Same, crow, same!
I wish I had the option of flying away when no one paid attention to me.
Skyscapes – June 19th
Looking for clouds?
Null return – clear and a million conditions observed.
Except for that one teeny, tiny, almost microscopic-looking glint of sunlight off of aluminum that’s Alaska Sky West flight #3474 from LAX to Fresno, passing by at 328 knots and 11,835 feet.
Filed under Flying, Photography
Hidden Lizard
Yesterday’s lizard was out in the middle of the sidewalk, almost daring any hawks or other raptors in the area to take a shot at him. The other lizard I spotted at the same time was much better hidden.
See him? Between his natural camaflouge against the bark of the tree and the added visual confusion from the sunlight and shadows, I almost missed him. Viewing him at first from a little to the right of here, looking at him head on, he was nearly impossible to see.
But then he twitched his tail and turned his head just a tiny bit and that gave him away.
At first I thought it might be the same one as from yesterday’s post, but from under the tree I could still see it sitting there. Then I thought it might be StumpTail, but in the shadow behind him you can see that long tail.
Both yesterday’s lizard and this bad boy have the most wonderful turquoise spots down their back, patterened in the scales. Click on any of the images to blow them up to full size to see for yourself.
I didn’t get too close, maybe five or six feet, and this guy finally turned away from me, figuring that if he couldn’t see me, then I can’t see him. I quietly backed away.
Filed under Critters, Photography
Sidewalk Lizard
This dude (I’m going to go with male pronouns because who knows?!) was sitting on where I normally see Dusk, but it’s definitely not him. This as-yet-unnamed dude is a bit longer, but much wider. In thinking about it, Dusk might be an alligator lizard, where this guy is a Western fence lizard all the way.
He’s guarding the trash cans – no one’s getting over there without a fight. No one’s stealing OUR trash!
He wasn’t spooked very much by my presence. Either I’m getting a lot better at being sneaky (unlikely) or he just didn’t care.
It was bright and hot out there. He was loving those photons!
Oops, he’s spotted me! By this time I was only maybe five feet away and that side stinkeye look says, “Stop!” So I did.
Tomorrow (or soon), a harder lizard to spot.
Filed under Critters, Photography
No Context For You – June 16th
So, for last night’s post, were there zero likes because no one actually read it, or was it because folks read it and it didn’t make any damn sense?
What I truly love is waking up at about 02:30 with my brain going, “Knock, knock! You forgot the punchline!”
With that title referring to an old joke, I never mentioned which old joke. So, for the record after feeling good, having the computer issue, and then not feeling so good, the old joke in question was the one about discovering that the light at the end of the tunnel being an oncoming train.
I didn’t say it was a particularly good joke.
And once I powered down the system, let it sit for a few, and turning it back on, it powered up just fine. No worries.
Still not out of that tunnel, but maybe that actually is daylight. Stranger things have happened.
Filed under Freakin' Idiots!, Paul, Photography
An Old Joke, But No Less True
Hey, what’s that feeling? Could it be … optimism? Satisfaction? Relief? Maybe even just a tiny touch of, dare I say it, happiness?
You met all of those deadlines today! Yeah, you! Sure, not everything on that to-do list from Hell got done, but that’s never going to happen. The important, critical stuff got done!
A couple of those things you have been working on for weeks! And maybe the whole project isn’t done, but at least those really big, hard, key components are done! The hard part might actually be behind you!
You might even get this upcoming three-day weekend off! Like, really REALLY off, not just that kinda sorta “I’ll just have to do a little work” off. It could happen!
Wait! What? I’m soooooooooooory! I didn’t mean it!
That wasn’t “happiness!” There’s no “satisfaction” or “relief” here! It was just gas!
I take it all back! Nooooooooooooooo!
Full Strawberry Supermoon Rising
As you’ve no doubt heard, there was a “supermoon” tonight. All that really means is that there’s a full moon, which happens every 28 days like clockwork. But as the Moon orbits Earth its orbit is elliptical, not circular, so some times at full moon it’s a touch closer, sometimes a bit further away, so sometimes it looks a bit bigger, and sometimes a bit smaller. It’s not that big of a difference, but clickbait’s gotta click.
As with the lunar eclipse last month, moonrise here is through the trees to the southeast and up from behind the Santa Monica Mountains, about in the Sepulveda Pass and Encino area. On the lower half of the frame, especially on the right, you can just start to see a few of the lights of Tarzana and Woodland Hills.
The moon was looking very red and smoky at moonrise. Guess why??!! Yep, between the normal junk in the air at sunset along the coast, LA’s smog, and a growing amount of smoke from the first of the season’s brush fires, there’s a lot of crap in the air. But once it got up above the mountains, it was definitely a full moon, about fourteen hours or so past full at this point.
Expose to bring out the trees and you SERIOUSLY overexpose the moon, which despite being dusky and orange and down in the atmospheric soup, is still reflecting a TON of light. A really good photographer or graphics artist would take this picture and the one above, taken seconds apart, and simply insert that moon into that bright spot and get something spectacular that looks pretty much like what the human eye sees. I, unfortunately, am not that photographer or graphics artist.
But occasionally I do get lucky. In my last set of pictures for the night, at the right point in the sequence (bracketing the exposures from about 1/1000 second to about 4 seconds, knowing that a couple in the middle will be exposed properly) a 737 out of Burbank Airport turned right 180º after takeoff (probably toward Northern California), passed over Van Nuys Airport (-ish), and right between me and that full strawberry supermoon. Click on the image to see it full sized… can you see it? Just inside the left side, at about the nine o’clock position?
Better lucky than good!
Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Space
Focused Elsewhere
Yeah, that’s obvious. There’s a LOT going on right now. Home. Work. Life. The World.
Oh, yeah, all of that shit. I’m sure you all have the same to a greater or lesser extent.
In the fog of just trying to keep one’s head above water in the chaos, something or the other will sometimes trigger a meloncholy moment, a memory, often of someone gone or at least no longer in contact, and I’ll get into that “what if?” mindset. Occasionally there are regrets, but always of the sort where I regret NOT doing something, not regrets over something I did.
At the same time, if you look at the pictures and quick snippets here, you know that I encourage and value the tiny pleasures, the small moments, the subtle beauties all around us. The birds, lizards, flowers, clouds…
So meld those thoughts just a bit and I was wandering off on a whistful train of thoughts. To wit – if I could speak to my younger self in those moments when I had to decide whether or not to step out of my comfort zone, to take a risk, to “go for it,” what would I say? And more critically, when I make a moment to breathe now, pushing away the chaos and pressure for a few precious moments, instead of wishing things were different and just being frustrated with it all, what might my future self be wanting to tell me if he could reach back and talk to me now?
Can that message be heard if I listen closely enough? I wish I knew. Maybe it’s just not that easy.
I hope some of this makes sense, but I doubt it. It’s really late, I was up really, really late last night, and the rest of the week looks to be “exciting.”
Keep breathing, keep helping each other, keep on accepting help when it’s offered. We’ll make it through together.
For probably the dozenth time or more in the 9+ years of this blog…
Accurate, If Not Acceptable
How does one get the “jet lagged” (for lack of a better term) without ever leaving home?
WTF was coating that apple fritter?
Filed under Uncategorized
The Dusk Lizard
I’m no herpetologist, professional or amateur, but I have been watching and observing our yard lizards (both here and at the old house) for ten years or more. There a few things that seem pretty consistant, and the number one on that list is that they’re not nocturnal. At all.
Do you see it? This silvery critter. I’m calling it “Dusk,” because that’s the only time I’ve seen it. Which is weird.
Granted, at this point it’s not exactly dark. A this time of year the sun doesn’t set until a few minutes after 20:00, and these pictures were taken at 19:52, about twenty minutes before that.
But in my experience, these fence lizards and the odd alligator lizard are all off in their hidey holes a good hour or so before sunset. Maybe it’s so hot these last few days that the sidewalk is still hot enough for this critter to be sucking up infrared photons from below, but it really hasn’t been. I’ve seen days when it’s MUCH hotter, 10° to 15º hotter.
This critter’s also fearless, guarding their spot on the sidewalk and not budging for anything. I was within a couple of feet before it finally decided that discretion was the better part of valor and it retreated into the bushes along the fence.
It’s odd behavior all around. And all done way into the shadows and gathering dark.
“Dusk” indeed.
Filed under Critters, Photography
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 