Scorpions

From a friend in Bisbee, AZ: “It’s been the worst year for scorpions either of us have seen. I got stung, a year and a half ago… my first time. I was picking up some scrap wood in the garden shed, and BAM, the little bugger was under a piece of wood. Classic scorpion story, and 24 hours later, I was fine. Taylor had never been stung, either, but some time in April, under the covers, she moved, and one got her on her leg, three stings. She jerked away, which sent it on to my leg, where it hit twice. I threw the covers down, found it, swished it onto the floor, and hit it with my shoe. Three rattlesnakes later (out by our cat cage…one got away, but the next two didn’t), we have found scorpions in every room of the house. On walls, on rugs, under blankets, coming out of sink drains, two in light fixtures! (cooked to death). So four nights ago, another one got Taylor, under the covers, on her belly. She jerked her arm, and… near as we could count, we found five or six stings on the end of her thumb.

I had trapped one, coming out of the sink drain, by closing the stopper on its arm. Its tail went into machine gun mode, and hit the stopper ten times in a second…so that seems to be how they react to being trapped.”

Laurel Canyon


I really liked this documentary. Late 60’s, early 70’s was my era, but it was just a very well done film. I learned a lot about the music and the musicians from that time and that place. I was playing a lot of this music on the radio in the early 70’s but had no real appreciation for the artists or the place the music was coming from.

Bay Area, 2:30 p.m.

You’ve seen all of the fire photos. This one is from my friend Mr. Wolf. “Now we’re wearing masks to filter out the ash. Everything looks like it has a very light dusting of snow. Our AQI fluctuates between 80 and 250. 250 is world class bad, like Mumbai etc. But because it’s all fairly heavy particulate just staying indoors with everything closed up is very effective.

Meetings that should always be Zoomed

Every year about this time our homeowners association has a picnic/business meeting. Rotates from home to home each year. The picnic is okay for meeting any newcomers (rare) but the business meeting is what you’d expect. Mostly a few people (same every year) bitching about the roads or or the dues we pay to maintain them. Eventually we get around to electing new officers (getting more difficult every year.

Thanks to the pandemic, this years meeting will be via Zoom and (mercifully) limited to 40 minutes. Plenty of time to do what needs to be done. People can email their complaints before the meeting so we can have an agenda from the git-go.