Retirement Highlights

By peterm95018, 22 April, 2024

The Story of 2023

The year began with a trip to Palm Springs where we stayed in La Quinta for the Palm Springs Dog show. The desert is great in January and I got some nice bike rides in and around the region.

We came home to an atmospheric river event that showed us where some new engineering would be needed for our grave paths. The storms also dropped a huge douglas fir onto other trees blocking our route, power and internet for about a week.

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By peterm95018, 31 December, 2023

The Story of 2022

We began 2022 with a drive south to Palm Springs for the dog show. This was our first big dog show. Lynda and Leo competed in confirmation, rally and obedience. They got some good learning opportunities and experience. We hadn’t been to the desert before and now we totally understand why it is such a draw especially in winter.

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By peterm, 20 December, 2023

The Story of 2021

2021 began with a trip to Palm Springs for our first dog show. Lynda and Leo were competing in confirmation, rally and obedience. The trip was successful and we all learned a lot about the difference between the movie and an event.

Due to the pandemic and home schooling and TKD via Zoom, we decide to permanently park the cars outside and change out the flooring from hard plastic tiles to rubber mats style tiles. This would give some extra give for workouts and TKD. By this time Lynda was also participating in TKD.

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By peterm, 18 December, 2023

CZU Lightning Complex Fire

After thinking COVID was the big story for us in 2020, the fire started. Early on 8/16/2020 lightning strikes north of Santa Cruz set off fires that eventually coalesced into the CZU Complex Fire.

We watched the reports and were fine for the first few days. By the 19th, we were seeing lots of ash and large, burnt tips of oaks land on our driveway and cars. We had been preparing to bug out as the news worsened.

April-June 2020

As the world locked down, we adapted. Sure there were a few accidents (broken arm, cut forehead).

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By peterm, 18 December, 2023

March 2020 - Everything Changed

The world (ours at least) turned sideways in March of 2020. We went from having a grandnephew in first grade at Baymonte and dog training classes in Capitola to starting a home school at the dining table and Tae Kwon Do classes in the garage via Zoom.

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By peterm, 18 December, 2023

Santa Barbara 2020

In February 2020, we took a valentines day trip to Santa Barbara to stay at the El Encanto.

Roof and Solar Panels

In May 2019, we began the installation of a new roof that would support solar panels. We had some sag in the garage headers that needed to be corrected before we could get the panels installed. We got bids from the local roofing companies. One of whom required us to get an engineering solution to the sag. After getting a bid from an engineering firm (about 3k to fix), we checked back with Moriarity Roofing who said they could address the sag in their work.

Leo

In April 2019, Lynda received her miniature poodle Leo. Here’s a collection of shots from his first few months with us.

NFL Playoffs 2020

In January 2020, we went to the NFL playoff at Levi Stadium. The 49ers were playing the Green Bay Packers and we had seats up front on the 50 yard line. We’d never been to an NFL game and we had a blast watching people, the game and the half time show. We had jets overhead, brass bands, cheerleaders, good snacks and a lot of entertainment.