I love dogs! They're great! I've been thinking about what an incredible species is the Canus lupus familiarus. Whenever I'm on a walk with Cocoa and Kibble, we invariably get comments--most often about Kibble's cool hairdo. I think humans and canines have a special bond. Dogs touch so many of us, from the tiny tike in a stroller who has barely any words who points and declares, "Gaggie!" or "Da!" or "Woof-woof!" to the slightly older kid playing in the front yard who sees us coming and calls out to her mom, "Look! Doggies! Doggies! Hi, doggiiiiies!" to the (ahem) 40-something animal lover who also squeals, "Look! Doggies! Doggies! Hi, doggiiiiies!"
Here are some videos that I love featuring the dog! I've posted many of these to my Facebook page, but they bear repeating--and collecting!
This first one is of our dear friends. This was the Cocoa's and Kibble's first encounter with our new lawn, almost a year ago! They lurve it!
Dogs can dance!
And they easily make fast friends with beasts....
....of all kinds!
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They are smart! Muscovite subway-riding dogs. See the video within the story!
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And they are helpful! Dog leading police to fire. Video in article.
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And this is the #1 reason why dogs are great!
Monday, August 30, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
Welcome to America!
Last week I got to experience --twice-- a rare (for me) yet typical (for Santa Barbara) event.
On Tuesday, I, along with the other field staff at Visiting Nurse and Hospice Care of Santa Barbara were invited to a VNCH board member's home for wine and hors d'oeuvre as a thank-you for our work. Her husband is the retired CEO of a large global corporation which makes $21 billion in revenue yearly.
What. a. home. Of all the wonderful homes that I've seen as a home care clinician, this was the most opulent. It sits on 21 acres of prime Montecito hilltop; the house is surrounded by avocado orchards. They built it over 4 1/2 years and made every detail perfect. A few examples: the oven is a four-parter; each little oven has its own temperature (150º, 250º, 350º and 450º). The laundry room/flower arranging room is beautiful! As I was playing with the light switch, the Mister came and explained the workings of it. It was pretty complex, but I'm sure it let them control the lights in just the way they wanted! The landscaping is gorgeous: a rose garden and plenty of native plants. The pool is very pretty, and I noticed the water level comes exactly to the bottom of the layer of decorative tile.
The house has a tower just in case you want to see a few more miles out over the channel. As some of us were walking up the staircase to the tower, some other folks, recent immigrants, were walking down. One of them exclaimed, "Welcome to America!" Indeed.
Both Mister and Missus are kind, down-to-earth people. Her interest in supporting VNHC came from her personal experience with a hospice organization in Texas. Both of them came from humble beginnings, and I guess they just can't help it that our society worships corporations and they reaped the benefits. It was really a pleasure to visit their house.
Then, on Sunday, the four of us were privileged to tour the Dreier Collection, a private collection of television and movie memorabilia, fossils and minerals, and sports memorabilia, among other collectibles. Doug Dreier is president of the board of directors of the Police Activities League, and police and fire personnel were invited to an open house of the collection over the weekend.
Wow. Wow.
Here is another CEO, this time a building company, whose family's personal interests have become a huge collection.
A Harry Potter room! As Erin was geeking, Mr. Dreier let her hold Dumbledore's wand!
Erin made a list of a few of the items from the Harry Potter films.
A Lucille Ball room, with costumes, scripts, divorce papers...and her Emmy (and that dress she wore for the Emmy Awards)!
Other movie memorabilia:
Edward Scissorhands's hands!
An Oompa loompa costume
The original Original Willy Wonka suit
Grandpa Joe's suit
Everlasting Gobstopper
Golden egg
Veruca Salt's golden ticket
A golden ticket from the 2005 movie
The candy bar from which Charlie got his ticket
Willy Wonka's cane (Johnny Depp's)
Wonka candy from each movie
Austin Powers's costume and costumes of his friends Fook Yu and Fook Me
Map of Middle Earth
Ferris Beuller's jacket
Forrest Gump's costume
The prop cardboard ad campaign in Forrest Gump
Spartan costume from 300
The Terminator's jacket and weapons
Fonzie's jacket
Ricky Bobby's driving suit
Kal-El's and Lara's costumes
Officer Poncharelli's uniform
Michael Jackson costumes, and the Glove
Autographed guitars from a lot of rock musicians
And there were non-movie collectibles: Pez, WWII toys and memorabilia, collections of lion tchotchkes (including a couple Picasso lion sketches), a sun room, frog tchotchkes, and oh, my too much to list or remember.
There was a G.I. Joe room with a large diorama of a battle scene. Next to it, a case of just about every G.I. Joe ever made.
And that is just a very few!
I didn't spend much time in the enormous sports room, because frankly by that time I had started hyperventilating and becoming overwhelmed after being in the First Edition room.
A bat used by Babe Ruth
Mickey Mantle's bat
Shaq's shoes (they are ENORMOUS)
uniforms from various players, in all sports
Tons of autographed baseballs and TONS of baseball cards, going all the way back to the very first baseball card from 1869
The Gem and Fossil room had minerals and gems of every kind, meteorites, and an impressive collection of fossils of all kinds. Hard to imagine the hours and care it took to excavate the hundreds of fossilized spiney sea creatures!
Dinosaur eggs!
A complete dinosaur fossil! (Their's was more complete and more beautiful than this one, but in similar substrate)
Fossilized turtles!
Fossilized colonies of sand dollars (dozens, not just two like in this photo)!
Tons of trilobites...all species, very amazingly preserved and excavated
A fossil of a fish eating a smaller fish
Several meteorites, including large ones
A meteorite that was embedded in a tree
A large ammonite that was fossilized by pyrite. Ooooh! pretty! (the specimen we saw was both halves and much more stunning than this picture)
...and many, many more specimens too numerous to list or remember!
And the book room. First editions. (Breathe, Izzy, breathe!). First editions of British Harry Potter, John Steinbeck, Dr. Seuss, Mark Twain! Oh, my! And of course, not only first editions, but PERFECT first editions. Gotta keep breathing....
Of course, none of us brought cameras (WHAT WERE WE THINKING?!). But here are a couple links to see a little.
From infive.com We didn't see the cars or walk around the grounds for the sculptures.
An article from Window Magazine. And a narrated slideshow.
Welcome to America!
On Tuesday, I, along with the other field staff at Visiting Nurse and Hospice Care of Santa Barbara were invited to a VNCH board member's home for wine and hors d'oeuvre as a thank-you for our work. Her husband is the retired CEO of a large global corporation which makes $21 billion in revenue yearly.
What. a. home. Of all the wonderful homes that I've seen as a home care clinician, this was the most opulent. It sits on 21 acres of prime Montecito hilltop; the house is surrounded by avocado orchards. They built it over 4 1/2 years and made every detail perfect. A few examples: the oven is a four-parter; each little oven has its own temperature (150º, 250º, 350º and 450º). The laundry room/flower arranging room is beautiful! As I was playing with the light switch, the Mister came and explained the workings of it. It was pretty complex, but I'm sure it let them control the lights in just the way they wanted! The landscaping is gorgeous: a rose garden and plenty of native plants. The pool is very pretty, and I noticed the water level comes exactly to the bottom of the layer of decorative tile.
The house has a tower just in case you want to see a few more miles out over the channel. As some of us were walking up the staircase to the tower, some other folks, recent immigrants, were walking down. One of them exclaimed, "Welcome to America!" Indeed.
Both Mister and Missus are kind, down-to-earth people. Her interest in supporting VNHC came from her personal experience with a hospice organization in Texas. Both of them came from humble beginnings, and I guess they just can't help it that our society worships corporations and they reaped the benefits. It was really a pleasure to visit their house.
Then, on Sunday, the four of us were privileged to tour the Dreier Collection, a private collection of television and movie memorabilia, fossils and minerals, and sports memorabilia, among other collectibles. Doug Dreier is president of the board of directors of the Police Activities League, and police and fire personnel were invited to an open house of the collection over the weekend.
Wow. Wow.
Here is another CEO, this time a building company, whose family's personal interests have become a huge collection.
A Harry Potter room! As Erin was geeking, Mr. Dreier let her hold Dumbledore's wand!
Erin made a list of a few of the items from the Harry Potter films.
- Tom Felton's (Draco Malfoy) Quidditch robe
- Harry's Acceptance Letter
- The flying car's License plate
- A Nimbus 2001
- Fleur Delacour's costume
- The basilisk fang
- Harry's glasses
- Dumbledore's glasses
- Dumbledore's robe (Mr. Drier showed us the electronics inside that made it spark!)
- The Sorting Scroll
- McGonagall's wand
- Hagrid's shirt
- Filch's costume
- Sweater worn by Daniel Radcliff
- A Howler
- A Chocolate Frog card -it has a tiny green screen for the wizard picture!
- A Snitch
- Harry's Trunk
A Lucille Ball room, with costumes, scripts, divorce papers...and her Emmy (and that dress she wore for the Emmy Awards)!
Other movie memorabilia:
Edward Scissorhands's hands!
An Oompa loompa costume
The original Original Willy Wonka suit
Grandpa Joe's suit
Everlasting Gobstopper
Golden egg
Veruca Salt's golden ticket
A golden ticket from the 2005 movie
The candy bar from which Charlie got his ticket
Willy Wonka's cane (Johnny Depp's)
Wonka candy from each movie
Austin Powers's costume and costumes of his friends Fook Yu and Fook Me
Map of Middle Earth
Ferris Beuller's jacket
Forrest Gump's costume
The prop cardboard ad campaign in Forrest Gump
Spartan costume from 300
The Terminator's jacket and weapons
Fonzie's jacket
Ricky Bobby's driving suit
Kal-El's and Lara's costumes
Officer Poncharelli's uniform
Michael Jackson costumes, and the Glove
Autographed guitars from a lot of rock musicians
And there were non-movie collectibles: Pez, WWII toys and memorabilia, collections of lion tchotchkes (including a couple Picasso lion sketches), a sun room, frog tchotchkes, and oh, my too much to list or remember.
There was a G.I. Joe room with a large diorama of a battle scene. Next to it, a case of just about every G.I. Joe ever made.
And that is just a very few!
I didn't spend much time in the enormous sports room, because frankly by that time I had started hyperventilating and becoming overwhelmed after being in the First Edition room.
A bat used by Babe Ruth
Mickey Mantle's bat
Shaq's shoes (they are ENORMOUS)
uniforms from various players, in all sports
Tons of autographed baseballs and TONS of baseball cards, going all the way back to the very first baseball card from 1869
The Gem and Fossil room had minerals and gems of every kind, meteorites, and an impressive collection of fossils of all kinds. Hard to imagine the hours and care it took to excavate the hundreds of fossilized spiney sea creatures!
Dinosaur eggs!
A complete dinosaur fossil! (Their's was more complete and more beautiful than this one, but in similar substrate)
Fossilized turtles!
Fossilized colonies of sand dollars (dozens, not just two like in this photo)!
Tons of trilobites...all species, very amazingly preserved and excavated
A fossil of a fish eating a smaller fish
Several meteorites, including large ones
A meteorite that was embedded in a tree
A large ammonite that was fossilized by pyrite. Ooooh! pretty! (the specimen we saw was both halves and much more stunning than this picture)
...and many, many more specimens too numerous to list or remember!
And the book room. First editions. (Breathe, Izzy, breathe!). First editions of British Harry Potter, John Steinbeck, Dr. Seuss, Mark Twain! Oh, my! And of course, not only first editions, but PERFECT first editions. Gotta keep breathing....
Of course, none of us brought cameras (WHAT WERE WE THINKING?!). But here are a couple links to see a little.
From infive.com We didn't see the cars or walk around the grounds for the sculptures.
An article from Window Magazine. And a narrated slideshow.
Welcome to America!
Sunday, August 22, 2010
"The telephone itself will become almost an item of entertainment"
Happy Birthday, Ray Bradbury!
Today is also Ray Bradbury's birthday, and seeing the news about his 90th birthday reminded me of this magazine that I had picked up from the Crapture of nearly two years ago.
One of Bradbury's contemporaries, Isaac Asimov, wrote an article in the August, 1965 issue of Science Digest entitled, "Life in 1990." We're a couple decades beyond that--almost as far into the future from 1990 as he was foreseeing in 1965! Still, it's a fun peek into what the future looked like in his eyes. Enjoy the read!
Now, I have to ask: Where is my personal helicopter?
Today is also Ray Bradbury's birthday, and seeing the news about his 90th birthday reminded me of this magazine that I had picked up from the Crapture of nearly two years ago.
Now, I have to ask: Where is my personal helicopter?
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Rattlesnake Canyon Trail Clean-Up
I've taken you with me on several hikes up Rattlesnake Canyon. A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to go do some trail work with some other folks from the Visiting Nurse and Hospice Care, for whom I've been doing more work lately. One of the physical therapists there is a trail crew leader, certified by the National Forest Service. He put the call out for volunteers to help, and of course I jumped at the chance to work on one of my favorite trails.
The Tea Fire and the Jesusita Fire had both burned the area, and the trails bear a lot of the fire's effects, from greater erosion to overgrowth with the heavy rains after the fires. We mostly tackled the overgrowth. Dave picked out a few sections for us to work on and set us to work hacking away the growth so that the trail was more usable.
It was a beautiful evening, perfect for a hike and a little elbow grease. After we signed the necessary acknowledgments, Dave showed us how to use the heavy hand tools. We donned helmets and gloves and started up.
Here we are at the trailhead. Ready to get to work!
Hiking up:
Getting to work!
Izzy tossing the debris into the bushes.
A "before" picture. The trail was really crowded by overgrowth, mostly wild mustard.
And "after" -- wow, good work, people!
The reward! Enjoying the view after the hard work.
Another "before" picture:
And after, it was a more enjoyable trail to hike.
I learned a lot about trail maintenence in general. Dave was a good guide, showing us where other maintenence was needed like making new berms or re-forming berms to guide the water off the trail.
The following weekend I hiked up the trail again, and I was really proud when I came to "our" sections. I felt a real sense of ownership! Neat! I told Dave I'm ready for the next one anytime. It was a lot of fun!
Here's to a good few hours' work! Cheers!
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