Saw a landslide today

Rocks and dirt tumbling right down the cliff toward the road where I was driving. Had the camera with me too. Was not even tempted to stop and get a pic. The above photo was taken later at a safe place.

Sunny Again

That's more like it.


Look at these pretty ones taken by Mr. Sunny.

The snow is still hanging around

Usually it melts off in a day or two but this time it came during a cold snap so, we get to "enjoy" it a little longer. At least we didn't get new snowfall on top of the old-necessitating any more shoveling. Believe it or not the photo below is not intended to be black and white. It really was that grey out. Lots of fog. Overcast. Ble-ech.

In the eyes of the beholder

Driving home from work just before dusk recently, I briefly got a glimpse of the waning sunset reflecting in a drainage ditch while whizzing by. Didn't have the camera with me and there was no place to stop. No possible way to stop in the rush hour traffic anyway. Interesting to see something scenic in an unlikely place like that though. Would have been a nice challenge to try to get a decent picture of it.

It was just a drainage ditch. A pit where disgusting discard liquids drain into and get ditched off to some undoubtedly revolting place-probably a cesspool. Amazing how an ugly thing can be seen as lovely if viewed in a certain way. I had probably driven by it a hundred times and never even noticed it until this one time when there happened to be a visually redeeming quality about it. I liked it. Anyone would have if they happened to have the chance to view what I did. And, maybe they did. Hope so. The evening commute was more uplifted because of it.

That got me thinking about how beauty is in the eye of the beholder. OK, I admit anyone who finds it in a drainage ditch is probably really looking for it. Some might argue desparately even. Ha, but no, just happened to notice it.

(Don't be shocked, but, even Sunny can't always find it. For example, a couple decades ago while we were still living in New England, I bemoaned to my brother how much I despise snow and bitterly cold weather. In a word, that would be WINTER, in certain climates. To my surprise he responded, "I manage to find a lot of scenic beauty in it though." Now, I know that boy hates cold weather just as much as I do, so, I wondered, "Is he just trying to look on the bright side, or, does he really find something nice-looking about it?" For the rest of that winter I looked at the snow and tried my best to see the beauty. Absolutely no luck. All I could think about was how COLD it looked. Even now if we go up in the mountains where there is a lot of snow in winter it just looks very unattractive to me.)

So, I decided to go ahead and post some pictures that aren't very attractive. Because, even though sometimes a picture isn't worth a thousand words, these were taken during fine times. The beauty was in the eyes of the beholders-at the moment they were beholding it!


Young friends of ours, Joey and Jalissa, recently announcing their newly engaged status at church.

The picture did not come out very good. It was kind of dark in there and I could not get close enough for the flash without making a spectacle of myself. I bet it will look good enough to them though, since my poor little pics were the only ones taken of the event. It was a very happy time.


Mr. Sunny tries out his new surf-board in the lake.

He enjoyed surfing (with a rental) when we went beach camping so much that I urged him to get a board of his own. Plenty of room in the back of the truck to take it along whenever we get to the beach. We don't live near the ocean though, so, we took it up to the lake a few times to play around. The picture didn't come out very good but it was a good, good time. That was the last little bit of warm weather fun we had this past summer. Made some great memories.

Back from Las Vegas again

Returned Baby Aileen to her parents.
Here she is 'helping" wehsumgmo drive.

And here is an updated photo of her lovely sister.

While we had little Aileen here with us I took her to church a couple of times. One of the door greeters is a dear older stroke survivor. He has all his wits about him but can no longer get the words out of his mouth the way he intends for them to sound. Folks still line up to talk to him though because, between vocal inflection and facial expression he manages to make his best word, "Oh", pretty meaningful. Anyway, he saw me bring the baby in and signaled me with his eyes that he'd like to meet her. I brought her over and introduced them. "Neekim," he told her sincerely. "Goo-goo-gah-gah", she grinned back. And they understood each other perfectly.

Fall Fotos

Adrienne and Aileen

I'm back from Las Vegas where I was taking care of the grandnieces who live there while their parents had to be out of town. The picture of the baby is current, but her sister is now six years old and in first grade. Both girls have been featured on this blog in the past, but, you know how kids keep growing and changing, makes it hard to decide which of their cute kiddie pics to post.

Another year-another "Chuseok"

Korean Thanksgiving was this week. It coincides with the Harvest Moon. The Harvest Moon is the biggest full moon of the year. The full moon was either tonight or last night, depending on who you ask. This photo was taken tonight. Looks pretty full to me - even if a little lopsided.

I never much cared for "Chuseok" as a holiday. I don't even like the sound of the word "chuseok". It sounds exactly like CHEW SUCK in English. Like, you chew a bunch of food and suck down a bunch of beverage. Which is actually pretty appropriate considering that the entire celebration consists of getting together for a huge meal with the extended family...uh, oh yeah, just like the American Thanksgiving.

Info via internet indicated that Chuseok was yesterday, but I think the local relatives celebrated it the night before. Maybe they were doing it a day early here in order to celebrate on the actual holiday over in Korea which is a day ahead of us.

They aren't the only ones guilty of celebrating occasions a little off the actual day. For example, Halabogi's birthday is tomorrow. But, I have to work tomorrow evening, so, I went ahead and brought over a cake etc. today. I figured it wouldn't matter that much because...


I know for a "fact" that Halabogi's b'day is tomorrow. It says right on his passport "Date of Birth September 27, 1920". That would be his passport issued by the Korean government. I highly doubt the Korean passport issuing office is in the habit of making up dates of birth on a whim. Furthermore, as the power of attorney conducting all his business, I have to give out his birthdate on a regular basis: to the social security office, medical facilities, etc. I think I have it memorized by now! Even so, it was mentioned to me that this might not be his real birthday, since it is not based on the lunar calandar. Preferring to be safe rather than sorry, I proceeded to bring on the goodies. He was pleased. Especially with the gift. (Probably any one familiar with Korean customs can guess what THAT was.) Seemed to be expecting some kind of recognition of his special day. But, he also softly reminded our niece, "Don't forget my REAL birthday on October 19!" Ah well, At 87, it is better to have too much birthday than too little.

Blue Blog

It may have gone unnoticed that the last few posts were blue.


Blue sky...blue sign...blue ocean...blue shirt.


And, now, the brilliant blue color of Mono Lake-snapped from the window of the truck as we whizzed by.

Control Alt Delete my sister

My dearly beloved friend came all the way up from Escondido to be with me at Dana Point and share her comfortable accomodations. In the elevator at her timeshare we met this cute kid and his sister who gleefully told us about his collection of "sister" T-shirts. He was most eager to be featured on the Sunny blog. But, since I didn't see his parents around to ask permission, we had to compromise. His SHIRT is featured but not his face!

Dana Point

We spent last week at Dana Point. High points of the trip included meeting in person my on-line buddy the lovely and charming Robin Kim. She drove all the way down there in the traffic and heat from over an hour North and West of there with her two delightful daughters who were both so pretty I could hardly take my eyes off of them. Also got to spend time with my good friend of several decades from Escondido. It was nice, nice, NICE!

For no reason at all as far as I can see

I was poking around in the desert one day and captured this sight from afar. Quite far, thankfully. There is a military establishment out there in that general direction but I have no proof if it was them or not. Kind of spooky looking. Can't say I see much call for that kind of thing.

No special reason to post this either. Except, to validate anyone out there in blogland who feels just about to BLOW UP.

Too cute to not blog

This guy has the right idea. Every town has a jokester! I've heard about these signs before, but had never seen one untill yesterday

I wouldn't mind a trip like that myself

They got to make masks, lanterns,

and fans.

More of Jimmy's trip

The kids in the group got to have some nice hands-on experience with traditional type Korean percussion instruments.

But, some of them were hands-OFF!

"King James"

It was a good time for the kids on the Korea trip. They got to visit the king's palace-which is presumably preserved and restored from the olden days,

and dress up in old-timey traditional clothes.

Here is Jimmy playing the part of the king at court.

Jimmy just back from Korea

Here's a photo he took on the grounds of the Blue House (Korean equivilent of our White House). More pics coming later.

From the front yard

A picture really IS worth a thousand words.

Here they are from another angle.

More "Shawn-anigans"

Shawn was so delighted to be featured on Sunny's blog that he proceeded to provide us with a series of antics to prove that he is at least more

entertaining than the dog. He keeps asking if this will make him famous.

Hope he's not disappointed in his dream of being mobbed at the front door

by adoring fans, camaras flashing, and a microphone stuck in his face.


Watch for him on TV, in movies and interviews.

He's already been in ads.

The rest is all due to appearing on Sunny's blog.

Don't forget folks, you saw it first and you saw it here.

Jack-antics

Jack is quite the entertainer. I hooked his leash around the bike handle and found out that he likes to pull the bike uphill with me on it

Whenever Mr. Sunny is repairing the innards of the jet-ski, Jack is right up there peering in with him.

These photos are pathetic attempts to recreate the actual event. Note that I am actually going downhill and back pedaling to give him something to pull against. He is pretty clever but not enough that we can get him to pose very long for a picture. Also, he was getting tired of it all.

And Shawn-shinanigans

Little fellow that we have over sometimes is great friends with Jack. They like to "dance". Jack loves to stand on his hind legs and kiss people in the face-whether or not they like it.

Signs of the Times

Korean and Spanish are the only two foreign languages that I've become slightly acquainted with. So, I appreciatedthis neatly penned, home-made message at the Korean grocery store in Sacramento. Even the graffiti (look close).

The Korean folk immigrating to America knew they'd have to struggle with a new language, they just didn't know it would be Spanish. What really slayed me was the young Spanish speaking fellow working in the LA Korean grocery who knew the names of everything on the shelves-
IN KOREAN.


The next pic is a sign that was inside the restroom of the Korean grocery store. Inside... the...

Korean store where a lot of people were shopping who may not have known any language but Korean yet. So, what does the County of Sacramento give them? A sign with not a single word of Korean on it!

Somehow I found that hilariously ironic.

.

Something to Blog About

A hazard of this area is the wildfires every summer. Once there was one so close to our neighborhood that we were pretty close to getting evacuated. You could stay or go but they wouldn't let you back in. We stayed. Mr. Sunny went to check on the relatives in the nearby subdivision about 4 miles away and he had to hoof it back home because they weren't letting cars through. Another time a lightning strike started one less than 1/4 of a mile down the street near the aquaduct. They sure got that one out fast. Did WE stoop to joining the looky-loos? You better believe it!

Yesterday's fire was too close for comfort. We could see the flames from our bedroom window. Of course we had to drive closer for a better look.




The top photos are of the chopper carrying water after filling up in the river. Folks were fishing and swimming and 50 feet away was this big collapsable bucket in the water with lines attached leading to the aircraft above.

This next pic is one of the bomber planes spreading retardent around the perimeter to contain the fire. I was concerned about the chemicals until I heard it is a kind of fertilizer that also helps restore the soil afterwards. The way they were flying right into the smoke, it didn't look like they could possibly hit the target. But, they did a good job. This morning you could see a perfect ring of red around the blackened stubble. I appreciate that too because, while we have sage brush to spare, I really get offended when the fires hit the tree line.

If THAT was a little too close, TODAY was really something to write home about. Believe it or not, there was ANOTHER wildfire on the other side of the river at about the same time of day. Technically it was closer to our house than yesterday's but because of the hill in the way we couldn't see it from home. BUT, we tried to go to church and the fire got so close to the building that the sheriff came and evacuated us. We had to get out by a special fire route because the main driveway had fire on both sides. Did we have the camera! NO! Would we have risked getting arrested for hanging around taking pictures instead of getting out of there as instructed. NO! NO! NO!

Good thing we got plenty of photographic evidence yesterday.

An even better thing is that we don't "get" to see this kind of thing too often.

Last but not least

Lompoc

We took a little side jaunt down to the flower-farming town of Lompoc. Even though this is not considered the prime time of year to see the flower fields, I correctly figured they'd have at least something going on all the time (considering the growing-friendly climate of the area).

These will be transplanted and transported to nurseries and the like. It was kind of wierd to think that some-one's next house-plant might be from these carefully-cultivated fields....all that careful cultivation of flowers...those carefully cultivated....

cauli flowers? What is THAT doing among the posies?

Serendipity

Due to time constraints, we could not linger at ALL the interesting-looking places on our little trip, so we ended up finding some spots we'd like to go back to. Especially Morro Bay, where you can see a variety of birds. (The one above was actually photographed by Mr. Sunny at Point Lobos State Park.) I had no idea a map-dot like Morro Bay, with a ROCK like the Morro Rock, even existed, so, it was a nice surprise to discover it.

Another place that was surprisingly pretty was the drive between Visalia and the Sequoias. It starts out with tidy and attractive orchards, then you pass by Lake Kaweah, and finally the foothills. Even though we were probably there at possibly the only really pretty time of the year, I totally recommend seeing this area if the opportunity ever arrives. The best word to describe it is peaceful looking.

DLiteful Surprises On The Road

It was a trip of sometimes stunning beauty with waterfalls,

pretty little coves like this one,

Coastal cyprus trees (who knew?),

and, surprisingly,

since this is not a "wildflower" year

(has to do with the timing of the rains),



we saw a fair amount of wild blooms.

Saw some cultivated ones too but that's for another post.