August updates and off to Mexico City

                                                    

                                                                    Floor Update

                                        what the floor damage looked like at the end of May

Department of Repairs: The plan to finish the entire floor replacement has taken shape. The floor (approximately 1900 sq ft) repair will take place in stages. 

• Stage 1. Remove the sliding pantry and and store with neighbor in the Loft
• Stage 2. New floor brought to the Loft to acclimate
• Stage 3: Box up miscellaneous stuff 
• Stage 4. Move furniture, miscellaneous stuff, and art to one half of the Loft      
• Stage 5. Demolish half the floor
• Stage 6. Put down half the new floor
• Stage 7. Move furniture, miscellaneous stuff, and art to the finished half of the Loft 
• Stage 8. Demolish other half the floor
• Stage 9. Put down half the new floor
• Stage 10. Put in new baseboards, touch up any walls damaged during prior steps
• Stage 11. Put all movable items back in their respective original places
• Stage 12. Re-install the sliding pantry door

All to take place starting September 5, possibly completed as early as end of 3rd week of October. State Farm is covering all "reasonable" costs and so far they have sent us far more $$ than we have paid out.    

looks like most of Loft stuff is already on only half the floor

In the meantime we head to Mexico City on Saturday, joining a trip arranged by the Art Jewelry Forum. Then we will live at the Loft until mi-September, shift to the Beach House, and on October 2 leave for 2 weeks in Tuscany followed by a few days in Florence and a few more days in Munich, back Oct 15.  

August Updates

items sitting on your sideview mirror may appear be closer than you think

DB and Sandy sharing a quiet moment

THB's first e-bike rental

rack located in Capitola across street from beach

LB and THB share a brewski after our e-bike ride

pantry doors updated with  handles matched to rest of kitchen drawers

rare summer event: sunset without tree interviewing with the view

The  twins in day 1 back-to-school outfits ... are these girls no longer identical?

otter afloat just offshore

otter a bit further out, accompanied by two birds hoping for scraps

another pair of birds, the one that is alive is approaching the corpse to scavenge a meal

scuba divers spearfishing for halibut

two more taking a dip...it was hot in Monterey in late August

the scuba guys were very successful

                                                           

Book Reviews:

The Mars Trilogy, Kim Stanley Robinson (each wonderfully read by Richard

Ferrone, books  pub’d in early 1990s): Red, Green and Blue Mars, is comparable

to the best of other masterfully written multi-book series (by Mantel, Dunnett, O’Brian,

Davies, MCarthy). Sci-fi set in the 2050s to the early 2250s, Mars is being colonizedby a multi-national team of scientists The “first 100” have succeeded in making a cold,

frozen planet inhabitable.

However, they have brought all the issues found on Earth with them and revolution breaks

out as the masses start arriving. Robinson has done a great job anticipating the future:

wrist computers, AI, medical and scientific breakthroughs, and much more.

THB couldn’t put them down. 

Clint, The Man And The Movies, Shawn Levy (read by Mike

Chamberlain): There have been two other biographies of the 95

year-old actor and director and this one has to be more complete,

the guy is still working. He had a unique agreement with Warner

Bros, one that made him very wealthy and mucho dinero for the

company. THB enjoyed the Hollywood dishing, Clint's unusual

multi-family life; Clint is not a nice guy, he does have a terrific work

ethic, grew up a few miles from where THB lived in Oakland

and has lived mostly in Carmel for many, many years, just down

Highway 1 from the beach house. Recommended, just not highly:

he acted in and directed a lot of movies and they are all here ,

every last one.

Another long-time Raaaaaaaaaaw-Hiiiiiiiiide fan in Loft neighborhood?