Wrong Way Corrigan

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We’re back in K’Stan for a couple of days. We have to meet the plumber in the morning at the old house to repair the plumbing that caused all the damage. We also are going to visit the various Family members that live hereabouts. There are lots of other things that we need to do here, not all of which we can accomplish this trip.

It’s costing us a bunch of extra dough coming to Cal since we still can’t stay in our house until we get enough of it fixed such as to be habitable. We’re in a hotel for three nights. It takes a day to get here, two days to do stuff and a day to get home again.

I looked into towing our trailer out here to lighten up on the expenses, but would you believe there is a dearth of RV campgrounds in the area? I only found two in a ten mile radius of where we need to be: One in Long Beach that won’t take our “vicious” miniature Pinschers (total bullsh1t) and one on Dockweiler State Beach, right under the departure end of Los Angeles International Airport with no wi-fi and all day, all night jet noise plus an exorbitant $60 per night fee.

Hopefully, in a few months, we will either have the old place fixed enough to stay there, or we will have flipped the house and be free of the mortgage and the ridiculous Cali property taxes. We are looking forward to getting all of this business resolved.

Orange Hibiscus

Orange Hibiscus

I bought a living miniature orange hibiscus potted plant at the flower shop in the supermarket the other day. That day, their cut flowers looked wimpy, so I bought the hibiscus. I thought that when the flowers start to open on this plant, they would be very pretty and I was right. These started opening yesterday and after the light got better (we had monsoon rain this morning) I went out on the patio and took this photo. Click on the image to enlarge.

Taking the New Truck Plunge

Ford F-150 Pickup Truck

We didn’t plan to drive a new truck home today, but that’s what happened. We had been toying with the prospect of upgrading to a new vehicle for a while now and contacted a friend who is a salesman at the local dealer. We gave him some specifications about what we wanted and he came up with a list of possible matches a few days later. At first, we had trouble getting on the same wavelength with our “druthers,” but we met with him today at the dealership and found a truck that we could flex our initial wishlist to come to an agreement. Both Damsel and I test drove the truck and we liked it a lot.

Our buddy made us a really good offer for a trade in of our SUV, so we decided to go forward with the deal. We still have the SUV for tonight, but tomorrow morning we will be cleaning it out and taking it to the dealer.

A couple of years ago, this dealer posted a billboard that convinced us that we would come here for a new truck deal. It was the famous (to us) “Thanks, Ford, for NOT taking the bail out from the government.” Click on the image to enlarge.

Debris on the Road

Debris on the Road

Country Club Drive crosses Casandro Wash about a quarter of a mile upstream from the dam. The dam is about eight hundred feet south of our house. Damsel took this photo of some debris still on the road as we passed by driving on Wickenburg Way (US 60). It has been over two weeks since the last major thunderstorm and this debris remains, although the road is passable.

Right after the storm, this road was closed due to debris and obstructions. It reopened a couple of days later. I guess the mindset is that the road is open and we still have another month or more of possible monsoon activity. Clean up can take place after that, I guess. Click on the image to enlarge.

Ocotillo

OcotilloA few weeks ago, I spoke with the landscaping folks about our ocotillo out front. The one they installed a couple of years ago had completely died and was being consumed by termites or some other wood eating vermin. The landscape crew came out shortly after and removed the dead plant.

Today, the crew showed up with this beautiful living replacement for the old ocotillo. Luckily for us, the landscaper has a policy of replacement of anything they planted for up to five years. When the saguaro they planted failed, they promptly removed the fallen cactus and eventually replaced it with the one seen behind the new ocotillo in the background of the image to the right.

Hopefully, the new ocotillo will prosper in the new location and produce the beautiful little arrays of red flowers on the tips of the canes. This is a young ocotillo and has the potential to grow in height and have more canes (branches). Click on the image to enlarge.