DogDay — You are the world to your dog

Upcoming events for Second Chance Dog Rescue, an organization for which I volunteer:

• August 3, Pet Adoption Event at Petco, 3495 Sports Arena Boulevard, San Diego, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
• August 3, Fundraiser at the Grand Re-opening Party for Your Dog’s Groomer, 10783 Jamacha Boulevard, Suite 3, Spring Valley, 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
• August 5, Fundraiser at Slater’s 50/50 Burgers By Design (an excellent restaurant!), 2750 Dewey Road, Suite 193, Liberty Station, San Diego.
• August 10, Pet Adoption Event at the 8th Annual Dog Days of Summer at 101 Main Street, Cardiff-by-the-Sea, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
• August 10, Pet Adoption Event at Petco, 8501 Fletcher Parkway, La Mesa, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

A selection of dogs currently available for adoption from Second Chance Dog Rescue (click on the dog’s name to go directly to its dog adoption page):

Abricot

Adler

Agave

Alberta

Analise

Ares

Armando

Axal

If you want a dog for your family, please consider adopting from Second Chance Dog Rescue. All of the dogs with Second Chance Dog Rescue are in foster homes. There is no central location or shelter where all of them are kept, so they would love for YOU to take them to their forever home.

Visit Second Chance Dog Rescue to see pictures and find information about all the dogs that are available for adoption. Currently there are 160 adoptable dogs listed on the Second Chance Dog Rescue web site. Following is a selection of eight dogs; I took the original picture and created a black & white drawing with Photoshop CC. Click on the dog’s name or the drawing to go directly to the original picture on the Second Chance Dog Rescue adoption page.

Second Chance Dog Rescue is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization and can always use donations of time, food, leashes and collars, pet gates, and, of course, money. Click on the Donations page for further information. Donations make a difference in the lives of our fine, furry, four-legged friends.

T-shirt seen at a recent dog adoption event:

P.S. I have added a comment to my previous video art post explaining where the video was taken. Click here to go directly to the comment.

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
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James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572

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Video art

When I first started using my Canon 550D to take videos, I wasn’t comfortable with the medium because I didn’t know what I wanted to do, what I wanted to accomplish.

Now I’m a few months into videos and having a lot of fun with “flash videos,” such as this one:

Any idea what you’re watching?

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
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James Frimmer, Realtor
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If you’re looking for a home inspector,
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SeaWorld visit on July 28, 2013

I have been so busy with home inspections this summer that I have neglected going to SeaWorld. That changed on Sunday when the scheduled home inspection was postponed at the last minute.

Some of my competition charge a cancellation fee if the cancellation is less than 24 hours before the scheduled inspection. I do not. As I often tell prospective Clients and Realtors: “If you have to cancel the inspection at the last minute, I’ll simply take a little mini-vacation and go to the Zoo or SeaWorld. That’s how I’m able to make myself available to you 24/7 down the road.”

A lot changed at SeaWorld between Sunday and my previous visit on April 19, 2013. The entrance has been moved, and the exit has been moved to near the entrance. Trying to get out of SeaWorld on a busy weekend day is horrible…. one exit line (and it was a line!) versus about twenty entrance lines…. mass confusion…. It’s like SeaWorld is trying to prevent people from leaving….

Following are a few pictures of the wildlife at SeaWorld, including a couple of flash videos.

Eurasian Eagle-Owl

Harris’s Hawk

Walrus

Magellanic Penguin (adult)

Magellanic Penguin (chick)

Flipper about to chow down on a fish

American Beaver

Manta roller coaster

Manta Rays

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

Reward for spitting?

If you are heading to SeaWorld San Diego, you can buy tickets online.

If you have a smartypants phone, you can show them your ticket on your smartypants phone.

However, a recent trip to SeaWorld San Diego (a few hours ago) revealed that paper tickets and smartypants phone tickets are not created equal.

There are dozens of lines to get into SeaWorld, but the paper ticket lines are much shorter than the smartypants phone ticket lines.

So…………………..

If you want to get into SeaWorld quickly, print your ticket on paper.

If you enjoy standing around in long, long, long, long lines, just keep it on your smartypants phone.

Finally!

I knew eventually someone in the world would give preference to those of us without smartypants phones!

That’s a big walrus at SeaWorld San Diego. Walruses can get up to 3,700 pounds, which is, I believe, a tad more than that lady rewarding this one for spitting.

This post approved by Zoey the Cool Cat

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

Regulated garbage

My birth state of Texas claims it is a business-friendly state.

In the case of the massive fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas, which killed 15 (current count), injured about 160, and damaged or destroyed about 150 buildings, that business-friendly environment apparently meant that federal regulations were summarily dismissed and ignored, perhaps since 1985 according to some reports.

Is that the kind of business-friendly environment we want?

The cause of the explosion is still under investigation, but the plant apparently has a long history of theft. Reports indicate that people were stealing anhydrous ammonia to make methamphetamine. Despite the thefts, the plant had no security guards or burglar alarms, and didn’t have a surveillance system until 2009.

West Fertilizer Company is a private company owned by Adair Grain, another private company. Interestingly, Governor Rick Perry is anti-government (federal government that is, certainly not anti-himself and anti-his-state-government). But each time a disaster happens in Texas, he’s the first to go running to the federal government for assistance (fighting the wildfires a couple of years ago) and he never misses an opportunity to ask the federal government for financial help in cleaning up after the disasters.

Even with a private company, Gov. Perry went to the federal government and asked for help in rebuilding the private company’s infrastructure and caring for their employees. Hmmm. I’m a pretty compassionate individual, having spent most of my life volunteering with Red Cross, American Heart Association, ASCPA, Muscular Dystrophy Association, and many others, but I’m thinking that a private company ought to have appropriate insurance to cover things like this. Of course, they don’t. They play the odds in saving annual premiums while knowing that something like this is a once-in-a-lifetime event.

Much has been made of FEMA’s June 13 decision not to provide additional aid to the city of West. The key word there, missed by so many people, is “additional.” On April 22, five days after the explosion, President Obama issued an Emergency Declaration which gave Texas aid with 75% federal funding. People don’t understand what an Emergency Declaration is, and rarely read through the news reports since Emergency Declarations are usually issued in the aftermath of an event, an aftermath which usually has many people nationwide involved in recovery efforts.

California is the exact opposite of Texas. We have lots of regulations here.

California still has 38,041,000 people living here, and more moving in each day. Sure, there are people and businesses leaving California, such as Buck Knives, founded in San Diego in 1902, moved to Idaho in 2005. There are new businesses being founded every day and for some strange reason, the population keeps increasing.

I find it interesting that California seems to be affected only by natural disasters such as earthquakes and events caused by criminals known as arsonists. I haven’t been able to find anything in recent California history of an event like the West Fertilizer Company explosion, or infrastructure collapsing like the I35W bridge in Minneapolis in 2007. In fact, after the 1989 World Series Earthquake which destroyed several Interstates in the Bay Area, Californians passed more taxes (note that I said “Californians” — people — and not “California,” which would have implied “the government”) to be proactive in retrofitting highway bridges in the State, all of them. Minnesota, on the other hand, has done very little in the ensuing six years to address the outdated bridges in the State, and since most of them were built in the 1960s and ’70s, the future probably holds more such disasters.

As Mr. Spock said so quaintly in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” One can ignore problems, but they won’t go away, they won’t fix themselves all on their own, fixes are not free, and cleaning up after ignoring the fixes definitely isn’t free.

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

Caturday — Big cats

Some recent big cat pictures from the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park.

1
Jaguar

2
Snow Leopard

3
African Lion (male)

4
African Lion (female)

5
Cheetah

6
Fishing Cat

7
African lion (female)

8
Caracal

9
Siberian Tiger

10
Black Jaguar

11
Jaguar
This is a mommy with two cubs,
which might explain the look on her face.

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

Castle at the beach

This castle at the beach overlooks La Jolla Shores Beach, the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club, and The Marine Room (one of the finest places to eat, especially at high tide when the waters smash against the floor-to-ceiling windows).

I think it also overlooks Mexico, Japan, Thailand, China……….

I wonder if they will let me stay in the changing room at the bottom of the grand staircase.

Remember that if you are in California, you can walk on the beach up to the mean high tide line, even if the beach is fenced off and signs proclaim “No Trespassing.” California beaches are public property and always open to the public, notwithstanding homeowners’ signs, fencing, and other efforts to take possession of the beaches in front of their properties.

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Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

There are times when it’s okay to be selfish!

I’m a big fan of the smaller mom & pop nurseries. They tend to be more personal and have quite an interesting assortment of plants, garden ornaments, sculptures, and water fountains that the bigger nurseries don’t carry.

One of my favorite nurseries is Cedros Gardens, 330 South Cedros Avenue, Solana Beach, in the Cedros Avenue Design District.

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Cedros Gardens always has unique plants that I rarely find anywhere else, such as Dutchman’s Pipe (Aristolochia sp.):

Other than the Cuyamaca Water Conservation Garden at Cuyamaca College, which really isn’t a plant nursery, Cedros Gardens is the only place in San Diego County that I’ve found various Proteas, Banksias, Grevilleas, and related plants for sale!

Their unique water fountains, and how many they have, are unparalleled:

If you like to decorate your gardens with art and sculpture, they have plenty of that!

Here is a 1:18 video of Cedros Gardens:

There is some of everything, and something for everyone, at Cedros Gardens! And who can possibly pass by knowing that they have their own basket cat?

Stop by Cedros Gardens, 330 South Cedros Avenue, Solana Beach, California, and pick up something for your children, or your parents (great gifts for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day!), or your spouse…. Heck, be selfish and get something for yourself…. There are times when it’s okay to be selfish! I still have to recommend getting something for your family first, though, just to help keep peace in the world.

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

DogDay — Two Second Chance Dog Rescue dog adoption events on Saturday, July 27

Second Chance Dog Rescue, an organization for which I volunteer, has two pet adoption events this coming weekend.

One is at the Poway Petco at 13375 Poway Road on Saturday, July 27, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

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The other will be at the 5th Annual Doggie Street Festival, also on Saturday, July 27, but from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The Doggie Street Festival will be at Liberty Station’s NTC Preble Field at 2455 Cushing Road.

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Remember that if you are looking for a dog for your family, please consider adopting from Second Chance Dog Rescue. All of the dogs with Second Chance Dog Rescue are in foster homes. There is no central location or shelter where all of them are kept, so they would love for YOU to take them to their forever home.

Visit Second Chance Dog Rescue to see pictures and find information about all the dogs that are available for adoption. Currently there are 160 adoptable dogs listed on the Second Chance Dog Rescue web site. Following is a selection of eight dogs; I took the original picture and created a black & white drawing with Photoshop CC. Click on the dog’s name or the drawing to go directly to the original picture on the Second Chance Dog Rescue adoption page.

Bergenne

Damsel

Hobbes

Miley

Lani

Raley

Cosita

Dutchess

Second Chance Dog Rescue is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization and can always use donations of time, food, leashes and collars, pet gates, and, of course, money. Click on the Donations page for further information. Donations make a difference in the lives of these beautiful dogs.

Future Second Chance Dog Rescue events:

• August 3, Pet Adoption Event at Petco, 3495 Sports Arena Boulevard, San Diego, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
• August 3, Fundraiser at the Grand Re-opening Party for Your Dog’s Groomer, 10783 Jamacha Boulevard, Suite 3, Spring Valley, 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
• August 5, Fundraiser at Slater’s 50/50 Burgers By Design (an excellent restaurant!), 2750 Dewey Road, Suite 193, Liberty Station, San Diego.
• August 10, Pet Adoption Event at the 8th Annual Dog Days of Summer at 101 Main Street, Cardiff-by-the-Sea, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Lastly, here is a flash video of four cute little pugs that I saw at the recent Imperial Beach Surf Dog competition:

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

Dinosaurs in Southern California

Not too far from me, over in El Cajon, is the Creation and Earth History Museum. They teach that man and the dinosaurs lived together, that God created the Earth and the Heavens in 7 days of 24 hours, and similar such nonsense. Unfortunately, there are people who believe that stuff, including a couple of well-known politicians.

A little farther up the road from me, in Cabazon, is Mr. Rex’s Dinosaur Adventure featuring robotic dinosaurs and larger-than-life concrete dinosaurs, much more fun than the Creation and Earth History Museum.

Cabazon is just west of Palm Springs, and the dinosaurs are visible from Interstate 10 as you are cruising along at, oh, about 100 mph…………….

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Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!