Yesterday's walk report: I'm doing this for my health?

Yesterday, November 1st. There was some weird stuff going on Halloween night, and I never figured it out. I would've swore someone banged on the door, but after I turned down the blaring Mahavishnu Orchestra from the TV and took a look... nothing. Nothing on the security camera either, although that thing is a crap shoot. I'm getting a new one. It was also raining, certainly hard enough to deter errant trick-or-treaters. The only real confirmation that something had happened was Junimoon; she was hiding behind curtains in her safe place in the living room. Maybe it was a ding-dong runaway, and they couldn't find the doorbell button. For the most part, Saturday, October 31, was a really good day. I only went for a short, 1.35-mile walk because rain was heading my way, and I had a lot to do, but for the most part, I felt the best I've felt in quite some time, all day too. 

 It seemed all that goodness was carrying into Sunday morning, despite the powers that be messing with the f'n clocks again. I was out driving to my launch pad for a walk by 9:35 a.m., PST, and I was on foot a mere four minutes later. Happy go lucky, feeling great on a beautiful morning after a total of 0.27" of rain. The air was cool and clean; the paths into the local college campus arboretum were quiet. Physically, every step was grounded. However, things changed once I was just over a mile into the walk. I was 0.97 miles from my car, and the walk became an exercise in quiet recalibration. I was talking myself through the simple mechanics of the path ahead to keep my thinking clear. Once I was back to the car, there was a deep sigh of relief. I was also able to sort through contributing factors and figure things out. Suffice it to say, it was an accumulation of factors. A couple of nights of fragmented sleep and the quiet, lingering fatigue of the week, plus some acute vestibular wobbles and disorientation, caught up to me all at once; high anxiety fed into a loop. 

Here are some pictures I took before I hit the abyss at 1.05 miles. Yep, I mapped out exactly where it happened. 

Female Calypte anna hummingbird.

The coreopsis, of course!

 I'm pretty sure this is one of the two gulf fritillary butterflies I saw last week. In fact there were two again but one moved farther away.

 Weather shot number one.

 Brittlebush (Encelia farinosa), still dripping raindrops. 

 The California Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma californica). I have a special fondness for these birds. 

 One of a pair of red-tailed hawks. This is a recent pairing. I'm pretty sure I know which birds they were. 

Female Selasphorus sasin hummingbird. It was very difficult to track.

 
Weather shot number two.

 By whatever mechanism, this clock had been adjusted for the hour change from DST to PST, however, it's also 15 minutes slow. It was a perfect metaphor for how I was feeling in this moment. 

 Mahavishnu Orchestra, Antibes (1974) 

P.S., I’m fine now. I took a brief 1/2 mile walk this morning just to make sure I was back on my rocker. 

A Halloween post walk, walk report

It was a busy morning and a rough night's sleep. Thanks, in part, to next-door neighbor's guests thinking it was a good idea to continue whatever went on inside out into the street at 3:30 a.m. I'm pretty sure excessive alcohol consumption was involved.* Be that as it may, I was doing stuff early in and around the house all morning, including ordering groceries for delivery. Ever since shortly before the COVID lockdown, I have felt that living a delivery-only lifestyle is a good idea. Once everything was put away (and Lucy got some dark meat roast chicken), I decided a brisk walk was in order before rain shows up. As it turns out, that's still a good 4 hours from now. While I was out, I had this silly idea... 

I bought the Jack Skellington onesie my first winter alone here, when I decided it was okay for most of the house to be cold--2013. Framing a photo proved challenging.
 
That, by the way, is my new "zero-gravity" chair so I can hang out in the backyard during cooler climes and enjoy butterflies and hummingbirds. There's a very old chaise lounge in the yard that is mattress-less due to squirrels remodeling their homes. It was mostly for the feral boys anyway. This chair comes inside after use. 

Happy Halloween, everybody!

Juni is finding the outfit very cozy.

 A Halloween tradition here...

Frank Zappa 10/31/81 Live At The Palladium

EDIT: The first link I offered was FRANK ZAPPA - Live at Palladium - HALLOWEEN, 1977. That was "age restricted." This is the MTV broadcast from 1981 and there's a bunch of banter nonsense at the beginning. I know almost no one ever clicks my music links but, just in case... skip to about 7:17 here for the start of the music. This is a VHS rip and that's not my fault. Also, it takes about 10 seconds to start.

 * Every Halloween I reflect back to Halloween, 2000. Tomorrow, November 1st, I will be 26 years sans alcohol. I find "sober" to be a tricky word but, yes, you can call it that. 

Today's walk report: In brief

Got out late.
Only visited the local college arboretum.
70.3º to 74.5ºF, with very bright sunny skies.
A bit blustery too.
Tropical milkweed (Asclepias curassavica) should be cut back within a week, but it probably won't be.
I spotted 7 monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus).
There were also two Gulf fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) butterflies.
The Coreopsis 'Moonbeam' is still flowering!
Roses are red (sometimes).
The All Valley Band Tournament is today, campus stadium.
There were a bazillion kids playing soccer. 
I only walked 1.4 miles. 
I can hear marching band drum cadences INSIDE MY HOUSE (0.84 miles away!)
In general, people are annoying.
The lovely Junimoon has been in my lap for about 98% of the prep and composition of this post.

Photos from today, October 24th. 

 

Epitaph (including 'March for No Reason' and 'Tomorrow and Tomorrow')

Knowledge is a deadly friend
If no one sets the rules
The fate of all mankind, I see
Is in the hands of fools 

Today's walk report: Atmospheric Water Glitch

 We got some rain here. Between yesterday around 12:30 p.m. and today, October 22nd, a total, so far, of 1.20". It's currently 3:30 p.m. and more rain is forecast for as soon as 4:00. Just after lunch I decided to take advantage of a lull and go for a brief yet exhilarating walk. I walked 1 km and back, so, 1.24 miles. The point was just to get out and enjoy some clean air. 

When I got back home I wanted to see if I could get a nice "weather shot" from either my front or backyard without including too much urban visual clutter. I could not. So. this is a compromise. The top 5/6 of the image is real, taken from the front of my house,  and the bottom 1/6 is AI generated. Yes. it would be nice. I'd only have to tear down five houses and this could be achievable. Is that too much to ask for?

Ah, watch out
You might get what you're after
Cool babies
Strange but not a stranger
I'm an ordinary guy
Burning down the house

 

Today's walk report: I got a rock

 In the spirit of, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, my walk today. I got out late, partly due to finding my camera battery was low but mostly due to fragmented sleep and then being slow to get a.m. tasks accomplished. It was 73º out of my car, walking and 79.6º at the end. I only walked 1.57 miles, albeit quite briskly. This was my only pause while I checked the playlist on my phone.

 I kept looking as I moved but nothing caught my eye for photos. 

Keep moving, Charlie...

 
In the early to late-90s, I used to co-own a little restaurant (combo, deli and market) and wound up doing all of the deliveries, which was fine by me because I would simply end up hanging out with a wide variety of creative professionals, and that's where my head was at. From as early as 1983, I began working with creative folks inside of multiple digital disciplines. Our location on Larchmont Blvd., L.A., was central to the Hollywood Media District, which included but was not limited to Paramount Pictures, Raleigh Studios, Klasky Csupo, The Record Plant, Todd-AO, and of course, just a couple of blocks up the street, Bill Melendez Productions. That was three converted residential houses side-by-side right on Larchmont Blvd. Bill Melendez and company, of course, did all of the Charlie Brown TV specials. He was a lovely person, and he, like many others on the studio circuit, didn't mind my hanging out. In fact, several of the studio heads encouraged it, so that's what I did.

I think I redrew this image in 2010. My little tribute to Snoopy, Schroeder, and Frank Zappa. It's a completely redrawn frame grab (aside from the piano and shadows).

 
Vince Guaraldi - The Great Pumpkin Waltz (Official Animated Video)

Today's butterfly: Junonia coenia

 I was so happy to see this butterfly out my office windows. I was about to tell a sad story about today's walk and taking pictures of this lovely butterfly rescued me. For anyone reading this, please take time to look at something beautiful today... and tomorrow... and the next day... And if you have children, give them a hug. 

The common buckeye (Junonia coenia) is a widely recognized brush-footed butterfly in the family Nymphalidae, famous for the prominent, predator-deterring eyespots on its wings. To the common person who gave it the name "common," what is your problem? I like Junonia though.

 Joining me off on the sidelines was the handsome Vit. Even though he's feral, Vit will tolerate me getting pretty close. He has also just recently started to meow at me. Vit's a little dirty. He's been rolling around in the yard. I think it might be due to the current prevalence of ankle biter mosquitos (Aedes aegypti). They've been driving me nuts too. Vit's plumping up for colder climes. He's already eaten three times today.

Willow Farm is a song that was incorporated into the masterpiece, Supper's Ready, from the album Foxtrot, 1972, by the band, Genesis. The entire piece is 22 minutes and 54 seconds long and I highly recommend listening to the whole thing. I've probably listened to various recordings of Supper's Ready more than any other song in my life.

If you go down to Willow Farm
To look for butterflies or flutter-byes or gutter-flies
Open your eyes, it's full of surprise
Everyone lies like the fox on the rocks
And the musical box
Oh, there's mum and dad and good and bad (Ah-ah-ahh, ah-ahh)
And everyone's happy to be here