Tag: idyllwild

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Night Of The Styrofoam Take Away Boxes

Friends,

Sadly, you missed the Earth Fair in my little town last weekend. I know what you’re thinking, “of course! everybody loves a good hemp-wearing hippie show!” but that wasn’t really the scene. Nobody was standing on a soapbox warning of the end of days. There were more forest rangers/Bureau of Land Management managers/firemen offering free trees and helpful tips on raking up dead leaves. The county recycling people were also there giving away a remarkable amount of swag. More stuff to recycle later, I guess. Job security!

Sure, the crafty people were there. Lots of jewelry (polished rocks are from earth. -ed), and an Idyllwild fixture, textiles woven from unexpected fibers! Fancy a satchel made of Golden Retriever fur? Alpaca and dryer lint cap perhaps? People, these things are from NATURE™!

Then there were the freakishly large green onions, grown organically on Monster Island, apparently. Besides being delicious, you only need one. Very efficient.

Thanks Earth!

– bob

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What Time Is It?: Late April Edition

Friends!

This gloable whirming thing is really getting me down. I’ve done everything—burning raw coal (from the open pit I’ve started digging in the backyard), dragging out all the old aerosol cans from the garage and taped down the nozzles, fed the dogs beans and kielbasa (a phenomenally bad idea, btw)—everything I could think of to pump more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. No luck. It’s still chilly up here.

What does a fella have to do?

Three inches of snow predicted tomorrow night. Spring, yeah sure.

Your pal,

bob

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Easter Weekend Pictures Of Things

Friends,

Mister and Missus puppy dog started the weekend staring. Staring at flowers…

…staring at your humble photographer…

So when we trundled down to the desert, they were locked in the backyard at the parents’ house and I took my Dad down to the car show (on his suggestion). Here are some pictures of that…

For instance, here’s a picture of Dad not even remotely considering getting himself a motorcycle.

And here’s a shot of a Jowett Jupiter in a state where you can observe where motor oil is likely to puke out (read: everywhere. It’s British.)

How about the nicest flame paint ever? Can anyone say “Jeepster?”


By the way. Exactly one black man showed up and he brought the stereotypical Cadillac low rider, replete with trunk-filling battery pack, hydraulics, and fake convertible vinyl top. Does anyone even do this anymore?

Neat pinstripes. Um, Jeepster?

Other neat stuff…


The owner of this Corvette has his (her?) priorities. The car was falling apart in front of us, but the elaborate eagle mural on the hood, the tape stripes on the engine accessories (!), and the general yellow spray paint theme should look nice on the back of the tow truck.


Here though is the shamble-rific rat rod. Plywood floor AND firewall! The owner is still alive, so make your own judgements.

Your pal,

bob

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Psst, What Month Is It?

Dear Refrigerator Salesmen,

Don’t waste your breath. Here’s a shot from my back door yesterday:


…and a shot that is actually in color:


April’s not that far away. Maybe I should make way for glaciers.

Your pal,

bob

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Weather Observed

Friends,

Some people are no doubt saying to themselves “ahh, now that’s what March is supposed to be like.” I’ve been tracking this system for a little while, but let’s have the Green Cafe tell it…

Today – Mostly cloudy.
Areas of fog in the morning.
Chance of showers in the morning then chance of showers and slight chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon.
Cooler.
Snow level 6500 feet.
Becoming 4500 feet in the afternoon.
Highs 36 to 46.
Winds west 35 to 45 mph.
Gusts to 80 mph becoming 60 mph in the afternoon.
Chance of measurable precipitation 40 percent.

Woof.

Hail is currently coming down in buckets and the winds have died down to 10 MPH. Yeah, I’m working from the Damp Dog Lodge today. I’m no hero (a lot of school kids are sobbing right now. – ed).

Your pal,

bob

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And Along Came Windy

Friends,

The wind was furious today at my secret alpine laboratory. Things flew, including the umbrella set in the patio table. It lifted four feet out of the center tube, and flew across the backyard. Take that Mary Poppins!

The rain notwithstanding.

Maybe the water district won’t need to burp the radioactive water into the lake after all. Geez.

Your pal,

bob

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Idyllwild On The Teevee!

Fellow couch potatoes,

I really did try to find a direct link to the Larry Himmel piece on Idyllwild at KFMB. Really. I know you’d rather get right to the meat of the piece by this stand-up comedian turned lifestyle editor on my little burg, but you’ll have to got the the story’s page instead. And click on the video link. And hope that their player works. And that the page stays up for a while.

The visuals are nice though. I looked, but can’t find a videography credit. Did Himmel throw a diva-like fit and get the cameraman’s name removed? Who can say!

Your pal,

bob

UPDATE: The video link on the story page isn’t working. Try going to their main page and scrolling down to “Mile-High Mountain Excuse For Larry Himmel To Get Out Of The Office” in their frustrating Flash player. Sorry about getting your hopes up.

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Zzzzzzz

Friends,

There’s a lot of stuff to cover since the last big post, so let’s get to it:

  • Down at San Diego’s Omnipresent Charitable Organization’s Far Eastern Outpost, they finally dedicated this little pup tent they put up. It’s nine months late, way over budget, and is set up to sleep 100 people. The clergy, bosses, politicians, people with fat checkbooks, and the rest of us were there. It’s been occupying too much of my time and it’s still not ready.
  • My trip to Chicago a couple weeks ago was cold, but still pretty fun. I have a bunch of pictures of the Chicago Auto Show and of those cute nieces of mine. I should post them!
  • I also don’t have pictures of Senator Obama announcing his presidential candidacy that weekend. Drive three hours each way to hear any politician say anything for half a minute? Pass. Please. Now if it was Tom Vilsack…
  • I have to think that the Idyllwild Chamber of Commerce must’ve been thrilled with the weather last weekend. Saturday was warm and sunny. Sunday, less warm but still very nice. Monday brought a half inch of pretty, fluffy snow that melted by noon to allow the tourists safe passage off the hill. The perfect winter display?

Will I adhere to a more regular posting schedule now that the big projects at work are (mostly) complete? Sure!

Your pal,

bob

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Return Of The Strange Visitors!

They said they’d be back and they didn’t disappoint. My neighborhood Jehovah’s Witnesses (BTW, hasn’t witness testimony been proven to be unreliable? But I digress.) came back while I was splitting more firewood. No avoiding them this time…

  • Son Of Lurch: Hey Bob, you’re married (oh, this is rich, already. – ed), you’ll be interested in this article…
  • Me: Um, okay. The Watchtower, eh?
  • SOL: So, Bob, if you had questions about your marriage, who would you ask?
  • Me: Um, nobody?
  • SOL: No! You’d ask the person who conceived of marriage! Maybe this scripture passage will help…
  • Bit from Genesis: “So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; and the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.”
  • Me: Well, that’s neat. It’s like recycling.

Both Son Of Lurch and Bob Hoskins were flabbergasted. The latter saying, “gosh, you sure say some interesting things” with a nervous chuckle.

“Well, what’s good for the bottle is good for the rib. Right fellas?” “Um, we should be going now…”

Mission accomplished. Get it?

Your pal,

bob

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A Bag Of Warm Hammers

Friends,

It’s time for another omnibus urp-blog. Excited yet? Who isn’t?

  • Idyllwild, CA – The wind storms last weekend were harrowing. The numbers came out in the paper saying that wind speeds were somewhere in the 35 MPH range. I really wouldn’t be surprised if they topped 50. The power went out on Sunday for a few hours, and I have to say that night is much darker here when the power is out than down in the light-polluted lower elevations. I dragged out the lantern and cars driving by actually slowed down to marvel at the mystery of that sole light source. Phenomenal.
  • Apple iPhone – I raised the point with the editors of The Unofficial Apple Weblog, but they seemed to dodge a bit. My thought is that the iPhone is awfully sexy and a design triumph for Mr. Ive, granted. Why, however, can’t I have just the iPod part without the phone? A touch/widescreen video iPod with a camera, mail, web browser, and Wi-Fi? I can certainly do without Cingular (and their $60 a month data plan, yikes.) so the only thing holding them back must be the competition with the base Macbook. Or competition with the phone itself. Maybe Q4. I hope my 4th generation iPod holds out that long.
  • President’s Troop Buildup – Sounds like Mr. Bush Goes To Cambodia to me. Y’all remember LBJ, right? He said nearly the exact same things, didn’t he?
  • The PR Stunt – I’ve been schooled on the nature of Mr. Kowalczyk’s comment. Apparently, he’s a really nice guy who is a longtime friend of Jimmy Two-Beers and thought that we’d like to know about the publication of the poem. I guess some of the comments I made were inflammatory. Who knew! All I saw was a press release, kinda. I must be very bitter and angry about something. At least that was the gist of the charge. Not angry.

Lots more tomorrow. It’ll be lovely.

Your pal,

bob

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Mr. Dog

Hey Holiday-Makers!

Here’s the promised context-free picture post, and guess which pictures turned out the best? Those with Mister Dog in them. Here’s my end of year adventure summed up with (mostly) puppy photos:






So there you go. Where’s 2007?

Your pal,

bob

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It Crunches Under Foot

Dear Heavy Sock Wearers,

You may have noticed a severe lack of posts over the last few days, maybe even a week. It wasn’t for lack of trying, or even lack of things to report on—there are bits of new posts sitting on no fewer than four computers—but they were missing a vital ingredient, pictures. In what is turning into an annual event, I’m going to need to purchase a new set of rechargeable batteries for my middle-aged Canon PowerShot. As it stands now, I get five shots, then no power. The end. (you could rehabilitate those batteries like this guy did. – ed Oh, that sounds like a great idea, except for the explosion part.)

The other lame-ass excuse involves weather (when doesn’t it? – ed) and the coldness therein. 20° this morning, five inches of snow, ice on the mountain roads, AND 50 MPH winds! I’m finding it harder and harder to keep up with the wood demand in the fireplace. Mr. and Mrs. Pup are happy to encourage my stoking the fire, but it doesn’t leave too much time for anything else, like writing (it didn’t seem to bother jack london. -ed Except he died at 40.).

I actually have a few pictures on the camera that I’ll present in a nearly context-free post later today. If you’re lucky, I may actually post them in chronological order this time. Wouldn’t that be a surprise!

Your pal,

bob

P.S. My vivacious writing partner has come down with something relatively brutal, so The Question is out of the question for a while. Both of our readers will be happy to know that we’ll be back up and running some time in 2007.

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Global Coldening Update

Icy.

That asphalt isn’t supposed to be white, is it? Not here in Southern California. The snow from Sunday morning stuck all day, all night, and all of today. The temps never got above thirty degrees, which is pretty odd.

The timing is fantastic for the dogs, who aren’t particularly enjoying Winter In The Pines. Like a ticking time bomb, the girly dog refuses to go out in that freezing nightmare. This is going to be real bad.

I’ll post pictures soon with the sweaters (!) and coats (!!) as soon as I get them. Hopefully, I’ll get home tomorrow when it’s still light outside.

If I don’t slide off the mountain of course.

Merrie Christmas!

– bob

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OMFG! – Winter Storm Watch 2006

Okay, not really. We got a half an inch last night and some of it stuck throughout the day. Bad news: the temps stayed in the upper twenties. Good news: hey! it’s our first snow of the season! (awfully late, don’t you think? – ed Well, yeah. I blame Global Drying. After all, it’s not like it hasn’t been cold.)

So, we’re not going to die. The puddles aren’t even deep enough to get your shoes wet (speak for yourself, hiking boot boy. my ballet slippers are soaked. – ed). It’s just dreary and gray. Sounds like somebody should be settling in for an afternoon of football, eh?

Your pal,

bob

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A New Holiday Tradition

Friends,

I’ve been away from writing something substantial for a while, but this is just too good. First, are the delightful Thanksgiving bits. The folks, the sisters, the cutest nephew ever (Oh, I still win. Don’t even think about it.) and our significant others were in attendance. The house performed nearly flawlessly. The heater worked when it felt like it and the wood stove had a little smoky flue problem, but that was it! My Dad considers anything below eighty degrees to be the harbinger of the next ice age, so he was uncomfortable. I also thought that the family left too soon (Feh. Jobs. Whatever.)

Delicious food and good fun was had by all though. I had way too much fun with my nephew just screwing around. He had plenty of play time with everyone, but there was some very important knuckleheadedness to be done. Like this:

But back to the tradition. Last year, my next door neighbors thought it’d be real fun to burn their house down. The fine folks at the Idyllwild Fire Department had other ideas though, only allowing a minor conflagration.

This year, my neighbors across the street decided to pick up the baton with a nice chimney fire. And once again, the Idyllwild Fire Department had something to say about that too.

Sure, that’s fun, but what about the Tree Lighting Ceremony? Glad you asked. Here’s a tree.

More later…

– bob