May 11, 2025 · 23:56

Valet Musings

At the Ahmanson last night, dealing with the huge crowds for the Gold House Gala there, we used the valet parking. This is also a considerably easier arrangement for The Long Suffering Wife.

The play, “Life of Pi,” was very good, and the staging and animation of the animal characters was astonishing. We enjoyed ourselves.

When the play was over, the Gala was also letting out. Valet parking had quite the lineup waiting for cars to be delivered. While I expected to wait 20-30 minutes (or more) we only waited maybe ten minutes.

Two observations:

  1. In the long line of limos, Mercedes, Jaguars, BMW’s, and six-figure luxury cars of every description, it was a joy to see our little Hissy, our Honda Fit, pop up. She brought some much needed humility and real world class to the chaos.
  2. It was amazing how long some cars sat there waiting for their owners to pick them up. You turn in your ticket and then wait, so presumably if they show up with your vehicle, you’ve been there for a few minutes or more and are looking for your car so you can leave. Apparently not for the hoity and the toity amongst us. In particular, while waiting for Hissy, a Jaguar pulled up at the curb right in front of us (three lanes of cars moving through) and the valet driver shouted and honked and ran around asking folks to check their tickets for at least five minutes. Meanwhile, one of the three lanes is completely blocked. Suddenly this couple sitting on the benches right next to us startles to their feet and recognizes their car, not three feet away from them. REALLY??!! And then when they walk over and open the doors, NOW they see some friends and stand there blocking the sidewalk (and continue to block 1/3 of the valet lanes) while they schmooze. Really REALLY??!!! The entitlement and cluelessness was AWESOME! Or they were too drunk to recognize their own car and were now going to go get on the LA Freeways at 22:30. Or both.

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Filed under Entertainment, Freakin' Idiots!, Los Angeles, Photography

May 10, 2025 · 19:58

Ahmanson vs Gala

Back at the Ahmanson. I’ve heard of this production but know almost nothing about it. Should be fun!

Outside it’s busy. “Gold House” is having their gala and they’ve taken over the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and the entire plaza between the theaters. Traffic and parking have been affected in turn.

Big money, apparently. Megan Thee Stallion is apparently their GOH tonight (we didn’t see her).

Rich or poor, it’s good to have boatloads of money! Or so I’ve heard.

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Filed under Entertainment, Los Angeles, Photography

May 9, 2025 · 23:41

No Kosmos-482 Here

We’re about an hour into the ±4 hour window for the uncontrolled re-entry of the Russian Venus probe Kosmos-482. No doubt you’ve heard all of the frenzied hype about it – if you’ve been reading this site any time in the last 12+ years, you know my opinion of the mainstream media, their handling of science and fact, and the hysterical hype that they love to shovel over something inconsequential.

The final couple of orbits are over water the vast majority of the time:

Image: SatTrackCam.blogspot.com

and nowhere near the US. Excellent odds that it’s going to splash in the next hour or two.

But if we’re invoking chaos and gremlins and playful demigods such as Puck or Loki, hanging on just a little bit to make to take into that last orbit and then sailing a bit northwest puts it coming down near the Virginia and Maryland areas where there’s this huge White House occupied by an orange troll…

The gods could do the funniest thing!

Yeah, I know that orbital mechanics doesn’t work that way, and I’m a firm believer in science, engineering, reality, and so on. That’s why they would call it an “act of God,” am I right?

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Filed under Politics, Silly Shit, Space

May 8, 2025 · 23:50

Chain Of Rocks Birds

2008, I was visiting my son when he was at Scott AFB outside of St. Louis. He was busy during the day, so I went out to Chain of Rocks Park to spot some big birds. I think I had also just gotten the big telephoto lens so the focus might not be perfect.

Wild turkeys.

Great Egret. Not a mediocre egret, but a GREAT egret.

Great Blue Heron. Love seeing these huge birds. Mainly because I’m not a fish.

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Filed under Birds, Photography, Travel

May 7, 2025 · 22:56

No Context For You – May 7th

Wednesdays are training nights, when I meet my trainer for an hour of “Functional Strength Training.” Weights (flys), sit ups, weights (curls), push ups, even more weights (combinations) – all to build strength, and it’s really made a difference.

It’s one of those “use it or lose it” things. I’m not doing it to be a body builder or anything, but so that I can still move around and have a normal, relatively active life when others my age are restricted to rockers and wheelchairs.

It would be nice to lose some weight as well, but that’s more of a diet thing.

It would be nice if this had been of more help last Saturday when I was getting my ass kicked by a mountain hiking trail, but that’s endurance, not strength. Related, perhaps, but also different.

It does help me sleep well on Wednesday nights!

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Filed under Health, Photography

May 6, 2025 · 23:38

Fine Feathered Friends – May 6th

For years the crows have ignored all of the bird seed thrown out into the yard. But the cookies and grapes that have been thrown out recently were a whole different thing. Now that the cookies are gone and I don’t have any grapes to share at the moment, at least one of the crows has put two and two together and gotten “breakfast” as the answer.

This dude’s huge.

Based on size, I thought that it was a raven, but the Merlin app says it’s a crow.

It’s not eating the little seeds, but the sunflower seeds and remaining bits of cookie are fair game.

The squirrels are surpisingly unbothered by this large black critter moving in on their bird seed racket. The juncos, finches, and mourning doves take off like a bat out of hell when the crow shows up, but the squirrels just ignore it.

The critter that DOES pay attention to the crow is the mockingbird. Mortal enemies, the mockingbirds are constantly mobbing it and buzzing it to drive it off. The crow in turn ignores them, but the mockingbirds scare the crap out of the squirrels.

It’s a circle of life thing, I guess.

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Filed under Birds, Critters, Photography

May 5, 2025 · 22:49

Mexico

It’s Cinco de Mayo. I understand that “holiday” is just for Americans to get drunk and eat tacos (like we really need an excuse!) and is rarely if ever celebrated in Mexico, and it’s NOT “Mexican Independence Day.”

But it did give me an idea for a place to go look back through a ton of amazing pictures.

Cabo San Lucas from just outside the harbor – our ship is on the right.

Can you see the “hidden” pelican flying by?

Cabo was fun to visit as a tourist for a day. I could see spending maybe a week there and doing nothing but sitting on my ass on a beach or by the pool. After that…

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Filed under Birds, Photography, Travel

May 4, 2025 · 23:57

Wildflowers Along The Trail

While yesterday’s hike was an ordeal (and I’m still practically crippled from the DOMS – Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, but it will go away in a day or two), the spring wildflowers all along the trail were spectacular.

My phone battery died before the first of six-plus miles was done, but before that happened, I grabbed images of these to share:

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Filed under Flowers, Photography

May 3, 2025 · 23:43

Conejo Mountain Via Powerline Trail

We had a work event today, a fundraiser with lots of volunteers, public awareness, education, collaboration, networking, and so on. There were 25-mile and 40-mile bike routes (I haven’t been on a bike in decades), a hike, and a walk.

In retrospect, I probably thought that, in addition to helping and participating as an employee, I would participate in the Walk (1.5 miles, flat, around the park) when I in fact took off with the group doing the Hike (6 miles, 1,000+ feet elevation gain, up into the mountains).

I finished and they didn’t have to bring in a helicopter to rescue me or recover my corpse. I kicked that mountain’s ass!

I’ve reached the point in the aftermath where every muscle in my body right down to my eyebrows is cramping, twitching, and incredibly sore. That mountain kicked my ass!

Image: Strava app

It was enough of an ordeal that both my phone and my Apple Watch ran out of power. It was weird finishing the route without any way of contacting anyone if there had been an emergency, or of checking my location on the GPS or trail map, or even taking pictures. It shows to go you how dependant I am on my electronic assistants. I AM BORG, RESISTANCE IS FUTILE!

We climbed up into the hills at the far end of the park. You can see the white tents from our event way off in the distance on the left.

There were a ton of wildflowers everywhere and at the beginning we climbing up along the hills overlooking some very nice neighborhoods.

It was cool and drizzly and foggy. In the AllTrails app you can see tons of beautiful pictures of the view from up higher – we didn’t see any of that. Totally socked in, we climbed up into the low-hanging cloud deck and pretty much saw nothing but grey off the trail. Cool, damp, wet, slippery – yeah, fun times!

And look! Over on the other side of the road you can see others of our group who weren’t horribly out of shape climbing up the first really good set of switchbacks. The clouds hide the multiple peaks stretching out to the north with high-tension powerlines swinging from peak to peak to peak.

In the end, I think the peak is looking down over the 101 Freeway where it dives down from Canejo Valley and Thousand Oaks down to the coastal plain of Camarillo. I’m sure it’s a spectacular view. Maybe some day I’ll be able to go back and see.

Or not.

Image: Alltrails.com

After I go home and was describing the ordeal experience to my family, the Second Daughter (who, along with her husband, is a hiker, runner, and camper, and very active) sent this link. YEAH! That’s it. “Moderately challenging.” Not quite the words I was using, but okay. Po-TAY-toe, Po-TAH-toe.

Lessons learned?

One, make sure the electronics I’m so dependant on are charged, or carry a battery backup if I’m going into an unusual situation like this.

Two, while I’m seeing a trainer and going to the gym, training for strength is not training for endurance. Similar yes, related for sure, but not the same.

Three, while my head still thinks that I’m 29 or 39 and I can just rip off a hike like this with little or no notice, reality says I’m 69 and things really, REALLY are starting to change.

Four, I need a better source of pain killers or horse tranquilizers. (Just kidding. I think.)

 

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Filed under ALS Network, Health, Paul, Photography

May 2, 2025 · 23:55

Three In-Focus Squirrels

They were back. I think it’s the cookies. The plastic container with the last of the cookies is covered with tiny bite marks where something’s been trying (unsuccessfully) to get in.

And today I used the iPhone instead of the Canon so that the autofocus was in charge, not me.

Gonna be a long weekend, I think.

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Filed under Critters, Photography