(click on image to see full-sized)
Okay, it’s not ONLY bombers and transports on the ramp – the F-24 is over there on the far left, and our F6-F Hellcat’s stashed over next to China Doll.
But by both weight and volume, it’s bombers & transports on the ramp this afternoon!!
Filed under CAF, Panorama, Photography
How…industrial. With a touch of something biological down in that hinge, something that I’m just as glad that I didn’t touch.
As I was taught by Kevin MacNamara in high school, “Don’t sweat the petty things, and don’t pet the sweaty things.”
Kevin had a great deal of wisdom.
Filed under Flying, Photography, Travel
So many of you (by which I mean “NONE of you“) have asked about my plucky little houseplant. Remember, the one that I thought I had finally killed after all of these years, only to see it with the tiniest bit of new growth as I was getting ready to throw it out before the move last month?
The plucky little houseplant – well, first of all, it needs a name if I’m going to keep writing about it and posting pictures. Given its current condition and history, I’m going to go with “Lazarus” – Lazarus is doing okay these days. I’m sure it’s a long way from being completely out of the woods, and one hungry rabbit could put it out of my misery in a heartbeat.
But what was one sliver of new growth last month is now seven or eight!
Further updates and news bulletins as they’re warranted. Standby!
Filed under Castle Willett, Photography
In the front yard I get to see cool sunsets, but there’s a big street light out there interfering with the view once it gets dark. (Gotta figure a way to turn that off when I need to…) But taking the trash out tonight I note that once you get close enough to the house to be in the shadow of that big street light, there’s a little patch of relatively dark sky there. At least, dark by “in the middle of one of the top 20 metropolises on the planet” standards.
Even with just my cellphone, Jupiter’s nice and bright and of course any camera will pick out that nice first quarter moon on the right. In between, even Spica can be seen.
Just wait until I find and have a minute to start playing with the better equipment!
Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Space
Seen soaring above our house a couple days ago. Obviously a raptor or hawk of some sort, but doesn’t appear to be a red-tailed hawk. We get a ton of red-tails riding the thermals on the edge of the San Fernando Valley (i.e., the “hills” in “West Hills”) and they’re pretty distinctive. This guy had a different cry, different body shape, and a much different tail shape.
Poking around on the web I think it might be a Cooper’s hawk, but someone with more experience and knowledge than I will have to confirm that.
I did see that he ended up landing up near the top of one of the tall trees just down the hill from us, so with luck I’ll get more chances to see him, perhaps even getting some better pictures for ID later on.
Filed under Castle Willett, Critters, Flying, Photography
There are a lot of things pulling and tugging at my priorities and time right now. The end result is that I’m feeling adrift, cut off from my usual routines and the anchors and predictability that our daily schedules provide.
Part of it is the move – while we’re out of the old house, there’s still a ton of unpacking to do, as well as dealing with a garage and three storage spaces full of “stuff” that got put there out of a lack of time in the rush to get out of the old house by the deadline. There’s a roller-coaster like thrill to meeting that deadline, then the plunge downward as you realize that’s only maybe a third of the total task.
Part of it was the trip last week, then trying to catch up at work (where we’ve had our own “challenges” for months) and again, while those challenges are wrapping up, now it’s time to deal with everything that got put on the back burner while that was going on.
Part of it is the hangar, where the volunteer work there got put on the back, back, back, back, back burner while I dealt with work and the move – but none of it went away.
Throw in some serious lack of sleep issues and the fact that I’ve been playing bachelor for a few days after getting back from Virginia…
Faith is needed. Faith that by just drifting I’ll end up where I need to be, even if it’s not where I knew that I needed to be.
Faith is not my strong point.
We’ll see.
Filed under Uncategorized
That feeling when you’re thinking about the last straw again, the one that will break the proverbial camel’s back and you’re really hating that you’re the proverbial camel and you’re not sure how you got the gig or how much notice you need to give to resign and will you get any severance, but seriously you can’t figure if that last straw is going to be a steel beam falling from low Earth orbit or just feel that way despite only being a feather-weight and otherwise totally inconsequential thing and of course it’s going to be the latter since that’s the whole point of the figure of speech and wondering if the stupid thing you did tonight because you’re too fucking tired to see straight is going to be *IT* or just another wasted hour tomorrow to fix and you could fix it tonight if you really, really wanted to be an A-type but if you’re too tired to do things right it’s probably an even more stupid thing to try to fix it without getting some sleep so maybe you’ll just leave this here as a reminder and instead listen to some depressing and melancholy music for a while before drifting off in exhaustion and desperation…
Or I could just stay up another hour or so and start watching World Cup games. Who’s on first, Costa Rica and Serbia?
Filed under Deep Thoughts, Paul
There’s a nice view to the west from the new house. Tonight we had again had a lovely, 2-day old crescent moon to float along in it.
A couple of palm trees off in the neighbors’ yards to provide a bit of foreground for perspective, but not enough to block much of the sky.
Shortly after sunset it’s still bright enough so that a fast exposure can be used and there isn’t much blurring, even with a hand-held picture.
I’m going to like this front yard in the evening.
As it got a touch darker, Venus popped into view.
The pair were lovely together, as always.
Still hand-held (I think I know where the tripod is, but it would be non-trivial to go get it right now as I unpack) but steady enough to show craters along the terminator.
I caught one of the jets coming into LAX on this one. (Middle left.) Often as they’re leaving LAX on a route up the coast or to Asia they come right over our head, but those coming back the other way swing out over Ventura County, hang a left a Malibu, turn base over Dodger Stadium, and turn final over Huntington Park. Which puts them into this view.
Looking forward to the days when I can sit for an hour and watch something like this all the way to the horizon without my brain bugging me with, “You really should be…” Yes, I know. Unpacking. Catching up on my Wing duties and reports. Catching up on my personal accounting. Cleaning up the garage. Loading up the van with stuff to go to storage.
When did sitting on your ass and breathing for an hour get a bad reputation?
Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Space
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 