July 7, 2026 · 23:01

No Egrets Until Now

We were having the Sunday brunch at the hotel restaurant in Anaheim over the weekend. Looking out of the two-story, floor to ceiling windows at the pool deck, I see a huge, white bird  land in the top of a palm tree. A stork? A heron?

Since we were done with brunch, I went out on the deck and immediately noticed that the “pool deck” was actually a koi pond next to the pool deck around the corner.

Ah, it took me about five seconds to put two and two together.

I don’t know much about koi, but I do sort of remember that there are “cheap” koi and there are really, really expensive koi. I hope these are the former…

I sort of figured that the large bird (it’s a Great Egret) would have taken off with me and some waiters and some pool folks out there, but I underestimated the appeal of a koi buffet.

It didn’t look to me like the Egret got a koi … in this visit. It acted like it knew its way around and I expected it to be back sooner rather than later.

Unusual to see this critter in this highly urban environment, but it’s only a dozen miles from the beach and all of the marshes and coastal areas down around Seal Beach, so I guess I just got lucky!

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Filed under Birds, Critters, Photography

July 6, 2026 · 23:57

Proof Of Life – July 06th

Orange County California from the 18th floor. It was lovely.

No fireworks, no baseball games today. Just driving all over SoCal to get some simple errands taken care of and then home.

Was having a fun weekend always this exhausting? Did that change, or did I?

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Filed under Photography

July 5, 2026 · 22:44

250th USA Birthday Baseball Day Three

Guess what we did tonight??!!

For this game we got the really, REALLY good seats, right behind home plate.

On the way in, since we were behind home plate,

I stopped to check in on my brick, a long ago gift from my kids and one of my favorite things in the world!

It’s just to the right of the “pitcher’s mound” in the memorial brick courtyard under the two ginormous cap sculptures – next time you’re at The Big A, go find it!

As for the game itself, the Angels sadly (but not surprisingly) lost again, got swept by the Red Sox (who don’t have the best record themselves!), now have a six-game losing streak, and are now 19 games under .500.

Thank the gods for boom and flash. “The gods” probably being Thor, Zeus, and Odin!

When does the Chiefs training camp open? 🏈 How about the Kings? 🏒

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Filed under Fireworks, LA Angels, Photography

July 4, 2026 · 23:23

250th USA Birthday Baseball Day Two

So many traditions upheld! Burgers & ice cream! Texans flyover! Huge flags! The National Anthem & God Bless America both song slowly, like dirges. (Given today’s politics, that’s probably appropriate, I’ll let it stand.) The Angels got creamed! (Now 18 games under .500!)

Pre-game, with the TV team doing their blah-blah-blah in the lower left and the grounds crew preparing the field in back of them, MY first thought was that the guy with the hose could “accidentally” do the funniest thing ever. Let the chaos begin!

Stadiums look so cool in the dark and clouds of fireworks smoke!

Speaking of which…

There a few chants of “U!S!A!” through the game, but more of “Sell! The! Team!” IYKYK. It doesn’t matter. Arte’s not listening, he never will listen, and we can’t make him listen or care.

With the exception of the team playing like crap, it’s been fun being back at the park!

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Filed under Fireworks, LA Angels, Photography

July 3, 2026 · 22:55

250th USA Birthday Baseball Day One

This July 4th weekend is the USA’s 250th birthday, an event which should be the biggest party on the planet, but which, instead, for many folks, including myself, is tainted, spoiled, corrupted, and turned toxic due in part to a singular evil, traitorous, disgusting, fascist chucklefuck.

Nonetheless, certain aspects of the holiday remain relatively unsullied by his nauseating touch. One would be baseball, the All-American game, and another would be fireworks displays (although he’s trying to corrupt the Washington D.C. displays, but I’m 2,664 miles away).

With my beloved Angels (16 games below .500 but with moxie!) at home all weekend and having post-game fireworks all three day, it seemed like a good excuse to head down the hill and catch a handful of games.

As expected, I enjoyed being at the park. It would have been better if we could have won (now 17 games under .500) but I had ice cream and hot dogs and a soda and got to hang out with family, so that’s a win!

And there were fireworks!

Two more days of baseball and fireworks to go! And maybe a couple of movies during the days. What should we see?

If you’re in the US, enjoy your Fourth of July tomorrow and stay cool, stay safe!! If you’re not in the US, enjoy your Saturday tomorrow and stay safe and stay cool!

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Filed under Fireworks, LA Angels, Photography, Politics, Uncategorized

July 2, 2026 · 23:07

Random Old Photos – July 02nd

Our Fourth of July fireworks celebrations often have been centered around being at a baseball game. Twenty years ago we were at Dodger Stadium.

Apparently after the last of the fireworks, I tried taking one more picture, which, without the bright lights of the explosions, turned into a loooooooooooong time lapse exposure with no tripod and an LAPD police helicopter circling overhead.

It’s almost like “art!”

Spooky art.

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Filed under Photography, Fireworks

July 1, 2026 · 22:31

July Upgrades Start Strong!

One of the things about the Forever Home is that it’s well over twice the size of the rental home we had in West Hills for the previous seven years. One immediate effect was that, even after pulling a lot of old furniture out of storage, there were (and still are) spots and even whole rooms where we need to get some new furniture.

For example, the kitchen has this spectacularly huge island, but needed bar stools.

The breakfast nook off of the kitchen, up until yesterday, had a broken treadmill in it. (To be fair, it’s being repaired, I have the parts, and this was a nice, open space to work on it.)  This really nice table and chairs, resplendant with the monthly decorations from The Long-Suffering Wife, is a huge upgrade.

The bar stools swivel, and I tested all four. Most will do two and a half to three full revolutions with one good push, but the one on the far left did 4+! I had to stop it before it finished on its own since diziness and sever nausea were about to cause a mess that I would be just as happy to not clean up. (You might be thinking something like, “He’s an adult, right? Why is he spinning around on a bar stool until he makes himself puke? Is he really that stupid?” For the record, I’m pretty sure The Long-Suffering Wife was thinking the exact, same thing…)

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Filed under Forever Home, Photography, Ronnie

June 30, 2026 · 23:22

June Gloom

Here we are, at the end of yet another month. I feel like there were some victories this month, some good things that happened, but for the life of me I can’t really pin anything down. The Long-Suffering Wife’s birthday last weekend was fun, and I somehow hit a deadline or two and didn’t die, but all of that seems to pale in comparison to the total shit show that is going on outside.

July will be busy, if nothing else. A red-letter wedding anniversary and trip. This upcoming weekend’s holiday and some baseball and fireworks. I’m in the middle of the annual audit at work and sorta holding my own (ish?) but we’re shorthanded to begin with and got some nasty, bad news about a personnel thing, so we’ll have to see how that plays out next week. The 22nd is also the anniversary of us buying our Forever Home, and there’s a long “to-do” list of things I would really, REALLY like to get done before then.

Either way, it’s gonna be a slice.

So, FUCK OFF, June!

July? Hit me with your best shot!

(Taunting the Fates and the Gods is always good storytelling, but rarely a good idea.)

(Long story…)

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Filed under Deep Thoughts, Health, Paul, Photography

June 29, 2026 · 23:47

99%(Minus) Full

Last night we were about twenty hours before Full Moon – tonight we were about four hours after it. No chance at all here to see the Moon 100% illuminated, but this was about as close as we were going to get, 99.9% full and shrinking toward New Moon in two weeks (and a full solar eclipse across Spain and Northern Africa in six weeks.)

It took a few minutes to get up above those mountains and water tanks (no flat horizons here!) and the cloudbanks piling up from the ocean against the Cajon Pass.

It looked spectacular!

Enough smoke in the air from local brush fires to give it some color. Wonderful!

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography

June 28, 2026 · 22:19

99%+ Full

We’re within 24 hours now, with the exact time of the full Moon being 16:57 PDT tomorrow. The Moon will still be down below the horizon then for me, but those of you in Europe and on the East Coast can catch it.

For now, this is the closest it will get, rising at 99.4%+ full.

Having the foreground mountains on the horizon contribute to the “moonrise illusion,” making the moon look much larger than it is when it’s high overhead.

Also FYI, if you ever wonder why I hate AI and things like Copilot, when I first asked just now what the exact time for the next full Moon was, it told me “March 14, 2026.” Um… No! Then I asked for the exact percentage illuminated as of the time I took these pictures about two hours ago – CoPilot told me “The moon is currently about 76% illuminated.” There’s not a lot of subtlety or nuance in those questions, but CoPilot got them 100% WRONG, like, not even order of magnitude wrong. In this case I knew instantly that the answers had to be 100% bullshit and untrustworthy, but what about folks who might not be as in touch with the current status of our planetary neighbors, or me if I’m asking a question about something that I’m not as familiar with?

Go look at the Moon tomorrow night at sunset. It will be lovely. And never, EVER believe anything that AI tells you.

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Filed under AI, Astronomy, Photography, Sunsets