Smelled me, licked me, ignored me

When I was growing up under the tutelage of my wise old grandmother, she taught me an appreciation for Mother and Father Nature.

She probably went to the extreme in the minds of many people since she would capture spiders in a glass and return them to the outdoors. If a good ol’ Texas-sized rat got into the house, she’d simply open all the doors and guide the rat back to the exterior with her trusty brooms, mops, and boxes. It was so much fun to be part of.

I still have that appreciation and, yes, I will return spiders to the outdoors, too, the most recent recipient of my kindness being a huge Texas-sized daddy longlegs (Opilones).

With my 48 years of such appreciation, I’m pretty much not afraid of wildlife, although I suspect that if I were to encounter a grizzly bear, rattlesnake, or mountain lion out in their territory, it might be a different story.

At yesterday’s home inspection, the sellers had a dog. I told them that dogs typically like me but they warned me that he was pretty big. Well, yes, he was pretty big, but here’s what he did while I traipsed around his home poking and prodding:

Yep, he was pretty ferocious. During the first five minutes of our meeting, he smelled me and licked me. He spent the next three hours ignoring me.

Of course, such a great picture was begging for some Photographic Art magic:

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I would never have thought to do that

On of the very best things about being a home inspector is that I get to visit about 365 homes each year (I try to limit myself to one inspection a day).

I get to see the rich with their maids, butlers, nannies, gardeners, and pool guys (smile if you remember the pool guy from “Legally Blonde”).

I get to see families trying to make it in the world without maids, butlers, nannies, gardeners, and pools, much less pool guys.

I get to see what other people have done which often gives me ideas.

A great example is this garden path from today’s inspection:

See the long tree root that is creating part of the path border? I would never have thought to do that. I would have covered that root with some soil, leveled it, planted some flowers on top of it, and gone on my merry way. I’m still inclined to plant some flowers instead of using landscape bark, but I absolutely love using the tree root as a path border.

The tree is a eucalyptus, about 200′ tall and probably planted in 1940 when the house was built. Unfortunately, eucalyptus trees have shallow root systems (proof in the picture) and are very brittle. This tree was planted about twenty feet from the house, so if a good period of rain comes, or some high winds, parts of the tree, or even the tree itself, could fall on the house. Not good.

Need a unique gift?
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Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend James Frimmer, Realtor, CDPE
CA BRE #01458572

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

Mansions in the boondocks

I love going to the boondocks to do home inspections because I always find something new.

My inspection in the boondocks a couple of days ago was in an area where I had not been before, so I left early in case I found something to take a picture of.

You know I found things to take pictures of, right?

Following are three boondocks pictures made into Photographic Art. The first two are the same property and taken from the shoulder of the road. The third is a top-of-the-mountain mansion which was for sale, so I wandered around the property taking pictures.

The top-of-the-mountain mansion is located in Jamul, about 30 miles east of me. The MLS listing states that it is 3,736 square feet with five bedrooms and three baths. Built in 2000, it is on 5.03 acres of land with a tennis court, a vanishing edge pool, and a 1,600-SF granny flat. The seller really wants to sell it and will consider seller financing or carrying. It’s only $690,000, about $689,900 out of my price range.

Need a unique gift?
Consider Photographic Art!Visit Russel Ray Photos.

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Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend James Frimmer, Realtor, CDPE
CA BRE #01458572

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

If you’re going to take on a car….

I remember what my wise old grandmother said when Santa Claus (yeah, right) brought me my first bike for Christmas 1968: “If you’re going to take on a car, the car will win, so be careful.”

A couple of days ago I had a home inspection out in the boondocks. I knew there would be picture-taking opportunities to and from, but from would be in dusk, if not darkness. Thus, I left early so that I could drive slowly on those winding mountain roads and stop to take pictures, sometimes turning around multiple times looking for a place to pull off the road and park for a few minutes.

Part of my trip was on Historic Route 94, which I previously blogged about in Scenes from…. beyond the boondocks.

On the other part, I found some interesting things to photograph which I will share in future posts. This post is about California’s “Share The Road” law which officially began in September 2013 when Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a bill that prohibits the drivers of motor vehicles from passing bike riders on the road unless there is at least 36 inches of space between the bicyclist and the car. Who measures the distance when a car is going 55 mph and a bike is going 15 mph? Anyways…. If that minimal  passing distance isn’t possible, drivers have to slow to a speed that  is “reasonable and prudent.”

Many different signs are going up along streets and highways:

The law doesn’t make exceptions, so those areas which have streets and roads with only one lane in each direction are painting reminder signs on the pavement:

I used to ride on sidewalks because my bike rides are leisurely bike rides, not bike rides of necessity to get me from point A to point B. However, in most cities, riding bikes on sidewalks is illegal, and one city here, El Cajon, is out to increase its annual budget by giving out lots of tickets to bicyclists riding on sidewalks and people who jaywalk, so beware. If you want to rob a bank, pay some little kid $20 to ride his bike on the sidewalk near a police station or a donut shop and then rob the bank while the police are busy. (Not serious with that last sentence, folks, not serious. It’s called humor.)

Unfortunately, as always, there are people who take advantage of a law, even to the extent of abusing it. When that occurs, the only good thing to come of it, well, there isn’t anything good to come of it.

Even when the law allows me the bicyclist to use the full lane, I consider it common courtesy to ride as far to the right so that cars can pass me easily, especially on streets and roads with just one lane in each direction. Some people, apparently, are not as considerate as me, which is why I saw the following sign out in the boondocks:

The road in question is used a lot by motorcyclists, some taking to the extreme G forces on curves. There are very few bicyclists out in the boondocks, so such a sign indicates to me that the bicyclist probably lives in the neighborhood, and neighbors annoying neighbors, well, nothing good will come of that either.

Need a unique gift?
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Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend James Frimmer, Realtor, CDPE
CA BRE #01458572

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

Mother & Father Nature also were having margaritas yesterday!

Yesterday was National Margarita Day, and quite a few restaurants were enticing me to visit their location with margarita specials.

Ultimately, Jim and I decided that On The Border in El Cajon would have the pleasure of our company for the evening.

In all the decades that I have been patronizing On The Border in Texas, California, and elsewhere, I do believe I have never seen one as busy as yesterday evening.

Fortunately, Mother & Father Nature were putting on a show for us with a spectacular sunset, so waiting outside for thirty minutes was no big deal.

You knew I had my camera with me, right?

About fifteen minutes elapsed between each picture, which means that for the last picture, I actually had to quit drinking my margarita to go outside to get the picture just for you!

Need a unique gift?
Consider Photographic Art!Visit Russel Ray Photos.

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Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend James Frimmer, Realtor, CDPE
CA BRE #01458572

►►►►◄◄◄◄

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

Ready? Set? ACTION!

Back in the days of film photography, my wise old grandmother would bring a bunch of photographs home from the drug store, sit down at the dining room table, and go to town identifying the photographs and placing them carefully in her many scrapbooks and photo albums using photo corners. I do believe she had the greatest collection of photo corners in the world. I know she had corners in clear, white, gold, and black.

If something new came along, she was the first to buy it and try it. I remember when she discovered rubber cement. All her packages of photo corners were sold at her next garage sale. (Smile if you used to have fun rummaging around at neighborhood garage sales instead of today’s monster flea markets and swap meets.)

Even with digital photography, though, some people (me for example) still like photo corners. Here’s Zoey the Cool Cat demonstrating the photo corners that I have been using over the past couple of years:

You can get those photo corners via an Action in Photoshop. Takes all of one keyboard shortcut and about two seconds of time.

Recently I learned of some new photo corner Actions by PanosFX.com. The email they sent me, which was captured in my spam folder, showed some pretty cool photo corner Actions, so I went to their site to see if they had a free trial download, which they do. Unfortunately, the free trial software has only one photo corner Action whereas the full version has over 50 photo corner Actions. Here is Zoey the Cool Cat, again, demonstrating the one photo corner Action in the free version:

I believe my wise old grandmother would have loved the world of digital photography and photoshopping.

The full version of these “photo slit” Actions by PanosFX.com costs 10.90 Euros. According to Google, 1 Euro equals 1.37 U.S. dollars, so 10.90 Euros equates to $14.97. I believe I can afford that.

PanosFX.com has a lot of other software, too, that allows you to make puzzles, cubes, and postage stamps complete with postmarks and envelopes. Hmmm. Postage stamps complete with postmarks and envelopes. Hmmm. Well, heck. I think I can afford that, too, since it’s only 7.90 Euros.

Long-time readers know that I love postage stamps. Here’s Zoey the Cool Cat (yet one more time) demonstrating my postage stamp frame:

I was so proud of my postage stamp frame, but now that I know that someone has gone a step further and created postmarks and envelopes in addition to postage stamps, I’m sad and depressed.

Maybe I should just buy their whole bundle collection of 12 software collections for just 65.90 Euros. That’s $90.52. Hmmmm. I might have to wait until after today’s 12:00 noon home inspection before I can afford the complete bundle……………..lol

Anyway, go check out PanosFX.com to see all the wonderful stuff they have. You might find something you like for a price you can afford.

Ready?………………

Set?…………………..

ACTION!

Need a unique gift?
Consider Photographic Art!Visit Russel Ray Photos.

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Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend James Frimmer, Realtor, CDPE
CA BRE #01458572

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

Don’t pull my leg

I always love going to arboretums and botanical gardens because they have unusual plants and little nameplates by the unusual plants.

So here’s my interesting plant of the day:

Before I tell you what it is, if you have a good, comic guess, leave a comment so we all can laugh.

After all, my wise old grandmother said to add some laughter to each and every day.

Now….

on

to

see

what

that

is.

Here

you

go:

It’s a “pink lemonade lemon.”

Yeah, right.

Don’t pull my leg.

Wikipedia tells me that “Pink lemonade may be colored with the juices of raspberries, cherries, red grapefruit, grapes, cranberries, strawberries, grenadine, or artificial food dye.”

But wait!

There’s more!

Wikipedia also says, “The pink-fleshed, ornamental Eureka lemon is commonly used as its juice is clear though it is sometimes thought to be too sour to drink.” I’m failing to understand why, if its juice is clear, it is used to make pink lemonade! “It’s not logical,” Mr. Spock would say.

I admit that I had no idea that there was a pink lemonade lemon, but when the authorities speak, one should listen:

Need a unique gift?
Consider Photographic Art!Visit Russel Ray Photos.

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Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend James Frimmer, Realtor, CDPE
CA BRE #01458572

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

I prefer to skip the middle man

There is a megachurch about seven miles from me. I won’t mention its name because I despise it, its pastor, and everything they stand for.

My wise old grandmother had raised me as a Catholic and taught me to give 10% of my gross income to the Church.

I did.

Until 1983.

That’s when I found out that the pastor of the church of which I was a member was driving around in a Rolls Royce. I didn’t want to presume anything since people often inherit things, win them in lotteries, have relatives give them things, whatever.

So as is my inclination, I did a little digging by joining the church’s finance committee. Oh, boy. Did I learn a lot. I quit the church a couple of months later. In fact, that pretty much was when I quit all religions.

The megachurches are doing absolutely nothing to convince me to return. The Pope is, but I do think I’m too far gone at this point in my life to go back to religions, especially when articles like the following keep popping up every month.

Megachurch bishop Ira V. Hilliard told his Sugarland [sic], Texas, congregation (New Light Christian Center) in June [2013] that one of his two private aircraft—a helicopter valued at about $1 million—needs new blades, but rather than pay it himself, he asked parishioners to each find it in their hearts to send him $52 “favor seeds” for the blades. (His ministry also owns a $2 million Hawker jet and a $3 million hangar.) To sweeten the deal, he virtually promised that a donor’s gift would be met by a “breakthrough favor” from God in the form of a car repair or their very own “dream” car either 52 days or 52 weeks later (according to a church letter described by the Christian Post).

I don’t have a problem per sé with people being religious, or worshiping anything, everything, or nothing. What I do have a problem with is obscene amounts of money in the hands of people who don’t know what to do with it. I keep wondering how these multimillion-dollar churches feed the hungry, house the homeless, and heal the sick because all I ever see are token words and even less in actions.

I think Mick Jagger might have said it best in 1978 with The Rolling Stones’ #1 hit single “Far Away Eyes.”

I refuse to play the religion game, preferring to skip the middle man. I’ll send my donations directly to organizations that work 24/7 to help society. Makes me feel so much better, and if someone’s god doesn’t like me for it, that is a god I really don’t want to be associated with anyway.

Need a unique gift?
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Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend James Frimmer, Realtor, CDPE
CA BRE #01458572

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

Thank you!

Many decades ago I was heavily involved with Alpha Phi Omega National Service Fraternity (APO). I had started my involvement as a junior at Texas A&M University. When friends asked me what the difference was between a service fraternity and a social fraternity, I responded,

A service fraternity spends 75% of its time doing volunteer work to help the campus, the community, and the country. The other 25% is spent drinking. A social fraternity spends 75% of its time drinking. The other 25% is spent doing volunteer work to help the campus, the community, and the country.

Always got a chuckle, if not outright laughter.

After college graduation, the extent of my involvement affected both my personal and business lives. Everything in my world came crashing down in 1982 and 1983, and that crash led to my lost decade of 1983-1993.

I quit my job because my boss was a jerk. In hindsight, he wasn’t a jerk. I simply wasn’t interested in my job in any sense other than that it paid my bills and let me play APO. He sensed that. However, I quit my job without having another job lined up.

At the same time, the rent on my apartment jumped $150 a month, to an even $1 a square foot. I had to look at either buying some property in Houston, or moving back to College Station (90 miles northwest of Houston) into property that I already owned but was renting to sorority girls from Delta Delta Delta.

I moved….

Still without having a job….

Also during this time, I was the Chairman for APO’s Section 42, which covered East Texas and comprised 15 or so chapters. It was a one-year position, so I would have to run for re-election to match my predecessors, which I wanted to do.

As I started contemplating running for re-election, students throughout the section told me that I was the best chairman they had ever seen, having shown up at their events more than any other chairman. Everyone encouraged me to run for re-election, and I did.

I lost.

I know why.

Since everyone wanted me to run, I thought they would vote for me. What I forgot to do was to ask them to vote for me and to thank them for their support. I still make the mistake of not asking for what I want or need, and not thanking people enough.

So here’s a great big

to all my friends, family, and business associates for being a part of my life. That includes my many blogging friends for you are a significant part of my family. I love y’all!

Need a unique gift?
Consider Photographic Art!Visit Russel Ray Photos.

►►►►◄◄◄◄

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend James Frimmer, Realtor, CDPE
CA BRE #01458572

►►►►◄◄◄◄

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

San Diego Zoo—Three bird pictures and a hummingbird video

Usually when I go to the Zoo I don’t hang around one spot for more than fifteen minutes.

This past Saturday, though, I spent three hours in the hummingbird aviary because the birds were putting on such a show.

Following are three bird pictures with a hummingbird video at the end.

The Crested Screamer (Chauna torquata), also known as the Southern Screamer, is native to South America. These birds do know how to scream and my goal is to get a video of them screaming. It is something to hear, up to two miles away. Even though they live in large flocks, they mate for life, estimated to be about fifteen years.

The Twin-spotted Rattlesnake (Crotalus pricei) is native to Mexico and the United States, although only to southeastern Arizona in the United States. It is a venomous pit viper, as are all rattlesnakes, but we never hear them called pit vipers. They grow to about two feet in length.

The Plate-billed Mountain Toucan (Andigena laminirostris) is native to Colombia and Ecuador, living in Andean forests among the bromeliads and mosses where annual rainfall is about fourteen feet. Yes, feet. It is the most vocal of the toucans and the flagship bird of the La Planada Nature Reserve in Colombia. It is in decline due to deforestation and poaching.

The White-necked Jacobin (Florisuga mellivora) is native to Mexico and South America where it hangs out in the canopy of forests. According to Wikipedia, it will come down to lower levels to visit hummingbird feeders, proven here since the San Diego Zoo is about 45 feet above sea level. 🙂

Smile if you think one of those bird pictures isn’t a picture of a bird at all!

Need a unique gift?
Consider Photographic Art!Visit Russel Ray Photos.

►►►►◄◄◄◄

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend James Frimmer, Realtor, CDPE
CA BRE #01458572

►►►►◄◄◄◄

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