A Water Garden Patio:
If you look over the other stuff on this year's Joshua Tree site, you will notice that our living conditions have improved somewhat again. It is real nice to sit out there on the new rock patio by the pond and listen to the waterfall that keeps the water circulating. When we get out of the way, the small birds like to perch on the edge of the waterfall and sip away. I think they like that because it is under the deck overhang which hides them from the hawks that sometimes watch from far above.

Initially it was kind of disconcerting to sit there watching a mound of foam grow on the pond while doing the laundry, so I found a “Bright Green” biodegradable detergent at the local Vons Market (Safeway), and then ordered an assortment of Seventh Generation “green” cleaners including dish soap on Amazon.com. I donated the old Purex suds maker to a neighbor with kids and a washing machine that runs perpetually. Now there is almost no sign of anything strange on the pond surface except for the lily pads and other plants that make it nice place to sit.

Eileen found a set of, perhaps Spanish, black steel folding chairs with a multi-colored cut-glass table at the Yucca Valley branch of The Angel View Thrift Mart. She set these down by the pond where she can sit and drink tea and read a book or explore her iPhone.

There is a large flat rock about 6 feet in diameter a little ways up the road that I have my eye on. It would go real nice under the rejuvenating Eucalyptus as an extension of the patio. I have made a few attempts to get somebody with a backhoe to come and give me a quote, but I have not heard back from anybody, so I am also beginning to entertain the idea pulling it out into the road and dragging down to the pond with my van, perhaps rolling it on timbers and iron pipes, and/or renting an engine block hoist on wheels that might even carry it. It is almost on the side of the road. I could probably just drag it brute force most of the way, since that stretch of the road is almost bedrock. We will see. I have seen no sign of the property owners of that lot in forty years, so they probably would not mind.

Angel View's proceeds fund their homes for the developmentally disabled and for abused children. We also bought a new reconditioned double bed there. This is brand new pillow-top bedding wrapped around a recycled sterilized spring frame. Also a white queen size bamboo headboard which I adapted to fit the double bed. Before I could get the bed in, I had to remove half of the trailer's protruding wheel-well box to make room. In 2007 I had converted the other wheel-well into a toy box. All parts are attached with screws (no nails). In the unlikely event that the trailer may need to be moved one day, the new floors of both can be removed with a screwdriver and pry bar (after chipping away the wood filler over the screws).

Eileen found some nice non-matching square metal end tables there to place next to the wrought iron chairs that she had found at another thrift shop last year. I glued a pair of matching 16” Home Depot ceramic tiles to their tops with construction adhesive and filled the gap around one with a clear silicone sealant. It was interesting to see how well one of these held up over the ensuing summer months as I watched various neighbors through the IP camera climbing up on it to reach the timer that controls when the plants get watered. We also got half a dozen grey marble tiles for lining a wire shelving unit inside the trailer, and 3 terra cotta tiles to cover the white wicker bureau in the bedroom.

I found something special at the hospital's thrift shop in Joshua Tree when I was looking for a good coffee mug. I did not find a mug that met my specifications, but I did find a sea-scape that I suspect was painted in Laguna Beach, our occasional favorite hangout. I looked the artist up when I got home. Her name was Verne Gillespie. She had lived down the road in 29 Palms and often traveled to Laguna until she died in 1980. She made her living teaching the craft in 29. I paid $10 for it, but it would probably go at an art auction for around $400. I really like her work and plan to keep my eye out for any more that may turn up. If Eileen likes it then it will stay on the wall. If not, then it will probably go up into the dormer in the utility house along with the Mexican sea-scape that looks to me like a beached rowboat on Cape Cod.



Turning The Light On:
The new bed had to be placed in the opposite direction. If it had remained where it was, the long headboard would have blocked the doorway. This also meant having to move the hanging pendant lamp that I had installed in 2007, so I extended the short track the rest of the way around the ceiling and rehung the lamp above the headboard's new position.

Originally, the wall switch was within easy reach. Now while nodding off after reading a good book, I would have to get up and cross the room to hit the light switch. This would not do. Eileen was back east by then, but I'm sure she would not have appreciated that either.

I went looking for an inline switch that could be attached to the cord. The only kind that I could find was the standard variety cord switch with a toggle on the side. This would mean having to reach way up, stretching, perhaps getting up on one elbow, reaching, with the light glaring in my eyes, groping, getting a grip on the switch so that I could push the toggle with my thumb. By then I'm wide awake. That would not do either. What I needed was one with a chain that dangles down below the lamp within easy reach. I could not find one.

As far as I can tell by searching online, they don't make an inline pull chain switch. You can buy one and/or the other, separately, so I bought one of each at Home Depot. I then disassembled the plastic cord switch, clipped off the toggle with wire cutters, and diligently fitted a standard pull-chain switch into the body of the inline switch where the toggle used to be. It was a very tight fit which required a little whittling of the plastic, but I got it in there without breaking anything. I attached the cord wires and tightened the screws. It worked; pulling the chain turned the lamp on and off. Perfect! Except it looked like a jerry-rig.

I am a hardware store wanderer. I always have been. As a teen, I even worked at Farr Hardware in Princeton, NJ, where I learned a lot about hardware and everything else. I know all of the local hardware stores well and of course Home Depot and Wal-Mart are the equivalent of 7th Heaven. I would include Lowes, but there aren't any close to where I live. From time to time, that wandering pays off.

When I tried to think of some kind of less conspicuous shell that would fit around this inline pull-chain contraption, something began to nag at the back of my mind. Not anything specific; I just knew that I had seen something at Wal-Mart that needed to be re-found and checked out. I went there and wandered, looking, wondering. Nothing in the hardware section so I kept on wandering and looking. I found it in Automotive. It was a black rubber bulb that you squeeze to siphon gas out of a gas tank.

I brought it home, drilled a 1/2” hole in the side and cut a slit down the other side so that it could fit around the switch and the ¼” lamp cord. Perfect! And it didn't look half bad. The slit in the bulb did not need gluing; it was a good fit. The nut around the pull-chain nipple locked it into place; it was solid.



Travel Arrangements:
Year in and year out we have traveled to JT by car, then Eileen would fly back 3 or 4 months later, and I would drive back after 5 or 6. We enjoy the scenic views and the interesting things that happen on a long drive, but it wears me out and it scares the hell out of me. At any moment, somebody's tire could blow, throwing them into our path. I have had that happen - glad I was watching. The shreds of a trucker's steel-reinforced retreads could be scattered in odd places across the road anywhere, anytime, and they will be. Running over them could puncture our tires. Way too often, I have had close calls where if I had not been watching, we would have been in a wreck. I don't want to die young, so …-

This year, I left the car there and flew back.

The trip driving west in November cost $457 for fuel and lodging, plus $222 for meals and snacks. For the record, that was a distance of 2,991 miles.

Flying back in May, the rental car ($164), the flight ($203) and Eileen's parking at the Providence airport came to $370, a savings of $87. This included $23 for my computer bag.
Since Eileen always flies back in February or March, I am not including that in the comparison.
However, I could include a significant savings on wear & tear, but I won't. We also save on insurance because the total mileage for the year will be less than 7500 miles.

We have also developed a new arrangement, my concession to Eileen's strong need to do Thanksgiving and Christmas in New England. I will fly to Joshua Tree on October 10 and I will return east November 22. After Christmas, we and our dog Molly will fly west together. My 2 flights are booked. I will have no bags with me (except for my 'man-bag').

The flight west will cost $251, plus $29 for a bus from here to Logan, and $128 for a car at the other end, a total cost of $408.
The flight east will cost $191, plus $29 for a bus from Logan to here, and $124 for a car, a total cost of $344. I have no clue why there is such a disparity in flight costs, especially when I would expect the Thanksgiving holiday to be more; not less. Both are with United and were booked over 2 months in advance.

Our Christmas flight west will be astronomical because of the dog. I have not nailed anything down yet, but I have a rough idea. The buses don't take pets, so we will have to take a limo or rent a car, either of which will probably be about $130. The flight will have to be non-stop for Molly's sake, meaning major airport to major airport, BOS to LAX. Surprisingly, the available non-stop flights at this time are only $264 (each, one-way), not much more than my 1-stop flight in October. Last February, it cost $250 to fly Molly on United, but they have little or no restrictions. We had checked out American but their weight and weather restrictions ruled us out, though I think they only wanted around $100 for Molly when we checked them out the previous year (and passed – Delta got them).

Things appear to have improved a bit on this. I found a great breakdown on what they all charge for pets and other baggage, etc. at Expedia.com whom I use to research and book most of our flights anyhow.

My Prius is sitting there in the driveway. I can see it on the camera. My neighbor tells me that the battery is dead but I have a charger that I can hook up when I arrive.

I only have one remote control for it, and that makes me nervous. It is with the same neighbor and she is going to drop it into our outdoor washing machine when they return from a trip at the end of September. I had lost the second remote on a trip to Laguna a year ago February. I replaced it the following July at a cost of $216. I still drop in on the Laguna Police during each visit to see if it turned up, that is I did until February of this year when we lost the new one. I did not know this until sometime later on, and then I assumed it had to be in Eileen's bag, so I did not really know it was gone until I returned east in May. She said on the phone that she did not have it and that she had given it to me before we drove from Laguna to LAX. At both homes, I have been through every suitcase, hidden pocket, jacket, pants, dress, pocketbook, wall hook, crevice, etc., and then again, to no avail. A call to The Hotel Laguna turned up nothing (and they searched their lost & found diligently, returned my call, etc. - good people). I am really getting tired of this.

When I return, do I go straight to the Toyota place in Palm Springs or do I run to Laguna first and check with the Police and all the shops that we have visited – again? I think I will do the former. It obviously would not be a bad idea to have a 3rd on hand, if the missing remote turns up.

You know, it would be real nice if these remotes had beepers and GPS chips that could help locate them, like the beepers in our home phones or the GPS chips in our mobile phones.