Yesterday was a great day to take photos of snow covered volcanoes. Marg Miller and I took advantage of the clear St. Stephens Day weather, toting cameras to the Dam road and capturing the beautiful sights. (If you missed the Feast Of Saint Stephen, it also happens on January 6)
Centamundi boat ramp parking
People were out on the lake, testing their new Christmas trucks, boats and fishing gear.
Lassen Volcanic Park panorama picture
I used an App called PhotoStitcher to make that panorama from 4 individual images.
Christmas Day;
We Three Trees, left one is mine. Nan’s, then the Taylor’s. Oh, how they shine.
To give a sense of scale, the lights on my little tree are the same size as the ones on the other trees. It was nice to visit with friends on Christmas.
“A-1 sauce?”, Stu Taylor laughingly muses
Yes, it was the traditional prime rib Christmas dinner at the Taylor’s. Stuart provided a perfectly cooked roast while family and friends provided mouths to eat it.
Long Night Full Cold Christmas Moon
I hope everybody found at least one reason to love each other this season of winter celebrations. (Backyard barbeques on the Atlantic coast in December and all.)
Among the things I have been saving up for a rainy day are fix-it projects. So far, I have managed to repair a nose hair trimmer that didn’t work when I got it 5 years ago. Now I have 2 fully functional nose hair trimmers.
I feel a mild sense of accomplishment, and I can keep from having a “nosestach”.
Saturday ‘day’ moon
Another fixit project was the trackpad on the MacBook. I really like that older laptop because it is still running Apple magic programs on the Mountain Lion operating system. It is way more fun than this bothersome El Capitan and associated poorly considered improvements to the basic Mac program sets.
Saturday afternoon Redding view
The trackpad had become stiff and difficult to click, so I set about finding the trouble and fixing it.
The problem wasn’t the trackpad, but a swollen battery pack. It is a chance I take when purchasing third party replacement parts because the high cost of genuine Apple parts are usually more than I want to budget for.
Lassen Park obscured
I have the original battery pack for my late 2008 MacBook that I could put in it until I get a new replacement, but it most likely won’t hold a charge. I would have to always plug in the MacBook to a power source.
Dean took pictures of P&P last Monday
Just for fun, I plugged in the MacBook without a battery, (With no battery it weighs practically nothing). By golly it works and feels like a MacBook Air on my lap. Problem solved.
We had some rain yesterday and a pretty good storm last night. I used my FZ8 to take pictures in the rain because the FZ70 (my favorite) is not a camera that I want to get wet.
Today I took some new pix with the Lumix FZ70, but before I show you those, I thought you might enjoy Will Ferrell as George Bush from Saturday Night Live, last night. I saw this clip on Crooks and Liars today and thought you might enjoy a little comic relief;
Fresh snow - FZ70
The hills and mountains got snow from the latest storms. I went out early this morning, 10 ish, and took a few pictures as the western skies cleared enough to see Shasta Bally.
Perfect red rose
We still have a few roses and assorted flowers that are blooming. A good thing.
Love the purple
The Treehouse lake even made an appearance…
Reflections at the Treehouse
The weather forecast indicates a couple days of clear skies. I may head a few miles east, west, or north to photograph some snowy scenes while opportunity shines.
I hope you are enjoying this December so far, wherever, you may be. Here is…
The sex goddess of the silver screen and her partner songwriter, George Antheil discovered a method to prevent jamming of radio signals used to guide torpedos from nearby airplanes in 1940. Their work was patented in 1942 and given to the U.S. Navy for free, but the military did nothing with it until the 1960s.
So far this year, Americans with guns have killed over 12,000 of their American neighbors, friends, family, and even themselves. We sure kept them foreigners from killing those 12,000 Americans, didn’t we?
What ever plan our country has been following for the security and general welfare of its people isn’t the one in the constitution. Helping the NRA to make sure everybody buys guns so we are safe is like using gasoline to put out a fire.
And the “war on terror”? Everyone who supports our pubescent 8th grader solutions to complex problems needs to turn off the talk radio and 24 hour TV news. The Foxholes who promote violence and hatred should be in jail awaiting trial for aiding and abetting murderers, arsonists, and traitors.
Now, I will tell you why;
None of the people who advocate war and bombing and boots on the ground, or any of those things that have accelerated the fires of war, consider what happens after that. They just listen to others tell them what to think and do.
To come up with realistic and effective solutions to ISIS, I recommend that everyone, including the president and our generals (if they are literate), read The Playbook that ISIL is following so we can stop reacting in ways that cause us to defeat ourselves.
The Management of Savagery, (in the playbook) is the method by which they have provoked us to become more savage in our responses until we have become the evil aggressors who are terrorizing the world.
Here is one solution: Stop what we are doing for ‘security’ at home and around the world and start learning all we can about “The Enemy”. Then we can begin to understand their problems instead of raining more death and destruction on them. (We stupidly expect this strategy will produce good results)
On the night before Thanksgiving, the full moon was bright in the chilly air
Saturday dinner Nov 21
The week was filled with songs and spectacular images
High in an oak tree
Sunday the 22nd was a nice day to take pictures in the afternoon from the cul de sac while conversing with friend and photographer, Margaret.
Colorful leaves came to life in the sunlight
Monday was the Treehouse musica-stravaganza-jamboree with Peggy and Phil performing in the dining room. That’s an event I love to attend.
A light dusting of snow on the hills to the east
It was chilly on Wednesday morning when I went to play and sing at Golden Umbrella. The people there provided a warm welcome and there were smiles all around while I sang and played. A nice way to start the day.
Shasta on Thanksgiving
On my way to Thanksgiving dinner with the Stuart and Sandi Taylor family, I stopped at the top of Hilltop and Lake to take a picture of Mount Shasta from the lot next to the car wash.
Dinner was nice, Amber and the grandkids were there. Austin brought a friend. Her name was Dakota. Of course I asked, “North or south?” (crickets)
Thanksgiving moon
Somehow I managed to stay home today even though millions of dollars were spent enticing me to shop the bargains on Black Friday.
A bright sunny Friday
Today was sunny and bright and I did get over to the shop to play some tunes with John.
I have much to be thankful for. Too many joyful appreciations to fit into one day each year, but it is good to share an annual day of gratitude with all of North America, eh?
It was a day to seek answers or wander to enlightening moments or places.
I was thinking about Whiskeytown Lake and photo opportunities. That would focus my attention on the workings and movements of seasonal changes, and perhaps I would return with images to share.
Obviously what I sought, I would find on Eureka Way. The word play was tantalizing and the answers awaited my participation.
There were many sights to photograph. Too many to post individual images, so I made a slide show. I used the unedited, unprocessed RW2 images because they looked better that the ones I edited, enhanced, and layered to unreproducible complexity.
Watch these 5 minutes of images and be transported to the magical, majestic and mysterious world right here in Redding, somewhere along Eureka Way.
Self righteous, self proclaimed Christian politicians in America are showing their true cowardly lack of faith by adamantly turning against people desperately fleeing from the insanity and horror of rampaging fanatical killer cultists in Syria. Why would our leaders close the door on men, women and children fleeing for their lives? Because these rich influential men are afraid of terrorists.
Sorry, they’re a bit late. Those bootlickers must have skipped history classes and haven’t read the news. We’ve had Christian Terrorists killing school kids, doctors, families, blowing up women’s health clinics, burning churches, and spewing hate on TV, radio and the internet for years.
Thanks to the NRA, and the politicians they own, every wanna be terrorist has the right to buy all the guns they need to carry out whatever crazy murderous notions they might have.
Our own American terrorists have murdered scores more people in America than “foreigners”. Heck, our own police forces shoot 800 or more Americans every year.
And children? 10,000 American children are killed or wounded by guns in America annually. It’s mostly their friends and relatives doing the shooting.
Doing some home improvement
“In everything do to others as you would have them do to you”. That is the basic creed of Christianity. I am guessing that doesn’t apply to the pretend Christians that wear American flag lapel pins on their $5,000 suits and denigrate those who aren’t millionaires like them.
Treehouse ambience
I live here at the Treehouse, along with 60 or so other Seniors who for one reason or another depend on a small, but reliable income from Social Security. We live in well maintained, comfortable, safe housing thanks to HUD rental subsidies.
We have healthcare thanks to Medicare and Medi-Cal, (Medicaid in other states). We don’t live like kings and queens, but if we are frugal, we can eat nutritious food, wear clean clothes, and respect ourselves and our neighbors.
Republicans have stated many times that they want to put an end to HUD, Social Security and Medicare. I guess they think we are senile or crazy because they still expect us to vote for them.
I don’t care how much TV and radio airtime they spend slinging mud at the democrats, at least the democrats aren’t planning to pull the rug out from under us.
Rambling Treehouse rose
Some of my neighbors and a few people who work here have let TV and radio personalities convince them to vote themselves out of their home, job, income and health care. If they don’t wise up and start supporting democrats, we will all be homeless, jobless, sickly, and penniless.
The lost souls have nearly a year in which to come to their senses, but the sooner we can get them to turn off the the relentless doses of hate, fear and divisiveness the sooner they will regain control of their own hearts and minds.
