Whoa! I'm Worldwide!

I was gonna write about the Delta IV Heavy launch from a few days ago and signed into my blog.  I change or add things from time to time and thought that I'd change the 'wallpaper' on the main page.  Never remember how to do that so I just start clicking on things until I stumble into it.  Before I got there, I stumbled into a 'stats' page.  OMG!  I never knew I had 'Stats' until now.  I couldn't believe it.  I have people all over the world reading this blog.  To steal a line from John Denver, "Far Out!".  I mean, I mean, I'm sitting here on the Group W Bench, stunned.  It's kind of neat to see what devices (Nathan and his iPad) and what browsers people are using to read my blog but, from all over the world?  Russia?  Czech Republic?  Norway?  Brazil? Ooooo!  The Boys from Brazil are following me....  Below is a screen shot of my stats page.  Unbelievable, eh?  Cow lovers around the world follow me..... or crazy people do..... Should I be scared?
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Freecycle

There's a part of Yahoo.com that features a service to the community called "Freecycle".  If you have a Yahoo account, you can find it through them.  Freecycle is a bulletin board type of service where you can post items to give away free, keeping stuff from the landfill.  You can also 'request' an item.  This is how we found 'Cat'.  We've given and gotten stuff through Freecycle for years - it's a green solution both money-wise and landfill-wise.  Checking my e-mail tonight, I found the following (and hilarious) posting:

Offered is a bin of dinosaurs. I'd say at least 20. Various sizes.They've been
living in our front yard for some time. Been played with in the dirt, and grass
shoved down their throats. Just a heads up these will probably need to continue being outdoor toys.

If you have a Yahoo account, check it out.  If you are always low on funds and need something, check it out.  Sometimes, the postings make for a good laugh.......

The Book Signing

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A few weeks before Christmas I ordered Charlene a book by one of her favorite authors, Robert Crais.   The only problem was that it wasn't release at the time and wouldn't until January 11.   I told Charlene that her 'last' present would be delivered about the second week of January and I think she forgot.  I had ordered this book through my favorite store, Amazon.com and knew from past experience that it would be here on the release date so I did some research and found that the author would be in Santa Monica (about 70 miles as the road travels) on Tuesday for a 'reading' and signing.

Of course, I 'really' had to twist her arm to go to the signing/reading thing.  Charlene hates freeways so for the trip to the little bookstore in Santa Monica, we took the Pacific Coast Highway.  Normally a beautiful drive along the ocean, I found it extremely creepy dark at night.  The drive home was bright, fast creepy freeways.  At least I could see what was going to hit us......

The bookstore, "The Diesel Bookstore" is located in Santa Monica, right beside Brentwood.  The thought occurred that this is O.J. territory but then I remembered he lives in Florida now and I shouldn't worry about knife attacks.  Oh, wait, he now lives in a Nevada jail.  Cool.  The bookstore is located in an open air food court.  Three or four restaurants surrounding an open air court.  The center of the court has a huge screened-in outdoor gas fire pit.  Since it was very cool and sprinkling, the fire felt great. 

We decided to get some chow from one of the places, settling on a fish basket.  We skipped the baked potato menu.  Sitting by the fire, eating hot fries and Kelly-Style breaded fish.  Yummy and the fire felt so good.

Then, the author, Robert Crais came out to the court area and did some jokes, letters from readers and did a reading for us from his book.

He has a great sense of humor and a nice 'reading' voice.  All the while one of the restaurants was 'catering' this affair with all sorts of gourmet things.  All food was served on plates made from, uh, I guess, palm fronds.  Lightweight and strong and unique.  Very cool.

The food just kept coming and we were on the 'outside' of the crowd so we got served often, and plenty.  The servers would come in waves with something new every few minutes.  First there was gourmet crackers with some kind of crab meat stuff on top, then Deviled Eggs with a different filling than I'm used to (complete with Caviar on top), Butternut Squash Soup with mushrooms, Steak Tallot (to absolutely die for!), Mini sandwiches with a seafood meat, expensive cookies and meringue cookies.  Of course, gourmet coffee and teas from around the world.  Much as I'm not a seafood fan, I gobbled continually.  Worse than Thanksgiving.  It was so good and so free....

When the reading was over, it was into the bookstore to get Charlene's copy signed.  There was probably only 10 people ahead of her but it took almost an hour as Mr. Crais is very 'reader friendly' and talked about anything and everything with his fans.  I wandered throughout the tiny bookstore while Charlene talked to everyone in line including Mr. Crais's wife.  I've taken pics of some of the books that caught my eye:

Finally it was Charlene's turn.  This guy is very accessible, very approachable and very likable.  He's just very 'very', I guess.

He saw me with my camera and came out from behind the counter for a shot with Charlene.  Nice ending to our little sojourn.  In the background is still more food.......

The Pinning Ceremony

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Friday, the 10th of December was the final act in Charlene's quest to become a Registered Nurse.  It was the Graduation from Ventura College School of Nursing.  Three years to get her Associates Degree and all the pre-req's out of the way, get accepted into the College Nursing Program and complete the two year grueling course.  Over a fourth of the students that started didn't finish.  Those that did experienced lack of social life, family life and zombie-ism.  What a wild and crazy two years.  We personally lost Charlene, the kitchen table (joined occasionally by the living room coffee table), sanity, sleep, companionship and a whole lot of other stuff as Charlene doggedly attacked her studies.  Study 'till she fell asleep 'at the books', wake up at three in the morning and continue.  NS30 was the worst.  That was last Spring Semester.  Rarely saw her - when we did, she was deep in concentration on studies.  Shhhhh!  Your Mom is studying....

That all came to an end last Friday.  Sort of.  Charlene had finished with a 'B' average and was graduating.  The graduation ceremony is called "Pinning".  You have to buy your own 'Pin' that is R.N. related from a list the College gives you.  In a ceremony on stage, you are 'pinned' with it by someone you get to choose.  Charlene chose Rolanda, her CNA professor from 'undergrad school'.  A wonderful teacher, mentor and friend.  Nic and Trav and I were there, as was our neighbors across the street, Cherie and Miles, our good 'crazy' friends, Bobby and Sarah.  He's a chemistry professor at Ventura College and she attends art classes there.

The ceremony began with the graduating students walking down the auditorium isles carrying candles (electric ones) and placing them on the stage front as they climbed the stairs and took their place.  There were the usual amount of speakers including Ralph James, Charlene's 5 year councilor and Board of Trustee member.  His speech reminded all the families in the audience what a sacrifice the students and families had gone through.  Round of applause for the students and a round of applause for the families.  Damn right, Ralph, damn right!  Applause for all of us, but especially the students and our Charlene!  Several of the students gave speeches and one of them, Kiela, left us rolling in the aisles with her review of the two-year program.  I know I was and I'm sure the other families were remembering all the little horror stories of the past two years, the lack of sleep, lack of 'having a life', the medical procedures, tests, stress and all sorts of mean nasty things semester after semester. Several different friends of mine had a daughter go through R.N. college and knew exactly what our family was experiencing.  But, Friday, it ended.  Charlene was Pinned.  Officially, she is a Registered Nurse.  Now, she's studying for her State Exam, the NCLEX exam (whatever that stands for is beyond me and I'm afraid to ask).  To quote my black friends in Ohio, "You Go, Girl!"  What a job well done, My Love.........

Finally !

Three years of Undergrad School to get her Associates Degree.  Two years of Registered Nursing College.  It completes with the Pinning Graduation Ceremony on Friday, December 10, 2010.  Congratulations to my wife.  Charlene, I am so very proud of you!  Wish her well by sending her an e-mail to  charlened@charter.net

Black Friday, Cold Friday

Black Friday.  The name is almost an oxymoron this year.  For me, it started a few weeks ago, checking out the leaked Black Friday ads on the Internet.  What caught my eye was the Target ad.  40" Hi-Def  LCD TV (1080p - 60Hz) for $298.  My God, that's half price.  And it's a Westinghouse, not one of those off-brand things like Apex or Vizio.  Heard bad things about those - dying shortly after you get them home.  I thought about it for a week or so and decided it might be cool to go from the 300lb 32" antique monster in the living room to a flat panel.  Don't really need one, but it sure would be nice to have one.  The prices are out of our range so I never considered it until now.  So I went window shopping on Tuesday after work, hitting Target and Frys Electronics.  Don't want a plasma, can't afford a LED, so I looked and compared the 42" and smaller LCD's.  I checked out 1080p and 720p, 60 Hz, 120 Hz and 240 Hz.  I decided that, yea, the Target Black Friday deal is a great bargain.  Since it was under $300, a 3 year extended Target Warranty would be $29, also a bargain.  Now, if I'm gonna update the living room TV to the 21st Century, I want it to be Internet capable - you know, be able to stream movies from our Netflix instant queue.  This particular sale item was not, but it had a ton of inputs including antique video and audio, the newer 3-component video, a bunch of HDMI inputs and....a PC input.  Cool, way cool.  But no Internet connection.  Aha!  A Blu-Ray player on sale does and it's half off at just under a $100.  I vigorously "Googled" and checked out the TV and the Blu-Ray player.  The TV look like a good one, great features, nothing bad reported by anyone.  The Blu-Ray player is Wi-Fi - if you buy the optional USB Wi-Fi thing-ey.  Nah!  I want it all built-in, hard wired.  So I go online to my favorite 'everything' store, Amazon.com and search their 'Weeklong Black Friday Ads".  Bingo!  Found an LG Blu-Ray for $93 including shipping that has everything I need.  Time to present my findings to the Boss.  She's been doing back-to-back 12 hour RN shifts Monday and Tuesday so I have to wait until Wednesday night.  By that time, she has become "De-Zombie-ized" enough to become coherent.  I show her the ad, tell her all my research.  She blinks a few times, thinks a minute or two, asks me a few questions and gives the go-ahead.  On Thanksgiving Day, I let her know that I'm going to Target and stand in line at about 10pm or midnight as the store opens 4am Black Friday.  She thinks it's a little early to go and maybe I should go at, like, 2am.  As the Thanksgiving day meal prep work progresses, I realize that they probably only have maybe 5-10 of these TV's at the store and start backing up my planned arrival time.  Around 2pm, I announce that I want to be in line 12 hours before the store opens.  She thinks I'm totally crazy (which I usually am, but it's under control).  As she is getting T-Day dinner ready for me, I'm packing stuff:  Chaise lounge, sleeping bag, gloves, reading material, flashlight and extra batteries, a couple of ham sandwiches and some Oreo cookies.  I'll take a thermos of excellent Keurig coffee and a big waterproof bottle to pee in - I'm set.  The truck is loaded and ready to go.  At 3:15pm, I serve myself a wonderful T-day dinner but just one serving of everything.  This is probably the first Thanksgiving that I wasn't bloated from eating.  I was on a mission and had time constraints.  Hugged and kissed her Good-bye and left for the Target store a mile away.  When I got there, it was 3:50 pm and I was 3rd in line. 

Yea, boy!  If they had 3 TV's or more, I was one of the recipients.  The couple in front of me had a cousin who worked at Target and assured me that there were 70 of the TV's for sale.  Cool!  Luckily, clear blue sky - no rain.  The bad news is that it will be in the upper 30's before the store opens and windy.  I had put on two sweatshirts, a jacket, two pair of thick socks so I was prepared.  Besides, I had a sleeping bag, too.  As soon as I got there, I realized I was blind, leaving my glasses at home in my rush to get here.  I called Charlene and ask her to bring them at her convenience later.  I settled in for a 12 hour shift of my own.  Hurry up and wait, just like being in the military.

 It was  an hour or so before anyone else showed up, a pair of twins.  They were Hispanic guys with a great sense of humor and a cooler full of beer (Bud Light).  They soon offered me a Bud, which I gracefully took and we had a great time.  Then I realized that beer makes you pee so that was my only one (damn Black Friday Wait Station duty).  Charlene showed up with my glasses so I could read and expressed her concern for my well-being due to the cold.  It was in the upper 40's so I was OK.  About an hour later, I realized I had to pee and my truck was parked under a street lamp - no privacy.  By this time, about 10 people were in line and those of us that had been there for a few hours knew our place in line was secure so we could get up and walk around without fear of losing it.  The twins had made a couple of 'runs' to their truck to 'relieve' themselves in air tight bottles, I had gotten up and walked around the parking lot a few times so I decided to look for a place I could literally 'go'.  Found a nice hide away out of sight and did my "Seinfeld" thing without notice.  By 8:30 pm, I was getting cold and called Charlene and ask her to bring another sleeping bag.  She came by about 10 pm, bringing another one and 'spelled ' me so I could drive home, do the bathroom thing, get some fresh coffee and warm up.  As it was windy and the temps were in the low 40's, it felt wonderful to be warm again.  Damn old people disease of low metabolism which causes us 'old dudes' to get cold easily.  Then, back to the 'Wait Station'.  Throughout the past 6 hours, more people joined the line.  Probably a hundred.  Those that came unprepared for the cold called friends and relatives to bring chairs and blankets.  Time slowed down and I thought 4 am would never come.  The worst was midnight to two in the morning.  Not only did the clock stop, I thought it was running backwards.  I told the guys behind me that if I snored, just bump me and I'd wake up.  Sometime in the mysterious time void near one in the morning, I fell asleep for about 5 seconds and started to snore.  A big, loud snore.  The kind that is so loud that it wakes yourself up.  I woke up a fraction of a second before I got bumped by the guy next to me.  Everyone close by was laughing and I joined in, somewhat embarrassed.  At 2 am, I told my group to watch my stuff and drove home, entering quietly.  Got warm, did the bathroom thing, got fresh coffee and headed back to wait for 4 am. 

Everyone was covered in blankets, sleeping.  From time to time, someone would leave and go to Jack in the Box for food and drink.  Probably the only place open that late.  Around 3 am, store employees started appearing, readying for the 4 am apocalypse.  Now, the crowd which numbered close to 1000 - yes, a thousand, started to wake up.  My group of 25 slowly woke and started packing up their blankets, coolers, bags of stuff and chairs, taking them to their vehicles.  I joined them, bitching under my breath as we still had about 45 minutes and it was outright cold - 38 degrees with windchill factor.  Haven't used that phrase since I left Ohio.  But my place in line put me right next to the door, hidden from the wind by a pillar so I guess it was good.  Plus, my almost frozen feet started to thaw out as I moved about and stamped them on the sidewalk.  A photographer from the Star showed up and started snapping pictures and doing interviews - none of which appeared in today's paper or their online version.  A minute or so before 4 am, we at the front agreed there was no need to rush the doors or in the store as we could see pallets and pallets of the TV boxes 200 feet up the isle.  The doors opened, we swiftly walk in and then all of us just broke into a run, pushing our carts.  The guy in front of me, at a run and pushing his cart, executed a perfect grab of a HDMI cable from a display without skipping a step.  We arrived and all of us started grabbing a TV. 

It is finished I thought as I struggled to get the huge box in a cart.  It took me several minutes to get to a side isle as gobs of runners, pushing their baskets toward the TV's clogged the isle and almost annihilated me.  Safely on a side isle, I worked my way to the other end of the store and got an extended warranty.  Headed for the checkout and was out the door 10 minutes after the mad dash began.  I loaded it in the back of 'Blue' (that's what I call my white truck) and headed home.  I quietly brought it in, laid it down on the floor and went to bed.  Start to finish, 12 hours and 40 minutes.  I'm too old for this......... Nah!  Apparently not as I did score a super sale on a super TV.

Commercials I Watch

Every once in a while, Madison Avenue comes up with a great TV commercial.  Once in a while, as in Not Very Often.  When a truly great one comes along, I pay attention.  I look forward to seeing it again and again.  Sometimes, I like it so much that I'll search the Internet for it.  If I'm lucky, I score and download it.  In the past six months, I've seen only one great one.  The first time I saw it, I couldn't figure out what product they were promoting, until the end.  I think whichever ad agency made it did a great job.  I just love this commercial and it leaves me laughing, every time I see it.  Hope you love it, too.  Enjoy!

It is finished......

The day after election day at last.  Making my rounds today as copier guy, my customers feel the same relief.  29 political beggars on the answering machine, 42 pieces of political beggar junk mail, calls on our cell phones asking us to vote.  Between 5 and 7 p.m. last night, I hung up on even more callers (our polls close at 8 p.m.).  Everyone I talked to today was just plain sick and tired of this election season - the worst on record.  And it's a mid-term election.  I'm thinking of moving to Cuba during the next election season.
I'm Kelly Dickson and I approve of this message.  Oh, My God!  I've been brainwashed........

Is it over, YET?

Here it is, Halloween day and there's still stupid election attack commercials on the Tellie.  This has got to be the absolute worst year for political campaign crap.  I don't know what each political candidate stands for-what their beliefs are or what they intend doing to fix America's/California's problems.  All I know is the dirt they can dig up on their opponent.  Whatever happened to the old days where they'd bribe you with money or beer or something tangible - something I could use!  What I've learned this election year is that Meg Whitman spends over $130 million of her own money telling us how bad Jerry Brown was as Governor 30 years ago.  And he spends several million telling us California has problems that need to be fixed (?) and that Meg is a liar with a Pinocchio Nose that keeps growing with each new ad she releases.  Also, Carly Fiorina says Senator Barbara Boxer has been in Washington too long, caused all this mess and needs to go.  Boxer retorts that Fiorina raped her company of millions, laid off 30,000 workers (sent the jobs to China and India) and bought 5 corporate jets.
O.K., what they hell did you just learn?  Nada!  It's very difficult this year to vote for the lessor of two evils.....

How goes RN Nursing College?

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Charlene is a little over halfway through the 4th semester of 'RN College'.  RN College is spread over two years in four 4-month semesters but is seems like forever to her (and us).  I still don't remember when we could eat at the kitchen table as it now is her 'studies' desk.  Oh, we have a desk, just not one big enough for 2 laptops (one with an additional external monitor), tons of books, piles of papers, jars and bowls full of yellow highlighters, pens, markers, scissors, tape, stapler and staples, boxes of those 'O' stick-on reinforcements, extra batteries for her handheld recorder (for the lectures) and other assorted study paraphernalia.  When she started in January of '09, she knew it would be a rough haul getting through it all but things are never as it seems.  The first day of classes, the nursing instructor told the classes " For all of you that are used to getting an 'A' in classes, you'll be lucky to get a 'B' " .  Yea, that about says it all.  NS10, the first semester was rough.  It was a 'getting used to it' rough.  Learning how to do the infamous 'Care Plans' that can go 27 pages or more, learning the formatting setup of the required homework papers, figuring out how to balance home life with Nursing School classes.  And the hours......... for a measly 12-14 credit hours, the classes are usually 22+ hours a week with a ton of extra hours playing 'gather info at the hospital' for Care Plans and patient followup.  Wow, was she ever glad Summer session came along - no Nursing School during Summer.  Then, in the Fall of '09, she began NS20.  This one is not the 'tie breaker' - it's the people breaker.  NS20 begins the 3 Semesters of 'Weeding out the timid, the lazy, the ill-prepared, the ones who didn't study enough.  Two care plans a week.  That means, in addition to all the classwork, studying and preparing for the next day's quizzes, she will spend 3-4 hours of her own time at the hospital on a Sunday afternoon gathering patient info on 2 people, come home and begin untold hours of research and paperwork - doing either the 'quicky' 10 page care plan or the 25-30 page extended care plans.  Thought she was gonna die.  Finally, the end of NS20 and Christmas Break for 3 weeks!  She could read fiction, magazines, watch mindless TV, sleep in past 6 in the morning and do all the things the rest of us did.

When Charlene was working on her Associates Degree, every quarter it was the same thing:  "I can't do Algebra, I don't do this kind of math well" - She got straight A's.  Then, it was Biology (which was kind of fun, but not really as the studies and homework and tests were a 'Wall' at times.  She got straight A's.  Ditto for Chemistry, Microbiology, Anatomy, Physiology and so on.  Of course, 'A', 'A', 'A' and 'A' in all her classes.  Graduated with a 4.0.  But always, I heard, "I can't do this-or I can't go on-or, I'll never remember this".  Thank God her college councilor set her up with all the necessary courses in logical order.  So, 3 years of "I can't...." became "I Did it!".  Through the first 2 semesters of Nursing College, we all heard the same thing repeated.  Both courses were tough.  Stressful to say the least but she got through them with a 'B' which was great.
Then NS30 began in January, '10.  Uh, this one is the true killer of students.  Really tough classes, instructors from hell.....and 3 care plans a week.  Lots of 'off duty' research at the hospital gathering information on patients and lots of hours writing care plans.  And wouldn't you know, one week into the semester and AHHHHHH! - her laptop dies.  Dead.  Bad motherboard.  Talk about a total freak-out!  Of course, we got another right away, pulled the hard drive out of the dead one and transferred files.  She lost a day of 'homework' but caught up quickly.  At the height of  'Care-Plan-Mania' as I preferred to call it, she'd spend about 6 hours on a Sunday afternoon/evening at the hospital gathering patient info, then return home to work past 1 or 2 in the morning writing care plans.  Get up extra early and do regular 'studies' and go to school.  Returning home, hit the books, the paperwork, the care plans.  Never ending!  Never enough sleep.  We didn't have much 'face time' with her as she was always concentrating on studies.  About 1/4 of her class failed.  Passing in Nursing College is 75% or better, no exception.  One student 'flunked out' with a 74%.  What happens when you flunk out?  You start again the next semester doing the same class.  If you flunk ANY of the semesters twice, you are out for good and must start all over again as a 'newbie' at a different college.  Yuck!  There were times when she was almost ready to quit.  A real stressful time for her.  But she got through it last May with a 'B' average.
Now, she's a little over halfway through NS40.  She was told by students a semester ahead of her that NS40 would be easy compared to NS30.  Well, it's not easy but it's easy-er.  Two days of classroom and two days of 'playing nurse' beside the instructor.  She's very nervous when doing things for the first time and her instructors either helped her through or badgered her for being nervous (which makes it worse).  The last 2 weeks have been classroom instruction on 'Nursing Ethics'.  Big test tomorrow on that.  She's had 3 big tests this semester.  She'll put in at least 50 hours of study for the tests in addition to regular homework.  Staying up late at night, then off to bed at midnight, up at 3 or 4 in the morning to study more, class at 7:45 A.M.  So far, 3 tests have yielded a 90% grade on each.  Excellent job, Charlene!  Next week she starts 'Preceptorship'.  She will do RN work with a real RN beside her.  We're talking putting all those studies to work as she changes bandages, gives meds, does RN paperwork stuff, gives shots, starts IV's and all the stuff a regular RN does.  She'll be doing three 12-hours shifts a week through Thanksgiving and then, pretty much is done with school (if she survives) .  In early December, the last week is classroom study prep for the RN State Boards to get her RN license.  Whew!  I'm worn out just trying to remember this stuff so I imagine she's worn out, beat up and ready for Winter Hibernation.  To quote my Black friends in Ohio, "You Go, Girl !".......(By the way, that phrase is not a 'white people thing' - it's a black thing.  Get over it.)  Again, You can do it, Charlene!  (from a proud hubby who doesn't remember what you look like....thank God for photos.....)

Two Trees

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As you go North from the Pacific Ocean, through Ventura and up the hills/mountains, you'll run into an interesting site known as 'Two Trees'.  Probably  because on the top of one of the hills are 2 trees growing, nothing much else, just 2 trees.  You can see it for miles from all over the Oxnard Plain area and from out in the Ocean.  Here's some directions to get to 2 trees:

You got to get closer to 2 trees than this so here's a pic from space courtesy Google Earth (or not, I really didn't ask them to extend me any courtesy).  I'm the Red plus in the lower part and 2 trees is the circle in the upper right.  They're about at the 800' elevation mark so it's a physical deal hiking up there. 

Nicolas and some of his friends hiked up yesterday.  Understand that it's private property and they don't take much to people going there but it happens a lot.  Just don't damage or trash the area, eh?  Used to be 5 trees until some Halloween teenagers set fire or hacked down 3 of the trees.  Now you kind of understand.  Anyway.  Here's some pics I've taken from street level:

Normally, what green you see in these photos is for only 3 months a year at most.  During the 'rainy' season.

So, we've all seen pics of 2 trees from down here, this is what 2 Trees sees, courtesy of Nic:

And if you get at ground level near the edge, this is what a rabbit would see, just before the Red Tail swooped down and carried it off....

Yesterday's weather was kind of weird.  We've been through record heat and still are running above normal temps.  There's a Low Pressure thing-ey just off our coast pumping moisture into all that heat.  For the last few days, we've seen terrific thunderheads in the North, maybe 30-40 miles away, or more.  We'll see lightning at night but get no sounds of thunder.  Yesterday, we had a storm cell covering most of the Oxnard Plain and we could watch it, the entire thing, edge to edge, top to bottom.  Really cool with the rain pouring out of the bottom center, lightning hitting something on the ground, lightning going from the top of the cloud to the bottom of the cloud.  I'm from Thunderstorm/Tornado Town and I miss Mother Nature's Violent Work.  Saw a little demo of it yesterday.  Oh, yea, as Nic, camera in hand turned around to shoot what 2 Trees can see over it's back, he took this pic:

This picture stunned Travis as he's not used to seeing clouds with shapes.

Because our clouds are mainly on the ground in the form of the Marine Layer, that giant fog bank that lives off the coast of California, we get no shapes or features in the clouds - just flat and grey.   I took this mid-morning a week ago as a beautiful sunrise and sunny morning turned cold and damp.  This is the Marine Layer attacking all the way to ground level.  This picture is almost 3D if you click on the little version and get the bigger one.  

   Novel and pretty!

                                               "Mountain top views provided by "The Man"



It's Not Rocket Science....No, Wait...It is !

I went outside last night to empty the 'bagless' bag on our sweeper and noticed something weird in the sky.  Over in the West, about halfway up the sky was some weird yellow-orange light.  My first thought was a helicopter but there was no noise.  I stood there for a minute, watching as it traveled East, towards me.  Then, I could see trailing white 'sparkles' like a long comet tail - like something out of Star Trek.  As it got almost in front of me, the light went out, a moment later a puff of smoke, complete with expanding smoke ring and the yellow-white light was on again.  Very weird, very cool.  I didn't have time to get a camera and it wouldn't have taken anyway as none of my cameras are good in low light. 
This morning, I told Charlene about it (she was at work when I saw this) and described it just like above.  My thought at this point was that it was some space junk re-entering the atmosphere.  But it was a little too weird for that.  I 'Googled' it and the only mention was on a UFO Sighting website.  There were 3 different sightings reported from Los Angeles area and Simi Valley, both 40-60 miles away.  That was a dead give-away that it was something way, way up in the sky, not an airplane.  From time to time, Southern California gets some strange, weird sightings or reports of a 'different' kind.  No, they're not crazy, we just remember that the 'Skunkworks' is out here and they make the latest and greatest top secret flying stuff.  But what was it that I saw?  I checked all through the paper this morning and not a word.  Damn it!

I jumped on Google again and typed in "rocket launch at Vandenberg Air Force Base".  That's the place where the government launches rockets on the West Coast of the U.S.  It's about 90 miles due west of Ventura.  I've been there many times in the past doing network stuff so I was hoping maybe they had a launch.  Bingo!  Vandenberg launched a Minotaur VI Rocket at 9:41 last night sending a 'space junk locating' satellite into orbit.  The launch path takes it up, east and south which is the path I saw.  Luckily, someone in Ventura has a better camera than I do and captured the following video. The focus wasn't good on the rocket so you'll see a slightly out of focus view of what I saw - except he didn't get the 2nd stage ignition which made the puff of smoke and smoke ring.....that was right after this clip ends............  enjoy science.

And Just Down the Street.......

I was over at a friends house yesterday, doing the 'geek' thing and helping them with a new (old) laptop.  It's probably 6 or 8 blocks from here and on the way home, I saw a really cool looking tree.  It's a Red Flowering Eucalypus Tree.  Very neat flowers that look like oversized bottle brushes and gobs of them.  After flowering, the street and sidewalk are littered with beautiful little red soft bristle pieces. Again, very cool.  I was waiting for the light to change when I snapped this photo.

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Further down Howard Street was this marvelously colored muscle car.  Camaro?  I dunno but it just reminded me of the wild colors around beach towns in Southern Cowlifornia.  Houses are painted with every pastel color in the rainbow in additon to some with wild and crazy colors.  A lot of cars have beautiful and/or wild colors, too.

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One of the strange things about being a transplant is gettng used to the new flora and fauna.  Nothing native to Ohio out here.  Except, on the 'Historic' street in Oxnard ('F' Street).  It's where the first houses were built in 'Downtown Oxnard' in the late 1800's.  Not very historic by East Coast/Midwest standards but it is out here.  What sticks out like a sore thumb to this Ohio reject is that the street is lined, both sides with Sycamore Trees.  These are water loving things that grow wild along Ohio rivers and streams.  I have no clue why someone would bring seeds to the desert, plant them and expect them to grow but they did.  I'm sure the home owners water them regularly but they still lack the true-health beauty of the Ohio version.

That's about it, no revelations or new ways to save the world, just some pretty colored objects and a weird place to plant something that loves gobs of water.......