Friday, February 04, 2022

Apologetic Burglar

John notes this:
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The first surprise for a pair of suburban homeowners in New Mexico was finding an armed burglar in their house. The second was that he apologized, and gave them $200 before fleeing the area.
A Santa Fe County Sheriff's report says the man left the money for a window he'd broken to get in the house, where he slept, dined and drank some beer. 
The report says the homeowners talked to the man as he packed up his duffel back and an AR-15 rifle. He told them he was running from someone, and that his car had broken down.

Thursday, February 03, 2022

The Iconic Las Vegas Sign on the Road to Los Angeles

I just had a very strange experience here on Blogger. My post - "A Drive Down the Las Vegas Strip" was flagged as spam, and pulled. I have no idea why that happened. I do have pictures of a series of casinos - what you would expect in Las Vegas - but I see these as physical objects, and not a commercial solicitation. But could it be construed as a commercial solicitation? Like, hey, visit these casinos? Maybe! So, anyway, here is the only photo I wanted to be sure to post - the iconic Las Vegas sign.

The iconic Las Vegas sign on the road to Los Angeles.

Wednesday, February 02, 2022

Rainy Season Stumbles Forward


The most erratic rainy season I've ever seen in Sacramento stumbles forward: October (wet), November (dry), December (wet), and January (tied for second-driest January ever recorded). Ominously, the first half of February also looks very, very dry. All the positive things about this rainy season are quickly turning to dust. 
 Still, Sacramento Executive Airport is 144% above-average for the season. Dropping every day, but still above average.

New Covid-19 Case Rates Are Falling Dramatically in the United States


In the United States, new Covid-19 case rates are falling dramatically. Still, Covid-19 death rates are rising dramatically (deaths being a lagging indicator). Deaths should peak shortly, and start falling. 
In the U.S., more than 888,000 people have died due to Covid-19 and its variants. New daily Covid-19 case rates above 1,000 in a million are outrageously high. The U.S. is at 1,300 in a million, and falling. 

Elsewhere in the world, case rates have reached up to eight times higher. There seem to be three tracks countries are on right now: A.) Above 6,000 (Denmark, Israel, Slovenia; B.) 3,000 to 6,000 (France, Austria, Norway); and C.) everybody else.

Social Media Can Do You Harm

This article reminds us that we are constantly getting rolled on social media, and that it can do us harm. Many things in modern society, from the manicured niceness of the suburbs to our fragmented religious yearnings, encourage comparisons where we fall prey, because we can’t help but fall short. 

What is reality? Our great challenge!
We often consume edited and fictional content unknowingly on social media. We forget that people can simply make things up and present it as truth. We—or I should probably just speak for myself here—I don’t browse these platforms expecting to be deceived, and yet I am deceived constantly. The imaginary and fantastical are presented as reality. This feels quite dangerous. 
Social media has exposed the fragility of truth. Often the spread of misinformation on these platforms is discussed in the context of politics and a threat to our democracy. But the more time I spend on the apps as both a creator and consumer of content, the more the threat of misinformation feels personal—it threatens the way, consciously and subconsciously, I perceive myself. And the internal study Haugen exposed showed that I am not alone. But truth and fact are not the priority for social media platforms—because truth and fact are often not as interesting as fantastic fiction.

Beautiful View of the Las Vegas Strip at Night

Some of the flights returning to California from Las Vegas pass directly over The Las Vegas Strip. At night, with all the lights, the view is gorgeous. Here is the view from my flight (February 1, 2022). The little Eiffel Tower at the Paris Casino is clearly visible.

 

Graveside at Ira's Funeral


King David Memorial Chapel & Cemetery, 11 a.m., February 1, 2022.
The service was straightforward.  The rabbi and another fellow spoke.  I recognized the rabbi - same fellow from Chabad Summerlin who presided over Daniel's bar mitzvah in 2008.  Ira's wife Marcy spoke too, as did her sister.  Marcy emphasized Ira's role as father; her sister told an amusing story about how her sister and Ira ran a kosher household.  A slide show was shown (which included Rachel R.'s photo of Ira and myself).  Some video was included too - Ira as dad with his little kids playing 'Run Around Daddy,' plus an intriguing drone video circling around Ira and someone else in the desert.  There was a little snippet of Ira making a last statement before his passing, but given the background music, he was too soft-spoken to be clearly understood.  Ira looked bedraggled and utterly exhausted.

At the end of the service, the funeral home representative and MC made a suggestion for pallbearer volunteers.  I stood up and joined the group.  We didn't have to carry the casket - it rolled on a carriage with wheels.  Our job was to escort the coffin on a slightly-irregular sidewalk to near the grave, then maneuver the carriage through the grass to graveside, where we would push the casket onto the device that would actually lower the coffin into the grave.

It looked like a nice coffin - pine wood, with a wooden Star of David applique on it.   It was strange to be standing right next to Ira, but be unable to talk to him.

On the way to the grave, a gust of wind blew my yarmulke off.  Someone was able fetch it and return it to me.  Others were suffering the same problem in the wind.  After awhile, I noticed one fellow was using his mask's rubber bands to hold the yarmulke on his head.  I contrived to do the same.

The graveside service was sad and very moving.  I had a chance to exchange brief words with Marcy.  She said, "I thought you were in the hospital."  I said, "I was, but I preferred to be here instead."

The rabbi sprinkled dirt from the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem over the coffin, then invited everyone to put several shovelfuls of dirt over the coffin.  The shovels were not to be handed directly to others, but placed into the dirt pile first, apparently to avoid bad luck.  The dirt was a solid reminder that this was real, and permanent.

The rabbi explained that Ira's soul was in a place of discomfort or torment until the grave was completed.  This was one of the most important of mitzvahs.  We could ease Ira's torment by doing something he couldn't do, or thank us for doing.  

Afterwards, there was a small reception at the funeral home.  It was somewhat hard to get to the food (lox and bagels; a kind of cinnamon cake, etc.), given the closeness of the space, the tables, the standing people, etc.  I talked briefly with Ira's brother Sam, his wife Verity, and Ira's mother.  I talked only briefly with Daniel and not at all with daughters Beth and Rachel.  It was nice to see Ira's granddaughter, Beth's daughter, born only last September, but soon enough to meet Ira before he passed on.

I didn't take any pictures of the service, but afterwards, at graveside, I was intrigued by the placement of this big concrete block (not a vault exactly, but something else?) on top of the coffin.  A big front-end loader crept amongst the graves and tombstones to reach out and carefully lower the concrete thing into the grave

Ira's temporary grave marker.   Here is a link to Ira's obituary.

Ira's grave.  Fortunately Ira's grave is pretty easy to find, and so I'm likely to come here again in the years to come.

A few last moments with Ira.
It's hard to conceive of Ira as actually being dead.  It seems wasteful and incorrect to put Ira into a box and place the box into a hole in the ground.  Instead, we should go get some pizza and see a movie together, or something.  But that is the nature of life.  And if the Grim Reaper has come for Ira, I can't be too far from that fate myself.

A Drive Down The Las Vegas Strip - February 1, 2022

There is so much construction on the Las Vegas Strip north of the Stratosphere Tower, and none south of it. It's easy to tell where the money is, and where it isn't!

Interesting.

Like a foreign capital.

Imposing buildings

Encore.

Fashion Show Mall.



The Venetian.

The Mirage.

The Venetian.

Flamingo Hilton.

Paris.

Cosmopolitan.

Flamingo and The Strip.

Bellagio.

That walkway between New York, New York, and the MGM Grand.



The iconic sign on the road to Los Angeles.

Las Vegas Miscellany - February 1, 2022


New York, New York, as seen from the walkway to MGM Grand.

The Luxor, as seen from Excalibur Casino's southern exit.

Yumlab.

Stratosphere Tower.

Interesting-looking apartment building.

Pawn shop.

Heart attack.

Crikey!  A B-2 Bomber!

Excalibur north wall.

New York, New York.

Excalibur.

New York, New York.

The walkway to New York, New York, from Excalibur.

Give me your tired, your broke, those on credit....

New York, New York.

Tropicana, as seen from MGM Grand.

MGM Grand, as seen from walkway to Tropicana.

Tropicana Hotel.

Tropicana Casino.

Excalibur lobby area.

The Neon Museum, Las Vegas - February 1, 2022


The Neon Museum (former Concha Motel).

Stardust Casino sign.

The Neon Museum (former Concha Motel).

The Neon Museum (former Concha Motel).

Showboat Casino sign.

Golden Nugget.



Yucca Motel.











Big skull face.



Stardust sign.

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1

Motel 51 sign.



Hail, Caesar!

Sahara Casino sign.

Stardust.



Too much to drink.

Hard Rock Cafe sign.

Lost Vegas.

Motel 51 and Concha Motel sign.

Moulin Rouge.

Hard Rock Cafe sign.

Rouge.

Moulin.

Yucca Motel sign.

Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse.



Red Barn.







Ernie's.

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Big skull face again.





Stardust.

Moulin Rouge.

Silver Slipper!