The Mystery Object

Here in the town I live in, Yorba Linda, we don't have snow...but we do have rain. Occasionally it does get cold enough for the rain to freeze! During this past December, I experienced such a morning. I leave every morning at 5:30am. One morning my windshield was covered with ice. I didn't know what to do. The windshield wipers were no good, so I tried to wait for the defroster to work. That took too long. I thought about using something like this...

...but figured that would be a little dangerous. Next I considered using a credit card or a spatula. No time. So I took of driving and eventually the ice began to melt and I made it to my destination safe and sound.

Later that day I put a comment on my Facebook 'wall' about the experience with ice I had had that morning. I received many comments from friends giving me suggestions about what to do next time. Later that evening, at a ladies dinner at my church, a friend (who read what I had written on Facebook) told me she had a gift for me. It looked something like this one...

Do you know what this is?

We had a good laugh about it. Later, I returned to my seat at the dinner. With a big smile on my face I showed the ladies at my table the gift I had just received. I held it up for all to see it. I expected them to laugh about it too. But their reactions surprised me. With puzzled looks they asked, "What is that?" I said, "It's an ice scraper!" One said, "Oh is that what one looks like?" I forgot that I was sitting with California natives, who had never even one!

Well, on Christmas morning, look at the gift I got from Daughter #2....Another ice scraper. But this was is fancy one! It's from Brookstone. I think my daughter gave it to me as kind of a gag gift, never thinking I would actually ever use it. Unless of course, I found ice on my windshield here in Yorba Linda again! But guess where I got to use it?

In Utah in January, when I got to visit my grandson! Here I am scraping the windshield. (Actually this picture was posed. My DH did the scraping for me while I waited in the car with the heater running! But he really did use my ice scraper!)

And this is my grandson with his mom, Daughter #1, in Utah in his new snowsuit. Poor little guy lives in the freezing snow. The snowsuit's a little big, but I'm sure he'll grow into it soon enough!

That's right, in Yorba Linda we don't have snow, but we do have rain (and ice)! Here's a cute little wallhanging I worked on a customer of mine. She did all the piecing and applique. I did the maching quilting.

She requested that I make the raindrops and umbrella really stand out. So I added a little extra batting. I call it "faux trapunto."

When she came to pick it up, she was very happy with it. I loved it too!

Now get back to work, Vivian!

Heartbreaking Drives in Yorba Linda: Sun Evening & Mon Morning

(Above: Just before sunset Sunday evening. Notice the color of the sun--a deep red. In the foreground--oil derriks from the old 76 Union Oilfield near my home. None blew up, thank God!)

Sunday evening, we took a drive around town just after the evacuations were lifted. Some of the canyons and parts of the nearby freeways were still closed. Here are some pictures I managed to shoot. I know some are not too clear because I took the pictures as we were driving by.

(Above: The entrance to Carbon Canyon. About a mile from my home. The firefighters were still working away.)

(These are true heroes!) (Below, at nightfall, Carbon Canyon was still closed. This was the entrance.)

One of the members of our church congregation was still at his home clearing brush and trees. Sunday afternoon the flames were getting close and he called from his ham radio for help. My husband and another church leader went into the canyon to help him. They had a producer from FoxNews--who had a media pass--with them. If you have a media pass you can get past road blocks. They were able to help the family save their home.

These are pictures I took this morning as I drove through Yorba Linda.

(Below: The hills up to these homes are blackened. The homes are miraculously still intact.)

(Below: This homeowner was not so lucky. It broke my heart to see the man who lives there rolling out his garbages to the curb for tomorrow morning's pickup. The homes of his neighbors on either side of him were unscathed.)

(Below: The people on this hilltop are looking down at the terrible devastation. All that's left is their chimney.)

(The fire "hopscotched" through the neighborhoods--burning one home and not touching another. As you see below, this was all that was left of one home.)

(Below, is a home left in rubble. Their neighbor is one of my dear quilting friends, Sally. I called her today to check on her. She sustained roof damage, but she and her family are safe and sound. Her son stayed all night hosing down their home. Their neighbor's home could not be saved. She said even though she was able to return to her home, she felt it wasn't safe and the fumes are very strong. As you can see, the news media was there interviewing the neighbors.)

(Below: A shot of the fence along the horse trails in the area. Notice how the heat produced cracks in the wood.)

(Below is one entrance to the Chino Hills State Park that borders Yorba Linda. When my children were little, we would go on hikes there. This is what is looked like this morning.)

(Below you can see the path my kids and I used to walk on. In the bottom right hand corner the sign marker says: EASY)

(Notice what looks like red "paint" in the pictures below? That's "flame retardant" sprayed on the area by a DC-10.)

(I'm sure the flame retardant saved this home. You can see it "painting" their garage door. The fire was very close to this neighborhood.)

(This family was hosing down their yard to try and remove the flame retardant. I asked them if it was difficult to remove. They said, "A little, but we are just grateful we are not sifting through rubble!)

(Final shots below: The smoke in the air this morning. All of the schools shut down today because of poor air quality...this if view looking east from Bastanchury hill near my home.)

(Below is a view of Catalina Island in the distance...from the Summit House restaurant not far from my home. You would think that brown air was smog, but that is thick smoke leftover from the weekend.)

Lessons learned from all this: be prepared, be prepared and be prepared! My sister writes a very informative blog about preparedness. Visit it here: PreparedLDSFamily. I need to follow her example!