On the way home from the gym & an intense training session tonight, stopping at the store accompanied by a great sunset, grinning through the pain, another year older.
It’s not pretty, but nothing’s killed me yet. Let’s hope I can still say that in another 365 days.
Happy Birthday to me!
Filed under Paul, Photography, Sunsets
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.)
Filed under Panorama, Photography, Sunsets
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!
Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Sunsets
The new computer arrived today. The good news is that it was originally estimated to arrive March 12th. Eleven days early is GREAT, considering how fast the old computer was failing. The bad news is that I have to set up the new computer and install all of the programs and get them set up the way I like them – in the meantime it’s like I’m trying to work with oven mitts on, drunk, and with one arm tied behind my back.
Frustrating, to say the least.
Yesterday night I was playing with with time lapse function on the iPhone, watching the coastal clouds stream by during sunset. It turned out pretty nice. See?
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!)
Filed under Health, Photography, Sunsets
A half hour or so prior to sunset we were getting a high layer of clouds and I had hopes that it might lead to one of those really colorful & spectacular sunsets.
It did not.
It wasn’t grey and terrible, not exactly Suckasaurus Rex, but neither was it mind blowing and spectacular.
A little pink, some deep oranges right at the horizon, and Venus trying to shine through.
Beats a poke in the eye with a sharp stick!
Filed under Photography, Sunsets, Weather
Just about perfect “just after sunset” timing for a SpaceX launch out of Vandenberg. I missed it, but my daughter caught it from near Downtown LA.
(Photo: Michi Willett)
I ran outside.
The rocket was long gone over the southern horizon, but the high altitude contrail, still lit up by the sun somewhere over the horizon to the west, was still glowing.
The other view I’ve seen is from the Virtual Railfan Hesperia/Cajon Pass webcam. If you can see a copy later, grab it. It’s great to see that when we move up to the High Desert we’ll still be able to see launches.
It lasted for a while, until the Sun moved on and the contrail dissipated.
Filed under Airshows, Critters, Photography, Space, Sunsets
There were a bunch of weeks there in December and January where, if I was leaving the office about 17:45 and driving home, it was already pitch dark outside.
Yeah, I know what causes it, that whole “seasons,” and “axial tilt,” and “winter solstice” thing. Just sayin’, it was noticeably dark, early.
Tonight, leaving at 17:40 and driving west homeward, it really was noticeable that the sun was setting through the broken clouds, right in my eyes. The cyclic nature of that “axial tilt” thing had carried us past the solstice and we’re well on our way to the equinox next month.
The weather looks okay for the weekend, which will be nice for our Superb Owl party on Sunday, but there’s a lot more rain expected next week.
Good, we need it. I don’t want to get into another drought.
Filed under Astronomy, Critters, Photography, Sunsets, Weather
I don’t know if Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow or not.
Here, we had enough clouds to make sunset spectacular, with the crescent Moon now well above the brilliant Venus.
Let February begin.
Filed under Astronomy, Critters, Photography, Sunsets
Similar sunset to yesterday (they’re never quite identical) but this time looking to the east at the pines in the back lit up.
I wish the photo portrayed the vividness of the light half as well as it appeard to the eye.
We may safely blame the photographer, not Mother Nature, for the discrepancy.
Filed under Critters, Photography, Sunsets
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 