November 16, 2025 · 23:17

I Thought I Had Missed It

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!

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Filed under Photography, Space, Weather

November 15, 2025 · 23:28

No Context For You – November 15th

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.

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Filed under Forever Home, Photography, Weather

November 14, 2025 · 23:29

Trains In The Night

One thing I’ve heard a lot in the last few nights working outside after dark, and again while I was sitting outside listening to the rain, are the train whistles off in the distance.

Talk about a legendary and well-earned trope, the touchstone of countless country-western ballads. That lonesome call off in the distance, a few million metric tons of freight heading off through the night to an undefined someplace off over the horizon.

The proximity of this neighborhood to two separate main rail lines between SoCal and points east was a big factor on choosing it for me. There were a handful of other houses we looked at which were NEXT TO the train tracks, and while that had a certain attraction, really FEELING them rumble by and having the horns rattling the windows, I was also conscious of some of the potential downside to that after the novelty wore off.

Here we’re about two miles away in separate directions, there are railcams online where I can see what’s coming and going, and I can hear them off in the distance, even when I’m inside. It’s a comforting sound as I’m falling asleep at night, and a little source of joy repeatedly through the day.

And again, tonight when I was out on the porch, sitting and listening to the substantial rain shower pounding on the tin roof of the porch, running off into puddles out on the turn and rocks, it was wonderful to hear the train sounding off.

It’s one of the little pleasures.

Gotta take ’em where you can find them!

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Filed under Forever Home, Paul

November 13, 2025 · 23:46

Proof Of Life – November 13th

I’m alive. No picture, I didn’t even have time or the energy today to take one.

Okay, I lied, now there’s a picture.

I’m exhausted, but we’re ready for the rain. All of the stuff that came out of storage two weeks ago and got stacked up in the back yard is now sorted and either in the house or on the back porch under a roof. We’ll see if that’s good enough.

I also hit (-ish) all of the critical deadlines at work and there aren’t any meetings tomorrow, and there’s nothing on the schedule at all for this weekend, so after a whole slew of busy days with way too much physical and mental labor and way too little sleep, there will be (I’m praying! at least as much as a confirmed athiest for the past 50+ years can be) a few days to kick back and sit my ass on the couch for a nap or two (or five).

Too old for this nonsense.

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November 12, 2025 · 23:11

Clouds – No Aurora

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.

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Filed under Forever Home, Photography, Sunsets, Weather

November 11, 2025 · 23:50

Proof Of Life – November 11th

Happy Veteran’s Day!

In addition to Orion in the evening sky, my simple iPhone pictures will also show Taurus nearby.

It’s the “V”-shaped group of stars on the right here. You should be able to spot it pretty easily a bit “above” and to the left of Orion.  Assuming, of course, that you’re north of the Equator on Earth – if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, it will all look upside down. I understand the details of why that is but I’ve never been down there to see it, nor have I ever seen the Southern Cross, Magellenic Clouds, and other southern sky constellations.

One of these days…

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography

November 10, 2025 · 23:50

Other Critter Neighbors

In addition to the squirrels (or whatever they are) burrowing under the pergola, and the flocks of wrens, finches, hummingbirds, and scrub jays all feeding at the feeders hanging from the top, we also have some bigger raptors that regularly roost on top of the pergola, particularly at night.

I haven’t caught any of them on camera yet (they spook easily) but I’ve seen the owl(s) several times.

Even if I can’t catch them live, it’s obvious where they like to roost when looking out over the back wall for dinner, or where they bring dinner to feast in peace. The little bits of rodents and small birds, and what appears to be a significant amount of (probably) rabbit fur indicate that the owls are well fed.

It’s sort of a mess – but that’s why we bought a power washer. Now I just need to find the time to assemble it…

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Filed under Birds, Critters, Forever Home, Photography

November 9, 2025 · 23:38

Hello Once Again, Old Friend

I do so dearly love the Northern Hemisphere winter sky. Tons of bright stars and easy-to-identify constellations, not to mention naked eye nebula and clusters. The King of them all is Orion.

(Click on it to blow it up – it’s a nice picture.)

Now rising to by 10:00 PM or so to hover above the water tanks and power lines to our east, Orion is easily identified by the four bright stars making up the shoulders and legs, the three stars in the belt, the three objects (two stars and a bright nebula) making up the sword. It doesn’t take much of a dark sky or even a cheap pair of old Sears binoculars to see the bright blue color of Rigel and the orange-ish red of Betelgeuse. (We’re still waiting for Betelgeuse to go supernova and be as bright as the moon for a while – any day in the next 5,000 year or so…)

Even an older generation iPhone camera held still on top of a cinder block wall and fighting with the glow of a Moon just past full can easily pull out Orion’s details.

Welcome back Old Friend, the constellation and stars that I first remember learning to recognize when I couldn’t have been more than four or five. Another trip around the Sun for us all, another opportunity to greet you in the chilly evening sky and discuss the nature of things.

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Filed under Astronomy, Forever Home, Photography

November 8, 2025 · 22:19

A Pergola With A Lived-In Look

We like having neighbors and all, we want to be friendly, but I would really, REALLY prefer to not have our new neighbors be of the tunneling, rodent-like variety.

I noticed this tunnel under the side of the pergola decking a couple weeks ago and I’ve filled the rocks back in twice, only to have the hole open up again in a day or so. Behind the back yard shed there’s a stack of leftover bricks and paving stones – I guess they’re the next weapon in the fight. Let’s see if the little bugger is strong enough to move them.

I haven’t actually spotted the critter in question. It could be a number of species, but my money’s on it being Two-Tone, our resident squirrel. I don’t mind having it around, and I don’t mind it stealing a share of the bird seed hanging above this spot, but I really don’t want a secret lair under the porch. Secret lairs tend to attract evil, sort of by definition, and we seem to have more than enough of that around these days without inviting any more.

And yes, for those keeping track (which is likely only ME), there was no post yesterday. The 17th day in over eleven years when I didn’t have a post.

I blame gremlins. There was a heavy-duty attack which started on Wednesday afternoon and clobbered my ability to hit some key work deadlines for which I had been busting my ass for a week or more. (An information provider and database that we use at work was offline for 24+ hours, which meant I couldn’t get the data I needed to finish the reports due Thursday and Friday.) That sucked big time, caused a ton of stress, and then when the site came back up it started spitting out reports that were a bit garbage-like, which didn’t help. By the time I got my data and started to play catch up, my focus didn’t include yesterday’s posts. Usually I at least realize about 23:55 that time is fleeting and I can at least drop a “Proof Of Life” post, but this time it was closer to 02:30 before I came up for air.

Gremlins 1, Paul 0. But that’s just a battle, not the war. Carrying on…

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Filed under Critters, Forever Home, Photography

November 6, 2025 · 23:53

Proof Of Life – November 06th

I really should know better than to send work emails at 11:45 after an 18-hour day. Trying to be “firm” and to stress “urgent,” hopefully without being a flaming asshole.

Here, enjoy some recent above average sunset pictures that I haven’t shared yet.

Not that I had time to go out and watch today’s sunset. The Sun could have exploded and I wouldn’t have noticed.

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Filed under Photography, Sunsets