September 11, 2013

If You Speak Spanish And You Survived, This Sign’s For You

When you enter Mandalay Beach in Oxnard, California you see a sobering sign:

Welcome to our beach. You're on your own.

Welcome to our beach. You’re on your own.

Now, millions of folks in California speak Spanish – and quite a few of them speak Spanish, only. Recognizing the need for a sign in Spanish, attached to the back of this sign is the same warning, translated to Spanish:

Just FYI.

Something to talk about as you head home.

Just one problem. You won’t see this sign unless you are leaving the beach. So. If you speak Spanish and you survive your day in the Oxnard waves, as you depart you will learn just how lucky you are.

September 10, 2013

Water Lines

When away from Oroville Dam in northern California, I can resent its intrusive existence and its destruction of the Feather River. Yet when I visit and walk across the dam, I see the beauty that remains. Currently, the reservoir is low on water, which exposes  patterns that disappear when submerged.

lowdam2photo

The current Weekly Photo Challenge wants photos from an unusual perspective.)

September 9, 2013

My Birthday Week (I’m Milking It!)

If I must acknowledge getting older, then I prefer to have my birthday celebration spread out over days. This year I’ve got a birthday week – and if I count the concert with a friend in November, I’ve got a birthday season!

Hiking at dawn! It has been too long.

Hiking at dawn. It has been too long.

Highlights this year are two dawn hikes (my first hikes with my new hip), a trip to the beach, and dinner at a favorite restaurant. My kids also gave me a book of dustbowl-era political and social photographs:

My kids got me this book.

Looks like an interesting book and its photos are unforgettable.

It’s an awesome book but what really makes it special is the thoughtfulness with which they chose it. (They figured it fit with my love of Woody Guthrie and my recent interest in traditional bluegrass.)

At last, hiking again!

September 8, 2013

My Personal Space Telescope

On my recent walk across Oroville dam in northern California, clouds moved rapidly across the sun – all these photos were taken during just a few, rapidly evolving minutes – and created a spectacular scene that looked like star nebula photographed by the Hubble.

cloud7photo

cloud5photo

cloud4photo

cloud1photo

The current Weekly Photo Challenge wants photos from an unusual perspective.)

September 6, 2013

Book Review: “Dark Tide” by Elizabeth Haynes

3 STARS

The staid and wild sides of a woman’s life collide when a body washes up on her newly purchased houseboat.

I loved the first half of this book – for a while it was so hard to put down, I feared that I had derailed my life by picking it up – but gradually interest waned. It remained fun to read but the story got more predictable, I never really liked the main character, and I got frustrated with the number of times that she made boneheaded decisions that put her in danger for the service of the plot. Curiously, for all the sex, the book was not very sensual. All in all, a fun read but nothing special. The locations are cool though: the main character lives on a houseboat she is in the process of fixing up.

This book was written during NaNoWriMo, a one month writing challenge. Frankly I wish the author had given it another few months.

I got this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

P.S. Here is a synopsis of the book with embellishments by the publisher.

September 6, 2013

Repeating Landscapes

Reflections and shadows make the world more intriguing. This is true in people as well as terrains, but I don’t have photos that demonstrate this for personalities.

August’s full moon was so bright that it cast shadows on my car and produced enough light for me to take this photo:

That bright dot is the full moon, reflected in my car hood.

That bright dot is the full moon, reflected in my car hood.

An easy hike up Malibu Creek in southern California leads to duplicate images in this still and reflective pond.

Can you find the water line?

Can you find the water line?

Look in the pond and see the sky!:

Pond's-eye view of the sky.

Pond’s-eye view of the sky.

A tree’s reflection in the pond:

Another pond's-eye view

Another pond’s-eye view

The current Weekly Photo Challenge wants photos from an unusual perspective.)

September 5, 2013

I Had Better Get Busy

My “desert island” food is the blueberry. My “desert island” place is the ocean. Which proves convenient: I don’t have to bring my favorite place with me to the desert island, it will already surround me.

Desert island. Typing that phrase, I realize how comfortable I am using language when I don’t entirely know what it means. That must get me into trouble sometimes but apparently I don’t know when that happens.

Desert island. Somewhere remote and cut-off, I figure. Checking that infallible source of information, the internet, I learn that a desert island is an island that is not inhabited by humans.

(Sue’s first rule of blogging: start with a digression. Or four.)

Here’s the point: I love the ocean but I have only been to two of them.  Mostly the Pacific. Occasionally the Atlantic. Surely I need to see the others, and visit them from more than one location. Which means I had better get busy and travel faster.

Here is what the Atlantic Ocean looked like during my visit to a Florida beach:

The Atlantic Ocean from a beach in central Florida.

The Atlantic Ocean at sunset from a beach in central Florida.

At this beach it was not a good idea to walk while enjoying the view. There were dead jellyfish everywhere! I don’t know whether this was typical for this area. Perhaps I visited during a time of jellyfish affliction.

Dead jellyfish covered the beach like land mines.

It was a beach of dead jellyfish land mines.

(In response to this Weekly Photo Challenge.)

September 2, 2013

Certain Songs I Can’t Ignore

There are some songs that are so captivating that whatever my mood, whatever else is going on, they grab and elevate. Below are three of my all-time top endorphinators. What are yours?

At their peak -which is saying something! – here are Sly and The Family Stone, “Dance to the Music”.

In the mid 1970s Ireland produced a splendid pop band called The Undertones. Apparently they are back together and touring and their Youtube performance videos are good but lack the magic of the original recording when they were babies. This is “Get Over You”.

If you are a Replacements fan, I don’t have to tell you how special this band was. Everybody else, you might get a chance to see them. Tommy and Paul – half of ’em – have reunited. I avoid most reunions because the old days can’t be resurrected, but there are exceptions (X shows are as good as ever!) and it sounds like the Mats will be one of those. Here is  “Favorite Thing” from Riot Fest in Toronto. The sound is murky. It’s the Mats.

This fourth tune is fairly new so I don’t yet know whether it will remain potent over decades as the others have. It’s a Sara Watkins fiddle tune, here played with her brother Sean.