Department of Health: Something wicked this way comes (Ray Bradbury book title)

In the last month: people over 20 feet away looked very wide and their faces were unidentifiable, and reading had become difficult, a combination of missing letters and the need to make the font larger and larger (something nice about the eReaders).

THB and DB visit the retina doc and it is confirmed: his macular degeneration has worsened and it is time to start the Avastin shots in the right eye. No, not the one that got bit as shown in the prior post.

The eye is numbed, the shot takes around 10 seconds, and doesn't hurt. THB has to apply antibiotic liquid drops 3 times a day for 3 days. Next time and on into the future, drops start three days before and then three days after the shot. Asking a guy with shaky hands to apply drops? At least the eye is a big target.

Normally (like THB is normal in the health department) the shots are given every 5 weeks for 20 to 30 months.

About 40% of shot recipients see some improvement or stabilization. Other than the change in eyesight and the new procedures, THB continues to feel physically fine. Thank goodness for audio books! They are more expensive (not an issue for THB who does mind supporting authors and book stores) and generally seem "better" than the printed versions. THB will say more (gosh, really) as part of the annual book list posted in early Jauary.

The machine that confirmed what THB had been (or not been) seeing. First they inject a dye (takes 3 pokes) and quickly take blinding pictures of each eye. The tech has to hold THB's eyelids to make sure the pictures come out ok.

What Else Can Happen to THB: A long-lasting bridge fell out! Yeah, on a Saturday morning. For those of you with short (or shot) memories, THB had some baby teeth that were not replaced by adult teeth. Eventually some of them fell out. THB suspects that this bridge covered one of those holes.

Department of Revelations: Why do older brains, like THB's, struggle? Because during our formative years so much of what we learned as children is way beyond obsolete now

{ed note: a lot of discursive crap was excised here...you are welcome!}

Department of Corrections

Sphinx Moth...id'ed by BH!

More news: The eVolvo is back after 5 weeks in the shop. So far, the a/c is working well.

Volvo dealer comp'd the tire and paid for one tank of gas (yes, a tank of gas is now $90)

How to send the geese back to Canada? Scare them enough that they will go foraging in some other grassy area

Flambeau Outdoors 5985MS-1 Lone Howler Coyote Decoy (does it howl, too?)

this pic taken from THB's office (aka the second bedroom/exercise room)

Look mommy, someone has been sleeping under the pillows on THB's side of the bed

More S-W updates

Pea Patch boxes and fence nearing completions (just across the street and a bit west of the loft)

same for greenway-bike path

about 5% of new plants do not survive

Judging by number of units with lights on at night and foot traffic during the day, the place is filling up! Actually quite nice: younger crowd, more dogs for Sandy to play with and in general feels safer. Wait until the park opens next month!

Companion Bakery: A terrific spot in Santa Cruz expanded during Covid and now has a new location in Aptos, just south of Cabrillo College. Definitely better than Ad Astra with a broader selection, better efficiency, and does NOT charge a 15% service charge on what is essentially a to-go business.

THB cannot figure out what Ad Astra is thinking about since almost all businesses everywhere have a pop-up screen to add a tip when you use a charge card.

Both Ad Astra and Companion serve Cat & Cloud coffee.

Companion warms you morning pastries and slices the loaves upon request

Department of Maintenance: although the new front yard at the beach looked great at installation, unfortunately the sedge grass overwhelmed the rocks in several of the new "open" spaces. We are now in the process of burying the bodies...well, isn't that what the pic shows? Actually, we have do dig the rocks out and then kill the grass. THB and DB have done that for two areas already with good success and you can see the 3rd and 4th areas that we have tackled in the pic below. Next we will be tackling a 5th area on the fence shared with 208.

that is not a coffin lid leaning against the fence nor are those mummies awaiting internment

Department of Entertainment: C is staring ballet lessons and DB is escorting her to class on Wednesdays. She seems to have the ballerina posture already figured out. J is going to freestyle dance. Sorry, no pics from day 1 (yet)

Department of Health: in early Sept, THB gets bit in the night and now has an excuse for why the left eye isn't functioning at all...

Department of Transportation:

The light went on in the eVolvo: time for a service. Now we have learnedd a few lessons...

Make sure you have a Volvo service department near you. The closest one to the loft is about 20-25 minutes away in San Leandro
eCars are not always easy to service. It has been five weeks since we dropped off the car and neither the dealer's service department nor the "roving" tech have identified the intermittent problem with the a/c. Maybe this isn't just an eCar problem...who knows? Not Volvo.
New cars do not have a spare tire unless you pay extra. By the second week without a secon car we take Volvo's offer of a loaner. It is a brand new (well, very low mileage) version of the eCar we have. We drive it down to the beach and are running a few errands in Monterey on a Friday. Between one of the errands (only a few blocks apart), the fron left tire goes flat. Evn Volvo loaner cars don't have spares.
Not all gas station air pressure machines have a gauge that appproximately says what the tire pressure is. THB is putting in air, more air, a lot of air. The tire does not look like it is inflating.
Not all Volvo dealers or even many tire sales shops carry the eVolvo tires: We drive the loaner over to the Seaside Volvo dealer, less than 2 miles away, and find out the tire has a puncture an cannot be fixed by the dealer. The dealer does not have a new tire that matches the set on the loane and they call around to 6 or 7 tire dealers, none of them have a tire either. Earliest delivery of a new tire: some time on Monday...maybe. Remember (sure you do), it is Friday. Friday repairs are notorious for bleeding into the next week.
Sometimes the dealers are in a great location if you have to wait around for a few hours: we go for a walk over to the dog-friendly Seaside beach and Sandy gets to walk around off-leash. There are no other dogs and so she basically shuffles around. On the way back to the dealer we stop for a cappucino and a chocolate coookie at Sweet Elana's, a long-time fave (so long-time Elana has retired)

Never turn you back on the ocean
Dealers are usually near tire repair places: There's one right next to the dealer and they repair the tire puncture by patching. The patch comes with a warning: no long drives and no gonig over 65mph. Another 1.5 hours have gone by and late on Friday afternoon DB drives us slowly up Highway 1 to the beach house. We will take the car back to the Volvo dealer in San Leandro dealer on Monday.

Loaner care #1
Sunday mornings are a good time to drive slowly on a patched tire, especially if you are experience on this stretch of road: Back to the loft, no problems on the 100 mile drive, especially since DB makes sure we don't go through the "dip" on the 101 and 880 interchanged. Fortunately, since we have driven this stretch many times over the last 8 moths, we are well aware of this gigantic pothole.
Uber will take a dog: During our down time at the dealer/tire repair shop, DB researches if Uber allows dogs..yes, though we don't put it to the ultimate test
Most Volvo employees are eager to help: One Seaside salesperson was very curt with THB, otherwise the others were nice to deal with. THB suspects some truth is being hidden from him, he of the suspicious mnd. Tire shortages? hmmm...

Loaner car #2: not an eCar, we do't plan to drive it much...unless our car defies diagnosing

How you know things are not going well: your main contact at Volvo no longer returns your text messages. Uh-oh, the lesson above about helpful Vovle employees may no longer apply. Especially since another three weeeks go by after picking up loaner #2.

Five weeks and a day: The dealer was able to find a part that tests the a/c fluid level and added dye to to the system and has been driving the car around, reporting that the a/c seems to working fine. We now have the car back with no idea of what was done, if anything.

Department of Energy:

Lighting: Remember when it cost $1.29 to replace a light bulb? This 6' strip of LED lights needed to be repaced in the loft kitchen ceiling:

$492 parts and labor

Power: Are you thinking fondly of PG&E, are you, punk? A transformer at the beach needed repairing, requiring the whole Colony to lost power. They started the job at 9am on the Friday before Labor Day weekend (remember it is never never a good sign when any repair job starts on a Friday). Due to end around 4pm, the power came back on a bit past midnight. Around 5pm THB had hooked up the Jackery (portable rechargeable power source) to the fridge in the garage andd we movved pershable items from the fridge in the beach house to th garae.

not exactly the right part

Next morning we moved items back from garage to the house fridge. Score one for the Jackery!

Un-oh!! Thb's laptop (turned off and unplegged before the power outage) once again fizzled out, unable to charge. This happened once before and the Geek Squad in Texas said it just needed a new charging brick even though the E-Ville Best Buy guy tried that and sincee it didn't work for him shipped it out. No way to know what happened, too many variables. Zach the computer guy fixes the computer!! Not sure what caused the outage, it is now fully charged and new firmware updates completed. Back to the beach it goes.

Around midnighthe power went back out again...Oh No! How did we know? DB and our son-in-law used CPAPs and they know when the machine stops working because they struggle to breathe.

Only later, as we were leaving, did we realize th secon outage knocked the garage fridge out, thus everything left in there, mostly frozen ollallieberries, had defrosted. Arghhh. What kind of outage was this one? "Normal" outages do not knock out fridges permanently.

Lost and Found Department:

THB's phone goes missing after taking this picture. By the time THB realizes the phone is missing he is 1/2 mile from where the pic was taken and he starts walking back along the beach. Sandy decides to keep walking towards the 18th hole at Pebble Beach. By the time DB catches up to her, she realizes she could call THB's phone. The guy who found the phone is only about 15 feet from where THB is standing yet doesn't see THB.

Department of Communicatation: THB's i-phone won't charge through the connection on the bottom. Fortunaaely it still charges when laid on a charging pad. THB spends about 5 minutes at the Genius Bar, and the fix is easily made. Volvo..are you listening?

a piece of lint had fallen into the connctor port

Department of Etymologyy: what do you call this hybrid? It is some cross between a dragonly, a butterfly, a humminbird, a flying beetle.

Death on the beach:

Sandy in the cone, eye infection

Sandy gets a bath and dries off in the sun

Food and Drug Adminisrtation: Ad Astra has relocated to the main drag inMonterey from inside the Seaside Other Broters brew pub. DB and THB wait a day or two after the opening to go in and sample pastries (not bad) and bread (excellente)

Numero Uno!

More of Sherwin-Williams as overall construction nears the end

One of the new apartments has double-decer parking. How does it work???? Myabe you drive on the rack and you car gets lifeted to level two...then your can drive on to the lower rung. To get your car out of the top rack you then remove the ccar from the lower rung, drop the top rung down to the lower level and drive it out? Can there be another way?

Yes, there's a youtube: it doesn't seem to match this set-up.

TheLab has rotating light colors

the last bit of the greenway bike path is being put in place

Getting the Pea Patch (community garden) site ready

The new park is geting closer to completion: that's a paint can climbing structure with spilled "paint" spreading out

And the first users of the new park? Canada Geese, of course!

The dog park is a big hit!

The new railng on TheLab matches the artwork in the tunnel

Department of Immigration:

THB and DB had visitors in August ane early September

We met M on the 2018 Antarctica trip, she and hubby R were also kayakers on that trip. We toured the beach down to the mouth of Salinas River (still not fordable) and went kayaking on the Elkhorn Sloought.

Otters