We took a quick drive to the top of the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Southwestern Los Angeles County today, despite our busy schedule of chores, errands and shopping. The visibility was pretty good, but the lighting was unusual due to high clouds in the area. I took this photo of a freighter slowly making its way toward the Los Angeles Harbor through the Catalina Channel. You can see the Catalina Island Isthmus and Ship Rock at Two Harbors in the distance. Click for the full-sized image.
I took this photo of Avalon Harbor from the hill, south of the bay, near the Wrigley Mansion. We were in a tram getting a tour of the town of Avalon when we saw this spectacular view. At the time I took the picture, I was using 35mm film in my old Canon SLR, so this had to be scanned into electronic format. Since it was sort of grainy, Bob went with the flow and applied a photo shop tool to make it look somewhat like an oil painting. Anyhow, this was the result. Click for a bigger version.
As an interesting aside, visitors on the Avalon tour don’t get to go up to this location these days. There is a problem on Pebbly Beach Road, just below this location, with rock slides. The Island Conservancy is concerned with liabilities associated with injuries to visitors, so neither the tour tram nor those little golf carts are allowed access to this area; this is a unique view of the town these days.
It’s December and just like the last several-to-many years in this location (I forget how many years), Santa made his annual fly-by our house this evening. Thanks to the sponsorship of the City and our first-class Police Department, Santa is able to visit most of the residential neighborhoods in town. He stops every block or so to hand out goodies to kids, young and old.
Here’s a short video of the man in red as he makes his fly-by. Santa made his next stop just around the corner from where the video ends.
As I made my rounds through reading the blogs today, I ran across a post that made a connection to the SR-71, which got me to look for this favorite picture of that magnificent aircraft.
As for the post (hat tip to The Liberty Sphere), it was not really about the SR-71, but about a speech made by a former pilot of one of these. These patriotic words of Brian Shul are partially listed at the Bloviating Zeppelin who has a very nice article and picture of Shul: Good Morning Monday: A Speech We NEED To Remember.
If you want to see this bird full-sized, click on the image above.
Lately, the flower concession at the supermarket has been offering some very nice rosebuds. This pink one has been in the vase for about four days and has opened nicely. These aren’t very fragrant, though, but they have a hint of the familiar perfume if you get close enough to them. Click image for larger view.
Not much to report today. We shot the usual assortment of guns and calibers. All of it was enjoyable, if not close enough to the center of the targets. We’re getting better, though.
Here, Damsel aims her Para Warthog Compact .45 caliber pistol at a paper target seven yards downrange.
Damsel and I attempted to go to the Gun Show today. We got as far as the parking lot at the fairgrounds when we noticed a HUGE throng waiting in what appeared to be an hour-long line to get into the show. Clearly, the Obama elect effect is in evidence here today.
We mutually decided that the wait, plus what would obviously be overcrowding inside, would not be a good investment in our time nor in the wear and tear on the nerves. We executed a missed approach and headed back to home base.
I ordered everything that we had on our gun show wish list (except ammo, of course – %&*?!@ California laws) from on-line sources when we got home. I found some good deals on the shooting accessories and cleaning items we needed.
In a while, I’m going to fire up the BBQ and crank out a couple of Beef Tenderloin Steaks for the main meal today. I’m nursing a Samuel Adams as I write this and Damsel is sipping some Chardonnay – our attitude adjustments are in progress.