A Masters Degree?

Here I am, sitting at home every day. I watch my plants grow, I trim stuff outside, I weed, I clean stuff in the house, sometimes I do crafts or read.

Not much of a life.

The more I watch what is going on, the more I see that going out is not going to be on our agenda for the rest of the year, at least.

The other day I mentioned that I wanted to sign up for a course at Oswego (the college I graduated from). I successfully did sign up for that class in Genealogy, but while I was on their website, I went to the Masters Degree called Strategic Communications. It is the remainder of the courses that follow my degree certificate, in Integrated Media and Social Networks.

It took them several years to get it approved by the SUNY System and so I lost my opportunity to break off from work, once again, and take it.

Then we sold our engineers to The Switch, we combined with PBS SoCal and that made life even more unsettling.

So the finishing of my Masters got lost in the madness of the last 3 years of my career at KCET.

When I looked it over, I saw that I need a total of 5 classes. 4 of them are Graduate Level classroom instruction and the final one is the dissertation.

In this time of Covid, I have nothing else to do and it should be easier to do the classes online, since I am considered high risk. No going to Oswego for me, this time around.

Hopefully, I can still get the Federal tax credit I received back when I was going the last time, which would pay for much of it. Otherwise, I have money at this time and no worries in that regard, at least for the short term.

Application is in as of yesterday.

It has definitely added some excitement to a very boring time.

Fisherman's Wharf

My Water Post For Today.

I bring us back to the Fisherman's Wharf area of San Francisco, just because I can.

This was my Birthday. I was 65 on this day and we had a few hours before our "Late" lunch.

So we walked around the area.

This is from the Ghirardelli Square area of the waterfront.

It is always so peaceful and serene in this area of the bay.

I hope you enjoy.

1 Cucumber, 2 Eggplants, 10 Big Boy Tomatoes & 30 Or So Cherry Tomatoes

Things are revving up in the garden.

After losing every cucumber on my plant except this one, it is finally growing into something close to an eatable size.

In other good news for this plant, I have tied it up a bit better and so many little babies are forming, which gives me hope for the plant.

My eggplants, which you can see in the back of the photo, have not improved much in size. We shall see how it goes.

Lots of cherry tomatoes, which we have been eating and many more to come.

The big boys are now over 10 or so, but none have ripened...yet.

Coming into July and the heat. Hopefully all will do well.

I am definitely enjoying it a lot and glad I planted them.

Zooming About Layoffs

We all know that things are getting worse, in this current Covid-19 crisis. That was the main topic of conversation of our Friday Evening Zoom call.

I have seen on social media that PBS stations are reaching the end of their Fiscal Year and have to trim budgets. Especially since they had to basically cancel their March Drives due to the Lock Down and then do the same when June came along, since the news was inundated with Black Lives Matter protests in the beginning of the month.

So it came as no surprise to me, that article after article in Current (the Public Media paper), told of layoffs at KPBS San Diego, KUHT Houston and other Media Organizations.

What I did not know, but found out last night is that among those other organizations, PBS laid off 17 people, including a very old and dear friend of mine, who I have profiled many times on this blog. You can see one of them, HERE.

He is a great person and I wish him luck finding a new job that can match the wonderfulness of working in Public TV.

Lifelong Learning

As a member of the Oswego Alumni Family, I get messages (usually to ask for money).

A few weeks ago, they sent a message regarding Lifelong Learning courses that will be totally Free and via Zoom. (To register for a course, please contact lifelonglearning@oswego.edu or the Office of Business and Community Relations at 315-312-2318.)

They have 5 Courses this Summer.

Course topics include:

Digital Photography
Genealogy
How to Use an Apple/Android Smartphone
Sustainable Gardening
Mind & Body Wellness

I, of course, was immediately interested in the one about Genealogy.

I keep track (a bit) via Family Tree Maker. It is a royal pain because each time I update my computer, I sort of lose it and have to reinstall the program, so I can see the data again.

I got Family Tree Maker back in 1995, when my Son was a baby. Some (or most) of my family and my Husband's family were less than enthused to give any information. So, I sometimes hit up Facebook and fill in some of the blanks.

The Registration is on the 29th, if this interests you. I am not sure if you have to have gone to SUNY Oswego or live in the town, to register, but you can definitely check it out. Due to Covid 19, the website has not yet been updated with this new information. She said it was coming soon...hopefully before the 29th.

The Red Line Subway Finally Came To The Valley

I happened to see on Twitter yesterday that it was 20 years since the last 3 stations were added to the Red Line Subway: Hollywood/Highland, Universal City and North Hollywood Station.

My family rode the subway on either the 24th or the 25th (hard to tell which one it was, all these years later).

From our photos it looks like we may have parked at KCET and taken the subway from Sunset/Vermont Station.

Being it was free, I am sure it was crowded.

Lots of Red Shirts down in the station as you can see in the photo and I am sure they were directing people, where to go.

Of all the stations, North Hollywood is probably the one that we use the most. Got a concert, a play, lunch at Langer's, it is North Hollywood all the way.

I am so glad I had that subway station to use, especially in the final years before the Disney Van came into my life.

Happy 20 years Red Line.

Gladiolus & Gerbenas

I have many gladiolus out in my yard.

Not only the ones I planted over the years, but the many babies that grow off the original one.

So far this year, I have this one, though I have 5 more ready to bloom around my roses.

If I am lucky, I will catch them at the right time and bring them into the house.

All that white is just stunning.

I also brought in 2 Orange Gerbenas from the front pots and a branch of Wild Blue Yonder roses.

Anything to cheer me up in these hot summer days.

Dealing With A Mask

A few weeks ago, I broke down and bought 4 masks for Hubby and I.

I thought they were better than the ones that people hand sew and they would take a filter, too.

I was happy and it was working for me, until I heard the other day that the one way air vent that allows for safe breath-ability on the mask, might allow the coronavirus to escape the mask.

The mask is not an N95, so I figure no one is expecting it to be perfect.

Sigh...life with a mask...

Roosters At Pearl Harbor

My Water Post For Today.

There are wild roosters all over the Islands of Hawaii. It is kind of weird.

I showed off a bunch on the Island of Kauai, but these roosters were the first ones I saw.

They live at Pearl Harbor, looking for a free meal.

Watching the tourists who come to this hallowed ground, wanting pay their respects to those who died in these waters.

It was an interesting addition to the harbor itself.

I hope you enjoy.

Summer Has Arrived (2020)

I signed up for an event a few days ago. The Summer Solstice live from Stonehenge.

I got the reminder at around 1:30PM PDT and tuned in on my phone.

My Husband thought since we had nothing else going on, he would Chromecast it over to our TV in the Family Room.

I ended up on a Zoom call with my Sister and Brother-In-Law and it was the background to the call.

Pretty cool and many thanks to the people who made it happen.

Happy Summer to all.

Updating The Kitchen (Part 1)

We are awaiting our new cushion for the breakfast nook.

It is due next week, but while looking at an ad for Wayfair, I saw some things that they recommended for a kitchen that had an Island. I don't have an Island or a lot of room in my kitchen, but some of their ideas looked a lot like the table we have in the nook.

So it came to me, why not take down the leaf and just leave it as a 2 person table.

It would give us more room in that area and actually make the kitchen bigger.

When we get the cushion for the nook, it will give us more of a reason to sit there, besides to eat.

So that is what we did.

The only member of the family who is not totally happy, is Makenna, who has a harder time going under it.

I did some adjusting to give her a pathway around it and that seems to have helped.

The spice rack on the far right is working out just fine, btw.

Angel Face In The House

I happened to walk to the side of the house the other day and saw that Angel Face was in it's second bloom of the season.

It had 2 beautiful roses and one bud, so I left the rose that had the additional bud and cut the other for my house.

Every time I go past the table in the kitchen, I am amazed how wonderful the leaves are on this rose.

Glad I bought it, at the urging of my Husband.

Nice to have a rose just for me.

A Cemetery Visit To My Husband's People

My Husband's family live (or lived) in the Valley.

So our recent trip to our local cemetery, for Memorial Day weekend, did not include any of his people.

His Brother reminded us that June is the month that both parents died and so I thought that going in between both dates and not during Father's Day, would be a good time.

We got to the cemetery and it said it was closed, even though people were parked there.

We went around to the other entrance and found that it was open. Sigh...

What surprised us was that there were no people visiting the graves, just workers doing their work.

We went to my Husband's people and saw that the maintenance was very good. This was not the case the last time we had visited about a year or so ago.

We managed to get the vases out of the ground and finally found water that was working and I split the flowers between the two graves.

A stone for each and a quick talk and we were done.

Covid is definitely making even the most mundane, into a big deal.

Names have been blocked out, FYI.

The Pool At LA Fitness

I spent a half hour of my life driving over to our gym on Saturday.

It had opened on Friday and I wanted to find out the status of the pools.

Could we use them for exercise, even though the classes are definitely not scheduled or approved, yet?

The answer is: No the pool is not open.

To give our Facebook Aquafit group the latest information, I asked if I could take a photo of the pool.

The person at the desk had to take my temperature, before they would allow that to happen.

OK, fine by me.

Got my photo and went on my way.

The Neighborhood

I drove up to the top of our street the other day.

I have not been there in months. Usually Christmas time is when I go to the effort.

The view up there is spectacular and they paid a much higher premium then I did, for that view.

I am sure that view is one of the reasons my neighborhood is considered good (not great, since we live in Saugus and not Awesometown)

It's main problem is the fact that we can't walk or bike around too much, it is very hilly.

Nice, none the less.

By the way, the brown roof in the lower center of the photo is my house.

The Space Needle From Elliott Bay

My Water Post For Today.

We took a boat trip around Elliott Bay, back in 2016 (has it really been 4 years?)

One of the things we saw was this great photo of the Seattle Space Needle with a black building in front.

I took a look and found out it is currently occupied by CTI BioPharma. Woo.

If you look to the left, there is an area that has people by the shore. Always a win in my book.

The Space Needle, I never get tired of.

I hope you enjoy.

Dracaena Marginata (Dragon Tree)

I received this plant 3 1/2 years ago, in a basket with a variety of different plants in it.

For some reason, I immediately decided that there were too many plants in the basket and removed this plant.

It has been growing nicely in my Dining Room window.

Just recently, I noticed that the pot it was in became not round, but oval.

I realized that it was probably root-bound and needed to be re-potted.

So when we were at Lowe's the other day, I got this plastic pot.

A bit on the big side, I will admit, but the plant will definitely grow into it.

I have a problem though, it is poisonous to cats and so the place I would prefer to put it is on the floor, is a no go.

For now though, it seems happy in its new home.

Mirror, Take 2

My Husband took the lead on this project, which I documented earlier this year.

Back at the beginning of the year, we decided to place a mirror above our computer.

That way we could keep an eye out on our TV, as we worked on the computer.

Our half-a$$ed attempt got us a crooked mirror and it not pointing down enough, you can see our listing mirror HERE.

He has been mulling different ideas around in his head and the other day he showed me what he came up with.

The problem is, he had only 1 bolt in the size he needed.

So, off to Lowe's, where we managed to get a similar bolt.

We did not have too much trouble with the install and managed to cover over the larger hole that caused the original install to list to the left.

Success! We can watch TV, if needed, from our computer.

Standing Computer Desk

My last half year at work, we moved down to the 4th floor and shared our workspace with the Content Production area.

They are much younger then we in Programming and Operations are and so they moved out of the area that we got and they ended up all wanting standing desks.

I personally hated those computer desks.

Fast forward a year and guess who has a standing desk?

My Son!

The only good thing that I found was that I could finally see my three paintings hanging in the living room

Him prancing all around the desk, did not impress and as a matter of fact, the camera finally gave up on focus, so he was fuzzy for half the call.

Oh, note he is wearing his CN Tower tee shirt from our Toronto trip. :-)

Our New Spice Rack

Several weeks ago, I decided that our spice shelf in the cupboard really needed to be rearranged and cleaned out.

An idea came to me, why not buy a spice rack that we can hang near our stove.

We would not get to have all of them accessible, but definitely 30 spice jars would be available, on top of the rack we have on our counter which holds 21 jars of spices. Yes, I have too many spices, guilty as charged.

As I placed the spices on our new Extra Large Rack, created by JR Home Decor on Etsy, I realized that I had so many little jars of spices still on our shelf in the cupboard.

My Husband and I went through them and weeded out the very old, the very salty and the free ones that we had no interest in.

That still left about 30 or so spices on top, but it is much more empty and you can see the jars now.

We will take that victory.

My Blog's 13th Anniversary...(If you got the money, honey we got your disease 2020)

I don't think Guns and Roses were quite talking about Covid-19 as a disease, but hey.

Happy 13th Anniversary to my Blog.

Lots of changes this past 12 months and boy did I not expect most of them. My workplace did combine, I did get a raise for the last month or so of my employment and yes, I did manage to get stuck with all the work that my old boss did, before she retired. It was a roller coaster.

So on January 3rd, my final day as an employee at PMG SoCal, I thought my life was going to get better and calmer and exciting.

I turned 65 up in San Francisco and had a lunch to celebrate it. Happy that I would soon be on a cruise ship steaming to Hawaii.

People were in town from Asia for Chinese New Year and some of them wore masks.

That should have been my first hint that something might be wrong in San Francisco. The hotel had buffet breakfast for our 3 days lodging and by day 3 on the ship, my Husband was sick. I did not get whatever it was, until the day we got home. Was it Covid-19? We have no idea, but it lasted several weeks.

We managed to have a good time on the cruise, in spite of it all, trying to not bother people, too much, with all his coughing.

Hawaii was beautiful and we even got the captain of the ship to marry us again, for our 40th Anniversary (coming up in July).

Well, several weeks later, we were all put into lock-down and Hubby and I are together with Makenna. I am sure she loves it.

We saw 1 concert this year, on January 8th and it looks like that will be it for this year.

Probably no trips, either. Though we will hold out hope for something late in the year.

Otherwise, things are quiet here and also at my Son's place. He works from home and his girlfriend goes in just 1 day a week and works the rest of the time in their apartment. In other words, life goes on in Michigan, too.

Travel will come back sometime and I hope we can do some of what we had planned. A few states to hit, a great niece to see and maybe NAB next year. Who knows.

May my retirement income stabilize and the Country and world, recover from Covid-19, too.

Sigh...See you next year.

Chinese Eggplant

I was home again last Thursday. As if that is any surprise.

In honor of that fact, we trimmed bushes and cut dead branches on trees and I took photos of my garden.

For the first time, I saw my eggplants coming out of the flowers.

They seem to be white ones!

I have no idea if the sun will turn them their normal purple color, but for now, I am just happy to see them coming out and showing us what they are.

Grow little eggplants, grow!

Kauai Coast

My Water Post For Today.

I just can't leave Kauai, I guess.

This is the third post I have written since February, about this wonderful Island in the Pacific.

This is near where Spouting Horn is, which I showed you a few months ago.

The rocks and the land are stunning and the water hits the whole area, making it even better.

People who live in this area are so lucky.

I hope you enjoy.

The Shortest Way Home

Pete Buttigieg is the former mayor of South Bend Indiana and one of the Presidential Candidates in the 2020 Democratic race.

He is only 38 years old and the first openly gay candidate.

I didn't know a whole lot about him, when we debated who to vote for in our California Primary on March 3rd, but he definitely sparked my interest.

Just moments after we voted, he backed out of the race and I was kind of sad, though I thought it was the best thing to do. It was not his time yet, but I feel that he may run again in the 2024 race.

I decided to read his book, "The Shortest Way Home", which he wrote before he became a candidate. It is a biography of his life, his decision to run for Mayor of his home town, South Bend Indiana and his year in the Military.

He also goes into his personal life, his coming out as gay and his love story with his now husband, Chasten.

I found the entire book, well written and the many issues he brings up as to how to bring back a small town in "Flyover" Country.

He did a masterful job in his 8 years and I can see how many other areas (and even our Country) could learn from him.

Note, the book is not cheap. I got this one from the library.

Blueberries! (2020)

Our blueberry bush is in it's 4th year.

We have learned over these past 4 years, to give it shade and to give it coffee grounds, occasionally.

As a reward for this TLC, we get a small crop of blueberries.

I was not aware that this week is the time for the blueberry harvest.

I was just lamenting that my fruit salad could have used some blueberries in it and then I took a look at our bush and there they were.

Very good of it, to come through for us.

Still Zooming On A Friday

Me and the Traffic Community of PBS still are getting together on Friday Night.

During this never ending quarantine, it brings us a chance to laugh and hear how the other areas of the Country are doing, Traffic wise and life in general.

Currently we have been talking about opening up in different areas, but I am sure this Friday, we will be talking protests and how we are making out during them.

It seems that 2020 is always something.

Sigh...

Braided Hair?

My hair has gotten so long that I can now braid the front, like I used to do about 12 years ago. You can see that old photo HERE.

It bothered me, so after the hair dried, I took the bands off.

I still had wavy hair, a good thing.

I wanted to document it, so I took this photo.

A haircut is scheduled for 6/11.

We will see if it gets canceled due to a coronavirus spike, before we get to visit.

See me in 2 weeks.

Protests Bring Curfews

As if being in quarantine isn't bad enough...

The past 3 days have had curfews, due to Black Lives Matter protests.

Note, that I am totally on their side and support their protests, but it saddens me to see all the looting and destruction of our Country that is going on by opportunists, who have nothing to do with the protests.

Sending the so many millions of unemployed some money, or some way to make money, in this very unsettling and dangerous time, would work so much better than ignoring these earnest people, who have basically had enough of being treated like 2nd class citizens.

It saddens me no end.

Stuck in my house, I saw a really beautiful sunset and did not even attempt to go out to shoot it...so I got this photo from our Kitchen window.

Beauty in the midst of crisis.

Big Boy Tomatoes

I have mentioned this tomato before, but have not shown it.

These are my Big Boy tomatoes.

Up until recently, I only had one of them.

Now I have 3.

They are so different from my many cherry tomatoes and so they make me even more happy, since they will eventually get very big.

I love looking at them all, as I tend to my small garden each day.

Grow little tomatoes, grow...

Honolulu At Sunrise

My Water Post For Today.

Honolulu Harbor at Sunrise is today's photo.

The water was so calm and the reflections were so beautiful on the water.

We were so lucky, on both our trips into Honolulu, because we saw a sunrise on one and a sunset on the other.

What more can you ask.

I hope you enjoy.