Happy New Year

Here's a look at part of our orange crop this year - a bumper crop!

Maybe it's due to all the rain we got last season, I don't know, but this year the tree is packed with over a hundred sweet navel oranges the size of softballs. This tree was mature already when we moved in a few years ago. We have since planted several other citrus trees and they are slowly coming along and starting to produce fruit for us also.

I heard it was cold in some places this week. It's been quite the opposite here with 80's all week. We are hoping for some rain soon since it's been warm and dry the entire season and we could really use a change.

The huge fire just north of us in Ventura/Santa Barbara has been burning for about 4 weeks and won't be fully contained for another week. We still deal with smoke in the air. It is the largest fire in modern California history.

Happy New Year to you. Aimee and I are enjoying a few days of R&R at home during the holidays and looking forward to 2018. We are thankful for continued good health and hope you are well.

Morning Commute

Not the typical morning commute... pic.twitter.com/kJIOQeqsIK

— A. Mutzabaugh CMT (@WLV_investor) December 6, 2017

I did not shoot this video but this was what our drive to work looked like this morning.

Aimee left shortly before I did and this is what she drove through. It was a lot worse about 45 minutes later when I came through the same way. Fortunately I made it right before they shut down the freeway.

Very sad to see that so many people have lost their homes in the various fires. The whole region is blanketed in smoke.

Game 7

We've been enjoying the postseason baseball and hoping for another close game tonight.

It's tough enough to stay up until the end of some of these games. I don't know how people in the Eastern times are able to watch until the end every night.

Game 6 on Halloween was another good one. As usual we got zero trick-or-treat visitors.
That's OK with us since we didn't have anything to hand out anyway.

Petty Finale

Aimee and I were lucky enough to make it out to the Hollywood Bowl a couple of weeks ago for the final stop on Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' 40th Anniversary Tour.

The place was packed and all three nights were sold out. It's very uncommon for anybody to sell out that place three nights, much less a band that's been around for that long.

We're glad we got to see him one last time - the show was as good as ever. The news of his death a week later certainly came as a shock as he was in great spirits and spoke optimistically of the future.

Moon Shadow

We're back from our eclipse trip and it was a success. I did not take these two pictures but this is the view we had right before totality and then moments later when we got darkness and an amazing view of the moon completely blocking the sun.

                                                                             
The area where we were staying, in Sun Valley, was just within the band of totality and would have given us over a minute of darkness. We decided to drive about 30 miles north to get as close to the center line as possible and maximize our time in the dark.

There is only one highway heading north out of Sun Valley towards Stanley and we didn't want to get caught up in any possible traffic problems. Fortunately our friends know the backroads really well and we were able to get to a spot near the center line (just below the word Chilly on the map above).

              Here we are about 9am with a nice spot just off an unpaved road and hardly any other people around. The sky was clear but the air was a little hazy with smoke from numerous fires that were burning in the region.

The eclipse began around 10:30 MDT and climaxed an hour later. We loved every minute of it and enjoyed our trip very much. Now we'll hang onto our eclipse glasses for next time!

Eclipse Trip

We're on our way to Sun Valley, Idaho for a long weekend to stay with some friends and take in the total solar eclipse on Monday.

We've been planning to go since last year so I probably should have bought plane tickets a long time ago but I didn't. By the time I got around to it a couple of months ago it was too late. The airport in Sun Valley is tiny and there are not many flights in and out. All the seats for the days around this weekend were gone or priced way too high.

So we are making the drive. I've driven up there three times before and we are looking forward to this time.

The path of totality will be passing over the area and the skies are expected to be clear.

By the way, the next total solar eclipse in this country will be in just 7 years - on Aimee's birthday!

Birthday Weekend

We enjoyed a nice break recently celebrating Aimee's birthday. We took a 4-day weekend trip up to the Central Coast wine country. One of the tasting rooms we like to visit on our May visits was holding their spring pickup party on Aimee's birthday and we were happy to attend for the second year in a row.

We also got to visit a few new places we've never been. It's always fun to discover new places and meet some new furry friends.

Another Trophy

This softball season has been the longest one we've ever had. It started just after Labor Day.

Usually they wrap up the season either right before Christmas break or just after New Year's. This season, because of all the rain we've gotten, there have been several postponements. Aimee's Thursday night team finally finished their season last week by winning the championship! I played on this team too but only made it to one game because Thursday night was a difficult one for me schedule-wise. (That might have been the one game that the team lost this season. Coincidence I'm sure.)

There is still a need to finish the Monday night season. That team is in the middle of the standings and probably won't be netting Aimee another trophy and t-shirt this time.

Above is the diamond where Aimee plays her Sunday morning game. This field has been out of commission for many weeks this winter. It doesn't take much rain for it to become unplayable, poor drainage I guess.

The weather has also made driving through Topanga Canyon tricky. This is Aimee's usual route to work but the road has been closed periodically due to rock and mud slides. We're thrilled the drought is finally easing but wouldn't mind if so much rain didn't come all at once.

We're Back

It seems it's been awhile since we last posted. Sorry about the delay, Aimee and I have been particularly busy the last year or so and it's tough to find a little bit of time here and there to get things done.

There hasn't been a whole lot to report since we haven't had much time to do a lot of interesting things to tell you about. Aimee started her new job August 1st after taking the entire month of July off. She used the time to make a visit to Minnesota and work on some projects at home.

One of her projects at work is at a Cal State campus in Monterey. She makes a trip up to Monterey about once a month for a day or two. Aimee was also instrumental in helping her firm win a bid for a project with Santa Monica Unified. It didn't hurt that those were the people she was working with before joining her new firm. That job starts next month and won't require any airplane trips!

I've been immersed in work also and been quite busy the last couple of years. We are looking to take some time off later this year and get a little break.

The house hasn't been the same without our little friend Rosebud around. We miss her every day and so do the people I see when I walk around the neighborhood. I still have to share the news with some people I haven't seen in awhile and it's not the highlight of my day going through the details again. She was well-liked and I appreciate that so many people care but that doesn't make it easy.

One thing we know is that Rosebud would not have been a fan of the winter we are having. The drought is finally easing and we have had more rain this season than in the last five years combined. It seemed like it was never going to rain again and now it seems like we can't get a break. That's OK, we enjoy the change and seeing all the green hills and the snow in the local mountains.