Category Archives: Photography

March 7, 2025 · 22:49

Moonlight

I think I liked this picture the best from tonight, something about the composition and positioning of the tree trunk.

That said, I like this one because you can clearly see Orion over on the left, Jupiter shining through the branches just to the right of center, and the Pleiades cluster in the lower right. That’s not a bad amount of detail for a handheld iPhone picture.

Overall tonight, the moonlit landscape and clear (and cold) sky was just amazing. If the back yard wasn’t a landscaping nightmare right now between the droughts and gopher holes all making it look like no-man’s land, I would have loved to have gotten a blanket or two and just laid out there looking for a while.

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography

March 6, 2025 · 22:01

Red Sky At Night

That moment when you’re walking from the back bedrooms to the kitchen and as you come out of the hallway you see the translucent glass in the front door glowing pinkish-orange like neon and you immediately do a hard right turn to go out and see the sunset, because you just know…

It might not be the absolute best I’ve seen from this location in the almost seven years we’ve lived here, but it’s on the short list, probably a Top Ten choice! And it was so spread out from side to side, even if there wasn’t so much color up away from the horizon.

(Click on that one to blow it up to full screen, it’s tasty!)

Off the top of my head, the best ever from here was probably this one from about six months after we moved in. (It was incredibly vivid, the pictures don’t do it justice.)

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Filed under Panorama, Photography, Sunsets

March 5, 2025 · 23:53

Stained Glass

Back to the gym, feeling the burn, back to a state of mind where I don’t even know what day of the week or month it is. It’s late.

From Prague, 2006. I may not be on the same page with their subject matter, but I can recognize beauty in both the stained glass windows and architecture. I am not their target audience. (I.e., 12th Century, illiterate peasant with an expected lifespan of ~20 years…)

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Filed under Photography, Religion, Travel

March 4, 2025 · 23:00

Wide Sky, Tiny Moon

It’s actually a decent-sized moon, but when it’s 250,000 miles away (give or take) and you’re using a wide-angle lens, it can appear to be quite tiny.

See it? Up there in all of the cloud layers (rain moving in for tomorrow and Thursday) and contrails?

Zoom in far enough and you can see that it’s a bit short of being a half-illuminated moon, but well beyond the crescent phase.

I still dream that some day, some how, I get a chance to go there. It could happen!

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Sunsets

March 3, 2025 · 23:54

Inconclusive

Not my favorite word tonight.

Starting to feel like a hypochondriac.

On the other hand, I don’t want to be the guy who comes into the doctor and has him yelling at me, “WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT’S BEEN LIKE THIS FOR A MONTH?! WHY DIDN”T YOU SEE ME?” and then showing up at the Pearly Gates and getting yelled at by St. Peter.

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Filed under Health, Photography

March 2, 2025 · 22:54

Who Had 22 Hours?

I got the fancy, fast, cool new computer hardware from Dell yesterday.

I’m sure there was an office pool amongst you, betting on how long it would be before I cracked it open and started enhancing it, i.e., adding another 4TB hard drive.

If you took the under on 24 hours, you know me well! If you have 22 hours in the pool, you’re a winner!

I will give Dell credit, it’s remarkably easy to open up the case and add another internal hard drive (or two) where those two baby blue brackets are on the left. Almost so simple that any idiot could do it (as I proved!)

It’s been a long weekend of IT cosplay, but we’re a lot closer to being normal and functional tonight. Lots of loose ends (what do you mean there are no Win11 device drivers for an HP LaserJet 1200? It’s not THAT old! Oh, wait, yes it is…)

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Filed under Computers, Photography

February 28, 2025 · 23:37

February Ends On A New Low

It’s truly depressing how quickly our government is being dismantled and a century of hard-earned alliances and trust just tossed into the trash by the psychotic traitor in the White House and his cult. I knew it was coming – I just had no idea it was coming so incredibly fast.

Today’s embarrassing debacle in the Oval Office is a new low, even for this group of ignorant chucklefucks.

Maybe March will be better… (I’m putting my hopes in choelesterol and ketamine.)

In the meantime, the only advice I’ve got to share is to go outside, watch clouds, breathe, relax, and get your blood pressure back down.  The clouds here this morning were lovely!

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Filed under Photography, Politics, Weather

February 27, 2025 · 23:34

Deferral Blues & Sunset Pinks

It was a rough couple of days, with a big annual payroll update and tight deadline at work leaving me a little bit light on sleep. Then I had a scheduled blood donation at the Red Cross, but my hemoglobin level was unexpectedly low and I was deferred from donating today. Doing some searching on the internet about what that means and what could be causing it and how to solve it for now and prevent it for the future just left me depressed and slightly alarmed. I’ll think about it more some other day. But I was not a happy camper.

So while The Long-Suffering Wife went through with her blood donation, I ran to the office (literally, directly across the street) to take care of a quick IT task, and in the process was treated to a delightful, cotton candy pink sunset as the coastal fog and clouds were rolling in.

So, not a complete bust! (I especially like that last picture!)

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Filed under Health, Photography, Sunsets

February 26, 2025 · 23:54

Very Good Dogs

I just finished reading Chuck Wendig’s “Wayward,” the sequel to “Wanderers.” They’re both extremely excellent and I give them both my highest recommendation. (I’ve started handing out copies as gifts.)

In “Wayward” one of the most beloved characters is a golden retriever named Gumball, who is A Most Excellent Very Good Dog.

That got me to thinking about our dogs, now long gone. One of the reasons we really want to buy our Forever Home is so we can have dogs again – where we’ve been renting for seven years now, no pets are allowed.

Lucky Puppy was our first dog, and she was A Most Excellent Very Good Dog. She usually looked guilty because she usually was. But A Most Excellent Very Good Dog nonetheless.

We got Jessie when The Long Suffering Wife moved in, and while she was a trouble making scamp and a jumper who wouldn’t stay in the yard and scared the shit out of us every time she went on walkabout, she also was A Most Excellent Very Good Dog. Squirrels were her sworn, mortal enemy.

Once we find The Forever Home, get moved in, get halfway settled, it will be time to visit a shelter or rescue group.

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Filed under Dogs, Forever Home, Photography

February 25, 2025 · 23:48

Today Was Tuesday – I Think

Holy crap, look at the time!

Quoth the raven, “WHAT THE FUCK!?”

Yep, I went there!

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Filed under Birds, Photography