November's Last Wine Review

As I spent the afternoon cleaning up my office, I have a pile of bottles that I need to toss out.  Before doing so, I wanted to briefly mention them here.  All of these were drinkable, enjoyable, affordable, and bought at my local Bressi Ranch Trader Joe's grocery store.  None of them were more than $10 a bottle with the exception of the Pinot Noir, which was about $16 a bottle if my recollection is accurate.

The Monique Cellars 2016 Sauvignon Blanc Central Coast white wine was pretty good.  Screw top, not corked, it was fine quality.


The Castle Rock Winery 2015 Sauvignon Blanc Mendocino County has a straight-forward label, was less than $6 a bottle, and is shelved right next to the Trader Joe's branded wine bottles I mentioned earlier.  Screw-top also, this wine did not suffer from a poor quality cork, oxidized shelf life, or any skinny or undrinkable aspects.  Recommended as an affordable go-to wine, if you're not near a Trader Joe's.


Kidia Sauvignon Blanc, estate bottled 2016, D.O. Loncomilla Valley Chile.  It had some citrus notes but was not over-powering like a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.  I tried it, liked it, and thought I'd mention it to you here.

Reserva Orquídea Rosario Estate Sauvignon Blanc, D.O. Valle Central Chile.  Like the Kidia Sauvignon Blanc, this was an enjoyable white wine. Also a screw top, shelved beside the Kidia, it was a delicious dual bottle purchase.


Lastly, Trader Joe's Platinum Reserve Pinot Noir Carneros 2015, 1430 cases produced.  Dr Desert Flower really enjoyed this wine, stating it had notes of currant and a smooth follow-through on tasting (as of February 2016 I can't drink red without getting itchy).  I had a sip, and it was yummy.  More pricey near $16 a bottle (or two to three times as much as the other bottles mentioned above in this post) it's not for every-day drinking chez nous, but it is a good recommendation and something we'll enjoy from time to time (while supplies last).



For tasting notes and nuances, it's been too long since I enjoyed these to be very descriptive here.  However, if any of these were bad, I would have either dumped them down the drain, or not mentioned them here... rest assured.

AdSense Now Enabled

Well readers, after my employer of almost 20 years decided in March of 2017 that 20% of their skilled, experienced, highly efficient engineering work force must go and be sacrificed on the alter of unrealistic Wall Street expectations to meet investor reduced operating overhead costs and generate higher dividends, I began looking for alternate means of providing for my family with gainful employment.  One of the things I did, was to add Google AdSense to my blog, to generate ad revenue from the number of eye balls and clicks that the JustJoeP blog apparently draws.  Since the November 2016 election, the clicks have sky rocketed to 10X to 20X or more of what they had traditionally drawn over the last 7 years.

It seemed simple.  "It may take as long as 3 days" AdSense kept telling me, each time I checked their site... in April, May, June, and the beginning of July.  FINALLY, this week, Google Adsense sends me an email that says I've finally been approved.  I am not sure what species of creature sees "3 days" as more than 3 months... but perhaps whatever alien are that runs Google advertising moves at a speed much closer to "c" (or 299,792,458 meters /sec... and it's been that speed for billions of years, despite what Quick Earth Creationists have convinced themselves that it is changing, and thus making carbon dating unreliable).

So now, I apologize, but Google Adsense is enabled.  I've supposedly made 7 cents this week with Google Adsense (yes, that's 0.07 dollars).  But now that it IS enabled, I will probably start blogging more than I've been in the last 3 months... il faut voir.

$400 Washers / Circlips

Several weeks ago, back in April, Dr Desert Flower and I drove down to South Point beach in her Volvo C70 convertible with the top down, as it was a beautiful Southern California day.  When we arrived at the Point State Park parking lot, I pressed the center console button on the car to put the top back up, so that
a) no birds would poop in our car
and
b) no opportunist miscreants would steal the $150 parking hang tag from the rear view mirror

As I waited for the roof to emerge from the trunk, and un-shuffle itself in a truly remarkable "transformer-esque" unfolding (it's so cool to me, as an engineer, that I try to wait for small children to be walking by when I initiate the sequence outside a store in a parking lot, so that the little kids point, and I tell them with a smile "this car knows Bumblebee" as I get out, and they're amazed) ... the roof Suddenly Stopped!  The unfolding / un-shuffling stopped, and Would Not go up, not down, 1/2 way through the sequence.  Merde.  This was not good.  You can't drive the car with the roof 1/2 way up.  I could hear the servo motors whirring, but there Was No Motion.  The roof was stuck.

As a good engineer, the first thing you do is "read the manual" and hope that the manual was written by someone who had English as a first language.  As I got out and inspected the 1/2 way retracted roof, looking for anything obvious that might be jamming it, like debris, leaves, a branch, a broken linkage, and also sniffing for any smells of burnt plastic, cooked lubricant, or any odiferous by-products of extreme friction, DDF read the manual.

She found an instruction for the convertible roof, that was really straightforward:  'If the roof ceases to retract or deploy, hold down the roof actuator button and continue to hold it for 2 minutes.  You'll hear a beeping sound. Depress the button as the beeping sound continues.  Do not release the button until the roof is completely up.  Have the roof serviced immediately.'  So I held the button, listened to the beeps, and continued to do so until FINALLY the roof actuators over-came whatever was preventing their progress.

I already knew that Hugo's - who has done my oil changes, brake & suspension work, and tune ups since we moved to San Diego County - in Encinitas did not service convertible roofs, and deferred that to the dealer.  So Monday morning I reluctantly called the dealer and schedule my Volvo to be brought in the next day to have the roof actuator mechanisms serviced.

Late the next afternoon, I get a call from the Volvo Service manager, with an accusation as his first words: "Who has been working on your car?"
"No one has touched the roof since I bought it" - which was the truth.
"Well, we found some washers inside the roof liner; I had my best man on it, and he nearly didn't see them, but after we'd gotten the whole roof apart we found them all magnetized and bunched up together on the sensor.  I saved them for you, in a small box. You can have them when you pick it up this afternoon. It'll be $400."
Gulp.

So I rode my bicycle down to the Carlsbad Volvo dealer, were they are 2 blocks from the coast, and 350 feet elevation lover than my home, so the net ride, though there were two 100 foot hills to climb, had an appreciable positive potential energy differential.  When I got there, I was handed the little box of "washers" pictured above.  I would not call them "washers" as I was taught, back in the late 80s when Matt T and I began working at Michelin Tire that these were called "Circlips" or "External retaining rings", used to hold a clevis in place on a trunnion, or to keep a shaft from moving axially (google search "circlip" and you can see multiple examples).

According to the senior technician who found them,  all of these little circlips had bunched up, and found their way to the magnetic sensor near the rear view mirror in the center of the windshield's frame that detected when the roof was fully up, to tell the control system to stop putting power to the actuator, since the roof is assumed to be "fully in place".  They were wedged BETWEEN the cloth head liner, and the metal roof, and over-time, they had become magnetized (clumping together).  "There are not supposed to be any of these in the roof assembly whatsoever" the head of the Service Department told me in his Scottish accent, hence his insistence that someone had put them there.
"Could they have come from the factory, where accidentally, in Belgium, someone had dropped some?" I inquired?
"Doubtful...  but... maybe" was his incredulous reply.

If they didn't come from the factory by accident, then someone "sprinkled" or "wedged" broken retaining clips (circlips) between the roof panels and the elastomer seals... but that kind of sabotage would take patience, time, and access to the car with the roof down... something we don't ever allow, because of avian excrement and the possibility of thievery and mischief.

While the circlips themselves are probably worth about 10 cents each, extracting them from the roof assembly, and then re-assembling the entire roof in an "as new" condition, without tears, dirty finger prints, or any cosmetic indications whatsoever, was worth a few hundred dollars, as it was something I could not have done with finesse or without frustration.

Recommended Trader Joe White Wines

So after last year's revelation that red wine was one of The main culprits driving my night time itching & scratching, I transitioned over to white wines, available at my local grocery store for the most part.  Trader Joe's is less than 2 miles away.  Sprouts is about 3 miles away.   Jimbo's organic grocery is about 4 miles away.  Each has a wide variety of different wines.  Trader Joes has the 72% cocao chocolate, and the lowest priced wines (and liquor) I've seen, so we tend to go there more.

The Barbadillo 2015, Castillo de San Diego, Spanish white is not bad.  It has a buttery finish to it, and a pleasant taste.  I can drink one or two glasses, and enjoy it.  If I drink the entire bottle over dinner and a movie in a single evening, it gives me a forehead-centered massive headache the next morning, so it is best to be shared with others, or limit to one or two glasses, max.  It was 6 or 7 dollars at Trader Joes, and was a successful experiment.

The David Front Sauvignon Blanc, wine of the Western Cape of South Africa, 2016, was one of my experiments to find a sauvignon blanc that is not grapefruity.  I really don't enjoy an overwhelmingly grapefruity sauvignon blanc like New Zealand makes, so I attempted the South African one from David Frost and it was not bad.  Crisp, some citrus, but not sour grapefruit.  Enjoyable. Only 7 dollars at Trader Joes.

The Trader Joes Coastal Sauvignon Blanc, 2014, Central Coast (California) has become my new "go to" white wine, as it has a wonderful buttery finish, extremely smooth, very tasty, and it only costs $5 a bottle at Trader Joes.  Highly recommended.  And your Trader Joes should carry it too... if they don't, ask them to order some and it'll fly off the shelves wherever you are.

Finally, the Javier San Pedro Randez Viura 2014 Rioja Spanish white is an unexpectedly find that turned out quite well.  It's a $8 bottle locally, but it is very smooth, flavorful, comes in a serialized bottle from Spain, and a bargain at $8.  Try it for yourself, and see.

Now, I can clean out the wine bottles that have been on my home office desk for weeks... and let the dusting begin.  = )

Remember, Everything 45 Says Is A Lie

For American adults who are aware of politics, or follow election results and what happens in Washington DC after elections, 2017 has been a very bizarre, chaotic, inconsistent year so far, and it shows no signs of getting better.  I preface this with "American adults" because as kids, or even as teenagers or in my very early 20s, I really didn't pay any attention to what was happening politically in my state (Indiana and then South Carolina, both were led by Democrats back then) or in the nation's capital for that matter.  It was only after my son was school aged, and came home from parochial school during the Bill Clinton administration asking me 'why do people have abortions?' and 'what's a blow job?' that I began to pay more attention to who was running, why I should vote for them or against them, and what they might do once in office.

After we moved to Arizona in 2007 (10 years ago, yep), began this blog in 2008 at my friend Ron's recommendation, and then moved to California in 2012, I increasingly began to pay more attention, to filter out shrill voices, hyperbole, and nonsense, and embraced my own informed opinions about politics, our elected leaders, Congressional Oversight, and Constitutional checks and balances.  Visiting China, India, Germany, the UK, France, Italy, Suisse, Austria, Australia, Romania, Poland, the Netherlands, UAE, Spain, Mexico, Canada, and Scotland for work also helped my perspective to compare parliamentary systems, command economies, and different versions of democracies with various levels of transparency, corruption, effectiveness, and quality-of-life for their citizens.  While some of my friends, 1/2 of my family, and many visitors to this blog may not agree with my view points and positions, I consider myself to be better informed than most Americans, and at least as informed about about American politics as a citizen of any of the developed nations I just mentioned (most non-Americans know far more about American politics than the average American, by at least one standard deviation on the curve).

So with that preamble, as I was trying to make sense of the election last November, and the aftermath and consequences it has led to in the subsequent months, with all the "disruption" and "chaos", the illogical choices and downright stupidity that has been unearthed, I no longer try and see a pattern or a reason behind anything except for these following 2 principles:

1) Everything that President Drumpf says (Drumpf is his real name, he got from his father, just like all the seed money daddy gave him) is a lie, or at best, a gross exaggeration.  He is incapable of telling the truth, except by accident - give a million monkeys a million type writers, and eventually one of them will type out a coherent sentence or two.  He is a habitual liar (pseudologia fantastica or mythomania) who believes himself a "disrupter".  Facts, reality, and the truth have no influence upon his actions or what comes out of his mouth.  Think of Jon Lovitz on SNL, and the Tommy Flanagan character he played where he was incapable of telling the truth.  That's who 49% of America elected.  When Donald accidentally tells the truth, he still thinks he is lying, or that there's a thread of obfuscation in there somewhere but in his perspective, the person he is speaking to is not bright enough to figure it out.  Everything he tweets, everything he says in interviews, everything he says in public, it's all a lie, or a gross exaggeration.

2) While he didn't think he was going to win the election, and he is completely unprepared to be chief executive of a local water district much less the largest economy in the world with the most powerful military the world has ever seen, he HAS and WILL take full advantage of his unexpected position of power to enrich his own coffers, empower his family and friends, and rake in as much money as quickly as possible, before anyone figures out just how corrupt 45's executive branch really is.  He doesn't want Putin to be the only plutocrat to be worth 60+ Billion dollars.  Heck, 45 doesn't even have 1/2 a billion to his name, or he would have proudly shown his tax returns, like a 4th grader who signs his name for mommy and daddy to see "look what I signed!".  Mark Cuban, a real billionaire (+3 Billion, with a "B") estimated that Drumpf's worth is probably south of 75 million dollars, and perhaps closer to as little as 25 or 50 million when all is said an done.  Drumpf doesn't want to "Make America Great Again".  No, America was already great.  He wants to enrich his own family's wealth and the wealth of his friends.  That's why he's appointed such incompetent-and-or-corrupt heads of agencies who want to dismantle the agencies they run.

Keep these two things in mind, and you won't be confused or shocked or aghast at what you see or hear in the news.  I've found that they help me tremendously, daily, or even several times a day on some days.

45 doesn't care about facts, or science, or helping the little guy, or being a "populist", or what is right or wrong.  He cares only about his own image,  his own self aggrandized "brand", which has become synonymous with corruption, incompetence, made-in-China goods, bluster, and a longing for a return to the 1950s by Americans who enjoyed outstanding economic growth and social privileges in that era (and to everyone else who was a 2nd class US citizen or not in the US at that time, too bad; "get him outta here!").

States Closing Interstate Rest Stops Trending

As I drove nearly 2500 miles across the United States on February 11th, 12th, and 13th, I found a disturbing trend in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina: closed interstate rest stops.  It got to the point that after the sun rose on the 11th, that I gave up hoping to find an open rest stop at which I could empty my bladder, and instead drank less water so that I could time my bath room breaks around gasoline refills, every 300 to 400 miles.  Yes, at 80 mph (most of those states the speed limit was 75 mph) that's every 3 and a half to 4 hours of uncomfortable, dehydrated, kidney stressing driving.

Taken, after the third time I found a rest stop closed along my journey across Southern Umerikah

Why does it matter if an interstate rest stop is closed?  Well, drivers like me, who were headed across country, don't get a chance to look around at the beautiful state for a moment.  There's no chance to stretch your legs, avoid deep vein thrombosis, or chuckle at a sign that warns people that rattlesnakes might be near, and to watch where they walk their dogs.  Seeing a closed interstate rest stops also sends several messages to the driver:
1) this state doesn't care about visitors, doesn't welcome them, and is not hospitable
2) this state doesn't care about infrastructure, and if they can't afford to maintain a simple rest stop, how bad of shape do you think their bridges and roads are in?
3) the legislatures of this state incorrectly believe that everything is better provided by the private sector, including things like imaginary free rest rooms, which typically don't exist, since most merchants want you to buy something from their store if you're going to use their rest room facilities (and me, see... I brought my own water, almonds, grass fed beef jerky, and macadamia nuts, so there was no need to stop and purchase snacks along the way; the focus was on maximizing driven miles efficiency, and not lolly gagging around to turn a 3 day cross country trip into a 4 day trip)

Now I guess, it is possible, that some states may have thought that they had "too many" interstate rest stops, and so they were reducing the number of them and trying to improve the remaining ones, to better serve the traveling public.  Possible, but unlikely, since in Arizona along I-8 and I-10, I found exactly 2 rest stops open. New Mexico, one at the border with 2 others closed.  Texas, along I-10, for 12 hours of driving, only 1 open rest stop.  Louisiana, only 1 (but I was driving late at night through the commonwealth, and wasn't going to stop anyways).  Mississippi and Alabama I did not stay long enough in to warrant any stops.  Florida had 10X more state troopers looking for speeders than it had open rest stops.  And my former home state of South Carolina, where I had lived for 16 years all-together since getting out of college, had been closing rest stops on I-85 and I-26 for more than the last decade, dedicating the funds that used to go to maintaining rest stops towards tax cuts for the upper 1% of the population.

Ironically, before I headed out on my cross country journey, I had thought (as I was falling asleep the night before) "maybe I should download an ap to show me where each of the interstate rest stops would be, to plan rest room breaks proactively?"  I am glad I didn't waste my time or data to do so, since such an ap would have been utterly useless, or grossly misleading.

Thanks Republican Legislatures, all (link here).  It's fantastic how you're looking out for the little guy, the retired travelers (oh, I saw & passed my fair share of people Much Older than me along I-8, 10, and 95 on my way to Charleston), and visitors to your states.  Awesome "first impressions" you're making.  Very progressive tax policies and how you apply those funds to up-keep your states.

I doubt Umerikah will ever wake up...  just a string of anecdotes, shouted out into the void, amounting to candidates like Trump, Cruz, Carson, and Rubio... gerrymandered into local districts paid for by Koch Industries super pac funding & analysis...  sad.

First 4th of July in N.SD For Us

I just finished hanging up my American Flag outside my home here in N.SD County, for the very first time.  Surrounded by lavender, hibiscus, mandevilla, palm trees, japonica, oleander, humming bird feeders, Allen's & Roufus & Anna's hummingbirds, and flapping gently in the 72F, 5 mph, intermittent breeze 3 miles from the ocean, it struck me as particularly beautiful... even with the gray over-cast sky.


I am appreciative that I live in a country where I can speak English, and not German (link here) - and English is Still spoken around the world by more people than any other language who control more of the world's capital and decisioning making  (even with nearly 1.4 Billion Chinese, not all of whom speak Mandarin), with the most influence internationally;

We hope to replace this grass with mulch and rock in the next 2 months, with the drought

[I once, while waiting for my company car to pick me up, observed a French business man try and check out of a very poorly run South Korea hotel in Changwon, "Hotel International" - a total pit, very unpleasant, highly NOT recommended for anyone who wants a pleasant stay -  using only French.  The poor man tried and tried, but the hotel clerk just looked blankly back at him, until in broken English, and with great venom & distaste in his pronunciation, he was able to pay his bill and leave the wretched hotel].

I have been able to live & work in multiple states, without the central government approving it (unlike my friends in China, who need central approval to relocate), [link here] going from Indiana, to South Carolina, then back to Indiana, then back to South Carolina 3 years later; then to Arizona for 5, OC California for 2.5, and now Northern San Diego County, where I hope I don't have to move again any time soon.

In this country, I don't have religious fundamentalists telling me how I can dress, what I can eat & drink, and what kind of music I am allowed to play in my home without head phones, like the Basiji do in Iran and the Mutaween do in Saudi Arabia.

In this country I don't have to worry that we are on the brink of national bankruptcy, as the Republicans & many Libertarians kept screaming we were when President Obama took office (yes months earlier, in the same financial conditions under Bush, no one on the right seemed to notice or care about a growing national debt - a debt which the Democrats have once again substantially paid down after the Republicans ran it up... again)... and it is not Greece with radicals on both the left and right rioting in the streets because their government has not had a spine to be able to make any hard choices and implement any austerity effectively for the last 4 bankruptcies.

America has its problems, but it is still a pretty damn good place to live & work and raise a family.  I am grateful to the men & women in the US military who have fought to keep us free, as well as grateful to the Federal leaders (Presidents, Secretaries of State, Senators, etc) who have kept us OUT of wars over the centuries making the spilling of the blood of our military unnecessary (Sorry Lindsey & McCain, we Don't need to bomb Iran and [what's left of] Syria and everywhere else that makes you wet your bed).  It's an English speaking, free movement of labor & capital (relatively, Joe M) =-) , pleasant country where peacocks can picnic wherever they please... "freedom baby, that's what it's all about!" [Freedumb Weekend Aloft, Greenville SC, 1992, yelled by a drunk redneck next to a fully armed A-10 warthog, at Donaldson Center].

Happy Fourth of July to everyone, no matter where you live!

14 to 1, LA tries to become livable

Today, I heard on NPR, that Los Angeles City Council voted 14 to 1, to eventually raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020, a dollar a year (it's $9 an hour now, above the national minimum wage standard).  In doing so, LA becomes the LARGEST US city to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

What's the matter with you New York and Chicago?  Falling a little behind, ain't ya?  I'm sure it's easy to raise a family on $9 an hour in both NE Illinois and Eastern New York State, no problem.  While Mid Western states are often heading back to the 17th Century, California added 350,000 residents last year (yes, we'll get Another congressman soon).   Sure, San Francisco will get to $15 an hour by 2018 (2 years earlier than LA), but LA is 5 times the size of land locked & peninsula'ed SF.

Sorry Mitchell, but my wife is far smarter & hotter than yours, and has a much more progressive world view.

It's the one aspect of moving further south, towards San Diego, that makes me a little bit sad... as we'll be farther away from tempted-income-equality-LA, and closer to Mitt-Romney-loving-San-Diego County.  But Dr Desert Flower's commute will be cut in half, and the onerous Camp Pendleton immigration check point will no longer have to be endured non a daily basis.

Mitchell Englander, the lone Republican on the City Council, and the only fool to vote against the minimum wage increase, you're on the wrong side of history, as is your party and your ideology.  Watch, as the City of Angels continues to grow and thrive, instead of wither, atrophy, and decay (as you and your party have predicted).  You're an anachronism Englander.  If you really hate income equality, move to China, where the disparity is so pronounced, you can taste it in the actual air you're trying to breathe.

Delta, Zone 1, Isn't

I flew Delta Airlines recently, and I was surprised and a little bit amazed to be BOTH TSA-Pre-check AND "Zone 1" boarding group.  "Zone 1"? I thought to myself....   that's reserved for Diamond and Platinum level frequent flyers (neither of which I am anymore, nor have been for a decade), or military in uniform (thank you for your service) or people traveling with children under 2 years of age, or those "needing extra time / assistance in boarding".  What luck!  Perhaps, in the Monopoly Game of Life, there was a computer glitch / error in my favor...

No such luck.  On Delta, Zone 1 isn't one.  Zone 1 is ACTUALLY Zone 3.  FIRST they board "PREM" ....  "PREM" is first class, million milers, Delta employees (Pilots, etc, who are not flying the plane).   Then, next is "SKY" (short for "Sky Priority"), as the 2nd boarding group.   In Europe, where Silver matters on Delta, Silver status Frequent Flyers (which I am one, after flying to Bangalore and then to Warsaw in the last year, both in Coach, narrowly avoiding Deep Vein Thrombosis) are also included in "SKY".  But in the good ole USA, Silver means bumpkus.  Silver, ever since Delta bought Northwest and inherited more frequent flyers than their Medallion Club lounges and priory boarding queues could handle, have ignored and jettisoned their Silver status members as "nobodies".  Gold gets you 1 bag free, and a listing in the "SKY" queue.  Silver, "back of the line bud!"...  persona non grata.  One of the unwashed, sweaty masses.

After printing my boarding pass the day before travel, and seeing I was "Zone 1" I did not check a bag and took my 22" roller bag on, thinking "I'll have a place in the over-head, surely!  I am 'Zone 1" after all!"  [Printing, how archaic you say?  Why not get it emailed to me, and scan it at the gate?  Well... once you've tried to do that, and you're in Zone 3 or 4 and they're out of over-head room, so they have to gate check your bag...  the only way to do it with a cell phone electronic boarding pass is to walk with the gate agent back up the jet way, so she can re-scan your pass with you phone, issue you a gate-check baggage claim ticket, and then walk back down to the plane, wasting another 10 minutes of your life that you could have been AIS [Ass In Seat] and about to fall asleep for the 4 hour flight back home. Having a PRINTED boarding pass, you just give the gate agent the printed paper, and they come back to you with a baggage claim ticket.]

So all the PREMs boarded.  Then the HOARD of SKYs boarded.  Then, when "Zone 1" boarded, the plane was more than 1/2 full, most of the over-heads were already taken, and I had to find a place for my bag 4 rows behind where my seat was... which is such a joy when getting off the plane and no one is polite enough to let you go back 4 rows.  The poor bastards in Zone 2 were all screwed.  No more over-head space.  "Zone 2" on Delta = "Zone 4" on all other airlines.  Or "Boarding group D" on Southwest.  Despicable how Delta ineptly tries to manipulate language to get the beleaguered passenger to temporarily feel better. Just call it "Zone 3" and treat your passengers like grown ups, your stupid Georgia Peaches!

On top of this, I find out in April of this year that EVERY state in which I have to travel for work, will now have State Income Tax withheld, for each day I am traveling to that state.  So in 2016, I'll get to file 5 or 6 State tax returns, to get my money back.  Joy!!!!!!  So much incentive to be a happy traveling employee!!!!  So customer centric!!!  (at Accenture, where a friend of mine works, the COMPANY Files For the employee, in the multiple states to which they have been dispatched to do work for the company..   but not so at my corporate leviathan).  Lamer than a 2 legged dog.

Larry's Dead, Long Live Sebastian

We had a hydraulically propelled pool cleaner that came with the 25+ year old pool in our back yard when we bought this house last year in October.  The concept of the cleaner was to pump water through him, via a dedicated pump, and through Bernoulli's principal he sucked up debris from the floor of the pool while a "whip tail" behind him drove him around the bottom.  The problem was, this "dumb device"
- cost $50 to $100 a month in electricity costs, to run the pump
- climbed walls at stairs, and then the whip tail Shot Water out of the pool, spraying the whole backyard (fence, windows, house, etc) before the cleaner re-submerged.
- was a pain to clean out the debris bag
- was 25 years old
- often got "stuck" in corners
- had a large floating umbilical cord that accumulated floating debris
When Ron's son G came to visit in July, he named the pool cleaner "Larry", and stated "Larry tries hard, but he is not very good at his job".  We kept Larry around during the summer, and near the end of August, he stopped moving forward.  The reducer gear train that turned hydraulic pressure into wheel motion had begun to seize, causing Larry to nose dive, whip tail wildly slashing, but the main cleaner unmoving.

So DDF and I went down to Leslie's Pool supply in Laguna Niguel, where Dave there explained that not only would a new Polaris 9450 robotic pool cleaner "learn" our pool, that it would cost 1/10th as much to run as Larry did, since it was low voltage, low amperage, no pump... and that if we didn't like it, we could bring it back within 30 days for a refund.   He is basically a "pool roomba".  We plunked down $1k for the 9450, and took it home.  I sank him in the pool that afternoon, and we named him "Sebastian" after the Caribbean hermit crab from little mermaid.

Sebastian does a good job in both the pool and the hot tub.  He sucks up leaves, dead earth worms, and scrubs the sides and bottom of the plaster pool very effectively, in less than 2 hours.  In the spa, he gets all the leaves and dirt debris that falls from our neighbor's trees, and does it in less than 20 minutes.  Dave assured us that Sebastian (the 9450) would "learn" our irregularly shaped pool... and I am still skeptical of that for the large pool, but Sebastian Does a Great Job of knowing he is in the circular hot tub; scrub and climb, back up, pivot, repeat.

And our San Diego Gas & Electric bill was $100 cheaper after getting Sebastian... and while we Did run the air conditioning less, we also never ran Larry again.  Throughout the winter, I am looking forward to leveraging Sebastian for saving me time (not having to scrub the sides of the pool myself), picking up debris automatically so I don't have to try and fish it out of bottom of the pool with a net, and saving money on electricity.

California Made Quality

The outdoor patio furniture cushions that DDF and I had in Arizona did not do so well in the brutal Arizona UV punishment they received, and the fabric started disintegrating visibly when we moved to California in 2012.  The tops of the cushions were literally falling apart, and the outside fabric had embrittled, severely degraded.

So we went out looking for replacement cushions on Saturday afternoon.  Lowes & Home Depot had no selection and didn't want to sell cushions without also selling chairs.  California Patios had very minimal selection, BUT, the owner of the El Toro store referred us to Green Thumb nursery, just a block away.  We've always loved getting our plants & landscaping supplies at Green thumb, and I'd forgotten that they also have outdoor furniture.  When we got to Green Thumb, their Christmas display had usurped the outdoor furniture area.  But we asked a helpful Green Thumb worker who guided us back to the stock room where there were these lovely blue cushions.  They were not cheap - $75 each... when we had paid just $300 for the whole patio set back in 2007 when we bought it.  But they are Gold Crest, made in Ontario California, and are excellent quality.  The Amazon Bezos profit-makers DDF found online were $35, I am sure made in China, and would have probably lasted a year or two at most in the sun.

We think the new bright color is lovely, matches the pool (and the sky here in Southern California) and are a fitting upgrade for our backyard.  Come visit us, and we can brunch, have drinks, watch sunsets, or just sit around on the new cushions and watch the hummingbirds flying sorties all around us.

John Oliver Explains Net Neutrality, Perfectly

Last Week, Tonight's host John Oliver is another person who is perfect for the job he is in.  He does an amazing job in HBO's Last Week Tonight each Sunday.  I laugh, I want to cry, it's funny, enraging & relevant all at the same time.

Last night he explained Net Neutrality, and how evil the Obama administration is for taking Comcast's top lobbyist (Tom Wheeler)  and installing him as the head of the FCC.  (Vice covered it here (link) as well, but I didn't see it on Vice last month, and Oliver made it MUCH funnier)

Hooray for John Oliver!

FCC.GOV/Comments...  come on internet trolls & haters.... there's just 118 days left for you to let the FCC know exactly how you feel.

Ryobi One+ Small Yard Quality Products

Back in December, I posted about how nice of a reel mower my Fiskars Stay Sharp was - and I've gotten a huge number of hits to that page coincidentally (link here).  So I wanted to make a mention of how satisfied I am with the cordless Ryobi power tool & lawn products I've purchased since moving to our new home in early October.

For a cordless drill, my basic requirements were simple:
- wanted a solid brand name that would not be going out of business in the next year or two
- needed a 20 to 30 minute minimum battery life, since the jobs I have are not "all day" jobs
- needed a "several hour" or "over-night" recharge capability
- chuckless, since I broke the chuck key on my True Value variable speed 1/4 inch drill that I've had for the last 25 years.
- minimum 1/4 inch capacity, but bigger would be fine too
- something less than $100, that would last at least 5 years, but hopefully closer to 10 or 20 years (I tend to keep my tools)
- compatible with cordless lawn equipment using the same batteries
You see, I tried using my corded 110V drill to turn a stainless steel scouring brush in an attempt to remove calcified deposits on the side of my pool tile, that had built up over the last 2 decades, and I was  deathly afraid of having the plug and/or extension cord drop into the pool and electrocute myself, before Thanksgiving.  So cordless was mandatory and drove the purchase.

I looked at Home Depot (closest to my home), Lowes, and online.  Home Depot appeared to have the widest selection and most in stock.  So after reading multiple reviews, I went with the Ryobi One+ 18V Lithium Ion cordless drill.  Keep in mind, I had not bought a power tool since before the Clinton Administration, so it was unexplored territory for me.  When I got my Ryobi drill out of the box, I was delighted.  Not only was it ergonomically comfortable and fit in my hand very well, but it was balanced, powerful, had a built-in magnetic drill bit holder, a built-in bubble level, and had 3 variable speeds and torques to be able to adjust.  Sweet!  I spent 2 days leaning over the edge of the pool grinding off calcium chloride deposits (while wearing a dust mask, to avoid inhaling the dust & ground-off-sealant fumes.

Satisfied with my drill purchase, I looked for a weed wacker.  I consulted my father, whose yard I used to cut as a teenager & college student in Indiana.  We had a junky old Toro corded weed whacker that never really worked right when I was a kid, and the cord was such a pain.  With a pool int he back yard here in CA, a corded device was again counter-indicated, so I read up on the Ryobi weed wacker / edge trimmer combo, and bought it for less than $100.  It works marvelously!  Powerful, precise, well balanced - it is the perfect tool for my small yard with ~200 feet of fence and ~100 feet of sidewalk edging.  And with some practice, it is even possible to NOT throw whacked weeds and plant material into the pool - despite the gardener's previous desecrations.




I wanted to get a cordless leaf blower, but there were none available that had "the punch" necessary for blowing leaves over grassy surfaces.  On the North side of my home, there's a grassy incline that rises a good 5 feet to meet the neighbor's fence.  Not having to rake it, and being able to quickly use gusts of directed air to "push" apple, nectarine, apricot, and guava leaves down the yard would have been ideal. But alas, the cordless Ryobi "hard surface blower" that I got for $70 at Home Depot (without a battery) cannot handle the job.  I was clearly warned, by the packaging label information, the online reviews, and my father's own advice...  but that's fine.  For as small as my yard is, the Ryobi blower is "good enough".  I can blow the pool deck clean, without blowing anything into the pool.  I can "sweep" the patio with directed air, and "push" the leaves and debris away from the pool and towards my garbage cans (including a composting green waste can that the city picks up for free).  And it uses the exact same battery that the weed wacker uses, so I can finish weed wacking & trimming, then pop out the battery, and power the blower.  It would have been nicer if the blower had a HIGH and LOW speed, but single speed is OK, and it works fine on paved / flat surfaces.  It is practically useless on grassy & uneven surfaces - be forewarned.

So if you have a small yard, without a huge amount of trimming to do, the Ryobi weed wackier / edger combination works well.  And the blower - if you get it without a battery & charger - compliments the sister device very well.  My drill came with 2 batteries, and the weed wacker one, so I have 3 batteries and 2 chargers now.  The batteries charge up in "smart chargers" in about an hour - much faster than I expected.

Affordable, good quality.  Not contractor quality, or capable of "running all day", but that's not how I have been using them.

Not Renewing NFL Sunday Ticket

I'm not going to renew my expensive Direct TV NFL Sunday Ticket package next year, or "The NFL's & Direct TV's greed disgusts me".   I was born and raised as a Bear's fan.  I watched them lose throughout my childhood, and then when I was in college, they won the only Superbowl during my lifetime, before becoming Green Bay's perpetual punching bag, year in and year out under Favre & Rodgers.

Until we lived in Phoenix, and Qwest lost their contract to provide Cable TV through Motorola boxes, and we were forced to go to Direct TV if we wanted to continue cable service, I'd never even considered getting Sunday Ticket. My cousin in Phoenix had Sunday Ticket, and he watched "All the games" in his efforts to keep up to date on his fantasy football league.  I'd go over to his house from time to time and watch my beloved Bears lose to various NFC teams.  Always a playoff Bridesmaid, never a bride.  Dr Desert Flower and I would frequently go to Old Chicago and watch Da Bears play with several dozen Bears fans, all in Jerseys, for camaraderie.  But then we moved to California, at the end of November, and Direct TV gave us Sunday Ticket for free.  "Sweet" I thought.

Then they start billing you in April, Long Before the next NFL season starts.  It's steep, $375 for a full season, which is non-refundabe, non-cancelable, so that by the time pre-season comes around in August, you've already been milked of your cash.  So what does this $375 get the subscriber?  Does it get 100% of every game?  No, not if the game is not sold out.  Does it get you commercial free games, since you've paid so much?  Hell no!  The $375 is just to have "access" not to have 'commercial free access'. Does it get the subscriber Anything Additional on the games that are nationally televised?  (like Sunday Night, Monday Night, Thursday Night, or the 'game of the week' each week?) Absolutely not.

Sure, the rabid NFL fan gets the "red zone" where you can see picture-in-a-picture, and "alerts" if you care about Fantasy Football or "all the games", but I don't care.  You get the 'fast forward summary' that comes out at 1am that shows all the major plays of the game,  spliced together, rapid fire.  And while the 'fast forward' is nice, it is not worth $375.

This season, I could have seen 1/2 the Bears games for free, on Fox, CBS, ESPN, the NFL Network.  The other games I could have gone to a local bar and watched the game for $15 or $20 in beer and wings, and a dollar or 2 in gasoline to get there.  That still puts me nearly $200 ahead, and feeling much less violated.

If NFL Sunday Ticket guaranteed 100% of the games, regardless of sell out or not, eliminated the ubiquitous commercials, worked glitch free regardless of clouds, wind, rain, snow, or any other weather conditions (all of which a Real team, who doesn't play in a domed stadium, are accustomed to playing in), then I might consider renewing.  But I don't want more of my hard earned cash going to the Erebor sized gold pile the NFL has accumulated over the last 4 decades.  To me, it is just not worth it.

Quality Kiwi Wine Observations

 At Thanksgiving (to show you how 'behind' I am in my blog postings), we had one of Dr Desert Flower's co-workers and her family over for the holiday dinner.  They were from New Zealand, of they (of course) brought New Zealand wines.  A young Marlborough Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2013 white wine, and a Marlborough Jules Taylor Pinot Noir 2011.  Both were delicious wines, and went well with the convection oven roasted WholePaycheck free range turkey, stuffing, potatoes, green bean salad, spinach salad, and many other side dishes that were enjoyed by the 7 of us gathered.

For the Kiwis, it was their first "Real Thanksgiving" at a home in the US, and they enjoyed it immensely.  For the Americans, we got to sample a non-grape-fruity Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand - which in my perspective is a wonderful rarity.  DDF and I enjoy a crisp Sauvignon Blanc, but not the overwhelming grape fruit explosion that is often the case with discounted New Zealand whites.  The Oyster Bay did not has this same citrus invasion, and it was tasty.   The Pinot Noir from Jules Taylor was also delicious (we went through 2 bottles of Pinot between the 4 people drinking red) and very enjoyable.  It had far more body and fullness to it than the inexpensive Pinot Noirs I am used to tasting in California - at least the ones that are less than $12 a bottle; my own personal 'comfort zone' for where I begin to fret at the store if I am buying a 'ever day table wine' for drinking, and not for an occasion.

On the Google, the Jules Taylor Pinot Noir can be found online for around $20, and the Oyster Bay 2013 Sauvignon Blanc for $11.  I'll keep my eyes open for these gems the next time I am at the wine shop.

Les Portes De Bordeaux Haute Medoc

Les Portes De Bordeaux Haute Medoc 2012, is the latest offering from Les Portes De Bordeaux family.  I mentioned earlier (link here) how Les Portes de Bordeaux expanded from just the Bordeaux Superior to a Fronsac. Well they also have a Haut Medoc, and a St. Emillion (the Saint will be blogged about after Christmas, when we'll drink it).

For $9 a bottle, this is a fantastic Haut Medoc.  It was rather young, at just 2012, but very drinkable and enjoyable.  Like other Haut Medocs, I found it to have a lingering mineral finish on the tongue, pleasant, and dry.  A grande vin de Bordeaux indeed.  If you see a bottle at your local Trader Joe's, try it.

Highly recommended.

Croix de Marsan COSTCO 1/2 Case

Last month I was walking through my local COSTCO when I noticed an end display of cardboard boxes in the wine section.  The sign "$30 Bordeaux 1/2 Case" caught my eye.  $5 a bottle?  That's pretty good for a generic Bordeaux, why not?  So I bought the 1/2 case of Croix de Marsan Bordeaux 2011, Bordeaux A.O.C., and opened a bottle that night. It did not disappoint.

Don't be intimidated by "élevé en fût de chêne"- just means that it was stored / aged (élevé = raised) in oak barrels.  60% merlot, 40% cabernet sauvignon (as all Bordeaux A.O.C. wines are supposed to be). "On the palate the attack is supple, the tannins are round and velvety" - sure, I would agree with that.  I did not aerate the bottle, but I did let it "breathe" for a good 20 minutes before tasting the first glass.  "Can be kept for 5 years" - well, it's not going to reach 5 months.

Bottled by a negotiant L.C.D.R. A F-33550 Gironde France, and imported to the US by Misa Imports, Dallas TX.  For $5 a bottle, it's a good red table wine, negotiant bottled or not.

Big Kahuna - Small Price

Fresh & Easy corner grocery stores sell "The Big Kahuna" wines, and they stack them right next to the cash registers.  They sell for $2.50 a bottle, on special sale, or $3 normally.  I tried one a few months ago, and was pleasantly surprised.  Good as a first bottle.  Good as a table wine.  Good for every-day wine drinking.  $2.50 a bottle is a great price for a very drinkable wine, that has adequate tannins, gives no hang-over, and even comes in an easy-open screw top so a cork screw is not necessary.  I keep several bottles in my wine rack for every-day drinking.

There's a cabernet sauvignon, a tempranillo, and a shiraz.  Bottled in Spain (Vino de la tierra de castilla) by R.E.N# 4483/MU-2 for J.Garcia Carrion L.M. SA, Daimel (Cudad Real) Spain), imported by Cornerstone, Cornona CA.  Each one is good and drinkable.  There's a chardonnay as well...  but I can't speak to that as we don't drink chardonnay in this house (intentionally).

Significant Grilling Upgrade

The home that Dr Desert Flower and I bought is almost as old as our son, and the "Capt'n Cook" gas grill in the back yard was put in by the original owners shortly after they moved in.  Having rendered a long service life to the previous owners, the grill endured renters for the last two years, who probably did the mechanism no favors whatsoever.  I began a mechanical & metallurgical survey to assess the situation.

- Cooking grates were rusted and severely degraded.
- Coal surfaces completely oxidized and in places, no longer existed.
- Cast iron burners had oxidized, cracked, and completely failed in 4 out of 4 burners.
- Grill interior was inhabited by spiders, crickets, and several species of mold or fungus (I did not culture them to check for species)
- Grill exterior pedestal base was anchored to 4 garden paving stones, apparently securely.
- Grill's exterior lid and hinge appeared to be functioning normally, but black interior paint was peeling and significant degraded.

- None of the ignitors worked.
- The canvas grill cover was the Newest Feature of the entire grill (most likely bought to hide the grill's true nastiness).

The Capt'n Cook was sold by "Barbecues Galore" out of Irvine CA.  I looked them up on the interwebs, and called their number:  "25 years old? we don't carry replacements for those burners or grates any more, you'll have to buy a new one."
Me: "Do you remove the old grill?"
"No sir, we
do not remove old ones."
Me: "So I'd have to take it to the dump or a salvage yard?"
"Yes sir"

So the interwebs provided me with a company called "OC Barbecues Plus" located not far from the home we had been renting previously in Laguna Niguel.  I drove down there to "look at" the various different BBQs choices available - everything from $300 to $25,000 (yes, $25K, some people have more money than sense).  An extremely knowledgable young saleswoman showed me several models.   I showed her the pictures of my Capt'n Cook and told her I was looking for a 4 burner gas grill to replace it.  She had the burner & grate and cooking surface part numbers memorized, and quoted me the cast iron, stainless clad, and full stainless steel costs.  It was going to cost me $400 in cheap cast iron, or $600 in stainless steel parts, to retrofit my 25 year old Capt'n Cook.  And then, the carbon steel support structure Might buckle with the weight of the new parts, and that would be costly and dangerous.  I gathered brochures and vowed to return on the weekend with DDF.

When DDF and I returned, the knowledgable saleslady was not there, but a young man who had previously worked at BBQ Galore and had upgraded his employer & vocation was there.  He also had the parts and costs memorized.  He showed us the brochured models, and DDF said to me "just get a new one, a good one, that will last a long time".  The salesman noted "the cooking surfaces come with a lifetime warranty, and customers normally bring them back after about 5 years and we just give them new replacements, no charge" - those stainless steel grates are $60 a piece, and see the brunt of the cooking thermal stress.  I was sold on the Summerset Sizzler 32 inch in full 304 stainless steel.  A thousand for the grill, $550 for the "cart" (the stainless base it sits on), and installation.  I left them with the pictures and set up a time 3 days hence for the install.

Ripping the old Capt'n Cook out was harder than I anticipated, but the OC BBQ Plus installer and I got it out, re-leveled the surfaces, and set up the new Summerset Sizzler.  I cleaned it with mild dish soap, dried it, and then broke it in with a test burn back in October.  I've grilled at least 20 steaks on it - Rib eyes and New York Strips, All Raw, all organic, pasture raised sustainably ranched beef.  Everyone one of them has been delicious.

The only difficulty I had was when I installed a new sprinkler head up-hill of the grill, and it's spray pattern Perfectly injected water droplets into the ignitor tubes of three of the 4 burners, causing me to have unjustified indignation - "it rains once and none of these light anymore!?!?"  OC BBQ Plus kindly sent out their service tech, who patiently showed me the water accumulation, dried it out with a paper towel on the end of a paper clip into each ignitor tube, and viola, the grill worked perfectly again.  I have since slit the Capt'n Cook cover to allow for the side shelve "flaps" and it's been working quite nicely.  The cover sort of looks like a French-Foreign-Legion hat now, but still blocks any stray sprinkler or rain water from getting into the grill.  I gave him a big bag of guava for his troubles.  I also adjusted the sprinkler head to have a significantly smaller spray pattern and not repeat the water intrusion.

If you are looking for a grill in Orange County, I Highly Recommend OC Barbecues Plus on Crown Valley Parkway.  They have helpful, knowledgable, friendly personnel, and carry quality products.  If you come to visit us, and you like your food grilled (animal protein or vegetarian vegetables), it will be grilled on the shiny new Sizzler, to perfection.