Friday, January 09, 2026
Thursday, January 08, 2026
Traveling Monet Experience
On December 29th, Rachel and I visited a traveling Monet show, one of several such art-related shows in recent history, at a warehouse in West Sacramento. The works of the artist are projected onto the warehouse walls, which appear to be painted for this purpose.
There were several rooms, portraying: 1.) A room at Monet's house in Giverny, France, 2.) the gardens at Giverny, and 3.) a very large room outfitted with comfortable chairs for resting.
I really enjoyed the large room. It's very soothing to simply relax among pretty displays. Zen-like. We need to do it again!
Wednesday, December 31, 2025
Animals Just Trying To Hide In Plain Sight
Why aren’t birds gathering at my feeding spot? Oh, it’s because this soggy-looking hawk is surveying the scene from the lamp post above.
Two squirrels, and the hawk as well, are trying to avoid the intrusive human and his dog. The squirrels are also trying to avoid the hawk’s attention. One squirrel is trying to stay motionless on the right side of the pole, more or less hidden from the hawk. The other squirrel is scrambling up the pole directly under the hawk - a difficult place to reach.
Christmas Shopping On December 23rd
Evacuated from Barnes and Noble, for unknown reasons.
(I eventually learned they were testing an alarm system next door. And it works! It works at B&N too. It’s alarming!)
In Arden Fair Mall proper now. I’m not in Kansas anymore.
Trying to overhear conversations…
“I need an iPhone 15.”
“It’s just a metal cube.”
“I don’t remember her ever talking about her lips.”
ABBA - Happy New Year
There's an article in Salon explaining that this song is very popular in Vietnam.
I found out that people back in those days didn’t really have a lot of options in terms of entertainment. Therefore ABBA is one of the few [bands accepted] because we as a country didn’t have a lot of hostility against the Swedes because they were advocates against the Vietnam War.”
Good Humor Man of Anxiety
My house backs onto a parking lot for DMV workers. This morning - the last morning of 2025 - I awoke to repetitive honking from out there. Someone had apparently triggered their vehicle's alarm, and couldn't figure out how to turn it off. At a loss to find a solution, they began driving in growing circles around the parking lot, in the hope that would help. It seemed they had become a Good Humor man of anxiety, spreading their distress all around. A fitting way to end 2025. 2026 will be better.
Monday, December 22, 2025
Very Uneven Precipitation So Far In Northern California
Here's a plot of precipitation for the last seven days in northern California. It is SO uneven!
They had flooding in Redding, where it rained about 7.5 inches. More than 14 inches fell north of town.
Precipitation exceeded 20 inches in isolated mountain areas of northern California - 22 inches east of Paradise. Yet rainfall has been minimal in Sacramento (0.32 inches at Sac Exec Airport), and it hasn't rained at all in Modesto.
Rain will roll in again on Christmas Eve. Forecasts for the three-day Christmas period Dec. 24-26 look very wet in northern California, even in Sacramento. Estimated rainfall for the Sacramento area over the next six days is about 3.5 inches.
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