Seen Through a Bottle of Limoncello

I had fun photographing some oft photographed things using different kinds of filters I found around the house. This was my favorite.

The mount for our umbrella has to be bolted through the pavement before they can come open the giant box to assemble and install the umbrella. The man who generally does this for the shop where we got it has injured himself and is 'out for the season'. It doesn't seem that it is a difficult task as long as we can find someone with a 'bolt drill'. Gustavo, who was weed whacking in our front yard said he has one but didn't have it with him. Our friend Dan has one, and John is explaining the situation to him over a beer as I write this. Once the mount is, er, mounted they can come put up the umbrella within a day or two. Installation has been expedited, I was told,  since we have been waiting so long ...

...Just about the same amount of time as we have been waiting for John's ankle to heal. Kathy convinced him that most of the problems he has now are from lack of use and not from the fracture. It's a good thing we have Kathy since useful advice and guidance from the doctor has been lacking. 

While I was walking Spike today I saw the retired firefighter across the street and talked to him about getting a water tank. He offered to show us his and exactly how he set it up, and said he'd come over and look at where we want to put ours and help us order the right things.

It was not his hoses that saved our house, but he asked if we had screens on our rain gutters on the roof. I said we did and he said that's what saved us. (That and the Timber Cove volunteer fire department.)

I was absolutely horrified to learn from him that Audrey, our 94 year old neighbor never evacuated during the fire. She rarely comes out of her house although I saw her the other day pulling weeds in front of her house. We all thought she had children who looked after her. Another lesson learned. Never Assume Anything. She might not hear us banging on the door, and that if she doesn't answer, we'll break in next time. I'm going to get a list of the neighbors who are left and how to warn them if there is an emergency. I did this for the old Magnolia Street neighborhood in Berkeley, it won't be that difficult to do our neighbors here. We're supposed to get a placard from the local fire station to put out near our address to tell firefighters that we have evacuated. I think I will take it upon myself to go and get a bunch of them to hand out to the neighbors along with a questionnaire for them to fill out.

The things you learn on a walk down the street....