It was getting late, almost dark, I was sitting out on the patio being very still, with camera in hand.
Tough to focus and get the lighting right, but if you shoot enough pictures, sometimes one of them won’t suck.
Author Archives: momdude
Random Old Photos – June 07th
Playing the Zillow game, house hunting (or at least semi-seriously and starting to get more seriously house window shopping), I quickly started building up a checklist of things to verify. Priorities. Deal killers. Variables.
For example, a one-story property is a high priority – but a nice two-story with a master suite on the ground floor is acceptable. We have a price range which is firm – but if the perfect place came along and it’s “close” to that range, then we can talk.
Some things are absolute deal killers. I’m still working remotely and intend to keep doing it for a while, so an excellent, high-speed internet connection is a must, no questions asked.
Then there are the “softer” variables. How does the yard look? Does it have a pool or spa? Does it have solar already? Is it near a busy high school or mall or someplace with a lot of traffic? How old is it?
Beyond that, everyone has that “something” that they’re keeping an eye on, even if the real estate agent or other family members might not be. For me that’s, “How many Christmas lights can I put up? How many trees and bushes are there, and how much roofline and gutters to hang lights from? Are we on or near a major street where lots of people are going to see them, or are we off in the boonies where only a handful of folks will ever know, no matter how much time I spend hanging them?”
It’s not a deal killer, but it’s there in the back of my mind. The old house on Pomelo shown above from twenty years ago? That was a great house to hang lights on! The house we move to will be our last one, our “forever” home, so we need to get it right.
There are going to be a lot of Christmases there, they need to be celebrated with lights!
Filed under Christmas Lights, Photography, Sietch Willett
Fine Feathered Friends – June 06th
It’s been foggy and cloudy and grey and cool and just bleeeech here in LA for the last several weeks, barely seeing the sun for real for more than an hour here or a half hour there. It happens this time of year – “May Grey” blends into “June Gloom” as the coastal marine layer just hangs over the area. I don’t know if it goes away in July or if it’s just that no one’s come up with a clever rhyme to describe the condition lingering past June 30th.
But across the yard, particularly if we get a tiny touch of sun near sundown, Little Bastard takes up one of his favorite perches at the top of a dead Japanese elm sapling there.
Most everything is grey with the clouds, with maybe just a touch of color from the sunset seeping through. But not him. He stands out like a beacon.
What little sunlight there might be gets caught, amplified, colored, enhanced, and spat back out by his iridescent feathers.
If left alone he’ll sit there for ten or fifteen minutes, looking left, looking right, staring at me in the kitchen, scanning for danger or intruders. All the while his red and gold and green and white feathers will stand out like they were spotlit miraculously in the gloom. Then, eventually, something will annoy him, probably another hummingbird trying to take a quick sip at his feeder, and he’ll be off like a little, iridescent, furious, feathered, guided missile to defend his territory.
It keeps him off the streets at night, I guess.
Filed under Birds, Photography
Not Quite Red
I love the color on these roses.
They’re not quite RED red. And the iPhone camera doesn’t quite capture their color 100% accurately.
To my eye there’s a bit more orange, maybe a touch of lavender.
I wonder if there’s an app for the iPhone that will let you scan something and get an accurate color reading, give you a value in RGB values. I know that hardware stores have something that you can use to scan things to get a perfect match for paint – maybe they could tell me.
This one probably comes the closest. Whatever it is, it’s wonderful.
LATE EDIT TWO SECONDS BEFORE POSTING – The gods have spoken. As I’m double checking the post settings before posting, out of the corner of my eye I see a Home Depot ad where they’re pushing home improvement deals and their app which will let you scan something and get paint that matches! Coincidence? Or intervention from the Universe? 🤔
Filed under Flowers, Photography
The Bunnies Are Back
We used to have a whole slew of bunnies. At times at night I would see five or six out on the front lawn.
They appeared to all be living in a big, overgrown yard of heavy brush in a yard across the street. But that house got sold a year or so ago and the new owners tore all of that out. The bunnies went with it.
But they’ve found a new home. For the last month or two I’ve often seen one out on the front lawn at night, occasionally a pair.
Now they’ve found (or re-found) the back yard during the day. At first they were extremely skittish, but now they’re getting less spooked if I come to the door to watch.
We don’t have a dog right now (since we’re renting and our lease forbids it, another good reason to buy our own place if we can) and that’s probably a good thing.
There’s a tiny chihuahua next door who will yap at them, and I’m sure the rabbits would run like hell if Coco ever got into our yard. But I’m just as sure that if they stopped and ran at him, Coco would run like hell too.
Filed under Critters, Photography
Staggerwing
It’s a Beech 17 to be exact, but they’re referred to as Staggerwings. A bi-plane with a negative bias in the alignment of the wings, which improved the stability quite a bit near stall speeds. A stunningly gorgeous plane.
It made a couple of passes over our house today, giving me time to grab the camera as it took off back towards Van Nuys Airport.
Image credit: FlightRadar24
I suspect that this is the aircraft that used to be owned by Clay Lacy. The current aircraft registration shows a different owner, which doesn’t surprise me, given Clay’s age.
There are only about 200 of these aircraft left flying, and there’s only one dark red one out at Van Nuys that I’m aware of. It was out at Camarillo a couple of times when I was a regular at the CAF hangar there and I think I’ve got some close-up pictures of it. I’m surprised I haven’t posted them here already, but that can be fixed.
Filed under Flying, Photography
You Can’t Take A Bad Picture Here – June 02nd
It’s shocking to realize that it will be twenty years in August since this trip. Niagra Falls, of course.
Like Proxmire said (more or less), “A decade here, a decade there, pretty soon it adds up to real time!”
Filed under Photography, Travel
We Plan, God Laughs
Some days…
We have hopes, dreams, plans to achieve them, and we get frustrated when there’s little or no progress.
Then all of a sudden it seems to all start happen at once. That’s good.
Then an hour or two later you see something that just proves that God is laughing at you, and not even being particularly subtle about it.
The odds are excellent that the BIG possibility (a house) doesn’t work out. But the odds of it actually happening aren’t zero.
No place is perfect. One of the things I notice in the Zillow pictures is that there aren’t any roses.
But there’s a big, circular driveway with plenty of room for roses to be planted.
That “issue” can be fixed.
If everything miraculously falls into place (it won’t, don’t worry, I’m not building up unwarranted expectations) we’ll have something to look forward to.
Filed under Castle Willett, Flowers
Not Enough Hours
Days get busy again…
Payroll. Audit is starting up. End of the month. Beginning of the next month.
MRI and CT scan this evening. No word on whether or not they found a brain, but I’m here to tell you, when they shoot that iodine into you it’s a RUSH! Boy, howdy!
Then back to the grindstone. We didn’t even get a chance to watch the Ted Lasso finale tonight. So, tomorrow’s another day isolated from social media. (NO SPOILERS!)
Meanwhile, I’ve had my first viral tweet. I don’t think I’ve ever had one that went beyond 150 or 200 likes before. Until I told off some sanctimonious woman who was “worried” about “protecting the children.” Yeah, right.
1,603 and climbing. For the record, something like 5 have been supporting @papeppers…
Filed under Health, Social Media
Don’t Fear The Dentist
Another hour-plus in the chair with needles and drills and suction and procedures that are as close to waterboarding as I ever want to get. (Tying up loose ends from last weeks’ root canal and getting a temporary crown.)
I get home and get past the nasty tastes left in my mouth from the topical anesthesia and the upset stomach from whatever I was swallowing, finally hungry. The anesthesia and the adrenaline wore off and I was hungry.
But do I need to have another meal of cottage cheese and applesauce? Or can I have a normal lunch? My eyes catch the poster I have on the wall to my right.
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
Filed under Health, Photography
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 