It’s Always Sunny in San Diego
Life is temporarily back to normal around the hilltop. We are in between travels and yet still ten days until the Christmas hordes descend upon us. The decorations are 100% up outdoors and 95% done in the house, so we are as ready as we are going to be. The present wrapping is well advanced thanks to Kim and Melisa dedicating much of yesterday to the task. I too am lightly busy with some expert witness work and yet there is not much in the garden to be done, so I do not feel at all put upon. And the best part is that this is a time when the weather of San Diego is at its best. Here it is, officially mid-December and the temperature this week is mostly in the mid-70s with sunny skies. Today I am wearing my shorts and a long-sleeved t-shirt, which feels just about right. It is such a casual and pleasant way to dress for the day because i can be comfortable in this gear indoors and out, going out to the gym and to the stretch clinic, yet comfortable enough to be out and about in the garden with whatever little touch-up might be needed. The air conditioning is long since turned off and yet the heat hasn’t really kicked on and the temperature in the house is mild and just about perfectly aligned with the out of doors. I have throttled back the watering cycles as well and just saw that my water bill tells me that water utilization in well below the prior months and also well below the last few years. I’m only using the hot tub occasionally, so propane use is also low. Since the sun is shining brightly, the solar panels are doing their job and using the Tesla batteries to make sure I minimize my use of grid power and optimize it as well to not use peak time power whenever possible.
All of this makes me feel like I have organized my life just the way I like it so as to make the ongoing living and living expenses of this fine hilltop as accommodative as possible, especially at this pleasant time of year. We are still expecting that El Niño will be more robust than normal this year, with more rain and cooler weather than normal, but we have yet to see much evidence of that in our daily lives. While that might up the energy bills, it should make up for it in reduced water use. The way the costs are generally running, electricity, propane and water are my three utilities and they tend to run more or less on par with one another with whatever variations coming from extreme weather in one direction or another. I know that I do not keep any of those numbers as low as do Mike or even Winston, both of whom not only work to minimize their costs, but also have greater tolerance for lifestyle modification to fit the cost curve. I have a slightly different approach. I want things (house temperature, hot tub usage and garden lushness) how I want them and then I try to optimize cost accordingly. They seem to prefer to minimize cost at all costs and let their lifestyle fit into that program. They are prone to flexibility within bounds, I am prone to indulgence with economy.
Things also seem back to normal since Kim is back to having a dog. It is amazing to me that Buddy spent most of our visit with his prior owners paying attention to and playing with me and mostly ignoring Kim. But starting with the ride home in her lap, he has been joined at the hip with Kim ever since and I think it is fair to say that within twelve hours of Buddy’s arrival on the hilltop, he is squarely Kim’s dog. He was anxious last night when she left the room, he slept between her legs all night and while he did not nip or growl at me, he was also largely indifferent as to my presence. The same was true this morning as she did her training ritual with him. We then went on a morning walk, which is something I have committed to Kim that I will do with her going forward (let’s see how long that will last). Buddy likes to really motor when he walks. He is small and has a short gait, but he is very quick and thus he moves quite a bit faster than Betty or Cecil. He is hyper aware of his surroundings, but you really see what a difference a fully sighted dog has as a modus operandi compared to Betty, who had as her sense of choice her capability to smell. Buddy doesn’t sniff at things so much as he stares at them. He is a robust little guy who is always straining at the leash like a pointer and very aware of other people or dogs within his vicinity. He can yap with the best of them when someone approaches, which makes him a sound watch dog, but he also calms down quickly once he realizes that there is no threat. He seems to go out and come back in with equal enthusiasm and exudes a simple feeling that he just likes being there, wherever there is.
That’s a good lesson for any of us, be happy where you are, but be receptive to anything new that comes your way. Expect the best and then make the most of it. That seems to be Buddy’s view on the world. Right now he is in the bedroom with Kim while she gets ready for her day. She will be crating him for the first time this morning while she and I each go out to our respective workouts. It should only be a few hours and he is supposedly used to his crate, but I expect some yapping before he settles in for the duration. His yapping is high pitched to match his diminutive size and it seems mostly dedicated to two things. He yaps to warn of some change in his environment, mostly the approach of anyone other than Kim (at this point, that includes me). He also yaps when Kim steps away for any reason. This is a touch of separation anxiety which Cecil had in spades and Betty had none at all. Betty seemed to wonder why you were going, but seemed to expect it of her life. Buddy seems genuinely surprised to find that anyone would want to be without his presence at any moment and somehow feels that being left to himself is a grievous error on someone’s part.
Buddy has figured out that Kim is his Mama and primary caregiver. He has already completely bonded with her and shows mostly tolerance for me. Tolerance that is, so long as I stay out of his way when he doesn’t want to be bothered. Buddy has already shown me that he is not shy to nip at me if he wants to show me he can get feisty. Kim just takes all of that as another thing to fix about Buddy. I have a feeling Buddy is just a tad schizophrenic since he can flip from fun and frisky to nasty and nippy at the drop of a hat. If anyone can smooth him out, I’m guessing Kim can. After all, that is more or less what she has done with me over 18 years.
What this all tells me is that Buddy is a new expense category in our utilities budget. I never bother to calculate dog costs because what’s the point. I can control water, energy and hot tub costs if I really need to, but dog costs are just what they are and we wrack it up to general life costs. It would be like paying for the sunshine and as we know, its always sunny in San Diego.