It’s been a while since we’ve had a really pretty sunset.
For weeks now it’s been “clear and a million.” Sometimes we’ve had some smoke in the air to give things an orange hue, but for the most part it’s been unspectacular.
Today we have some moisture and humidity coming in, so there are clouds and some variation to the sky.
It was very nice. If only we could get some rain out of these clouds, or better yet, rain and a thunderstorm.
Filed under Photography, Sunsets, Weather
As you’re walking/hiking/climbing your way from the parking lot near the top of Mount Ascutney to the actual top of Mount Ascutney, you have the option (assuming you’re a masochistic, delusionsal fool who has conveniently forgotten that you’re 68 years old and you sit at a desk all day) of going off on about a 0.2 mile side trail pretty much straight up to get to Castle Rock. I couldn’t recall ever having gone that route in the past, and they had a BOGO special on delusional that day, so off I went.
It’s not so much extra climbing and altitude gain as it is going the hard and steep way just to see a big rock with a view. I had a good time and apparently lived.
You’re probably still 100 feet or so below the summit and off to the side, but the views are nice as you pop out of the side of the heavily forested mountain and can see for quite a ways.
Sitting on Castle Rock and looking back in, there are a great many trees that look like this. The Vermont winters can be brutal, cold, icy, and windy, and the first rank of trees next to the rock are fully exposed to those elements. They’re doing their best, but they regularly get the shit kicked out of them. Yet all of them still had some fresh, green spring growth somewhere. They weren’t dead and they weren’t giving up.
And when I slipped and almost fell off of the freakin’ rock, they were there for me to grab onto.
These trees are my favorites. We are kindred spirits.
Filed under Deep Thoughts, Photography, Travel, Weather
Back in LA, it’s clear as a bell during the day and cloudy, gloomy, and foggy every morning (“May Gray” has turned into “June Gloom” – IYKYK) but last weekend in Vermont there were some wonderful clouds almost every day.
I just wish that it had been a little bit more cloudless at night. Those stars the first night were spectacular!
Filed under Photography, Travel, Weather
I truly love having a window seat on an airplane when traveling. It’s a complete mystery to me why every single person on the plane has their window shade down every second. How can you NOT be looking out the window?
But I’m always in the middle seat these days, for reasons. Except for today.
We didn’t know it at the time, but there was an accident on the freeway leading to Logan International in Boston, causing a HUGE traffic jam and causing several folks on our flight to miss the flight. So some folks back in economy seats got the option to upgrade to Business or First Class, and took it. One of them was the guy who had the window seat in our aisle, so he boogied up front to luxury, while I got to shift over to the window and The Long-Suffering Wife and I got some elbow and leg room with the empty middle seat there.
I might have taken a lot of pictures.
There were some impressive thunderhead storm cells building up over the upper Midwest, so the views were great, even if the turbulence was not appreciated by everyone.
But c’mon folks! If we’re that jaded about these kinds of views right outside our windows that we can’t be bothered with, maybe we don’t deserve to make it when all is said and done.
I love binging “Ted Lasso” reruns as much as the next guy, but I can watch them any other time, without all of the lagging and breakups. Look at the reality that’s waiting for you if you care to look!!!
Filed under Flying, Photography, Travel, Weather
Having lost all sense of time, in regards to what day it is or what time of day it is, I’m still “mining” the ton of pictures that I took on the eclipse trip to Texas earlier this month.
This panorama was taken from a rest stop in New Mexico, just to the east of Las Cruces, where I was about to head into that thunderstorm, which indeed did have high winds, lightning, thunder, heavy rain, and light hail. It was spectacular!
Filed under Panorama, Photography, Weather
Two days back home and this weekend I’m going to try to go through the eclipse photos and see what’s good. There’s got to be at least one or two, right? Statistical fluctuations and all of that!
In the meantime, because I like pictures of clouds and storms and potentially violent weather, enjoy these pictures from Tuesday on the trip from Kerrville to Tucson.
Here are some mammatus clouds. They’re supposed to be a sign of particularly violent weather, the boiling bottom of a big thunderhead cell. (These were, no “supposed to be” about it.)
This panoramic view of a freaking huge thunderstorm supercell should have been like Gandalf standing there, blocking the road, bellowing, “YOU SHALL NOT PASS!” I passed anyway.
As for the eclipse photos that I need to sort through and clean up, I suspect that the videos might be better than the still photos. Mistakes were made.
On the other hand, remember the T-shirt that I was wearing? (Picture here.) I may crop that a little, find a place that does custom T-shirts, and have this image of me printed on there with a caption that says, “Hello DORKness, My Old Friend!” I mean, if the shoe fits!
Filed under Panorama, Paul, Photography, Travel, Weather
Back to the “real world,” which lives somewhere on the far side of about 20 hours of driving, which means about 28 hours of traveling. Out in three days to make sure I arrived relatively rested and had a lot of slack in the schedule should anything go sideways. Back in two days – because it can be done, I need to get it done, and there’s plenty of time to sleep when I’m dead! 😵
There was weather! Small hail, BIIIIIIG thunder & lightning, moderate deluges here and there.
So tonight is my last on this toad trip. I should be back home about dinner time tomorrow. That’s a good thing.
While it was important for me to prove to myself that I can still pull off this kind of trip, I would be big time lying if I said it was as easy as it was 20 years ago.
Tonight I have managed to find the most bizarre, trendy, artsy fartsy, fru-fru, potentially horrible little Marriott spinoff hotel in the world! I have eaten “yucca fries,” whatever they are.
It’s another adventure! An unexpected side quest!
It will be excellent!
Filed under Photography, Travel, Weather
Look at this gorgeous sunset from San Antonio tonight!
It’s not quite “clear and a million,” but it would do for tomorrow.
Totality in Kerrville starts at 13:32 CDT. There’s mow a 77% chance of “clouds” then, but that could mean something like this (which would be FINE) to heavy, thick, low rain clouds (which would NOT be).
It will be what it will be. But if any of the gods are listening and could deign to cut us some slack, we’ll take it.
“Some days it’s better to be lucky than good!” I’ve been good – now I’ll graciously accept some good luck.
Clear skies, eclipse buckaroos!!
As the prophecy foretold…
A) Here come the clouds.
The more detailed and precise cloud cover forecasts start on Saturday, but the short version as of now is we may be SOL all the way from the Mexican border to Ohio. We shall see.
B) This may be the night the site publishing streak ends. It’s almost 01:30 here in Texas, but still only 23:30 at my home in California. Which clock is the WordPress computer looking at when it decides to hand out Brownie points? I can hope, but I’m pretty sure I know.
Filed under Photography, Travel, Weather
Today was a second long day of driving. And two time zone changes, so suddenly I’ve lost two hours.
There are many, many pictures of really neat things that will require longer posts later. Then there was the legendary experience of trying to get dinner at 21:30 on a Thursday night in Fort Stockton, Texas…
Tomorrow I’ll be in Kerrville, I’ll meet up with my son, and we’ll start plotting the weekend and doomscrolling about cloud cover and weather forecasts.
It’s an amazing adventure!!
Filed under Photography, Travel, Weather
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We Love The Stars Too Fondly 