2022-05-San-Diego

 A typical gray morning. Amy is working from home and Penny is staying home. Penny is very hyper over the foundation guys working under the house. They finished up the rebar for the foundation and Trent from SD Engineering came over in the afternoon to inspect and verify that it was ok. Then they finished putting the forms on the outside. Another very busy and exhausting day. I put up the broom and mop rack in La Casita to help organize her tools. When Amy was here a year ago, she picked up some driftwood at Indian Lake which we brought back when we drove out last August. We had intended to help hang it from here ceiling as a support for hanging plants but didn't manage to fit this in during the 3 trips there afterwards. I bought some strong hangers at Home Depot and was able to get them installed in Amy's ceiling. Two went nicely into the joists in the new part of the house. In the original part of the house I couldn't find the joists due to sheetrock over plaster over lat

 A very busy day. First thing in the morning, I started patching the holes in the bathroom and bedroom closets caused by the plumbers, spackling cracks and putting backing supports for the sheetrock patches. Brandon and his partner arrived and dug out all the pea gravel that I had put in to cover the sewer connections and put in the correct bands to connect the piping. I told them that I would backfill. I dug it out more to set the sump pump reservoir in place (Home Depot bucket), put down landscape fabric and put back all of the pea gravel. I dug out for the new crawlspace entry, built the forms, cut the concrete blocks using the diamond blade, mixed two bags of concrete, set it in place and set the concrete blocks into the concrete. Finally, installed the new GFI in the bathroom for the BioBidet. Amy and I went to "Barn" for dinner. New crawlspace entry Closet work

 A "May Gray" morning but it cleared up fairly soon. The foundation guys are back this morning for what is hopefully the last day with the jackhamer. I worked on clearing around the sewer line and cleanout, making a deeper pit for the sump pump that I want to install, although there is no water in the opening now. When we were here a month ago before the kitchen drain was rerouted, water was running out of the crawlspace and the area around the sewer line was constantly filling with water. Now it is bone dry. Anna and I had a very pleasant lunch outdoors in Pacific Beach. We then strolled along the boardwalk with Farrah who had fun walking along the top of the barrier between the boardwalk and the beach. After we got back, Anna decided to explore under the house with me. She was concerned about the noise the water pipes make but it is just typical of the pipes moving against the wood. The space under the house is very tight and we had to squeeze to get under the beams. It is

 It was fairly sunny here but when we went towards Coronado Island, it was quite dark from the "marine layer" which almost looked like smoke from a distance. We had a nice time with Penny at the dog beach. I got my feet wet in the water which was pretty chilly. After lunch we went to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park which is about 45 minutes north of us. We took the tram ride and since Amy has a certain class of zoo membership, we were able to get on first without waiting in a very long line. (Or one can pay $20 per person if not a member). On the way back, we got sheetrock at Home Depot to fix the holes in the wall left by the plumbers. At Coronado Dog Beach Amy and Penny at dog beach Hole in closet wall next to bathroom

 We got the 10am Amtrak train to LA, arriving at noon. It was a beautiful ride along the coast for the first part of the trip where we could see the surfers and people enjoying the beach.  We took an Uber to Alhambra which was nearly a disaster. Only a few blocks from Surana's, the driver started to turn left into oncoming traffic. We shouted at her to stop and averted what would have been a serious accident. At our destination we met Cathy, Nic, Surana, her uncle Coldeep, cousin Raj and cousin Jen. It was nice to see everyone at the celebration. There were video calls with Carmen, Verlin, Carl and  At 5 we got an Uber back to the train station and had a drink before getting on the 6:10 train. On the way back we enjoyed seeing the sunset over the Pacific just below San Juan Capistrano and then just before pulling into the Old Town station we saw the fireworks at Sea World. Enjoying the morning train ride

 Another beautiful clear and sunny morning - no "May Gray". The plumbers were back a little after 9, after having left at 11:30 last night. They worked all day until a little after 6pm when they finally finished and took the old (only two year) tank hot water heater away. I asked Brandon if he would do the connections for the new HW heater for cash - he said he would do it for $100 which seems excessive as it would take me less than half an hour but it was complicated because the water supply connections had to be in coordination with the new waste line connections. Anyway, it is done. We fired up the new hot water heater and it works like a charm. Anna picked me up around noon and we went to the EV charging station near the IHOP at the far end of the shopping center from Costco. The machine said it would take 41 minutes to charge Anna's car. For lunch, we went to the Kuchi Japanese restaurant next to Costco and had a nice lunch. After lunch we went shopping at REI where