Bob

Cleaning Out the Attic

tax.jpgWell, not the proverbial attic, but rather all of the nooks and crannys and cubby holes where we have stored pictures and documents over the years. Since we’re now committed to building our home in Arizona, we’re starting to dig out stuff we’re NOT taking with us and either dispose of it, shred it or give it to family.

Verna has been at it since a few days ago, going through our vast collection of photographs (non-digital hard-copies), sorting into keepers and non-keepers piles. Today, I got into some old boxes and cabinets upstairs and discovered documents such as my original application for employment to Hughes Aircraft (now Raytheon), tax records, old trust deeds, legal papers of all descriptions, some not fond memories, I must admit, and a set of plans to add on to our California home 25 years ago. I even found my original DD214 Navy discharge papers. Talk about a trip down memory lane.

Some of the old papers went into the safe but most went into the shredder. Many of the old photos were sorted into several large envelopes by Verna, destined for family to see and dispose as they see fit. A lot of old kid pix of nieces and nephews who now have their own kids. I still have a crap load of old 35mm slides in the garage – they’re next.

We have really a lot of stuff to clean out over the next months and we’re transitioning to Arizona. We’ve only scratched the surface of 30+ years accumulation of stuff in our California house.

Military Helicopter Flyovers

Twice today, these two large military helicopters – Blackhawks, I believe – flew over our house. One flight of two helicopters passed overhead (see inset) flying toward LAX. Later in the afternoon, they both flew over again going in the opposite direction. It’s unknown if they were transporting VIPs or it was a flight for some other purpose. As a former helicopter pilot and US Naval aircrew member, it always gives me a thrill to see these guys go overhead

Both and I salute our military and we support them via the USO and Wounded Warrior Project.

Click on the image to enlarge.

flight-of-2.jpg

Lake Pleasant Panorama

We had some spare time today, so we decided to take a drive out to Lake Pleasant in North Maricopa County, Arizona. It was really too hot to have a picnic like we originally intended, so we drove up to the visitors center and took some pictures. I made this panoramic image that shows only a portion of the lake from Bass Bay on the left to the New Waddell Dam on the right. Click on the thumbnail image for the full panorama – remember to use the scroll bars to pan the image left and right.

lake-pan.jpg

A Blog in the Park

park-blog.jpgWe arrived at our new Arizona town this morning. After checking the contents of the PO box, we met with the Realtor to go over some of the latest details of our project. When we were done with that, it was almost lunch time so we went to the grocery store and bought a couple of salads for lunch. We then went to the park and had a picnic.

Later, we met with our builder to finalize the layout of the house on our lot. He had some suggestions to accommodate some of our preferences on layout of the house and attached garage. We also worked out a plan to build an RV pad with full hookups.

After all the chores were done, it was still too early to check in to our room so we went back to the park and blogged. The image is us in the park with Bear. Click to enlarge.

Block Party Street Pamorama

On the Fourth of July some of the neighbors petitioned the city to allow them to close off a section of the street to traffic so they could have a block party. Verna and I were not involved (we do our own BBQ thing) but I went out on the front balcony and took a series of photos that I stitched into this panoramic image. Click on the thumbnail to see full size.

block party

Steak on the Barbecue

top-sirloin.jpgLast week in the supermarket, Verna spotted this nice top sirloin steak in the butcher case. This was a huge piece of beef weighing in at three pounds. The butcher wrapped it and we had our holiday barbecue main entreé. We served it with steamed broccoli, pasta salad and corn on the cob.

Click on the steak to see it life size.

Today, Verna prepared steak salad with some of the leftover steak cut into bite-sized chunks over chopped hearts of romaine and topped with Caesar salad dressing. Instead of Caesar Salad, this version (with beef) is called a Marc Anthony salad.