south of Santa Barbara, CA.  It's not like we never see the Pacific, it's just so different (namely warmer) in southern California. 

We headed into Santa Barbara and stopped at Vonn's for groceries.  I love this beautiful town, however we didn't do much sightseeing there this time but we have in the past.  We headed up out of Santa Barbara on Highway 154 to Cachuma Lake.  This is a favorite campground for people living in southern California and Bob has camped there several times with his Pasadena family.  On weekends and during the summer I understand it is absolutely packed...every campsite full.  But we arrived to have our pick of campsites.  When we finally got settled, we could only see 5 other sites with campers from our site.   There was an area that had full hook-ups that was pretty full and since we are self contained we really don't need hook-ups.  And we wanted a nice quiet spot where we could see the lake.  If you live in that area and want to go there and camp and want a good site..we were in campsite #455.  It's lovely !!

The next morning we left Cachuma Lake, passing grape fields and oil wells and arrived shortly at Solvang, CA.

Solvang is beautiful town, called the "Danish Capital of America." I love all the little shops, including the Danish bakeries (yummy)  I was able to get some more Delft items here and we had a wonderful lunch in the Red Viking restaurant.  Bob considered trying the pickled herring (he's part Finnish and his Finnish mother loved that delicacy) but in the end decided not to.  There was quite a bit of what looked like road repair going on, so a couple of the main streets were blocked off.  And since it was very warm there, after lunch and checking out a few more shops we climbed in the truck and continued our trek north.

Once again I used the Ken Burns format so you can click on the pictures if you wish to read the captions.

Next installment....terror on the beach !! 

 

 

 

Some More Downtown Los Angeles Adventures

Another one of the days that Hope went to the drapery rod store, she dropped Bob and I off in the center of the downtown Los Angeles wholesale district.  I've only posted a few pictures because it would take days to see all the stores.  We did not get to the silk flower shops or the garden shops where they have all kinds of pots and containers for planting.  I did want to go to the silk plant store because I'd like to buy an artificial Lucky Bamboo plant.   Maybe next time.

This entry contains the picture that I took of the lady on a corner selling little baby rabbits, ducks, turtles, etc.   I took the picture and she hollered "$5 for picture."  I gave her "the look" and kept walking.  I really wonder how legal it is for them to be selling these little animals, having them caged up out in the hot sun, like that.  There's also a picture that I took in one of the fabric outlets, that made me think of Robin's husband, Michael.

Also, just opposite of the "animal lady" was a lady with sliced melon, pineapple and honeydew.  It all looked very tempting but the conditions were such that we felt it wasn't a good idea to buy anything from these vendors. 

We saw many people on the streets carrying what looked like all their worldly possessions in shopping carts.  Once when we were sitting on a bench "people watching" I looked over and noticed a sign on the end of a shopping cart that said "Shopping carts for the homeless."  I wasn't able to read all of the fine print as it was quite lengthy but apparently the grocery stores in the area are sick and tired of their costly shopping carts disappearing. 

My only purchase from the wholesale district was a "knock-off" Brentano handbag that I got for $20.  Probably if it were the real thing it would have been much more than that.   Anyway,I love it.  It was good on the rest of the trip because I could throw my wallet in there plus a bottle of water and have room for the little odds and ends I bought along the way.

Anyway, after about 3 1/2 hours, Hope called Bob's cell phone to see where we were, soon she pulled up and we were back in the car and on the freeway headed back to Pasadena.

It's a very warm, sunny day here in western Washington today.  So I spent the morning doing some heavy duty watering, especially my new roses.  

Until next time.......Linda

MEMORIAL DAY

In 1865, Henry Welles, a druggist in Waterloo, New York, mentioned at a social gathering that something should be done to honor the brave souls who died in the Civil War.   The townspeople agreed and a day was set aside in May to decorate the graves with wreaths, crosses and bouquets.   This day was known as "Decoration Day." 

The first official recognition of  Decoration Day was in May of 1868.  That year Waterloo joined other communities in the nation by having their ceremony on May 30th.     After World War II, the use of "Memorial Day" became more common, but was not declared the official name by Federal law until 1967

Over the years, Memorial Day has been "watered" down to become a day of barbeques, picnics, etc.  And that's all fine, but we need to get back to the original reason the day was created.....It's a day to remember those who have given "the ultimate sacrifice" of their lives for the many freedoms we often take for granted.

Memorial Day is really May 30th but has been celebrated the last Monday of May to allow for a three day weekend.  There is a movement underway to return it's observance to May 30th, however.  See this statement I found when doing some research on line;  "The VFW stated in a 2002 Memorial Day Address, "Changing the date merely to create three-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed greatly to the general public's nonchalant observance of Memorial Day" Hawaii's Senator Daniel Inouye a World War II veteran, has repeatedly introduced measures to return Memorial Day to its traditional day since 1998."

A very interesting thought.  Would it make a difference ?  Would you celebrate Memorial Day differently if it were always observed on May 30th, no matter what day of the week it fell on ? 

Finally,I'm including the following poem;  

In Flanders Fields
By: LieutenantColonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Sunday This and That

Friday I purchased five "Knock Out " rose bushes from a local garden shop.  I have this strip on the side of my front yard where I had planted dahlias several years ago.  They did fine for a couple years and then last year I had one bloom.  So Bob took his rototiller to the strip and I cleared out all the debris and Friday afternoon with the help of my grand daughter I planted the 3 pink and 2 red "Knock Out"  rose bushes. They are described as a "tough and hardy landscape shrub rose."  I'm hoping as they grow...they will spread out and create a row of beautiful color.  My next door neighbor has already voiced his approval...they have rocks in place of lawn, so you can understand his approval of my flowers. 

My grand daughter spent Friday night here and Saturday I helped her make a summer nightgown.  I did most of the machine sewing, because she hasn't had a lot of experience in that area but she was right at my side all day, helping where she could.  When my son-in-law picked her up, we had it all done but the facing around the arm holes and she will do that by hand.

This afternoon, I ventured to the other end of town to The Grand Cinema to see the movie "Miss Potter."   The life story of Beatrix Potter played by Renee Zellweger.  It was delightful (no bad language or sex scenes) and I recommend it to anyone who has read and loved The Tale of Peter Rabbit. 

Well, that's all for now...I have a gray and white kitty begging for her late afternoon food, so I suppose I should get off here and comply with her wishes.     I hope everyone is having a good weekend...here in the U.S. it's a three day weekend for most. 

Until next time,  Linda

More Los Angeles Adventures

Once again, I'm leaving the picture in the "Ken Burns" format so you can click on them and read the captions, if you'd like.

On one of Hope's trips to the Wholesale District in regards to her drapery rods, she dropped us off for a couple hours at Olvera Street.   Bob always goes there when he visits the area and I love to go there too, it was one of the places I remember visiting with my aunts, uncles, grandparents and my mom & dad on our trip in 1955.   The place where I had my first taste of Mexican cuisine. 

There's always musicians strolling the area.  We stood and listened to one group of three people who were being filmed, by a very professional looking group of photographers.  I love the music and the atmosphere of this place.

There are hundreds of stalls with all types of different merchandise for sale.  Bob & I particularly like the leather goods stalls.  Belts, purses, little coin purses, shoes...anything that can be made of leather.  And yes I bought another little wallet type purse that you hang around your neck....just big enough to hold some change, a few bills and your ID.  But...it's red and it really caught my eye, so I had to have it.  I think it was $6...so not very expensive.   Also, there are several open air places to eat.  We've been to several of them in the past and this year we tried a new place.  We sat at a table just ouside a glass partition where a man was making formed taco shells.  The food was very good and not at all expensive.   The service is great, the food good and the prices low...what more can you ask for ?

We had first walked down the street to the famous birth place of the French Dip sandwich, Philippes hoping to eat there.  It's situated between Olvera Street and China Town and across the street for the Los Angeles Union Station.   We had stopped there once earlier in the week with Hope, only to find literally hundreds of people waiting in line to order.   It was the same thing this day, so that's when we decided to go back and eat at Olvera street.  We did walk thru the place to use the restrooms and Bob wanted to show me a very interesting picture of a locomotive engine that went past the end of the track.  (I've posted that picture in this entry).

After about 3 hours Bob's cell phone rang and it was Hope on her way back to pick us up.   We hooked up with her on a nearby corner and we were soon on the busy freeway system, heading back to Pasadena.

Until next time........Linda