“Old” is relative here – on the one hand, this wasn’t from today or this week or even this month. On the other hand, it wasn’t from years and years ago either.
Taken from the beach at Boca Chica in early April when I was there a couple days before the total solar eclipse in Texas. I do love the formation flying of a flock of brown pelicans, just cruising down the beach on the sea breeze, about 50 feet AGL.
Filed under Birds, Photography, Travel
One of the goals of our weekend trip to the Apple Valley / Hesperia region was to not eat at any fast food or national chain restaurants, but instead to eat at local, mom-and-pop style restaurants. We did that!
One of the meals was at a 50’s themed diner along what was once Route 66.
While there I got to thinking about nostalgia and how misguided and just plain wrong it can be. We have this whole warm and fuzzy thing going on about the 1950’s thanks to “Happy Days,” “Back To The Future,” and the like (“Peggy Sue Got Married” is a favorite of mine) but I was there. We had polio and measles and the Korean War and civil rights horrors and women were truly second class citizens and the Cold War and a lot of stuff sucked really bad! We think about Marilyn Monroe and James Dean and the birth of rock ‘n’ roll, which is fine, but it’s not the whole picture. It was not a more innocent time!
One thing that I’ve always loved from that era is the use of glass blocks as an architectural element. I love the look, especially if you can get some color or colored light coming through. I was glad to see several of the houses we looked at using it, particularly in bathrooms and shower settings.
In 2100, seventy-five years from now, will there be 2020’s-themed restaurants and movies? Will they glorify the era of Taylor Swift and the MCU and Teslas while ignoring the existence of Trump, COVID, and the Ukraine invasion?
Will anyone still be around to remember or celebrate anything at all in 2100? “Of course!” but if we’re not careful…
Filed under Paul, Photography, Politics, Travel
Two days, nine houses toured, another half dozen seen in drivebys, countless miles exploring the new territory, and the highlight for the weekend was the pups.
These beggars were locked away in a kennel at the side of the house and started carrying on as soon as we pulled up and parked. But it wasn’t barking to protect their property, it was whining wanting attention and licks and scratches and (please!please!please!) treats. (Sadly, I did not have any treats, but I was open to being licked and scratching chins, ears, foreheads, whatever I could reach through the fence.)
At the end of the day there were two humongous Rottweilers named Hansel and Gretel who were loose and a serious danger to drown me in licks and slobber. SUCH GOOD PUPPERS!!! What a way to go!
Since one of our key motivations for finding a new place and buying our own home is so that we can have dogs again, these two places go high on the list.
Filed under Dogs, Forever Home, Photography, Travel
While on my April trip to Texas, I ran into two über fancy, über chic hotels which had STUPID faucet and shower designs which neglected to indicate which way to turn for hot water and which way for cold. As is my wont, I whined about it.
In the much more droll and mundane hotel we’re staying at this weekend in Victor Valley, these two things caught my eye:
See? It’s not that difficult!
Filed under Deep Thoughts, Farce, Photography, Travel
Well, here we are!
What has always been nothing more than a boring, suburban stretch of the I-15 on the drive between Los Angeles and Las Vegas is now our #1 target in the search for our “Forever Home.”
Months and years of searching through a gazillion Zillow listings has left us (we think? we hope? we pray?) ready to move to the next step. I’ve memorized the map and know where so many key places are, but it’s of course one thing to see them on a map and another to drive around town and bump into them.
We’ve got appointments to see A) a couple GORGEOUS houses that we will never, ever be able to afford and B) a bunch that we can afford for about half of what we’re currently paying in rent but they’re grey on gray and boring and suburban and we’ll see what we see.
See all of those hearts on the map? With luck, by Thanksgiving, one of them will pan out and I’ll be draping a bagillion Christmas lights over it for the first time. Or I’ll be bouncing off the walls in a rubber room and taking advantage of massive doses of the miracles of modern sedation.
Could go either way…
Filed under Forever Home, Travel
Which god’s dog did I accidentally kick? Payroll one night, bank statements being reconciled the next, those are on me. But tonight having the internet connection crash and burn at 23:04 was not on my Bingo card for today.
And my teeth are killing me… And it’s going to be a busy, busy weekend…
Yeah, that’s how it feels. Well, THERE‘s your problem!
Filed under Photography, Travel
I’m brain dead and burnt out. I’ve been to the dentist again, I have to go to the endodontist, they’re talking about multiple root canals in my future, and all is shit. So, since I shot HUNDREDS of pictures at Boca Chica a month ago, let’s look at more of them.
The Rocket Garden.
The launch site from the construction site.
That’s a freakin’ big launch tower.
The Starship booster was on the pad. The cloud is some sort of cryogenic fuel that was venting.
That’s the Quick Release connection. It moves over to connect to the top of the booster, and fuel pumps through it into the liquid oxygen and supercooled methane tanks. When the launch starts, it disconnects in just a second and pulls back away from the rising rocket.
Waaaaay off in the distance, about eight miles away, is South Padre Island, which is the best place to watch a launch from if you don’t work for SpaceX and can’t get onsite.
The “chopsticks” which rise up, spread wide, then close around the top of the booster to lift it off of the transport vehicle and up into position on the launch pad.
The space above the top of the booster is where the Starship rocket goes, also picked up and put into position by the “chopsticks.”
The “hopper,” the first test vehicle that flew and landed safely on its own.
Filed under Photography, Space, Travel
I ran into this one twice on my Texas trip.
One of the ways hotels try to spruce up their rooms in an “upgrade” is to replace the bathroom fixtures. They like things that are stylish and “modern,” “artsy,’ or “fashionable” or “trendy.” Anyone else see the problem with this?
Which way do you turn this for hot water and which way for cold water when you’re adjusting the shower? I know that usually it’s hot to the left, or clockwise, but given that hot water takes a while to start after you turn it on, you can screw around for quite a while, either scalding or freezing parts of your naked anatomy you would prefer to not be scalded or frozen.
Then on the way home, ther was this gem:
Same problem with a new problem to boot. Would it really be THAT hard to engrave or stamp a little “H” and “C” onto the handle? Or just a little dot glued on with blue on one side, red on the other (for the international crowd)?
And this sink fixture is on the side, not on the back of the sink. Cool! Trendy! Stylish! NOT!!
Right up until the point where I want to brush my teeth and I normally rinse by running water into my hand and ducking my head to the left or right of the faucet. But here there is no left or right without either being a contortionist or doing that “drop-from-the-ceiling-like-Ethan-Hunt-at-the-CIA-thing” from the first “Mission Impossible” movie.
For us more normal humans it just left me wanting to take a baseball bat to it for kicks. And revenge. And general principles.
Filed under Freakin' Idiots!, Photography, Travel
Last night I shared a picture looking west at sunset from a rest stop off of I-10 in west Texas, just east of where I-10 and I-20 split. But if you look the other way…
I’ve mentioned and shown pictures before of the “Belt of Venus,” an astronomical phenomenon seen in the eastern sky at sunset.
It’s simply the Earth’s shadow rising in the sky as the Sun sinks below the opposite horizon.
It can be clearly seen, even from a city like Los Angeles, but it was spectacular from a dark location in the middle of nowhere in a “clear & a gazillion” sky.
Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Travel
My head is either too full or too empty tonight. Or both. Simultaneously.
It’s odd, and not necessarily comfortable. “Comfortable” might be overrated.
Or not.
Blow this one up. Just look at it. I barely remember taking it, but I’m finding that I really, REALLY like it.
The gradient. The silhouttes. The composition.
Blind squirrel. Broken clock. Paul’s photography.
Filed under Photography, Sunsets, Travel
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 