Yesterday my bride had a hair appointment, so after I dropped her off in downtown Pismo Beach I had a couple of hours to wander. I hied off to The Home Depot in San Luis Obispo to get lumber for my latest project, a bench to cover the gas and water meters between the house and the raised orchard, under our bedroom window.
This area previously had a flimsy wooden frame with lattice inserts. It was a mess, busted up, full of weeds, impossible to keep nice looking. I tore it off and found that the meters alone looked better than the junk that used to be there.
I decided that a bench that would cover the meters yet allow inspection of the dials would be a good addition to this area. I could see myself sitting there, smoking a cigar, and admiring my well-pruned fruit trees, as a Vandenburg rocket leaves a brilliant trail in the southwestern sky. I have a vivid imagination. Usually the rockets fly at three AM when I am unavailable.
So here I am getting an 8 foot 4x4 and a bunch of 1x4's. (Sidebar: why would any man drive any vehicle other than a pickup? Even a small one like my Ranger, Laughing Gravy? I have more fun and can carry damn near anything in that rig. My next blog will be all about Laughing Gravy.)
My itinerary (I had planned for this hair-time) also included going to the Central Coast Kayak store to get a couple of threaded kayak drain plugs. I drill them out to fit a fiberglas bicycle flag but the pin I used in the last one rusted out, and now I can't find my spare. So I find the place is closed on Wednesdays. Guess where I am going today.
Next stop is the Von's gas station in Nipomo, the only one around. I get a 10¢ per gallon discount as a loyal Von's customer so I spend a gallon round-trip to get here. I also shop the store when here so it is not a total wash....by the time I had filled up and grocery shopped I estimated I should head back up to Pismo to get my bride and her new do.
Timing is everything, I waited only 5 minutes in the salon lot before she called, happily surprised that I was already there. Cheap thrills!
She looked beautiful so after we dropped the groceries at home I took her to lunch in Arroyo Grande Village at the Branch Deli. Ahhhh, delightful.
To help burn off my chili-cheese dog with everything we decided to take a drive out east toward Lopez Lake. There are usually turkeys to see on the way. At the lake we took the road to Pozo, but turned off onto Upper Lopez Lake Road, mainly because it said "Road Ends 9 Miles" and that we had never taken it before. The fall-like afternoon beckoned us.
This is a fascinating narrow, twisty mountain road with fabulous vistas of the back country and the ranches far below.
The geology is amazing, great tilted slabs of sandstone. The idea that these former seabeds are lifted to 1200 feet elevation and twisted on their sides is hard to understand, even though the mechanism is well known. The time and power involved is hard to grasp. All I could think of was how many and how powerful were the earthquakes?
The road rose and fell several times. We passed the Mabel French Boy Scout Camp in a low point, the canoes piled by the fence showed that the camp had access to an arm of the lake off in the distance. Then the road rose, going past ranches half hidden in stands of giant old oak trees.
Every mile or so flocks of quail dithered all over the road ahead, unable to decide which way to run, half went one way, half the other, as we slowly passed. We enjoy cruising at idle speed on roads like this, and I waved several vehicles around us.
Near the end of the pavement we saw an open area in front of a ranch that was full of deer, grazing like cattle. They alerted to us briefly, then went back to their feeding, almost tamelike.
At the end there was a fork, one way to the water, another said 7 miles of private property along the county road, "no stopping". How could ranchers keep someone on a public road from stopping? I wondered.
We vowed to return earlier in the day to explore the forks. I was about 5pm. The way back was uneventful, except for the deer and quail, and my bride likes to see the other side of the road. We approached the Pozo road and could see the Arroyo Grande fog falling over the tops of the peaks we would go under to get home. Ah well, we had some beautiful fall-like sunlight in the mountains, now home to the seemingly ever-present overcast.
As I write this mid-day Thursday, the mesa is half sunny and half foggy. Typical.
This area previously had a flimsy wooden frame with lattice inserts. It was a mess, busted up, full of weeds, impossible to keep nice looking. I tore it off and found that the meters alone looked better than the junk that used to be there.
I decided that a bench that would cover the meters yet allow inspection of the dials would be a good addition to this area. I could see myself sitting there, smoking a cigar, and admiring my well-pruned fruit trees, as a Vandenburg rocket leaves a brilliant trail in the southwestern sky. I have a vivid imagination. Usually the rockets fly at three AM when I am unavailable.
So here I am getting an 8 foot 4x4 and a bunch of 1x4's. (Sidebar: why would any man drive any vehicle other than a pickup? Even a small one like my Ranger, Laughing Gravy? I have more fun and can carry damn near anything in that rig. My next blog will be all about Laughing Gravy.)
My itinerary (I had planned for this hair-time) also included going to the Central Coast Kayak store to get a couple of threaded kayak drain plugs. I drill them out to fit a fiberglas bicycle flag but the pin I used in the last one rusted out, and now I can't find my spare. So I find the place is closed on Wednesdays. Guess where I am going today.
Next stop is the Von's gas station in Nipomo, the only one around. I get a 10¢ per gallon discount as a loyal Von's customer so I spend a gallon round-trip to get here. I also shop the store when here so it is not a total wash....by the time I had filled up and grocery shopped I estimated I should head back up to Pismo to get my bride and her new do.
Timing is everything, I waited only 5 minutes in the salon lot before she called, happily surprised that I was already there. Cheap thrills!
She looked beautiful so after we dropped the groceries at home I took her to lunch in Arroyo Grande Village at the Branch Deli. Ahhhh, delightful.
To help burn off my chili-cheese dog with everything we decided to take a drive out east toward Lopez Lake. There are usually turkeys to see on the way. At the lake we took the road to Pozo, but turned off onto Upper Lopez Lake Road, mainly because it said "Road Ends 9 Miles" and that we had never taken it before. The fall-like afternoon beckoned us.
This is a fascinating narrow, twisty mountain road with fabulous vistas of the back country and the ranches far below.
The geology is amazing, great tilted slabs of sandstone. The idea that these former seabeds are lifted to 1200 feet elevation and twisted on their sides is hard to understand, even though the mechanism is well known. The time and power involved is hard to grasp. All I could think of was how many and how powerful were the earthquakes?
The road rose and fell several times. We passed the Mabel French Boy Scout Camp in a low point, the canoes piled by the fence showed that the camp had access to an arm of the lake off in the distance. Then the road rose, going past ranches half hidden in stands of giant old oak trees.
Every mile or so flocks of quail dithered all over the road ahead, unable to decide which way to run, half went one way, half the other, as we slowly passed. We enjoy cruising at idle speed on roads like this, and I waved several vehicles around us.
Near the end of the pavement we saw an open area in front of a ranch that was full of deer, grazing like cattle. They alerted to us briefly, then went back to their feeding, almost tamelike.
At the end there was a fork, one way to the water, another said 7 miles of private property along the county road, "no stopping". How could ranchers keep someone on a public road from stopping? I wondered.
We vowed to return earlier in the day to explore the forks. I was about 5pm. The way back was uneventful, except for the deer and quail, and my bride likes to see the other side of the road. We approached the Pozo road and could see the Arroyo Grande fog falling over the tops of the peaks we would go under to get home. Ah well, we had some beautiful fall-like sunlight in the mountains, now home to the seemingly ever-present overcast.
As I write this mid-day Thursday, the mesa is half sunny and half foggy. Typical.
Comments
Post a Comment