Update and bump: I received this email note from the fellow who found the dog: HI TOM. THANKS FOR YOUR EFFORTS. I POSTED SIGNS AND HAD T...

Just received this as a comment: Lost Yellow Lab, Friendly 11 year old missing since Sunday morning if found please contact the number on he...

Last night, for the first time in nearly a week, we opened our windows to the lovely, cool, crisp air of an evening in the desert. Along wi...

Rain. Yesterday afternoon, it rained. A glorious, if brief, downpour dropped 0.16" (about 4mm) of water on our parched patch of deser...

Well, my highly unreliable contractor (Ruben Ponce) has done it again. Earlier this week, through my own personal inspection and the help of...

One of my loyal readers (Chrys) passes along this email she received. I can't personally vouch for the contents (other than the phone n...

From Simi L., our morning political humor: One day, the seven dwarfs left to go work in the mine. Snow White stayed home to prepare lun...

My mom sent me an email full of photos of a rock in Iowa, covered with patriotic art. The email had this message: I'm told that the...

I've mentioned in past posts that Lyons Peak (just east of the town of Jamul) has four web cameras on it. These cameras update every tw...

The news this morning is not so good. Together with a friend (Dick F.) who is very experienced in concrete construction, I went over the ro...

…and simultaneously ponder the future of mankind.

Update and bump: Simon M. writes with a question about exactly what “thread count” actually means. There are two ways one could interpret t...

To be fair, there is some legitimate debate about which tyrant was the worst of the lot. Specifically, there are some reputable historians...

Ready for the final inspection! The inspector is scheduled to visit on Monday morning, and with any luck at all, we'll pass the inspect...

This is almost getting to be routine – one day after another of great progress! As of this morning, we are getting dangerously close to bein...

From Jackie B.: These are actual quotes taken from Federal Government employee performance evaluations. Sadly, probably 98% of them are stil...

We took our usual walk “up the hill” this morning, but the view was anything but ordinary. It was crisp – cool and humid – as the sun peeke...

Ah, another day of great progress on our safe house! The bottom part of the form for the roof overhang has been completed, and the bottom w...

The Zaca fire is huge, over a month old, and it's a long way (over 150 miles, up north of Santa Barbara) from our home – and yet the smo...

After still more trials and tribulations – all involving misdeeds or failures to act by my contractor – work on our safe-house is underway a...