Anna’s Hummingbird
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Category Archives: Monterey
Mad Dogs & Englishmen
“Crappy bikes make Baby Jesus cry”
Mad Dogs & Englishmen is a Monterey area bicycle store chain. The pictured location is in Carmel. As bike shops go, it is one of the best that I have seen. We have rented bikes from them many times in the past. Once, they rented us really nice ones, instead of their usual crappy rental fare, in the hope that we would then buy them, but it was not to be. We had used their Monterey location for this. Taking off from downtown Monterey, we would ride along the coast, around the peninsula, through Pacific Grove, to Pebble Beach and back. Pictured are two bicycles. The pink one has a sidecar, which are usually employed to cart small dogs. The other bike sports a surfboard rack. I later saw a bike with this kind of rack being employed down the hill, by Carmel beach.
Bring It Home
After almost a year, we will be closing on our Monterey property tomorrow. At this eleventh hour, we are wrestling with taxes, capital gains taxes. This week, we are dealing with the title company that wants to withhold a portion of the capital gains taxes that are due. Chris got a pass, since he lived in the house and is consequently exempt, but Frank and I had to figure out what to do. Frank eventually came up with an answer that didn’t cost too much and I copied his answer. Hopefully, tomorrow we will get paid. It has been a long road.
Switching to our Saint Louis home, we survived yesterday’s tornados. There were quite a few in the area, but none came close to us. We did lose a few branches, but nothing too large. One of these branches is still suspended across our power lateral. That will be tricky to remove, but we should be able to do it.
Tropical Heat Wave
We’re having a Heat Wave,A tropical Heat Wave.The temperature’s rising,It isn’t surprising.—Ethel Waters
Well, it is only in the sixties today. It is raining too, but we are ready for summer now. We have a new air conditioner. Starting at 7 AM this morning, installation commenced. It took six hours, longer than expected because the squirrels had chewed into the outdoor lines, necessitating their replacement and additional labor. I was wondering what those demon rodents were up to, since they have not attacked the car again recently. The new unit has an app. It also has Wi-Fi and can be remotely controlled. It also displays the humidity, which in St. Louis is usually half the summer air conditioning problem. It comes with a trial service agreement, where the vendor comes out to inspect the unit. This is how we got this new air conditioner to begin with, but I want some peace of mind knowing that it will run all summer long, even while we are away.
The other thing that occurred today, was that we were visited by a drive by notary, Pamela. We are closing on the Monterey house next week and things have progressed to the point where the title company is stepping in. So, you know that things are getting serious. The long and short of this experience is that I signed a lot of paperwork. Pamela had a rather laissez faire attitude. Whenever I had questions, she advised that I only fill out the minimum and let the title company complete the rest. Hopefully, I’ll get paid. When we do, Anne wants to flush a bunch of this money down the toilet, in the form of a new bathroom and I would like to have our current one-and-only bathroom updated with a walk-in shower, because we are getting older.
- Infrared photograph of a tropical jungle scene at 720 nm wavelength, where green is turned to white.
End of an Era
We have moved the closing date up to just over a week from now for my father’s house in Monterey. This will end an almost yearlong saga. As you can see from the photos the house is almost completely empty now. Kudos to my brothers, Anne and the liquidators. The buyers who live only a couple miles away, walk by daily now. Of the few items still left in the house, much of it is already sold.
Beach Day
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