News from Joshua Tree 2014, Page One

David McCullough, a man I greatly admire, is the author of numerous well-written and diligently researched biographies. He does all of his writing on an antique Royal Standard manual typewriter that he bought used in 1965. A lot of old people are like that.

I bought my similar used Underwood Standard typewriter a year or so later from my landlord, Harvey D Pease, on Balboa Island, CA. The last I checked, it still works.

Alongside of that machine, I had a few essentials:
The American Heritage Dictionary Of The English Language
The Reader's Digest Family Word Finder, and the
Instant Spelling Dictionary handbook by Career Institute, and nearby,
a bookcase full of encyclopedias and annual updates.

Writing It Right:

The Spelling Dictionary was almost always on top of the others. It contained the correct spelling, and nothing else, of every word in the English language. I was and am a bad speller, though I almost always know when a word is wrong. In fact, if I don't look it up and correct it immediately, it will distract the heck out of me, making it nearly impossible to proceed with a clear mind.

I know the exact names of those reference books because I still have them close at hand, but no longer in use, behind the glass doors of the old secretary that I inherited from my mother. They stand erect amidst a plethora of special collectables such as an antique cast iron hand auger routing tool that I found at a Pennsylvania auction, artifacts such as a chip of lichen covered concrete from the stone wall around my grandad's Montana ranch house, and old photos such as a long aged panorama of that ranch house taken before it burnt down. I almost never open those glass doors; I just enjoy looking through the glass now and then.

One way or another, almost everything in there has been scanned or photographed into my computer or is close at hand on the internet.

I have boxes, binders and paper folders full of old letters and stories that were written on that typewriter. They would be first drafts and carbons and then a bundle of final drafts that my folks returned to me 40 or 50 years after I wrote them, many in long hand also. Many of those were written on place mats because I did like to formulate my thoughts in coffee shops.

Mr McCullough became extraordinarily successful with his machine. I did not.

I still have that Underwood. Eileen likes to keep it in her consignment shop with a "Not for sale" sticker on it. But it is history.

The moment I got my hands on a used Apple ][ desktop computer in 1982, I switched! And never looked back.

This line of thought began with my looking for a different word processor to write with, but something that includes a spell-checker. In the past, I have almost always done my writing as an unsent email because it has a spell-checker.

This requires running my email handler, MS Outlook in the past; currently Thunderbird. That means having to go through all of the unread emails, newsletters, meaningful causes, product promotions, and the occasional actual email from a real person. By the time I have done all that, I have lost a significant chunk of the early morning flow of creativity that I need to write this stuff.

I could use MS Word, but it automatically throws in a ton of hidden formatting behind what I am typing, which I don't need or want because the end result has to be raw unformatted text that I then copy and paste into the html coding of the web page that it will end up in. That web page is being compiled with a version of Notepad, preferred because it contains no automated hidden formatting; only raw text. Then I apply a minimal amount of formatting within the html code.

Thunderbird and Word are also memory hogs which my east coast computer does not appreciate when it is already dealing with other hogs such as my IP cam viewer, my browser, 2 cloud routines that backup and save everything online and to my opposite coast computer automatically. Those guys run 24/7. If I also happen to be running Photoshop and/or Quicken and/or Teamviewer, my available memory becomes precious.

So I found something I haven't tried before. Since my browser is already up and running, I can use it to run Google Docs, which I am using now, and I like it so far.

By noon I have probably gotten down just about everything that was flowing. Then I will open up Thunderbird and deal with the real world. Late in the day, or sooner, I will probably review what I wrote and make a few changes and corrections.

Benjamin Franklin said "Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing." Hey, I guess I am doing both. Cool.
I just found this on Facebook, thanks to the thoughtfulness of somebody at Archway, a subsidiary of Simon & Schuster, Eileen's publisher. Can you imagine what Ben could have done with Facebook? He would have been as prolific as Neil deGrasse Tyson is today, whom I think could easily be the second coming of Ben.

Delayed By A Spore:

On our trip to California, we got going late in 2014 - November 17th. I like to be out of here and heading west around the 1st. Eileen prefers some time after December 25, but she knows that is dangerous because it could mean having to deal with some really bad weather.

But also, November is a darn nice time to be in Joshua Tree. I would in fact prefer October 1st because it too is real nice there, so November 1 is my compromise.

This time, it was the VA hospital in Providence that delayed us. During my annual August physical at the VA clinic in Hyannis, Nurse Cheryl got suspicious about something and subsequently had me traveling to Boston for an intensive computerized breathing exam, which I passed with flying colors, and then a CT scan, which I did not. They thought that they could see something on my left lung, and since I am a smoker, everybody (except me) knew of course exactly what it was.

On October 31 at about 6 AM, we checked into the Providence VA hospital. Some time later in the day, I woke up to a young lady talking urgently to me. She was not the surgeon that had removed a chunk of my left lung. She was from the Infectious Disease Clinic, the people that deal with potential ebola and other scary things. The lab had sent their results directly to her department because they had found something unnerving under their microscopes. She was waiting for me to wake up.

She said that they had found a strange spore on my lung tissue and she wanted to know if I had visited Nigeria recently. I said "No, but are you perhaps saying that I don't have cancer?" This took her back for a moment as she said "No, you don't have cancer. We need to determine …".

I'm sitting there in the bed with tubes sticking out of me all over the place, trying to wake up and return to reality, with a big grin on my face. "That is very nice to know; I'm glad somebody told me."

She was becoming annoyed; I was missing the point. "Sir, have you been out of this country recently?" "No mame. A few years ago, I did drive to Canada, and years before that I had driven down into Baja Mexico, Tihuana and beyond."

Sometime later she returned to tell me that they had figured it out. The fungus looked like San Joaquin Valley Fever. Had I been to the southwest? I said Oh Yes, every year since 2001 and back in the 60s and 70s. I added that as soon as I walk or ride a wheelchair out of here TOMORROW!, I'll be hopping on a plane heading west.

I did in fact also get visits from the surgeons and they told me that I would be returning for follow-ups over the next few months. Again repeated that I would not be here.

They let me out on November 5. Not even once did they let me step outside for a casual smoke, so it was really good to be out.

They did manage to loose my clothes which left the hospital on some other vet. These not only included brand new Reeboks that we had bought a week before and a 2" solid leather belt on my khakis, but also a brand new shirt that Eileen had bought for me in Ireland. I know - Duh! What was I thinking? At 4 AM, I wasn't. I just got dressed.

Eileen brought me some clothes. I let her drive. We went straight to the nearest Dunkin Donuts where I grabbed a wonderful cup of good coffee and three delicious donuts.

Back home I was good. A number of visiting nurses came by our home during the next two weeks to check me out. They changed the bandages, took my temperature, told me to quit smoking, and left satisfied with my condition.

So I was minus approximately ¼ of a lung when we arrived in CA and I did notice a shortness of breath for awhile but only when I was climbing our hillside stairway. I would be doing a lot of that in the months to come. I took it easy until the visible scabs had fallen away, and then I allowed myself to push the limits on a gradual basis. Eileen kept a sharp eye on me until she returned east on March 1.

Untwisted Knee:

Over the next few months I made a few visits to the VA hospital in Loma Linda. On the day before my May 9 departure, the doctors determined that I did not have the dreaded disease; my body had apparently neutralized the spore all on its own.

In last year's journal, I described how I had returned east with extreme pain in my left knee. It had been twisted weeks before but was healing nicely until I ran through the Palm Springs airport. That set off an excruciating pain that persisted for nearly a month until I somehow discovered a velcroed brace with steel hinges at Wal-Mart that would not allow the knee to twist. I put this on and within a few days the pain was gone.

I now have one on each coast that I try to remember to put on whenever I suspect that I might be entering into a challenging situation, such as climbing rocks, or a night shopping with Eileen. Back then I had figured out what was aggravating the pain, that is getting in and out of cars and getting in and out of bed. Either one twists the knee on a regular basis, each time undoing the day's delicate healing process.

The pain has not returned, but occasionally I feel a gentle reminder, at which time I use the other leg or my hands to carry the left knee where it wants to go.

Last Saturday, at our weekly date night dinner out, we discovered a good beat music rock group at Captain Al's Restaurant and Tiki Bar in Buzzards Bay. The music grabbed me and made me want to get up, grab Eileen's hand, and twist the night away.

My first regret was that I had forgotten to wear my dancing loafers. My second was, oh yeh, that I had forgotten my brace. I reluctantly stayed put. We finished our dinners and departed. That music felt good.

Prius Teeth For Christmas:

Back to November of 2014, we did enjoy Thanksgiving dinner in Palm Springs and a pleasantly warm two Christmas days at the Hotel Laguna, strolling barefoot through the breaking waves, and then back in our room, with a mini Christmas tree set up, opening presents which included a new shirt and a 2" leather belt.

The day after Thanksgiving, the bottom dropped out of our 2007 Prius. Literally! The front edge of the plastic engine splash shield was scraping the ground. We were close to home so I drove very slowly the rest of the way. Nothing got caught under the wheels.

I found that the 5 hex screws along the front edge of the shield had ripped the holes out of the 5 bumper tabs that they had been attached to.

I ran a long 1" web strap down behind the engine, underneath the shield, up past the grill and tied it off on top, being sure to not let the strap touch anything hot or moving. That held it in place for about two weeks until the wind or something flipped it backwards, while still within the web strap.

I went out and bought some long hex bolts and wide fender washers. From underneath, I drilled 3 new holes up through the original holes and then through the top of the plastic bumper. The 1st hole was too far forward; the others went behind where the plastic grill rests on the bumper. Then the long bolts and washers went up through the original shield and torn bumper holes and up through the new holes and big washers on top where I double-nutted them to make sure they wouldn't come loose.

It worked and it looked good. The grill now had three shiny new bottom teeth, though one was more of a buck tooth.

A little over 4 weeks later, a headlight went out, so I took it to Desert Toyota near Palm Springs where I learned that they would have to remove the grill and bumper to get at the headlight. The mechanic did an excellent job of disassembling all of my work and putting it back together. They didn't even charge me for the extra labor, but still $143 for a light bulb?? They had in fact replaced the other bulb the previous February and that had cost $148.

How To Drive In California:

On one of these trips down the steep hills to Palm Springs, we got pulled over. I was going 80 something in a 65. That is hard not to do on a long steep hill. I avoid riding the brakes because that heats them up and wears them out, which means that I kind of have to go with whatever speed the downhill is taking us, tapping the brake now and then (which annoys the hell out of your passenger).

I have since learned to put the gearshift into "B", which drops the Prius transmission into a simulated lower gear that makes it easier to maintain a reasonable downhill speed with no wear on the brakes. A women in the Joshua Tree Circle-K convenience store suggested this when I was moaning and groaning about the ticket shortly thereafter. So it pays to moan and groan.

The ticket cost us $416. Now for the shocker: I looked through Quicken to see what it actually cost me and discovered that this happened over a year ago in January of 2014; not 2015. I guess I was so traumatized by the humiliation and shame that it was still taking a chunk of my mind hostage.

Normally, this kind of thing adds points to your driving record. When the insurance company sees that, your rates go up. That fine included an optional $60 "classroom fee", even though I never saw any classrooms at the DMV. So, I have to assume that the $60 was basically a legal bribe to stop them from hitting my record with the dreaded "points".

Instead, I attended an online class provided by a Merchant that I selected from among many, called "InterActive Traffic School", to whom I also paid $13.50. As far as I can tell, they had no connection with the DMV, other than having purchased a license. You proceed at your own pace. It took me 4 casually intensive days to relearn how to drive in California and not get caught. After I passed the final exam, the DMV was electronically notified and I never heard any more about it.

I have to wonder if my insurance would have actually gone up by more than $73.50. Probably.

Rotating Washing Machines:

Back in January of 2013 some pipes had frozen and burst. I fixed those right away and then went into a major job of lining all of the pipes with thermostatically controlled heat tapes. In the process I downloaded Google & Trimble's free SketchUp and created a complete and accurate 3D rendering of the entire deck which I can now rotate and flip around to my heart's content. From that, I could also determine how long each pipe was, and therefore the lengths of the heat tapes I had to buy.

I think that is about when our Danby DTT420 29" Twin Tub Portable clothes washer stopped agitating. We had bought it online on January 08, 2010 from AJ Madison.com for $242 plus $75 shipping.

In April (2013) I called the Danby service department. They agreed that something was very wrong and recommended Chet's Appliance down the road in Yucca Valley. I called them and a guy named Chad came out and looked at it. He said there was nothing wrong with it. I politely let him know that that was a really dumb analysis since both Danby and I were saying the opposite. I told him to call Danby and get back to me.

He charged me $65 for that visit and I never heard from him again. Incidentally, Cheryl in his office tried to get some action out of him but nothing came of it. I felt sorry for the poor girl.

It still worked, kind of. The tub would spin so the water would swirl the clothes around but since the agitator had become a rigid cone with wings, the clothes would get stuck. They would wrap around the agitator until it became a rigid bundle of cloth. This meant that you had to keep an eye on it and pull the clothing loose as needed.

Finally, in December of 2014 I gave up thinking I could get it fixed.

On Amazon.com I ordered a Panda Small Compact Portable Washing Machine, another twin tub with a great spinner, similar to the Danby, for $240 plus tax and $30 shipping. The seller was First&Best Inc..

FedEx delivered it broken. Various parts of the shell were cracked, meaning the whole thing had been dropped from the back of a truck.

Since the shell was no longer rigid, a spring loaded wire was unable pull its lever. My note to the seller said "The spinner works only when we pull on a string that I tied to the lever under the spinner".

I had by now donated the broken but still kind-of working Danby to a local thrift shop, along with a note explaining its problem.

First&Best replied to my Amazon email immediately. At their request, I emailed them 5 photos.

Within their subsequent reply, they said "... you do not need to return the machine, please just throw it away …" and "Please give us a reply to advise us if you would like to have a replacement or the full refund."

I replied: "Thank you for your exceptional service. It is otherwise a very good machine and we would like to replace it.

I have had similar problems in the past with FedEx long distance shipping. For that reason, I would like to ask that you ship the new machine by UPS. I have had no problems with them.

I will donate the broken machine, with my fix-it string, to the local thrift shop charity after the new one arrives."

A week later, the replacement arrived (by FedEx) in perfect condition.

When We Went Blind:

While we were 3000 miles away, on or about July 13, 2014 we lost our connection to the west coast computer. On August 11, nearly a month later, we got it back.

The cameras had stopped sending triggered images and we could not connect through Teamviewer. We were unable to monitor anything, especially the water level of the pond and the condition of the trees.

We emailed our neighbor Bob Stechmann and asked him to take a look. The computer was working, so nothing made any sense to him either. He did say that the pond was full. But were the pumps working? Was the tree pump watering the trees? The pond automatically refills itself from the water tank high on the hill above. Was that working?

He had never seen any of this in operation, so there was no way he could really tell, except to study the trees and the soil beneath, or be there mid-afternoon Saturday or Wednesday to watch it kick in for 10 minutes. He and his wife Mary made numerous forays into this morass, figuring things out, little by little, but the computer stumped them.

I found a local computer pro, Mike Satterfield, on manta.com and on linkedin.com. I researched him thoroughly online, found nothing to be concerned about, and called him. He and his mate live on the opposite side of our valley. They looked at our setup on August 2 and found that the router was kaput. That made sense. That is the box with stubby antennas that connects the computer and cameras to the internet.

I quickly ordered a new router from Amazon.com, a Linksys WRT1900AC Wi-Fi router. FedEx delivered it (in good condition) on August 7. Mike had the system up and running the next day.

He way undercharged me, so I included a little extra as a Thank You and as a deposit on possible future work.

Meanwhile, Bob and Mary were delving into what appeared to be a malfunctioning water pump or two. What he found was that the GFCI outlet that the tree pump was plugged into had tripped. OMG! I didn't even need the damn thing on our off-grid solar system; I had just added it as a what-the-heck precaution.

He pushed the red button, reset the 7 day timer, and the trees got watered.

I strongly suspect that those trees had gone without water for nearly a month. The Olive tree didn't seem to mind but the Eucalyptus eventually lost nearly half of it leaves, or so it seemed. It has since recovered very nicely. None of its trunks died.

The other recirculating pump had died, in spite of the GFCI protection. No big deal; the twice weekly lowering and refilling of the pond would serve the purpose.

The original pumps are Home Depot's relatively inexpensive "Total Pond" pumps.

When we returned in the fall, I ordered a new Little Giant pump and installed it into the Total Pond filter box. Little Giant is known for its durability. I already have their sump-pump in a mini-pond under the shower that sends its water to the bigger pond automatically. It has run flawlessly since I installed it in 2010.

I also replaced the GFCI outlet with a normal one.

I am planning to add a second tree pump with its own plumbing that works independently of the other, so that if one dies while I am away, or a hose gets eaten or clogged, or whatever, at least the trees will get half a load of water.

I may need a bigger pond, if just to hold all those pump filter boxes. Maybe a second pond filler would be a good idea also. Some rambunctious squirrels did knock this one over once, though it kept on working. Also, this pond gets too low twice a week for aquatic plants to take hold. That and the impact of the occasional too-high concentration of laundry detergent would be reduced by a larger volume of water.

Vacuuming The Leaks:

Having a compost toilet is a great idea. With all sources of water going to the grey-water pond, it is nice to be able to tell the building department that we don't have or need a septic system.

However, it can involve some moderately unpleasant work for whomever is in charge of maintaining it. Everybody else gets to ignore that aspect of it.

The regular contributions to the toilet fall into the compost mix at the bottom of the perforated barrel. Then we dump a cup of compost on top of the new entry. Periodically, we rotate the handle clockwise to spin the barrel and mix it up. Occasionally, we rotate the handle counter-clockwise which opens a door flap on the barrel and dumps the excess mix into a drawer below.

We have an air-tight dog food container close at hand in which we store the fresh compost. It is shaped somewhat like a tall narrow laundry hamper. It needs to be air-tight so that the flies won't find it and lay eggs.

The urine soaks into the compost and then drips through to the drawer and to the bottom of the toilet, which has a low wattage heater imbedded into the water-tight plastic floor. The heat is supposed to evaporate the liquid and send it out through the fan and up the vented stack that terminates above the roof line. It does not do a very good job of evaporating. That is why it also includes an overflow outlet at the rear that sends the filtered overflow down to a perforated drain pipe about 2 feet below grade. If maintained properly, that should never happen.

As the drawer fills up, we shake it sideways and push it in and out to settle its contents. Then we carry it outside and dump it into our 32" diameter eComposter, which should complete the composting process. In the dry desert air, that doesn't work so well, though this is certainly the best composter that we have found.

When the first eComposter filled up, I moved it out to the center of our front ‘yard' where it sits looking like an interesting sculpture; not something that is full of dry compost and poop.

Occasionally I add a bucket of captured rainwater or pond scum scooped up from the bottom of the pond and then rotate it top to bottom. It does not stink; it just smells like normal compost when you remove the lid.

When the second eComposter fills up, then I will dump the contents of the first onto the yard and spread it around. We are talking about years before that happens because the content shrinks and pulverizes to some extent as it dries and gets rotated.

Over time the bottom of the toilet, the tray, accumulates compost that didn't find its way into the drawer. It tends to fall between the cracks around the barrel flap, especially when toilet paper gets caught in the cracks. The tray also accumulates a big puddle on the bottom. This can stink when the fan is not running. We unplug the fan-heater cord at night so that it won't drain our solar batteries.

They include a long handled plastic scraper for cleaning the tray. Mine eventually broke so I switched to a long handled car window scraper with a rubber edge. I would lay a rubber mat in front of the drawer opening in case something drips, scrape the contents forward inside the tray area, scoop it up with a 5" wide coal-ash shovel and dump it into the drawer sitting on the mat. I screwed a two foot dowel into the 19" handle of the shovel so that I don't have to reach my hand in so far. This is not fun. Also, you can't get it all, but at least enough so that the remaining liquid can dry out and escape through the vent - until you ‘take a leak'.

Last year I decided to try something different. I bought a Stinger 2.5 Gallon Wet/Dry Vacuum. Expensive, but should be worth it. It was. It sucked up everything in the tray and left it almost perfectly dry. It was a breeze - well a little too much of a breeze. It is not air-tight. It sprays a fine mist out into the open air from the seam between the bucket and the lid.

Fortunately, I had set it into a plastic tub, just in case. Unfortunately, the tub was not big enough. I now recommend a big concrete mixer's tub, the kind you might bath a big dog in. Home Depot has them. I also suggest laying a rubber mat over the vacuum to keep the mist in the tub.

Ascending The Hillside:

Last year I began building a staircase up the hill that would allow us to casually carry a cup of coffee or tea up to the first arroyo above our home, so that we could sit and enjoy the somewhat astounding view of our valley and the mountain range behind it. That stretch, including a midway deck, got about halfway up the hill.

This year it got a little further; as high as the water tank, which allows us to check the water level in the tank with relative ease. It also includes another deck at the top.

I had begun this task on March 8.
The new stairway was connected to the new deck frame on March 29.
The primary body of the deck and its top railings were completed on April 4.

Its form-fitting extensions into the surrounding rocks were mostly done by April 16.
The stairway down to the water tank was completed on April 23.
Center railings and such on the top deck were mostly done by April 28.

This is where I broke off and erected the IP Cam and antenna tower (story below).
That was done and was working by May 2.

I added center railings to last year's lower deck on May 3.

Also on the 3rd I put on my knee brace and climbed to our SE corner to find out why some kind of pink flag was waving in the wind where I had added a No Trapping sign last year. The post was still in place but the fiberglass sign was gone. I suspect that the wind had ripped it off.

Some other climber had attached a pink vinyl bag to the post with duct tape. Really! Do climbers normally carry duct tape in their back packs? The bag had originally belonged to a folding camper's chair. I have no clue how this all came about. That is one reason I raised the PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) camera, so that I can zoom in on that corner now and then and see what's happening.

I cannot see the far NE corner, but the stairway will make it easier to wander on up there and say hello. That corner would make a magnificent building site, which was my thinking in 1968, but that won't be practical until cars can fly.

Next year I will try a metal sign of sorts even though the state of California has just outlawed all Bobcat trapping. The other 3 corner signs are still in place. If nothing else, they do help me find our corners from afar.

Then I went to work on a form-fitting bench within the rocks behind the top deck. This one you can take a nap on because one end is in the shade of a big rock overhang. It was not quite done on May 9 when I put everything away and ran to catch a plane.

Also from April 20 to about May 2, I was actively involved with the building inspector, applying for a permit and working with a surveyor. This included driving around to the adjacent Joshua Tree town park, which was unexpectedly blocked off by a big pile of dirt, and climbing to our NW corner from behind, simply to find the easiest back route for the surveyor to climb.

I had traveled back and forth through the park as needed freely for nearly 40 years, until neighbors began gating their roads. This arrogant pile of dirt was the final cap on all that.

Beauty At The Top:

Back to the top deck, some day I might add a half roof or such to provide shade so that we can sit on the deck in the daytime without risking heatstroke. In fact that might be a good idea before I continue the stairway, so that I can cut the steps and posts in the shade. Perhaps a filtered water line from the adjacent tank would be nice also.

When I began framing the deck, I discovered a very nice Jojoba bush in back of the proposed deck, so I pruned and watered her to make her a centerpiece of the deck. She liked that. I also created a special web page just for her, before I did a more extensive one for the new stairway and deck.

This task also served as physical therapy; my recovery from the surgery. Even after the new stairway was connected to the new deck up top, I was totally exhausted by the time I reached the top of the stairs, every time. I would have to lean back against the railing and breath deep until I was back to normal.

I had begun working on another short stairway down to the water tank. This is where I made the sudden discovery that I need a solid bar across the top of each stairway opening in the deck. This was one of those "Oh yeh; DUH; dummy!" moments. As I leaned back to recover my breath, I found myself falling through space. Fortunately I had a couple of deck railing ends on each side to grab ahold of.

I do not recall being quite so exhausted by the time I made my final climb to the top before I departed to fly east.

Last year's twisted knee survived all of this just fine. Wearing the knee brace almost every time made sure of that.

Signals And Sightings:

As I look back over this quietly productive visit, it dawns on me that this was a time of reaching upward and outward beyond the confines of the little triangular plot that has been our west coast home for decades; for me it is approaching 47 years. Size wise, I think it is about ¼ of an acre with the remaining 9+ acres being something we visit on occasion only after loading up with climbing essentials and plenty of water.

This includes the 7+ foot erector-set tower on top of our solar utility house with an antenna stretching up another 10 feet or so. I moved our most powerful camera from just above the deck to above just about everything else, on top of the new tower.

Where it had been able to look over the deck and the pond and see parts of the road, it can now see everything. I can look at and zoom in on much of the ridge above our place, including where a gently powerful waterfall flows out of the hillside during a multi-day rain and down to the resulting stream that flows by our place.

It can get a good look at animals, people and vehicles going by our home or zoom down to the highway that winds through the bottom of our valley more than a mile away. I can set it to pan through all of these scenes, or to just zero in on one, and record anything that moves. This is fun.

I made a point of framing those views to avoid seeing anybody else's private space, so if any neighbor wants to be included for security reasons, they will have to let me know.

One neighbor was in fact broken into about a month ago. I was able to send them some pretty good shots of an unknown van passing by our place before and after what may have been the same time. Oddly enough, I never heard back from them, so I suspect they recognized that van.

However, because I did not hear back, I called the sheriff and left word that I had those shots if they were interested. I learned that a detective had been assigned to the case. I did not hear back from him either. So I don't know what is going on.

That is why, long ago, I made sure that all of my exterior cameras and their blinking red lights were visible from the street. It should discourage any potential thieves that happen to be looking over the place.

In fact, yesterday, September 3, 2015, two cameras took snapshots and a video of somebody in one of those small new square cars, a white one, walking deep into our driveway, taking a look, glancing at something in his or her hand, and then quickly walking right out again. This looked more like an inspector of sorts rather than a potential thief.

The cable from the aforementioned antenna runs down to a signal boosting device in our shower's changing room that is supposed to strengthen the reception of Eileen's iPhone. We will see if it works when we return.