June 2, 2026 · 21:59

There! Raptor!

And what a freaking gorgeous one it was!

First, I’ve been feeding the Corvid Gods (ravens) their daily grapes. They often are hanging out on the roof or the neighbor’s roof or in the tree next to the driveway, waiting. This morning I could hear them squawking, but couldn’t see them.

Secondly, I’ve been wondering where all of the big raptors are, hawks and owls (and even eagles, maybe?), especially given the buffet that we’re feeding in the back yard. Squirrels. Pigeons. Quail.

Oh, there they all are, probably about 500+ feet up, circling and dogfighting.

Just the one red-tailed hawk – unusual since they usually hunt and fly in mated pairs. But, it’s also the time of year when one might have to stay on the nest with eggs while the other goes out to bring back dinner (something in a nice pigeon, perhaps, or a mourning dove?), so that’s not an unlikely explanation.

Look at the markings on this beauty! It was flying up near the Sun overhead, so I was trying to to blind myself by pointing a telephoto lens at the Sun and having a beam of light burn its way through the back of my skull, but it really made the wing designs POP!!

I guess the ravens were thinking that those hypothetical eggs could also be on the menu, and they weren’t having any of that. So, two Corvid Gods against one stunning hawk and the hawk eventually drifted off to the east. Plenty of open land off that way into The Mesa, with squirrels, rabbits, lizards, and probably feral cats as well.

I need a bigger lens!

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Filed under Birds, Photography

June 1, 2026 · 22:53

WARNING – Politics – Bad Words

Tomorrow’s the primary here in California. (A lot of other states also, and if it’s not tomorrow it might be soon in your state. Same rules apply.) And yes, we have already voted. We dropped our ballots off in a secure ballot box and got confirmation by email and text that they were received and counted.

Here are my simple rules for voting.

Rule #1: Never, EVER, EVER vote for a fucking Republican. ANY Republican. Not for President. Not for Federal office. Not for state office. Not for local office. Not for junior assistant apprentice dog catcher. Or anywhere on the spectrum in between. NEVER! Every Republican until the heat death of the Universe can FUCK OFF! It doesn’t matter if God Herself appears before you in a towering pillar of flame and says She’ll kill your puppy if you don’t vote for the Republican. DON’T DO IT!!!

Rule #2: Never, EVER, EVER vote for a fucking billionaire. Doesn’t matter if they’ve got really good sounding ads and sound bites and they started playing them a year ago. Billionaires are EVIL. Especially the ones who are power mad and want to get into politics because it sounds cool! Pro tip – if you’re a billionaire and you really, REALLY just want to help folks and make the world a better place, simply take the hundreds of millions of your personal cash that you want to blow on an ego-stroking campaign and simply start helping folks. If you’re a billionaire and you’re just too fucking stupid to figure out how to do this, contact me – for an extremely reasonable consulting fee I can research various programs and non-profits that will maximize the good that you can do, get you the biggest bang for your buck.

Rule #3: Your candidate doesn’t have to be perfect. “Perfect” is the death of “good,” the “perfect” candidate doesn’t exist and never will. Pick someone who’s better than whoever the current chucklefuck is – that bar is surprisingly low these days. Vote for them. Don’t “protest” vote, that just hands the election to some billionaire Republican. (See Rules #1 and #2 above.)

Rule #4: Read Rules #1 and #2 as many times as necessary.

Rule #5: ALWAYS vote!!! There is no election too trivial to not bother. “Oh, it’s just the school board…” Have you seen what these white supremacist Christo-fascists are doing on school boards, even here in “liberal” California? Banning books, kicking trans kids off of sports teams and out of school, making sure that the Ten Commandments are illegally put in every classroom while school lunches and textbooks are not.

Any disagreements? Let’s assume I’m right, you’re wrong. GET OUT THERE AND VOTE, AND VOTE FOR SANE, COMPASSIONATE, INTELLIGENT CANDIDATES!

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May 31, 2026 · 23:18

Proof Of Life – May 31st

One of these days a month that’s ending will have been the bottom of the barrel and the new month that’s starting will be the beginning of the recovery, getting better. Right? Isn’t that how it’s GOT to work?

I sincerely hope that May 2026 was the bottom of the barrel. While there were some notable disappointments in the last half of May in particular, in the last couple of days there have been some hopeful (if difficult) trends. The path out of this pit that we’ve dug ourselves into isn’t going to be easy, but we’ve got to start somewhere. Maybe that will be June 2026.

And then maybe July 2026 wil be even better. There might be plans…

In the meantime, keep looking at pretty things. And be brave. I prefer being brave like Samwise Gamgee instead of some dude in armor, but you do you!

And just in case, remember to Set SCE To AUX. Better safe than sorry.

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Filed under Deep Thoughts, Paul, Photography

May 30, 2026 · 23:35

Proof Of Life – May 30th

Given past history, current circumstances, and life, the Universe, and everything, I would suggest that everyone just take a chill pill.

Especially me.

Although the argument could be made that because I’m not panicking more, I don’t understand how bad the problems are.

“Whatevs, man!” as the kids say. (I have no idea what the kids are saying these days. In fact, I didn’t know what the kids were saying when I was a kid and when I had kids.)

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Filed under Health, Paul, Photography

May 29, 2026 · 21:42

Blue Moonrise

The moon was 98% illuminated, about 30 hours before Full Moon just after midnight PDT on Sunday.

The birds didn’t appreciate the view, they just wanted me to hurry up and finish refilling their feeders.

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography

May 28, 2026 · 23:25

Blustery

In more ways than one.

I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to how freakin’ windy it can get up here.

On a day when I was already getting rocked from side to side pretty well in the deadlines & work demands sense, I went out at lunch for a quick doctor’s visit. Nothing serious, routine, but (as usual) a bit on the annoying side. I’m sure they all mean well, but cut me some freakin’ slack! I’m old and tired!

Just about the time that dinner finished and I was really, REALLY hoping to sit on my ass for the evening watching some sports thing or the other, the “emergency” phone call came from further up the corporate ladder and it was time to be a miracle worker again. I did it, that’s why I get the big bucks I guess, but I would have been happier falling asleep in front of the television with some ice cream.

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Filed under Deep Thoughts, Photography, Video, Weather

May 27, 2026 · 23:56

Train Hunting Again

About six weeks ago I finally followed one of the primary north-south streets near us to where it ended at the edge of The Mesa, the area where the Victor Valley floor drops off into Cajon Pass and down toward the Inland Empire (Riverside, San Bernardino, Rancho Cucamonga) and the LA Basin, Pasadena, and the San Fernando Valley. Today, on a whim, I finally did it again, this time on another primary street that’s just around the corner from us.

As previously mentioned here and there, one of the things I truly love about this are and our Forever Home is that I can hear the trains all day and night. We’re about a mile from the primary BNSF tracks coming up through the Cajon Pass connecting the major ports in  Los Angeles and Long Beach and San Pedro to points east, including Barstow, Flagstaff, Kansas City, Fort Madison, and Chicago. It’s not a constant stream of trains 24/7/365, but it’s at least 50-60 trains a day.

From our house we can’t actually see the trains, but the tracks run just over the edge of The Mesa, where the land starts to drop off. Having looked at the maps I was pretty sure that I could get closer here than I did on my first adventure in April.

While driving home, on the spur of the moment I decided to go train hunting.

I was successful. From where the road ended the drop off into the canyon was more hilly and less direct than I had hoped for, so I had to go hiking for a quarter mile or so down these dirt trails that cover the hills (for hiking, ATV and motorcycle riding, horses, etc), but I finally got a good view.

Heavy clouds were moving up the Cajon Pass, while the Sun was setting and bright behind me, so the contrast was stark.

This site is probably less than a mile from our house, so at some point I want to try simply walking there and back instead of driving. I need the exercise and I need to start rebuilding my stamina.

Dramatic skies!

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Filed under Forever Home, Photography, Trains, Weather

May 26, 2026 · 23:08

Where Are The Raptors?

Here’s a small part of a normal afternoon in the back yard.

There are 18 wrens and finches here, under one of the four birdseed feeders, with similar crowds under the other three.

Plus another 20-30 up above AT the feeders and on the top of the pergola waiting their turn at the feeders.

Plus 10-12 large, fat pigeons.

Plus 8-10 squirrels.

It occured to me while re-filling the birdseed feeders that there’s something missing.

While occasionally we’ve seen a pair of red-tailed hawks circling far above, and on at least two occasions I’ve seen an owl parked on top of the pergola, there is almost NEVER any signs of any of those raptors feeding at the Willett Open-Air Aviary & Squirrel Adventure.

Where are they?

If we’re providing all of this feed to a variety of birds and small rodents, shouldn’t there be multiple pairs of hawks and owls feeding off of the birds and critters?

In nine months we’ve built the equivilent of the watering hole in the middle of the Serengeti. Where are the lions?

We seem to have only a partial ecosystem here. It seems odd.

 

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Filed under Birds, Critters, Forever Home, Photography

May 25, 2026 · 23:20

Fourteen Years Ago Today

I knew that it was about this time of year, but I didn’t realize until I went and found the pictures that it was exactly fourteen years ago today.

The Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto, maybe a third of the way up the mountain. I had been trying to take a selfie and some wonderful woman grabbed the camera and took it for me. This is one of my favorite pictures of me in my travels.

I loved this trip in its entirety. Three weeks, three kids, three countries. Shanghai, Seoul, and Kyoto. One of my biggest adventures.

In particular I loved Fushimi Inari. I would go back there and visit in a heartbeat.

If you ever get a chance, go.

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Filed under Photography, Travel

May 24, 2026 · 22:27

Just, Pause – Look Up!

Yeah, holiday weekend, blah, blah, blah. Still busier than God and stressed.

Just take a minute. Situational awareness. Don’t be blind to what’s right in front of you.

Or, in this case, above you. Yeah, it’s just some simple clouds floating in a bluer than blue sky.

THAT’s THE POINT! It’s beautiful, it’s special, it might be commonplace but that’s what makes it so extraordinary! Paradoxical, huh?

Take a minute. Do one of those breathing exercises from an app that your HMO gave to you. Lower your blood pressure.

Better?

Okay, NOW you get back to stressing over how the world is going to shit.

 

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Filed under Deep Thoughts, Photography, Weather