Science, Statistics, Politics, Current Events, Photos and Life.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Wind blown trees of San Luis Res

The wind must sail through fiercely.  All the trees had an angle to them.

Angle to the right.

Definitely agreed.  Lean to the right.

Wait, no!  Lean to your left!

More to the left.

I absolutely insist on leaning to the right.

And what's left of us lean to the right.

Water in the San Luis Reservoir

What's left of the water in the San Luis Reservoir.  My eyeball estimate is the water was down 100 feet from its high.  But take that with a grain of salt, I could be off a factor of 3 or more.  You can see the scalloped terraces of the sides of the reservoir from the water slowly leaking out.  Obviously they need to plug the holes in the dam better.

So many pictures, which to pick?  I picked more than usual here, because the water was so beautiful and the hills made for interesting contrasts.

Stand back from the dam.  Pack it in, pack it out, doo-dah.  And watch out for those rocks.  The trespassing sign is odd.  I guess you can go past this sign, the trespassing maybe only kicks in close to the dam?

Islands in the stream.  Island anyway.

Plants growing in lines along various shorelines.  The shore looks like a reservoir, not like a lake.  A lake would have mostly convex boundaries.  A reservoir looks like it filled a valley to a given level.

Two people walking to the lake.  The closer one is bent over inspecting the ground.

The dam structure.  And a see-through construction at the right end of the bridge.

And that unending sky.  Looks desolate.  A little like Mars.

San Luis Reservoir Objects

Some of the objects decorating the visitor center at San Luis Reservoir.

Flat bed truck outside the visitor center.

Only 4 cars in the parking lot but the pedestrians were so slow they still caused a traffic jam.

Just where is beyond?  Bed bath and ...? I can understand no pets across a line.  But you can approach a point from 360 degrees.  Suppose you came from the other end of the walkway and had a pet with you.  Could you not take the pet to your car?  This sign anchors three of the pictures in this post.

Portrait of a rock.  There were a number of these mammoth glacier riders on the grounds.

A second glacier rider.

You don't have chains hanging from the eaves of your visitor center?  The main point of this picture is the wood riser with its angled wooden supports on both sides.  It is vertical, so not a good sun screen. It had vertical slots, so it wasn't good as a bulletin board.  A wind break perhaps?  For catching small pets and slow pedestrians when the wind picks them up and sweeps them along?  I've no idea.  There were several dotting the landscape.

Trash, water, light, oxygen.

Close-up of trash can dressed in western (lack of) colors.

Golden Hills of San Luis Res

California is noted for its golden hills.  These particular golden hills are located near the San Luis Reservoir.

Dirt road over the hills into the distance.

Different angle on the same dirt road.  Freeway in the foreground.

Soft golden mounds with gullies between them.  One can imagine a gully washer, standing there in the cleft during a rain storm.

A different road through the hills and off into the distance.

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Santa Cruzin' Better Home and Garden

Typical home and garden in Santa Cruz, CA.  100 year old home, modern waterproof garden, and wildlife.

The happy novo lessor enjoying the fruits of his new leased home.

A typical Santa Cruz garden.  Yes, there is a live plant in there somewhere.  No, it's not a star fish.

Psychedelic succulent with touch of green.

And, always, lurking, in the neighbor's driveway.  High up, ready to pounce.  Beware or be lunch.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Widgets Around the Marina

Various objects d'interest.  Unlike people, these objects pose nicely for a shot.

I'm a bit worried, I may be standing on a helicopter landing pad.

Or a NASA landing pad.  Clearly this Mars lander has gone astray.

Infrastructure needs maintenance.  How do you know?  When your fire hydrants start bleeding, it's time to repair them.

Inside the microbus it was packed with similar sorts of toys.

Reflections off the water.

The last time we saw a Malibu Kayak, we were in Alcoutim in the far eastern side of Portugal on the river between Spain and Portugal.

I refused to walk under this sculpture.  I was afraid of bird poop.

Keep our beaches what?  Clean?  Hah.  Beautiful?  Definitely not.  Neat.  Well, maybe.  Such an attractive trash can.  Most of them don't have the lowfat cottage cheese container.

Purpose?  A spot of yellow at the beach?  Something to moor your bicycle to, although they tend to float away from these things anyway.  Perhaps they are there to keep you from driving your ATV over the water pipes hidden on the other side?

This used to be a full service bathroom.  If you go around to the other side, you'll find the toilet.

Signs of the Marina

With boats and water comes many many instructions.  Here are a few to keep us healthy, happy, hale and hearty.  Not to mention heady, hurtful and hinky.

Please read.  And after you're done reading, it'll be time to go home.  Aren't humans animals?

So wait, do I have to register if the owner thereof is home?  And such a highly visible sign.  Wasn't close to any walkway whatsoever.

We spend more time dealing with poop than any other species on the planet.

Trees of Marina del Rey: Sex and Dancing Edition

Local flora of Marina del Rey.

Spindly legged dancer in a tree costume.

Gracefully twist but don't shout.

Two trees making love.  Imagine the mess.  And it takes forever.

Marina del Rey Buildings

A few buildings visible from on top of the Marriott.

Latitude appears to be a restaurant, but the web site was down, at least for LA, and some indications were that it was closed.  But the advertising lives on.

Stripe mall.  Ok, strip then.

And the glorious LA view.  The blue shaded homes in the foreground cost about a million each.  Now you know what to get me for Valentine's day instead of chocolate.



Marina del Rey

Was permitted to visit Marina del Rey last week.  The surprising thing to me was the lack of interesting pictures to take.  I found a few, but generally the place was uninspiring.  I eventually found a pleasant walk around the Marina, but I had been expecting expectacular, so pleasant was unexpectedly blah.

This is the first set of photos.  These are the "it's a marina so there must be water in there somewhere" shots.

From on top of the Marriott.

From on top of the Marriott in another direction.

There was a tiny little beach.  After what I saw in the water, I can't recommend hopping in the water, but there was real sand and to all appearances, a read beach experience to be had.  Plus it wasn't crowded!

Them there boats in them there water.

And if you wait long enough, a crew team rows on by you (bayou).

Oops, watch the hat.