Monthly Archives: April 2025

Long Day – Pumping Gas

As stated, a very long, exhausing day.

The good news – thanks to outstanding work by the team, a huge freakin’ problem has been solved. It’s been tough sleeping for the past few nights with that one hanging over my head.

The bad news – we spent this afternoon and evening at a funeral for a beloved family member. She had been sick for a while, so it wasn’t a surprise, but it was still emotional and traumatic.

Even in the middle of all of the running around, I needed to stop for gas. The clouds were sublime and wispy and ausgetzeichnet!

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Filed under Family, Photography, Sunsets, Weather

2025 Lizard Season Opening Day

It’s been getting warmer and we’ve had several days in a row in the low 80’s. While I’ve seen little skittering motions out of the corner of my eye once or twice while strolling through the back yard, today was the first time this year I got a clear view.

Normally I would expect the first fence lizards of the year to be the teeny, tiny, newly hatched “popcorn” lizards (so named because they’re basically just light snacks for the birds, bigger lizards, and other predators). But this dude was pretty good sized.

One of the “blue bellies,” he didn’t retreat when I spooked him, but started doing push-ups to demonstrate his dominance. I refrained from dropping and giving him twenty-five, although I might be able to do it these days.

Something of a “chonky boi,” I’ll keep an eye out for him and if I spot it before I get close enough to disturb it or make it feel threatened, I can turn and take a different route for my walk. The sun really did feel good, and I want to be a good neighbor and/or host.

He also needs to watch out, the fence he was hiding out against separates our yard from the new neighbors, and in particular, their dog, Blanc. I’m waiting to see if Blanc is into chasing tiny reptiles, but I wouldn’t be surprised, and Blanc might have a different idea regarding the role of good neighbor and/or host.

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Filed under Critters, Photography

Contrail Leftovers

Sunset tonight, a dozen or so clouds glowing pink, criss-crossing the coastal jetway.

But every one of the “clouds” is unnaturally long, thin, in a couple of parallel sets, like an exploded tic-tac-toe grid. And over on the far left, still compact and bright white, is the next line being laid down.

Another 737 laying down a contrail between SFO/OAK/SEA/CGO/TPE/YVR to LAX/BUR/SAN/SNA/PHX. Soon to be a long, straight, puffy, expanding, pink line across the western horizon.

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Filed under Flying, Photography, Sunsets

Ballpark Impulse Buys

At Angels Stadium this last weekend I ended up in one of the team stores to get something. At the cash register, the evil monsters had the ultimate impulse buy for the twelve-year-old Paul trapped (screaming, I suspect) inside this 69-year-old carcass.

I haven’t bought baseball cards in YEARS! But there they were, and unlike fifty-seven years ago, I didn’t have to go mow lawns, shovel snow, or scrounge through the bushes along a busy highway for discarded Coke bottles with a $0.02 refund on each in order to get a couple of packs. I had a credit card, and I wasn’t afraid to use it!

Today’s cards are a far stretch from the cards of the early 1960’s in terms of color, design, and quality. Nonetheless, what I wouldn’t give to have my original set of cards back (long ago sold off by my mother at a garage sale).

I was pleasantly surprised to get a Mike Trout card right off the bat. Perhaps that’s a good sign!

They’re great to look at and read through, takes me right back to my pre-teen days and some of my fondest memories of those days. I’m not sharing too many details about the world of 2025 with 12-year-old Paul – he was fresh out of Catholic school and hadn’t even learned to swear yet (a story for another day) and would be tragically ill-prepared to deal with all that we’re hip deep in.

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Filed under Paul, Photography, Sports

Grand Finale

I generally don’t post long videos here (they take up a LOT of space on my corner of the WordPress site and I’m paying for that) but I think this is worth it. The “grand finale” from last night’s fireworks display at Anaheim Stadium.

The Angels won again today, so they’ve taken two out of three games in each of their first three three-game series. By the standard of their dozen or so most recent seasons, that’s about the best they’ve done in a long, long time. There are still 153 games left to go, but 6-3 is a lot better than 3-6 to start, and that losing record is more of the norm.

Enjoy the fireworks and big booms! Try to not stress out too much over the news tomorrow and for the rest of this week. Especially since there’s not much any of us can do about it. The train is out of control, there’s a mad man driving it, those who have the power to stop him are mostly helping him, and the rest of us are just along for the ride.

Keep breathing, folks.

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Filed under LA Angels, Politics, Video

Angels Stadium Fireworks

Night two of the 2025 Family Baseball Road Trip. Tonight the Angels’ bats got hot, we hit four home runs, our pitching and defense were solid, and we beat Cleveland 10-4.

Better yet, after Saturday night home games, there are fireworks! I LOVE FIREWORKS!

Oh, and speaking of LA sports, the Kings were playing the Edmonton Oilers this afternoon. The Oilers are the team that we’ve played (and lost to) in the past three years in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, and they’re almost certainly going to be the team we play again this year in the first round, starting in about two weeks. We’re fighting them for position, currently ahead of them by two points, and winning today would extend that to four points and guarantee the Kings a place in the playoffs. Our hotel in Anaheim didn’t have that channel on their satellite feed, so we went out and found a sports bar and watched it there. It was a fantastic Kings win!

 

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Filed under Fireworks, LA Angels, LA Kings, Photography, Sports

Back To The Ballpark

I don’t think I got to a single game last year at any ballpark, so we’re checking that off the list early this year by being at the Angels’ home opener.

“The Big A” is something like the fourth or fifth oldest park in MLB, but it’s still a great place to see a game.

We had a flyover during the opening ceremonies, but I suspect the nearby flight path into John Wayne Orange County Airport messed with their timing. The flyby was by five Texans (probably the Condor Squadron, but maybe a group out of Chino) and just as they SHOULD have been coming over, a 737 turning base to SNA was right over us, so the Texans were 2-3 minutes late.

All completed safely! That’s what really counts.

We’re now in the top of the seventh inning and Cleveland’s ahead 6-4, but I have faith! Oops, they just scored again. 7-4.

And ice cream. Those really GOOD Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie ice cream sandwiches.

Faith and ice cream. An excellent combination. If only we could get faith, ice cream, and someone who could get a hit with a couple of runners in scoring position!

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Filed under LA Angels, Photography, Sports

Pop-Up Thunder Boomer

There was just about 0% chance of rain for the next ten days when I checked yesterday. Then I heard thunder.

It wasn’t close, and I never saw lightning, but I definitely heard thunder. And that looks like a thunderstorm, moving our way.

I double checked the weather app & forecast. No mention of rain or possibility of rain, let alone a big thunder boomer. But that Southwest 737 just to the left of the big tree, heading into Runway 8 at Burbank, was making damn sure he stayed a bit off to the right.

(Image from Weather Radar)

What does the weather radar app say? Well, lookee there! It seems the radar app wasn’t communicating with the weather app, or at least it wasn’t listening. Later we saw that there had been a flash flood alert issued for that area in red and orange.

Pity it had moved south toward Beverly Hills and dissipated before dark. It would have been nice to watch the lightning.

Highly unusual! Give ’em Hell, April! 10/10 for style points!

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Filed under Photography, Weather

No Context For You – April 02nd

Stormy and dangerous times are indeed upon us, and I’m not talking about the weather. When we started celebrating stupidity and worshiping cult leaders who lie to us with every breath, we set ourselves on a road to destruction. When we turned our back on science, medicine, and knowledge in a time when we desperately need expertise and experience, we put ourselves in an untenable situation.

I fear not just for our nation, but for our society, our civilization, and our long-term existence as a species.

Those storms on the horizon may be upon us sooner than anyone expects, and they may be far more violent and deadly than we can believe.

I hope that I’m wrong. I fear that I’m still underestimating the danger.

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Filed under Paul, Photography, Politics

Fine Feathered Friends – April 01st

As I’ve mentioned in the past, the dark-eyed Juncos are the clown princes of the back yard. Hopping, flitting, buzzing around the yard, onto the ground to grab seeds before the squirrels get them then back up into the bushes whenever something bigger flies over.

At this time of year there’s just one or two left – the rest have all migrated off to Canada for the summer. But “Solo Junco” and “Dos Junco” seem to stay around all year.

I always thought that they were silent, or at least not well known for being “songbirds,” but nope! At least this one is noisy!

It’s no mockingbird, but it’s loud. (I hope this clip has decent sound – the upload to YouTube has truly sucky sound, but that’s a known issue.)

Maybe Solo Junco doesn’t marathon his little way to Saskatchawan and back every year because we keep dumping a cup or two of bird seeds out in the dirt every day.

Fighting off the finches, mourning doves, and squirrels for free food must be a piece of cake compared to a 3,000 mile commute!

 

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Filed under Birds, Critters, Photography, Video