Feels Like Fall

Hey, yup fall is here.  Cooler today and I just passed by the thermostat and it says 68 degrees on it.  I have both doors open and there is a constant breeze through the shop this morning.   I wore a cotton knit lightweight long sleeve shirt in preparation for today's cool down.  Glad summer's over as I get tired of wearing the same thing!  Bill my mailman, just brought the mail and he is wearing long pants!  His usual attire is postal blue shorts.  Wow, it is just beautiful out today. 

Do you So Cal drivers ever use the Sigalert site on the internet before taking off somewhere?  I use it daily while I'm putting on my make-up, I have my laptop next to me watching the traffic patterns.  This morning there was an accident on the 210 east in Pasadena which is how I travel in the mornings on my way to the shop.  Lifeflight helicopter had to land on the fwy and the traffic was backed up for miles onto the 134 fwy above Eagle Rock for over 2 hours.  Glad I knew so I left later than usual and just got the tail end of the slow down on my way in.  Saved me time and I didn't get stuck, yeah!  Thanks to my friend Danny and his computer knowledge for my laptop!

Besides cleaning and most mundane Sunday chores, I got out my long abandoned crochet afghan project and I'm trying to decide how to attach them.  I have 69 squares now and here is a pix of some of them.  There is something about yarn and heat that don't go together and now since it's cooler I'll get going on this.  I really should finish it.  Every square is a different pattern with similar colors in each one.  Have any suggestions?

Progress

This morning I woke up from a sound sleep to "BOOM".  Sounded like a car had hit our house.  I flew outta bed and over to the phone and pushed 911.  When she answered I told her a car accident in front of my house.  She wanted more detail and I explained that I hadn't even looked out the window but I knew that it was an accident and to send help fast.  As she asked more questions I couldn't answer, I had to explain that I was awakened from a sound sleep and I was a bit disoriented.  I got off the phone and realized my own adrenaline was making me shake.  Looked at the clock it was just after 5am.  How many times in the last 9 years had I been awakened in the wee hours of the morning to accident sounds; squealing tires, shattering crash noises, booms and sirens?  Many times... and they were mostly bad.  People travel at way beyond the speed limit of 35 mph on my street at all hours of the day and night.  In the evening, when they are leaving Hollywood's nightlife they go speeding on the Boulevard.  JD and my son Shel, went outside immediately to find out if they could help out and found a young man who walked away from his thoroughly messed up vehicle.  AMAZING.  His guardian angel was paying attention for sure.  What happened was a car had come out from a side street and cut him off and to avoid hitting the car he swerved, lost control (no doubt because of going too fast) and his Acura SUV spun around and hit the light pole (that had to be the boom I heard and it was LOUD).  His tires were off the rims, one was completely torn apart and one side was really dented in according to JD.  I didn't go close to look, only peered through the window in between the trees.  He LIVED.  They don't always make it.  So please drive safely, thanks!

On a more pleasant note...Check out the progress on our basement.  Lotsa dust but hey, it isn't holey anymore.  Lookin' good!

 

Here is my happy Bromeliad as it looked this morning.  It's not a very good picture.  I was trying to get a close-up of the blue flower centers but I was too much in a hurry.  It's happy because, back in July I transplanted some of them and so they are gonna flower for me a little right now to show their appreciation.  They are bizarrely unique looking.  The florescent color is real.  They usually flower in Spring and then sometimes again in the Fall.  I wish the flowers lasted longer.  I wanted to make sure that I was spelling bromeliad correctly so went to Dictionary.com and I just found out that pineapples are in the bromeliad family!  Sure enough, the leaves are similar, kinda dry and stiff, learned something new today.  Here is what they look like when they are really happy:

Sadly, I am gonna have to part with some of my babies (potted plants) when we move because I doubt that I will have space for all of them.  Where we are now we have a large porch and it is filled with different potted plants that do well in the shade.  I'll letcha know when the time comes, what I'm gonna do with them all.  Meanwhile I want to think of happy things, like the young man who defied death this morning! 

Being Constructive

Here's a few pix of what's going on around here.  This is my sis' husband JD who is helping to fix up the not so lovely parts of our house.  This is him this morning in our basement.  It is partially underground.  Most houses in Southern California do not have basements as it doesn't freeze here and so our foundations don't crack.  But they will crack with those darn earthquakes we have.  We are fixing the wall because of some water damage.  Water is wonderful until it goes where you don't want it.  This house was built in 1948 and is in need of lotsa repairs.  The ceiling opening is where we had the kitchen pipes repaired awhile ago and so this room (which was originally {supposedly} maids quarters) is getting fixed and will finally look nice! 

JD's trade is electrician and he is great at it.  He keeps the Orange County Hospitals up and running, especially the ICU backup generators and all that good stuff.  But he is very handy and knowledgeable when it comes to fixing things.  Ya wanta have him fix your electricity problems? Then he's the MAN for you.  Leave me a comment or email me and I will get back to you!

Finally finished with the new brochures.  These are the chosen ones.  The paper choice was easy since I had it on hand and I really needed to use up what I have and not be wasteful.  But the format and design went through some changes.  I printed some up yesterday and now they are ready for customers to grab.  Now to complete folding all of them and where in the heck did I put the 3 tier clear plastic brochure holder??? *sigh*  I just looked in my storage room and what a SCARY place that is.  Totally in need of organizing (again, she sighs).  Use the back up plan and use some other brochure holders until I find the other one, ughhh!  I'm off to locate those, see ya...

Mr. Bill

Cool and crisp morning here and it's gonna be a lovely day.  When I was doing some yard and garden clean-up this weekend, I realized that autumn here means it gets so hot it fries the leaves off the trees and bushes unlike where it gets cold and the leaves actually turn color, look pretty and then fall off.  Sometimes we get a cool fall and the leaves do change a bit before they fall off.  I don't think that is gonna happen this time.  One thing though is that we can have roses blooming much through the end of the year and a Christmas rose is really a treat.  Here are some photos of the shop taken last week.

The red door to the right is our entrance and you can see the DHL signs in the window. 

This is looking south on Temple City Blvd.  See the Fedex sign?  We also ship UPS.

This is the shop looking at both windows.  Now you know where we are and you can come visit!  We'd love to have you stop in and say hi.  Next up is a picture of the BEST MAILMAN on the planet.  I could not do my job without him.  He brings the mail to me and then I sort it into the correct mailboxes.  He's a sweet, lovable guy and he delivers the mail with a cheerful smile all the time.  He's really the best!

His name is Bill but sometimes I call him Billy Bob just for fun.  Over time I will be posting pix of all the people that help me in my business and make my world go 'round.  Hope you all have a terrific week!

Too Hot To Trot

Too hot to move!  Reached 100+ degrees today here in the San Gabriel Valley.  Should be cooling down by Monday.  Looks like the firemen and women are getting the Ventura fires under control, YEAH!  When I looked out the back window of my bedroom this morn, the view of the skyline of downtown LA and west towards the ocean was hazy from the fires.  We of course aren't the only ones contending with mother nature.  My heart goes out to those in the southern US around Georgia who have been flooded out of their homes. 

This week while we've having a heat wave, I've had fewer customers and have been less busy.  This always seems to happen whether it is too hot, too much rain, an earthquake, fires or major news events.  People must be glued to their TV sets watching events or won't come out because they will sweat or get wet!  What I do when that happens is: I get to cleaning and organizing and using the time to delve into projects such as updating my brochures.  Yesterday and today have been spent doing that.  It is never too early to be thinking about Christmas and the holidays either.  With the economy the way it is I will probably cut back on my supply orders this year.  Gotta get to finishing the brochures and I'll be back with more pics tomorrow.

My Little Shop

Gonna be a warm one again today, it's bright and sunny with a totally blue sky.  One thing about these hot dry days (as long as there is no fires burning nearby) is less smog and the seemingly endless robin's egg colored sky.  If you want to check out my shop here's a link  http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=temple+city+postal+centre&fb=1&gl=us&hq=postal+centre&hnear=temple+city&view=text&latlng=11621872630565453589 this is to the google maps page and tells a bit about our store.  We don't have a website (yet).   There's a couple pics there of the outside of the shop and I need to update them since my neighbor, Dr. Hom recently painted his building and hung a new awning.  I'll post a few more pics of the shop here tomorrow.

I should get going as I have allot of stuff to do today.  Some boring paperwork and such to get done in between the customers.  The un-fun part of having a business.  Don't get me wrong, I love to organize and straighten up, it's the actual paperwork and filing that's a drag.  Now, add to my list to get the camera go outside and take pics of the store while it is so nice and bright out.

Good Morning Hot Day

Wow, it's gonna be a hot one today, thankfully it's dry heat.  Now if everyone will just not start any more fires we can all relax a bit especially our wonderful firemen and women.  Enough acreage burned already...end of story.  

I love to people watch, do you?  This morning on my way to work, a nice looking gray haired man was sitting waiting for the bus as I was waiting for the light to change and he had a bag from the 99 cent store and was eating chips with a bottle of salsa and he looked like he needed a drink because the expression on his face said it was a bit hot.  Wished I'd had a bottle of water to chuck out the window for him. 

I stopped into my fav store, Whole Foods Market in East Pasadena, to get a bite to eat and to get a cup of coffee.  When I got out of the car it was really too warm for coffee but I got some anyhow.  Needed a bit of kick this morning.  Then I made it too sweet and was trying to drink it down so I could add more coffee to the cup and doing this without allowing myself to gag.  When I have coffee, I don't feel hungry.  Now, if I could just survive on coffee, I'd be thin.  How does coffee effect you?  I try not to have it everyday because I don't want to get "hooked" on it.  So I have tea instead.

My display box didn't get painted until later in the day yesterday and I think that one more coat on the one side will do, gotta cover up some black marker.  When I got here to the shop this morn' and as soon as I entered, I could smell the paint and that has reminded me that it's really time to paint all the walls and do more sprucing up here.  I really like to paint.  I love how fresh and bright it looks afterward.  Add to my "to do" list!  Have a great day!