A Temperature Bump

That's kinda cool. Here in Sacramento we are in the "warm sector," in advance of the approaching cold front. Despite the usual pattern of temperatures dropping after sunset, at about 10 pm, temperatures bumped upwards by two degrees before dropping again. Some of that warm air from the south is getting pulled north as the storm approaches. It's not as cold as last night. If we could just lock the storm in place maybe we could lose some clothes.

Jasper Reaches Safeway!

Today is a landmark day. As part of his ongoing effort to explore the Newton Booth neighborhood, Jasper walked all the way to Safeway. I thought it was too far for him and his little legs, but I was wrong. He may be a silly dog, but he is in robust good health. 

Safeway was the favorite destination of Bella, my previous dog. Bella loved finding food in the bushes at Safeway, including that one time she found an entire, intact rotisserie chicken. When Bella passed away in 2016, I buried her tags under this rock.

The British Look Forward to Working with Donald Trump

Hilarious video at the link.

Beautiful Lunar Display

We are in the year of maximum lunar standstill, the culmination of the 18.5 cycle, whereby the Moon swings to the maximum northern and southern paths that it can possibly reach. 

The last four nights, the full Moon has put on a magnificent display. It's so far north now (+27.5 degrees) that it passes almost directly overhead here in Sacramento. It's wonderful! We have about eight more months of this. It'll be 2043/44 before we see the like again!

Favorite Top 10 Pop Song List For 2024

I was thinking it's about time for 2024 end-of-year lists, and I wanted to do a favorite Top 10 pop song list for the year. I ran into two problems: 

1.) It's hard to keep the list to just ten songs; and, 

2.) Most of the songs were released well before 2024. 

Oh well! 

I've been tracking pop tunes since 1969. My head is jammed with various pop tunes and genres. Pop music is evanescent by nature, and should expire fairly quickly (thus, I loathe the Classic Rock format, which keeps zombie songs going for decades and ignores older tunes that never got much air play.) 

Anyway, here are my fave pop tunes from 2024 (or actually 2023, as it may be): 

It was a Chappell Roan year. The Midwest Princess' "Hot To Go" and "Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl (both from 2023) are great! 

Other tunes: 

Sam Fender "People Watching" (2024) 

Olivia Rodrigo "Bad Idea Right?" (2023) 

Taylor Swift/Ice Spice "Karma" (2023) 

Taylor Swift "Anti-Hero" (2022) 

Malandra Jr. "Sveva" (2021) 

Sabrina Carpenter "Feather" (2023) 

Young Fathers "I Saw" (2022) 

Doja Cat "Agora Hills" (2023) 

Rema/Selena Gomez "Calm Down" (2023) 

And for honorable mention: 

Rosalia - "Con Altura" (2019) 

I wouldn't even mention Rosalia except George Morales had the uncommon, unbelievable luck of serving her on a transatlantic flight earlier this year. Plus, even though she sings reggaetón, she grew up in flamenco culture, and her songs feature many flamenco references. It's fun to tease them out (De Las Islas).