November 12, 2001
It's the kind of day that makes me wish we had a fireplace. I've got the book, I can smell the soup cooking, and rain is slashing the windows while the wind makes the slide covers snap. The occasional gust will actually rock the trailer gently, and while the 110v lights flicker occasionally, it's of no concern to us if we loose shore power. The battery is fully charged, the fresh water tank is full, and I emptied the waste water earlier this morning. It's 50 degrees outside and a comfortable 75 or so inside. Glad we don't have to go to town for anything today, and only mildly disappointed we didn't get to hike up to the waterfall we've heard about.
But lest any of you "wannabees" out there think that fulltiming is a perpetual vacation, let me assure you it's not. The microwave/convection oven quit Thursday. After getting frustrated with voice-mail menus, I finally found out that Sears was the "approved" Sharp repair facility. Of course, I also found out that the local Sears store only takes the oven and ships it to LA for a minimum charge of $80 and a return sometime after the 16th. And of course, we are due to leave here on the 15th. Oh, joy. I did learn that there is a fuse inside the guts of this rascal, somewhere in the "...back plate, but don't try to work on it yourself because it can be dangerous..." according to the technician somewhere in Ohio I was lucky enough to talk to. Well, for $80 I can bloody well tear it apart and enjoy playing with it, that's for sure. I don't carry 5,000# of tools just for looks, now do I? Of course, once taking off the front panel and not being able to find any fuse, I began to mutter about how nice the weather was and how much fun it is to have plans change, and ..... well, whatever. You get the idea. Barb went up to the phone to make some calls regarding reservations or something, I sure wasn't paying much attention to what she was doing, when all of a sudden here she comes with some big guy with a pony tail and full beard. He tells me that he has a unit something like ours, and when his fuse blew, the technician who came out (at least his unit had the foresight to blow up while it was still under warranty) just popped the front panel off and changed the fuse and that's all there was to that. Only neither of us could see a fuse. So out to the truck for more tools, and it wasn't long before the oven was sitting on a fluffy blanket (heavy little rascal, it is--the microwave, not the blanket ) on top of the stove. We pulled the outer cover off, only to find the wires were all up front after all. But HAH! There's the fuse! Tucked neatly away behind some other stuff that hid it from view. As well as making it darn near impossible to get normal sized fingers in there to pull it out! Next stop, the local hardware store, about 23 miles away. Sure enough, there, all nice and neatly shrink-wrapped were "Microwave Fuses" in the 20 amp size we needed. We bought 4 of them. Two for the big guy, who turned out to be Mike, the security ranger for the preserve who just happened to be off duty and up by the phone earlier in the day. Fuse replaced, oven put back up on the wall under the shelf (which meant we had to figure out a way to pull the false bottom out of the cupboard above to get to the top mounting bolts) all nice and neat, plug it back in and success!! The clock, the light and everything just spiffy. Until later that night when I went to make popcorn and it made that growling sound and blew the fuse again. GRRRRRRR!
Next day, it was off to Santa Barbara to see what Sears was selling (with a growling noise like that I knew it was serious, and since the economy needs boosting, we'd decided to do our part) and sure enough, there was the GE model I'd read about. For $729. And no service from any of the clerks. And people standing at the "Customer Service" desk with purchases in hand waiting for somebody to take their money. And all this after spending way too much time in the library with a computer that liked to speak Spanish more than English trying to get the Consumer Report downloaded..... after going through the hassle of filling out all the forms for the $2.95 purchase..... only to learn that the system was busy and would I please try again later. Yeah, right. Like I had any patience left at all!! Barb was convinced that we needed to see the Consumer Report that this library didn't have but the one across town did have, so we'd gone over there too. She looked in the book full of the reports while I read the Alaska Magazine about some nut-case trying to take up-close and personal pictures of the polar bears. In frustration we went to Costco, but no, they only have microwaves, not microwave/convection ovens. On the way from there, I stopped to sulk while Barb went into the gas station and used their phone book to get numbers of repair shops. She came back with the Maytag repair place. And the bright spot of the day was that yes, while they didn't sell the ovens, they did repair them. So on Wed. we're supposed to pick up the little darling with its new $220 transformer and return it to its rightful place in the kitchen so we can leave on Thursday. Any bets? Isn't this fun? Can you tell it's raining outside (really hard) and I'm kinda bored?
On one of our morning walks, we heard some red-headed woodpeckers hammering away, looked up, and there were 5 of them. Stuffing acorns into the holes they'd made on this pole.
It's a wonder the pole is still standing with all those holes in it. No wonder the newer poles around here are all fiberglass. The ranger said they don't eat the acorns, only the worms that will grow in them. Barb found an acorn that had been pulled out of its hole and split open, and while we could see where the worm had been, most of the meat of the acorn was still there. On the right is a picture of the kind of hill we get to climb whenever we walk anywhere. There are 6 levels like this, not counting the store, ranger station, and other buildings.
I can remember getting excited about finding some kind of new wildlife when we're out walking. Now I get excited when I find a "comfort station" worthy of the name. And on the right is one of several pictures we took of the "Stone Lodge" as they call it. Built in 1901 by one of the first Anglo settlers in this area. There are indications that the Chumash Indians were here for many years before that.
The chapel where the pastor was willing to share the pulpit with me one Sunday, and some serious bar-b-que equipment in the patio between the Chapel and the Stone Lodge.
More pictures of the Stone Lodge with its outside fireplace and fountain. It's built on what appears to have been the river bank. Only the river is now about 750 yards away, and hardly a river. Of course, with the way it's been raining today, we may have a river there now after all.
In the picture on the right is a carving in stone of an Indian with a Chief's headdress and some kind of symbol below it. I haven't talked to anybody yet who knows the story behind the carving.
We'd come into Santa Barbara to drop off the oven, and Barb wanted to go to the farmers market. We needed some things, and parking turned out to be a breeze. 90 minute free parking almost anywhere. I particularly enjoyed all the street musicians that were there.
I don't know what it is with Barb and her taking pictures of me coming out of portable toilets. 31 years ago when we were just dating, she took a picture of me coming out of one at Folsom Lake where we'd been sailing. I thought it strange then, and I still do. At least they had someplace to wash hands, and it was portable too (a new contraption, we'd never seen a portable wash basin quite like this before. California has turned into a pretty strange place (beg your pardon, dear, it always has been! bj).
After enjoying the one-man band complete with battery operated loudspeakers, we went to the beach and I was impressed with the size as well as the quality of the skate park. Well patrolled, and nobody was skating without at least a helmet--skateboards and roller blades were prevalent.
There was one fellow who would go through the half-pipe, into the pool, and then come out of the pool, do some pretty nice looking tricks in the air, go back into the pool and after coming out the other side would hit the half-pipe again. There was another guy on in-line skates doing spins in the air on one of the center ramps as well. Impressive. More cities should invest in these parks and build them as well as this has been built.
The pelicans we knew, the several kinds of gulls we knew as well. But who's that dark guy on the fish cleaning station? The kid standing by me looks like he's holding something, but that's just an ash tray on a post (the kid was just waiting for me to get out of the way so he could get at the pelican). They were all over the pier. The ash trays, not the kids.
Me and my fat yap. Barb had been making phone calls up at the laundry room, and every time she'd go up she'd come back and mention how nice it would be if our awning was up and she could get in and out without getting in the rain until after she had her umbrella up, etc. She pointed to several who had their awnings up, and particularly this one below us that wasn't even flapping in the wind at all, and wouldn't I please put ours out? Well, one look at the fellow below us, and I could see why it wasn't flapping in the wind. It was about to collapse under the weight of all the water it had accumulated. And of course, now that I've seen a problem, I can't just sit back down with my good books (magazines, actually), I've got to go "help." Only I was just a little late. As soon as I banged on the door and the fellow came out, the awning rod began to buckle. I wasn't quick enough releasing the arm, and the rod bent with a crash, dumping gallons of water all over us. Then the wind didn't help at all, and pretty soon there were 4 of us wrestling this thing down and off the trailer; it finally got stuffed under the tail of the trailer till the weather let up. The insurance company will get a call. And as I was walking back home, soaking wet and cold, I wondered why I was here, anyhow. But now that I'm all warm and dry again, and had some of that great tasting soup, everything is as it should be.
Yep. Storm's over, looks like.