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Friends,
Man, this has been a tough couple weeks for superstars, hasn’t it. Now there are reports that Karl Malden has passed at the age of 97. For me, he was the only good thing about The Streets of San Francisco (A Quinn Martin Production, I believe.).
– bob
Friends,
I wanted to drop a little note to wish you all a happy Canada Day. On this day, roughly a hundred and a half years ago, Canada became a self-governing dominion of Great Britain! Hooray for not-quite independence day!
So head on down to Tim Hortons and grab a Strawberry Bloom Donut. You deserve it, Canada!
– bob
Friends,
The skies above my charming (and enticingly temperate) hamlet seem to be threatening rain. We’ll take that, of course, but the scenes on offer a little after 5:00 have been pretty fantastic as well. As always, click the thumbnails to see a giant version in another window…
Your pal,
bob
Friends,
I’m afraid that this shot in the Sunrise Series just doesn’t capture how grand the view was this morning.
Click on the thumbnail above to open a larger version in a new window.
Cheers!
– bob
Friends,
Today, Lindsay Wagner turns 60. Eventually it had to happen, but the event still makes me feel ancient…
…but not stupid. The scene on this lunchbox seems a little daft since the Bionic Woman wasn’t known necessarily for her driving prowess, now was she? Some illustrator who hadn’t seen the show got the assignment and, apparently, went on her own merry way.
“What’s this Bionic Woman, mate?”
“She solves crimes on American telly.”
“Oh? Why’s she called ‘Bionic’ then?”
“Beats me. Here’s the publicity photos. We need your draft by noon.”
And I suppose that was that. Well, happy birthday and enjoy the mattress!
– bob
Friends,
My access to this mess from work this morning is pretty broken, so I won’t be able to check in on America’s Favorite Clam for her take on the weather. I’m also embarking on a little road trip this weekend, so posting will either be very light or extremely heavy, depending on whatever these things depend on.
As always, thanks for checking in.
– bob
Friends,
A friend at work (who has refused to drop by the comments – *cough!*) has requested more photos from the trip to convince her son that the nation’s first park might merit a visit. Message to “Sparky”: you must go. It’s a phenomenal place to see.
…just don’t step off the walkway onto the “fragile crust” surrounding the geysers. As a side note, they pull boiled bison out of those pits with truck-mounted winches. Just so you know.
– bob
Friends,
One of the most entertaining parts of the trip was a lesson in the wisdom of the crowds. Once in the park, people feel free to stop their vehicles whenever (and I mean whenever) they see something neat to photograph. The passengers pile out, cameras in hand, and take happy snaps. Then then next car comes and also stops, presuming that the driver of the first car must be on to something. Once the third car arrives, the sighting becomes an event. Now everybody stops to see what all the fuss is about. All of the passengers of the all of the cars begin to mingle “Did you see that? That was amazing!” fills the air.
It’s like a tiny festival on the side of the road that I believe should be recreated more often. I propose that you keep a camera in the car and stop to take a picture whenever you see something interesting. Maybe you’ll attract a crowd…
Couldn’t hurt.
– bob
Friends,
We’re back from a little volcano in Wyoming and have some pictures to prove it. See?
There’s about six hundred and fifty more, but I thought these were pretty good to share right now. There’s a bear somewhere in that pile…
– bob
Friends,
I’m headed out on a little vacation today and will return in a week. We’re going to one of the country’s more expensive national parks – the one with the reasonably predictable geyser, if you’re wondering. The plan is to take a ton of pictures, but the weather may not cooperate. Cold and rainy is the prediction for whole week, so we might spend more time enjoying the interior of the rental RV than we’d hoped for.
Let’s go camping!
– bob
Friends,
I have to be honest. The sunrise scenes during my morning commute just haven’t been all that interesting (or easy to grab with my little brick of a camera). Until today…
By the way, you can click on this picture to see the full-resolution version in a new window. It’s reasonably large though, so if you have a slow connection it might take a while.
Enjoy!
– bob
Friends,
There are mandatory water restrictions in Los Angeles and San Diego going on right this very minute. You get to water your lawns on Monday and Thursdays now. Oh, there’s more for the flatlanders to take in. The dean of Los Angeles political reporting Rick Orlov poses the hypothetical…
Residents who fail to achieve the 15 percent reduction in their allotment can expect to see their bimonthly bills to increase from $83.52 to $92.35. If they do reduce consumption by 15 percent, the bills are expected to drop to $71.59.
Yay, recession!
This won’t harm anybody at all. Thankfully, the dysfunctional Idyllwild Water District doesn’t have anything to do with the DWP. Not that they won’t take a cue from the nonsense down below and raise rates up here.
Well, at least we won’t have to worry about utility increases from cap and trade “nasty carbon” taxes.
Oh, wait…
– bob
UPDATE: Edited for a little more clarity. Added some punctuation.
Friends,
The President of these United States is scheduled to announce the creation of a new position in the administration, that of Cyber Security Czar. Hopefully this completes the collector’s set with the Drug Czar, Car Czar (Chooch!), the Border Czar and the Regulatory Czar making up the rest of the set. Seriously, can we please stop with the Czars already? The title was cute once, but are these positions endowed with the power to be ruthless autocrats? Will each of these individuals be executed by Bolsheviks? (good bolsheviks are so hard to find these days. – ed)
There are so many other titles that might be used in place of the vaguely exotic “czar or tsar” that it’s hard to know where to start. Emperor? Dear Leader? Party Chairman? Each of them has the right tone, but if you’re really going for a sinister and despotic vibe, may I recommend Special Assistant to the President?
Nah, too creepy.
– bob
Friends,
Why are the Big 3 Detroit automakers in such dire straights? It’s marketing, of course. In 1967 American Motors was sitting pretty (oh, that’s debatable, isn’t it? – ed Leave the Matador coupe out of it.) and having fun. How much fun? This much…
Sure, it’s a lovely car, but what’s happening in the background?
Like a rock? Not really. Dodge boys have more fun? Not likely. Would you really rather drive a Buick? Please. Certainly not your father’s Oldsmobile. Can you see Government Motors or Fiatsler (Chryslat?) doing something like this? Wait, doesn’t Chrysler own the AMC intellectual property assets?
– bob
Friends,
Today we hold a special election in this great state of California which asks voters to bless legislative theft from different programs and constituencies to cover for their inaction. A simple thing, really. We labor under the highest tax burden in the country, but the assembly has raised those rates and would like our vote to keep them longer. The Lottery has some cash that they’d like to use to fill the budget gap. Maybe little children and the mentally infirm won’t notice if their pockets are picked as well. Sounds great! Where’s my polling place!
Polls show all of the budget related measures slated for crushing defeat. The nice thing about crushing is that it’s so much more satisfying when it’s louder, so go out and vote.
Your pal,
– bob
P.S. Yes, I know the budget deficit is slated to top $21 billion if the measures don’t pass. I also know that there are going to be painful cuts either way, except that the defeat of these measures amounts to a public outrage chaser.