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

November 5, 2025 · 22:29

My SCE Can’t Get Any More AUXier

…and I still think I’m losing ground.

(If you don’t know what “SCE to AUX” thing means, check here or just Google it.)

But the full “beaver” supermoon was stunning. And when I went out into the back yard and the security light snapped on, the owl that was sitting out took off right over me and was STUNNING!!!

(Ignore the bright blue dot just above the power lines, it’s not “real,” just an internal reflection of the super bright moon in the iPhone’s compound lens.)

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography

November 4, 2025 · 23:11

Proof Of Life – November 04th

Still messed up from the Daylight Saving Time shift. Need a good night’s sleep, unlikely to get it.

The odd hours do have me saying hello to Venus and the sunrise – not getting old yet!

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Sunsets

November 3, 2025 · 22:52

Sundog

Often they show up on both sides of the Sun – today there was just the one on the right side.

Rainbows from sunlight off of ice crystals.

The right angles, the right temps, the right atmospheric conditions, and BINGO! The entire visible spectrum from red to violet, spread across a cloud!

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Filed under Photography, Weather

November 2, 2025 · 22:49

Vote 2025

Only one item on the ballot, no elected offices, no state or federal offices, no Congress critters, no President… Doesn’t matter. Yes, I’m one of those folks who ALWAYS votes, no matter how “inconsequential” or “unimportant” the issues might be to some.

In this case, switching our voting registrations to our new Forever Home address was one of the very first things we did three months ago. So, San Bernardino County, not Los Angeles County any more, but the process was easy peasy.

Did I vote “yes” on Prop 50, the single ballot measure up for voting, the issue being redistricting California’s congressional districts to weight them toward Democratic candidates, in order to offset similiar efforts in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, and several other “red” states in order to rig t 2016 midterm elections in favor of the GOP and their psychotic, fascist cult? Yes, I voted “yes,” but only because they didn’t have a “FUCK, YES!!!!” option.

Maybe next time I’ll write that in.

(No matter where you are in the U.S., you probably have an election coming up in the next day or two – VOTE! If you’re not trying to fight the problem, you are a part of the problem. No matter what, I pretty much guarantee at this point that you are not panicked enough about how much shit this country is in. Let’s try to vote the evil bastards out while we still have elections, we might not as early as next year.)

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Filed under Forever Home, Photography, Politics