My Cat Collection

When I was in grade school I loved cats.  My room had pictures of cats all over the walls and I spent most of my allowance and birthday money on cat figurines.  I had spied them in Johnson Hills Department store uptown and was quite taken with these figurines.  My brothers and sisters always knew what to get me for Christmas.  So fierce was my cat passion that my parents eventually broke down and let me get a live one, but that's another story.
My Dad had boxed up the cat collection and mailed it too me about 5 years ago.  Unfortunately, for an intelligent guy his understanding of how boxes are handled by UPS is rather naive and they arrived with a few broken paws.  Since I didn't have anywhere to put them in our little house they have been living in the mailing box until Ted hauled it out of a corner the other day and suggested I "do something" with them. He later suggested that I could display them in the fireplace heatilaters. 

The fireplace now has a insert, so the old heatilater system built into the brickwork is nonfunctional. One day when I needed a break from the computer I got some cardboard, lined the bottom of the upper heatilater with cardboard so none of the cats would fall down the back ventilation slot, and set up some of the cats.

Since I still had some cats left I went over to the other side of the fireplace to do the same.  I didn't think I would bother with the cardboard liner, but I had forgotten just how many cats I had.  But no worries, I wasn't going to knock any of them over.  No sooner had I had that thought than oops, I knocked over a cat and it disappeared down the back of the heatilater. Oh no! I winced expecting a crash! It didn't happen.  Got down on my hands and knees, took the grate off the heatilater and looked in.  No smashed cat. Huh? Started feeling around and discovered there was no connection, there was insulation on the roof of the bottom opening.
Got out a mirror and flashlight, wedged myself into the corner between the fireplace and the wall, carefully removed the remaining cats,and with much craning about finally could see in the mirror that the cat was lying on some insulation at the bottom of the ventilation slot.  Got out the Norco grabber and tried to grab the cat by the neck, simultaneously holding the mirror, the flashlight, and the grabber.  Immediately dropped the grabber down the heatilater. Arggghhh. Luckily with more contortions was able to retrieve the grabber. 

Over the next few days, Ted and I came up with many plans to get the cat out of the fireplace.
I used my head lamp wrapped around my wrist so I could manuever both the mirror and the flashlight at the same time, but was not able to manipulate the grabber in that cramped space in mirror image view. 
Ted had the idea of using the shop vac to suck out the cat.  That didn't work either.  Finally we wrapped the web cam I got for Christmas in a plastic bag, loaded its software onto the lap top, and with me holding the laptop and Ted wedged in the corner, dropped the web cam down the hole.  Now Ted used the grabber, contorted to look at the laptop and tried to manipulate the grabber to get the cat.  Brought up a piece of wood and the clasp from a change purse ( I had visions of antique coins and striking it rich) and then Clink! Oh no! We had knocked the cat into some other space, the web cam showed the cat had dissappeared!!
Looked in the bottom heatilater again, no cat.  Felt around and around in the bottom heatilater and finally felt a passage to the back side, groped around and felt the cat! Hurray!!!!!!!!!!!! There was the cat, with narry a scratch on it.

Ta Dah!!!

The rest of the cat collection.  The wayward cat is on the left side.

My Birthday 2012

This year for my birthday I decided it would be fun to go to Gray Lodge Wildlife Area.  I hadn't been there for decades, but remembered it as being very pretty due to the proximity of the Sutter Buttes.  Also decided I would like a cheesecake for my birthday cake.  There is a great recipe online for a cuppucino cheesecake that F made for her junior recital.  I made it myself, because I didn't trust Ted to make it without modifying it too much.  As it was I modified it quite a bit myself because it is so rich plus I was lacking some key ingredients, like the espresso powder. and it still turned out quite tasty.
We left here about 10.15 and picked up F at her apt in Sac at 11, dropping off the cheesecake for later.  Well actually what with one thing and another we didn't really clear the city until 11.30 at least.  Drove on up the highway without incident.  Had a heck of a time getting our money into the slot in the Iron Ranger.  Had to resort to quarters as didn't have enough $1s, finally just put them in one at a time.
Took a short walk on the nature trail, had lunch, drove the auto tour, and then walked the other nature trail. 

Day was hazy but mostly clear skies and moderate temps.

Had a great time and saw a lot of birds.  My favorite were the snipe, spotted by a sharp-eyed F.  I'm sure we could have driven the loop again and seen some birds we missed the first time around.

Lots of geese, but only in some spots.

I loved these hides, they are really well done.

Sharp-eyed F spotted 3 snipe at one of our stops on the auto tour.  Who knows how many we missed.

We took our last walk starting at about 4 pm.  The great horned owls were already starting to hoot, and they kept it up till after moonrise.  The moon was full and we got to enjoy both sunset and moonrise. 
Had a great dinner at Star of India in Yuba City.  Finished up with the cheesecake at F's.  My birthday cheesecake has slowed down my effort to shed the extra Christmas weight.

First post of 2012-Cold Canyon New Years Day Hike

Ok so this hike was actually Jan 2, but we were all busy recovering from our late night on New Year's Eve, plus our hiking group had various conflicts for New Years Day, so Monday it was.  Pam, Ted, and I met up with Frances and Doug at the trailhead at about 11AM.  Took us 35 min to get there, F took an hour.

This trail is very steep in sections.

This years hiking group, I'm behind the camera

Weather was perfect, not too warm.

The views never get old.

Due to our recent Mt. Diablo climb we were in pretty good shape, and nobody was sore the next day.  We heard some wrentits and Ted saw and heard a California Thrasher.  Unfortunately, Pam and I missed that.
Previous New Years Day hikes at Cold Canyon 2010, 2011

Update in response to comment

Vertical exaggeration turned to 2x.

I guess our legs can detect changes in elevation that are too small to see in the charts!

Last Post of 2011

Take Eagle Peak Trail first. Come back on Mitchell Canyon Trail, unless you enjoy steep downhill.

Didn't have time to post this earlier what with all the New Years Eve prep.  Had a great Holiday Season.  Lots of fun and games.  Today just hanging out, picking up the Christmas mess, watching football, recovering from the rich food of the past week.
F wanted to take a hike on her birthday, and told us to pick the hike. Chose the Eagle Peak-Mitchell Canyon Trail on Mt. Diablo.  Even though it's close we have almost never gone hiking there (well, a couple of short walks on trails at the peak).  One of the web sites we saw said it was a 5 mile hike and another said 8 miles.  Turns out the 8 miles was correct!

As soon as we reached Eagle Peak a clould blew in.

This was quite a hike!  Even in the dead of winter it was very fun, required lots of exertion, we went through lots of different vegetation, and saw lots of very fat birds.  The food must be plentiful at Mt. Diablo. Took an hour to get to the trail head in no traffic.  Finished off the day with yummy Indian food.  Every one of us was sore the next day!  However we are looking forward to more hair of the dog and our Cold Canyon hike on Jan 2.

The trail track from the
GPS viewed in Google Earth