Backwards Weather!

While the east coast and central states are enjoying record warm temperatures in the 80's, we in California are experience a typical New England rainy and cold spring day with temps in the 40s & 50s.  It seems that everything is backwards!  The storm we are experiencing is dumping snow in the surrounding mountains at elevations above 2,000 feet.  There are some areas around here where there are entire neighborhoods above that altitude.  They must be getting snow!  Maybe we will check it out later today.

But we also know that once this storm is over the warm weather will return to stay.  That is not usually the case in New England.  Typically you get a few warm days, you get your hopes up for warm weather, then have another month or two or three of cold damp weather.  Remember the recent June that rained for over 20 days in Central Mass?  Hopefully that doesn't happen out here and summer begins soon and stays until the end of October.

Here are today's weather forecasts for Southern California & Massachusetts  Which is which?

San Diego Auction & Dinner

Last night we went to the Mission Hills Auction again in San Diego. Click here for their web site and auction preview pictures. Every Tuesday they have a junk/box lot auction downstairs at 4PM and then a furniture auction upstairs at 7PM.  It usually takes us an hour to get there on the freeways. The traffic usually isn't that bad when we leave around 1:30.  The freeways to San Diego are 4-6 lanes wide with additional 2 express lanes to handle the rush hour traffic.  We haven't been in rush hour traffic yet.

We bought about 9 boxes of books for Amazon. Mostly herbal and homeopathy books. I think they should do well on Amazon.

Harbor Island, Arrow points to the restaurant

We decided not to stay for the furniture auction and to go get something to eat instead.  I had bookmarked a good seafood restuarant (Point Loma Seafoods) on my Xoom, but when we got there it was closed for renovations.  I guess I should have checked their web site first.  I searched on my Xoom for "restaurants" and picked one out at the tip of the Harbor Island.

Tom Ham's Lighthouse Restaurant

This restaurant is called Tom Ham's Lighthouse, you can see their web page here.  The view of the San Diego skyline was great and the food was even better.  I had grilled yellow tail, Elly had the grilled salmon.

Arrow points to our Table

We had a wonderful seat near the window and watched the San Diego skyline as the sun set and the skyline lighted up!

New Hiking Info

Today we went for a walk and met our "across the pond" neighbor.   She is very nice and has a cat and a dog that Elly fell in love with.  Elly really misses her cats.  Anyway, while we were chatting I snapped a picture of our condo from across the pond.  I had never seen what it looks like from that side.

Condo from across the pond. Click for a bigger view.

 

A row of Liquid Amber trees in California

 She also told us that the bare trees near the condo are called "Liquid Amber" and are absolutely gorgeous in the fall.

 We also got a lead on a new hiking trail that has a  water fall at the end of it.  Tenaja Falls is in the Cleveland National Forest which is only about 4 miles from where we live.  It is right up near the hiking trails of the Santa Rosa Plateau that we hiked with San & Mike.  It is a short and easy hike of only 1.4 miles but you have to get wet and cross the river.  You can read about this trail here and here.  We are planning to hike this trail soon.

Sign Flippers

When we were out here in October, I thought these guys were strange.  Now they are EVERYWHERE!  You can't go past a street corner without some guy flipping a sign for something, new houses, bars, Subway, Income tax etc.  The Income Tax sign flippers are dressed like the Statue of Liberty. (Liberty Tax Service, get it!)  The economy must be so bad that this this is their job.   Kind of like the Sandwich board guys during the depression. What a boring job, unless you are on some kind of drug!

Watch this youtube video to see how its done!  We don't have this back in New England.

Temecula Rod Run

This weekend was the Annual Rod Run in Old Town Temecula.  After visiting a yard sale (the people were from Boston!), we decided to go to Old Town for lunch.  The place was mobbed,  It was really difficult to find a place to park for free.  Most of the lots were charging $10 and I didn't want to pay for parking.  Since I have become really familiar with the side streets around Old Town because of our antiquing forays, I was able to park on a back street for free.


We went for lunch at Rosa's Cantina again and took a street-side table since the weather was perfect for sitting outside in the sun and we wanted to watch  the people walking by.  After lunch we took a short stroll up and down Front Street to see all the Hot Rods parked along side the streets.  Last night they had the old car parade down Front Street, we are not that into old cars to go see the parade, hear the rumble of the loud motors and "catch the fumes".  Walking and seeing the cars parked today was much more healthier for us.

Lime Green Plymouth Duster 340.  Just Like Chach's

There was a lime green Plymouth Duster 340 similar to the one Chach has.  This one was a 1973, I think Chach's is a '69 or '70.

There were a lot of Chevy Bel-Airs here Today

 

Picking in San Bernadino

The House. Notice tarp on roof covering fire damage.

I put an ad up on Craigslist for "Books Wanted".  Today we got an email from a lady in San Bernadino who is taking care of an estate.  While she was cleaning it out, the house caught fire from the electrical  wiring.  It looks like it was the old style "Knob & Tube".  We drove up there and spent about three hours picking through the books and junk.  Came home with about six boxes of stuff.  Keep an eye on our eBay listings in the next week for some of this stuff.

The living room with all the books.

Back Bedroom with more junk

There were plenty of books, but not many good ones. Got a few though.  Lots of Life & Look magazines.  Lots of climbing over things. I think they were hoarders.


You can read more about San Bernadino here.  We have found that San Bernadino is really not a place one would want to live in.  This is where the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club originated.  On both occasions that we have visited this town, we noticed that the Walmart parking lot and the In-Out Burger parking lot both had their own private security vehicle patrolling the lots.  Really doesn't make one feel safe that private security is needed for the parking lots.
 
 According to the wikipedia link above "San Bernardino was the 16th most dangerous US city in 2003^, 18th in 2004 and 24th in 2005."  "According to findings by the U.S. Cenusu Bureau,  San Bernardino was among the most poverty-stricken cities in the nation, second nationally behind Detroit."  Not a very good place to live.

Elly having fun in the burned out kitchen.

 Thank goodness that it is over an hour away from where we live in Murrieta, the 2nd safest city in the nation.  Check this link.

Gas Prices!

Gas In Temecula

What is happening to gas prices?  Last Sunday, when we left to go to the Farmers Market in Temecula,  the gas at the station near our freeway entrance was $4.09 a gallon.  When we got to the Farmers Market, the gas there was $4.29 a gallon!  Ten miles away and there was 20 cent difference.  Every day the price seems to go up.  I really don't see how the gas in the tanks at the gas stations gets more expensive each day just sitting there since it was delivered days ago!  It call it greed!  Today it's even higher!

Gas in Murrieta

On an other note,  we have been very busy not doing much.  The furnace in the condo died this week during the cold spell (40 degrees at night).  The landlord had to buy a brand new furnace and have it installed.  The installers did it in a day.  Nevertheless, we had to be here during the installation process since they needed access to the condo. We now have a new furnace, just hope it doesn't stay cold.  We really don't want to use it because that would mean that it's cold outside.  We are looking forward to the HOT days that all the California natives assure us are coming soon.  Elly can't wait.
 
We also started watching American Idol.  It still says "LIVE" on the TV screen, but we really know it happened 3 hours ago.  It is broadcast at 8:00 our time which means three hours after it was broadcast on the East Coast at 8:00.  It is a little strange to see the really live broadcasts like sporting events and election coverages, debates early in the afternoon instead of at night.  We were able to watch the Oscars all the way to the end, which was at 8:30 Pacific time.  Sure is strange to realize how all live events are East Coast centric, especially sports.  But now we get to watch lives events that we could never stay up for back home.  I even watched the end of the Daytona 500 this year without losing any sleep!