Category Archives: Forever Home

November 10, 2025 · 23:50

Other Critter Neighbors

In addition to the squirrels (or whatever they are) burrowing under the pergola, and the flocks of wrens, finches, hummingbirds, and scrub jays all feeding at the feeders hanging from the top, we also have some bigger raptors that regularly roost on top of the pergola, particularly at night.

I haven’t caught any of them on camera yet (they spook easily) but I’ve seen the owl(s) several times.

Even if I can’t catch them live, it’s obvious where they like to roost when looking out over the back wall for dinner, or where they bring dinner to feast in peace. The little bits of rodents and small birds, and what appears to be a significant amount of (probably) rabbit fur indicate that the owls are well fed.

It’s sort of a mess – but that’s why we bought a power washer. Now I just need to find the time to assemble it…

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Filed under Birds, Critters, Forever Home, Photography

November 9, 2025 · 23:38

Hello Once Again, Old Friend

I do so dearly love the Northern Hemisphere winter sky. Tons of bright stars and easy-to-identify constellations, not to mention naked eye nebula and clusters. The King of them all is Orion.

(Click on it to blow it up – it’s a nice picture.)

Now rising to by 10:00 PM or so to hover above the water tanks and power lines to our east, Orion is easily identified by the four bright stars making up the shoulders and legs, the three stars in the belt, the three objects (two stars and a bright nebula) making up the sword. It doesn’t take much of a dark sky or even a cheap pair of old Sears binoculars to see the bright blue color of Rigel and the orange-ish red of Betelgeuse. (We’re still waiting for Betelgeuse to go supernova and be as bright as the moon for a while – any day in the next 5,000 year or so…)

Even an older generation iPhone camera held still on top of a cinder block wall and fighting with the glow of a Moon just past full can easily pull out Orion’s details.

Welcome back Old Friend, the constellation and stars that I first remember learning to recognize when I couldn’t have been more than four or five. Another trip around the Sun for us all, another opportunity to greet you in the chilly evening sky and discuss the nature of things.

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Filed under Astronomy, Forever Home, Photography

November 8, 2025 · 22:19

A Pergola With A Lived-In Look

We like having neighbors and all, we want to be friendly, but I would really, REALLY prefer to not have our new neighbors be of the tunneling, rodent-like variety.

I noticed this tunnel under the side of the pergola decking a couple weeks ago and I’ve filled the rocks back in twice, only to have the hole open up again in a day or so. Behind the back yard shed there’s a stack of leftover bricks and paving stones – I guess they’re the next weapon in the fight. Let’s see if the little bugger is strong enough to move them.

I haven’t actually spotted the critter in question. It could be a number of species, but my money’s on it being Two-Tone, our resident squirrel. I don’t mind having it around, and I don’t mind it stealing a share of the bird seed hanging above this spot, but I really don’t want a secret lair under the porch. Secret lairs tend to attract evil, sort of by definition, and we seem to have more than enough of that around these days without inviting any more.

And yes, for those keeping track (which is likely only ME), there was no post yesterday. The 17th day in over eleven years when I didn’t have a post.

I blame gremlins. There was a heavy-duty attack which started on Wednesday afternoon and clobbered my ability to hit some key work deadlines for which I had been busting my ass for a week or more. (An information provider and database that we use at work was offline for 24+ hours, which meant I couldn’t get the data I needed to finish the reports due Thursday and Friday.) That sucked big time, caused a ton of stress, and then when the site came back up it started spitting out reports that were a bit garbage-like, which didn’t help. By the time I got my data and started to play catch up, my focus didn’t include yesterday’s posts. Usually I at least realize about 23:55 that time is fleeting and I can at least drop a “Proof Of Life” post, but this time it was closer to 02:30 before I came up for air.

Gremlins 1, Paul 0. But that’s just a battle, not the war. Carrying on…

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Filed under Critters, Forever Home, Photography

November 2, 2025 · 22:49

Vote 2025

Only one item on the ballot, no elected offices, no state or federal offices, no Congress critters, no President… Doesn’t matter. Yes, I’m one of those folks who ALWAYS votes, no matter how “inconsequential” or “unimportant” the issues might be to some.

In this case, switching our voting registrations to our new Forever Home address was one of the very first things we did three months ago. So, San Bernardino County, not Los Angeles County any more, but the process was easy peasy.

Did I vote “yes” on Prop 50, the single ballot measure up for voting, the issue being redistricting California’s congressional districts to weight them toward Democratic candidates, in order to offset similiar efforts in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, and several other “red” states in order to rig t 2016 midterm elections in favor of the GOP and their psychotic, fascist cult? Yes, I voted “yes,” but only because they didn’t have a “FUCK, YES!!!!” option.

Maybe next time I’ll write that in.

(No matter where you are in the U.S., you probably have an election coming up in the next day or two – VOTE! If you’re not trying to fight the problem, you are a part of the problem. No matter what, I pretty much guarantee at this point that you are not panicked enough about how much shit this country is in. Let’s try to vote the evil bastards out while we still have elections, we might not as early as next year.)

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Filed under Forever Home, Photography, Politics

November 1, 2025 · 22:43

Venus – Morning Goddess

The only good thing about getting up early enough to meet the movers at 7AM is getting to see brilliant Venus in the morning sky.

Well, that and finally getting that last loose end paritally tied up. (“Partially” because everything’s at the house now and out of storage, but I still have to put stuff away at the house. Progress is progress, I’ll take it!)

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Filed under Astronomy, Forever Home, Photography

October 31, 2025 · 23:21

First Halloween In The Forever Home

Not a single trick-or-treater, but we sort of expected that. Our subdivision only has a dozen houses and is a bit isolated and we have almost no children that I know of and only a small handful of teenagers.

I’ve been a bit busy (candidate for understatement of the year) so I didn’t decorate at all until today, not that we normally decorate much for Halloween to begin with. But it did give me a chance to start seeing where on the house there were places to hang lights and mount decorations.

Spoiler: Christmas decorations are going to be FANTASTIC!

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Filed under Forever Home, Photography

October 30, 2025 · 22:54

Adrenaline Will Get You To The Finish Line

…and then you’re gonna crash.

More dental work today. Appointment two of three on the current round, which started with the cracked and missing tooth & extraction back in June, just before the move to Hesperia. Relatively little pain today, but plenty of stress, plus the drive 2 hours down and almost 4 hours back up.

One last huge loose end in the move to finish up, getting everything out of storage and up to the new house. Since we were down anyway, it was a good opportunity to meet with the pro movers we used to get out of the house in July and have them finish up what I started last weekend. Starting out exhausted from that, plus still plenty sore from my accident yesterday trying to start unloading at the new house.

‘Tis done. And there’s a big chunk of the expense budget eliminated. Excellent progress.

Tomorrow for the spooky holiday we’ll try to get the telescopes out as we hand out candy in the new neighborhood. If it weren’t for needing to do that, I swear I would sleep for the next 72 hours straight.

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Filed under Forever Home, Health, Photography

October 29, 2025 · 17:18

Yeah! But You Should See The OTHER Guy!

Oh, let’s get real! I was unloading crap from the Uhaul truck and lost in a fight with gravity.

It was heavier than I expected, I was on the ramp, I went down, hit my head, and it came down on top of my head to add insult to injury.

Good thing I have a really thick, hard skull. Only minor damage to the gravel next to the driveway.

Tomorrow the young, strong, professionals come in to finish the job. I might be stupid enough to do this at age 69 – I’m not stupid enough to try to finish the job after getting my ass kicked.

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Filed under Forever Home, Health, Paul, Photography

October 26, 2025 · 21:46

Proof Of Life – October 26th

When you’ve bitten off more than you can chew, CHEW FASTER AND DON’T STOP.

At the end of Day Two of my 3-4 hour packing & loading task, the truck’s finally at capacity.

Before:

After:

The pros will be here on Thursday to finish it off and tie off that final loose end.

Wisdom is knowing that it’s stupid and unnecessary to try the three hour drive home when I’m this exhausted and sore and have bruises and pain in places I didn’t know I had places. So they were as surprised to see me back at the hotel as I was!

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Filed under Forever Home, Photography

October 25, 2025 · 21:20

Proof Of Life – October 25th

The good news is that I made a lot of excellent progress on the first day of this final stage of the great move to the Forever Home! The bad news is that I was (of course!) ridiculously overly optimistic about how much was involved and how long it would take to get done. I’ll be working on finishing it up and getting back home tomorrow.

The saving grace is that we’re slowly learning from past mistakes. I won’t be sleeping on the floor or in my car tonight. I brought a bag, just in case, and I’m now comfortable in a local hotel.

And there was a gorgeous sunset with a crescent moon over the Camarillo Airport, to boot!

I just wish that I didn’t feel like I’ve been beaten within an inch of my life by a legion of orcs. I’m truly getting too old for this shit.

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Filed under Forever Home, Photography, Sunsets