December 2024

Christmas Eve.

Earl has been busy in the kitchen working on Christmas Eve snacks. We keep it informal at the Desert Compound. I have to keep reminding myself it’s Christmas Eve; the sun is shining brightly with the promise of a beautiful sunset and the temperatures are still well within the 70s on the Fahrenheit scale.

I talked to family back east a little while ago. I’ll be giving them a call again tomorrow.

I’m enjoying sitting on the gazebo writing this blog entry, with a small glass of white wine to sip while composing the bits and bytes. I’m feeling particularly reflective and pensive today. Today was a normal workday for me, but since the team is awesome, I gave them all a head start on their Christmas celebration.

This holiday season has felt like one of the more lower key holidays of my adult life. I’m feeling merry, just not as loudly so.

24 December 2024 by Ponderings and Musings 0

Outside.

I just took this photo while running out to the mailbox. I love the color of these flowers. Unlike much of our landscaping, our landscapers have not put a label as to the type of flower seen here, but I believe it’s bougainvillea.

Even though we’ve lived in the desert for nearly four years, it’s hard for me to believe that I am sitting outside in the gazebo, watching a beautiful sunset, and Christmas descends upon us in less than two days.

For this (former) northerner, it doesn’t feel like Christmas, despite the mall speakers screaming about “let it snow, let it snow, let it snow”. The family has done a fantastic job of decorating the house for the holidays, so that’s a wonderful thing.

I’m ready to wind down 2024. I feel prepared for 2025, whatever that may bring.

In the meanwhile, I’ll just keep enjoying the beauty around me.

23 December 2024 by Ponderings and Musings 0

Hey!

Pecos Hank on YouTube has an excellent year end video showing many highlights of storm chasing season in 2024. His videography is an inspiration for me.

If you take a look at 14:16, you’ll see me parked and capturing the Eldorado and Duke, Oklahoma tornado back on the 23rd of May. Seeing me in someone else’s storm chasing video just made my day.

22 December 2024 by Storm Chasing. 0

Caturday.

This photo was taken on Tuesday evening.

We washed Truman’s cat bed this week because it was way overdue for such attention. Apparently he is not pleased by this action because up until yesterday afternoon, he chose to ignore his cat bed and sleep on top of his little cat-hideaway, which he almost never does.  

At least he’s keeping an eye on the Network Attached Storage (NAS) server.

This photo was taken Friday afternoon. All is back to being correct in the cat world.

21 December 2024 by He's A Feline. 0

Slipping.

I took a look at the news today and saw what’s going on with the U.S. budget and how the government will probably shut down tonight. I feel bad for all of the working Americans that will be affected by this action. Apparently there was a bipartisan bill to keep things moving but at the last minute Sissy Space X got the House Republicans to kill the thing, so now there’s a scramble.

There’s always a scramble.

I’ve been seeing inklings of how Musk appears to be calling all the Presidential-elect shots and basically telling Trump to do. I guess since Musk isn’t eligible to be President of the United States, he just bought his way to the top instead and is telling the old guy what to do. 

That’s not how any of this works, but I gave up that dream at the beginning of November when voters decided one term of chaos wasn’t enough. I blathered on about it on Facebook just because I could. I really didn’t think the Co-Presidency would be so blatant this time around. I guess I’m not as smart as I thought I was. Or, I guess I had more faith in the system that it deserves.

For now I shall go back to keeping my head down like I’m sitting in Room 108 in the elementary school, waiting for the buzzer to ring so I know it’s time go do something. 

In the meanwhile, I am focused on things that give me joy, such as my video production, geeky things like cash registers, visiting with family and friends, and trying to embrace the holiday spirit. 

It’s time to shut the news back off and find some joy out there, anywhere.

20 December 2024 by Politics. This Ain't No CNN. 0

Superman.

OK, I’ve kind of lost interest in the litany of superhero movies we’ve been assaulted with over the past few years. However, the trailer for Superman, coming out in July ’25, looks really interesting and has a beautifully familiar feel to it.

19 December 2024 by Ponderings and Musings 0

About J.P.

Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.

Weird? Eccentric!

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