It’s 23:55 and I’m still trying to hit deadlines…
Have a picture from Lost Wages.
Bellagio on the left (where we stayed on a previous trip), Caesar’s Palace (where we were staying this time) on the right.
Stories good and bad about both – but what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas? Maybe.
Filed under Photography, Travel
It’s getting near the end of the “season” for great ISS passes here. The high beta angle period has passed and after the next few days we’ll be moving back to mostly morning passes. Like, 04:00-ish morning. Uh, no thanks!
But for tonight, there was a spectacular, almost horizon-to-horizon pass, going almost through the zenith (87º maximum) and at mag -3.8.
The problem was that it was just a bit too early and too bright to be taking longer (3 or 4 second) exposures, and even one-second exposures would be bright and potentially overexposed. But taking shorter exposures, as we’ve learned, can overwhelm the older camera and memory cards, taking pictures faster than they can be saved.
I took a shot at it, with one-second exposures and about one-second pauses between photos. The end result came out great, heading from just before the zenith to the eastern horizon, although it looks a bit more like a dashed line than normal, with the gaps being the longer pauses between shots to give the camera time to keep up.
I like it!
This is that wide angle, “light bucket” lens that I like so much, with an easy and almost perfect focus at infinity, so it looks clean and sharp. Later I went out when it was fully dark and played with what it would do in LA’s light polluted and slightly hazy skies, with interesting results. I’ll share those in the next couple of days after I get some time to go through them.
Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Space
High level perspective – a bit of worn and extremely weathered log from the Mount San Jacinto State Park.
Closer perspective – an almost infinitely complex, fractal-like surface formed by strictly random, natural forces.
Alternate perspective – part of the biological cycles of an infinitesimally small speck of a planet, third rock from the primary star in a semi-deserted, backwater part of a completely average galaxy, one of a few million billion trillion completely average galaxies, returning nutrients assembled together over a century or more back to the soil and the next generation of plants and critters.
Private perspective – stunning beauty “hidden” in the world around us, “hidden” only by the fact that 99.99% of my fellow hikers walking by don’t even bother to look, let alone see.
Personal perspective – getting this wrapped up in grokking a rotting log, using all five senses, and then feeling the imperative to share with everyone probably indicates to most that there was (or is) “mood enhancing” medicinal self-medication involved. Nope, just a natural high, that John Denver school of zen, getting in touch with the Universe on a very personal and intimate level.
Or it was oxygen deprivation from being at 8,500 feet.
Either way, it was the finest kind.
Filed under Deep Thoughts, Paul, Photography, Travel
Boring sunset – clear and a million. Makes for a limited canvas for the colors to be painted on.
But wait – what’s this? It’s been a noisy and dusty and HOT day, and I think I’ve identified the source of two of those three.
I’ll bet that there’s no alarm on that thing, and maybe they left the keys in it.
How hard can it be to drive? Push a couple buttons, see what happens, learn quick!
What could go wrong?
Filed under Farce, Freakin' Idiots!, Photography
Last Friday I noticed that the light coming through the living room drapes was looking very orange. This could be very good, or very very bad.
Good is a colorful sunset, somewhere on the colorful scale between “Cool!” and “HOLY GUACAMOLE, BATMAN, THAT’S SPECTACULAR!!!”
This would have been probably just below the mid-range on that scale. Definitely worth grabbing the camera for and watching while it unfolds.
Bad, of course, means something very near by is burning. We’ve seen that in this neighborhood, and at this second there are plenty o’ places on the West Coast that are seeing that in spades. We, however, are not in that crisis today.
So after busy weeks trying to cram work in so I can go on vacation with a calm mind, a busy week of vacation, a busy busy week back from vacation catching up on work, an extremely busy weekend taking care of one (figurative, not literal) brush fire after another, now it’s time to dive into a new month and a new busy busy week with more deadlines and projects and tasks and pressure than I can keep track of.
So watch the sunset, check for new lizards under the car (one was there, we had a nice talk – it wasn’t the teeny tiny one from Friday, nor Doctor Lizardo, but a new, smallish but not skittish one – warned him about the birds and the raccoon), see if the next round of roses are coming back in (not yet), and fantasize about days to come (which aren’t coming, let’s get real) where I can just read, relax, listen to music, watch movies, and do it all without a deadline or responsibility in the world.
Welcome to August. Wear a mask. Get vaccinated. Stay safe.
So I’ll wat
Filed under Photography, Sunsets
It’s been a really long day following a really long week – but in the end the good guys triumphed.
Congrats to all involved. You know who you are. Love you all! 🧡🧡🧡 (That’s Mars Orange, BTW…)
Filed under Family, Photography
I had thought that the new lizards generally hatched in early spring, like late April to early May. That’s when I’ve seen some of the smaller ones last year and this. But today when bringing in the trash barrels I spooked one who’s itsy-bitsy and teeny-tiny and can’t be that old, but he’s late if he’s just hatched. Whatever. He skittered, I froze, he froze, I very, very, very slowly and carefully pulled out my phone and thumbed it on, and he was nice enough to sit still for four quick pictures, leaning down a bit on each one. The he said, “Hit it, Chewie!” and jumped to light speed into the bushes.
Can you see him?
He probably isn’t more than two inches long at most. I think he was sunning himself on or under that black plastic debris that blew in today. Maybe I’ll leave it there for now. It’s a tough universe out there – we all can use a little help.
Filed under Critters, Photography
Riding up the Palm Springs Aerial Tram to the station at the top of the ridge near Mount San Jacinto Peak (the Peak itself is only reachable by a steep hike of several miles and 745 meters/2445 feet elevation gain), this is the panoramic view you get looking off the balcony and into the back country.
(Clickety click on the image to see it full sized)
The Peak at 3300 meters / 10834 feet is off to the right, behind those rocks and trees.
You can see several stretches and switchbacks on the ramp that winds down to the Ranger Station in Long Valley. The website says it’s about 100 feet in elevation, but I found a topographic map that says it’s about 55 meters, which is about 180 feet. That sounds like a much more reasonable figure to me.
Filed under Panorama, Photography, Travel
Staying ahead of the aircraft – it’s a mantra when learning to fly. Flying with just one pilot, no copilot, something’s always happening or about to happen and to be safe you always want to be anticipating what’s next and being ready for it. Don’t react to what the plane’s doing, or the weather, or upcoming radio calls or course changes. Stay ahead of the aircraft.
Same thing in daily living is a good plan of attack. Whether it’s at the office, going hiking, going on a trip, or anything else. Stay ahead of the…whatever. Be proactive, not reactive.
That transition from “vacation” back to “normal” has had its challenges these last three days. My main feeling, particularly at work, is that I’m reactive, discombobulated. I need to get back to being proactive and recombobulated.
So, tomorrow. Work smarter, not harder.
Kick ass, take names.
Don’t sweat the petty things and don’t pet the sweaty things.
Use your clichés, they’re your friends.
And don’t jump unless you’ve got a parachute or a honkin’ big cable attached to your back. It’s not the fall that kills you, it’s the sudden stop at the end.
Filed under Deep Thoughts, Paul, Photography, Travel
Last Saturday we were in Palm Springs. One of the things that I love to do but don’t do nearly often enough is hiking out in the woods and getting out into the wild a bit.
Outside of Palm Springs is the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, which goes from the desert floor (at about 2,600′ elevation and 110ºF+) to the top of San Jacinto Peak (at about 8,500′ elevation and 65ºF). At the station on the top there’s a fairly steep ramp that goes down about 100′ to the floor of Long Valley where there are a couple of short (0.75 miles and 1.50 miles) day hike trails. I took the longer, “Desert View Loop” trail.
Along the way I saw these flowers.
They really stand out!
No clue what they are. A Google image search found a lot of African flowers that are bright red and growing out of pine needle ground cover, but the closest I found for a southwest US setting was captioned “scarlet gilia, also called skyrocket.” That ‘s probably not quite correct, but it might be close.
Anyway, when I eventually go out on what I thought was going to be a 30 minute day hike over flat ground and instead spend two hours going 2.5 miles at 8,415 feet including two fairly steep trails going up a couple hundred feet and thin air with (STUPIDLY!! 🤨 Yes, I do know better 😫 ) no water at my age thinking in my poor, pathetic brain that I’m still 25 instead of 65, when that day comes and it finally kills me (I hope that day will be far in the future, but…), plant some of these on my grave. 😁
Filed under Death Of Common Sense, Flowers, Freakin' Idiots!, Health, Paul, Photography, Travel
 | firesmith on Proof Of Life – August… |
 | momdude on Back Yard Blooming |
 | lmratliff on Back Yard Blooming |
 | Jemima Pett on Forever Home – One … |
| momdude on Twenty-Five Years |
 | berich56 on Twenty-Five Years |
 | Ronnie on A Magnificent Sunset Out Of… |
 | Ronnie Willett on Sunset Conjunction 2026… |
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 