http://cnn.com/video/?/video/us/2011/07/19/vo.nasa.atlantis.undock.nasa
(can’t get CNN video to embed with window, sorry)
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Photo of the Day
Well, Spring has definitely sprung here on the edge of the plains. It’s a different transition than the one I grew up with. It starts small, but it grows exponentially once it’s underway.
And one of the reasons it’s so easy to see Spring is how brown everything is in winter. I would guess that in San Diego many of the plants don’t lose their leaves in Winter, so the general landscape continues to have some green. But here, 75% or more of the plants are nothing but brown sticks in winter. Except for the Junipers and pine trees, which in late winter are a sickly sort of olive green/brown color, everything is bare. But within a month of the first buds appearing, the plant life has gone crazy. Everything is blooming and leafing out with abandon.
I always said that the seasons in San Diego were for people who appreciated subtlety, and Spring was no exception. Although the local grasses responded to the rain quite quickly, most of spring didn’t leap to life like it seems to here. Spring here seems to arrive like an earthquake, not much warning beforehand, but them ‘Bam’ there it is.
Spring also seems to be wetter than I’m used to. Had two gray rainy days here this week; that would be very unusual in San Diego. But less morning marine layer here in Boulder.
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Yes, it’s snowing. And this is what it looks like. The roads are still clear and it’s above freezing, so travel is still not too big an issue. It is supposed to be cold overnight, so ice may be an issue until the sun is up a while tomorrow.
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This is Christmas Dinner in 1972. I took the photo, so you don’t get to see me at 9, but that’s my dad on the left, my grandmother in the middle, and my grandfather on the right. Yes, my dad put on a tie for Christmas; not sure about my grandfather, who usually dressed up as well. As was often the case, one light in the chandelier is out. They always burned out on a different schedule. And you may not be able to see it well, but those curtains have a kind off old english town street on them. I always thought they were very odd, but if I you go back to this photo, you can see that they were replaced with an even worse (in my humble opinion) floral print (although time may have altered the photo a bit).
The other interesting note (to me) is that at this time my dad wasn’t using arms on his wheelchair. I’m not sure when he put them on for good, but I think it was fairly near this time. And of course, there’s the serious over-the-top 1970s mustache he had, but then everyone did at that time.
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The weather in San Diego is supposed to be in the low 80s over the weekend – not quite tropical, but certainly warmer than many places in the US. This photo is from our trip to Tahiti last year. We had a day-long excursion to a small island (motu to those who speak the local lingo) that we refer to as BBQ island. The trip was great and I’d love to take another cruise with the Royal Clipper line in the future. Highly recommended.
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Yup, that’s me in December 1965 sitting on Santa’s lap. This is from back when Santa sat in the window of the Broadway Department Store at Chula Vista mall so that everyone could watch the kids see Santa. I was 2.5 so I have no memory of what I wanted to Christmas, but knowing my dad, I’m sure I got it if it came from Sears (that’s the store he had a credit card for). And yes, I really did have blond hair as a child, for those who doubt my present hair color!
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While looking at Nativities online, I ran across this site
, which details some of the worst nativities I’ve ever seen. The ducks at least are whimsical; some of the others are downright scary. Like the Naked Troll Nativity – no I’m not kidding. Thank goodness that the collector that gave the Museum over 500 sets didn’t see these.
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And this is what playing in the snow looks like. Although you can’t see the purple Fiat Spider Convertible that we rode up the mountain in. It all made so much more sense in college.
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This is the view from the roof of the lobby of Mudd-Blaisdell dorm at Pomona College. Or at least it was. I haven’t been on that roof in nearly 30 years. The snow and cloud covered mountain in Mt Baldy, not a bad place to ski, I’ve heard. From the school to the top it took about 40 minutes, a drive I made to play in the snow a few times. I would guess this photo in from Feb-March on 1982. And I bet there were people studying in the sun all around my when I took the photo.
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So, now that I have a good portion of my photo collection digital, I’m going to try to post a photo each day.
For today –
I was given a Desert tortoise when I was around 6. That guy didn’t last long, but my family bought another that lived till I was in college, and then made a run for the great outdoors. The enclosure was made by my grandfather, including the little concrete shelter (my grandfather could’ve made a car out of nothing but concrete if necessary). He ate primarily romaine with other veggies and fruits as we had them. He really loved strawberries. He also ate the most spiny cactus that we put in the cage as decoration. We called the tortoise Yertle, even though he wasn’t a turtle, but he never came when we called!!
By the time that Yertle made the run for the great outdoors, it was illegal to obtain new desert tortoises as pets, so that ended our reptile pet experiment.
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