Happy Friday everyone. I hope everybody is doing well. Post any photos, memes, or music you like.

It's been a week of beautiful weather. Sunny blue skies and temps in the 70s.
On a less positive note our local utility company, SDG&E (San Diego Gouge and Extract) has decided their profit margin isn't large enough. Now they want to add a surcharge based on your annual income on top of their already exorbitant utility rates.  All us rate payers are keeping our fingers crossed that the proposed increase will be denied by the PUC.

I had not been to the zoo since August so I decided it was time for a visit and spent a few hours there Tuesday morning.

Happy Friday everyone. I hope everybody is doing well. Post any photos, memes, or music you like.

Has anybody heard from Janis b? She has not posted in over two weeks. Her last post didn't mention anything about taking a break from posting or leaving the site. I sent her a PM on Tuesday asking if she was okay, but have yet to receive a reply. I hope nothing serious has happened to her.

On the local homefront we had some scattered showers Wednesday night and yesterday. Sunny and cool today and continued warming over the weekend. Supposed to be in the low 80s by the middle of next week. The price of gas dropped another 20¢ in the last week to $4.69 a gal. I'm still waiting for the cost of groceries to come down. I'm not holding my breath on that happening any time soon.

Trees. They come in all shapes and sizes and provide a valuable service to the ecosystem. The world would be a pretty bleak place without them.

Happy Friday everyone. I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday. Post any photos, memes, or music you like.

Woke up to the pitter-patter of rain this morning, with more showers possible throughout the day. Sunny warm days to return tomorrow through most of next week. The price of gas has finally dropped below $5 a gallon for the first time in forever to $4.86. Food is still expensive as hell. 1 gal milk $5. 1 doz eggs $7. 1 loaf of wheat bread $6.50. 1 lb ground beef $6. I go shopping once a week. It's a rare day when I can get out of the grocery store for less than $100. All part of the cost of living in paradise.  I hope the paradise you live in is more affordable.

Since most people probably had turkey on the menu yesterday, I thought some other large birds would be fitting.

Great Blue Heron

Happy Friday everyone. I hope everybody is doing well. Post any photos, memes, or music you like.

We had a little rain on Wednesday and there's more in the forecast for this weekend. The long range forecast is predicting sunny and 70s for Thanksgiving day next week which will be nice.
It's good to see the price of gas has been coming down the last few weeks. When I filled up the other day regular was $5.09 a gallon. A drop of about .30¢ since the last time I filled up a few weeks ago. Now if only the price of food would come down.
Wishing everybody a Happy Thanksgiving next Thursday.

A little of this and that from here and there while out and about.

Happy Friday everyone. I hope everybody is doing well. Post any photos, memes, or music you like.

The days are getting shorter. Temperatures are dropping. Leaves are turning colors. Fall is in the air. That means our avian guests from up north have started arriving in the county for the winter. 

White Pelicans preening.

Happy Friday everyone. Hope everybody is doing well. Post any photos, memes, or music you like.

El Día de los Muertos is not, as is commonly thought, a Mexican version of Halloween, though the two holidays do share some traditions, including costumes and parades. On the Day of the Dead, it’s believed that the border between the spirit world and the real world dissolves. During this brief period, the souls of the dead awaken and return to the living world to feast, drink, dance and play music with their loved ones. In turn, the living family members treat the deceased as honored guests in their celebrations, and leave the deceased’s favorite foods and other offerings at gravesites or on the ofrendas built in their homes. Ofrendas can be decorated with candles, bright marigolds called cempasuchil and red cock’s combs alongside food like stacks of tortillas and fruit.
https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/day-of-the-dead

Some of the decorations for the Dia de los Muertos celebration in Old Town San Diego.

Happy Friday everyone. I hope everybody is doing well. Post any photos, memes, or music you like.

The camera club I belong to meets twice a month. The second meeting is always at the Photo Arts building in Balboa Park where we discuss club business and show photos from our outing earlier in the month . Since the Photo Arts building is right across the street from the rose garden, I like to get to the park at least an hour before our meeting starts so I can wander around the garden with my macro lens looking for bugs.

Unknown fly

Happy Friday everyone. I hope everybody is doing well. Post any photos, memes, or music you like.

It's been a slow week. Most of it spent unwinding and decompressing from having family here last week. The weather has been great most of the week although it was hot yesterday(90s) and will be again today and rain is in the forecast for Monday.
I don't drink milk so I can't say what the price is for a gallon, but I do put gas in the car and the price for a gallon of regular has been holding steady at $5.50 +/- a few pennies the last two weeks.

Between lakes, reservoirs, rivers, streams and 60 miles of coast line, San Diego county has lots of places to find shore birds. These are some that I've seen in the last few weeks.

Adult Willet Non-breeding

Happy Friday the 13th everyone. I hope everybody is doing well. Post any photos, memes, or music you like.

I had family in town visiting this week. On Tuesday we went to the Maritime Museum of San Diego. It was a beautiful sunny day with temps in the low 70s. The last time I was at the museum was four years ago. Since that time the boats are looking a little worse for wear and the Russian submarine they used to have is no longer there. I don't know if that has anything to do with the war in Ukraine or not. I also noticed the HMS Surprise is now tied up on its starboard side. Last time I was there it was tied up on the port side. All in all it was a fun day and week.

https://sdmaritime.org/visit/the-ships/

The first five shots are the Star of India, the second five are HMS Surprise, the ship used for the movie Master and Commander.

Happy Friday everyone. I hope everybody is doing well. Post any photos, memes, or music you like.

It's been a little toasty the last few days with temps in the mid 90s. Yesterday the Nation Weather Service issued a heat advisory that will be in effect until tomorrow night and temps will remain high until Tuesday before it starts to cool off.
Filled up the car yesterday, $5.85 for a gal of regular. It was $6.09 at the Shell station just down the street from where I filled up. So glad I ditched my gas guzzler for a hybrid last year.

This time of year the Damselflies and Dragonflies are out in numbers so I've made three visits to Santee Lakes in the last week to photograph them. So far I've only seen one species of Damselfly, the Rambur's Forktail. Most of those have been blue but I did see a few orange ones. I saw five different species of Dragonflies and managed to get shots of three of them. I spotted both the Black Saddlebags and Western Pondhawk but wasn't able to get any shots of them, but I did get shots of the Blue-eyed Darner, Common Green Darner, and Female Variable Darner.

Blue-eyed Darner