‘Tis that time of year again – the roses next to the driveway have started to bloom, and the one that’s my favorite color has popped.
There’s just a sublime quality to this particular mixture of red, orange, and yellow.
Author Archives: momdude
Silence Unknown Callers
And THIS would be why.
The best feature on an iPhone. (And probably on Android phones as well, but I haven’t ever owned one of those.) The best feature on modern cellphones.
If our late-stage capitalistic hellhole is going to make it so trivial for every asshole on the planet with a bot app to illegally call and scam everyone on the planet, it’s good that there’s at leas one little thing that helps us fight back against the evil bastards.
My answering machine messages makes it clear that if someone from an unknown number gets sent to voicemail but has a legitimate reason to be calling, LEAVE A VOICE MAIL and I will return the call.
See how many of these low life bastards left a voicemail?
There are times when, usually due to an expected and critical call regarding work, I have to turn this feature off for a couple of days. It’s Hell.
Filed under Computers, Freakin' Idiots!, Paul
May Full Moon Rising
I think it was full moon when I caught this – might have been a day before or a day after, but close enough for government work.
Not the closest or the biggest, or the furthest away or the smallest, just the one that comes 28 days after the last one, so no headlines, no clickbait, no spam about it.
Sometimes you get lucky playing around with the iPhone settings and you get a decent picture. It’s better to be lucky than good!
That’s pretty!
Filed under Astronomy, Photography
I Paid $399.99 For THIS?
For Christmas, I got myself one of the Oura 4 rings (size 13, if you want to buy jewelry for me for some unknown reason) for $399.99. It’s worth it, I like it, I’m very much into tracking my fitness and health parameters these days (being as that I have become and Olde Phart and am officially Phalling Apart) and between the Oura and my Apple Watch, I have lots of good data to work with.
But in today’s “NO SHIT, SHERLOCK!” moment…
The only surprise is that my “usual” day only has 90 minutes of “stress.” How high is that freaking borderline set?
Moon Cloud
Bright moon, full-ish. Might be tonight, might have been last night. Whatever, close enough for government work.
Odd trail of cloud covering it.
The clouds and the moon are 250,000 miles apart, I think it’s just a coincidental alignment. I like to keep an eye open for such things. And then share them.
Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Space, Weather
One Of Those Days – May 12th
Stuck down here, wishing I were up there.
Oh, didn’t notice the irridescent rainbow arc around the Sun until now! That’s nice…
Filed under Paul, Photography, Weather
Valet Musings
At the Ahmanson last night, dealing with the huge crowds for the Gold House Gala there, we used the valet parking. This is also a considerably easier arrangement for The Long Suffering Wife.
The play, “Life of Pi,” was very good, and the staging and animation of the animal characters was astonishing. We enjoyed ourselves.
When the play was over, the Gala was also letting out. Valet parking had quite the lineup waiting for cars to be delivered. While I expected to wait 20-30 minutes (or more) we only waited maybe ten minutes.
Two observations:
- In the long line of limos, Mercedes, Jaguars, BMW’s, and six-figure luxury cars of every description, it was a joy to see our little Hissy, our Honda Fit, pop up. She brought some much needed humility and real world class to the chaos.
- It was amazing how long some cars sat there waiting for their owners to pick them up. You turn in your ticket and then wait, so presumably if they show up with your vehicle, you’ve been there for a few minutes or more and are looking for your car so you can leave. Apparently not for the hoity and the toity amongst us. In particular, while waiting for Hissy, a Jaguar pulled up at the curb right in front of us (three lanes of cars moving through) and the valet driver shouted and honked and ran around asking folks to check their tickets for at least five minutes. Meanwhile, one of the three lanes is completely blocked. Suddenly this couple sitting on the benches right next to us startles to their feet and recognizes their car, not three feet away from them. REALLY??!! And then when they walk over and open the doors, NOW they see some friends and stand there blocking the sidewalk (and continue to block 1/3 of the valet lanes) while they schmooze. Really REALLY??!!! The entitlement and cluelessness was AWESOME! Or they were too drunk to recognize their own car and were now going to go get on the LA Freeways at 22:30. Or both.
Filed under Entertainment, Freakin' Idiots!, Los Angeles, Photography
Ahmanson vs Gala
Back at the Ahmanson. I’ve heard of this production but know almost nothing about it. Should be fun!
Outside it’s busy. “Gold House” is having their gala and they’ve taken over the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and the entire plaza between the theaters. Traffic and parking have been affected in turn.
Big money, apparently. Megan Thee Stallion is apparently their GOH tonight (we didn’t see her).
Rich or poor, it’s good to have boatloads of money! Or so I’ve heard.
Filed under Entertainment, Los Angeles, Photography
No Kosmos-482 Here
We’re about an hour into the ±4 hour window for the uncontrolled re-entry of the Russian Venus probe Kosmos-482. No doubt you’ve heard all of the frenzied hype about it – if you’ve been reading this site any time in the last 12+ years, you know my opinion of the mainstream media, their handling of science and fact, and the hysterical hype that they love to shovel over something inconsequential.
The final couple of orbits are over water the vast majority of the time:
Image: SatTrackCam.blogspot.com
and nowhere near the US. Excellent odds that it’s going to splash in the next hour or two.
But if we’re invoking chaos and gremlins and playful demigods such as Puck or Loki, hanging on just a little bit to make to take into that last orbit and then sailing a bit northwest puts it coming down near the Virginia and Maryland areas where there’s this huge White House occupied by an orange troll…
The gods could do the funniest thing!
Yeah, I know that orbital mechanics doesn’t work that way, and I’m a firm believer in science, engineering, reality, and so on. That’s why they would call it an “act of God,” am I right?
Filed under Politics, Silly Shit, Space
Chain Of Rocks Birds
2008, I was visiting my son when he was at Scott AFB outside of St. Louis. He was busy during the day, so I went out to Chain of Rocks Park to spot some big birds. I think I had also just gotten the big telephoto lens so the focus might not be perfect.
Wild turkeys.
Great Egret. Not a mediocre egret, but a GREAT egret.
Great Blue Heron. Love seeing these huge birds. Mainly because I’m not a fish.
Filed under Birds, Photography, Travel
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 