On the 1st, drove Kathy to oral surgeon where she got her tori shaved down. Then did some shopping and got our RSV vaccination before heading home.

Kathy dispaying her blood-stained teeth while we waited for meds and vaccine shots at CVS

Dave walking back to final test of pressure reducer at the house

Dave turning on the main valve

Pressure was 100 psi before the pressure reducer installed, here it is 40, but was 60 when he left. Next day it got up to 90, but at least hot water relief valve was not being triggered

On the 2nd, Jef walked to the office & did some work.

Panorama as Jef reached top on way to work

Panorama as Jef started up spur trail on way home

This white thing seemed out of place on the mountain

Turns out sun was in right place to reflect off of the highway

Note passenger in car at left - this is crowd at wine tasting event - we didn't go due to cost and Kathy still recovering from surgery

On the 3rd, mostly took it easy all day. Jef did some chores including washing Kathy's car.

On the 4th, back to work a fairly busy day at the office.

Contrails at sunset

On the 5th, a medium busy day at the office.

Sunrise this morning

On the 6th, Jef drove Kathy to MD in Rancho Mirage & stopped and did some shopping on way home. We did burger nite at the legion this evening.

Later summer rains fueled these verbena blooming in Rancho Mirage

Jef's burger (a double-double) at the legion

On the 7th, back to work a busy day at the office.

Venus & moon at sunrise this morning

Mountains had a "bad hair" day

On the 8th, a fairly short day at the office.

On the 9th, Jef walked to the office on usual trail - 52 minutes there and 55 minutes back & did some work over at Sewanee house.

Venus & moon just before sunrise this morning

At the pass on walk to work

Slope just barely illuminated by the low sun

Final steep descent into wash

Charles' family left a bunch of stuff at Sewanee house - this appears to be a dehumidifier/fan/evaportive cooler?

Upstairs bedroom

Panorama from above

Living room desk

Dining room table

Chairs & stools

Fireplace

Kitchen sink

Blender & toaster

Hot water heater

Charles took this pic between 2 mirrors, apparently

Looks like a raincoat?

Closet under stairs

Bathroom sink

Stained carpet

Lower bedroom

Matching Kenmore washer & dryer

Wood storage rack needs fixing

Back patio

Stuff heading to thrift store, I assume

Weber gas bar-b-Q

Main reason I went over was to repair this main water line leak

Dug up the meter in search of shutoff valves (only the main meter valve shuts completely)

Planning on fixing this sign at some point

Kym drove Jan home & Jef picked her up, afterwards we checked out Sewanee house, and Kym claimed the bread box

Sunset this evening

On the 10th, Jef did some more work at Sewanee, fixing the leak and finding 1 key that fit the door locks there, so locked up the house.

Wile E. walked by after I completed the repair

Work area

Replaced anti-siphon valve

On the 11th, back to work a busy day at the office.

Sunset this evening

On the 12th, another busy day at the office.

Weird cloud above Santa Rosas

On the 13th, walked to the office & did some work. Then fixed the sign at Sewanee.

Walked past this guy on "my" trail going to work!

Fixed sign

On the 14th, moderately light day at the office.

On the 15th, another easy day at the office.

Contrailly day

Put up tree at work this day

On the 16th, drove Kathy to MD in Escondido & got a roast for Xmas & did other shopping before returning home.

Sunrise this morning

Clouds in the sky seem like ripples in a pond this day

On the 17th, mostly did chores at home and cleaned up carport at Sewanee.

After hosing down carport

Cool clouds on our walk to research center (where we bought a Borrego calendar for the office)

A murder of ravens hang around entrance of Weststar after we arrived back to the circle

Jef had put up some xmas lights earlier

Our house from the road

Moon setting this night

On the 18th, drove Kathy to dentist in RB, interviewed for a home loan at my credit union, got an xmas tree before driving home.

On the 19th, back to work a moderate day at the office.

On the 20th, another fairly light day at the office.

On the 21st, a very light day at the office.

On the 22nd, a busy day at the office. We got rain previous nite and off & on during the day.

Rain as seen in our back yard

We've always had a problem of water leaking into our sun room during big rain storms

Front yard - note the limited visibility

Low clouds today

Panorama at sunset

Don't think we got any snow even at high altitudes

On the 23rd, took it easy at home, doing some chores. Holley & Albaro arrived in the late afternoon & spent the nite.

Morning sun hitting xmas tree

Xmas tree at sunrise this morning

Went over to Sewanee & trimmed this desert willow

Albaro & Holley with tree in foreground

View from the road after putting up new xmas lights earlier this day

View of our driveway from house

On the 24th, Jef made breakfast: hash browns(O'Brien), eggs & bacon. Jef did quick 1 hour hike to hill behind old country club while Kathy took it easy at home and Albaro & Holley drove to Julian to buy pies. This evening, Morgans came over & we had 7 for dinner this evening: prime-cut filet mignon roast, baked taters, green bean casarole & salad.

Jef went to right of these trashcans, but after returning, determined trail starts just to the left. He intercepted trail about halfway up to top

Still a few chinchweeds in bloom

Self-timed photo of Jef at top with cameral placed on top of a barrel cactus

Turnaround point in hike

Looking down from pass towards water tank

Looking down at wash Jef takes to get to work - crossing pass just below "the angel" of Coyote Mtn.

Descending to the old country club

End of the dinner(Kathy is the slowest eater) just before pie

On the 25th, Jef cooked breakfast: sausages & fritatas. Holley & Albaro took off around midday for smell-A, so we could take it easy. Kathy wanted to go on a hike, but apparently was too exhausted.

Jef got a hat like Ralphie wore in Xmas Story(released 40 years ago), posing with a bb-gun - no, he didn't shoot his eye out

Hanging out in kitchen after breakfast

Family posing in front of xmas tree

On the 26th, back to work a medium busy day at the office.

Moon rising over clouds this evening

On the 27th, back to work a light day at the office.

Sunrise this morning

Mountains before being hit by sun

Ruddy mountains just after sun poked out

Another contrailly day

Kinda looks like a flat rainbow near horizon at sunset this evening

Kathy didn't get Jef out in time for another spectacular sunset, but here we are at tail end of it

On the 28th, a light day at the office due to cancellations.

Still some contrails today

On the 29th, a moderately busy day at the office.

A couple of ravens flying by at sunrise this morning

Another contrailly day

Sunset this evening at Palm Canyon Rd

On the 30th, Jef went to the office to get computer for zoom (delayed xmas gift opening) with Stacey & grandkids this morning.

Some clouds in mtns this day - we got enough rain in the morning to wet the ground!

Our setup for the xmas zoom meeting

Opening presents

Happy Ronan with new toys - yellow plane is Eli's new car carrier

At sunset this evening

On the 31st, helped Kathy make stuffed mushrooms for potluck. Went to Legion for Jan's party, but found we were 2 1/2 hours early. Killed time until party, and had a little to eat. Kym fell down on her face getting some firewood, so we went home a little early. Blew off doing anything for NY eve except watching NY & Chicago hit 2024 on TV.

Kathy & Kym gave Jan her presents early at the bar at the Legion this afternoon

2 flavours of cake

Dining area was decorated by Tracey

Jef walked around neighborhood to kill time until party started - noticed new SVP house is next to old Linkroum house and the community pool is still around - and now has a hot tub

Part of huge solar farm for La Casa

Different pix of Jan at each table - these are motorcyclist Jan

After party started - Jan moved to older dining area a bit later, tho

Outside bar was functioning, and Tracey's decorations were evident here, as well

Kym fall down & go boom - someone gave her a box of kleenex for her to wipe up her blood

Caught the tail end of the sunset

We got a little fire going, but it went out before we left about 10 minutes from this point

On the 1st, walked 1 1/2 times around circle with Kathy (about 1.3 miles), her first walk in weeks. Then did some work at the office. Kathy took Jef to Legion for burger nite.

Cool sunrise this morning

Panorama walking around circle this afternoon

At the legion

On the 2nd, back to work a long day in the office. Learned Charles was in very bad shape from his visiting sister. Flaco and a friend stopped by and talked for a bit this afternoon, followed by Lenny who revealed a lot about house in Santee and goings on in Borrego. Lenny, btw, was the one who noticed and reported to manager and fire department that the De Anza Country Club was burning down the other night.

On the 3rd, another long day at the office.

On the 4th, Jef walked to office the easy way, as his foot started hurting in about 38 minutes, and did some work. Went back the hard way in under 55 minutes. Kathy was in a lot of pain this afternoon.

Kathy's "Nightmare before" Xmas cactus - which started blooming on Halloween

Cross on church hill poking at Indianhead nose

Contrail clouds all day

Starting uphill on way home

I could hear music on walk home, so looks like a concert at the circle

Sunset this evening with lit-up contrails

On the 5th, daylight savings time.

Set clock in driveway facing east to try to reset it this morning

Found out why the black Jeep was leaking fluid on last off road trip about 6 weeks ago...

As can be seen here, bubbles are coming from the radiator overflow tank

On the 6th, back to work a moderately light day at the office.

On the 7th, a fairly busy day at the office.

Clouds at top of mountain mean...

...a windy evening today

On the 8th, Jef & Kathy went on a 3 mile hike to the old country club. Then Jef drove to the office & did some work. Meanwhile, Kathy fell asleep & missed her hair appointment, but her friend felt sorry for her and cut her hair.

Kathy by research center gate

Water is leaking out the top of our water heater...

...probably due to this defective relief valve

On the 9th, back to work for another busy day at the office.

A bird met its untimely demise in front of our office recently

On the 10th, after a moderate day at the office, we drove over to John's to plan the next Glorietta Thanksgiving.

Another contrailly day

Just before small crowd arrived for the happy hour meeting

The meeting peaked at 10 people, including John's grandsons

Outside downstairs patio

Some of John's completed works surrounded the meeting

Joseph, seen here, and other grandson John spent a lot of time with their grandpa during our meeting

Within about 20 minutes, everyone else left, and only Jef, John, Kathy & the boys remained and we stayed & talked for another hour

On the 11th, walked to the office in about 53 minutes, did some work and walked back to short way in under 37 minutes.

One of Kathy's philodendron is growing straight up the wall

I think this is aaltbush, the only one in the area, and it has fall colour

Still some chinchweed blooming

On the 12th, drove over to Sewanee to see Charles, but his relative caregivers said they just got a fever under control & he was sleeping.

The last problem Charles reported was a leak in this antisiphon valve

Healthy plants by this valve

On the 13th, Kathy had an upset tummy, so stayed home while Jef did some work at the office.

On the 14th, back to work a moderately busy day at the office.

On the 15th, Jef drove to SD to briefly see the dentist, the Santee house, the bank, and do most of the Thanksgiving shopping. Ran into a fair downpoor on way to SD, and got rain on & off this evening and into the next morning.

Drove to SD under cloudy skies

On the 16th, we got a little more rain, followed by fog before it cleared up. Had a fairly busy day at the office.

A little more rain this morning

Fog!

Low clouds obscuring bottom part of Santa Rosas

Clouds hovering below mountain peaks this day

Mountains were misty this afternoon

On the 17th, another fairly busy day a the office.

Sunset this evening

Traffic coming down grade this evening

On the 18th, drove Kathy to see MD in Escondido. We did some last minute Thanksgiving shopping on the way home.

About to leave home

Cool clouds at MD in Esc

Dumpy MD office in Esc

Sunset this evening

On the 19th, took it easy before doing the 3 mile hike to/from the old country club.

Sunrise this morning

Kathy by the old country club

We were guessing what codes corresponded to (Jef thinks different types of pothole fixing) - we saw several codes and brackets of areas to be fixed on our walk home

On the 20th, back to work a medium busy day at the office.

On the 21st, a short day at the office.

Kathy's Thanksgiving cactus

On the 22nd, a medium busy day at the office.

Orion setting in west at 3 a.m. this morning - as Jef took doggies out to pee

Kathy played the quarter game - Jef won on the first try and was banned from the game for the evening. Kathy won on her last quarter(out of 7)

On the 23rd, Jef & Kathy finished making their contribution to John's Thanksgiving pot luck in Glorietta - Jef did deviled eggs & a green salad, and Kathy did mashed potatoes. We ate early, as wind was bad today and was getting worse. The wind blew the big shade cover up and it rolled into and over Patrick's Hummer - breaking a window. Kathy had a bad trip & fall, hitting her hand, knee & head hard. She thought (and it was later confirmed) that she broke her hand. She also probably sustained a concussion. Jef didn't realize the seriousness of the injuries and went on a 40 minute "spirit walk", repeating Charles quest to re-find the "world's biggest ocotillo". Jef checked out a slightly different area, but failed to find it. Jef & Kathy were the last to leave, but didn't stay long after John had left, as Kathy felt nausea. Jef dumped 5 gallons of water on the fire before leaving.

Setting up the ill-fated big shade tent

After tents are set up

View looking down canyon

Some of the food

We brought Peanut & Mia, as well

John & grandson John got fire going

Panorama at the dinner table

Patrick leading vote to eat early

After wind gust picked up shade tent

Kevin is the first to notice

Patrick needs a new window

Just in case you need to know what kind of tire this is

After we hauled the tent shade back to camp, we found it was broken, so didn't erect it again

Other tent shade was also threatening to blow up, so it was decided to remove the fabric top

Joseph tending fire

After Jef started his "spirt walk" for Charles, looking back at camp

Went up this wash, which turned out to be same one Charles led us up

Eriogonum flowers

Where wash hits rocky area

Ocotillos - but not the biggest in the world

Panorama of the next canyon over

At edge of where it gets steep

Indianhead

Lots of fruit on this desert groundcherry!

I picked up virgin statue on way back to camp

Statue is to left of Kathy as she sits by the fire

John's grandson, John, borrowed camera - here is Joseph & Jef near the fire

People act strange when cute littel kids are taking their picture

Joseph clowning around

Joseph is taking pics by now

Kathy, altho in pain and nauseated, took camera away from Joseph at this point

Both kids played around on nearby boulders

Jef & Kathy - last to leave

Wind blew down the appetizers

Wind-blown sparks from fire

After most of water doused most of fire

On the 24th, Kathy was not feeling well, so Jef went to John's "Black Friday whiskey eggs" in Glorietta and Jef cleaned up the fire pit and we left the site as we found it.

This morning

After Jef cleaned up fire pit and before we had breakfast

Jef's cooktop ran out of fuel, but John had a back up

First flames from whiskey eggs

Grandson John borrowed camera again and started snapping pix

Grandpa wondering whose camera John had

Grandpa

Self portrait ... with Jef's feet in background

Jef reclaimed camera to get action photos of John's whiskey eggs

Jef persuaded John to also make whiskey bacon!

Flames are visible in multiple places here - Joseph, by the way, is in background dealing with having beavertail spines stuck all over his body

Joseph has pants off in background - we did try getting them off his butt, but he proved to be a bad patient after a while, and a pain relieving lotion seemed to solve this problem for the time being

Final batch of whiskey eggs

Just before packing it up

Ready to go

Pointing to final tie down - John needs a new rope for this

Sunset this evening after Jef did a little work at the office

Moonrise at WestStar

On the 25th, Jef cooked the turkey, but Kathy could not help and her nausea grew worse during the day. She waited for Jef to finish cooking the turkey and take a shower before she called 911 and got hauled to Pomerado Hospital. Jef put away turkey & fed doggies before driving to the hospital, staying with Kathy for about 7 hours. With the busy Thanksgiving weekend, lots of people in ER were throwing up and this nauseated Kathy even more. A CAT scan and xray was taken, along with blood tests and it was determined her head was okay (so she probably just had a small concussion), and blood tests were negative. After about the 3rd medication, Kathy finally got some relief, so we left after midnite and went to a 24 hour pharmacy and obtained one of the meds before driving home. A couple days later, the doctor called and said Kathy actually did break her hand, as well.

After Jef got turkey ready to put in oven

Kathy forgot to cancel belated Thanksgiving dinner with Morgans and they arrived as paramedics were about to haul Kathy to Poway

Kym saying goodbye to Kathy

On the 26th, Jef drove Kathy home from ER around 2a.m. at which time Kathy was so hungry and her nausea relieved that she finally ate some turkey. After Kathy caught up on some sleep, Kathy made some gravy and then we hiked to old country club and back (about 2.5 miles).

Cool clouds as Kathy starts walk to old country club

Sunset this evening

On the 27th, a fairly long day at the office.

Sunrise this morning

On the 28th, a medium busy day at the office where Kathy was falling asleep before finishing her notes.

On the 29th, a short day at the office, that of course, turned into a fairly long day.

On the 1st, took it easy at home. Jef started taking antibiotics for dental visit on the 11th.

On the 2nd, back to work a medium busy day a the office.

On the 3rd, another medium busy day at the office.

On the 4th, drove Kathy to Rancho Mirage for MD appointment, then got car serviced, then went shopping and finally took her to sushi for an early birthday dinner before getting fancy gas and driving home.

At Joyce's sushi - new management is a big improvement

On the 5th, back to work a long day at the office.

On the 6th, a fairly busy day at the office.

On the 7th, took it easy. We drove over and had belated birthday pumpkin pie and talked with the Morgans this evening.

Late sunset over the pool - note an alien mothership had previously poked a hole in the clouds

At the Morgans

On the 8th, took it easy and Jef did some more catch up work at the office.

Sunrise this morning - looks like a tornado over Fonts Point

Texas sage doing great after big rain from about 5 weeks ago

On the 9th, back to work a medium busy day at the office.

Sunset this evening

Had a drink in the back patio - even had a tiki torch going

Kym's umbrella light made nice lighting in our table

Jef & Kathy

On the 10th, a fairly busy day at the office.

On the 11th, Jef drove to SD to get a tooth yanked out and bone graft.

Due to severe wind, Jef delayed putting out trash, but fortuneately it was picked up shortly after taking it out - here are trash cans just after being picked up this morning

A dentist office is a SCARY place

There's no place like home, there's no place like home....

On the 12th, back to work for a busy day at the office.

On the 13th, a very light day at the office, but Kathy was not doing well.

Wispy contrailly clouds this morning

Wispy clouds lasted to sunset

Looking at grade this evening - seemed to have more going on up there

On the 14th, Jef did some work at the office.

Kathy cooked up some jumbo shrimp & baked potato for dinner this evening

On the 15th, Kathy not doing well stayed home.

On the 16th, Kathy took week off due to back pain. Jef did some work at the office.

Just after sunrise this morning

On the 17th, another day with Kathy at home in bed. Jef did more at office.

On the 18th, another day with Kathy at home in bed. Jef again did some work at the office.

On the 19th, besided back pain, Kathy also came down with a UTI, so visited the clinic to get some antibiotics.

On the 20th, Jef walked to the office (in about an hour), arriving when temp was 102°F, did some work and left when temp was 105°F.

Surprised to see desert hibiscus blooming

Even a bug at the edge of the flower

Fagonias blooming

Even galletta grass blooming!

Chinchweed blooming by big step in steep section of trail

More chinchweed

Close camper found a free place to camp within 1/2 mile of Borrego Days Festival

Some clouds about noon after arriving at the office

Fall folliage for Ocotillos

On the 21st, drove Kathy to MD in Esc, did some shopping & got our flu shots on way home. Kathy was struggling with medical issues, but we made it. Jef started doing a bunch of cooking.

on the 22nd, Jef continues doing a lot of cooking. We skipped going to Borrego Days this weekend, as Kathy was not doing that well.

On the 23rd, Kathy laid low at home for one more day before going back to work.

Clouds at edge of mtns means wind down here

Planted some pepper & tomato seeds

Nearing sunset this evening

Ravens swooping by at the Mall

Is it a murder of ravens? no, looked it up, it's an "unkindness" of ravens!

On the 24th, back to work for a moderately busy day at the office.

On the 25th, Kathy stayed home & got her crown that came off the other day re-cemented in. Jef drove to SD to do some shopping & drop money off at Big Rock for Rob.

Our smiles were not sufficiently revealing, but we are both missing a lower front tooth

Halloween decorations of our Big Rock neighbor

Hope Rob cleans up this dangerous mess before Halloween!

Stopped by Lake Cuyamaca on way home to catch a pic of some fall folliage

You can barely see it here at the right, but the overflow lake is completely dried up

There seems to be more homes on this hillside than I ever remembered

On the 26th, back to work a moderately busy day at the office.

Some contrails today

On the 27th, another moderately busy day at the office. Kathy did some home care into the evening.

On the 28th, Jef walked to the office in 58 minutes and did some work.

Saw this double trailer going down the grade this morning!

Windmill flowers

Desert hibiscus

Yellowhead

Bee by chinchweed

Possibly a kissing bug

Jupiter was by moon this evening

Took Kathy to Krazy Koyote

Kathy: lobster thermador, Jef: chicken caeser

Kathy wound up with some sangria & ice cream by the end of dinner

Jef went over and took pic of hole in ground where a new access to underpool bar will be

Pool this evening - note it says "The Palms" on the bottom of the pool

The crazy "falsetto" piano player provided background music during our meal

On the 30th, back to work for a very light day at the office.

You can still see some smoke by de Anza, where the big clubhouse burned down last nite!

On the 31st, a fairly busy day at the office.

Went "all out" on my costume this year