Wow, after the utter shitshow of January, following pretty much ALL of 2025, I had hopes for a bit more calm in February.
HA!
That might have been delusional.
My bad.
Farmer’s Market
Getting out into the community.
The Long-Suffering Wife got an annual family pass to the local museum, which turns out to be an annual family pass to ALL of the San Bernardino County museums, which turns out to be a group of five. She wanted to go tour the local museum after our usual Sunday morning breakfast, which turned out to be a great idea.
It was lovely! A ton of stuff about the history of the area, the whole Roy Rogers & Dale Evans connection, and so on. Also some stuffed critters.
It also turns out that every Sunday morning the local farmer’s market is in the parking lot there. Lesson learned – next time don’t eat breakfast and then come here, just come here and get breakfast! Several very nice BBQ & Mexican food trucks that we were too stuffed to sample.
But the radishes were huge (I was afraid I had gotten beets by mistake) and carrots.
Onion, potatoes, garlic, strawberries, and blueberries, all disgustingly fresh. We’re gonna be eating so healthy…
Remember how I was bitching about not getting enough varieties of apples that aren’t developed and grown for the major grocery store chain markets? Something else to keep an eye out for in future weeks. And oranges. And pears. And…
Filed under Forever Home, Photography
iPhone 17 Moonrise
Among all of the multiple overlapping crises of the last couple of weeks, my ancient iPhone 13 died. Something broke in the connecting/charging port so that I couldn’t plug it in to charge. Which was inconvenient at first, then critical when I realized that all of the 2FA codes I need to access accounts at work (like, payroll) go to that phone. I got a short term solution to survive the next day (and get payroll entered and paid) but the long term solution was to upgrade my phone to an iPhone 17.
I sort of wanted to do that for a couple of reasons, one of which was the much-improved cameras on the iPhone 17. You might notice that I tend to take a lot of pictures.
Tonight The Long-Suffering Wife called me to look out to the back yard, where the 99% full Moon was rising.
Okay, that’s pretty, a normal picture. What about wide angle views?
Again, very nice, similar to the iPhone 13. But I hear that the telephoto capabilities are where it really shines. The iPhone 13 went to 3x zoom and was a bit on the grainy and pixelated side when blown up that big. The iPhone 17 goes to 10x zoom and it’s supposed to be pretty good quality.
Oh, my, that’s spectacular. A little bit of color swimming up through the haze near the horizon. But when it rises just a bit to get above that?
Very nice, and I even caught a plane, what is probably a cargo jet just taking off from KVCV, SoCal Logistics over in Victorville.
I’m impressed!
Filed under Astronomy, Photography
Random Old Photos – January 30th
Twenty years ago. I was getting my MBA from Pepperdine University. And I think that I’m busy and stressed NOW…
Then again, I was twenty years younger. It balances out. Or as a friend was fond of saying, “Everyone’s Hell is 100%.”
I was in the Executive MBA program, so we had a full three-day weekend of classes about every three weeks, rotating between the Irvine campus, the West LA campus, and the main Malibu campus. This was a rainy weekend at the Malibu campus, with the Rancho Palos Verdes peninsula across Santa Monica Bay to the south.
It was a great program, I learned a ton, I got do do some neat international traveling, I had some fantastic classmates, I’m really glad that I did it, and I’m sooooooo happy that I never have to do it again. Onward to new and exciting “challenges.”
Filed under Paul, Photography
…We’d All Swim In Riches
So what if the standard fantasy came true for you and YOU “won the lottery”? What if suddenly you had more money than you could possibly spend in a lifetime?
I know there’s a trope about calling in “sick FOREVER” to work on Monday, calling from a private jet over the Atlantic on your way to the French Riviera. Nice, but probably not my style. The end result of that whole stinking Catholic upbinging and years of Catholic school nuns living in my head. I would want it to be orderly, measured, controlled, calm.
No, the first rule for me would be that NOBODY would know except for my accounting and legal team and immediate family. I do not want a target painted on my back for the nefarious amongst us, or for every political fund raiser or charity hand out. Not that I wouldn’t be generous in my support of causes that I am fond uf, but it would be at my initiative and my choice.
So a bit of time to get some financial and legal structures in place, take care of family, make some modest improvements to our lifestyles, and then…
…sleep. LOTS of sleep. I want to cast off the chains of that whole stinkin’ Protestant Work Ethic and embrace being lazy and slovenly.
There will be international trips and cruises and adventures and shennanigans galore when I’m ready, but first, I want to reset. I want to sleep in every day, take long naps, and collapse into a warm bed early every night.
Once I’m “tan, rested, and ready,” then we’ll start to travel and knocking things off of that imfamous “life list.” (I hate the term “bucket list.”) Trips to every continent. Chasing solar eclipses no matter where they occur. Safaris. Never missing a Chiefs game again, home or on the road. Following the Angels around the MLB circuit for a year, then the same for the Kings through the NHL the next year. Of course, getting current in the left seat again and getting my own plane. Not a business jet or a P-51 or anything extravagent, I’ll never have the time to get that sort of rating, but at least a nice six or eight passenger private plane like a Caravan or a Cirrus. An RV trip around the country to every National Park.
It’s a great fantasy. But I don’t need to daydream fondly of private LearJets. A nap in a warm, soft place will do just fine. I’ve busted my ass and pushed and pushed and pushed for 50+ years.
Enough!
If Wishes Were Fishes
It’s probably a good thing that genie’s don’t come out of bottles and grant the traditional three wishes. I’m not an idiot, I realize that the main point of most of those stories (looking at you, “Monkey Paw”) are that bad things happen.
Still…
The reason we fantasize about getting those wishes is because we’re all feeling so frustrated and powerless on a daily basis, trying our best, working our asses off, and it’s all the Red Queen’s Race, getting nowhere fast but making good time.
Running marathons a few years ago taught me that we can all do so much more than we give ourselves credit for if we just keep putting one foot in front of the other and simply refuse to stop until we get to the finish line.
2025 and 2026 (so far) have me questioning the existence of a finish line, other than the one that pops up (SURPRISE!) when we simply keel over at our desks and start approaching room temperature.
Filed under Health, Paul, Photography
Proof Of Life – January 27th
There’s light at the end of the tunnel.
One project after another at work, I don’t think I’ve had more than a half dozen days off since Halloween, and three of those were Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Day. I squeezed in a couple of those days for putting up Christmas lights, but it’s been a marathon. Or more aptly, a triathalon. The audit, the tax returns, the budget, covering for a shorthanded situation on my staff, monthly closings, preparing for the annual Board Meeting…
After being up past 1:00 last night and then up again before 6:00 this morning to tie up loose ends and trying to look semi-human for a 10:00 meeting to go over the latest batch… All of a sudden there wasn’t anything super duper “Oh God we’re all gonna die!” time critical to do.
So it was time to re-fill the bird seed feeders, that have been empty for the last three weeks.
Sorry, birds.
Filed under ALS Network, Birds, Paul, Photography
Proof Of Life – January 26th
FML.
Proof that Hissy has a really nice sound system when you turn her loose.
I was driving down to Pasadena for the work event on Saturday. The song was A-Ha’s “Take On Me.” Yes. It was a loud environment.
Filed under ALS Network, Health, Paul
I Just Wanted Ice Cream
No post last night. I think that’s the 18th time that’s happened since I started this site. (Not that I’m counting…)
I realized it about 12:50 when I had finally crawled into bed. By then it was too late to do anything about it, so I didn’t lose any sleep over it. In the big picture, especially these days, it’s small potatoes.
I had good intentions and plans, but I wanted ice cream. That’s where it all went off the rails.
I was down in Pasadena yesterday for our annual gala for the non-profit I work for. (You can still donate if you’re so inclined…)
It was a great event, we all had a good time.
After it was over I went back to the hotel, wasn’t going to try to drive back up the hill to Hesperia that late after a long, long day. Before I crashed I was going to allow my sweet tooth to yield to temptation, since I had seen that the hotel snack shop had those really good Nestle ice cream sandwiches between two fat chocolate chip cookies. So down I went.
Only to find that the hotel snack shop was along the side of the small restaurant, which had turned into the bar in the evening. And the bar had been taken over by our staff having an after party celebration and there was a whole crowd yelling, “Paul! Paul! Get over here, sit down and have a drink!” Who am I to pass up an invite like that?
And with that, all thoughts of doing my daily post went out of my head completely.
Sorry. (I still made the better decision.)
Filed under ALS Network, Photography
Proof Of Life – January 23rd
IYKYK. “Set SCE to AUX.”
It’s been quite the little high pressure shit show here for a while. “The only way out is through…” and all of that.
Meetings and deadlines next week, one way or the other.
February will be better. Please, dear Flying Spaghetti Monster, in the Name of your Most Holy Noodleness, let February be better!
Filed under Paul, Photography, Religion
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 