Technically it’s almost a full moon, about 98%+ at the time.
The glow around the Moon is from a layer of clouds, which are just barely thin enough to allow the Moon and Jupiter (off to the right of the Moon, near the tree) to be seen.
In person, it was striking!
There’s Jupiter, off in the upper right. It should be visible also in the first two pictures if you click on them and blow them up to full sized, but here the clouds had shifted a bit and the King of the Planets is shining through!
Filed under Astronomy, Christmas Lights, Critters, Photography
As I was getting home from the ALS Network LA Walk & Ride To Cure ALS on Sunday evening, it got pretty.
The GOP misinformation machine would have you believe that SoCal is a cesspool of vice, trash, grafitti, and crime.
Obviously. Why would they lie about something like that?
Filed under ALS Network, Christmas Lights, Critters, Los Angeles, Photography, Politics, Sunsets
One of the changes I’ve made in my Christmas light display this year is the removal of four strings of incandescent lights (150 each, 500 total) with five strings of LED lights (300 each, 1500 total) on the long, narrow strip of land next to the driveway.
These are the old incandescent lights, with that warm glow that makes them so popular.
These are the new LED lights. You can see, first of all, that they have a far different color temperature. While performing far, FAR better than the first LED Christmas lights a few years ago, they’re still more dim than incandescent, and they appear far “cooler” and more toward the blue end of the spectrum. Of course, there are also far more of them, three times as many for the same amount of power. They’re also supposed to last far longer without burning out, but I haven’t had them long enough to test that claim.
With so many more lights, instead of just stringing them along the rose bushes on the ground and having a couple of long extension cords needed to get them where I want them, it’s just one huge, long string, and there are more than enough lights to fill the bushes along the edge of the yard in addition to in the rose bushes. More, more, more lights is always good! Having them look a bit funky and “Halloween like” is less desireable.
But LEDs are the wave of the future. They cost a few dollars more to start with, but given their longevity and durability and power savings, they’re cheaper in the long run. But I doubt that I’ll ever give up completely on the incandescent lights, especially the bigger, brighter bulbs along the gutters.
Filed under Christmas Lights
It’s been four days and so far the candy cane lights are intact. Every year for the past three years the wire has been cut at least once – we believe that the rabbits are biting through them somehow for some reason.
So far, so good. I love this view.
Filed under Christmas Lights, Critters, Photography
No new lights, but I wanted to highlight one touch I added this year.
There’s a bunch of lights over the garage that are anchored at both sides, go up over the beam at the roofline, and are sort of bunched up into a “clot” of lights hanging down on both sides. Visually, it’s always reminded me of a black widow spider web.
Just before we do the Christmas lights, we do Halloween, and I have two large, fake spiders…
No one’s said anything, but you know they’re thinking things.
I like it.
Filed under Christmas Lights, Critters, Photography
…but he’s much brighter and much, MUCH louder!
I don’t know what the heck they were doing out there, blocking the street and and being REALLY loud at 8:00 at night (and working their way down the street until past 10:00) but while they were loud and extremely bright, I was much more mellow, relaxing, colorful, and cheery.
It’s not a contest, but I won!
Filed under Christmas Lights
I think it’s finished.
There are, in theory, two or three open plugs for more light strings, but the other issue with this house is that there aren’t as many plants or landscaping features to put lights on.
I have more lights, so maybe some brilliant stroke of insight will strike and I’ll be able to add a few more lights.
Probably not. Time to turn to the tree and the cards. (Reminder, if you’ve gotten cards in the past and you’ve moved in the last two years, email your new address to me. If you haven’t gotten cards in the past but want to get on the massive “Christmas card list from Hell,” let me know and send me your address.”
Filed under Christmas Lights, Critters, Photography
First and foremost, to answer the major burning question of yesterday, YES!
You can fit an 8′ ladder into a Honda Fit. Hissy was so proud of herself!
(FYI, do not try to fit an 8′ 2″ ladder into a Honda Fit…)
Today I got 90% of the “aerial” lights put up, i.e., those that require a ladder to be climbed to be mounted along the gutters or roof flashing. My legs are cramping and aching appropriately. (I’m hobbling around like an old man. Wait…)
I also got a start with the first three of the “ground” light strings with eight or nine more to go tomorrow. The final total will depend on when I start blowing circuit breakers. The good news for the light count and the limitations in the home circuitry is that today’s LED lights use MUCH less power than the old mini incandescent lights, so now (for example, the lights to the left of the driveway) I can put in 600 mini LEDs to replace 75 or 125 mini incandescent lights. I’ve still got a ton of the incandescent lights, but many are decades old and starting to fail, so as they go they get replaced with three or four times as many LEDs using the same amount of power.
The incandescent lights have a much warmer color to them, but at least now the LEDs are as bright as the incandescents. When the LEDs first came out they were MUCH dimmer and I didn’t get them, but that’s changed a lot. I still use the big incandescent C9 bulbs along the roof line, and I’m finding that getting up on the 20′ extention ladder to get up to the peak of the roof on the end of the house is getting tougher (and more dangerous) every year. So far this year there haven’t been any falls! (Unlike the previous two years, but we don’t speak of those things. No hospital visits necessary, but there have been some “interesting” experiences.)
Filed under Christmas Lights, Critters, Photography
I always forget how much time and physical effort it takes to get all of the extension cords, timers, and power strips into place for my Christmas lights. At this house I have four basic circuits (at the Pomelo house I had six) with a digital clock/timer on each, coordinated to turn on at 16:00 and off at 01:00, each with as many lights as I can get without blowing the circuit breaker.
Today’s primary task was getting all of that equipment in place. It all has to get installed so there aren’t any trip hazards or other interferences with anyone moving around, and it has to get installed so that if/when it rains it doesn’t short out and cause electrical problems. A lot of that work involves getting into tight, uncomfortable spaces, some of it on ladders, some of it in trees. I also today remembered that the wooden 6′ step ladder that I’ve had for decades finally gave up and fell apart earlier this year and now’s the day that I’ve put off for years where I need to get a new one. The big question for tomorrow is whether or not an 8′ step ladder can fit into Hissy, a Honda Fit. We’ll see. I sure know that it won’t fit into a Volvo C70… although, I guess I could put the top down on it…
While tromping through the plants near the front door I came across a wounded mourning dove that unfortunately probably won’t last long. It’s right wing is obviously broken and sticking out at an odd angle and it never tried to fly, just kept running away from me. I did put out little dishes of bird seed and water, but it ran away from them also. The juncos on the other hand took to the feast like it was their Thanksgiving banquet. I suspect either an owl or a hawk will eat well sometime in the next couple of days. Of course, there was also the matter of the “Black Friday” Chiefs v. Raiders game. (“Cardiologists are standing by!”)
By the time I got done with the last of the electrical work, it was dark. I pushed through to get at least one string of lights up, and I got the wreath on the door, and the Christmas tree and decorations moved from the garage to the living room, but the rest of the lights will have to wait until tomorrow.
Filed under Birds, Christmas Lights, Critters, Photography
It’s no secret that I put up a LOT of Christmas lights and enjoy it. But they NEVER start going up before the day after Thanksgiving. Which would be two weeks from today.
But the Universe has decided that we’re shredding all norms and traditions – see “US 2024 elections,” “Constitutional rule of law,” and “fascism” for examples.
So we’re going to need all of the good cheer and happiness we can find, and if the bad guys can sell out the US government to the Nazis and Putin, how bad can it be if I put up a couple of strings of Christmas lights a few days early?
Tomorrow I’m going to get my flu and updated COVID vaccines, while they’re still legal. After that? Who knows, if I don’t feel like shit from the shots (and I rarely do) then maybe it’s time to pull out the laddars and string a few extension cords, C5s, C7s, LEDs, and icicle lights.
Maybe.
Filed under Christmas Lights, Health, Politics
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