My Daily Life and Thoughts while in San Diego | List of Best Posts

This blog is where I express myself to the world or at least to those who might stop by to read what I post

. Maybe God will use what I post (I am a Christian and this blog will have a most decidedly Christian bent to it) to good effect in the lives of my readers.

I may turn some of my posts into a book. I may cease blogging here altogether. Who knows. But for now..I am content to post away in this, my own little corner of the world.

Rather than reading through my now lengthy list of posts you may wish to read what I consider to be my very best posts or you can just read the posts that deal with a single subject category that might interest you.

Please know that I am open to any input on any topic I write about. If you have something to say about anything you see written here please....feel free to speak up in the form of leaving a comment or sending me a PM (private message).

And if you are in San Diego and wish to meet the one and only Carlos (that's me

)...drop me a private message. I always enjoy meeting one of my readers!

Thanks.

Carlos

PS. If you want to follow my blog such that you will get an email when I write new posts you can subscribe to my blog.

Where I live and swim...photo's!

Posted 07-13-2009 at 05:26 PM by carlos123

I thought you all might like to see what the Lord has blessed me with in sunny San Diego so here are some photos for your viewing pleasure...

This first one is of my "house" (the trailer I live in).

This next one is inside my "house" showing a computer monitor a friend of mine is lending me until I get another monitor (my laptop monitor broke). It's a very nice 22" monitor.

Notice the large fan (that was given to me for free by a window cleaning client I had when I first got to San Diego...at the time I almost said no thank you, thinking I wouldn't need such a large fan. Boy...am I glad I took it!).

I use it not only to cool myself but my computers as well. If they get too hot they start malfunctioning if not outright shutting down.

This last one is of me relaxing after a hard days work at the "office" (my "office" being inside my trailer of course given that I make my living over the Internet doing computer work for others at this point).

The pool was at a friend's house.

I never thought I would say this in my entire life but down here I am actually looking forward, I mean really, to winter. To those cooler temperatures with some rain to water the plants and make everything green again.

Of course you wouldn't know how much brown there is around here by the look of those nice green trees behind the pool

. But most all the grass and other bushes are a shade of brown. Until the winter rains come in and cause everything to get green again.

Ironically in San Diego, while most people elsewhere are shoveling snow, San Diegans are cutting their grass. Winter is the grass cutting season around here LOL.

The worst thing about living in a trailer is that during the height of the summer...it gets incredibly hot inside but then again...that is offset by the fact that I can work in just a pair of shorts or underwear if I want to.

Yes sir! The California lifestyle and me are learning to get along with each other quite nicely. As Jackie Gleason used to say (I think)..."How sweet it is!".

Carlos

P.S. the dates on the photos are innacurate. The digital camera I have (also loaned to me by a friend) is somewhat broken in that the LCD does not work. So I can't change the date LOL. I just point in the general direction of what I want to take a photo of and usually come out with a nice photo (thanks in no small part to the dummy proofing of my most modern day cameras such that I can take pictures without even seeing what I am shooting!).

Posted in Personal Life

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Comments

	well，I enjoy your words~
	Posted 07-13-2009 at 09:09 PM by haller32

	maybe you could place your trailer under a very big tree , it is much more cool~
	Posted 07-13-2009 at 09:13 PM by haller32

Welcome to my blog haller32. Yes...that is an excellent suggestion. I wish I could put my trailer under a tree somewhere. That would be ideal. Unfortunately there are no trees in the yard that I can use for that.

Of course it also makes the trailer undesirable for a great many persons who can't stand the heat which keeps my rent down. I only pay $200 a month which includes water, electricity, free internet, sewer, stove, fridge, and private bathroom.

It's a great way to live cheaply for anyone who wants to live on less in San Diego.

I just never thought that San Diego got so hot during the summers. Before I came here I had the impression that San Diego was a nice 76 degrees 365 days a year. While the average may be that way...the winters get a bit cool (mind you not cold) and the summers get...well...a bit hot as I am beginning to find out.

Still better than living in -25 or -30 C (not F) weather in Canada! And much better than living in the heat of Arizona or Texas.

Posted 07-14-2009 at 01:44 AM by carlos123 carlos123 is offline

	I think Haller's advise about moving the trailer under a large tree would benefit you.
	Posted 07-14-2009 at 07:32 PM by 2goldens

Hi 2goldens! Nice to see you.

Hmm...odd. Your comment is the first one that ever got emailed to me...which was nice by the way. Normally I have to come and check the blog to see any new comments.

Yeah...I wish I could move the trailer under a tree. That would be awesome! Unfortunately there are no trees anywhere on the property that would provide shade. Not to mention that moving it would be a major undertaking and one that the landlord is unlikely to want me to do.

It's a great deal for me and him both but if I start wanting to do this or that (like move the trailer) either my rent will go up or else he will decide it's not worth renting anymore

.

I think I will get me what is called a swamp cooler though and I was looking on craigslist yesterday and believe it or not people actually give away window air conditioners for free once in a while so I might get one of those.

Regardless I can't beat the rent I pay and will tough it out if I have to endure some heat in order to live so cheaply the rest of the year.

It's unbelievable to me that I pay less to live in San Diego than I did up north to live in my large Suburban truck (which I outfitted with a bunk bed and all the comforts of home...well...sorta).

Your comment has reminded me that I can never know who all is reading a particular post of mine...makes me want to go and hide and disappear into the background some. On second thought...nah...I'll keep writing. It's in my blood and it is real nice to have a place on the Internet where I can express myself.

Have a great day!

Carlos

Posted 07-14-2009 at 07:49 PM by carlos123 carlos123 is offline

	Nice trailer. I see it has an extendable awning attached to the side. Try extending the awning, and see if that helps. Try to create as much shade as you can over the windows, and block out the direct sunlight from hitting the inside of the trailer. Also, open the windows on all sides of the trailer to let a cross-breeze blow through.
	Posted 07-15-2009 at 06:24 AM by RD5050

Try this. Open a window on one side of the trailer and open a window on the other side.
Put the fan facing outward in the window on the hot side of the trailer. It will drag cool air into the trailer and express hot air.
I do this in my home in WA in the summertime and it keeps the whole house cool with a minimum of expense for electricity.
Your pictures brought back a lot of memories for me. In the 1970's I lived with my 6'5" husband and a 150 lb St Bernard in a 32 ft 5th wheel trailer that we traded in for a motorhome that I used to go on the road selling arts and crafts all over the country. We lived in Long Beach CA and had a few leftover Oil Wells in our backyard. The day we moved out to the home we bought, the oil well behind our house froze and stopped working.
What do you think that meant?

Posted 07-15-2009 at 08:16 AM by yukiko11 yukiko11 is offline

Hey RD5050! Great to see you again!

And thanks for the input on this post and at the thread where I ask about the heat here. I have an extendable awning to be sure but my landlord won't let me extend it as it would tend to fade and wear out in the sun if I had it open all the time...which would be the only way to have it do any good. I've already got every window and vent open practically all the time so I'm maxed out in that sense. I like the idea of putting awnings over the windows and perhaps creating my own shade by getting a very large beach umbrella. I'll have to look into that.

I think I will get used to the heat. Yesterday wasn't too bad. It's just that my body has not yet acclimated to the temperature down here yet, I think. One has to bear in mind that just 7 months ago I came down from a climate that routinely got down to -20, -30 C. That's cold! My blood is still rather thick. It will take some time for it to start thinning out so to speak (if there is anything to the thick and thinning of blood that is based on what one is used to).

Yukiko...it's tough to put a fan next to a window such that it would draw out any air at all. One one side I have the desk next to the largest window. On the other side is the kitchen counter and stove. In the back is the bed and on the other side is the bathroom. And there is no room to have a large fan getting in the way of things. So the position of the fan where it is, in the middle of the trailer, is about the only spot I can have it in.

I once lived in cottage in Florida in a place that the ubber rich used to come to on vacations back in the 1920's. Super cheap rent...only $150 a month! It got incredibly hot there as none of the cottages had any insulation at all and there was no shade. Putting two box fans into two windows and drawing air out that way worked great. I just can't do that in my trailer unfortunately. It's just not set up to do that easily if at all. I'll look into getting some really small fans in the windows. That might help.

Did you have a real oil well in your back yard Yukiko? I'm a bit confused by which home had the oil wells. The one in Long Beach? The one you bought later? Did you buy the house with the oil wells taken into account with respect to the selling price?

I would love to go on the road as you did Yukiko! I love interacting with people from a booth at a fair type of thing. I suppose it brings out a part of me that usually doesn't get much exposure being a computer geek of sorts most of the time. I've sold kettle popcorn and hot dogs before (or rather I tried both ventures). That was such fun! Made a pretty good killing financially too. Just couldn't line up enough events to make a living at it though.

Carlos

Posted 07-15-2009 at 10:58 AM by carlos123 carlos123 is offline

	Wow, looks like you have the perfect set up! Much better than a truck in the winter, I am certain. Hope you are able to keep cool. The Summer really isn't too bad out here, but then again, depends on how far inland you are. Anyway, I pray the Lord continues to bless you immensely!
	Posted 07-16-2009 at 01:34 AM by hanna_house

	Thanks for your encouragement Hanna! Much appreciated. Yeah...the Lord has blessed me with a pretty good living situation if I do say so myself. I mean who would have thought that I would be living in the middle of San Diego for a measly $200 a month! That's even cheaper than living in my truck was! Carlos
	Posted 07-16-2009 at 01:59 AM by carlos123

Originally Long Beach was a sea of oil wells. The trailer park where we lived in our trailer was located on a portion of an old oil field and there were about 5 oil wells left. They ran 24/7 and for someone like me who is a light sleeper the sound was enough to drive you mad. I was so happy when that oil well that had tortured me for 3 years died on the day we moved. I felt vindicated.
My husband and I bought his brothers home in Whittier because they wanted to move North. We knew that there was also oil pumping going on under this property, but his brother refused to sell us the mineral rights so he could keep getting the monthly checks. In the end, we sold the home back to his brother who was having problems with 3 of his kids and about 12 months later it totally collapsed from a combination of termites, an earthquake, and the oil drilling. His brother had told us that the house was 30 years old and later we discovered it was actually 55 years old. I guess God was looking out for us and punished his brother for his greed.
My best friend who still lives in California, told me that the trailer park is gone now and there is a park there.
There is nothing in my current backyard but 182 acre tree farm which only produces a lot of bird noises and visits from local critters, deer and eagles.
I loved working on the road and several years ago developed a new business surrounding original make your own crafts for kids and intend to go back to that lifestyle as soon as I find the right person to assist me. I have done some local shows and fairs, but I really want to travel again because it is so interesting and you meet so many great people. Also, I love working with kids. When you can get the parents to back off and just let them do their thing they are so creative and in the end the parents are so proud of them. I have tried to talk my best friend into doing it with me, but she is an award winning ceramic artist and now sort of looks down on using crafts to "make a living"
I was going to sell my home, but decided instead to turn it into a duplex and rent out one side to cover half the mortgage and have someone there to take care of the place when I am gone.
When my two years break from my career is over, I definately don't want to go back to that high stress job. I want to enjoy whatever time God will grant me in the future doing something that will make me happy. But I also want to have enough security to care for my best friend who is showing signs of altzheimers and may have to face that in the future.
Life is so complicated.

Posted 07-16-2009 at 02:11 AM by yukiko11 yukiko11 is offline

Updated 07-16-2009 at 02:25 AM by yukiko11

You sound like you have experienced a bit of blessing in your life too Yukiko. That's wonderful!

I think you are making the right decision to pursue what you enjoy doing on the road. Life is too short to get all caught up in a stressful job.

The people I met on the road when I sold kettle popcorn and hotdogs really was one of the best things about being on the road. I wish I had been blogging back then. I would have had some interesting stories about people encounters and adventures to talk about.

One of the nice things about blogging is that I can re-read my own posts whenever I want to refresh my memory as to what my life was like during a certain time that I blogged about.

As I have said before Yukiko...your friend is very fortunate indeed to have a friend like you! Though I have good friends I don't think any of them would take care of me if I got Altzheimers. That's wonderful of you to be willing to do that for your friend Yukiko. Truly.

Carlos

Posted 07-16-2009 at 02:22 AM by carlos123 carlos123 is offline

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