What was supposed to be an “atmospheric river” bringing us 1″ to 2″ of rain over three days has turned into far less than an inch of rain yesterday, a nice day today, and maybe another half inch of rain or so tomorrow night into Saturday.
Meh
There were scattered showers popping up here and there. Most of them were “there.” We got nothing.
Out to the west over Ventura County there was some action and convective activity. Very pretty!
Filed under Photography, Weather
The first storm of the winter has arrived.
Just before the rain started, and it wasn’t a hard rain, just steady, the undersides of the clouds were dramatic.
The mail carrier was driving up one side of the street and back down the other as I was wandering around in the street to get the best pictures with minimal interference from wires overhead. He was nice enough to not run over me.
The smell of petrichor was heavy just before this first rain. The rough underside of the cloud deck indicates that it’s a cold storm with a lot of turbulence.
It will be cold and wet here for several days.
Filed under Photography, Weather
Gee, can you figure out which way the 40-50 mph winds are blowing?
I wish I could get frequent flier miles for the BBQ, lawn chairs, and empty trash cans out in the back yard.
Filed under Photography, Weather
I took advantage of a sort of a spur of the moment opportunity today. I was at the office to take care of an IT thing and only a mile or so from the Kaiser Permanente campus where I get 99% of my medical care. The Long-Suffering Wife had told me that they had a walk-in clinic for flu shots and the new COVID vaccine, so I swung by and found that to be true. I got both.
For the record, aside from the tiniest bit of aching in my arm (mainly only if I touch it, so DON’T TOUCH IT!) there are just about zero side effects. As they say, Your Mileage May Vary, but no fever, no chills, no aches, no nausea, no headache, no anything.
But that spontaneous adjustment to my schedule and the adjustments that I’ve made to free time just in case, on top of the healthy doses of stress and angst from the freakin’ world, plus the usual time pressures from *LIFE*, plus just plain getting old…
It all adds up. I might be a bit verklempt tonight, short a few functioning brain cells. In need of a pick me up.
As is often the case, especially when I’m looking for a prompt or thought for my daily post here, I go flipping at random through old pictures. And also as is often the case, my muse doesn’t let me down.
From a dozen years ago, in Southampton, wandering around town taking pictures in some scattered light showers:
Get your flu shot. Get the updated COVID vaccine. Wear a mask. Look for rainbows. Smile!
Filed under CoronaVirus, Health, Photography, Travel, Weather
What are you passionate about? What really, really makes it all worthwhile?
Sure, romantic passion is likely to be high on the list for most of us, whether we have it or not, but that’s not all. What else?
Can you list five things? Ten? Travel? Music? Books? Sports? Flying?
Do you have those things in your life? A smidgen? A bunch? None at all?
Why not? Are you working on getting more? Are you just going to settle on doing without?
Why?
What are you passionate about?
Filed under Deep Thoughts, Flying, Photography, Weather
More sunset-ish tonight.
A little bit of everything out there.
Layers on layers, row on row, all with a really nice color pallette.
Boy, talk about “air quotes!”
One thing that I consider with every house I’m looking at on Zillow is the view, in particular the number of telephone poles and wires. Trees are one thing, and the wires aren’t a deal killer, but they’re most certainly worth a couple of demerits.
Virga. The wisps dropping away from clouds like these is rain that’s starting to fall. But it’s falling into air that’s very dry so it evaporates before it hits the ground. That’s called “virga.”
Filed under Photography, Sunsets, Weather
When I first saw it, finding recognizeable shapes as the pattern recognizing primate brain wants to do, I thought it looked like Greenland.
Then I was thinking, no, too long and skinny, maybe more like the Sweden/Norway penninsula. Or Florida. Yeah, Florida.
It’s a sure sign of my naive upbringing in Catholic school that it wasn’t until I just looked at it now that I made the connection to what it really looks like. As “Dr. Rick” in one of the current ads for Progressive Insurance ads says, “It may be a fruit emoji 🍆 🍌, but that doesn’t mean they’re talking about fruit!”
I’m going to stick with Florida.
Filed under Photography, Weather
So long, September. You could have been worse, I guess.
We were hoping for some rain overnight, and while there were some scattered showers all around the Southern California area, they all missed us. We didn’t get a drop.
Remember, for those who haven’t lived here, the “Southern California area” is roughly the size of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, along with big chunks of western Pennsylvania and northern Virginia. Think of the New York City to Washington, D.C. corridor, with Philadelphia and Baltimre thrown in and you’re getting in the ballpark.
Tomorrow begins October. Having nuns in my head means that I’m eternally optimistic. Not being an idiot means that I know what the odds are against anything getting better real quickly.
Being raised with that whole Boomer, Midwestern, Puritan work ethic mindset means that I recognize that dichotomy and know that “the best way out is always through.” (Frost, “A Servant To Servants”) There’s also that whole “the Lord helps those who help themselves” thing, although it’s uncommon (at best) for me to be quoting the Bible.
So today I enjoyed looking at the clouds, feeling the breezes, watching the red-shouldered hawks fighting with the red-tailed hawks, and laughing at the squirrels and mourning doves hiding from both.
Tomorrow I’ll get up, flip off September’s memory, look sternly at October and warn it to not get cute, get groceries, do laundry, change the sheets, watch some football (CHIEEEEFS!), and get back to work.
What was that definition of “insanity” again?
Filed under Photography, Weather
Tomorrow is the fall equinox, the end of summer and beginning of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere.
I was eating dinner and caught the colorful sunset a bit past its prime. Beggars can’t be choosers. Plus, it was a very nice dinner!
So long, summer. I’ve seen worse, but god knows I’ve seen better.
Autumn? Would it kill you to not suck? I sent you the wish list. Let’s knock a few things off of it!
Filed under Photography, Sunsets, Weather
A little tropical moisture goes a long way.
Fall is coming.
Yet while the seasons change, so many things that we might like to change just seem to keep trudging on the same, day after day.
Perception and self awareness are not all they’re cracked up to be.
Filed under Photography, Sunsets, Weather
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 