Office du Jour - Thursday 5/18/2006

I had a very difficult day on Wednesday. I wrote for about 4 hours, struggling to keep my concentration and not always winning. Only got a few decent paragraphs, but it was some progress. Then I managed somehow to save an old version over everything I’d done and wiped out all of the day’s writing. Gave me a stomach ache.

So on Thursday I had my morning telephone chat with my mother, and then took myself off to Panera to write. Worked there for an hour and a half, then ran an errand, then had a wonderful Mexican lunch while reading a novel. Barnes and Noble was closed due to a power outtage, so I went to Starbucks, where I could actually plug in my laptop, whose battery was getting depleted. Worked there for another 2 hours.

Yes, on Day 6 of my 9 day vacation, I hit my stride. Had a good day of consolidating and moving things around. I have realized that when I get stuck in writing it’s often because I don’t know which choice to make for the characters or the plot. What I have to do is decide to chose one and move on it, and be willing to scrap it. Better to write something that you can’t use than not to write at all.

Please remind me of this the next time you see me gnashing my teeth in frustration.

So, after all that. This photo is of my office on Thursday. The Starbucks in Palmdale.

Full body shot - Bonus #3 5/17

Any birders out there? Can you confirm my call that this is a gnatcatcher??

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New Tenant - Bonus #2 5/17

What’s going on down there?

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New Tenant - Bonus 5/17/2006

When we bought this silly little log cabin bird house a few years ago and put it on the front porch, I never thought we’d actually get somebirdy to live in it. I suspected we had a tenant yesterday, because there’re sticks and stuff inside. Today: confirmation!

I think this is a gnatcatcher. She’’s very small and cute, and was enjoying picking the leftover ants off the trellis where the hummingbird feeder is. (She shares the same porch post with the trellis, a star jasmine, and the hummer feeder. Not a bad neighborhood.)

We seem to be having uncommonly good bird-luck this year.

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Hummingbird Feeder - Wednesday 5/17/2006

I hung this yesterday, but had to re-hang it today. The hummingbirds haven’t found it yet, but the ants did. They were climbing from a leaf onto the base of it! Ugh. Had to use the drill and everything to rehang it.

That’s the Granny Smith apple tree in the background. It’s blooming right now, and smells wonderful.

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Hacking at the yard - Tuesday 5/16/2006

In my defense, we don’t have a lawn mower. We have a pretty small yard. This was the last part I mowed with the weed whacker, and the brownish stripes where I’d cut too close began to develop by the time I got to show it off to D, who usually does this job. Ah, well. It looks trim from the road, anyway.

D built this wall and steps a few years ago on his vacation. Opens up the yard so much. Impressive work, I think.

Organic Weed Killing - Monday 5/15/2006

I read that you can kill weeds by pouring boiling water over them. Besides not liking to use pesticides in general, we feed birds in this area and it’s adjacent to my organic backdoor herb garden

I tried vinegar last week on part of the patio, but it’s a little smelly. It took 4 kettles full of water to cover the whole area. It’ll take a few days for them to die back, I think, and then I’ll easily dig ‘em out.

Sock Monkey Detail - Sunday 5/14/2006

Wearer’s eye view of my pajamas, which I stayed in until about the middle of the day. Aaaaah.

No plans except to call my mother and wish her a happy day. And let her know that I am thoughtfully extending her Mother’s Day celebration by not getting her gift in the mail. Ahem.

I did go out and about later in the day and bought a few much-needed items of clothing.

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Enjoying the View - Saturday 5/13/2006

A moment of calm before D and I set out for our busy but fun day. This is where Dodger and I sit to write and contemplate these days. My studio gets too hot in the summer.

Drove about 100 miles to have lunch out with D’s family, then a bit further south to hang around at their house until it was time to go to Pasadena for an evening birthday party. Dancing!

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Winning Hand - Thursday 5/11/2007

A pair of quail! On our deck. These two seem to have decided our place is a good hangout.

[What’s up with 43Things? Half the stuff I tried to post last Thursday and Friday went missing.]

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Vrrrroooom! - Friday 5/12/2006

D flew in a B-17!

I’d read a little article in the Los Angeles Times last weekend about Wings of Freedom being in Long Beach. They had a little notice that they’d be in Lancaster, just 20 miles from us, this week.

Well, the planes aren’t getting any younger, and the price of running them is rising as fast as gas prices, so I encouraged D to take the ride. We went out Friday afternoon and I was able to walk through it before it took off. A bit too pricey for both of us to do, but this was a dream come true for him, and I was happy to stay on the ground and take photos. The grin on his face when he deplaned was completely worth it!

The B-17 is the one on the right.

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Dismissed - Wednesday 4/10/2006

My parting shot. One of the big concrete balls in the courtyard of Lancaster Superior Courthouse.

I didn’t even get to the voire dire process. It was an interesting looking case and I actually would have liked to have served, even though I would have had to use my comp and vacation time to do it. It was very emotional at times to listen to the things the jurors had to say about their brushes with crime.

One man actually brought me to tears. He was very unhappy, uncomfortable and ashamed, but said that ultimately he thought that it would take more convincing for him to believe that the defendant was not guilty because of his ethnicity. The prospective juror had been jumped and beaten by a group of African American students in high school. It wasn’t easy for him to admit.

One of the judges came to the jury assembly room and talked to us. He told us that only six countries in the world guarentee their citizens a trail by jury. U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

With all it’s troubles, I’d say that this is a big count in the U.S.’s favor. I’ve been called for jury duty 4 times and have served on one jury. People really do take the responsibility seriously once they are there and try to do their best to do the right thing.

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Lancaster Superior Court - Tuesday 5/9/2006

Yup, I’m on jury duty. Nope, I didn’t remember to call in to see if I had to report until Tuesday morning…after I’d driven 45 miles to work. Sigh. So I had to drive all the way back, plus the courthouse is another 20 miles north of my house. Thank goodness I could talk on the phone with my mom the whole way.

I talked to the guards behind the information desk a little during lunch. This building is 3 years old, but it looks brand spanking new. Very nice. But they have to sit in this big glassy lobby and they said it’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Wasn’t built by anyone who knew the extremes of the high desert. It gets as hot as the 120s in the summer and as low as the 20s in the winter.

What's really weird about this court house is it's location in the middle of Joshua tree spiked desert. And the main entrance doesn't face the road! I suppose, given development rates out here, in twenty more years this will make some kind of sense. Right now it just seems like they're making it pretty hard for anyone without a car to get out here and support a family member.

Welcome to L.A. County, which boasts the largest county court system in the United States.

Flirt - Monday 5/8/2006

This is the quail that flirts with Dodger from the roof of our garage. Not a great shot, but the one I was compelled to take this day.

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He likes it! Sunday 5/7/2006

Dodger likes his new toy so much that I couldn’t get a shot without blurs. But the little movie I took of him playing turned out well.

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Meet Hoover - Friday 5/5/2006

Just realized I missed posting Friday’s photo.

This is one of the ground squirrels who lives under our deck. We’ve taken to feeding them Dodger’s leftovers in an attempt to keep them out of the bird feeders.

The reason we call him Hoover should be apparent.

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Dredful Men - Bonus Friday 5/5

I posted a different photo for this day, but I was looking back, and I really liked this. These two guys were enjoying the afternoon outside of the coffee house. Amazing dreds.

I have this feeling I should know their names.

Tippi Hedron is _not_ dead. Saturday 5/6/2006

Not that we saw her or anything, when we pressed our lenses through the fence above Shambala, her animal preseve, but she’s still doing press releases and is performing in an upcoming spoof of The Birds…with Suzanne Pleshette, no less. I was only concerned about this because some one on the train said that Tippi was dead.

We were astonished that our little Kodak digitals got such great shots, all the way from the road above the preserve. This photo isn't cropped, and we were about 100 yards from this fellow. Shambala is only about 5 miles from our house. We must make reservations and take the tour from ground level. Check it out for yourself at www.shambala.org

Okay, here's another thing I heard on the train, but I don't know if it's true. A guy said that the mansion pictured below (taken from Vasquez Rocks--D and I went on Saturday) is owned by Justin Timberlake. He said he knew this because his friend owns the company that installed the copper tubing underneath the driveway...to heat the driveway in case of snow! This is one long driveway, folks.

Vasquez Rocks - Thursday 5/4/2006

I stopped on the way home last night and hiked around Vasquez Rocks for about an hour. This park is only about 15 minutes from my house, and I drive right by it every day.

It was overcast and cool yesterday. Really nice hiking weather. I explored for an hour, climbing up high, following trails marked only by the wildflowers that have filled in during the spring rains, cutting between boulders to get back to the parking lot. It's easy to get your bearings because all the rocks point in the same direction. There was some crazy earthquake action here back in the day.

Hiking like this, where there are lots of little side trails and places to go right over the rocks, is good for your mind as well as your body. The time really flew because there was always some new perspective to enjoy.

D and I are planning to go back Saturday morning. He has to see how the green and the flowers. The last time we hiked there it was about 107 degrees and we were pretty beat by the time we finished.

Innocent erosion or weird scary monster footprint? You decide.

Oh, and yes. This is where Kirk fought the Gorm, for all you old school Trekkies out there. (Screen capture is from the Internet, of course!)

I love my MP3 player 5/3/2006

One of the coolest production gifts I’ve ever received. I’m already in love with my new toy!

I downloaded Bookworm and The Business podcasts from KCRW and listened to interviews with Kurt Vonnegut, Octavia Butler, and Ron Howard on my commmute.

And then! I was able to use the voice recorder function to make note of a thought I had about the book.

As I got out of my car in the morning, ready for a long day of work and then writing group dinner, I noted that I was packing an MP3 player, a cell phone, my laptop computer and my digital camera.

Did I mention that I like tech toys!?