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Retirement Time

Quite a few small quakes last few days. A couple of bigger ones south of the border, too far and to little to feel here.
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So far the mercury has stayed below 100 degrees F and we have avoided using the AC but the forecast is for a week or so of 100+ temps. Coolest summer since we moved here. Last year our electric bill was $400 a month and this year more like $50. As long as there’s no smoke at night we’re opening the windows and using just a fan during the day.
 
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Took advantage of temps in the 70s to get some yard work done. Mowed front and back yard and trimmed the roses. The neighbor’s dog tore up the fence last week.
He was tied up but the rope was too long and when he jumped the fence into another neighbor’s yard he was hanging by his collar. We drove around the block and nobody was home and another neighbor on the other side called someone up the street who had a key that could let the Sheriff in to rescue the dangling young pooch. We left when the pound showed up and the guy was hiding inside the whole time.
Another neighbor got a new pup who is running around loose and it’s hard to keep up the fence lately.
 
Got a cheap cordless electric screwdriver and some fancy screws to mend the fence. The neighbor behind must be less handy than I am because he just stuck a broom handle across the hole. I have a few spare grape stakes up now and his dogs lost interest trying to get through.
They keep burning stuff and we’re getting smoke at night from the fire pit by their pool. The mariachi music goes on past midnight sometimes and last night another guy thinks it’s New Years Eve blowing off M80’s already.
 
The fingers said:
They keep burning stuff and we’re getting smoke at night from the fire pit by their pool. The mariachi music goes on past midnight sometimes and last night another guy thinks it’s New Years Eve blowing off M80’s already.
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It's always like that here, year round. It isn't "mariachi" but whatever they can find with the worst earthquake-level subbass WHOMP WHOMP WHOMP WHOMPWHOMP WHOMPWHOMP WHOMPWHOMP WHOMPWHOMP WHOMPWHOMP WHOMPWHOMP WHOMPWHOMP WHOMPWHOMP WHOMPWHOMP WHOMPWHOMP WHOMPWHOMP WHOMPWHOMP WHOMPWHOMP WHOMPWHOMP WHOMP. It's not even audible with the house closed up, so you can't even block it out--it's like someone is shaking you, or kicking you or the floor or walls or whatever you're sitting or laying on (even if you isolate it from the floor and walls, vibration-wise).

The daily (nightly) fireworks here are the big mortar rounds KARRUMP! WHEEEEEEEE KABOOOOOOOM and most often happen between midnight and dawn, randomly, just one a night sometimes, sometmes one every hour or two. On and near any holiday it's a warzone. (not like one, it is one...I'll find bits of exploded "munitions" all around the yard, out in the streets, etc; where it drifts down after the KABOOOOOMS. I'm surprised that none of it has ever set anything on fire in the neighborhood).

The burning here usually smells like trashfires, lots of acrid plastic fumes, changing wierd smells, etc. It's worst on the best nights for leaving the windows open to get "fresh" air, so mostly the house just has to stay shut up tight all the time. (can't usually leave the windows open in the daytime on my "weekends" when I'm not at work because the other noise above the frequencies of the WHOMP WHOMP is at least *slightly* blocked by the 6-8" thick foam blocks saved from couch cushions that I have to fill the window casements with).

(also can't do anything outside like work on the trike or other stuff whenever any of those things are happening, so I hardly ever get anything done beyond emergency maintenance, between that issue and being too worn out most of the time)
 
Took advantage of the cooler weather to remove half of a fence post cactus today. It still has half a dozen 15” starts branching out which could be potted and sold as new fence posts. When twisted off they have a perfectly formed root which will grow in a 5 gallon container of soil which sells at the nursery for about ten bucks or more. Hate to just throw them away but they gotta go.
 
Hillhater said:
Get a dog !
..but not a puppy,..a rescue dog that needs a pal.
It will force you to walk regularly and give you something to talk to without getting into any arguments ! 😉
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I can confirm that it will need daily walks but it can argue.
 
Recent cold nighttime temperatures triggered the ash tree in the front yard to drop its leaves. It takes weeks to pile them up and fill up the trash bins to get rid of them but at least they have a green waste program that composts that stuff. Then the back yard leaves from the neighbor’s giant tree need to be dealt with.

They’re using helicopters to replace the power lines which go up the mountain towards Mountain Center and Idyllwild. Not as big of a job as the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway but important to prevent wildfires due to downed electric cables from high winds.
Every morning they go through overhead from Ryan Field on the way to a staging area where they truck in supplies. They land there then lift the towers up the steep canyon and return to the airport around 4:00 pm.
It would be exciting to go over there and watch if we had time. Wish they had a time lapse camera or real time webcam that documented the job.
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Got the leaves finally raked up in the front yard. Enjoying a little warmer and drying weather this week.
The back yard will be next when leaves finish falling from the neighbor’s giant tree.
The noisy next door neighbor has his house on the market and he just replaced the south fence which his dogs breached when we first moved here.
Hope the new people are cool and a bit quieter.
 
I'm retired, and do a lot of gardening. I just replaced a fence when the neighbor's fence fell in a windstorm and took down mine as well.

I just cleaned and will re-install the carburetor on my old Briggs and Stratton flathead lawn mower. It has a manual choke and odd linkage.
 
Neighbor’s tree got removed now so leaves are much less of a problem back there.
Skydiving is popular with several daily flights out of Perris and Lake Elsinore over the valley.
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Really have to get the front yard mowed. Some clover popped up along with a few other weeds but the hybrid bermuda is really green. Roses doing well front and back.
The back yard will have to wait for a full clean up. At least now with the neighbor’s big tree gone, when I pick up the leaves they won’t be coming back again.
 
Hillhater said:
remember the solid advice from an aging Clint Eastwood….…”..Dont let the old man in..”
..meaning , age is mostly in the head !
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Ha, I don't know about that, I mean I'm 65 and pretty fit, feel super young in the head. But then I go to sprint across a road or get up from a 'partial' squat, and I get a quick reminder of my age. Or I try and talk to anyone under 30 and it's like they are from a different planet! I know they are not really listening, just like I never listened to old people when I was a young man. Personally I like getting older, you avoid all the traps, if you've done your homework, and being retired is such a joy!

I retired early in my late fifties and since then I've spoken to many people approaching retirement and I hear the same nonsense I spruked when I was in their place. "I don't really want to retire, I like working, perhaps I'll just cut back to a few days a week." Retirement is like sex! Before you've had your first satisfying sexual encounter it doesn't mean much to you, but after you have, Yippee.
 
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