It’s great to be back in the Central Valley — not. 9pm here and it’s 91 degrees. Sparkle’s A/C seemed suspiciously weak today in S.F. so I turned it off in hopes of saving it for when I really need it. Like tomorrow — where it’s expected to be over 100 degrees for at least a couple days. Sheesh — it’s September already and I had hoped things would start to cool for us by now on our return trip. I doubt I’ll be able to find Nik and Grem anywhere to swim tomorrow either.

I felt very sad to be leaving the coast today — not just because of the nice weather but also because I don’t have any clear idea when I’ll be back in California. One week to get back home and start paying for this trip. The reality of closure is starting to set in — but I’m anxious to settle down and straighten out my life. Six weeks is WAY too long to be away but I really wanted to cover the West Coast in a serious way since it’s a long drive out here.

On with the photos! There probably won’t be as many per posting from here on out as I’ll be stuck in the driver’s seat more than usual.

The seagulls at Fisherman’s Wharf seem to have the good life. This guy seemed exceptionally clean and self-confident as he assessed whether I might have snacks for him.

***********************************************************

The Palace of Fine Arts has always been one of my favorite S.F. buildings. Unfortunately, the main rotunda was covered with scaffolding for restoration. So you’ll have to settle for a couple shots of the other part of the building and a link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Fine_Arts

***********************************************************

Just north of the Presidio, there was a breast cancer installation with hundreds of pink tents. I wish I had had the time to find a better vantage point as it was visually stunning.
http://cms.komen.org/komen/NewsEvents/BreastCancer3-Day/index.htm

***********************************************************

At least Haight-Ashbury hasn’t changed all that much in 25+ years:

***********************************************************

While I was there in the Haight, there were some people working the crowds promoting and demonstrating this Polaroid Pogo printer that hooks up to your digital camera or camera phone. I can’t think of any use for it myself — but other people seemed into the concept:
http://globetrottingv.blogspot.com/2008/08/tech-travel-polaroid-pogo.html
http://www.polaroid.com/pogo/us/

***********************************************************

I saw a couple of these neat little tour buses around town. They have a really neat ooo-ga horn:
http://www.mrtoadstours.com/

***********************************************************

No one’s gonna miss the Pacific more than my little boy, Nik. He really, really wanted to get out on this stretch of beach this afternoon — but he’d already been swimming twice today and his poopie is getting loose again. I’ll miss his squealing and whimpering fondly in retrospect once this trip is over.

***********************************************************

On the other hand, Fixie is dead tired at this point. Her reaction when we pull over for beach time is more like “do we have to?” She really likes when I put the armrest down so she can use it as a pillow. She will be SO happy to be home.

***********************************************************

A cute bunch of houses on the same block — shot just minutes before leaving town:

***********************************************************

And about an hour later, we had arrived in hot, hot Pleasanton. A nicely painted mural shows what the local landscape looks like:

A very hot and exhausting day in San Francisco. The weather was not at all like I remembered it — maybe I was never here in August before. So much for fog and needing to put on a sweater every 15 minutes. It must’ve been near 90 today. I love the city but I driving up and down steep hills stresses me out. And Grip clearly doesn’t care for cable cars — those crammed vehicles with people hanging off the sides gave her something new to bark at.

The look of the place is not how I remembered it either (25 years later). The neighborhoods I knew well (Columbus, the Marina area, downtown) are not even recognizable to me now (new businesses, new development). The gritty areas are no longer gritty. I covered a lot of ground despite the one-way streets and traffic. I just might be able to pull off finishing S.F. tomorrow and getting some other nearby cities in. Since tomorrow’s Saturday, I should get off to a light-traffic start at 8am (usually when I start shooting).

The dogs got to play at two legit dog parks in town. Mid-day, we went to check out McLaren Park. There’s a small pond (reservoir) for the dogs to play in which helped cool them off. There were some ducks that Grem thought she might catch but they paddled along just out of her reach for about five minutes til she got too cold and had to come back to shore.

At the end of the day, we went to Crissy Field which is right at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge. Incredible views and it seems the whole waterfront is off-leash. There were way too many people so we went further down across a bridge. There were a lot of windsurfers and photographers set up to shoot the sunset behind the bridge but we stayed out of their way. Everything was great til Grem disappeared into the fenced off protected area. So I had to have someone hold my dogs while I climbed the fence and went looking for her. When I finally got her after about 5 long minutes, she got put back on leash for the rest of the time there. She is such a hunter — everything’s fine as long as I work like a maniac to keep her busy with ball/treat/ball/treat.

I was relieved that Nik was so focused on his Dinosaur Cuz (squeaky dog toy) that he didn’t notice the sea lions swimming and barking when they cruised by only about 30 feet from shore. He surely would have gone after them had it not been for his toy. There were also pelicans flying around. What an incredible place!

On with today’s photos. The painted wall advertisement for Shasta. I love this little guy!

*****************************************************

This has to be one of the most dramatic arrow signs that I’ve ever seen – complete with martini:

*****************************************************

A lot of sad used-ta-be movie theatres on Mission. Some will make it to my website but these won’t:

*****************************************************

Some streetscapes. This one is rather scary:

********************************************************************

A couple doggie shots from my lap while stuck in traffic. I don’t think Grem had ever heard the violin before. I think she kind of liked it. This performer was in front of Neiman Marcus:

*****************************************************

Grip is the only dog that I know of that recognizes 2-D representations of animals and people. She barked at this guy on the bus advertisement next to us.

*****************************************************

An artpiece on an abandoned building on Howard Street entitled “Defenestration”. It features the illusion of furniture & stuff being thrown from the windows.
http://www.metaphorm.org/pages/portfolio/defenestration/defen.html

*****************************************************

A couple nice plastic signs:

*****************************************************

A more realistic turn-around cleaning time. I’m told that no one really does it in one hour anyway:

*****************************************************

It seems so disrespectful to see these modern logos slapped right on these great Art Deco buildings:

*****************************************************

And lastly, an iconic photo of San Francisco. Ah, yes, the sailboats on the water and the Bay Bridge — with a homeless person’s shopping cart in the foreground. I’ve sure seen a lot of economic disparity on this trip. I won’t get into politics in this blog, but hopefully the next President can bring some positive change to America.

Finished up stuff in Santa Cruz in the morning and stumbled upon a legal doggie area on the beach north of where all the surfers are. Huge waves and Nik got thrashed around a bit but it didn’t stop his enjoyment. He’s got diarrhea though which I assume is from swallowing way too much salt water during the past couple days. But he’s a good boy and pokes my ear repeatedly when he needs me to pull over.

Working northward from Santa Cruz, I got to the El Camino Real cities early afternoon. Other than the things that were on my list, not much else is left. Very sad since when I left California about 25 years ago, there were still tons of neon signs, old motels, cafes, etc. left there. Now, it’s just like everywhere else — all the chains, new big developments, and much more wealthy now. Sometimes as I sat at stoplights (way too many of them, and the sequences are incredibly long in CA), I’d do car inventory from the light. BMW, BMW, Audi, Lexus, Prius, BMW, Sparkle…

According to my schedule, I’ve got two more days left for CA which is going to be a hustle as I am just outside the San Francisco city limits now & have obviously much to shoot there. I’ll do what I can but I have a feeling Iowa plans might be getting the cut.

The Peter Pan Motel sign in Santa Cruz is a bit faded but still fun:

******************************************************

Still wet and sandy, Nik decides the best place to doze is with his head resting on the “magic box” that contains his assorted favorite toys. I’m sure he can smell them through the plastic.

******************************************************

Redwood City has been claiming its “climate best by government test” since the 1920s:
http://www.ci.redwood-city.ca.us/about/local_history/exhibits/climate_best/climate_best.html

******************************************************

I went to Malibu Castle Golf & Games in Redwood City to check out the mini golf — which was nothing all that special. The mini golfs at these places always require a walk through the arcade and snack bar area so I take a quick look around. I haven’t seen this Percussion Master game before (not that I’m an expert). These girls were having a great but serious time.

******************************************************

I had to chop off the title of this game in order to get more of the game itself in — and of course now I’ve forgotten the name. But anyway, the concept is earthquake-related. That’s San Francisco’s Transamerica Building (or whatever they’re calling it these days) at the back, etc.

******************************************************

As I was saying earlier in this post, there’s not a lot of old stuff left on El Camino Real now. I did find several fun mid-century buildings in San Carlos. This one appears to have been a former car showroom. There was nowhere to safely park Sparkle on this now superhighway so I left her here for scale. The glass walls were removed and the interior linoleum is visible. I don’t know how long the remains have been like this but I’d imagine it won’t be long before there are more bland stores like all the others at this spot.

******************************************************

I don’t know what this building used to be but it seems to have been subdivided and reused by new businesses now:

******************************************************

And, lastly, I don’t know if this has always been a tire store but it has a nify V-shaped roof and complementary signage.

There was a lot of driving but not a lot of picture-taking today. From Salinas, I went down to shoot some things further south to Paso Robles and then decided to take the coastal route back up. I knew it would take more time — but it would be cooler and prettier. I took that route up to S.F. from L.A. many times a couple decades ago when I lived here in CA. It was even prettier, twistier, and more time-consuming than I remembered.

The dogs, of course, got many beach romps out of the route. Nik would start Irish dancing every couple hours and making me nuts. The smell and sight of the ocean were driving him (and consequently) Grem mad. I remember stopping at least in San Simeon and Monterey — finding little pockets of beach there where no one was around. I had heard that Carmel’s beaches were all off-leash. So I toughed out the traffic and snootiness of the place to have a look-see. Sure enough, many dogs there were off-leash but they all seemed to be the laid-back types. Not like my monsters running, jumping, yapping, crashing in the surf. We were a spectacle I guess to the mucky-mucks and tourists on the beach I suppose.

Grem bullied some a couple Lab puppies a bit (twice her size), Nik retrieved his ballie in BIG waves, Fix got loving from the crowds who always find her adorable and ask “what breed is she?”, and Grip stuck close by me for ballie/cheese sequencing (from about 3pm on all she thinks about is her next meal). One of their favorite parts of the Carmel experience was a gigantic dead sea lion — at least that’s what I think it was. It must’ve been 7 feet long and dead for awhile (pee-uuu). The dogs sniffed and I think licked at it (ick!) — I prayed they didn’t roll on/against it. I couldn’t figure out how people could just set up their towels and umbrellas about 20 feet away like it wasn’t there. I went way down the beach from it but had to keep going back to get one of the dogs who couldn’t resist the fragrance.

There aren’t many photos for this posting of Flickr tonight since most of the day was spent either behind the wheel or in the sand. But the next few days should make up for it as I have a huge list & stack of maps for the S.F. area.

Perhaps I’ve been on the road too long — or been admiring too many neon signs on this trip. But at this point, any bit of neon catches my eye. This arrow sign is from the roof of the Wagon Wheel Motel in Salinas:

********************************************************

I’ve seen a couple old (1960s/70s?) Mobil station signs like this with separate letters but I don’t recall seeing any Shell stations:

********************************************************

Lots and lots of beautful coastline, Big Sur type trees, fog, bridges, etc. but no photos of them. I saw tons of people at vistas shooting with their digital cameras — even passengers with their video cameras stuck out windows as they were driving the California Coast. I always find that sort of thing too boring to look at in itty bitty photos. You had to be there.

In Castroville, I decided to get a local “delicacy” (probably just tourists like myself that eat them): deep-fried artichoke hearts. This was just a half order but was enough for a $6 dinner. There were about a dozen of them — not bad! Not too greasy and the batter was pretty thin and not overwhelming.

San Jose took up most of the day. I had quite a lot of stuff there and it’s a bigger town than I thought (spread out). The weather got pretty hot — mid 90s and by the time I moved south, I saw bank clocks at 100 degrees. I’m hoping by noon tomorrow to be back on the coast for a few days. I won’t be in any rush to leave San Francisco for Nevada and Utah! Though stops will be much fewer by then as I’ll be pretty much hustling home. 12 more days to go.

The dogs were back in stickery fields today though I did find some skanky rivers to play in a couple times. Temperature extremes (the heat or the AC) seem to wipe them out — esp. in the afternoons. There’s usually a couple hours then when I can get in and out for photo-taking and nobody moves a muscle. The mornings (pre-finding that first place to romp) and evenings (pre-dinner) are the worst (barking and other forms of insanity).

All of today’s photos are from San Jose unless indicated. One of my favorite discoveries was this terrific piñata shop:

*******************************************************

95% of the time when I go to re-enter the van after taking a photo, this is what I see. Grem moves into the driver’s seat and pretends to have been there for hours (even though it’s been seconds). She has her back to me and doesn’t make eye contact when I open the door. Denial that I will really boot her out? Sometimes she even softly growls at me as I nudge her over. Sheesh! The huge van, plenty of sun elsewhere, but no — she wants MY seat! P.S. That’s Fixie in the passenger seat looking miserably exhausted.

*******************************************************

The 10th Street Pharmacy has this neat giant mortar & pestle:

*******************************************************

I love this lotsa glass building:

*******************************************************

A nice old cleaners — but what really gets me is “Miss Careful”:

*******************************************************

A pay toilet — unfortunately, I wasn’t “in need” enough to pay & take photos inside. We have these in NYC and they are just as ridiculously huge and forbidding. Why can’t the city/cities just have fancy porta potties — and more of them. On this trip, I have gone right by a number of construction sites and if nobody’s around and I have to go, I just use the porta potty. Can they arrest me for that? Trespassing, private property?

*******************************************************

An incredible, nicely preserved Squirt sign. The two sides were different so I include them both. Just looking at that bottle makes me thirsty.

*******************************************************

Just one more sign before I go. This one for an exterminator company — kind of a clever, euphemistic name:

A bit warmer here today (high upper 80s?) but it was nothing compared to a few days ago further inland. I got tons of photos and there will be plenty to choose from tonight for Flickr and this posting. The van is chugging along reliably. I was surprised that most businesses were open despite today being Labor Day. I had to hop on the interstate a bit in the early evening but luckily the traffic was jammed up going the other way.

No dog parks today but I found a deserted piece of bay in Oakland that adjoined a college — no one around so we grabbed some running and swimming time. At dusk, I found a closed down business park with a huge golf course like green area. A really nice change from the usual dry, stickery fields that these guys are used to. Both Grip and Fix got the zoomies and were running gleefully around, tucked tails, in the vast springy softness of it. Weeeee!

Most of my time was spent in Oakland yesterday. So unless indicated otherwise, that’s where these photos were taken. This repair shop sign is mostly concealed behind a more billboardy type sign:

*********************************************************

I like the variety of shapes in this one. The “hot dogs” piece (or whatever it used to read) must have spun originally:

*********************************************************

I love this place. I don’t know how evident it is in the photo but the “interior” is all craggy and cave-like. And the color is sensational.

*********************************************************

Paul’s Newsstand is an Alameda landmark. Unfortunately, it was closed I guess because of the holiday. Here’s a bit about it:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20060820/ai_n16672576

*********************************************************

A random block on San Jose St. in Alameda exemplifying the Bay Area’s diversity. Personally, I love all these houses.

*********************************************************

Back in Oakland, a couple next-door-neighbor used car lots. This OK sign looks almost handmade — the lettering looks like a stuck-on decal as opposed to the usual embossed plastic or neon type:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/193295652/

*********************************************************

I’ve never seen a heart-shaped car lot sign before. The bulb pattern on this was a pointing arrow.

*********************************************************

I saw several of these martini signs today. This one was in nice shape:

*********************************************************

This sign was at TNT Liquor in Hayward. I assume the neon fish is a Christian add-on from much later?

*********************************************************

And lastly, an incredible place in Oakland — I have a lot more photos of it but it’s time to get rolling so I’ll include just this one. The Robert Howden & Sons Building from 1925 was used as their tile factory. The entire building is covered with beautiful tile and terra cotta details. Here’s a photo of the side of the building:
http://flickr.com/photos/coy_mistress/2660386486/

It was delightfully cool today (comparatively) and I got a lot done. Most of the day was spent north of and then into Berkeley proper. I got started on some of the Oakland stuff but I’m realizing this Bay Area list is really going to take a good number of days to get through. After Oakland, we’ll be dropping down south towards San Jose and then further south. Then I’ll be coming back up via the coast for San Francisco area stuff. Splitting up the Bay Area in this way should give me and Sparkle a decent break from daily city traffic. Tomorrow is Labor Day so hopefully traffic will be light and help me navigate a lot of cityness.

The dogs and I got to check out Point Isabel today in Richmond. We spent more than an hour there (a lot of valuable shooting time but it was a great place). The water was too cold for Nik to swim much but there were 21 acres of running room — and no real signs of critters in the bushes or gopher holes. There’s even a “Sit and Stay Cafe”, as well as “Mudpuppies” (a dog wash & toy shop) right there in the parking area. Here’s some more info about this place:
http://www.mudpuppys.com/ptisabel.html
http://www.bahiker.com/eastbayhikes/ptisabel.html

A huge fading-away old sign in Rodeo:

***********************************************

I love this inventive use of the donut shape — this store in Richmond:

************************************************************

This sign appeared to read “Bab’s Donuts” is also in Richmond. It most likely related to the business below which is still somewhat a convenience store but mostly seems to be engaged in small-scale wholesaling for lunchwagons and that sort of thing. Maybe the sign was installed wrong? The arrow points towards the road.

************************************************************

Berkely has many examples of storybook style houses — and since I don’t have a section at my website for them, I’ll just throw some examples in here. If you’re interested in these kinds of places, there’s a great website and book about them:
http://storybookers.com/

Here are a couple of great, giant houses on Spruce St:

************************************************************

A couple other smaller scale houses on Ross Street:

************************************************************

************************************************************

A fascinating modern house in Berkeley — it’s nicknamed the “Fish House”. But more properly, it’s known as the Tsui House:
http://www.tdrinc.com/tsuihs.html

************************************************************

And lastly, from Oakland, a couple more signs. This one is at “Original Steele’s” (a still operating scuba shop):

************************************************************

And this one is a fun twist on the Rent-a-Wreck car rental concept:

It was another brutal day in and around Sacramento. But I diligently banged away at the list and have arrived in a much more pleasant place on earth. Cool and breezy in Lafayette tonight! The dogs and I are much relieved. Tomorrow should be all coastal as well. Sparkle held up well despite the abuse of temperature and traffic. I don’t know why I haven’t seen more overheated cars on the side of the road in the past few days. The people look ridiculously comfortable walking around and riding bikes in that scorching weather as well. I guess all things (people, animals, and cars) just get used to it.

Here’s the crew in Chico early in the day, before it got hot:

**********************************************************

In Gridley, someone went to the trouble to put this tractor way up on a pole. It’s a used car lot below now. Maybe “Liberty Inc.” was a tractor sales and/or repair place before (this is farming country).

**********************************************************

I imagine this sign in Sacramento had a lot more detail and neon once upon a time. Still, I’m glad that at least the shape has been reused. Does anyone know what this used to advertise?

**********************************************************

This much smaller guy in Sacramento, only about two feet long, is hanging in there. I think the Delux Barber Shop is now gone (windows covered). The other side of this sign doesn’t have any neon at all:

**********************************************************

Four of Sacramento’s finest. Horsie #1 was impatient about being photo-ed I guess. That’ll teach me to take more than one photo for subjects that can move.

**********************************************************

From Pleasant Hill: a memorial from 1927 that pays tribute to the Contra Costa County soldiers that served in World War I. I’m not much into memorials or war stuff — but I liked the Art Deco styling of this one (and of course the “spikey” on top).

**********************************************************

And, lastly, a nice little shopping center sign in Lafayette that has managed to escape updating and renaming. There’s so much to love about the sign: its three-sidedness both above and below, the gold poles, the ballies, the lantern/clock, and that little bit of neon.

The good news: Sparkle is back in action. The bad news: I think I was ripped off big time — $1339 for a new fuel pump. I was a little shaken up after having broken down yesterday — and then putting my van back on the road in 110 degree heat for a full day’s worth of driving. I usually drive about 12-14 hours per day, turning the engine off only for getting gas & doggie romps. But Sparkle’s holding up well god bless her. The heat was absolutely excruciating today. As soon as I can get through this Sacramento & inland area, I’m off to the Bay Area and coastal stuff. I sure miss those beautiful beaches we enjoyed just a couple days ago.

I did find a nice lake in the afternoon near Mount Shasta. The dogs were freezing after just a few minutes of swimming in it. I think it was fed by a river from the mountains. But we still all enjoyed the sudden shocking cold water. Much earlier in the day, I had located a schoolyard near the mechanics’ that had just had sprinklers on so the dogs got some exercise and got a bit wet there. When I stopped throughout the day, they were obviously dumbfounded by the outside world being SO much hotter than inside the van.

I’m glad there no pet cemeteries or amusement parks on my list today that required a lot of walking around. Here’s a neat laundromat sign from Corning:

*************************************************

Redding has a little motel strip that reminded me of Reno or Vegas. Or maybe it was just the heat of the place that made them seem similar. Here are two side by side classics, now on the seedy side, with signage from both ends of their buildings.

*************************************************

I saw Western references in Red Bluff, Redding and elsewhere along the I-5 corridor. It seemed appropriate since it was just as hot and dry as West Texas.

*************************************************

Once you enter the Mount Shasta area, there is suddenly relief with pine trees and slightly cooler temperatures. Here in Dunsmuir, the Cave Springs Resort advertises from the higher “sleep under the trees”. They have a pretty scripty neon sign over the canopy (and a not so nice but still fairly old plastic pole sign).

*************************************************

Just up the road, there is apparently an older resort with a dramatic entrance:

*************************************************

The little town of Weed (not the nicest name — maybe it’s named after someone?) has several cute motels with photo-worthy signs and a very nice totem pole:

***************************************************************************

I’m not sure what type of wild-and-crazy pine tree this is. It looks more like a branch in this photo — but it’s a giant tree.

*********************************************************

And finally, my last photo stop for the day, way up just north of Yreka. I’m glad I went out of my way for this dragon. He was pretty magnificent. Made from recycled materials.

It was incredibly hot today — over 100 degrees on the bank clocks that I passed (Petaluma, Sonoma, Napa, Fairfield). The dogs were the lucky ones — comfortable in the van most of the day. Wile Mom nearly had heat stroke trying to shoot signs, buildings — and then walking around an enormous pet cemetery looking for nice inscriptions during the hottest part of the day.

Then, everything changed in the blink of an eye. In Fairfield, about to get on I-80 for Vacaville, waiting at a red light. And all of a sudden, Sparkle sputtered and stalled out. She has never stalled before and runs like a top. Wouldn’t restart. Busy intersection — slightly uphill so not pushable out of the way. Waving cars around me as I tried to be patient with AAA. The 800 number is New York and they put me on music for California. Finally, get California folks & they take my info. By now, at least fifteen minutes later, a couple cops come and park behind me and direct traffic around me. I have the dogs out of the van in the shade with me since it’s well over 100 in the van.

It takes about an hour for the tow truck. Then once at the local mechanic, by the time they take my info and a mechanic looks at my van, it’s another hour has passed. They close promptly at 5pm so I’m screwed as it’s now 4pm when they diagnose a fuel pump. They open at 8am — but won’t get the part til 9 or 10. Then they have to remove the fuel tank (after draining it) and it’s not a quick job. With luck, maybe I’ll be rolling again at noon. According to the mechanics, fuel pumps are supposed to be problematic with GMCs (Sparkle is a Chevy but they are really the same thing). They will replace with an upgraded one that doesn’t have these problems. I’m supposedly lucky to get 180,000 miles out of mine.

Ah well. So, at least I was about two days ahead of schedule & I can afford the downtime. I’ll get to bed earlier tonight, too. Maybe even be scandalous and have a beer! I wouldn’t mind so much about my stay tonight at the repair shop lot, but it’s gonna be stifling hot. I don’t mind a little urban camping — but tonight wouldn’t be my pick of nights. The dogs and I are woozy from the heat after being exposed to it for half a day already.

Anyhow — here are a few blog-worthy photos that I managed to get before the big event.

Napa and Sonoma were much too snooty for me and I made haste to get out of those downtowns. Would it be politically incorrect of me to mention how there seemed to be only two extremes everywhere I went: the obviously rich and the obviously much less-well-off farm labor workers. I found it really uncomfortable seeing those rich white folks sipping lattes at cafes while the Mexicans were out in the fields dealing with the grapes and other produce. Although I may be a privileged white girl myself touring the country, burning petrochemicals like crazy, all for the indulgence of taking signs of groovy buildings and signs… but somehow, I do feel much closer in mindset and lifestyle to the working class. Other than these trips, I really don’t spend a dime on food, movies, clothes, etc.

But I digress — here are a few photos from Napa.

Cornerstone Place is one of these wealthy folks places — for shopping, wine-tasting, art-browsing. I was here to photo this tree and then I was OUTTA there. The tree is covered with plastic ballies (yes, like my dogs, I’m obsessed with ballies myself). I didn’t do my homework to find out the meaning (if any) of this artwork:

***************************************

At the pet cemetery, there was this reminder of how hot it is. Thriving prickly pear cactus!

***************************************

These guys on the premises didn’t seem to mind:

*********************************************************

I have only one architectural shot for you today since my shooting time was so limited. I thought this building in Petaluma made creative use of cinder blocks as detail:

*********************************************************

I should also mention — in case you don’t hear from me suddenly — that I’m also experiencing some computer problems. It seems my AC adaptor isn’t working properly and the batteries aren’t charging so well. It seems to be the plug in the back of the computer is misaligned (or worn out). I have to get the stem in just so on either the battery charger or the wall outlet adapter or it’s not pulling current. I don’t think there’s anything that can be done until I get home & call Dell. So all I can do is be gentle with this plug situation and hope I can get through the next couple weeks.