Author Archives: momdude

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About momdude

Space cadet | Family dude | Photographer | Music lover | Traveler | Science fiction fan | Hugo Award nominee | Writer | 5x NASA Social participant | KC Chiefs fan | LA Kings fan | Senior Director of Finance & Administration for ALS Network | Member & former staff Finance Officer at the Commemorative Air Force SoCal Wing | Hard core left-wing liberal | Looking for whatever other shenanigans I can get into
December 24, 2023 · 21:34

Christmas Eve 2023

I’ve lost a day or two in all of the hullabaloo. My calendar and watch keep reminding me that it’s Christmas Eve, but my head is trapped somewhere in early to mid December. The year is irrelevant and up for grabs.

I’m sure it will all work out and be fine. (Or at least fine-ish.)

Our tree’s only theme is “whatever we feel like putting on there!” White lights, colored lights, bubble lights, an airplane circling the top, old family heirloom ornaments, new ornaments every year from our travels, annual ornaments with planes, and so on.

It’s us.

This year’s new ornaments include a couple from our trip to Winnipeg, one from the Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory, one from a trip up the California coast to Solvang, and a talking Ted Lasso from a dear friend.

I hope everyone enjoys the holiday tonight, tomorrow, and on through the last week of the year, preparing to end 2023 and kick off a better 2024.

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Filed under Castle Willett, Christmas Lights, Photography

December 23, 2023 · 23:43

Thinking About The Old House

That would be the “Pomelo house” that we sold five and a half years ago. We could put up a LOT of Christmas lights there. The house we’ve been renting for the past six Christmases? Some, but it’s a small fraction as much.

Maybe the next house, the “forever home” that we hope to find in 2024.

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Filed under Castle Willett, Christmas Lights, Photography

December 22, 2023 · 23:26

Backside Of The Storm

For two days or more we’ve had long bands of rain coming up from the south off of the ocean and streaming up into Ventura and Santa Barbara. This happens as the low rotates and the cloud bands spin around it.

First thing this morning the convective activity was building up over Ventura as the Sun heated up the humid, unstable air.

Directly overhead was this ugly, dark thing and when I heard thunder I decided that discretion was the better part of valor, so I went inside rather than get fricaseed by one jillion electron volts.

Later I went out to get the trash cans and saw these twin thunderstorm cells. It looks like they’re over the coast out in Ventura County.

Close enough. What was really interesting was that when the radar was put into motion, all of these cells were now moving almost due north to due south, the exact opposite of how they’ve been moving earlier in the week. Not surprising to anyone who’s gone through a direct hit by a hurricane, but unusual to see it this graphically demonstrated in this part of the world. The center of the low had moved inland to our east and we were now on the opposite side of that circular rotation.

By sunset it was getting mostly clear and the gradient at the horizon was lovely, but there were still enough clouds out there showing a touch of pink coloring to make it spectacular.

It looks like we’ll have a dry-ish Christmas, then another system comes through at the end of the week before New Year’s Day. Let’s hope it doesn’t rain on the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl game. I think that’s against the law!

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Filed under Photography, Sunsets, Weather

December 21, 2023 · 22:50

Mildly Threatening

Not too long before these pictures got taken we had a couple of peals of thunder. Not usual around here most any time, but certainly not in the winter.

It had been raining most of the morning, but not hard. Off in that direction there was some much heavier rain, coming up from the south and streaming into Ventura and Santa Barbara, causing some local flooding.

I had come out during a lull in the rain to move the trash cans while I could, but seeing this coming I figured the lull wouldn’t last long. And it didn’t.

Several hours of a pretty good downpour started just a few minutes later. Those bands of low, white, ragged clouds in front of that darker wall of clouds behind? Yep, that’s mildly threatening, to say the least.

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Filed under Photography, Weather

December 20, 2023 · 23:44

No Way Out

As Leo Bloom reminds us repeatedly from his semi-catatonic state near the end of “The Producers,” there is “no way out, no way out, no way out…”

Yet the signs are everywhere.

And, sure, while I had hoped to exit the ginormous parking garage here which would have let me simply turn right, go a half block, and then turn right again onto the correct freeway going in the correct direction, and this exit dumped me out there onto a different street on a side I didn’t even know about in a warren of one-way streets, homeless encampments, and no sign of a freeway, correct or otherwise, a little “exploration” led us back to an onramp.

One rule I always taught my kids when I was teaching them to drive in LA was in a pinch, especially leaving a crowded venue like a concert or sporting event, get on a freeway onramp. You might have a preferred freeway and direction, but that’s secondary. Get on. That will get you away from the crowd. All of the freeways interconnect in almost infinite permutations, so you can ALWAYS get there from here. You might have to travel a few more miles and then go to the 22 to the 405 to the 605 to the 210 to the 101 instead of just going on the 134 to the 101, but you’ll get there eventually. It beats sitting in that parking lot and fighting a gazillion other cars to get on that one, perfect onramp.

So back to the original point – it feels like there’s no way out sometimes. But get moving. Get out of the crowd and get it in gear. You’ll figure it out.

BTW, did anyone else notice that it’s the 20th? That there are like four days until Christmas?

No way out. No way out. No way out…

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Filed under Deep Thoughts, Photography

December 19, 2023 · 23:43

Cloud Butts

The first storm of December has rolled in, a solid cloud deck yesterday that gave us mist and petrichor, but not a lot of measurable precipitation.

What we did get visually was a grand view of “cloud butts” from horizon to horizon.

Whatever was going on up top, the bottoms of the cloud deck was turbulent and bubbly, the signs of a cold, active system.

With luck we’ll get some lightning and thunder tomorrow and Thursday, but the chances of that have gone down significantly since yesterday. Pity.

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Filed under Photography, Weather

December 18, 2023 · 23:44

A New Volcano In Iceland

The new volcano in Iceland near Grindavik has finally erupted tonight. It was threatening since late October and was one of the locations and settings that inspired my failed attempt at the 2023 NaNoWriMo.

I find it fascinating to watch. To the point where I can watch for hours and then all of a sudden say, “Shazbatt, it’s 23:34, and I had better post something to keep my consecutive days streak going!” It would be easy to just be watching and then have my watch beep for midnight – I would say bad words.

My favorite solo camera view is here.

The multicamera view is here.

There’s a map of where the eruption and the cameras are here.

The news (in Icelandic, but your browser should be able to translate it into English) is here.

Unlike the eruption of a couple years ago, first indications are that this will NOT be a tourist-friendly eruption. Stay home, watch it on the webcams.

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Filed under Curiosities

December 17, 2023 · 23:17

No Context For You – December 17th

I hate getting a cold.

Worse, I hate waking up at 02:15 or so with that buzzing, burning, electrical sensation in a sinus that feels like that one evil cold virus crawled in there and is trying to borrow into your blood stream. And there’s nothing you dan do about it. Yeah, like I’m supposed to get back to sleep with that nonsense going on in my skull!

The best defense is a good offense, as Vince Lombardi said. (Or it might have been General George Patton. Or Alexander the Great.) 02:30, chug some orange juice for the Vitamin C, use it to wash down two Dayquil, and then stay awake long enough to suck down a ColdEeze. This will remind you that ColdEeze tastes a tiny bit awful, but ColdEeze and anything else always tastes worse.

Keep hitting those OTC drugs with regularity over the next 24 hours, carpet bombing the viral terrorists that have invaded your corpus and harshed your mellow. With luck, the drugs will leave your brain only slightly fuzzy and instead of trying to breathe through a wet sponge all day you’ll just have some tingly sinuses (sinusii?) and the occasional sneezing fit.

Wear a mask if you have to go out around other, innocent citizens who do not wish to share your virus. (i.e., don’t be a dick!)

If you’re the praying sort, thank whatever gods you worship that all of the deadlines from Hell are behind you. You should be able to function well enough to deal with the routine workload on Monday.

Repeat as needed on the next day and hopefully it won’t be needed on the third day.

So far it seems to be working. Day One completed.

 

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Filed under Health, Photography

December 16, 2023 · 22:51

Skyscapes – December 16th

I like how, near sunset, there are layers of clouds over to the west that are making the lower band of clouds in the lower right be in their shadow, causing it to be darker than the still brightly lit cloud bands above it.

Contrasts, For The Win! They keep the world from being bland and boring.

A week ago we were at “A Christmas Story – The Musical” at the Ahmanson. You know the story, it’s been 40 years since the movie came out and these days there are multiple cable channels that show it 24 hours a day for a day or two around Christmas weekend. Ralphie, the BB gun he wants, the bullies at school, his friend who gets his tongue stuck to the flagpole, his dad swearing at the balky furnace, the “glowing sex” leg lamp that dad wins as a major prize in a sweepstakes, everyone telling him “you’ll shoot your eye out!” A dozen other gags and scenes that are legendary, all rolled into one.

At the intermission, a woman sitting with a group of friends in the row in front of us, got up and left. She was upset and couldn’t stay for the second act of a production that celebrated giving a child a gun. She didn’t make a big scene, but she was quite emphatic to her friends about her objections and clear that she would NOT. BE. BACK.

I have questions…

I can, in theory, understand her objection, even if I don’t necessarily agree with it. We definitely live in different times than when the movie was made, and MUCH different times that the era (early 1950’s) that was portrayed in the story.

But how in the world can ANYONE come in to this production and not be at least passingly familiar with the fundamental plot line?

I’m not saying that everyone there needs to be able to quote every line in the movie, especially their favorites (“Daddy’s going to kill Ralphie!” in case anyone was wondering), but to be a member of this society in the last forty years and be totally unfamiliar with “A Christmas Story,” or to be unable to figure out that “A Christmas Story – The Musical” was related to it?

(She probably wouldn’t get this one either!)

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Filed under Entertainment, Photography, Sunsets, Weather

December 15, 2023 · 23:00

Fixed Focus

This was a tough shot. The Moon was far away and tiny (relatively), the Christmas lights about 18″ away and big (relatively), and the iPhone naturally wanted to focus on the Christmas lights. But I remembered reading about how to lock the focus on the iPhone and played with it a bit to see if I could get it to work. And it did!

I don’t have any formal photography training, but I’ve taken so many pictures for so many years that I occasionally get something that I really like. This would be one of those.

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Filed under Astronomy, Christmas Lights, Photography