Magic Fingers

It's now a new ungrade for all beds in west Reno. We brush our teeth, climb into bed and the Magic Fingers feature begins for us.

I think this might be the beta version though, because there are a few kinks. So it's time for consumer reviews.

• From pogonip in West Reno: At first it was kind of exciting to lie in bed
  and feel the vibrations. it was like being on vacation but we didn't have
  to feed quarters into a machine. Now we think it's just to unpredictable
  since we don't have control of when the Magic Fingers begin. We've been
  woken up from a sound sleep several times. Some of the shakes are strong
  and some are gentle. Some provide a nice rocking motions, other a
  disconcerting jolt. Some last for a reasonable time and some are way too
  long for comfort. We wouldn't recommend Mother Nature's Magic Fingers to
  anyone. Rating: one-half star (out of five).

Add your consumer review now:

Paper, Clocks, Cement

One anniversary is paper and one is clocks, then of course there's a silver anniversary and a gold...does anyone know which one is cement?

Because that's what we got each other for our anniversary Saturday. And may I just say that it's a fabulous present since it means the fence is one step closer to being finished?

Although there is something about concrete shoes and sleeping with the fishes, isn't there? Not to worry, I've been good (mostly) and he set two of the 4x4 fence posts today after soccer and before he put on a tux and bow tie and headed off to sing with the Philharmonic. Don't you just love a man who is multi-talented?

I do! (That sounds vaguely familiar somehow.)

Arbor Day

It used to be a cool hike on a hot summer day, winding along a trickling creek shaded by huge old Jeffrey pines. Kharma loved to alternate jumping the creek like a squirrel on a pogo stick and wading through it like a determined salmon. She'd gambol uphill and come crashing down at full speed through the loose soil. Inevitably she looked more like a chocolate lab than a blonde border collie when she was finished.

Then came the fire. It roared through the little drainage, consuming bushes and trees, cracking rocks with its heat. The windstorm it created scattered huge chunks of charcoal on our yard.

Today was the first time I'd been back. The lower approach was an unfamiliar-looking lunar landscape of blacks and greys. Gradually the trail wound upwards through what remained of the forest. So many of the century-old pines were blackened and sad. The fire crews' stellar efforts saved many of the larger trees. Yes, they had many toasted branches, but the tops were still green and the trunks weren't charred down below. They had a hopeful air.

Kharma and I were part of a community effort to re-forest Alum Creek. We had ten baby pine trees to plant with our team, a dad and his fourth grade son. We dug deep, planted tenderly, mounded soil and mulched with rock. The fourth grader acted as water boy, carrying water uphill from the creek to "our" trees.

Kharma pogo-sticked over the creek and splashed happily through the water as usual. She looked in vain for birds, lizards and squirrels to chase. She had black socks before long as the ash and charcoal began to coat her wet legs.

We're dirty and tired but happy. The century-old pines cannot be replaced easily or quickly, but we plan to nurture our baby trees, watering them through the summer, mulching them to retain moisture and watching them grow year by year.

Someday, someone else will take their dog for a walk through a cool and shady forest next to the stream. That'll be our reward. That, and this simple poem we found posted on a fence enroute. It resonated, especially on a day like this one:

Work like you don't need the money.
Love like you've never been hurt.
Dance like no one is watching.
Live like it's heaven on earth.

Amen.

A-Rockin' and a-Rollin'

Earthquakes. They are almost constant right now.

Today a couple of nice strong jolts at school threw the kindergartners into a tizzy. The quakes are pretty small, but we are just a couple of miles from the faults that are producing these tremors so we really feel them. At home, we hold our breath for a couple seconds while we wait for the rolling to stop. At school, the kidlets have to crawl under the tables every time we have a quake.

The first strong 3.2 quake surprised us all. I said, "Earthquake! Get under the tables." Twenty-eight freaked-out little bodies in fetal position were under the tables before I finished. I've never been listened to so well!

That one day produced twenty-five quakes alone. Now our classroom is free of anything heavy that could fall down on a child. We plan an earthquake evacuation drill soon. Just in case. Because we don't really know what will develop.

Now the quakes are constant, usually mini ones so small that there's just a little twitch. We've had several 3 pointers that are just loud enough and bounce us around enough that we stop and wonder just how big a quake we're experiencing. Then they're interspersed with the occasional 4.2 just to make sure we're taking Mom Earth seriously.

We are. Trust me on this one.

The UNR Seismology Lab is bookmarked and referred to constantly for the latest as are the USGS earthquake sites. The whole West Coast is shaking right now, but Reno apparently has the "E" ticket.

I'm a California Girl and unimpressed (usually) by anything less than a 6.0, although I'll enjoy the lesser ones. Hey, I survived the 7.1 Whittier Quake and let me tell you, that was a quake to remember especially as our house was located right on the fault.

This swarm of quakes is a first for me though. Today produced four 3.2+ quakes, two of which woke us up last night and two during the day. There were about fifty other smaller ones (I counted them on the UNR site), many of which we felt.

I look out at Mt. Rose and Slide Mountain, all 10,000 feet of them and remember that they didn't get way higher than the Truckee Meadows without some serious shaking going on.

Shut up, sit down and buckle up. Let's enjoy the ride.

Progress

There's still no fence...but I managed to dig around the old concrete where two of the 4x4 posts used to be!

After the oak tree was removed, I had excavated around the old posts in preparation for fence reconstruction. I'd exposed the concrete, used the "jet" setting on the hose and began a little hydraulic mining on two of the posts that needed replacing. It worked remarkably well. Maybe a little too well, because when our 85 mph breezes arrived there wasn't quite enough to hold up the fence. It might have gone down anyway, but I unintentionally helped it along.

Cleanup came next. Thanks heavens for son #2 because those fence sections were heavy. I would have been smooshed if I'd tried to carry them off myself. Once the old fence was removed I could easily see the concrete footings but I kinda wimped out till the weather was a little nicer. Unfortunately the balmiest days were weekdays, but this weekend found me dressed warmly with pick and shovel in hand. I warmed up quickly once I began!

It sounds a little funny, but I love swinging a pick. I like how much easier it is than using a shovel, but I love how precise I can be with it. It's surprising how ya can hit the exact spot you aim at!

The first concrete footing was a tad daunting--much bigger than I had expected. It turned out to be about twenty inches in diameter. Fortunately for me it was shaped like a mushroom and narrowed once I was down about six inches. It took all morning, but I got to the bottom of it before noon and could feel a slight wiggle when I grabbed one of the old posts and applied a little leverage. A wiggle was all I could achieve no matter how hard I pressed. You'd think that all the Christmas/Valentine/Easter chocolate decorating my tummy, thighs, buns, etc. and sending my scale into spasms would have come in handy but no luck. That concrete must weigh well over a hundred pounds.

So...I set my sights on footing number two, which turned out to be smaller and easier. It was kinda tight quarters digging around it even though I dug out two roses what were in the way first. The poor smashed wisteria trunk, which I hope will send out new shoots, was only three inches away from the concrete. The soil was nice and soft due to all the water from my mining operations and so two and a half hours later, I could move it a bit.

Good thing too, because poor Kharma is sick of getting in trouble every time she goes over to visit the Bichon Frisees in back of us. Our neighbor is great about it, but we don't want to press our luck. So chicken wire is strung in the gap to slow her down, but Kharma pretty much laughs at anything less than a five foot fence. I'm motivated to get those two footing removed and new posts and footings installed as quickly as humanly possible just to keep the pup in the yard.

Now I'm just waiting for a big strong man with a pry bar to come my way.

Woof Arf Aroo

Translation from Kharma-speak: Two Year Anniversary

But my title would be Love At First Sight

I remember how glad I was to find our sweet little blonde puppy after so much searching.

My sweetie remembers how glad he was that he didn't have to drive to Corona CA after all to see this sweet little girl. She was named Dayna and I would have made begged asked him drive 400 miles down and 400 miles back to get her if Kharma hadn't been waiting closer to home.

Kharma has truly been the easiest puppy we've ever had. We had a grand total of three bathroom accidents in the house while we were housebreaking. She never chewed up any of our shoes or garden tools or dug up expensive plants. (We will be replacing the drip irrigation system in our backyard before the summer heat arrives, but we chalked that little lapse up to the influence of her BFF across the street.)

It was just about this time of evening that we finished up the paperwork, figured out how to assemble the borrowed crate, and loaded her into our Forester for the trip home. Two years have never passed more quickly. Sweet, sweet memories.

She filled the void left by our dear Tess, created her own identity and claimed her own corner of our hearts. She's our baby, our little girl, our pride and joy.

We love you, Kharma.

Kharma Likes It

We started the week with a fence that had a few wobbly 4x4s that (obviously) needed replacing. Don't you love our hillbilly support system?


We ended Monday with something quite different. Our poor old fence tangled with the eighty-five mph wind gusts and just couldn't quite stand up to them.

Kharma went out to the yard and looked at me with approval when she saw her new and improved, much larger yard. Just goes to show--it's all in your perspective.