Do I still live in CA?

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Tornado warning for
Ventura county during my commute through Ventura on my way to Camarillo. From Caltrans:

Highway
101 at La Conchita near the Santa Barbara/Ventura County line will remain closed for
an indeterminate time due to mudslides and flooding. US 101 [LOS ANGELES & VENTURA
CO.’S] IS CLOSED AT LA CONCHITA RD /IN VENTURA/ (VENTURA CO) – DUE TO FLOODING – MOTORISTS
ARE ADVISED TO USE AN ALTERNATE ROUTE [CENTRAL COAST] IS CLOSED TO SOUTHBOUND TRAFFIC
AT THE VENTURA/SANTA BARBARA CO LINE – DUE TO A MUD SLIDE – MOTORISTS ARE ADVISED
TO USE AN ALTERNATE ROUTE

Advised to use alternate route??? That is in a section of the freeway
where there are mountains on one side and the ocean on another. There are no off ramps,
there are no frontage roads, the only alternate route is to go east on the 154 through
Ojai and back to Ventura on the 33, but 154 is very prone to mudslides.

 

I got about 3 miles down the freeway this morning at 7 am. In 45 minutes we moved
about 3 car lengths. I finally turned around and drove the wrong way on the shoulder
back to the Bates on ramp. I drove off the freeway on the on ramp and and came home.
I’ll work from home today. The miracles of remote computings.

Videos

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Our Cannon PowerShot A40 has the ability to take 10 second video clips (with sound!). They end up looking a little like the old 8mm home movies of the 1970’s, but it is very convenient not to have to carry around a second video camera. Below are a couple of video clips taken recently. The one of Weezy is taken at night with only the living room lights for illumination, so it appears a bit dark. The clips are AVIs, so you should be able to click the links below and then choose ‘Run’ or ‘Open’ if prompted. They are more than 3 MB each in size, so if you are using dial up, you should be prepared for a looooong wait. Don’t forget to turn up the volume.

Weezy
Sitting Up Max
riding his bike

Moving forward

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It has been a long time coming, but we are finally scheduled for our first Architectural Review Board meeting for Thursday, Jan 13 2005. The last hurdle was getting the story poles put on the existing house (to show the height of the new building) during a period of serious rainstorms, at the last minute. We had been told that we had about 2 weeks or so to get them up, but then the city planner called to say they needed to be up in 3 days!

The ARB is the committee that decides if the proposed buildings fit in with the general style and character of the city of Capinteria. Our architect, Bill Araluce, is on that committee, and while he will recuse himself from the actual deliberations, I feel confident that he knows what his fellow members are looking for. The hope is that the ARB won’t find anything major to complain about and that we will move right on to the Planning Commission.

Story Poles so big Some Perspective

New Year’s

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Toby has a friend who shared a family tradition at a MOPS meeting
some time ago. Now that our kids (Max, anyway) are old enough, decided to adopt the
tradition as well. Every New Year each child receives 2 envelopes. One envelope contains
the description of a new responsibility, the other a new privilege. Although the idea
is definitely *not* another gift giving day, because Max is only 4, we decided to
combine the privilege to a gift and a privilege. His new responsibility for the year
is to feed Ginger every morning. His new privilege is that he got a bike (the gift
part) and the ability to ride the bike in the back alley when an adult is present.
He loves to race me when I ride his scooter. I can’t wait for the year when he gets
the responsibility of picking up the dog turds on the lawn! Max on bike Max and Dad