Musings

This morning I thought my day would be miscellaneous (dull, boring) chores, with the headliner being getting my hair done (D, B subject for a post…). [I’m so Midwest.]

Then I went for a walk and found these droplets spaced like a variation on a flat meniscus situation, and thought, well, that’d be a big improvement on hair salon tedium.

Just about rush hour, things turned topsy turvy. The Guru exercised his traffic mojo and we went “to the mall” Apple store and brought home a new phone for me. Lots of advertising focused (heh) on the three lenses, ignoring the one on the front for selfies. Now I have to study up on how to use all the lenses with technical intelligence and creativity. It was raining and getting darned dark when I made this photo (which would never win a prize of any sort). Still, the fancy algorithms produce an interesting image, no?

Posted at 9:08 PM | No Comments »

Last night was warm and strangely still, perfect conditions for mistiness to descend with the arrival of MrSun, first to the north where I usually photo, and then, later, in a second appearance of ground fog, to the south, shown here.

I am pondering what the googly, triple-eyed iPhone 11 Pro would do with this view…would it temper the murkiness (rrr), or enhance it? Or?

[Perhaps science is called for: get that phone; find “phog;” take pictures. Examine results.]

Posted at 8:26 PM | No Comments »

Public art one: red bird, airborne.

White bird: tethered.

I like the red one better; seems “free”er and less contrived. My imagination, perhaps.

“License plate” on rental electric moped. The second letter…you’re meant to see “U” not “O.” I see the intent, but it’s an “O” to me. The rest is…tacky. At best.

Posted at 9:03 PM | Comments Off on Public art. Plus.

Parked train.

We ventured out toward the ’burbs to a civic center to see model train layouts and the miscellany that vendors bring to such shows, table after table of tracks and trains and fake trees, and fake all kinds of landscape and small town elements. [We managed to not buy anything. Yay!] I did see a snack-baggie of scale model coal for $5. Wonder if the vendor bought it as “fake coal” or as some kind of generic project plastic granular sand or something….

Somehow, I managed to photograph this carnival ride that wasn’t even in a diorama. Somehow, it seems more interesting….

Posted at 7:56 PM | Comments Off on Still or swirling

Do I lead with the avian mural?

Or the decrepit machine?

Or the vegetation patterns on a stone wall?

I rather prefer the last one, but I’ll just leave it here at the end….

Posted at 7:51 PM | Comments Off on Eeny, meeny (no meany)

More rain as we continued our drive. For a while, with vineyards.

With rain rain rain, comes swollen rivers, irrigation canals, and ditches.

Dry in this tunnel. Named to honor Robin Williams.

Wow! Big bridge! Clearing sky!

Little boxes. North of Daly City.

Computers! A whole museum of them! I give you just one: a 1951 Whirlwind rack, MIT (the label said; I assume it’s correct!).

The giant, new Apple doughnut-building, side view. No entrance for civilians.

Instead, we can visit the roof of this “visitor center” aka Apple Store +. Note that the fancy white stone flooring (manufactured, polished quartz?) around the VC under the wide overhang, which is good for controlling sunlight/sun-heat, that stone paving is slippery when wet. Like today. On the order of a dozen security/employees were stationed outdoors under the overhang to remind people to be careful. Since I took my daily 30-minute walk circling the building over and over, I was reminded several times, then took to walking on the pebbly surface (not slippery) under the shrubby trees, as the rain was slacking off…. [I think the shrubby trees are Russian olives….] I’m all about form, function, and aesthetics, and the VC building was lovely. But. Slippery flooring? Hrrrumph. Also, the glass sandwiches making the railing for the rooftop viewing area: made in Dubai, and whoops in the Cali weather they expanded and had to be heated/dried (!!!) before they could fit together and be assembled properly. Heh.

Fine sunset over strawberry fields. They fumigate (gas) under the plastic; not at all green or friendly to Ma Earth…a good reason to buy organic berries. We saw two rainbows today…no photos of one, lousy ones of the other. Imagine.

Posted at 11:49 PM | Comments Off on Rain, some broken clouds

This morning I thought: I’ll walk this afternoon after I get some chores (especially laundry) finished.

Then, I heard that drippy noise that means rain. Ooooops.

After dark I realized that I didn’t have a photo for the day. Another ooooops! Then, outdoors, I had my phone flashlight on and saw (and smelled! inhale! enjoy!) a new crop of ginger flowers, and decided to take a night photo. Oh, I wondered, can I take a picture with the flashlight on? However, when I went over to the camera app, the light went out (pretty sure). Crappy photo yielded new data! Yay!

Posted at 9:11 PM | Comments Off on Accidental scientist

Body by tape.* It’s not the GM way, but it might work for you.

From a quick perusal of the company website, this is a pedal/motorized hybrid that may have solar panels. Maybe not so safe in urban traffic. Or around large, wild quadrupeds, either.

* Since Fisher is long gone.

Posted at 7:21 PM | Comments Off on Streetworthy

We managed to capture sunrise today…on the move early!

Midmorning, we rediscovered this stand-out antenna tree.

I read the weekly paper after we arrived, and discovered there’ll be a Three Bridges Walk/Run event in the next town this weekend. These are not the three bridges. And only one of all six is The Bridge. In the far distance here….

All systems back on-line. Whew. Basil survived! Thanks to pinching and care from loved ones who were here. Thanks!

Posted at 8:00 PM | Comments Off on Northing (day two)

One thing that we were hoping our new camera would do better than its ancestor, which we call “New,” is take pictures through the window while we’re driving and stay in focus. The ancestor fails at this while zoomed.

The new camera, aka Seis or Six, does not fail. However, its saturation is wonky (levels/color/etc. modified here). We’ll work on this and get the bugs out (heh).

Posted at 8:49 PM | Comments Off on Bye bugs