It was quiet. It was warm.
I was taking a break for a couple of minutes, stretching my legs.
It was good to get away from my desk, to not be staring at a computer screen that was twelve inches in front of my face. To be reminded that the Universe is bigger than that.
A tiny bit of white atmospheric condensation gives the blue sky some texture, some character, some depth.
Keep your eyes open! Stretch your legs! Stay hydrated!
Filed under Health, Photography, Weather
Quite the recipe for a bracing and brisk and beautiful night!
But wait, there’s more!
Blow up the image to full size and you’ll see Orion just to the right and below the center. And the “V” (pointed to the right) of Taurus just under the Moon, in that notch in the clouds.
And of course, even if you didn’t blow the image up to full size, that really bright object just off of the left edge is Jupiter.
Wouldn’t it be neat to just lay out on a lawn chair and watch for a couple of hours? Preferably in a thick, down-filled sleeping bag. 39ºF now, headed toward 32ºF before dawn.
Nippy!
Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Weather
We were out putting up more Christmas lights this afternoon and saw what was to me a totally new and fascinating phenomenon, a circumzenithal arc. Technically not a rainbow but a halo, it comes from the sunlight being scattered by high-altitude ice crystals instead of raindrops. It stood out because of its location (directly overhead instead of on the horizon), the fact that the colors are extremely vivid, and the arc and spacing of the colors are reversed or “upside down.” Bizarre at first, but stunning.
(The “Hesperia Christmas Lights 2025 – Day Two” pictures are coming, but will have to wait.)
Given the positioning of the arc relative to the Sun and that band of ice crystals between them, I suspected the connection even if I didn’t understand or remember the math behind the optics. The article referenced above confirms that.
With a wide-angle view you can see the two sundogs on either side of the Sun, with some hints of the very faint Parry arc. One of the things that amazed me was how long the phenomenon lasted – I’m used to rainbows on the horizon only lasting maybe five to ten minutes max, often much less due to the clouds and rain moving around. With this based on high-level ice clouds that are moving much more slowly, we watched this for well over a half hour.
Filed under Photography, Video, Weather
Last week’s storm has moved on with two very noticeable aftereffects.
The cold weather that lasted for days finally shocked the maple tree in the front yard to turn. A week ago it was 90% still green – now it has more brown than I was hoping for, but there’s a lot of red in there as well.
And there’s more snow on Mount San Antonio off to the southwest, brilliantly white and beautiful.
Filed under Forever Home, Photography, Weather
Today is Day #122 in our new house, our Forever Home. Four months, tomorrow.
Not every day, but MOST days I’ll be somewhere here or see something and just stop dead in my tracks and have a, “DAMN! WE LIVE HERE! **THIS** is our house!” moment.
It’s cool. I like it. I hope someday each of you gets to know that feeling, or its equivelant in some other way.
Last night in the pouring rain, shortly after seeing “our” owl, I stopped to look and feel this view. This is the interior courtyard, with my office on the right.
It’s open to the sky, so the rain was pouring in. There are a couple of downspouts that were overflowing and gushing, and the orange porch lighting contrasting with the deep blue of the dusk, cloudy sky, was magnificent.
Insert “DAMN! WE LIVE HERE!” awe-filled feeling.
Filed under Forever Home, Photography, Weather
More cloudy, cool, windy, drizzly, with another larger storm coming on Thursday and Friday, but tonight when I went out it had gotten crystal clear in the east. Orion was high, along with all of the other bright winter constellations.
A simple iPhone shot, setting it down on a garden hose box and getting a 30-second exposure. The brightest object, in the lower left, is Jupiter, with Castor and Pollux in Gemini above and to the left of it. Orion’s in the center right and you can clearly see the nebula that’s the center “star” in the “sword.” The “V” shape of Taurus is just to the right of center at the top edge, and the bright star in the lower right, just above the pergola and clouds, is Sirius.
With the chill (it’s down into the upper 30’s right now) it’s not surprising to smell wood smoke on the breeze as a lot of folks are using their fireplaces.
And of course, off in this direction, are the sounds of freight train whistles.
Yep, we done picked a good one for a Forever Home!
Filed under Astronomy, Forever Home, Photography, Weather
I had to run out to get cash, which meant that I had to figure out where the nearest Wells Fargo ATM was. I’ve only been living here for four months… Turns out it’s not that far, out in the parking lot of a large mall, across from this.
I literally can’t remember when I was last inside of a Walmart – there is an evil there which does not sleep. Probably like 10+ years ago when I was in Vermont for my mother’s 80th birthday and The Long-Suffering Wife had a travel nightmare getting there and her luggage didn’t make it with her so we ended up going to one to get her some clean clothes.
But I was more or less here to begin with, and I’ve been on a quest for Steak-Umms frozen beef sheets to make homemade Philly cheese steaks and they’re about the only place that carries them out here. How much corruption of my soul could I get over two boxes of frozen meat?
The weather still sucks and another front was moving through…
…so I wore this because it’s comfy and warm.
But coming around the corner in the freezer section of Mordor I ran into a little, old, MAGAat lady who was mortified. She immediately started pointing at my chest and yelling that “people like YOU are what’s wrong with this country! You’re constantly trying to drag down the Greatest President in American History!”
I had questions.
“Oh, really? Which part are you most fond of? The way he raped 13-year-olds? The way he’s shredded and shit on the Constitution? The way he tried to overthrow the government in an actual armed coup? The way he’s destroyed diplomatic and economic and military alliances that in some cases go back over 200 years? The way he’s kidnapping and deporting US citizens without due process? The way he’s taking bribes like they’re going out of style? The fact that he stole thousands of highly classified documents and was selling them to the highest bidder out of the Mar-A-Lago bathroom? The way he bulldozed a third of the White House with no permits, oversight, or…” She was gone, flipping me off without another word. Didn’t answer a single one of my questions.
It was fine. A younger couple, mid-20’s I’m guessing, was coming up behind her, saw the whole affair, and said, “Fuck her! That’s a great sweatshirt!”
I always thought this area was pretty “red.” In reality, it’s far more “purple.” Next year’s elections will be very interesting.
Filed under Photography, Weather
SpaceX was launching out of Vandenberg tonight, but with all of the rain (about 2″ over the last two days) and clouds (pretty solid overcast for five days) I didn’t expect to see much. But, eternal optimist and all of that, out I went at the appointed time.
COLD! WINDY! According to a WeatherUnderground station in the neighborhood, it was 45ºF, winds at 17 mph gusting to 22, so not exactly “sweater weather.” But I guess some days it’s better to be lucky than good.
The first stage (that little orange flame over the neighbor’s tree) was visible for about two seconds max. Then it disappeared into all of those clouds up above.
Given the weather up and down the SoCal coastal regions, I guess the bigger surprise is that they were launching at all!
Filed under Photography, Space, Weather
No thunderstorms, no gully-washers, no frog-drowners, but it sure has been raining steady for most of the last 24-hours. I’ve seen reports of some debris flows and mudslides on some local canyon and mountain roads, but we’re fine. Plus, like a big chunk of SoCal residents, we’re hunkered down and not going anywhere today.
I do notice that we’ve lost all of our mountains. The low clouds, rain, and fog have hidden them all. I’m hoping when they re-appear we’ll have some more bright, white, snowcapped peaks.
Filed under Forever Home, Photography, Weather
There’s a week-long rain storm moving in tomorrow night and I still have piles of boxes outside, so it’s a priority to get them moved inside, or at least under the roof on the back porch.
While everyone else has been looking at aurora from a huge solar storm, we’re just getting clouds. (To be fair, we’re also so far south that if we’re seeing aurora, there are probably satellites getting fricasseed, so it’s a trade off.)
Very pretty and dramatic looking clouds to be sure, especially around sunset and into the early evening.
I’m once again in “feeling like I’ve gone 15 rounds with Mike Tyson” mode – 69 is really, REALLY too old for this shit, but my stupid brain still thinks I’m 29 for some reason and I’m six-foot tall and bulletproof, at least until I try to stand up and start crying and whimpering.
Stupid brain.
Filed under Forever Home, Photography, Sunsets, Weather
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