Ah ha! Now I Remember!

grumpgrumpgrumpgrumpgrumpgrump... (<= ellipsis means it goes forever)

I really shouldn't complain, you know, even though I am grumpy right now. My eyes hurt because I have spent the last six hours looking at little tiny number series in two different documents comparing A to B to make sure they match. Am I sick or weird for loving nitsy details and granular investigation like that? I really do love it although I don't know why. I also have to say that I think I'm pretty good at it. However, after spending today with my eyes plastered to a screen staring at groups of little mouse-print numbers and comparing this one to that one, I'm tired. Then, what got me going on the grump-train is that just when I though I was finished, I was asked to look at something new - which should have been instinctive but wasn't. So I get to do it again. Oh joy.

grumpgrumpgrumpgrump...

Lesson learned! Don't forget that little detail in the bigger excitement. Lesson will be reinforced by doing it again, although it will be marginally easier since I know where the bodies are buried in this mess.

Then, when I'm done, it'll all be good. What's bugging me, if I'm honest, is the fact that I'm going back and checking, in minute detail, someone else's work. I don't usually mind checking someone's work if it's broad strokes and broad brush, but when it's detailed and nitsy - like picking fly-poop from the pepper nitsy - that's when I get grumpy because I always think "I wouldn't have made this many mistakes!" Although I probably would have, being human and fallible.

Checking other people's work is hard - particularly when it's work that stretches over two years and across a whole long list of customers. About 1500 Excel spreadsheet lines worth after being filtered, if I guess right.

But you know what? I did enjoy that exercise. It's weird because on the one hand, and probably because I just came off it, I am not thrilled with having to go back. On the other, I am actually kind of looking forward to it. Do I need my head examined? Ya think?

Probably. Along with juggling the knives of moving chess pieces around - disconnecting utilities here, connecting utilities there, arranging for new service and making sure it's all done in a short amount of time.

It's another thing I'm good at doing, though.

Yeah. It is all about me today. But that's okay because if you want it to be about you, you can start a blog, too.

So, I'll finish up the eye-strain exercise this afternoon, and then I'll have the next four days off. I'm looking forward to that. Hanging around the house, eating more than I should, knowing it and doing it anyway. If it's not raining, maybe I'll go for a walk or two or three.

We're "supposed" to get rain tomorrow night and it's "supposed" to be cold enough in these parts that we might actually have a white Christmas! Wouldn't that be cool?

One of my best memories is from about eighteen years ago - 1998 or so. I woke up early and couldn't sleep so got up. It was around four o'clock in the morning - before anyone else was up or out either.

I wandered into the kitchen, not turning on any lights and looked outside. I couldn't believe it! I moved closer to the windows and there, glimmering in the streetlight was snow falling. Little butterflies of snow whispering down in our backyard. I hurried to the front of the house and looked out, down the street, and it looked like a Christmas card. No one had driven in it - it was perfect and pristine, and I had it all to myself.

Even though it only ended up being about four inches, all the schools were closed for two days, so Daughter got a pair of "snow days" here in coastal California while I had the special privilege of trying to drive in it! We still have pictures of her snowmen that she made in our back yard. Ungainly, awkward things with blades of grass stuck in them since she had to dig down to ground level to get enough snow to make them, but they were real and they hung around for three days after construction.

I'll have to dig them up from the photo albums (remember those!??) we have stuck on the shelves in the bedroom and scan them.

Right now, though, the wind is freezing cold but it's crystal clear outside - a beautiful winter day, which makes a nice change from the rain we got.

I heard yesterday that Lake Tahoe, which is way-y-y-y-y down because of the drought picked up "6.3 billion gallons of water". I fact checked that one and one of the people in the know up there said it was probably closer to 4 billion gallons but that is still one heck of a lot of water. And it only boosted the lake level by about two inches!

The following picture taken in October 2014 is from the Tahoe Regional Planning Association's website:

Obviously, those docks are not supposed to be out of the water.

Here's another that's more telling. The normal water level is indicated by the top of the white marks on the pilings under the pier.

www.kcra.com

So, the lake is up two inches. Another few billion gallons and we'll be getting somewhere. And that's what we're hoping for. That and lots and lots of snow pack so the Central Valley will have water for next summer.

We are expecting more rain in the next few days, and even more in January and February if the weather gurus predicting the El Nino have it right. We won't get as much as Southern California, but it should still be respectable and will, I hope, have a pretty solid effect on the dryness around here.

In the meantime, I have to get back to those nitsy details and looking forward to having some time off.

Be well and have a wonderful Christmas if you don't check in between now and then!

Best~
Philippa

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories

Good morning!

Ahh...  Saturday morning.  My favorite morning of the week.  Quiet, a nice cup of coffee by my side along with my cat, Sam.  I still have the errands and shopping to do, but it's restful anyway.

Yesterday was glorious here, warm with highs near 80 and clear skies.  This morning we have fog which is starting to burn off.

As beautiful as the weather is, I do wish it would rain - for days.  We are desperate for rain because we haven't had any in what feels like forever.  The lakes and reservoirs are drying up, as are the aquifers.  Not-quite-draconian rationing is in place and the water rates will go up because people aren't using as much water so the water districts aren't receiving the money they need to operate.  Sounds like a bit of a Catch 22 but we're like flies on pins out here.  We're stuck with no options but not to use water at all.

On my way home yesterday I got the idea that I should start a little travelogue about Sonoma County.  Out of the way places to go and see, oddball things to do that are a bit off the beaten track.  Thinking about it further, I'll start with one of my favorite places to go: the Sonoma Coast.

It's rugged and beautiful.  South of us is Pt. Reyes and the Golden Gate National Seashore, but they might well have included all of the Sonoma coastline, too.

At the south end of the county is Bodega Bay.  That and the little inland town of Bodega, were where Alfred Hitchcock filmed 'The Birds'.  The school and the house next door where the crows landed and attacked the children are actually in the town of Bodega.  The waterside scenes were filmed in Bodega Bay.  The villages have changed a lot in the past 40 years, but the school is still there.

About 10 miles or so north of Bodega Bay is Goat Rock.  It's an interesting place - an upthrust of rock right at the mouth of the Russian River, which is one of the major rivers north of the Golden Gate.
In the spring and fall, when the killer whale pods migrate between Alaska and Mexico you can sometimes see them from the highway that runs along the hillside above the beach.

I have never seen it, or heard about it directly from someone I know personally, but through the local grapevine I have heard that it's really not a good idea to be on the northerly end of the beach during the whale migration.  Harbor seals use the beach for pupping and I rumor has it that the whales will chase the seals into the shallows in attempt to collect dinner.  Now if you're wading, or your dog is frolicking the whale might get confused.

Here's a link that includes information about the Sonoma Coast and the various beaches.

http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=451

In the above link, there are also links to photographs of the area.  It's rugged and beautiful and great for hiking or exploring.

If you ever come to Sonoma County, it's definitely worth a day trip.

First Blog

Good morning!

Admission:  this is my first try at blogging and it's a bit intimidating.  What do I say?  Will anyone care?  Probably not, but we're all doing it anyway, so why not me, too?

I don't know what this will be - ramblings, little tit bits of information about me, about my place in the world (Sonoma County, California), grumblings.  Maybe a flash fiction piece or something longer.

You see, I want to be an author.  A friend of mine and I are currently writers.  We put things down on the modern paper of a computer screen - stories and so on - but we haven't yet been discovered.  So we're writers.  Once we're discovered and get published, or publish ourselves, we'll become authors.  It's kind of like caterpillars to butterflies.

Eighteen months ago I decided to stop writing in a vacuum and see what was available to budding writers for honing skills and gaining some visibility.

I discovered Harper Collins's writer's site, Authonomy - https://www.authonomy.com/ - which is a place where writers of all stripes and abilities get together.  We post books, we talk, we fight, we laugh, we joke.  It's kind of like Christmas in a big dysfunctional family at times, but it's my second life.  When I'm online, I'm almost always there, laughing and fighting, writing and posting. 

Right now I'm on the cusp of moving from writer to author.

A few months ago, one of the published and highly successful Authonomy members posted a link to the Inca Project - http://www.incaproject.co.uk/.  It is a website for new, recently discovered or undiscovered authors.

I submitted a bit of my writing based on their requirements.  They accepted me as a member.  A couple of months later, after gathering my courage, I offered the person who runs the site my MS.  He read it, wrote back that he loves it and wants to see it set loose on the world.

Largely because of his wonderful and much needed pushiness, my chrysalis is splitting.  In another couple of months my first book will be out on Amazon and I will emerge into the world with a brand new shiny set of wings.

In the meantime, I'm working on other things.  It's my passion.  It's what I love doing more than anything else, which is another reason I created this blog.  It's an extension of my desire to write, to write well and to provide entertainment and a little escape from the stuff 'out there'.

So - that's my first blog under my belt.  I'll be back and, hopefully, I'll have something more interesting to offer.

Best~
Philippa

Follow me at:  Philippastories@twitter.com