September 28, 2026 · 22:21

The Sight Of Distant Thunder

About 80 miles as the crow flies, just north of Indio, there’s a big thunderstorm tonight.

I didn’t know that before I went out a couple of hours after sunset to refill the birdseed feeders. But it didn’t take long to figure out.

While the base of the thunderstorms were well over the horizon and behind the mountains, the tops of the thunderstorm cells probably went up to at least 40,000 feet and were filled with lightning, so they were perfectly visible, even from this far away.

I love the video. I love watching thunderstorms. I love listening to the thunder roll across the valley and bounce off of the hillsides. The thunder in this case is way, way too far away to hear, but the sights of the lightning ripping through the clouds was exquisite.

Bigger picture, it’s a line of intense thunderstorms and downpours and flash flooding all the way from Indio through the Colorado River Valley, Las Vegas, Cedar City, and Salt Lake City, all being sucked up from the remnants of Hurricane Polo, currently over Baja.

This “el Niño” year is going to be wild!

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Filed under Forever Home, Photography, Video, Weather

September 27, 2026 · 23:17

Savage Sunset

The house was filled with a pink & orange glow from outside, like we were trapped in a humongous neon tube.

I went outside into the back yard, facing east, away from the sunset, and found this.

It was spectacular, to say the least.

Then I turned around and saw the western sky…

I ran and got Ronnie so she could see it also.

It was incredible, and you could of course see the shadows above us from the lower clouds closer to the horizon.

The extreme angle of the sunlight made the texture of the clouds stand out in sharp relief, and of course, the colors just kept getting more and more vivid.

I had left my dinner on the table to run outside and look. Having to re-heat it was worth the effort!

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Filed under Forever Home, Photography, Sunsets, Weather

September 26, 2026 · 23:03

Clouds 1, Harvest Moonrise 0

Look on social media over the past couple of days and you probably saw tons of pictures of the waxing gibbous Moon, getting closer and closer to full. Lots of folks were looking forward to seeing tonight’s moonrise of the Harvest Moon, the Full Moon that’s closest to the autum equinox, which was a bit over three days ago.

In the High Desert region, we were socked in with clouds. No rain today, but no clear skies either.

Okey dokey! Maybe tomorrow we’ll at least get a little bit of rain. Probably not, but I can hope!

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Filed under Astronomy, Sunsets, Weather

September 25, 2026 · 23:41

Overhead Sun & Clouds

It was unusual – tons and tons of deep blue skies all around, but one honkin’ huge set of clouds right over our neighborhood as I was walking down to the community mail box.

The contrasts were exquisite!

Later, the clouds started building into thunderheads over the mountains to the southeast.

There were roads shut down and some serious flash flooding off by Yucaipa.

We’re all keeping our eyes peeled for Sunday and Monday when we’re expecting to get the remnants of Hurricane Polo, which is currently STILL a Cat 5 storm off of Baja.

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September 24, 2026 · 23:16

Not Quite Full

The first full Moon of fall isn’t until Friday night at 9:49 Pacific Time, about 22 hours from now, but it was spectacular rising through the pink clouds in the east during tonight’s sunset.

Later it looked amazing while dodging in and out of high, scattered clouds and the pallet went from orange to blue.

96.8% illuminated, making it bright enough to blot out all but the brightest stars, but it would be a wonderful night for flying!

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Sunsets, Weather

September 23, 2026 · 23:35

A Better Day

Yesterday was a long, long day and I was exhausted. I fell asleep at my desk and woke up with less than five minutes before midnight. So last night’s post was what, in baseball terms, would be called “an emergency hack.”

Today was better, I finally got up off the ground and got a few goals accomplished. But I’m still not hitting on all cylinders.

So, enjoy some fireworks!

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Filed under Fireworks, Photography

September 22, 2026 · 23:56

Proof Of Life – September 22nd

I’m here.

I’m tired.

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September 21, 2026 · 22:26

Monday Municipal Mile – Part Deux

Last spring we were pleasantly surprised, while looking for local activities, to find the Monday Municipal Mile, held at the Civic Center Park next to City Hall, the police station, and the library.

A quarter mile around the park, four laps.

After about eight or ten weeks they stopped for the summer (it can be freakin’ hot out here in July and August!) but now that Fall’s here, we back doing laps!

We love our local community and the fun things that are offered to participate in and meet our neighbors and make new friends!

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Filed under Forever Home, Health, Photography

September 20, 2026 · 22:54

Hiding White On White

Spectacular sky this afternoon with tons of puffy white clouds on a deep blue background.

The object hidden in the gaps was immediately obvious to my eye.

Maybe it’s human nature, maybe it’s just me.

See it?

Just rising, white, airless, cratered face peeking through the white puffy clouds.

Amazingly, there are folks who think that seeing the moon in the sunlit mid-day sky is some sort of weird occurrance or magic spell or conspiracy or SIGN.

It’s not anything weird at all, perfectly normal. People just don’t bother to pay attention to the world around them.

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Filed under Astronomy, Weather

September 19, 2026 · 22:56

Rodeo

Now that we’re living the good life up in the High Desert and not in the mega metropolis of Los Angeles, we have some different entertainment options. Like, rodeo.

Tonight was the first night of the High Desert Rodeo at the San Bernardino County Fair Grounds in Victorville. An easy 20 minute drive up the freeway, and we were anxious to check it out.

The weather was great! Not to hot, a little breeze but not howling.

It was a sellout, and it looks like tomorrow will be as well. (We won’t be there tomorrow since there’s a time conflict with a very important Chiefs game.) This bodes well (we hope!) for the financial future of the new event.

Bareback riding, saddle bronco, mutton busting, chute dogging, team roping, tie down roping, barrel racing, breakaway roping, and bull riding. Plus all of that small hometown charm, like having the local “wrangler” group riding to introduce each event, and a couple of high school ladies singing the National Anthem. Plus lots of booths, vendors (clothing, jewelry, housewares, baked goods, and so on), and food trucks (above average BBQ).

And off behind us (we were facing north, this was to our west) SpaceX launched just after sunset and left a long exhaust trail swirling across the sky.

Is that a great Saturday night date night in small-town America, or what?!

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Filed under Forever Home, Photography, Space