Weekly Wrap Up - Week of January 28th

 

    Monday - It was mayhem, coming back from our annual meeting after being off Friday when all our offices were closed for our annual company meeting. Even though we gave our clients plenty of notice and we left our "out of office" notices on email and left updated messages on voice mail, they just didn't get it. I had so many voice mails saying I need to talk to you right now, please call me back ASAP. Let's hope Tuesday is better. 

    Tuesday  - nothing really exciting happened,

we've been having really heavy rain and a lot of wind. I hope my rain gutters hang in there. Thank goodness I got all my trees trimmed in November so no branches will be dropping through my roof and my fence is only a few years old so I don't have to worry about the wind. It can huff and puff but it won't blow my house down! 

Chorizo enjoying the rain and fresh air!

    Wednesday - Lisa and I went to Walmart after work and we captured this gorgeous sunset!

    Thursday - All the rain and excitement is over at least until the weekend when they are predicting super big storms...we'll see how that turns out!

    Friday was a fun day. I still worked all day but I had dinner plans with my two local coworkers and two of our top producers were coming in from Fresno to take us out to dinner as a thank you for all we did for them in 2023. We met up at a fairly new restaurant for Bakersfield, El  Puesto Cocina & Lounge. I had not been to this one, so I was excited to go and I really liked it! I'll just share some pictures now and caption what's going on.

The Group beginning with the blond lady bottom left, Amy, next to her Angelica, bottom right, Gabby, middle is Anusone and then me. Amy and Anusone are two of the top producers and I am so proud to be on their team, they are real go-getters and both do so much charitable work in their communities. I don't know where they get the energy. 

Amy - top producer and Angelica, my co-worker, friend and recently promoted to Transportation Manager!

Me, Anusone and Gabby. Anusone is also a top producer and entrepreneur. Gabby recently was promoted to Account Manager, so proud of her and how far she has come as well!

This is us on the way out, don't you love the decor? They actually served food in those pots and dishes, which you'll see the pictures of the food I'll share.

   

 I started out with my usual, a Jalapeno Margarita. I try to always have one so I can see if I can find the perfect one. This one was ok, not as spicy as I would have liked. 

    These were their nachos. They were so good and see how they are served on the pottery plates. I thought I had taken more pictures of the food but I didn't, this was the only one!

    We only had appetizers, but we ordered every appetizer on the menu so we could try everything. I wish they had a website or that I had taken pictures of the appetizer menu but I was having so much fun that I forgot all about it. It was such a nice end to the work week!

   

Saturday - Had a nice breakfast with my son at Dennys and then we went to the AT&T store to upgrade our phones. Mine was still the iPhone7, and now I have the iPhone14. My son upgraded to the iPhone12Pro. It's so nice to have new phones. I don't normally upgrade because I take really good care of my phone and I don't like to learn a new one, but they make it so easy now the learning curve is not as bad.

   

    Sunday - I'm going through football withdrawals. Thank goodness the Pro-Bowl is today. The wind and rain started while I was sleeping, it woke me up but I fell back asleep.

    Let me tell you it is howling out there as I finish up this post. I don't plan to go anywhere today. I hope the weather is good where you all are at and if it's not I hope you are safe. Take care all!

Today's weather, it's seems like 100 mph winds, but this says it's just 24 mph.

Happy New Year and my plans for 2024

 With a New Year visible off in the horizon, I am prompted to look back on the past year and look forward to the new year. I cannot change what happened in the past year but I can make changes that will affect my new year. One of those changes is that I want to get back to blogging. I love, love, love writing, so why am I not doing it anymore? I can name several minor reasons, but what is the underlying reason that made me stop? I come up with one thing, Covid.

Huh you say? Covid? Covid made you stop writing/blogging? Is it because you got Covid and now you have brain fog? Nope, that is not why, let me splain.

In March of 2020, Covid hit. My employer, like many others sent us all home immediately. We high-tailed it out of there carrying our computers and anything else we thought we might need for a few weeks/months of working from home. We left that place looking like a ghost town in an old Western movie, just pieces of paper floating along in the dust and wind.

So here it is 3 years and 9 months later and I am still working from home. Relegated to a little corner in my bedroom where I have just my desk, computer with double screens, and a chair. My only companion and coworker, my daughters dog Chorizo. While Chorizo is cute as heck, she is not much of a conversationalist, so mainly I speak with clients and occasionally chat with a co-worker, mostly on our intranet chat program.

CHORIZO BY MY SIDE AND DOING WHAT SHE DOES BEST

Before, when I was going to the office, I socialized, noticed things, ran across interesting stuff, and discussed it with coworkers, other employees in the building we worked in, clients and friends. Now I just see these 4 walls, 40 hours per week. At lunch instead of going with coworkers to grab a sandwich or hit our favorite Mexican food place, I walk 20 feet to my kitchen to grab whatever was left over from dinner and I watch YouTube.

Before, I knew where all the new restaurants were opening and I would visit them with coworkers or friends, now I don’t even remember what Chipotle and Rubio’s Fresh Grill even tasted like.

Before, when I was going to the office, I would make plans with friends to grab the occasional Happy Hour drink, or I would stop by my favorite stores and just wander around before going home, now I don’t even apply make up or wear anything other than jeans and a t-shirt and slippers, I don’t even know if I can still walk in street shoes!

Before I would look out my office window on the second floor and watch people fighting in the parking lot, cadets marching in the parking lot across the street where they trained police officers. I would hear the occasional accident on the busy street our office was on and we would all rush to whatever window offered the best view and discuss whose fault we thought it was. I would stop and be amused by the little squirrels that lived in the trees and sometimes would sit by my window and look in at me.

Before I was living life and finding things to entertain me, educate me, enlighten me, anger me, thrill me, confuse me and it was all fodder for my blog and my mind, keeping me active and “in the know.”

That is what Covid did! It took all that away from me!

Do I want to go back to an office? Not really. I would go back if they could figure out a way to just teleport me there, I hated the commute which was 20 miles one way and I hated dealing with the idiots that didn’t know how to drive and always felt that they needed to be where ever they were going before me because they were more important than the rest of us on the street. I like not having to apply makeup everyday and I can see that my skin also likes it. I like not having to spend money on nice office clothing and shoes. I like having Chorizo close by me all day, she soothes my soul with her entitled attitude and grumpy face.

But I loved writing, I loved my little blog and I am ready to try blogging on the regular in 2024. Not sure what I will blog about, but maybe it will make me be more alert to things in my small town and outside my window and will my family and in my heart and head. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. So, keep an eye out for me in 2024 and if I start to fall behind and get lazy, you all have my permission to call me out, you all will be my conscience!

Happy New Year to you all and may 2024 bring us all closer to the things that make us happy. May 2024 bring Peace to our world and our hearts, may it bring the knowledge to cure Cancer and Diabetes and all sorts of other diseases, may it open our eyes to the good in the world, in our small world, in our homes. It is up to you 2024 and up to each one of us to be kind, gentle and present.

Camping Weekend - A Little Art, A Lot of Walking and a Sweet Puppy

Had a great time this past weekend camping with my sister. We left on Friday morning and I came back on Sunday afternoon and as I write this, she is still there with her husband and they are due to come back tomorrow. Lucky Duck!

We managed to have a great time even in the short time I was there. One of the reasons is that we had this cute little girl with us! My daughters dog Chorizo! In this picture she's stressing out because my sister had gotten out of the car. Chorizo has to have all "her people" with her at all times! She's a character!

But she made it so much fun for us and kept us active because we had to walk her so much. She loves her walks! She also loved how beautiful the grass was there. Anytime she had a chance she would sit or roll around in it! She was in paradise!

When we were at the campsite she even commandeered this chair as her very own, just napping and barking at any other dogs that dared to walk in front of our space!

She always scopes out the best places and makes them her own. Here was her spot inside the RV. She could look outside and see what was going on and still see everything that we were doing inside the RV.

But her favorites place to be had to be at the edge of the ocean or anywhere that she could smell the ocean and everything that came with it...seagull poop being one of her favorites smells!

She had the best time and we had a great time. Always a pleasure to hang out with my sister, she's the greatest!

Here's our campsite. It was super safe and comfortable and I wish I were there right now! Hey, I just realized Chorizo was in her chair looking back at me when I took this picture. Sorry to wake you Chorizo! 

I even had a chance to get some artwork done. Just a simple page with doodles of flowers and a random little bee. I found the "Enjoy the Moment" sticker in a beach magazine and it was perfect for this weekend. I did enjoy every single moment!

Til we meet again sweet ocean Paradise...we will always have the memory!

Reign of Terror

Last night I spent a most miserable night during the annual Reign of Terror. I liken it to the terror all the children from the age of 12 to 18 and their parents faced in the book and movie The Hunger Games.

My little girl just looked at me with sheer terror in her beautiful little eyes and my heart broke and there was nothing I could do because it was out of my hands, the terror that was taking place. I could hold her as close as possible but I still could not save her.  I felt like those parents in The Hunger Game.

I’m talking about Chorizo. My daughter’s Shih-Poo dog that I’m taking care of for the time being. 

Fireworks are what were terrifying her. It’s been ongoing since July 1^st when they open up the “Safe and Sane” fireworks stands. Sane? I almost lost my sanity myself; I can’t even imagine Chorizo’s mental state!

Every single night from about 5pm to midnight you hear the popping and crackling of legal and illegal fireworks. 

Our small town celebrates with a fireworks display on July 3^rd at the football field about 2 miles from my house. That night was bad but nothing compared to last night!

Last night was a true Reign of Terror. She wouldn’t eat or sleep, I would take her outside to do her business and she would just claw at my leg to try to climb up into my arms. I would have loved it if she had calmed down once she was in my arms but instead she trembled and shook uncontrollably with her tongue hanging out and her eyes almost bugging out of her head. Nothing would pacify or soothe her…nothing!

I hate this holiday, I truly do.

Update*** While listening to the news this morning I heard that Kern County Animal Shelter took in 119 lost animals that are not only traumatized from the noise and chaos of the past 5 days but now are homeless and missing their families. Last year they took in 179. It's just madness!

Our Halloween and October in a Nutshell

Well today is the 1st day of November and October was a blur! Not sure why starting in October the day's just fly by!

But it was a great month. The weather is finally feeling a little bit fallish, even though today is back to 82 and sunny.

We had some great times this month. We had Baby J all to ourselves one Saturday so we took her for a walk in the neighborhood! She loves to walk the dogs, even though you can tell in this picture that Chorizo is not too sure about Baby J walking her!

We also were lucky in finding my cousin Art outside cleaning out his Koi Pond. Baby J loves the beautiful fish and I thought she would be scared of them but she had no problem petting them! Child has no fear! You can see that her grandmother who Baby J calls Nini is full of fear, fear of Baby J falling into the pond! See her grabbing the back of J's shirt? 

After our walk we headed to the Little Bear Pumpkin Patch. There is nothing like seeing the holidays through the eyes of a little one! She loved it and we loved watching her!

Baby J and I in a pumpkin cutout!

Baby J and I and my mom. Baby J is my moms only great granddaughter.

Baby J and her Nini at the Pumpkin Patch!

Then last night of course was Halloween and Baby J came trick or treating to our house. The funny thing is she tried to give us her candy, silly baby! She looked adorable as Minnie Mouse and she loved Chorizo's costume, a big red lobster!

And now we're in November. Thanksgiving, changing of the leaves, football and hopefully more Baby J awaits!


 

Back to Work

This year I took a a couple of vacation days, the day before Thanksgiving and the following Monday, which is today. That made for a nice, long vacation. I had Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday off and I am so not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow.

Wednesday I got up early and my mom and I went into the city (Bakersfield) and had a nice breakfast and hit a couple of Goodwill Stores. My mom and I love thrift store shopping! I was searching for Christmas decor but didn't find anything. After Goodwill-ing, we went grocery store shopping for Thanksgiving items, all the pie, stuffing and mashed potato fixings.

Once we got home and put everything away it was time to make the pies. We used to make the crust from scratch, but since frozen pie crusts have gotten so much better we use those, but we do make the pie filling from scratch...well from a can but that's from scratch for us!

Thursday of course was Thanksgiving and we spent the morning straightening up the house, getting the extra chairs all ready and making the stuffing and turkey, then the family arrived and we had a wonderful meal and enjoyed seeing each other all together again.

We barely remembered to take pictures. Here's my mom and standing next to her my sister Lisa and then sitting is me and my brother Fred and his youngest, Melissa, the baby in our family and isn't she beautiful!

I had to get a picture with just me and Melissa of course!

Here's a picture of my godson and Melissa's big brother, little Fred.

After everyone left I spent about two hours getting everything cleaned and put away in my kitchen. Friday was a relaxing morning and then we all met in Bakersfield again to celebrate Thanksgiving with my dad. We took dad to Golden Corral because he loves buffets. I had a great time having all my family together again and I know dad really enjoyed it.

Here's the only picture I managed to get. This is my dad and on the right is my son James and on the left is my sister's son Isaac, who also is my Godson! Can you believe that my dad is 6 foot and both his grandsons are taller and bigger than he is???

Saturday I had to go and get new tires put on my car. My son James, (in the picture above) went with me. We had a great time considering we had to wait for two hours at Big O Tires! We spent the time playing Monopoly on his cell phone and I won!!! Of course he helped me to win and when I was almost losing he bankrupted and gave me all his money and property. Wasn't that nice of him?

Sunday I went on STRIKE and said I was not doing anything the whole day...and I didn't. I just watched movies on NetFlix and played on the computer and watched TV and read my book and chillaxed all day. My daughter's little puppy Chorizo was as exhausted and I was and laid on the little bed we've set up for her in my bedroom. Doesn't she look comfortable?

So today, the whole world went back to work...but not me :)

I decided to spend the day putting up the Christmas Tree and decorating the inside of the house. This year I decided not to put the Martha Stewart ribbon and garland that I love, love, love. I decided to try something different. I don't like it! Not sure if I am going to do it over or just live with it as-is for this year, but it's just too plain! I do love that where I put the tree this year it's reflected in the mirror, double the lights and sparkle....love that!

So tomorrow it's back to the real world and for once I'm not really looking forward to going back. I had a great Thanksgiving and a wonderful time being off. Can't wait for Christmas and tamale making and Biscocho baking!

How are your holidays shaping up? All your shopping done? To tell the truth I haven't even started, so don't feel bad if you haven't either.

 

The Purest Kind of Love

Today I saw a homeless man outside the window of my office. I was sitting at my desk and all I saw at first was his head. He was there for quite a while so I stood up to see what he was doing since where he was standing was a driveway and he didn’t seem to be concerned that a car could turn into the parking lot and hit him.

This man was about 34 to 40 years of age, disheveled with long curly hair wearing dirty jeans and a red thermal undershirt that had seen many washings and was more a rusty dark pinkish color. Sitting next to him in the driveway was a beautiful dog. The dog looked like a German shepherd but was more a blond color than black and white.

The man was standing in the sun and was playing with something in his hands and I saw that it was some clear green plastic twine and he had a whole tangled bunch of it in his hands and he was trying to roll it up and put it into order. The other end of this twine was tied to the dog collar of the dog. The dog, with his tongue hanging out, was sitting patiently next to the man. I watched the man as he rolled and unrolled the twine, trying to get it perfect. The dog sat patiently.

At times the dog would rise and walk a few feet towards the parked cars to get into the shade of the trees. He would sit there for just a few moments and then come right back to the homeless man. I realized that the dog was hot, sitting there in the sun with his owner and he would move over to the shade for some relief. But obviously he didn’t feel right being far away from his owner and he would trot back and sit in the sun again. The dog did this about four times and I contemplated going outside and telling the man that he was making that poor dog suffer, but I didn’t.

Eventually, the man got the twine wrapped to his satisfaction and he looked down and said something to the dog and the dog looked up at him and then the man dropped to his knees and gave the dogs neck a huge hug and the dog licked his face. The man stood and started walking and the dog walked with him. My eyes filled with tears.

Many would say someone who is homeless shouldn’t have a dog, why put a dog through the same kinds of trials, tribulations and suffering. I don’t know if that man was really homeless, or just dirty and disheveled as a norm but I do know that he loved that dog and was good to him and that the dog loved him. The dog was clean, much cleaner than his owner and his coat was brushed and he didn’t look hungry.

As they walked away I realized how three years ago I wouldn’t have noticed at all, I wouldn’t have felt the dogs pain at being in the sun and being thirsty, I wouldn’t have worried whether or not that man took good care of the dog…I simply wouldn’t have noticed.



But since my daughter brought little Chorizo into my life I’ve changed. I didn’t know I had changed, but I have. I am now a dog lover.

I do know that I’m not as good a dog lover as my daughter, or even as kind-hearted a person as she is because she would not have hesitated to go out there and take water to the dog and give the man a collar for the dog or some money for him to buy one. She would have given the man whatever toys, food and bedding she happened to have in her car for Chorizo. She would have offered the man food if she thought he needed it. I’m proud at having raised such a good-hearted person even though I don’t take credit for her being as such. Yet at the same time, I am fearful for her because she doesn’t have the fearfulness in her that I have. The fear of strangers and homeless people, which kept me from going and offering the dog and the man help. It’s a double edge sword, being proud of this daughter and fearing for her as well. Both edges are sharp and cut my heart for her. But I am so proud of her!

Oh! I had to come back because I forgot to give credit to the artist of the photo Homeless Man and Dog Linocut.  The artist is Shellie Lewis and she has a really cool blog which you can visit here.
 

Halloween for the Dogs

It was a busy weekend! Yesterday I spent the day with my mom. She loves to go thrift store shopping but yesterday was definitely a bad day to go as EVERYONE was there trying to find last minute Halloween costumes. So we just had a nice lunch and picked up some groceries and came home.

Then today I went back into Bakersfield with my sister and we hit the Goodwill Bookstore and I found five interesting books! We had our favorite salad at Cocos Restaurant, the Asian Chicken Salad. It was so good! Then we did some grocery shopping again...well she did, I had gone the day before so I just went along to keep her company.

When I got back home my daughter reminded me that I had told her I would go with her to the Self Serve Pet Spa Halloween Event. So there I went...back to Bakersfield. But we had a good time. I hope you all remember her little Shih Poo puppy, Chorizo. She was a banana for Halloween.

She loves being around other dogs, and there were so many! It was a nice event and I hope they raised a lot of money and that some of the dogs that were up for adoption found good homes!

We then went to Banducci's Family Pumpkin Patch. In the mosaic above, the photo of Chorizo in the wagon was taken there. She loved being there because there were so many smells. They had pumpkins, other dogs, sheep, pigs, chickens and pony's. Her nose was working overtime. Plus I don't know if she had ever been around hay before but she loved the smell and the taste of it.

 

 

Here I am with Chorizo. I love the photo in the top right corner where I'm trying to take some hay out of her mouth and she's not at all happy with me!

 

 

She was one tired little puppy on the drive home and I was pretty tired too. So April and I took Chorizo home and then we went to our local Mexican food place and had dinner. It was a busy but fun weekend. Hope you all had a good weekend as well!

 

 

Linking up to Little Red House for Mosaic Monday. 

CEO Chorizo

It's been a while since I did a post about my little grand-puppy Chorizo. My daughter sent me the most adorable picture of her so I thought I would share. Here Chorizo is at her new job, sitting in her desk chair hard at work being super adorable! CEO Chorizo!!

Happy Easter to everyone!

My Summer - Part One with Chorizo at the Coast

Now that fall is here and things have calmed down a little bit on the weekends I have time to post some pictures of a couple of fun trips I took this summer.

In August I took a weekend trip with my favorite daughter, April and my favorite grand-puppy, Chorizo. Yes...she named her puppy Chorizo which is the name of a much loved Mexican Sausage usually fried up with Huevos (Eggs) or Papas (Potatoes). I guess it's a fitting name as Chorizo is pretty spicy!

Chorizo loves car rides! What dog doesn't right? But don't worry, we don't let her drive! (Be sure to click on any of the following photos to enlarge.)

First we went to Elephant Seal Beach. We've gone there before and I posted about it on March 28, 2010 and you can view that post HERE which has more details of where and what Elephant Seal Beach is. I will tell you that it is located at Piedras Blancas in the southern range of Big Sur, near San Simeon and I love it there! Where else can you go to see nature in all it's glory for free? Here's some pictures you can enjoy for free as well!


A view of the coastline. The weather was beautiful and as is usual for that area, it would alternate between being overcast and being sunny.

Here's a picture of the Elephant Seals basking in the sun. Ahhhh, this is the life! Except for all that sand and having to haul your body around on those little flippers.

From there we headed to Avila Beach to a little fruit stand that April wanted to show me. She knows where all the best spots are! I loved this place. It was very busy, lots of people but you were free to roam around and see the animals and people watch. I'd love to go again!

This fruit stand is known as the Avila Valley Barn and you can go HERE to read more about the history of the fruit stand, get directions, and view tons more pictures. They're working on an online store where you can order custom mixed Cake and Pancakes mixes and their Jam, Jellies, Preserves and Honey! Here's a view of where we parked. Is this a beautiful parking lot or what? These are Zinnias. I've grown Zinnia's before but they never grew like these! Mine were short, scrawny little plants, these are gorgeous!

This is the view heading into the stand itself where they sell fresh flowers. Isn't this a beautiful display?

Here's a closeup of those beautiful red flowers. I want to say they're daisies, but I'm not sure. Doesn't it look like I photo-shopped this picture to get those beautiful colors? Nope, that's just Mother Nature's doing! I love the aluminum buckets they use to display them.

And a closeup of those tulips! I wish I had bought some now that I'm looking at them!

That night we had dinner at the Great American Fish Company in Morro Bay. I didn't take any pictures because the flash in my camera is "no bueno" at night and that's when you need the flash right? But here's a picture from their website and you can click HERE to read more about them and see their menu. April and I both had the Bacon wrapped Filet Mignon and it was so juicy and tender you could cut it with your fork! We also had an excellent bottle of Champagne from a local winery, Tobin James Cellars. I say we...but I mean me. April sipped at her glass and I drank the rest of it. Yum...it was wonderful!

The next day we headed to the Nipomo Swap Meet. It had been years since we had been there and it has changed so much! When we used to go it was filled with vendors selling Arts and Crafts and second hand and antique merchandise. Now it's just like a giant parking lot filled with 99cent stores. Now I love 99cent stores, but that wasn't what I wanted to see, so that was a bit of a let down.

We headed back to find someplace to have a nice lunch. Someplace that would allow us to have Chorizo with us. So that meant outdoor dining and April knew just the place. I tell you this girl of mine knows all the best places and a weekend with her is filled with fun and adventure! We went to Zorros Cafe and Cantina in Shell Beach where we enjoyed Mimosa's made with the same Champagne we had the night before. They had the best Chips and Salsa and if you ever get to that area you need to go try it! Doesn't Chorizo look like such a proper and well-behaved little puppy just sitting there. She's adorable!

After a wonderful lunch April figured she still hadn't tired me out enough (trust me, she had) and she insisted we drive out to Montana de Oro. Montana de Oro translates to Mountain of Gold and is named that due to the golden wildflowers that bloom in Spring. We love it there, it's so beautiful and peaceful and pretty secluded so you don't have a ton of people there.

Chorizo loves wading in the water. Here she is with my daughter April enjoying herself.

And just in case the waves carry her away and she doesn't know how to swim (I tell April all dogs know how to swim) April insists on her wearing a little doggie life jacket. Isn't she cute!

And as we ride off into the sunset back to our little casas (homes), we say "Adios Montana de Oro...until next time."