Another Leap, Toss & Catch

If you know anyone at Cal who can kick a football, have them contact Coach Jeff Tedford right away.

Coming Home

Gina's future is a little more clear.

Her Peace Corps service is over. She had the option of ending her service now with the equivalent of an honorable discharge, or could have taken an assignment to a new location to serve out her term. The problems with that are twofold: 1) 80% of people who accept that kind of transfer do not complete their 27 months of service, and 2) If you accept a transfer and leave early you don't get the honorable discharge. So this seems like the wise decision.

She'll be on a plane a week from Monday and landing in SFO that afternoon. A college roommate lives in San Francisco but is working in Portland on a project for her company, and has offered Gina and Ben her apartment in the city until January. This is a good offer.

We'll have her home for a little while, then a lot closer than Bolivia or Peru for a while. After that, who can say?

And one more big and public thank you to Dave for calling Lima on our behalf to figure out how to talk with Gina. Thanks!

Spirited Away, Part II

Gina's now in Lima, Peru. Next destination, unknown...

Ace Really Is the Place...

It was a whole-house scrubbing weekend in This Land, which is not news anyone can use, but we did rent the best carpet cleaner I've ever used, which might be good knowledge for someone else.

Rented it at the local Ace hardware, and it's a very compact square-looking machine. No hoses or attachments. It was $25 for 24 hours, and an $800 professional cleaning wouldn't have done a better job.

So if you have dirty carpets, Ace really is the place.

Spirited Away

If you've seen, heard or read the news out of Bolivia in the past day or two, you're already aware things are going to hell in a handcart.

Gina is safe. She and Ben took various modes of transport to various places, and is now in lockdown with other Peace Corps volunteers in an undisclosed location. (I don't think Dick Cheney is with them...)

Not sure what's going to happen next, but a Bolivian exit visa in her passport wouldn't surprise me a bit. More news when there is.

Aaa-ten HUT!

Leading the band to the first game.
One very proud mom!

A good toss and catch. And Cal won, so it was ALL good.

Full Moons Make Us Sleepy

It's true. The full moon - or even a good, bright almost-full moon, makes us walk around in a zombie-like stupor the next day. Today, for instance.

The problem with a full moon is that it brings the forest critters out in larger numbers than usual. And Gus takes his responsibility of protecting us from any and all forest critters very seriously.

Before the GCS, he'd just stand in the living room and bark at the lunar-inspired invaders. Now he starts in the living room, then bolts out the back door in order to better confront them.

This happened every hour last night from midnight until 6 a.m. But, I do have to say that the critters did not vandalize the house or steal our cars...

Dancing Dogs in New Jersey

The photo speaks for itself...

Romas and Radiators

New developments in This Land: The first harvested veggies. I know it's nothing compared to the bounty of the Kitchen or Eugene, but we have a shorter season up here and don't get as many hours of direct sun.

We have two other types of tomatoes growing as well - all in pots - but those haven't ripened yet.

In 2002 news, there's an upgraded cooling system. 02s are known for running hot, and a common upgrade is installing a bigger radiator. You can go the triple-core route for big bucks, or the Pick-N-Pull route with the rad from an early-80s 320i. That's what this is. It also has the electric fan from the same car.

To make it fit, you have to notch out the edge of the battery tray. So I have officially begun customizing this car - cutting out bits to make it better. The fan works but it's not on the circuit I want it on, so I'll fix that in the next day or so. I was pleased that other than miscounting the circuit, the wiring went perfect. It has a temp sensor and when the gauge got near the middle the fan kicked right on. It's installed in front of the radiator, behind the grill, and I was able to take off the factory fan, which runs off the water pump. It frees up a little engine power and removes a rotational load that shortens the life of the water pump.

Football Season Has Begun

It's football season in This Land.

The season doesn't begin when the Bears play their first game, or when NFL training camps open. It certainly doesn't begin when Diane begins reading Rivals.com (because then it would never end.)

Nope, football season begins when Diane gets to take the field at Memorial Stadium at the Women's Huddle.


Good ball protection!











Diane trying out for the O-line, under the watchful (albeit bemused) eyes of Alex Mack, described by Rivals.com as the "best player in the country not playing for USC...")


Putting the moves on after catching a pass...








And breaking into the clear for a TOUCHDOWN!

Everything's Shiny

Since everybody has been prettying up their blogs, I thought I'd get in on the act.

Then I discovered/remembered that I'd tweaked this template pretty hard with a lot of html coding I stole from Koji's Kitchen, and that doing much too it would take a whole lot more time than I have to devote to it this week.

So I prettyied up my other blog - unused until now - Everything's Shiny. I'll use that one as a car and motorcycle blog, geared toward folks who also drive and ride early '70s BMWs. I suspect I'll double post most stuff, but who can tell?

The GCS (and Bridge!) is Finally Finished

Here's proof.


The last two shots are from the street. The sloping section plays tricks on your eyes. It angles back as well as down, but you really can't see that from the street.

Hyper or Ubber?

Having just watched Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (twice) and having immediately checked out the T-shirt prices, I'm just not sure if the proper phrase is hyper geek or ubber geek.

A Breath of Fresh Air

On Friday I was driving back from Sonora about 10:30 a.m., feeling crappy because of the smoke and deicided I'd had enough.

At 1 p.m. we were in the car, and 4:15 in Half Moon Bay. Here's proof.

Yes, that's Idgie making sand angels.

A Sweet '74

As promised...

Made the three-hour drive home no problem - despite the 110-degree heat!

Non-Fence News Coming

Stay tuned...

A Dog Run No More

Today I depressed myself.

I designed the new section of fence for the creek, and it's so pretty I have to build it. And the bridge that's part of the design. I went from being done with the GCS to really just getting started again - and having to dig 15 new post holes.

I am tired of post holes.

But instead, I dismantled the old dog run.

Here's some before and after. Obviously I still need to deal with the metal bits still sticking up out of the concrete, and clean up underneath.

This was enough for today, though.

Function 1, Form 0: The Tyranny of the Pretty

The GCS passed it's first test this morning. Gus went out, walked the perimeter, then sort of staked out the high ground in the middle of the yard from where he could keep an eye on the whole neighborhood.

Diane and I had our morning coffee at the picnic table out back, and both dogs just hung out. What I hoped would happen, and what I think I saw the beginnings of this morning, is that we've created and defined Gus's territory. I think instead of trying to escape from it, he'll protect it. And, per Dave's suggestion, we'll call it the Wildland Gus Reserve.

So while the GCS passed the first function test, it hadn't been complete for 20 minutes last night before I decided it failed the form test. The problem is this:

The cedar portion of the fence is too pretty to have function-only ugly wire stapled to it. The wire along the split rail border is fine - you mostly see the split rail and the wire blends. But the last bit where we just used wire to close the circle just doesn't look nice enough.

It's the tyranny of the pretty.

So the plan now will be to carry the cedar down the slope and across the creek to the western border of the property. (Or, more accurately, to the spot somewhat beyond the western border where we decide we want our fence.) It'll be set deeper on the property than the fence in the picture and scaled down a foot so it really might look nice. The west-edge split rail will extend forward at least to the new fence (for now - to the street eventually), so the enclosure will be all finished off and square and there will be no butt-ugly lengths of wire fence.

Who needs a project car when you have Gus!

G.C.S Status: Operational

The Gus Containment System is operational and will begin real-world testing tomorrow morning.

Top picture is the driveway side of the house, with the gate finished.

There's no elegant way to run the wire across the creekbed, but we did angle it away from the house. With stuff growing on it and around it, hopefully it doesn't look too bad. I may try to design a more elegant fence over there eventually, but since it's cutting across our lot and not bordering it, it's tricky.

The east side hasn't changed much since the last photo - the wire inserts are there but don't really show in the photo. The last photo is 70mm telephoto from the driveway fence to the back property line. The wire fence (four-foot high) really doesn't show much. Light reflects off of it, but when it's in shade it really isn't horribly ugly. And it's functional.

If the testing goes well and the GCS works as hoped, the next thing we'll do is remove the old dog run that was here when we moved in. It's tiny and heavy looking and having it gone should improve the back views of and from the house immensely.

The G.C.S (Gus Containment System)

Here's some first pictures of the Gus Containment System. Top is the new fence on the east side of the house. The design is cedar up four feet (following the contour) with a two-foot wire panel above. The wire and post caps echo details on our existing decks and blend nicely. (The caps will be painted trim green.)

The whole system consists of two side fences and a boatload of woven wire fencing attached to the split rail fence that mostly encircles our back .40.

Had to run new split-rail along the east edge.

The west side fence runs from the edge of the garage. The wire will connect here, cross the creek and carry over to the existing split rail on that edge of the property. Hopefully, it won't look too bad, and because it starts a goodly distance in from the street, won't cut off the view of the creek much. Ran a few boards short on the gate, which will also be curved like the other.

Dogs is not cheap.