October 11, 2020 · 23:14

HemiDemiSemiGodzilla

Back at the driveway…

This is the “driveway big guy.” (For those who have lost track, there’s a “big guy” by the driveway, one over by the front door, a clutch of new hatchlings in the bushes between the driveway and the front door, and a clutch of new hatchlings by the mailbox. I think. And then there are the backyard lizards, including those in the north, those in the south, and those in the trees.)

I’m told they’re territorial – not sure if they’ll kill each other for territory, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they did.

Given the location (this is right by where the bushes are that lead off to the front door to the right, the place where the first new clutch of baby lizards showed up) this might be a parent of that clutch.

Either way, this seems to be a prime spot. If it’s cool, this big guy is out in the sun, with shelter under the car just inches away and the bushes just a couple of feet more. If it’s really hot, he can retreat to the edge of the shade, still catch plenty of heat from the whole driveway heating up, but not get fried by the direct rays.

He’s pretty calm so long as I don’t spook him, will let me get within a couple of feet. Blow up the picture to full sized (click on it), look at the gorgeous blue & green scales mixed in with all of the brown and tan scales, particularly on his tail.

I don’t know how big this guy or his kin can get, although we obviously know that some species in the area can get MUCH bigger. Being Godzilla kin but much smaller, I think this guy is more of a Hemidemisemigodzilla. But as long as he watches out for hawks and doesn’t sit under that tire for shelter when I have to use the car (I check before I pull out, but still…) he might make Demisemigodzilla in a year or two!

 

1 Comment

Filed under Critters, Photography

October 10, 2020 · 22:45

Sunset – October 10th

It’s been a while since we’ve had a nice pink, orange, and purple sunset. Lots of them without a cloud in the sky, lots more after with grey, brown, and orange clouds of smoke, and a few with just grey clouds. But tonight was the first that I’ve seen in a while where looking out through the front door glass to the west it had that wonderful, special, colorful glow.

On another note and related to absolutely nothing, why is it that we don’t have “southeastern” food or culture or style or furniture or architecture? This stunning revelation (almost certainly a sign of early onset brain damage – do doubt the rot in my right rotator cuff has now spread up into my cranium) was brought as I was fixing a “southwestern chicken salad” for dinner, and I thought about all of those other things with “southwestern” attached. I’m sure most would recognize salads with corn & beans, stylized roadrunners and Kokopelli figures, Santa Fe-like adobe houses filled with turquoise furniture, all as being “southwest” in some way.

And “northwest” is there in our culture. Seattle, rain, Pearl Jam + Foo Fighters + Nirvana + Heart, Mt. Rainier, Mt. Saint Helens, flying fish in Pike Place Market, fat bears, salmon.

Let’s not forget “northeast!” Yankees, Vermonters, Mainiacs, Live Free or Die, clam chowder, maple syrup, “paaaaking yah caaah by the maahket,” the Duck of Justice…

But “southeast?” Nada. Zip. Zilch. Zero.

It’s all the “south.” Let’s get real, there are states in the southeast corner of the United States – Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, the Carolinas. But they’re all “south,” not “southeast.”

Why is that?

Remember when we used to worry about things like that instead of whether key top government officials were trying to execute a coup d’etat or allow a pandemic to kill a half million of us or both?

Good times!

Leave a comment

Filed under Farce, Photography, Politics

October 9, 2020 · 23:44

Mailbox Lizards

I believe we may have a new batch of lizards!

I’ve never seen any yard lizards down by the street or the mailbox, at least not before today.

But when I went to bring up the empty trash bins from the curb, I was surprised to see at least three of these tiny guys scooting off into the flowers surrounding the mail box.

I waited for a while to see if they would come back out – only this one did, and he was deeply suspicious of my intentions.

He’s a different color, so I’m thinking there’s a new clutch of eggs from some neighbor lizard that’s moving in on our territory.

Let the Lizard Wars of 2020 begin!

Leave a comment

Filed under Critters, Photography

October 8, 2020 · 23:31

Car Battery

Hissy wouldn’t start up on Tuesday, just made those clicky noises. It wasn’t clear that there was any cause for it, no lights left on or anything else to drain it overnight. It just was about 99% dead.

It’s almost five years since we bought her, so it’s not that much of a surprise. And it was a pleasure to see how easy it was to get to the battery, remove it , and replace it. On my 20+ year old minivan you have to disassemble half the engine compartment to get at the battery to begin with. Honda made it easy.

That’s the good news.

But what it got me thinking about was the fact that we didn’t have any warning. In fact, Hissy just went in for her annual work a month ago and they did their normal “1,823-point courtesy check-up” to make sure everything was hunky dory (and find things that weren’t so they could charge us to fix them) and this didn’t get flagged. In addition, today after fixing that one of the wiper blades started to shred and fall apart. Shouldn’t that have been found in an all-points inspection as well?

Just to be clear, I don’t bring this up as an indictment of the dealer’s service department. They’ve done real well by us recently and I’m not unhappy. But I do see a parallel with this and what’s going on with the world, or at least how I’m perceiving it. (Or maybe my brain is doing pattern matching and finding coincidences where there really aren’t any.)

But this whole situation where you can know that there’s a potential issue with A, B, and C and you do the regular maintenance and you check to make sure you’re good – and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, shit goes sideways anyway? I get it, I’m not an idiot, I understand that we’re not eliminating problems, just lowering the odds, but jeeze Louise, it’s annoying!

And “the world” right now, where we’re already leaking oil like a sieve, have two flat tires, the engine’s making some awful squealing noises, the radio won’t play anything other than elevator music, the windows won’t roll down or up, and the air conditioning is just blowing hotter and hotter air? If we’re already in that condition, how fast can the next big breakdown be and just how bad can the consequences be?

Seriously, might be time for a major tune-up and oil change. And maybe a whole new pit crew and set of mechanics!

1 Comment

Filed under Deep Thoughts, Politics

October 7, 2020 · 23:28

No Context For You – October 07th

Jeez, it’s been 14 years… Okay, 14 years and 9 days, give or take a time zone.

I always figured I would be back long, long before now.

We were talking about this the other day re: COVID and being in lockdown for coming up on seven months. It was regarding baseball, how we hadn’t been to an Angels or Dodgers game in a couple of years because we always just assumed that we could go whenever we want. Until we can’t.

So after this is behind us and the world returns to some semblance of “normal,” we’re going to not take for granted things like ball games and little trips and big trips. My daughter referred to it as something like a “rush of FOMO” – pretty much!

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Photography, Travel

October 6, 2020 · 23:43

Never A Team Of Psychiatrists Around When You Need One

“You’re seeing a whole team of psychiatrists, aren’t you?”

Watching one of the all-time greatest movies while simultaneously watching psychotic folks with nuclear codes on mania inducing steroids Tweet nonsense, and that line comes up.

If only.

Leave a comment

Filed under Freakin' Idiots!, Movies, Politics

October 5, 2020 · 23:29

Depth Of Field

It was a bit hazy and smoky, after sunset, so it was starting to get dark. That’s why the flowers were out.

I had the camera with the big lens, which was part of the problem. Basic optics say that with a wide open lens you get a much smaller depth of field, and the telephoto lens is worse than the “normal” lens. With the dim light, the big lens wide open, and being fairly close to begin with, it was a hat trick for getting a very shallow depth of field.

So I can focus on the big petals on the far side, but the near petals, which are only maybe three inches closer, are out of focus. Or I could do it the other way around. But I can’t do both.

To get better pictures, use the smaller lens. To get a bigger depth of field shoot it stopped down and take a longer exposure. To keep from blurring, use a tripod. To make it all work better, try to get it with more light, or maybe use the flash.

To play with all of those variables and get some practice taking better pictures, find an extra couple of hours a day that I don’t expect to have until about six months after I’m dead.

I knew there was a catch…

1 Comment

Filed under Flowers, Photography

October 4, 2020 · 20:51

Smoky October Full Moonrise

Three days ago, back before I realized that I would be triggered by a software “update” (done no doubt for “my benefit”) (YES, I’m still pissy about it, I’ll start behaving now, sorta), I was down the block looking for the first full moon moonrise of October.

There was a LOT of smoke still being kicked out by the Bobcat Fire off in that direction. (Hey, they’re all the way up to 88% contained now!) That streak above it is a plane going into Runway 08 at Burbank – we’re looking right down the flight path.

It was incredibly orange! This doesn’t even begin to convey it.

Shorter exposures that don’t show the landscape but bring out the detail in the moon do a much better job of showing what it actually looked like. Let’s hear it for the human eye with a MUCH higher dynamic range than even the best digital cameras.

Twenty-five minutes or so after rising, the moon was out of the worst of the smoke and just looking a bit brownish.

That’s one – look for a second full moon, a “blue moon,” on Halloween night, October 31st!

Leave a comment

Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Space

October 3, 2020 · 23:14

With A Little Help From My Friends – October 03

Thanks to suggestions from fellow writers & bloggers Wendy and Jemima, I think I’ve regained control of my WordPress editor. I’m grateful for their help – if the WordPress customer support had been 1% as useful I probably wouldn’t be still sticking pins in their mental voodoo dolls.

Of course, with everything (by which I mean EVERYTHING) going on along with all of the usual everythings, I’m too drained to do much tonight.

But I did get this:

As has been famously said recently, “I’m not throwin’ away my shot!” One vote might be the equivalent of a single drop of water – hundreds of millions of them will be a tsunami.

Leave a comment

Filed under Politics, Writing

October 2, 2020 · 23:45

Left Turn Into Absurdity

Sometimes when the world is going out of control and the whackadoodle news stories are hitting faster than you can read them (you know which ones I’m talking about), the only choice to to take a hard left turn into absurdity.

Thus I found myself at lunch, avoiding the news as much as possible, awash in deadlines and data entry, hauling around large pieces of equipment heavier, more bulky, and more awkward than I am.

No harm, no foul. I think.

What does it mean? It means after last night’s debacle I figured out how to post pictures again? Maybe? And maybe even links?

And there aren’t any holes in any walls! It’s a winner!

Don’t worry. None of it matters.

1 Comment

Filed under Castle Willett, Freakin' Idiots!