New House Blog: Episode CCVI - There And Back Again

Howdy folks, and welcome to the first New House Blog Episode composed and created at our Texas House.  In this Episode we will cover the final pre-moving trip.  I drove for two days across the country to our Texas House, spent some time setting up some things, and then I flew back home to our Bay Area House.

There 1

I left our First New House early one Saturday morning with a car full of stuff, and I headed south on 101.  From there I ventured east on 52, then south again on 5.  The early morning traffic was moving along freely and smoothly, with only a minimum of semi drivers playing leap-frog.  From 5 I turned east again onto 58, and headed toward Rosedale and Bakersfield.

This is crop-dusting helicopter that I saw while heading east on 58.  I was able to bypass most of Rosedale by using the relatively new, and mostly empty, Westside Parkway.





I continued easterly on 58 until I made my first stop in Tehachapi for a bit of food and a stretch of legs.  That's right - I somehow did four solid hours of driving with no stops.  Back in the car again, I proceeded along 58 past Mojave and into Barstow, where I switched from 58 to 40, heading easterishly.  The roads between Tehachapi and Barstow have improved a lot over the past few years.  A lot of the two-lane highway has been replaced by four-lane, and it looks like it will eventually all be four-lane, which will be very nice indeed.

My travels continued on toward Needles and much heat.

Despite my best efforts to rubberneck at freeway speed, I never did discover exactly what was burning in Needles that day.








After Needles I crossed over the border into Arizona and turned southly on 95.

There is some beautiful scenery to view around and alongside Lake Havasu, but driving through Lake Havasu City seems to take forever.

It doesn't appear to be a big city on the map, but it takes a long long time to go through. 

And looking on the map today I discovered that I apparently drove right past London Bridge.  D'oh!  I definitely would have stopped if I had realized it was there.

Eventually 95 took me to 10 east, and what appeared to be a straight shot toward Phoenix and Tuscon.  And it was a straight shot - straight into a 2 1/2 hour traffic jam!  That's right - I sat in mostly stopped traffic, along with about 10,000 other motorists, for about 2.5 hours while an accident way up ahead was cleared up.

As you can see, the prohibition on u-turns did not dissuade everyone.  I witnessed several people crossing over and turning around.  Perhaps I should have, also, and found an alternate route to Tuscon.

When you are stopped on the highway you have time to notice and photograph discarded stuffed animals.

Fortunately, I had my old radio programs to listen to as I waited for traffic to move again.  I mainly listened to High Adventure and the wonderful Lux Radio Theatre.  Despite the 2.5 hour delay, I decided to push on to my original planned destination, the Holiday Inn Express in Tuscon.

End travel day 1.

There 2

My second day of travel started bright and early in Tuscon.  I continued more-or-less east on 10, then headed roughly southeast when 10 changed direction in Las Cruces, New Mexico.  As on my previous drive to Texas, I was able to cross New Mexico with no stops.  Somewheres past El Paso, Texas, I had to stop at a border patrol checkpoint on 10.

The agent waved me through with no questions asked.

The rest of my trip was pretty uneventful, although I did encounter some rain in the mountains of West Texas.

After the mountains I saw this rain a bit to the north of me, but it never crossed my path.

My route continued trending east and south until I came into San Antonio, where I was expecting to get onto 35 north, but Google Maps provided an alternate route to get me to our Texas House.

End Travel Day 2.















There 3

Monday was appliance delivery day.  A truck pulled up to our Texas House, and two strong men delivered and installed a washer, dryer, and fridge.

As you can see, Monday was also trash day, but not for us.  The delivery truck was blocking the trash bin when the trash collector came by.

As usual, we went with Consumer Reports' recommendations.

This is not a smart fridge, and it never will be.  We don't need (or want) a fridge that is connected to the internet.  Seriously, y'all, does anyone really need a fridge that is connected to the internet?



Monday was also the cable hookup day.

We have a very fast internet connection, and a wide variety of TV channels.  We are also very pleased so far with the Google wifi product.







Tuesday was dishwasher delivery day.

I was responsible for uninstalling the old dishwasher so that the delivery man could haul it away.

I was also responsible for installing the new dishwasher (more on that in a later Episode).  Interestingly, the Bay Area Best Buy, from which we purchased this unit, did not offer any dishwasher installation services, but the local Best Buy does offer such service for dishwashers.

Tuesday was also the day to mow the large lawn for the first time.

Meet Anton, our new cordless electric lawnmower.  We decided to leave El Toro (our gas mower) in our California House for the new owners.  I, as the primary lawn care technician, no longer enjoy dealing with gasoline, carb cleaner, gas stabilizer, and the other chemicals necessary to keep a gas mower running.  And I grew tired of dealing with the clogging carburetor.

So far I am impressed with Anton's performance.  There is plenty of power, very easy height adjustment, and the bagging function works a lot better than El Toro's bagging ever did.

As a bonus, I was able to meet two of our neighbors while mowing the lawn.

Wednesday was recycling and yard waste day, and I actually had yard waste to put out (and recycling).  At our Texas House yard waste is put into large (about 48" tall) paper bags, which are then put out by the curb.  Said bags are freely provided, and said yard waste is converted into mulch by the city, and is said to be freely available for residents.

On either Wednesday or Thursday I set up some litterboxes preparatory to our impending move.  I may also have started some other projects which I will talk about in future Episodes.

Back Again

On Thursday I learned that you absolutely cannot get a taxi in our area.  I called a lot of different phone numbers, taken directly from the phone book and from various websites, and I looked up a lot of services online.  The result was phone numbers that never answer, numbers that belong to personal people instead of taxi companies, numbers that could not be connected, numbers that go to questionable voicemail boxes, non-existent websites, and a lot of frustration.  In the end, my two options were an overpriced airport shuttle or Uber.  I chose to use Uber for the first time ever, and it turned out to be a pleasant experience.

On Friday I was picked up by a very friendly Uber driver and taken to Austin Bergstrom Airport (AUS) for my flight home.  Sadly, however, because of heavy traffic on 35, I did not have time to visit the Salt Lick outlet at AUS.

Flying home on Delta was a nice change from flying on American.  My first flight, to Las Angeles International Airport (LAX) was on time, and my flight from LAX to Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC) was also on time - there were no delays.

Becky picked me up at SJC and drove me back to our Old New House and our four cats. 

That, all y'alls, brings us to the end of this Episode's narrative.  Please enjoy these random photos from my epic journey.

A new adventure is about to
    bIsh

New House Blog: Episode CIII - Excavating The Mounds

Fair warning:  This Episode contains a lot of pictures, and is of considerable length.  In order to not be overwhelmed with excellent exposition, you should be sure to pace yourself and not rush ahead faster than your brain can process all of the following words and imagery.

We had two earthen mounds in our back yard, and although I thought they added some character to the yard, our realtor suggested removing them and planting the area with grass, so as to make the yard more attractive to prospective house-buyers.  The landscaper recommended by said realtor wanted money to remove said mounds, but we did not want to pay; so, as archaeologists do all over the UK, we decided to excavate these earthen mounds ourselves.

Excavation 1

Unlike the mounds found all over the UK, our earthen mounds were not that old, and we know exactly how and when they were formed, and by whom.  You may recall that in this Episode, and this Episode, we installed some paver paths in our back yard.  Before we could actually lay the pavers we had to dig up a bunch of dirt, and this dirt ended up in two earthen mounds in our back yard.  Over the years used planter soil was added, and the mounds grew slightly.

Here you can see the beginning of the excavating of Mound #1.  As we excavated Mound #1 we discovered a lot of artifacts - more on that later.

More of Mound #1's excavation.  Notice the ancient solar lights on top of the mound.

Mound #1 has been excavated down to roughly the level of the lawn, and you can see Mound #2 in the background.









Cute Cat Interlude 1

Daisy is coming home from the vet.



















Excavation 2

After excavating Mound #1 we excavated Mound #2.

We discovered a lot of artifacts buried in Mound #2, also.

This is the view after both mounds were excavated, but before the grass seed was sown.

Where did we put all of the excavated mound dirt?  We did what the clever prisoners did in the excellent film, The Great Escape, and spread it around various parts of the yard, filling in low spaces or evening out uneven spaces or such-like.  Unlike the clever prisoners in said movie, however, we did not distribute the dirt via clever hidden pockets in our trousers.

This photo was taken just a couple of days ago, after a couple weeks of daily watering (and hoping that our newly-sown grass seed would grow).  From certain angles it is starting to look pretty good.



Cute Cat Interlude 2

Miles enjoys stretching out on the bed.











So Many Faceplates

On the advice of one of our realtor's contractors, we decided to replace all of our old-style, but functional, light switches with new-style, but functional, light switches, and matching faceplates.  The process was about the same for all of our switches and faceplates, so we'll focus on just one junction box - our infamous triple-switch box.

Here you can see the old-style switches.  The left controls the outside light, the right is a 3-way switch that controls the stairway light, and the middle controls nothing, as far as we can tell.

After turning off power to these switches, and after removing the faceplate we can see the switches clearly.  The next step is unscrewing the actual switches.

Just look at that mess o' wiring.  The next step is disconnecting each switch and updating splicing as necessary.

What in the world is this?!  No wonder that center switch does nothing.

These are the new light switches, and faceplate.  In the end we decided to leave the center switch as a dummy switch.















Cute Cat Interlude 3

Edgar was feeling particularly sleepy on this day.
















Excavation 3

While preparing the ground formerly under Mound #1 for seed we discovered a large ancient artifact.

You can just see the edge of the artifact.  We discovered this while I was using Winston to loosen the dirt for the new grass seed.  Winston's head encountered something solid and cement-like just below the surface of the dirt.

We were pleased to discover one more cement post foundation.  Upon further investigation and excavation we have come to believe that this is another artifact from the little-known Old Ones (first discussed in this Episode).

We discovered this post foundation very close to where we discovered another Old Ones post foundation.

Also, the general size and construction are consistent with the two known Old Ones post foundations that we have previously discovered.

As a reminder, all of the evidence we have uncovered shows that the Old Ones pre-date the pre-Bishopians.









Cute Cat Interlude 4

Satchmo loves to go outside in his harness, and it looks very sharp on him.  He also likes to eat the grass.
















Excavation 4

In addition to planting and watering in the back yard, we planted and watered new grass seed in the front yard.

After about two weeks of daily watering (and hoping) it looks decent, from certain points of view.









Cute Cat Interlude 5

You are looking down from above as Daisy gets into the treat bag containing the yummy dried fish bits.

















BYA Extravaganza

As mentioned above, we found a lot of artifacts while we were excavating the two earthen mounds.

We start with this selection of random metal bits.  I believe the decaying battery at the top may be from one of the many solar lights we planted on Mound #1.  I'm not sure how I missed that big chunk of rusty rebar when we dug up the dirt during the paver path project.  Another puzzle is the deck screw at the bottom.  It has a modern torx head, but doesn't match any screws in use at our Bay Area House.

This appears to be an ID tag of some sort, made of some kind of lightweight whitish metal.

These timber fragments may be further evidence of pirate activity, or just part of an ancient pier or port.

Here we have some random plastic bits.  At bottom left we see a cheap imitation of a LEGO knock-off.  The packaging at the right appears to have some kind of writing on it.  We have not determined if it is from one of the Asian languages, or from an unknown extraterrestrial language.

We also discovered a large, mostly-intact segment from the tile mosaic we re-assembled in this Episode.  We have not yet determined exactly where this segment fits into the larger mosaic work.

We know that these soldiers are Rambownian in origin, and not pre-Bishopian.  We believe that their mission was to capture Mound #1, but instead Mound #1 captured them.

This pre-Bishopian red brick was discovered while loosening up the soil in the front yard for new grass seed.

Here it is, fully excavated and extracted - just a random red brick buried in our front yard by a little-understood people.








Cute Cat Finale

Satchmo exploring 'neath the avocado tree.













He really does look sharp in that
    bIsh