Travel day
MSP is a much bigger place than I remember. Granted, it’s been years, but jeeze louise! Good thing we had a layover of almost five hours!
Author Archives: momdude
Darwin Award Nominees
There’s a new volcanic eruption in Iceland, with webcams set up:
and drones overhead:
(Isak Finnbogason’s drone work is spectacular, I recommend following his work on YouTube!)
The views can be spectacular, and I’m sure seeing it in person is a life-changing experience, much like seeing a total solar eclipse or a spectacular aurora display.
(Image from RUV.is)
When this volcanic field erupted a couple of years ago it became a hugely popular tourist attraction.
(Image from RUV.is)
Not entirely safe, to be sure, but once the eruption became more stable and they were reasonably sure that there weren’t going to be any toxic gasses emitted, the tourists were allowed to make a hike of a few kilometers in from the coast.
This eruption is more gassy, judging by all of the warnings that you see from the Icelandic authorities on various feeds, and tourists are supposed to be forbidden still.
(Image from RUV.is)
Not that that stops folks from walking in anyway. About once an hour or so today we would see someone wandering by the camera.
Which is annoying. Half a world away we’re wanting to see the volcano erupt, not someone who’s foolish enough to ignore all of the warnings to be there. And if you’re there, fine, good for you, but get out of the way! Don’t block the view of the camera!
(Image from RUV.is)
And risking your own daredevil butt is one thing, but bringing your kids along? Are you kidding me? That seems … reckless.
Then I think of some of the Christmas card pictures that get sent out from certain right-wing 2nd Amendment cultists who have younger children toting high-powered automatic weapons – maybe going hiking into an active volcano isn’t all that bad in comparison.
I’ve mentioned in the past (here and here) that WordPress gives out a little “atta boy!” if you post daily on your site. That daily streak continues.
Again, there were two days prior to this where consecutive day streaks were “broken” because I posted a few minutes after midnight – but I did post. If those streaks are added here, I would currently be at 1,192 days. That’s over 3.27 years. Not bad!
The next week may be challenging to keep that streak going. But the adventures should be epic!
Filed under Freakin' Idiots!, Travel
Sunset – July 16th
It’s been a while!
Either it’s been clear and a million with <10% humidity or it’s been coastal clouds (May Gray leading to June Gloom).
Today finally there’s some moisture around (about a 5% chance of showers and thunderstorms over the coastal waters off in this direction) and something for the sunset to bounce off of.
Add in the odd contrail or two and it makes for a most beautiful display. A great way to end the weekend.
Filed under Photography, Sunsets
Twitter Time Out
Huh!
It turns out if you respond to Ron Desantis’ Twitter ad (where he’s requesting support and money, of course) with a common phrase from my teenage days suggesting something anatomically improbable, you’ll get a “time out” and not be able to post on Twitter for a day or so.
HUH!!
First of all, isn’t that sort of thing protected political speech under the First Amendment? IANAL, but I watched a LOT of “Paper Chase” and I’m not sure John Houseman would have put up with any of this nonsense.
Secondly, my time out can’t even start until I “review and delete” the offending response? That feels way too much like an apology or an admission of guilt on my part, and that’s not happening! On the other hand, I am busier than god and I’ve got bigger fish to fry. That whole proverbial “hill you want to die on” thing…
Thirdly, I understand that while the suggested actions might be difficult for even a circus contortionist, the odds of good ol’ Ron being able to do them are, well, probably even worse than 🌟ME🌟 being able to do them. Still, the suggestion is hardly “abuse.” I like to think of it as good-hearted encouragement! Ron said he wanted 🌟ME🌟 on his team – don’t teammates encourage each other and urge each other to dream big?
(BTW, I saw someone I like on Twitter doing the “🌟ME🌟” thing today and while I suspect it paints a target on my back as an “olde,” I realized that A) I 🌟AM🌟 an “olde” and have been for quite a while, and B) I stopped giving a shit about the opinions of those who would diss me for being an “olde” back before most of them were born, so C) 🌟I’m🌟 going to keep doing it! It’s my name in the URL!)
But – I’ve digressed.
No, I’m not going to repeat the exact post, although you might still be able to see it on Twitter. I try to keep this site free of the worst of my extreme cussing, whereas Twitter is a PERFECT place for it. Especially since 2015 or so, if you catch the way I’ve drifted…
It’s weird – I get a time out for posting it, have to agree that it’s wrong and “delete” it, but it’s still up there so far as I can see. On the other hand, there are a LOT (or should that be “a 🌟LOT🌟”?) of really screwy things going on over at Twitter these days, so it may just be a screw up in their system. Who knows? Better yet, who cares?
I’ll be back to insulting fascists and blocking right-wing, guanopsychotic Nazis tomorrow. How long I’ll stay? Depends on whether or not they take the hint I was sending on the original note.
Just ’cause I was rude doesn’t mean I was wrong!
Filed under Politics, Social Media
No Context For You – July 14th
The thing is with these “No Context For You” posts is that, while I may not be sharing any context for a blurry or distorted or altered image so that you can immediately figure out what it is and why, so far *I* have always known what it was, or at least had a pretty darn good guess.
Some of them have been pictures accidentally taken when the camera/phone got bumped or I had fat fingers while taking it out of my pocket or putting it into my pocket or some such thing. But when I look at the other pictures in the series around it and look at the time stamp to see where I was and what I was doing then, I can be pretty sure of my guess.
Not these! They’re colorful, which I like, but I found them in that old, old cache of misfiled cellphone pictures from 2008-2016. They’re old enough so that I don’t have a clue what they’re of or why/how they got taken.
A little mystery is good for us all. Granted, I would prefer to have the mystery be that I won that freakin’ HUGE lottery and I’ve used the hundreds of millions of dollars to establish myself with a secret superhero identity out fighting crime, injustice, and the Republican Party (but I repeat myself…), but no, we’ll just have to settle for the moment to being puzzled over some pictures that go back to sometime in late 2016.
They’re colorful. They’re weird. They’ve been found and pulled back from the abyss.
Take what you can get!
Filed under Art, Photography
Boy, Is THAT A Deep Rabbit Hole!
Looking for something else, saw a directory that seemed out of place, checked it out…
Oh, so THAT’s where those EIGHT YEARS of cell phone photos got misfiled. Just exactly what’s in there?
Thank god for my phone alarm going off and warning me that it’s 23:50…
Old trips, football games, baseball games, plane trips, pets, old houses, CYA stuff from work…
I know that I never throw old files out (disk space is cheap) but that doesn’t mean that it can’t get accidentally deleted or misfiled. Deleted is bad, misfiled is inconvenient.
And then you get a surprise and a rabbit hole to disappear down into for a while.
Surprise! I was on a plane!
Filed under Paul, Photography
You Can’t Take A Bad Picture Here – July 12th
Vermont.
From the French, “vert” for green, “mont” for mountain, thus the Green Mountain State.
And when it’s not this green, it’s white, as in covered in snow and ice.
Except for a few weeks in between when it’s every color imaginable.
(We will not speak of the fifth season, “Mud.”)
I’ve been thinking a lot about Vermont in the last couple of days, and all of my friends from high school who still live there, as the state got inundated with monster storm. Some places got more rain in a couple of hours than they normally get in a year, and the flooding has been horrific. Check out the stuff I’ve been sharing on Facebook for examples.
I’ve also been amazed and gratified by the response of the people of Vermont. One store and restaurant after another is rushing free meals and aid to those who have been devastated, even those that have been devastated themselves. Farms and stores and whole villages that have been under 6′ or more of water, without power, without clean water, with bridges and roads wiped out, all are asking for help in cleaning up while also saying they’re not going to do a Go Fund Me or anything like that because there are so many others who need it more. They just need a little help from their friends.
If you get a chance to visit Vermont, take it. Every time. Hit me up, I’ll be glad to give you advice and suggestions on where to go and what to see. And while you’re cruising around, find a tiny restaurant that might actually be a world-class gem in hiding. (I know of a couple…) Stop at a farmer’s market or a roadside stand to get some real maple syrup. Hit up the Vermont Country Store (or one of its kin) and find things you haven’t seen since you were a kid. Find a field and just lay there on the grass and watch the red-winged blackbirds, maybe an eagle or hawk, and if you’re really still, maybe some deer or a moose will wander through.
Just don’t try to take any bad pictures! Can’t do it!
Filed under Photography, Travel
Mockingbird Nest
Remember the day that a HUGE red-tailed hawk swooped right past me in the front lawn and grabbed onto something in this bush that’s grown up around a support pillar in front of my front door? (Here are the pictures.) I may have figured out what it was going after.
A couple of weeks ago, after noticing some mockingbirds flying into and out of that bush more and more often, I took a closer look and found a nest in there.
Yesterday I heard a very soft peeping sound coming from there, and found at least three mockingbird chicks in there.
They’re ALL MOUTH. They must only be a day or so old because they’re blind and just running on instinct. Something comes near (i.e., me) and they pop up for a few seconds, mouths open, peeping, then hunker down and hide if no food is incoming.
When I’m getting close enough to get these pictures, rest assured that Mama Mockingbird isn’t far away and is giving me the stink eye every second. The nest is at about head height, with the gutter about four feet above. She’ll perch up there sometimes, the better to be that much closer to me so she can save time in attacking and gouging my eyes out if I make a false move. Or she’ll be out on the power line, thirty feet away, with a mouthful of food to bring back as soon as I get out of sight.
Directly above them on the inside of the roof line is the mourning dove nest, still with two fledgelings, although they’re big enough now to take off more and more often.
Welcome to the “Willett Aviary – Front Yard Edition!” Here’s a quick video of the little squeakers! And you can actually see all three!
Filed under Birds, Photography, Video
Christmas In July
From Christmas 2017, what would turn out to be our final Christmas at the old house, although I didn’t know it then. 😭😭😭
Yet another thing that *I* keep in mind when looking at potential new “forever” homes – where do I hang the lights, where do I plug them in, and how many can I put up before I blow the circuit breaker panel?
The “really really nice on the inside but outside it’s just a box on an acre-plus of dirt with zero landscaping” places not only don’t have anyplace to hang lights, they also tend to be so far out in the boonies that no one will ever see them. Yeah, I’m the guy who, when meeting a neighbor from down the street for the first time, goes “YEAH! That’s me!” when they say, “Oh, you’re the lunatic with a gazillion Christmas lights?” (I will also note that many of them who say that are also putting up lights and more lights than before after the first year or two when we moved in. I think of it as being a good influence, leading by example, that sort of thing…)
Filed under Christmas Lights, Photography
More Lousy Roses
What a long day! What a busy weekend, and not necessarily in a good way! So what have I got for you?
That’s right! More lousy roses! (It’s right there in the title!)
I thought that I still had some photos on my phone that I hadn’t used yet. And I was right! (Blow this one up and look at the vein structure detail in those petals!)
These are gorgeous (and I’m particularly fond of gorgeous) and I enjoy sharing them.
The more I look at houses in the high desert (either Lancaster/Palmdale or Hesperia/Apple Valley) and how they have really nice houses plopped down into an acre of slightly graded dirt with no lawn, no landscaping, no NOTHING, the more I know that if we end up getting one of those places, I’m going to harken back to my English heritage (a LOT of generations ago, like, going back to 1664) and start building little gardens to putter around in.
Putter, putter, putter…
Filed under Flowers, Photography
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 