Category Archives: Uncategorized

As long as I was there on Saturday afternoon after getting off the subway and back to my car, and the clouds looked spectacular after the morning’s rain, why not take a couple of pictures? As one does…

Universal Theme Park is off to the left from this view, along with CityWalk. The center, white building, the Universal Sheraton, is the one I’ve rapelled down the side of a couple times back when I worked for Homes For Families and we did that as a fundraiser.

The “black tower” is legendary in Hollywood, the corporate headquarters of what is now Universal Studios and now NBC and god knows how many other corporate subentities.

It’s a nice area, if you can afford it. (I can’t.)

Cutting it close tonight. Where did the day go?

Deadlines, deadlines.

At least it’s a good day to be a Chiefs fan. 5-0.

11 years.

4,019 days.

4,117 posts.

9,846 images. (90%+ are taken by me. The rest are images from the news, from cell phone screen captures, and so on.)

74 videos.

11 audio clips.

3,100+ total comments. (Please keep them coming!)

77,118 total views.

51,142 total visitors to the site.

11,548 total likes.

A ton of  followers including the fact that we just crossed the 750 line (now at 752) on WordPress, folks who get my  blatherationinings in their email every day! My undying thanks to all of you for your support!

God alone knows how many words.

The last time I either was too busy or, more likely, simply forgot to post anything was April 10, 2020. Since they I’ve posted 1,115 days in a row.

In total there have only been fourteen days of those 4,117 days when I didn’t post anything at all.

I hope that at least a few of the thousands of  folks who get notified every day that I’ve posted something take a minute to look and/or read and get a moment of zen or pleasure from it. I enjoy creating it.

I hope that in the next year there are many more occasions to share a pretty picture, a goofy story, or something clever.

I hope that in the next year there will be many fewer occasions to descend into a venting rant about something stupid, annoying, or depressing.

As do we all, I’m sure. Again. Eternally.

Pressing on…

Wow

The good news is that a referral from the dentist (because no one can figure out the discomfort I’ve been having in my teeth for the past ten months) to a endodontist has hopefully found the problem.

The bad news is that I’m now the proud owner of a root canal that I had ZERO expectations of when I got out of bed this morning. And what I thought would be an hour (maybe two) for an exam turned into an all day ordeal of drilling, probing, cleaning, refilling, and waiting for hours to get prescriptions filled.

The post-surgery, at-home instructions say, “It is normal to have some soreness after a root canal. This can vary in severity from very mild to substantial…” Just out of curiosity, define “substantial,” because this really and truly hurts like hell.

“Happy Monday!” my ass!

And to top it all off, before the ordeal started the endodontist promised me that if I was good and didn’t cry I would get a sucker and a sticker. I was. I didn’t. But it was all a lie, there was no sucker, there was no sticker. To add insult to injury, I had to pay a $158.80 co-pay. I get that life isn’t always fair, but that’s freakin’ ridiculous!

The good news is that Tuesday has got to be better than this, right?

I’m a tad zonked on the meds, trying to avoid doing anything to aggrevate the pain, like, say, breathing or blinking or having my hair grow, so here’s a random picture to hold all y’all over until I’m a bit more on this plane of existance. (BTW, I’ve been taught that “all y’all” is the proper form of a address for a group of four or more. I’m assuming that at least four of you are going to read this.)

Pretty much what it says. It was the first time I could see the sky in the west at Sunset in many, many days, so I took the opportunity.

Tonight there’s one of the biggest solar storms in many years hitting the Earth and there are amazing auroras being seen all across Canada, the upper tier of US states, and as far south as Iowa, Kansas, and Northern California. Many other places that could see these unusual aurora (Chicago, Michigan, many others) are clouded out. Timing is everything and Murphy’s Law rules.

This far south, 34.2º, we won’t be seeing them. (But, yes, I went out and checked anyway.)

If you happen to see this post in the next couple of hours (early morning hours of Friday, May 24th) and you’re anywhere near the mid-US or parts northward and your sky is even a bit clear … go take a peak.  Let me know if you see anything, especially if it’s spectacular.

We NEVER go out for Valentine’s Day. (Long story.) Except yesterday a good friend & coworker let me know that she had tickets for a play for tonight and something had come up so they couldn’t go…

SURE! We would love to go!

It’s my first visit to the Pasadena Playhouse, and we’re seeing Sondheim’s “Sunday In The Park With George.”

It’s going to be great!

There’s probably only one person who might read this who would recognize it, so for you there’s context. Sort of.

For everyone else, you get to wonder how little sleep I’ve had recently and how many times a night I’ve been getting woken up with leg cramps. Or maybe it just shows.

Getting old is not for the meek.

And the thought for the day, thanks to Dr. Julie Gurner (@drgurner) on Twitter: