A Day to follow up on things

Today is a good day to follow up on a few things  -

First, some more pictures of the latest info on the "Great Sewer Debacle":

After the Roto-Rooter men (two trucks this time) came back to our house last Wednesday to give the sewer issue another look, they left with no real plan -- there was nothing they could do until they checked with all the utility companies to see where other utilities might be in comparison to the sewer line.

These are a few pictures of the new colorful additions we have to our lawn, sidewalk and street showing the codes, etc. that have been marked by the utilities. I personally have NO idea what they mean, but they seem awfully close to the place where digging will have to begin.

I haven't heard anything from the Roto-Rooter men this week so far -- I don't know if they're waiting for me to call, or for the utilities to finish (and I can't tell if everyone has put their marks out yet).  Tomorrow is my day to dig in and start calling again.  Sigh.




In other news,  Son Number One, Son Number Two and I spent Saturday working on an Eagle Project for one of the scouts in our troop.  We caravaned down to Santa Nella (about an hour & a half from home) with gardening gear in hand.  The project was to add landscaping / flowers to the areas around some of the contemplation spots at the San Joaquin Valley National Cemetery / Veterans Cemetery.

Our Eagle Scout candidate received donations of all the flowers, etc. from Lowes and with the help of 30+ volunteers,  landscaped the areas all over the cemetery that had been prepared.  It was a large job, but definitely worth the work we all put in.

While we were there, we saw some interesting things -- nature in action, as it were.

  This is a baby owl that was just sitting on the ground a  few yards from one of the areas we were working -- we tried to be careful not to startle it.  No one really knew why he was sitting on the ground but we definitely knew not to disturb him.

Here's a closer view:

We saw a couple of large vultures sitting on fence posts as we drove in, but I couldn't get a good photo of them (I was driving at the time).

We did see a juvenile hare (rabbit?)  who didn't seem to mind a bunch of guys whacking away with their trowels (well, for the most part- when they tried to corner him, he got very nervous -- then the leaders stepped in).

Son number two spent some time coaxing fuzzy guy a bit closer --

it's a bit hard to see the fuzzy as he's quite well camouflaged, but he's to the right of the picture.

 There was a lot of discussion about where the flowers would go -- there was no layout design made ahead of time and a whole passel of flowers in various sizes, colors, etc.  The only common thing was that they were all flowers that love the sun.  Lots of Marigolds, pansies, etc.

So much for asking for a smile.....


I never did get a photo of Son #1 Saturday.



Saturday was a LONG day -- the morning was definitely full of work (in straight out sun -- it was only in the upper 80's and there was a bit of a breeze, but this was the first day we'd all been out doing heavy gardening work in the heat  -- and then we had to race home before my Mother-In-Law arrived for dinner.


Sunday was party day with my Mother-in-Law ... she hosts a party (at my house) for all the people born in May ... so we had a house full of visitors, which is always nice.  However, trying to explain what we (and visitors) could and couldn't do with the toilets was no fun at all.

Luckily, we went out for dinner.



And that's the round up for now.  I have one more follow up to write regarding the envelope that goes with the 1st US edition of The Story of Babar, but I figure it deserves a blog post of its own, so that will come later.