April 30, 2012

• 1st Weeklong Vacation Time since 2002!

  I'm on vacation.

  

  I took a week off, beginning today, Monday. Tuesday is my birthday. I'll be 59 years young. (I'm young, wild, and free) and I'm going to take advantage of the Catalina Express Ferry service, which turned 30 years old in 2011 and is offering free round trip tickets (worth $70.00!) to anyone who wants to travel to Catalina Island on their birthday. I've booked a room for two nights at the Victorian Hotel St. Lauren, located in the picturesque town of Avalon. (10% off a two night stay for birthday travelers.)  I'm going parasailing ($50.00 off) getting a free meal on island in a premier Mexican restaurant. (I'll get a couple of Cadillac margaritas with the money I'm saving on the meal.) Renting a bicycle. And taking LOTS of video and photographs. It's going to be a "real" vacation, and the first one I've taken since I last visited Las Vegas in 2002. Work was a bit hectic leading up to my final day last Friday, but I cleared my slate, and told the boss I was going to be on an island in the Pacific Ocean, with no cellphone service, and would see him again Monday next.

   

  I'm going to relax on the island of Catalina for three whole days, but I'm also taking time for "spring cleaning" and "home improvements." I've been situated in "my little house" now for over three years. The front of my house has looked pretty much the same in that time. I'm attempting to shape these arborvitae bushes into perfect circles. Seeing that the house was vacant three years before I moved in, I've got a ways to go. I cut them back pretty drastically when I moved in, but don't want to cut back too much. They're coming along nicely. My back yard is looking pretty good too. (photos will be below). The exterior paint job looked bad when I moved in, and it still does. I'm planning ending my vacation painting the trim, which was painted over the original brown trim with such lack of detail (and primer) that the brown shows through the green in some places. I may slurry my driveway too, if time and money allow for it.

   

  Here is a shot of what my carport looked like on Sunday morning. I want to clear the walls on all sides so I can begin painting the trim. First I'll wash all the outside walls, apply paint thinner if needed, and repaint the green. I've budgeted about $50.00 for the paint and supplies. I won't paint the complete exterior, but only the trim. The small shed in my carport is filled with my Playboy magazine collection and a bunch of books, some stereo gear, and unused furniture.

  

  This is a shot taken in my "computer room" with the boxes containing my Playboy magazine collection piled up against the closet. In order to get some cash infusion, I've been selling some of my collectibles. I've lugged the Playboy collection, which spans nearly all issues from 1964-1987, into and out of so many homes I've lost count. I'm going to see what I can get for them, either all at once, or piecemeal.

  

  A shot of my bouganvillea, fully in bloom after it's last early spring trim. I'm attempting to position some of the growth at the top so it snakes along the roof eaves. My lawn, such as it is, is a lot greener, and I'm going to spray for broadleaf weeds sometime this afternoon.

  

  My broken step will be replaced when I build a new deck on this side of the house to replace the wheelchair ramp, a badly made home effort. The lady who lived in my house before me didn't have a wheelchair, so I don't know why the ramp was built. I had always assmed she was chairbound.

  

  I spent most of Sunday emptying the plastic shed and preparing a place for it on the concrete pad next to the garden shed shown here. I'd just mowed the lawn, and am getting ready in this photo to clear some of the overgrown ivy around the shed.

  

  It's a jungle out there.

  

  This little guy has been keeping me company the last few times I've been doing gardening. Last week I didn't attempt to take any photos of him, but since I had my camera, the little bluebird of happiness decided to pose for me.

  

  Ready for my closeup, Mr. Mike.

  

  There was a lot more green here just a couple of hours ago!

  

  Here it is, in this black rectangular receptacle.

  

  Reverse shot of the bouganvillea. I've removed a lot of flora. So far I've kept the hibiscus from the first photo, a bird of paradise behind it, and this bouganvillea. Someday I'm going to have a fence near my deck, with gardenias planted along the length of it.

  

  The string trimmer you see to the right of the box for the new trimmer is over 15 years old. Neither Lowes nor Home Depot had replacement spools/caps for my old Toro, which broke down completely a couple of months ago. I trimmed and edged the lawn, and here show the boxes in the storage shed I'm about to move. The white ones are empty, and store my large porcelain Betty Boop dolls when I move them. The two brown square boxes on the right next to the door are full of Joel's vinyl records. He didn't take good care of them. I wouldn't sell my own collection, but sometime soon I am going to cart these to Amoeba records in Hollywood and see if I can get anything for them.

  

  After I moved the shed, I can back my car down to the end of the carport. Lots of room. This area will look lots better with a new slurried driveway. My neighbor removed most of her plants years ago, and filled all the planters with rocks. I had installed red paving stones next to where I exited my car for the last three years, but they will now go to the back in front of the sheds, and I'm going to put a row of potted plants along my carport next year. I feel like a homeowner more and more.

  

  The wooden table with the tile between my ariondack porch chairs is vintage from my youth. I remember setting the tiles with my father, brother and sister one evening as a "project" when my mother was hospitalized when I was about age 13 or so. I had it in the shed, but now I'll just keep it here.

  

  The two sheds side by side. I took a break, went down to the pool, and then positioned some of the paving stones in front of the plastic shed before retiring last night. I was shopping in the morning, and besides getting a trimmer, bought a window shade for the living room to quell some of the glare on my bigscreen TV in the mornings. (I installed it yesterday too.) I bought some new hiking shoes and some 5 pound free weights at Big 5 Sporting Goods and when I took my power walk yesterday, I walked with my weights.

  Life is good. I'm a bit tired this morning, and tomorrow I'm on the boat to Catalina. I started the year declaring 2012 was going to be a good one for me. So far I'm not disappointed. I'm even posting the spordic blog entry. Still don't have a lot of time (in between moving sheds, lolling in the hot tub, getting a tan, and working out!) to visit fellow Xangans. I'm sure y'all understand! Catalina Island, here I come. It's called the "island of romance". Perhaps I'll find some.

  • 1:27 pm
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