Alaskan Men - Alaska Airlines to Seattle, WA

On Ruthi’s flight from Anchorage to Seattle on an Alaskan Airlines, one of the stewardess commented to a passenger the famous quote about Alaskan men "The odds are good, but the goods are odd!". Ruthi found it a bit surprising that an Alaskan crewmember would insult the very state it represented; not that the quote isn’t true!

A "little" Collision - San Diego, CA

Boots was driving into downtown San Diego to pickup Ruthi at the airport, when she decided to get off the highways and get something to eat first. In her search for a parking place, she got too close to the vehicles parked on the right side of the street. The Ford's passenger's mirror struck the drivers mirror on a CAL TRANS truck. Boots pulled over, parked and began the search for the driver of the CAL TRANS "victim". She did locate the mirror's pieces that had been destroyed and flung under other parked vehicles. There was an In-N-Out burger place right near the site of the bump. So, she went in there seeking the driver. The manager even did a PA announcement trying to find the driver with no responses. So, Boots returned to the CAL TRANS truck and waited for the driver to appear. Eventually, the driver came and they exchanged info. Boots, sans a passenger mirror, was able to continue on and pick up Ruthi at the airport.

To replace the Ford's mirror cost over $200. Later we discovered that there was some body damage from the mirror hitting and scratching the doors. So, we don't have the final total on the cost of this "little" collision.

Snow - Anchorage, AK

When Ruthi was returning to the hotel after dinner/movie with Kassie (our grand-daughter) on the East side of Anchorage, it began snowing. It looked like this might be the start of winter’s white cover in Anchorage but by the time Ruthi got to mid-town the snow had stopped and by morning the snow was gone.

Overhead Storage in Plane - 737 Flight to Anchorage, AK

On Ruthi's flight from San Diego to Seattle on an Alaskan Airline Boeing 737, she noticed that they had made major changes to the storage space within the overhead bins. People were placing large carry-ons in the space. Finally, instead of having to gate check these humungous carry-ons, they can now stuff them in the overheads!

Karma's First Coyote - Santee, CA

Santee Lakes recreational preserve is situated between residential on the east and south and wild desert land on the north and west. Wildlife (raccoons, rabbits, many species of birds and waterfowl, coyotes, snakes, etc.) roam the park and are usually more active in the dark - especially the coyotes. They hunt around our dinner time and can get very loud when they have captured/killed their prey. Karma pretty much ignores their howls, yips and barks even if she is out on her nightly "duty" walk.

Today she got an up close look at a young coyote on the run. We were driving out of the park to do some shopping when Karma got excited like she saw a dog or something. We didn't see anything and went through the gate and up the road. At the traffic light, we were in the left turn lane and stopped, waiting for the light, when she got excited again, very excited! And, then we saw the coyote running along the sidewalk on our left lickity-split south to a more wooded area. It was about the same size as Karma, running very fast. It ran straight across the busy road and luckily was not hit. While campers have seen coyote in the early morning and evening, it is unusual to see a lone one mid-day - lucky Karma and us too.

Fall & Winter – Santee, CA

Santee is on the very East edge of San Diego. Winter brings shorter days but nothing like what we experienced in Anchorage. There isn’t any need to escape to Hawaii in January either. We have close to the same length of day light and tropical temperatures, too, here in Santee.

100ᵒ Fahrenheit – Santee, CA

Santee made the national news/weather reports because we got to 100ᵒ today. October is starting out to be just like September HOT HOT HOT! While we aren’t in a very shaded spot at least we are not broad-side to the South so that we get sun ALL day long on our utility side. The A/C doesn’t have to work as hard to keep the inside comfortable. And, the days are shorter.