Ghost Trees

There is a huge swath of these skeleton trees left from the Tubbs fire which burned through in 2017. At first, the whole area looked a little like the surface of the moon, but a lot of the green undergrowth has returned, and just down the street, a few trees like this have been cleared and new homes have been built overlooking the Fountaingrove golf course. Most of the area is open space. I don't know who owns the land or if anyone is responsible for clearing the trees. 6 years later, it's still hard to get one’s head around the extent of this fire. A row of trees next to the high school shows brilliant autumn color against a backdrop of more burned hills which extend all the way along the Sonoma Valley.

I was driving through here today on the way to the All Animal Eye Care for a recheck of Spike's eyes. We got there a little early and were able to go straight in without waiting. All is well, so I can finally start weaning him off the prednisone drops. She still wants me to put ointment in his eyes at night . He has no motivation to close his eyes and she wants to be sure his eyes don't dry out. This ointment will also protect his eyes if he has a bath or goes to the beach. I think he does close his eyes when he sleeps, but I don't think I'll stay awake to confirm my suspicions. If all remains stable, we will have a final recheck in three months. I think they will miss Spike. He seems to have made quite an impression. And he knows he gets treats. 

The reception area had a bowl of eyeball shaped candies and there was  other eyeball 'decor' around left over from Halloween. I commented on the candies and the receptionist said , 'you can find anything on line'. Especially at Halloween, I suppose. they were a little incongruous next to the regular Snoopy decor.

You can buy just about anything online and have it delivered to the door, but you can also find a YouTube video on how to fix just about anything. There were about a dozen videos on how to fix a door that suddenly scrapes the floor and won't close easily. It has to do with adjusting the hinges and I suspect we might need a new hinge pin as well as one of ours is quite bent. How it got that way is beyond me. John got out a lot of tools but made such hard work out of removing the hinge pins that I insisted suggested he stop. He was happy to do so, leaving the door open and all the tools on the bathroom counter, apparently because he thought he might need them again sometime in the next decade. The fact that they go in a drawer right around the corner from the bathroom  seemed to elude him. 

He thinks David is going to join him for a beer at Trail House today, but I have my doubts...