November 9, 2026 · 23:29

Proof Of Life – November 09th

I’ve been thinking a lot about running marathons and endurance and goals and deadlines and hanging in there when common sense says to just hang ’em up.

I’ve never run to win the race – even the training runs and shorter 5K races and half marathons, I wasn’t ever even in the top ten for my age group. For the LA Marathons, probably not in the top 100. Or the top 500.

That’s okay, I wasn’t running against the clock or the other runners, I was running against my own limitations and fears.

Now that I’ve passed into my 70’s, I don’t know if I’ll ever run again. At this point even the Monday Municipal Miles were kicking my ass, and that was only a mile and on flat ground.

But my brain points out that part of the problem is how out of shape I’ve let myself become. That can be fixed. And it started to be! The first MMM my mile was almost 25 minutes – by Week Three I had it down under 20 minutes, and I did Week Five in about 19:30. If I were to do that three or four days a week and then start extending those distances, I could get back close to where I was.

Will I be running any 3:00 marathons? Not in THIS lifetime! Could I maybe do a 6:00 marathon? It’s possible.

Which brings us to day-to-day life, not running, but just trying to keep up with a to-do list that’s growing twice as fast as I can knock things off of it. How can I catch that endurance and persistance lightining in a bottle to keep going on all of those boring, mundane, routine, but necessary tasks?

If anyone has an answer, I would love to hear it!

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Filed under Health, Paul, Photography, Running

November 8, 2026 · 20:14

An Early Start This Year

As much as I love putting up Christmas lights, one rule that’s always been sacrosanct is that I don’t start putting them up until the day after Thanksgiving.

Until this year.

I still won’t put any up outside until after Thanksgiving, but inside? One lesson from last year in The Forever Home is that it’s big, and takes time. So this year we’ll get a jump on the indoor decorations.

(One of our kids called me a “Blasphemer.” One sent the “Elf” meme implying that I “sit on a throne of lies.” The best response was from the daughter who is the expert on Halloween pumpkin carving – “Man, the pumpkins haven’t even rotted yet!” It’s apparently a bigger break with tradition than I had thought. It’s unclear what further deviant behavior this will lead to.)

The tree is up. The decorations go on next.

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Filed under Christmas Lights, Forever Home, Photography

November 7, 2026 · 20:58

Last Light For Wrightwood

From where we were, the Sun was down, but as it sank into the west, the taller mountains to our due east still had some light.

Those peaks are up behind Wrightwood, along the Angeles Crest Highway. It’s Table Mountain, Mount Kare, and Blue Ridge – I think from left to right, but I’m only about 70% sure of the details.

On the other side of the left and center peaks, facing away from us here, are ski resorts, the Mountain High resorts. Many folks are surprised that there’s snow skiing so close to Los Angeles, but with mountains that go up to well beyond 10,000 feet, there’s often skiing until the July 4th weekend.

Tonight it was just a line of shadow creeping up the side of the mountain, proof that the Earth is round if anyone needs it.

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Filed under Forever Home, Photography, Sunsets

November 6, 2026 · 22:37

Proof Of Life – November 6th

Even though a great deal of the news on the political front has been fantastic, it’s still take a bucket of adrenaline this week to get here. (Not to mention all of the weeks for the past two years.)

And the deadlines, the time pressures, that never seem to stop or let up…

Being buried at times by massive, existential doom, pull back and focus on the little things. Our health is generally good. It’s getting late enough in the year so that before I go to be I can go out and see Orion in the east. When I have to get up to pee at 05:30, Venus is incredibly bright in the east. The Cooper’s hawk has started roosting during the day on my telescope out on the back porch. We still love being in The Forever Home.

There’s definitely room for some improvements. It’s finding that balance that makes every day an adventure.

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Filed under Forever Home, Photography, Politics

November 5, 2026 · 22:17

A Bit More Brownish Red

It’s taking its sweet time, but the maple tree in the front yard IS turning for fall.

Unlike its cousins in Vermont and New England, which can turn completely in just a week or so, it’s going to take the better part of two months for the change to happen here.

And where the more northeastern of the species will tend to go BRIGHT RED, this has more of a burnt brown, rust, reddish color.

I’m sure that the soil composition, temperature, and seasonal timing differences have a lot to do with the differences.

I’ll take whatever I can get! It’s still gorgous!

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Filed under Forever Home, Photography, Weather

November 4, 2026 · 23:06

Thank You!

Thank you to everyone who voted!

Thank you to all of the Democrats and liberals who understood the assignment and followed through to be counted!

Thank you to all of the Republicans and conservaties who realized the stakes and considered that they might be on the wrong side of history, and voted this time to change course!

Thank you to all of those who never or rarely vote and just sit out the election, who realized what a mistake that was this time around and made the effort!

Thnk you ao all of the young people who might have been voting for the first time but got it done anyway.

Thank you to everyone who knew that their candidate(s) had a one in a gazillion chance but voted for them anyway.

Thank you for all of the down ballot votes, so not only did blue Senators and Governors get elected, but blue School Board members and Insurance Commissioners and judges.

Thank you to everyone who stood in line for three minutes or three hours because this was really important.

Thank you to the Ukranian forces that have been bombing Russian data centers and taking Elon’s and Putin’s bot misinformation machine offline, making room for the truth!

Thank you to all of the poll site workers who made sure that votes counted!

Thank you to EVERYONE who refused to be intimidated or threatened by the powers that have been trying to shut down voting and destroy our democratic system.

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Filed under Photography, Politics

November 3, 2026 · 22:54

First Fall 2026 Snow In Sight

Two weeks ago there was a storm that moved through and I thought that there might have been a touch of snow on the top of Old Baldy, but I wasn’t 100% sure. This last weekend there was a second storm, and yesterday morning the view from the front yard left no doubt.

Even though the lowest temperatures we’ve seen here have been in the mid to upper 40’s, the summit of Old Baldy is over 10,000 feet, and over 6,000 feet higher than Hesperia.

We should have snow in view until May, June, or later from here on out. The big question is whether with the huge El Nino this winter, we’ll get any snow down here.

I’m hoping, and I’m ready!

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Filed under Forever Home, Photography, Weather

November 2, 2026 · 23:39

Get Out There And Vote!!

I have – have you? Tomorrow is Election Day across the United States, and it’s been obvious for months and months that this one is critical. It’s not an overstatement to say that the survival of the United States as a democracy hangs in the balance.

I’ve voted – California does an excellent job of keeping you in the loop on your ballot status.

One of my favorite authors, John Scalzi, had this to say on his website today. I don’t have any arguments with any of it. The summary is succinct – “don’t vote for a single fucking Republican.”

That was my number one rule when filling out my ballot. From President all the way down to assistant dogcatcher trainee, I will never, EVER vote for a Republican candidate.

Are the Democrats perfect? Hardly. But we have a two-party system, and voting for a third-party candidate is futile and useless. Not voting at all is de facto a vote to maintain the status quo, and the status quo had us dangerously close to starting World War III while both children and adult die of fully preventable diseases. Bald-faced lies by the hundreds fill every speech and policy from the current Administration, and the President is quite clearly batshit insane. The Supreme Court enables his crimes and the GOP-controlled Congress is not only not even trying to rein the corruption in, they’re actively participating. Treason, bribery, civil rights violations, Hatch Act violations – these are just the start of an extensive list of daily criminal violations.

If it doesn’t stop here, it will be too late. We won’t make it another two years without a return to a rule of law.

Vote like our lives depend on it.

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Filed under Photography, Politics

November 1, 2026 · 21:28

Hello November

A “nibbled to death by ducks” day, where I’m feeling off balance from the start due to the stupid DST time change. (As always.)

When we went out last night (probably more about this soon) we had some light rain and there was a security light on the property. When I got just to the edge of the light’s field, the falling rain looked cool. (Click on the photo to blow it up to full sized!)

Yes, it’s been well established. As Kevin McNamara said in 10th grade or so, something like 55 years ago, I’m “easily amused.”

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Filed under Photography, Weather

October 31, 2026 · 23:43

Halloween 2026

Not nearly as many lights and decorations as we do for Christmas, but still more than we do most years for Halloween.

The big pine tree hanging over the driveway is an EXCELLENT place to hang ginormous spiders, skeletons, headstones, and skulls.

The front door had some lights, a couple of signs, and candy should anyone come by.

We were out at a local event – no sign that anyone actually came by or got candy. As expected. Lucky for us, I only bought candy that we like ourselves, JUST IN CASE any was left over! (Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more!)

A few more lights, a strobe, some headstones, and faux pumpkins.

Which looked nice when all lit up!

Tomorrow – November. And the end of Daylight Saving Time. Ugh!

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Filed under Forever Home, Photography