Of EARTHQUAKE!!! ~~~~

Well Darklings,

It's been nearly 2 years since our last scary quake, and this one felt like a runaway express train.

The dogs suddenly were bouncing on the bed whining when it hit, waking us up from a good nights sleep.

This one hit at 2:39 a.m.  it was 4.4 in strength and the epicenter was at the Berkley/Oakland border with the Clairmont  Hotel as the closest landmark.

Doyle bravely put on his robe and slippers and checked for gas leaks and water leaks and if anything fell.   Our device the "little fireman" had shut down the gas so we were fine except we'd be without hot water for a shower. 

Doyle couldn't find any damage but we knew the daylight would reveal anything,  Sis also had her device shut down her gas, so between Doyle and Brian checking things and us closing off the individual gas lines and then relighting them once the "little fireman" was turned off is pretty much what we had to do during the day.

I was stuck wearing my sweat suit until I could bathe, but I did find a few things that had fallen off, the only damage was the beard of my St. Jude statue, which I managed to glue back.

It didn't rain today so we were able to check on the outside for any damage,  I really love those flashlights with the LED bulbs they really bring out everything, every detail, so we spent the day checking things out just to be sure.

Mr. and Mrs Rodgers had returned from their trip yesterday afternoon so this quake was a bit scary for them I managed to make some tea with my electric tea kettle for them so they could calm down, as a matter of fact I needed it too and was joined by Sis to see if everything was O.K. with us. 

Eventually we returned to our respective beds and awaited the dawn.   Coffee had to be instant, and breakfast was cold cereal,  so the first item to get turned back on was the stove, followed by the hot water heater and then the central heating.   Fortunately we could burn a fire in the family parlor fire place so we had a place to get warm since this was not a "spare the air day".

Dinner tonight will be Chinese Take Out once Doyle returns,  I just didn't feel like cooking tonight after that scare, and we'll be joined by Sis and Brian.

I did have a chance to talk to my brother and he said that his house rode out the quake very well, but it was hard getting the children back to sleep since they all clambered into their parents bed scared out of their wits, not that I blame them.   My brother said it was a good thing that the bed was Queen size otherwise they'd all be falling out of it.

We had rain yesterday and it is predicted that we'll have more tomorrow and a bit more next week, which is good, I'd hate to think we'd be going through another drought again.

And now it is dark, I hear Doyle at the door the dogs are barking a happy welcome, so dinner has arrived.

Tonight I think we'll relax reading and talking and listening to light classical music, something to calm our nerves.

Later Darklings

Of a quiet family evening during the Holidays~~~

Hello Dear Darklings,

We have having tonight a quiet evening,  the crock-pot is almost finished with the Beef Stew and the rice cooker has just been turned on, coupled with salad followed later by Peach cobbler and decaffeinated coffee.   Sorry Darklings but after 3 p.m. I do not dare drink any caffeine,  at my age I need my "beauty sleep".

Doyle is finishing reading the S.F. Chronicle which is filled with news about the late Mayor Ed Lee,  Doyle admired what Lee was trying to do for the people of San Francisco even if some things Doyle didn't quite agree with, but being Mayor of a Large Metropolitan City is not easy.

Mr. Rodgers is napping in one of the easy chairs with Belladonna and Wiener Dog snuggled on either side of him, they get so tired after their late afternoon walk.   Mrs. Rodgers is knitting a baby jacket with matching hat and stockings in pale yellow for one of her Grandchildren who is expecting a baby any day now, she has no idea if it will be a boy or girl so either soft yellow or soft green is perfectly neutral.    She also knitted for me slippers in purple with pink trim  to keep my feet warm.

The Rodgers will be going out of town to visit family next week and won't be back until after New Years, the good thing is that their relatives live in San Luis Obispo far away from the fires, but the smoke is causing haze and spare the air days,  I've been burning tea lights in the fire places to give some semblance of a fire to give the warm, cozy feeling.

Tomorrow evening we are going to take in the Oakland Zoo Lights, it is traditional as well as going to our local Christmas Tree  Lane, then back to my brother's house for hot chocolate and dessert, we've been to the Dickens Fair twice now but the children want to go back, my sister-in-law can't go but my brother and I will take them, now the twins want to know what is all this "fuss" over the Dickens Fair so they are coming with us with promises to be very, Very good---as they say in that commercial "Naughty is not an option!" 

Melissa my sister in law is a bit worried, well more than a bit and I can understand her feelings, she was informed that her mother has colon cancer, her mother didn't have any symptoms at all, but when a stool sample came back looking suspicious, a colonoscopy was done and a cancerous growth was found,  her mother is going in next Tuesday for surgery and if all goes well she'll be home for Christmas, the hope is that it was caught well enough in advance,  I understand that there is an 85% chance of being cured from this type of cancer so the odds are good. 

One good thing is that her mother will be staying at her brother Bob's house while she's recovering further from the surgery and if Chemo is involved Bob's wife Marge was a nurse and can help during the Chemo.   Her Mother is considering giving up her apartment and moving in with her son, they have the room, she had sold her house some time ago downsizing, so this maybe a good option.

I told Melissa that at least a general game plan is in place, just need to deal with it day by day.   But I know she won't really relax until her mother is home and they know what stage the cancer is in.

But at least the Zoo Lights can be a mild temporary distraction.

And now I think I can smell the scent of Hot Apple Cider----Doyle is making a large pot of it, well maybe the cider instead of decaffeinated coffee.   And the timer went off so time for dinner.

Later Darklings

  I think for Christmas Dinner I'll let Doyle carve the Turkey, he's so good at it.

Of the Dog Days of Summer, Open House and Vampire Cowboys~~~~

Hello Darklings,

Well it is the “Dog Days of Summer”,  and we’ve been having heat with monsoon humidity and now it’s just warm with a breeze.

But during our heat wave both Belladonna and Weiner Dog, were panting even with the fan on them and water close at hand with ice cubes in it.    Everything with the humidity felt sticky,  so cool cotton, and large sun hats were needed.

I haven’t been posting much of late, getting called in to cover for staffers, but now with vacation almost over and parents buying clothes and supplies for their children things are creeping back to normal.

We had a grass fire up in the hills and sad to note that it was arson caused,  the smoke made breathing difficult, I was sneezing a lot, fortunately Cal-Fire got it knocked down quickly, but still it’s frightening.

My brother and family have come back from their long vacation up north staying mostly coast side to take advantage of the cooler weather, but up in Canada there was a million acre fire burn and in one phone call from them it was difficult to breath at one point so the drove closer to the coast where the ocean breeze helped.

They’re back now, getting uniforms, going to appointments, getting school schedules, but they plan on going south for the weekend to the Beach Board walk in Santa Cruz, get in some of that old-fashion Summer-time fun.   But the children promised to go no further than up to their knees because there might be sharks coming closer inland.

I showed the children what I’ve been able to get for their lockers and in school supplies, My brother reimbursed me, but Christopher was happy with what he can do to organize his locker and Coralline was thrilled I was able to find the same things in Gold as well as the battery operated chandelier to light up the interior of her locker.   

Coralline is getting around a lot better with the compression cross-brace but she has to ice her ankle every night, it still swells up from time to time.   She and Christopher are looking forward to this school year, to see how things will go, but the twins are not looking forward to it, moaning that they can’t have fun and instead are going to be doing the dreaded homework.  

I’m feeling a bit sad today,  one of our long time neighbors are selling their house and going to move to Idaho, to a small town that has what they are looking for low crime, good schools, good after-school programs for the grandchildren,  affordable, good medical and a quaintness that has been lost in big city living.    Their son and daughter in law and their two children had been living with them for over a year, they had to leave their apartment because the rent went up and they couldn’t find an affordable place to live.   The Grandparents were fed-up with the craziness happening in this state and when Anthem-Blue Cross said it was leaving the state they too felt it was time to get out of town.

So today was open house for their property, so many people looking but one thing that is a bit off-putting for the house is that it does not have off-street parking, the new owner would have to park their car(s) on the street, so I’ll see who will be willing to buy the house, but I heard it had a sale price of nearly ¾’s of a million dollars, that nearly made me faint.   But it also told me that I’d have to plan my estate very carefully to see who will get my Great-Aunt’s home.

Our neighbors Crazy Son is home again, and for the last few months had been behaving himself, taking his medication,  but last week he went off the rails again ranting and carrying on, at 1 in the morning.  I called the Police because he was disturbing the peace and his sister was having a hard time with him.  The police took care of him, taking him in for evaluation.

I talked to the sister and she said her Father wanted him home thinking he’d be fine, so he was discharged,  Lovely I thought.   So we’ll see if he has to go back into the care facility.

At the end of September if I can I think I’ll do another wine tour but just a week I think,  I want to be home in October to decorate for Halloween.

But I have been discouraged at not finding more Gothic things.

Although last night on TV on Svengoolie he showed a vampire western---yes Dear Darklings a Vampire Western,   it was called “Curse of the Undead” 1959, with Eric Fleming (of Rawhide)  and Michael Pate as the  gun fighting vampire.    I have to say that the plot line was good as well as the acting there was nothing “cheesy” about it.   It did what “Billy the Kid Vs Dracula” (1966) couldn’t do.   Michael Pate even made the cowboy vampire seem both to be pitied and yet feared.  And he had a great line "Oh the dead don't bother me, it's the living that gives me trouble".

I’m not sure if I have it among my collection of vampire movies, but if not then I’m going to get a copy.  Who thought a cowboy Western Vampire movie could be so Gothic.  But this one is.

And now Sis has come by with dinner for us, take out Chinese, yes when you don’t feel like cooking but don’t mind driving take out Chinese is the way to go.

Later Darklings

                                                                      

I just found out I can buy a reprint of this poster,  I think I will and have it framed.

Of Voodoo Beer and Cemetery Travels~~~~~~

Hello Darklings,

I know, I haven't posted for a while.

Well as usual I got called into work while some of my former colleagues took vacations.   And of course their children's graudations.

I've really retired but I'm on call when needed, but I do have to let the bosses know when I'll be out of town so they can plan accordingly.   I have to say the extra cash helps nicely, but eventually I'll be needing to say that I am officially "gone" .

I've also been having some maintenance work done on the house, an upper bedroom window got accidentally broken when Doyle was installing the screens, at least he didn't get hurt, and we've been putting in stuff to make sure that there are no mosquitos developing in the cisterns.

And adding a few more orchids to the green house,  the indoor Koi pond looks beautiful I find it fascinating how they come up to feed right out of my hand.

My brother and his family took their RV to Pleasanton for the County Fair and they timed it just right when the major part of another heat wave had passed, Coralline can walk a bit she's on a figure 8 elastic cross brace but after 3 hours she has to remove it so my brother arranged for an electric wheelchair to help her get around,  she can walk around the RV carefully without the brace, but she uses a cane to steady herself.   She still is afraid of walking up the stairs inside the house, but can manage the few steps outside, with someone's help holding her hand. 

I did have a chance to visit them at their RV at the Campground near the Fair I stayed overnight and got to see the All Alaskan Pig Races,  those little porkers have their own air-conditioned trailer where they retreat to between races.  And the Funnel Cakes!!  I have to admit even being Goth you do have to indulge in a little old fashion fun.  They also made arrangements to go back this weekend to see the demolition Derby's.   Sort of like seeing the Car "Christine" getting crushed by a Caterpillar Tractor.

They had Brian, Sis's room mate house sit for them and I would check on him from time to time to see how he's doing.   They've made arrangements with him to house sit while they travel up north to the Trees of Mystery and they are hoping that by the end of August they can go to Santa Cruz and do the Boardwalk Amusement Park.  But it not then they will cruise around and camp at Big Bear Lake and just relax and if need be scamper around in their Jeep to see what there is to see.

A lot of it is based on how well Coralline can walk and what her Doctor will allow her to do. 

I have been looking for "Darkish", Gothic things to talk about but for some reason things seem to be barren at least for now,  but I did ask Doyle that since the 4th of July is over can we go ahead and put up the Halloween decorations.   He of course rolled his eyes.

But all is not lost I found an e-mail news letter and blog called "Cemetery Travels"  the author Loren Rhodes goes around or her fans seek out interesting Cemeteries to tour,  and of course what can be more interesting than touring Cemeteries, I would call that the Perfect Goth Vacation.  And her web site accepts submissions for others to read,  if you have not signed up to receive her e-mail news letter or have read her blog here is its link:  https://cemeterytravel.com/    

Another thing during the Summer time is to take the Ghost Walk tours that a number of cities offer, we have one here in the Bay Area called the San Francisco Ghost Walking Tour  this is their link   https://www.sfghosthunt.com/  and there is also the San Francisco Chinatown Ghost Walking Tour  their link is  http://www.sfchinatownghosttours.com/home.html    (if the links don't work just Google in the names and it will come up)  of course the various ones offered in New Orleans.

Doyle's boss gave him a case of Beer called Voodoo Ranger IPA---what a perfect beer to offer on a warm summer night!   I mean it's a skeleton wearing a ranger's outfit on the label.  

Oh yes I know how does it taste?   Well its
flavor has notes of pine, grapefruit, biscuit malt,, pears, lemongrass, cantaloupe melon, spices, toasted malts, resin and lots of tangerine followed by a dry and bitter aftertaste. It feels much lower than the announced 70 IBUs, though the bitterness grows with time.  It's lightly sweet at first with the perfect bitterness at the end.  Doyle says you can't really feel its alcohol but it's not overly sweet.

I suggest that you try out a 6 pack for a taste test and see how you and your friends like it for a Gothic beer.    And now its cool enough to take Belladonna and Wiener Dog for their walks.

Later Darklings

   This is called a Dracula Orchid,  I'm hoping to find one or two to add to my Greenhouse

Of breaking a leg~~~

Hello Darklings,

I guess you thought I vanished into some dark and dingy mausoleum to never emerge, but I have.

The reason for the long silence is very mundane,  first I was busy with having repairs done on the house,  and with all the dry, yet cool for my local, weather I'm having the house painted, the posts and finials that were suffering wood rot have been replaced, but the garden both front and back is going to have to suffer a bit because of the painting and scaffolding.

However I cannot blame the contractor or painters for what happened to me----I broke my left leg, not the thigh bone but below the knee, the good thing is that the hip and knee was not involved.

It was a stupid thing really, my sister had gone for the weekend to visit her children, Doyle had gone out with some of his friends to drink beer, shoot pool and swap lies, Brian my sister's room mate was out on a date,  surprise!!  He's dating folks, she looks nice, but I do wonder if she'll accept the "Addams Family" atmosphere that we have.

No, it was a Saturday evening, and Belladonna and Wiener Dog had their walk but wanted to go out into the back yard,  I followed them down the back porch steps,  and as dogs will they spotted one of the neighborhood cats, well they went chasing after it and for some inexpiable reason the cat dashed towards me, I tried to get out of it's way and tried to avoid the dogs, lost my balance and .....  well I was down and couldn't get up, just like in that commercial.

I realized my leg was broken but I was stunned at first, and then the pain, the dynamic duo realized that their Mommy was not well and came over and thinking that licking my face might make me well, what it did was bring me to my senses.  Here I was laying on the cold ground, looking up at the night sky, there was no way I was going to be able to crawl to a phone and I didn't have my cell with me, because who needs it when you're at home.  ***sigh***

Doyle wouldn't get home until very late, there was no guarantee when Brian was going to get home, because he might have gotten "lucky" (if you know what I mean).   So I was forced to do the only thing and kept calling out for help until I hoped someone heard me.

Someone did and put a call into the police because they heard someone calling for help but didn't know where.  An officer came out and thank Goodness it was Officer Cutie,  I've mentioned him before.  He walked the block and heard me called out my name, and I called back "Is that Officer (well I didn't say Cutie Pie)"  and it was, brave man climbed over the fence, shooed the Dogs into their kennels in the kitchen (I use that when I have workmen over) and he called the EMT's, I told him Doyle's cell phone number, and by the time Doyle got there, with his buddies (the same one's when the stove caught on fire), I was being secured and put into an Ambulance and transported to the Hospital,  Doyle gave me my purse, so I'd have my medical information.

So Doyle secured the house and met me at the hospital,  his buddies were drinking his beer at the house and watching something on the T.V. at least he was sober enough to drive. 

I was in the hospital for 6 days,  X-Rays, blood tests, of course setting the fracture, making sure no blood clots form, it's harder for older people when they break a bone, but the good news, says the doctors, is that it was a  clean break, not complicated, and I'll have a cast for at least 6 weeks if not longer.

I'm home now and Betty who took care of me before is back,  being a Marine Drill Sargent, but thank goodness she will keep things stable for me.  I'm back in the down stairs bedroom, cannot do the stairs,  and I may have to use a cane for a while once the cast is off, I'd like one that's Gothic Stylish but the Doctor said I may need one that's stable,  I think I'll have one of my artist friends come up with something to modify whatever I'm going to need,  something with a skull I think or a werewolf with a pentagram, like Larry Talbot's in the Wolfman.

My brother and sister in law and the children know about it but I told them to not interrupt their vacation trip, they went to Utah to see the sights there.  I've been getting post cards from Coralline and Christopher, and their mother, each with their own view point of what they saw and experienced, I can tell they are enjoying it.  And I'm glad for them.  They did go back to Placerville and Coloma and Coralline and Christopher had the fun of visiting their friend Old Dan, as they call him, and my sister in law found some wonderful antiques for their house. 

The twins are staying with their uncle and his wife (My sister in law's brother) because they are enrolled in a soccer team the same one their cousins play, so it all works out.

For myself, well, I have to use a wheelchair at times if I'm going to be out for long periods, but I try to get about as best as I can around the house,  I can only go as far as the porch and no further, Doyle and Brian take turns walking the dogs.

Doyle is afraid to leave the house unless he's going to work, but I told him he should enjoy himself, so his buddies come over here and play poker (for pennies).   My sister is keeping tabs on me and has been doing the shopping, she and Betty plan the menus.

But I'm not bored,  Officer Cutie Pie and his wife (and baby their 2nd---did I tell you he was married?) come over to visit and help me plan the next Halloween celebration,  I plan to be without the cast and walking come Halloween.  Doyle's buddies keep me entertained, I get phone calls from friends and a few come to visit or take me out to a gallery showing.

And I watch movies, much of the summer entertainment is boring except I do like "BattleBots" for some strange reason.  And I enjoyed "Houdini and Doyle" I hope it comes back for a 2nd season.  

But I have to say that dragging this cast, even if it's the more modern kind that is not as heavy as the old style casts, is still tiring and taking a bath is out, it's showers and a trash bag over the cast, no until this cast is off I am not a happy camper. 

But I shall persevere, at least my toes stick out so we are going to get mani-pedi's tomorrow, although how the manicurist is going to soak one set of toes I'm not sure but she'll think of something, my sister said.

The last time I posted it was about the discovered coffin of an unknown little girl, well the update is that those involved were able to arrange a proper funeral for her at one of the cemeteries in Colma, and there is a family that thinks she might be a relation going by records they have and through Ancestry dot com,  this possible family was at the re-burial funeral as well as other concerned people, so hopefully she will not be "little girl lost" anymore once the DNA results come through.

And now Sis is showing me some Vice lipsticks from Urban Decay, Hmmm some of them look promising, such as "Bad Blood", "Gash" and "Night Hawk" but I am leaning towards "Venom", who says elder goth girls can't have fun.

Later Darklings