Alive and Kicking...

I'm sure that many of you have noticed my frequent references to A.D.D. Right?  Well, I really am wildly A.D.D. and it's been a problem for a long time. Probably most of my life. A couple of weeks before my last post and after about a thousand prods from one of our girls; I made an appointment with a psychiatrist (who in all likelihood, will read this blog post). After much talking and question answering, I was given a prescription and some hope.  

After a few days of taking the medication, I was AMAZED at how I felt.  I felt FOCUSED!  Focused like I've seldom been in many years. I have a list with about 100 things that I need to do to our house, yard, cars, etc.  A.D.D. people are great at making lists and I'm no exception. The problem is that very few items ever get crossed off the list!  I could start an item, but then get distracted (by nothing at all) and forget about what I was doing. The difference now, is that I'm not making a new list, I'm actually knocking things off the old one, right and left. 

Anyhow, I just wanted to let you all know that I'm doing well and I will be back soon.  I've even created some posts that are waiting to see the light of day. I haven't posted any of them because I just don't have the time yet to respond to comments or to visit any blogs myself. But I will!  

For those that have been with me for quite a while; the daughter that was prodding me was Ashley. Ashley, of the seemingly abandoned, yet amazing StupidGirls blog and her living and breathing Our Journey begins as the Kings blog.

Love you all, miss you all and I'll be back very soon. I promise!
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In the mean time, beware of the giant pelicans!

embiggen por favor...

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Cow Beach

While recently on the road, we drove by the lovely Lake Henshaw.  It looked to be a good place to do some exploring in our kayak. 

While driving towards the main entrance, we spotted the gate to "cow beach." Check out the turnstile! I guess it's there so people can get in, but the cows can't get out. Our kayak is pretty heavy and it is much too  far and downhill to carry it to the shore. I wonder why they call it cow beach?

Okay, now we know! You can see the edge of the lake in the upper left hand part of the photo.  You can also see cows over there. Sometimes this entire depression is full of water and the lake is much larger. There are actually cows IN the lake!

Once we got to the lake,we were told that no kayaks were allowed in the water. Apparently, this lake is a reservoir for drinking water for the city of San Diego and no body contact with the water is allowed. Okay, so we can't put a toe in the water because people are going to drink it. However, it's no problem that hundreds of cows are pooping and peeing in it on a regular basis.  I wonder if the people in San Diego think their water tastes funny

I thought this was a cool looking sight.

There is an outcropping by the lake, that has a lot of local history to it. Apparently, back in the day, some local Indians were being mistreated by the local government and occupied that little hill in protest.  At that time, the entire valley was full of water and that hill was an island. I found something about the conflict on the Internet, but I don't know what I did with it and don't know where I found it.  It's a pretty place with odd rules.

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For reflections by other folks go to Weekend Reflections sponsored by James.

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Newman

We have four cats. This one is Newman. Newman has a fetish for human clothing. He loves to drag pajamas, socks, underwear, bras,  pants, etc, all around the house.  If none of those things are available, he has no problem dragging rugs around. He's also been known to empty our dirty clothes hampers and drag the contents all over the house. Heck, when he's feeling particularly strong, he'll pull the blanket off you while you're sleeping.  He's strong enough to do it too. 

As if the clothing thing weren't enough, he prefers to drink out of the toilet. One paw full at a time.

I included this one for scale. That is a full size laptop computer he's dwarfing.  He's the biggest (non obese) house cat I've ever seen. He's the size of a medium dog.  If he stands up on his hind legs he can see on top of most of our furniture.

Perverted, but very cute...

I think I embarrassed him. He should be embarrassed!

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Silent Valley Animals

These pics were either taken there, or around the old dirt road that the ranger told us about in my last post. The following pics were taken on that day.

Of all things, a golden eagle. It first I thought it was a hawk. But this bird was larger than any predator type bird that I've ever seen. Somebody told me that there were golden eagles in the area that actually attacks hawks. I'm thinking this was one of them. I wish I kould have gotten a better photo.

Red-winged black bird. (First for me)

Red-tailed hawk

A female red-winged blackbird (another first)

Hooded Oriole (also a first for me)

I don't know what kind of snake it was, but it was REALLY long. We almost ran over it.

Dinner for the eagle and/or hawk

I know they are very common, but this guy was cute.

Spawn of Satan....

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Well, we've been home for two weeks and it's time to go again. Next weekend we'll head on up to our favorite mountain ridge for a couple of weeks. 

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Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Rookery

This elephant seal rookery is another of the amazing places along the central California coast. Earlier in the year, there are so many elephant seals on the beach that you can barely see the sand. At this time of year, the seals are mostly young ones. These magnificent creatures migrate thousands of miles to get here twice a year.
Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends in the U.S.

Just another slice of the heaven that is the California Coastline.

Mom? Mom? Where are you?

Picture this beach FULL of elephant seals!

Did you hear the one about the two seals that walked into a bar?

Blubber on the beach...

They remind me of our cats.

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Weekend Reflections - Central California Coast - Just Birds

Birds + water = nice reflection

Gossip Girls checking me out

Wow! He's been working out!

Grumpy!

Lots of Guano on those rocks.

You talkin' to me?

All this guy needs is a monocle, top hat and cane.

Cormorant

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For reflections by other photographers go to Weekend Reflections by James.  There are about a hundred folks, most of them really good photographers who participate.

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Central California Coast - Port San Luis

One of the great places along the central California coast is the town of Avila Beach/Port San Luis (pop. 1600).  There are so many world class destinations in the area, that most people just drive right past this turn off and never give it a second thought.  The day we were there on our last roadie, it was initially so foggy that you could barely see anything. We hung around for a while and the fog thinned enough to let a little light through.

One of many seals hanging around under the pier.

The pier was built in 1873. There are exactly zero tourist attractions on it.

A lot of different contrasts in this scene.

There are no slips or docking places for the small fishing fleet here, so when not at sea, they anchor off the shore.

Gossips...

No marina for the few pleasure craft in the area.  I was pleasantly surprised that this photo turned out okay, despite the fog. Or maybe it was because of the fog.

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Snowbirds (of sorts)

I thought I'd give you all a break from all the Red Rocks. We just returned from a roadie to the central coast of California. There is a grove of trees in Pismo Beach State Park that is the largest wintering spot for Monarch butterflies in the western U.S. We were a few weeks early, but there were plenty already arriving from their long journey from the north (Canada mostly). The migration takes so long that NONE of the butterflies who started on the journey south, are alive when they return home. Talk about nature doing amazing things... It's just one more thing that I can't really get my mind around. That's enough words for today, so here are some pics.

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The Hawk At The End Of The Road

Although we are no longer on our last road trip (AZ & UT), I still have at least two blog posts to do relating to it. At this moment we are in Oceano, California, which is on the central coast. I'm happy to report that today's long drive from the southern end of the state was the easiest on record. We actually breezed through Los Angeles and the Valley. Once we got to the RV campground (is that an oxymoron?), we took a nice (not so much) long hike through coastal sand dunes that seemed more like they belonged in the Sahara Desert. At the end of the hike there was a magnificent oasis called the Pacific ocean. You don't get to see those photos yet! First, we have to do a couple more posts from the last trip.

This wasn't the roughest ride on our trip, but we "heard" it would lead us to a nice place.

And so it did.

When you are in this part of Arizona, it seems like every road leads to the Oak Creek. Back roads don't seem to be enough for us, so we started hiking along the banks of the creek.

As out of the way as it was, the rope swing over the creek (behind my wife) told us that this was somebody's swimming hole.

Oak Creek is an awesome free flowing large creek that meanders all over this part of Arizona.

I posted a sample pic of this guy a week or so ago.  I wish he was sitting next to something else to give the size of this guy some scale. He was HUGE!

He was no more than 10 feet from us and had no fear what-so-ever.  We have many red tail hawks where we live, but none of them are as big this guy. I'm still not sure exactly what kind of hawk he was.  I wanted him to take off so I could get a photo or two of his wingspan. We waited and waited, he did nothing. We yelled, he just stared at us. I had given up when all of a sudden he took off. I didn't really have time to aim or focus my camera and had to shoot from the hip. That didn't work out too well. I got a shot of my own knee, one of the sun, one of blue sky and one of him that was too blurry to use.

No post about this part of the country is complete without some of this.

Or this...

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