Well, at least it’s not September any more.
Some big bank (Bank of America, maybe?) is running ads with a tagline something like “What would you like the power to do?”
Remember the movie “Scanners”? Yeah, if certain prominent public figures and politicians start having their heads explode live on national television, you’ll know…
Filed under Paul, Photography
The world’s going to Hell and I didn’t even get a handbasket.
Goodbye, September! You had your moments, but overall you sorta sucked. If only October didn’t look to be even worse from Square One…
Filed under Paul, Photography
What a lovely evening it was. Hanging in there… I hope you’re doing the same (at least) or better!
Filed under Astronomy, Forever Home, Photography
Is this the high desert Bat-signal?
It looked like it at the time.
Filed under Photography, Weather
Just when I thought that the bird seed couldn’t be disappearing any faster, someone sent a memo to the scrub jays.
They’re big birds, very intelligent, and with beautiful coloration. I enjoy having them here.
Too intelligent sometimes. They’re a bit too big to perch on the feeders, but they’ve figured out that they can hang upside down off of the side, do a chin up, and use their beaks to just scrape whole handfuls of seed over the edge to the ground below.
Once there’s a two-day supply of seed dumped on the ground, then they can hop down and eat it at their leisure.
At one point this morning I saw three separate jays hanging from three separate feeders and all doing this trick together. The finches weren’t much more happier than I was as they sat on top of the wall and the pergola and waited for the jays to leave so they could get back to their own looting and pillaging.
Filed under Birds, Forever Home, Photography
Now that the PODS units are leaving, I finally have room to park my son’s old truck…
Filed under Forever Home, Photography
Mostly good things. But one “mixed blessing” that surprises me is the sunrises.
I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been awake for sunrise in the last forty years. Which is weird. When I was a kid I was always up early, mainly because as the oldest of eight kids it was one of the only times I had alone, when I could read without being bothered. Then there were years of morning paper routes, then some time at Annapolis, then working graveyard shift to get through college along with 8:00 AM classes.
Somewhere in the intervening 45 years after college, I decided that being up before the crack of nine is less than optimal. I almost never am in bed before 1:00 AM, but unless I have to be up to remain employed or get on a plane, getting up by sunrise is NOT on the menu.
Then we moved here, with big plantation shutters and a lovely view to the east and some spectacular desert sunrises, and I’m finding myself waking up to check out the sunrises. (Okay, I’m getting up to pee at 5:45, but I still look outside and see the sunrise.) Who knew? Granted, once the pretty colors go away I go back to sleep until 8:00 or so, but there’s definitely been a shift in my circadian rhythms.
This morning was stunning!
Filed under Forever Home, Photography, Sunsets
In celebration of the equinox today, we had a visit from a monster!
The house’s outer defenses were holding and the vicious killer hadn’t yet made it into the interior to rip our throats out.
I cautiously approached the alien-like monstrosity, ready for it to fly off into my face and go for my eyes. (Honestly, if it had taken flight when I was getting close, I swear I would have screamed and cried and needed a change of underwear.)
The reality was that it was probably asleep. I did notice later in the day that it had moved to the screen on the next window over, but I never found a need to call 9-1-1 or the National Guard.
Is this the same one that we saw on the front lawn about a month ago? I have no idea, but I doubt it. I suspect it’s just a sign that these tiny killing critters are ever so slightly more common here than in Los Angeles.
Filed under Critters, Forever Home, Photography
What did you do with your weekend?
As should be obvious, I spent WAAAAAAAY too much time lifting, carrying, sorting, storing and ending the weekend (AGAIN) feeling like I just did ten rounds with Mike Tyson.
Now we’ll see how many appointments and days it takes for PODS to pick up this unit.
Filed under Forever Home, Photography
The pictures, when viewed in detail, show a slightly different picture (literally), but to the naked eye, the squirrel stealing bird food this morning seemed to be decidedly two-toned, with a light brown, almost “dirty blonde” coloration accompanied by a white collar around his neck and forward shoulders.
You can see the basic pattern as described in this thumbnail above, but if you click on it and view the full-sized picture, you’ll see a lot more detail that is lost at first. I particularly like the white polka dot or speckled pattern on the back 2/3 of its body.
Not the sharpest picture I’ve ever taken, but the only one where I caught it more head on, proving that it wasn’t eating the bird seed from the ground, but was instead filling his cheeks with it.
Hilarious. Then it got in trouble and pissed me off.
Filed under Critters, Forever Home, Photography
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We Love The Stars Too Fondly 