East Coast Time

I have almost recovered from the 5 days I spent with Mary on Pacific Daylight Time. I flew out Wednesday and returned Monday. Except for this Thursday morning, when my 6:00 alarm woke me up for EarlyBird Toastmasters, I’ve been dragging myself out of bed after 7:00. Gracie is displeased with her late breakfasts.

Besides seeing Mart et al and their new house at Camp Pendleton, I went because I’d scored the opportunity to buy 5 tickets to the Savannah Bananas in their online lottery. When I entered it, back in the spring, I’d chosen Petco Park in San Diego as preferred venue. All good, because we were able to ride the Coaster train from Oceanside, then change to the trolly to the stadium. Next time I come, I may just use public transportation from the airport to their place.

In any case, the Bananas were fun. We arrived about 2:30 after having lunch at the Hasta Mañana Cantina, chosen because they had 6’ bananas out front. When they heard we were going to the game, they gave Bella and Remi little toy bananas. He was quite pleased. On to the park. I’d made a frame out of 8”x11” yellow card stock and taped it to a piece of cardboard. Too late for the Bananas, Bella was able to get signatures from the opposing team, the Austin Firefighters (actual retired firefighters). Until the gates opened at 5:30, we were entering by the band (more signatures), audience-participation games, antics by the male cheerleaders Man-nanas and the Calendar Crew, songs, etc. Very loud and very hot. I bought a SB cap. Since our seats were in Section 317, in the sun until 6:45, we opted to wait to climb to the rafters. 

I’d describe the game as singing and dancing with a little baseball thrown in. Guest stars included country singer Brett Young, Hall of Fame former Padre Trevor Hoffman, Derek Hough who even I recognized from Dancing with the Stars, and another former Padre Heath Bell. The crown loved them. Remi was quite impressed he could see the action on the huge TV screens, then look down and see the actual people right on the field. 



The best part? Banana Ball has it’s own rules, and one is the game goes 9 innings or 2 hours, which ever comes first, with a clock displayed on the score board. We were able to make the last Coaster of the night and were home by 11:00.

The rest of my time there was spent helping Mary unpack and organize. First up was the bird feeders. Within 1/2 hour of filling the hummingbird feeders, I’d seen what I thought were black chinned. eBird doubted me; I changed my call to Anna’s because I saw the female’s red throat. By the next morning, Allen’s had appeared, and the feeder guarding wars had begun. House finch came to the seeds. California towhee and song sparrows hopped down by the fence and pecked in the grass. Merlin identified wrentits which I saw and California scrub jays and bushtits that I only heard. Other seen: lesser goldfinch, CA quail, crows, black phoebes, Heard: ravens and CA thrasher. Saturday night at dusk, I went out to see the International Space Station, and Mary and I saw a large owl fly down the street at about 10’. She ran down to the playground to try to spot it, but no luck. They had told me they’d heard a great horned, which I guess it must have been. The area is just scrappy trees, but what do I know.

Back to work. After putting more shelves in the garage pantry, we rounded up all of the food and got it placed or in the kitchen pantry. They could eat for a month without shopping. 2 shelves were broken in the move. When they are replace, 1 will hold more food; the other will have all the rechargeable tools since there is a wall socket next to it. 

We put a 9’x11’ area of cardboard under the outdoor seating to start killing the grass before an outdoor rug or maybe teak flooring arrives. I spent much time trying to find sprinklers. No luck. Since they are centrally controlled, Mary will have to have maintenance come out to help. She doesn’t want the ones under her furniture to come on. And she does want her pots of dragon fruit to be watered.

Mary and Ryan put their new dining room table together. The old one is now the art area. Bella and I spent some time painting. She finished a series in her sketchbook; I began it and will complete it next week.

Our other big effort was to build racks for big storage bins. We got 3 made and their custom bins installed. There could be 2 more, depending on how things are sorted. Always more to do.

Since Alaska Air no longer flies nonstop from Orlando, I opted for cheaper Southwest, through Las Vegas on the way out and direct home. Boarding positions of A14, A1(!), and A5 didn’t make the seats bigger. Plus the food in Vegas, meh. I need to check the possibilities before I return in December.