Blacksburg, VA
(And a secret theme… But you never can tell who’s watching, so it will have to stay secret to those not in the know.)
Category Archives: Travel
Contrails At Sunset – April 28th
One close and up high, headed southbound down the coast (San Diego? Cabo? Mexico City? Quito? Montevideo?) and two way out off of Santa Barbara headed north (San Francisco? Portland? Seattle? Anchorage?) leaving their temporary marks behind them.
I can’t wait to go again. Somewhere. Anywhere.
Filed under Photography, Travel
Final Pictures From Toronto
I took surprisingly few pictures in our five day trip to Toronto. It wasn’t so much a conscious decision (I took along four cameras plus the cell phone, as usual) as it was that I was busy doing other things. This is probably a good thing.
I did find some Canadian graffiti. This is a gang I could join.
I took way too many pictures of small (and shrinking) patches of dirty snow. This could explain the odd glances and muttered comments by the locals.
Even when the snow was pretty much gone, I kept taking pictures day after day, as if it might magically re-appear. Living in LA for long enough will do that to you, I guess.
I did manage to find a decent sunset. Good to know they have them there as well.
Goodbye, Toronto. We’ll be back, I’m sure!
Filed under Photography, Travel
Home Again, Home Again
That was wonderful!
However, we returned to find that the moving and packing faeries haven’t done DIDDLY SQUAT since we left, so we’re back to that tomorrow. Thirty-six days to go – sooner would be better, much sooner would be much better.
And I have to go back to work tomorrow.
Assuming I didn’t come down with a case of “con crud.” (Actually, I think I have to go back to work tomorrow even if I did come down with a case of “con crud.” “Death will not release me,” and all of that.)
Let the jet lag begin!!
Filed under Castle Willett, Travel
FilkOntario Draws To A Close
It’s been a most wonderful weekend. The dead penguin party continues as we wind down.
Today’s HOF concert was a singular event for me, having dear friends performing my favorite songs. I also performed my signature song, “Ronald Reagan – Carl Sagan – San Diego Pagan Blues,” for the first time in many, many years.
I have seen many old friends and made many new friends, had some fascinating conversations, learned new songs, and even dragged out a decades-old song from PFNEN to sing. (In public and everything!)
A million thanks to the FilkOntario convention committee and Filk Hall of Fame jury, especially Dave & Judith Hayman and Peggi Warner-Lalonde, who have pulled off miracles to make it all run smoothly.
FilkOntario has been wonderful! I can’t wait to come back!!
The Great White North Is – White
I understand that it snows in Canada.
I just don’t ever remember it snowing in mid-April up here. I used to live in Vermont, which isn’t that much different climate-wise from Toronto and I rarely remember getting snow after my birthday in mid-March.
April was “mud season,” meaning that everything was melting and thawing. It also meant that everything was turning green, not this barren and defoliated.
They say it will all melt away by the time we leave on Monday – we’ll see.
Meanwhile they do have pretty sunsets with the white ground a nice contrast. As well as a prominent sun pillar from the setting sun, the setting sun reflecting off of ice crystals high in the atmosphere.
Meanwhile, the Angels game from Anaheim doesn’t start until after 22:00 here? How do these people live?!!
Filed under Photography, Travel
You Have To Go Through This To Get To That
If you want to take a couple of days off and go to see some friends north of the border, not only do you have to get a ton of work done on the move (which is progressing) and at the office (where we’re still mid-audit but surviving) and at the hangar (where it always seems to be a losing battle to stay current), but then you have to deal with THIS abomination:
I reserve the right to be grumpy tomorrow. Especially crammed into a middle seat.
I know it will be worth it. But still…
Look out, Toronto. Here I come!
Someplace Special – March 22nd
National Museum of the United States Air Force, Dayton, OH
(Another one of those places that I got to spend four or five hours at, would love to spend four or five weeks at. There’s a growing list of those, not to mention the long, long list of places I’ve never gotten to at all. Meanwhile, things I don’t want to do ever again get done over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over every single day.
What’s wrong with this picture?0
Filed under Flying, Photography, Travel
Someplace Special – March 13th
Southampton, England
“We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.” – Dr. Stephen Hawking
(People like me can understand how light diffracts through rain drops suspended in the air and can do the math to describe it. Well, I could at one point long ago. Stephen Hawking could understand how black holes warp the fabric of spacetime enough to radiate away energy and eventually evaporate – and do the math to prove it RIP, Dr. Hawking.)
https://twitter.com/physicsmatt/status/973780532134858752
(Read this thread to find out more about Hawking radiation in easy to understand terms.)
Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Space, Travel
Someplace Special – March 06th
Barre, Vermont – Mom’s front yard, 1975
(It was always great to sit out on the front porch or on the grass and watch the sunset, wait for the stars to come out. There were about two acres of grass sloping down to the street with the hills and mountains just falling away to the west toward Camel’s Hump. If you were really quiet you wouldn’t disturb the deer as they came out of the woods to eat the crabapples. As Joni Mitchell said, “You don’t know what you got ’till it’s gone.”)
Filed under Photography, Travel
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 