Mostly photo FAIL day but calendar photo happened - by chance

The usual morning stuff, but no expected follow ups from the three recruiters from yesterday.

Waited till it warmed up a bit and drove to Baylands park. Took my folding cane with me, but it was massively in the way and I didn't need it till the walk back.  Should have put it in a knapsack. FAIL for the most part in the bird photos. No great blue herons, no egrets, no avocets. One (1) mallard. The swallows never came close enough to focus on, though there were plenty of them zipping around. I did see some bright yellow/orange plumage, but never got a clear shot. Might have been an oriole, bigger, I think, than a goldfinch. On my way out there was a hummingbird on the top branch of a dead tree. And a small black bird on the end of a branch of a live tree. Kind of artsy branch formation:

Should I crop off the left side?

But the WIN was the appearance of several lizards on the wooden floor of the viewpoint.


By chance, when I was looking for one which had jumped off the platform into the thistles, I saw this guy. I think this will be a 2020 calendar picture:


There was a drone being flown, probably illegally, by a group of guys on their lunch break. Very expensive drone, they set it on hover, and just left it at about 15 feet up and maybe 10 feet in front of them. Steady as a rock, and it was up from before I arrived until just before I left, maybe 45 minutes. There were also several RC airplanes, including a pair of delta wings.

And there was a DDG woman jogger.

On my way out I checked out the sign on the animal farm, and they are open to the public every Tuesday from 1-5, to that's on my reminder list now. It's also open one Sunday a month. No activity at all today. It's a place mostly for children to learn about animals, with an emphasis on disabled kids.

Made a steamer bowl for lunch. Need to buy more of those next week.

Mostly took it easy, some online time, some TV time (TWC), some Tivo.

Salad and breaded fish fillets for dinner. Ice cream.

Warriors lost in Toronto, which is a shame. A lot has been made lately of the fact that Steph Curry was a Toronto junior high phenom, his dad played for the Raptors.

Spent some time on a Thai visa lawyer site, and my Social Security is enough to qualify for a retirement visa without putting Baht into a Thai bank. The medical requirements don't mention any of my maladies - just communicable diseases and drug addiction.

Plans for tomorrow:
Drop off the rent check
Seriously look into retiring to Thailand.
Enjoy the summer- like weather

This is really depressing

I'm alright, I have no idea why, but I am.

Awakened by Sarah Jones, whose phone number had a Wyoming area code even though she lives in the middle of India, not far from Hyderabad. Her English is excellent, she is 80% of the way to an American accent. But since India doesn't have any, she doesn't understand time zones, and 7:45 am PST seemed like a good time to call me.

She said she was working on an in-person interview for me at her client's site in my town. The job is with Google, and Google has multiple buildings in my town. She asked what time I wanted to do the interview, I said 1 pm.

11 am, no word from her. Email reply half an hour later than my query is "still checking". I reply that if I don't hear by noon, I will have to re-think the job opportunity.

No word by noon. Looking at her morning email, she was not arranging the interview at Google, she was arranging it at HCL, a little fly by night consulting firm based in India. I emailed her to forget about it.

I hop in the car only intending on dropping off the rent and maybe hanging out at a coffee shop, but I look up HCL's address and after dropping off the rent I head there. It is a small shared building amongst Apple, Google, Mercedes and LinkedIn offices. Their web site is a joke. Though the office is in Sunnyvale, more than 50 miles from San Francisco, they call it their SFO branch:
"Stanford and the University Of Berkley, located in San Francisco, are among the top universities in the world. Stanford’s seven schools offer a breadth of highly regarded undergraduate, graduate and post graduate degree programs while The University of California, Berkeley that produces more Ph.Ds. annually than any other US university. Key programs across both universities remain as computer science and engineering courses." [sic]

Took the scenic route home. Passed by Trader Joe's and the big Safeway, but I have more than enough food at home. Need to get out of the habit of buying more than I need.

Did some job hunting, didn't find anything. Jessica, the recruiter at BDN called, but the two jobs she had were non-starters. One was worth applying for if it wasn't moving from South SF to Emeryville. That's a commute I don't even want to think about. The other is for a programmer, and is in Colorado Springs. But she sent me LinkedIn links to several recruiters she thinks I should contact.

Lean Cuisine spaghetti & meatballs lunch, home made spaghetti & meatballs with alfredo sauce dinner. How did that happen?

Spook amused me most of the afternoon asleep and dreaming on the sheepskin rug. She snored. She chased mice or something in her sleep.

Did some minor gardening. Many of the poppies have gone to seed, and had to be pulled out because they choke other plants. Lots more still in bloom and attracting bumble bees.

Need to order another hose. Those expandable ones always develop leaks. If I'm getting a solid hose, I'll also need a hanger for it.

Google assistant has stopped responding to my voice on my Pixel phone. It still works on my three Home devices. Installed a security update and it's working again.

Tivo today was 2 hours of Paradise Hotel. The producers go out of their way to torpedo working relationships. Finale is next week. Also watched PTI.

Plans for tomorrow:
Search for non-55+ mobile home parks in Houston.
Look at housing prices in Thailand.
Get out in the sun