Don’t be cruel to your family pet

Near one of the places where I go walking quite often is a colony of feral cats. During bad economies, the colony grows because people who can no longer afford to feed or care for their cats drop them off at the mouth of the San Diego River where this feral colony lives.

During one visit in 2009 I counted 187 cats. This morning I counted only six, and not a single one was photogenic. Thus, I returned home with not a single new picture of a fine, furry, feline friend.

Not to fear, though, because I have many pictures from past visits, and I’ll share eight of my favorites with you today.

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Remember, folks, if you don’t want your family dog or cat, or can no longer take care of it, please take it to a no-kill animal shelter rather than dropping it off in an isolated location. That’s just plain cruel.

If you have an unusual pet—snake, bird, lizard, etc.—take it to a pet store. Many of them will buy your pet from you or take it in on consignment, providing you with a commission when it sells.

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Who am I?

Many decades ago, when I was but a teenager living with my wise old grandmother in South Texas, I got into a lot of trouble. They say that I was a juvenile delinquent. Eventually (finally?), my wise old grandmother took me to a child psychiatrist in Corpus Christi, Texas. Dr. Goodenough. I’ll never forget his name because, although it was pronounced good-no, I always pronounced it just like it’s spelled, good enough. Was he good enough to figure me out?

Not until I was 38 did I find out the results of my sessions with the good ol’ doctor. The prognosis was that I was a “bright, hyperactive child.” The solution: “Keep him occupied.”

I also found out that he was being paid $100 an hour in 1968. I was 38 in 1993 when all the papers were given to me, and oh how I wanted to go back to school to become a psychiatrist. $100 an hour over the course of a year (every Thursday afternoon) to tell my wise old grandmother that I was a bright, hyperactive child and to keep me occupied. $100 an hour in 1968…. $100 an hour in 1968……….

Although I never became a psychiatrist, psychiatry and psychology have always interested me since that day. In honor of all those bright, hyperactive children everywhere, I present to you a special personality test to help determine just who YOU are.

Answer the following ten questions truthfully and as quickly as possible—don’t think about them—and then click on the link to see what kind of personality you have, just who YOU are.

1. Beatles or Rolling Stones?
2. PC or Mac?
3. Dogs or Cats?
4. Blue or Red?
5. Coffee in the morning?
6. Do you tweet at Twitter?
7. City slicker or country bumpkin?
8. Rose or orchid?
9. Sun bunny or snow bird?
10. Ford Mustang or Chevy Camaro?

Now, find out who you are by clicking on the link:

WHO AM I?

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Brand new, but no one can drive it

I went down to the Festival of Sail early this morning, but it was foggy and overcast so I didn’t stay long. Really, after 21½ years in San Diego, I should know not to go downtown before about noon after the sun has burned the fog and marine layer away. Will I never learn?

In addition to all of the tall ships that were in port, they were having a sand-sculpting contest down by the Cruise Ship Terminal. Here’s my favorite sand sculpture from the day:

They win points from me for putting real tires and lights on the sand sculpture, as well as parking the model vehicle right next to it.

Now I’m sad and depressed thinking about the only thing I could ever do with sand, which was to bury myself in it.

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The first I’ve seen in 21½ years in San Diego

As much as I love wildlife of all kinds, one of the things that I really disliked about my native home state of Texas was the number of bugs.

You DID NOT want to go outside at night because you would have to turn an outdoor light on, and that meant you would be walking out into billions and billions and billions of flying bugs.

I know we have nighttime flying bugs here in San Diego, but I think they go to sleep at night just like I do.

And ants! I hated ants. Especially fire ants. I remember one time when I went with a friend to Lake Houston to go sailing on his brand new sailboat. Out in the middle of the lake we jumped in to go swimming….. right into a bunch of fire ants! IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LAKE! That day ruined me forever on going sailing and going to Lake Houston.

The last time I saw an ant colony here in San Diego was July 6, 2009. You’re laughing, aren’t you? You think me knowing the date is funny. I know the date because I took a picture, and the metadata tells me that I took it on July 6, 2009. Now you’re laughing because I took a picture….

Should I talk about roaches? Ack! When I moved to Houston in 1977 after graduating from Texas A&M University, my first apartment was next to a bayou. Add in lots of palm trees, and it was roach city. My roommates and I used to cook greasy food each night, collecting the grease in bowls and cans to spread around the apartment. Then and only then could we get a good night’s sleep because the roaches would go after the grease, climb in the bowl, get stuck and drown. The next morning, those bowls had 20 or 30 roaches in each of them. We only stayed there three months, and those three months ruined me forever on living near lakes, rivers, streams, and palm trees in Houston.

I can count on one hand the number of roaches I have seen in 21½ years in San Diego.

Then we come to spiders. I love spiders. Except daddy longlegs. For some reason, I find daddy longlegs to be creepy. My wise old grandmother, though, taught me an appreciation for all wildlife, explaining to me the food chain, so when I find spiders inside that don’t belong inside, I shoo them back outside. Hmmm. Some day I’ll have to let Julian video me shooing a spider back outdoors. That video probably would go viral….

The spider I miss, though, is the big garden spider, the one that builds a huge, beautiful orb web at night so that when you go to get the paper in the morning, you walk into a huge web, forgetting about the paper while running yelling to the shower.

I have never seen a garden spider here in Southern California…. WAIT! I lie. I saw one in Pacific Beach last weekend! I was so excited that people were rushing over to where I was taking pictures to see what was going on. I’m pretty sure most of them all of them thought I was weird. Nonetheless….

Following is Photographic Art of my beautiful garden spider. You may tell me in a comment how beautiful it is….

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Exterior home decorations of the extraordinarily wealthy

It’s no secret to Southern Californians that Newport Beach—all of Orange County, really—is an enclave of fairly wealthy people. That fact seems ironic considering that Orange County filed for bankruptcy in 1994, taking two years to get its affairs back in order. Nonetheless, all one has to do is walk through some Newport Beach neighborhoods to see that it’s not your average city. Along with many large, magnificent, and beautiful homes….

…the little things indicate that these people have a little extra disposable income. Witness the addresses on their homes:

Once they finish the beautiful address markers, many include extra decorative ornamentation….

Some of them even decorate their mailboxes. Don’t want any ugly black or gray things hanging on fences or walls.

I don’t have access to public real estate records for Orange County like I do San Diego County, so I couldn’t check addresses to determine which was the biggest house I saw. However, I’m pretty sure this one was at or near the top:

At first I thought it was a beach hotel since the beach is pretty much where I was standing to take the picture. However, I walked around it several times and came to the conclusion that it was, indeed, a single family home.

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2014 Festival of Sail is here!

The San Diego Festival of Sail officially starts tomorrow and runs through Labor Day!

However, today from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. is the Festival of Sail Tall Ships Parade, always led by the Californian, the official tall ship of the State of California, based right here in San Diego.

The Californian, official tall ship of the State of California

Here are some pictures of tall ships from Tall Ship Parades in years gone by:

The Festival of Sail is the largest tall ship festival on the west coast and is hosted at the Maritime Museum of San Diego. Labor Day weekend in downtown San Diego is transformed into a nautical theme park for four days.

Admission is only $7 for adults.

Open 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Friday through Sunday, and 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Monday.

For more information, go to Festival of Sail.

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CalBRE #01458572

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

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in Southern California

Even though San Diego technically is a desert, it’s hard for me to consider a city and suburbs of two million people a desert.

To me, a desert lacks people (for the most part) and has lots of sand, cactus, and blue sky.

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California’s largest state park, is a great example.

It comprises 600,000 acres, including one-fifth of San Diego County, and is the the second-largest state park in the United States, behind Adirondack Park in New York.

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park includes 500 miles of dirt roads, twelve designated wilderness areas, and 110 miles of hiking trails.

There is a fairly large population of desert bighorn sheep in the desert, so if you see a rock move, look more closely and you might be able to determine that it’s a bighorn sheep instead of a big rock.

It can get extremely hot in the desert, and flash floods are common, so if you go, be sure to take lots of water, keep an eye on the weather (it can change rapidly), and let family and friends know where you plan on going and when you plan on being there.

There are WiFi hot spots in some areas of the desert, but take extra batteries for your phone or laptop. Stop and take pictures, too, because the desert really can be more beautiful than it’s made out to be.

Go to location on Google Maps

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CalBRE #01458572

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Historic Goldenrod Footbridge in Newport Beach, California

Before I went to Newport Beach a couple of weeks ago, I got out all my travel books to plan my attack for seeing as much as possible in a short time frame.

One of the things that was going to be close to where I was going to be was the Goldenrod Footbridge. Looks like this:

The plaque on the right post tells us just everything that average person wants to know:

Of course, you know that I’m not average….

Sadly, the only other information I could dredge up on the bridge is that it underwent seismic upgrades in 2011 to ensure that it could withstand a “large seismic event.” While original construction costs amounted to $10,884, the seismic retrofitting cost $140,000.

Go to location on Google Maps

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CalBRE #01458572

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You are now in the boondocks

 

It’s always an extreme pleasure to do a home inspection out in the boondocks simply because the boondocks are like no other place on Earth.

The people who live in the boondocks have so much fun putting up street signs and addresses so we city slickers can find them!

To wit:

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CalBRE #01458572

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I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

San Diego Historical Landmarks — #1: El Prado Area Designation, part 15

For the introductory blog post to San Diego’s historical landmarks, click on San Diego’s Historical Landmarks.

#1: El Prado Area Designation, part 1
#1: El Prado Area Designation, part 2
#1: El Prado Area Designation, part 3
#1: El Prado Area Designation, part 4
#1: El Prado Area Designation, part 5
#1: El Prado Area Designation, part 6
#1: El Prado Area Designation, part 7
#1: El Prado Area Designation, part 8
#1: El Prado Area Designation, part 9
#1: El Prado Area Designation, part 10
#1: El Prado Area Designation, part 11
#1: El Prado Area Designation, part 12
#1: El Prado Area Designation, part 13
#1: El Prado Area Designation, part 14

View Larger Map

As we continue to traipse from west to east on El Prado, across El Prado from Casa del Balboa is Case del Prado:

Casa del Prado basically is where all the action is throughout the week, and especially on weekends. It houses the San Diego Civic Youth Ballet, the San Diego Youth Symphony and Conservatory, the San Diego Junior Theatre, the Civic Dance Arts, the San Diego Botanical Gardens Foundation, and the San Diego Floral Association. It has several meeting rooms where many clubs and organizations hold their monthly meetings, including the San Diego Fern Society, the San Diego Cactus & Succulent Society, and the San Diego County Orchid Society, all of which I have previously held membership.

Off of El Prado but part of the Casa del Prado is the Cast del Prado Theatre:

It should be obvious that the Theatre is the performing home to all the youth performance groups mentioned previously.

Casa del Prado was originally built for the Panama-California Exposition held in 1915-16. At that time it was known as the Food & Beverage Building. By the 1960s it had fallen into a serious state of disrepair, and following several earthquakes in 1968, the building was sold to a wrecking company for a whopping $25.

Bea Evenson, whom you will hear about in our final blog post about the El Prado Designation Area, created a Committee of 100 to save the building. She was successful in getting a bond passed to raise funds to completely renovate the building, which meant basically tearing it down and rebuilding it. Plastic molds were made of the exterior façade so that the new façade would exactly match the original. Some of the original exterior façade is on display in the inner sculpture court.

Just three more posts left in our exploration of the El Prado Designation Area: the San Diego Natural History Museum, the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, and the Bea Evenson Fountain, the second-most photographed location in Balboa Park.

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