Another deadline hit today. (Payroll – and there was much rejoicing!) Like my favorite NFL team, I’m “winning ugly.” But I’m winning.
Category Archives: Photography
Deadlines Met
There’s been a fair amount of stress due to three large deadlines all coming due in the last week. The good news is that the final two were met today, somehow.
The bad news is that – A) there’s another one in 48 hours, so I get to hit that one hard tomorrow, and B) I’m so exhausted from everything and all of the hours that have gone into this that I can’t really celebrate or feel a lot of satisfaction. Yeah, it’s far better to have hit all three deadlines than to have blown them, but that’s my head talking, not my heart or gut.
Meanwhile, there’s a really bright moon out there and it’s clear and cool.
You can still see Vega over on the right – I’m surprised that the cell phone camera can pick out any stars at all with the bright moon.
And I’m still not back in sync after the switch out of Daylight Saving Time last week.
Filed under Astronomy, Paul, Photography
Found Them!
Once I knew what the seed pods from the Italian Cypress trees were, I found a bunch of them on the ground and I’ll be trying to see if I can get them to dry out & open up so I can try to germinate the seeds.
I also looked in the trees, and found plenty more, but there all 20-30 feet up and trying to retrieve any sounds like a really good way to break every bone in my body, so I’ll pass.
My bouncing baby days are well behind me, thanks!
Filed under Flowers, Forever Home, Photography
Front Yard Mystery & Solution
Yesterday while taking down the Halloween decorations, I found an odd little lump or pod in the front yard.
Hand for scale.
It stood out and I’ve never seen one like it before, so I was curious. Was it some sort of larva or bug? Some piece of scat or critter poop? No clue! It seemed to be dry and light, but that’s about all I could tell.
Then today when I was bringing in the weekly groceries, I found another.
Now that I was alert to their existence, I found a third one.
And a fourth on the driveway.
This one has some sort of a stem on the left side, and it’s in a huge pile of debris from the Italian cypress trees along the side of the garage, needles and small branches blown down by that tremendous wind storm here earlier in the week. And there’s the clue that solved the mystery!
I did a Google search for “Italian Cypress seed pods” and got this:
I don’t see any on the eight or ten trees we have growing there, but it’s obvious that’s what they are and where they come from. Mystery solved!
Next question – can I grow new trees from these seeds? One thing about many of the houses we’re looking at in the High Desert is that they’re a bit on the barren side from a landscaping perspective. Almost all have fencing, mostly chain link, but it would be really nice to line those long fences with Italian Cypresses eventually, both for privacy reasons and for esthetic reasons. If these four seed pods or pine cones are full of viable seeds, can I get a stack of small pots and potting soil and start my own personal forest now, then have them ready to go (albeit small) for transplant when the Willett Forever Home is secured?
Why, yes, I can!
My own little minion/Ent legion! It might not be as straightforward as winning the lottery and paying a gardener or landscape designer to buy them from a nursery and plant them for me, but it will probably be more interesting.
Filed under Deep Thoughts, Forever Home, Paul, Photography
Cloud
For some reason my brain is seeing this as a check mark symbol, even though it’s not quite that right shape at all.
But a check mark is usually an indication that something is correct or has been accomplished on a checklist, and that’s not quite the situation in so many respects, so I guess a shape that’s not quite right is appropriate.
Whatever. It’s just a pretty, wispy, fluff of a small cloud that I thought was interesting. Not seen in this picture, and the thing that drew my eye to it to begin with while I was retrieving trash barrels, were the couple of hawks riding the thermals around and through and above and below. It would be wonderful to be able to do that and daydreaming about the possibility got my train of thought at the time off on a tangent.
Being bound to the ground and everything on it is starting to get old. I need to fly again.
Filed under Flying, Photography
Happy Place Panorama
It would be nice to get back again this year, but that’s unlikely. One trip a year is about all I can get away with.
Enjoy the full-sized file – click on it and blow it up. My son’s truck with the flags is over to the left.
For this weekend, there’s more work, more deadlines (I can sort of see the light at the end of the tunnel? Ish?) and taking down the Halloween decorations.
It’s also getting close to decision time and I know where it’s going, I’m just not happy about it. (Just add it to the list…) I had really hoped to be putting up a ton of Christmas lights at the Forever Home this year and setting the place up to make it easy to put up a ton of lights every year in the future. That’s also very unlikely to happen, so in two weeks it will be time to start decorating here, at the rental house again. I’m also coming up on the end of my current set of weight training lessons, which I was also hoping would be the last one because I would be living elsewhere, but again…
So frustrated. So tired. It’s that whole middle-of-the-marathon feeling and the only way out is through.
One foot in front of the other. You too?
Filed under Christmas Lights, Forever Home, KC Chiefs, Panorama, Photography
You Can’t Take A Bad Picture Here – November 07th
There are places on the planet where it is damn near impossible to take a bad picture, no matter your equipment, skill level, or whatever. I’m sure there are folks who somehow do manage to screw it up, but they’re in a different class from us mere mortals.
For example: London
My first stop has repeatedly been the Thames and the Battle of Britain monument. A favorite, it’s HUGE and wonderful.
A short walk to Parliament and Big Ben. It was grey and raining all day. That happens there a lot.
Some nice person figured that I might like to have proof that I was there. They were correct. Thank you, nice person!
St. James Park, looking toward Buckingham Palace. Not seen are the viscious geese that figured if I was there I just MUST have bread and was holding out on them.
Buckingham Palace.
Picadilly Square. Now getting dark and raining.
Trafalgar Square. Behind me was a guy on a unicycle playing bagpipes with flames shooting out the top. Not something you see every day.
The Albert Memorial in Hyde Park. It would be nice to get to see a concert or organ recital at Royal Albert Hall some day.
One of my favorite London pictures – an ancient, tiny cottage in Hyde Park, with a steel and glass skyscraper just behind it. That’s London to me. Things hundreds of years old cheek & jowl to things built yesterday.
This was my second (third?) trip to London, in 2016, and all three have been about 18 hours long and a rush of how-much-can-I-cram-into-18-hours and how-little-sleep-can-I-survive-on-I’ll-sleep-on-the-plane-or-when-I’m-dead. It would be nice to go back for a few days or a week and see the city at a more leisurely pace.
Someday…
Filed under Photography, Travel
Signs & Portents
Well, isn’t THIS just a fine fucking little nightmare!
I don’t even have words to start to express my disappointment and disgust with my fellow Americans.
Then I came out to this on the front porch this morning. It might have been an omen. Or is it a portent? Whatever.
Having the US flag ripping loose and hanging upside down seemed to be appropriate, especially with the leftover Halloween skeleton there.
(Image from ForeFlight app)
Probably not quite a sign from the gods – the winds had been pretty viscious all night. Whiteman was reporting winds at 45 knots, gusting to 60 knots, with Van Nuys, Camarillo, and Burbank all reporting similar readings.
If anyone has figured out what the silver lining or bright side to this debacle is, please let me know. I’ve got nothing.
Filed under Photography, Politics, Weather
Just Trying To Get Home
Stuck in traffic
It was so beautiful for about two minutes. And then we moved on.
Filed under Photography, Sunsets
The Next Week
I’ve seen this meme a dozen places in the last 48 hours and it’s ringing so very, VERY true right now. Another one says, “It’s like the whole world is waiting for biopsy results on Tuesday.” That’s true too, although I’ve been feeling more like the characters in “Melancholia” or “Deep Impact” waiting for the comet or rogue planet to hit the Earth.
Let’s keep the faith, keep breathing, keep our sense of humor, and hope for a
over the next 72 hours.
In the meantime, we’ve been experiencing our first good windstorm of the winter, which meant that the roads this morning were littered with palm fronds (which can shred a tire in an instant), small tree branches, tumbleweeds, and the odd, migrating Halloween decoration. In our back yard,
We will rebuild!
Filed under Memes, Photography, Politics, Weather
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 