image by AI; my own prompt Earlier this month, I was looking at my ‘upcoming blog post ideas’ list just before going into my bathroom for my morning shower. I was lamenting that none of the subjects on my list were very interesting, and contemplating skipping a couple of posts until there was something I really wanted to write about. And then, as I was brushing my teeth, not just one, but three interesting new ideas just ‘came into my head’. I raced around for a scrap of paper and pencil to…
On Thursday the state government announced the date of contactless payment 'tap and go' roll-out on Melbourne buses. That date is Sunday 26 July 2026. This is a big deal because tap and go makes payment for bus travel easy for any full fare payer with a credit or debit card. Trains and trams have already been contactless for some weeks prior. Contactless will remove a significant barrier for spontaneous trips. Right now there is a need to find a Myki outlet, buy a card ($6 before any travel),…
Power Cat 2026-07-17
not because you were so sick you passed out on the rug. we did bedtime together. stories, songs, fave part of the day. a chat. some giggles. goodnight. we left the room, left the door open. you talked to us from your bed for a few minutes, told us to go to sleep. i tucked you in like three more times, and i let you know if you kept talking we’d have to close the door. you asked to close the door because you didn’t want anyone going into your room. five minutes later, you’re asleep!!!!! AH.…
Odds and ends in town today, let's start with a new tick, Flight Club:Behind the modern frontage is an antique-style bar on two floors. Dark woodwork, leather upholstery and even a fake brick arch create a pleasant ambience. The quirky lighting strips add to this.At half one on a Friday there were two darts games underway, plus a group of drinkers relaxing at a large table.My pint of Neck Oil cost £6.95, I get the feeling today's jolly is not going to be a cheap one.I noticed they've also got a…
Dr. Drang: A couple of days ago, Casey Liss took a break from arguing about temperature scales to tweak me about the recent passage of the Sunshine Protection Act by the House. The Act would make Daylight Saving Time permanent, something Casey knows I disapprove of. A similar bill passed the Senate a few years ago, and Donald Trump has said he will sign this one, so there’s a decent chance it’ll become law. Let’s see what will happen if it does. Like many people, I was all ready to abolish DST…
"To all who come to this happy place, welcome!"Those words were said by Walt Disney on July 17, 1955, and today thus marks the 71st birthday of one of my very favorite places, Disneyland USA.As is the case most years, I was blessed to be able to spend several hours at Disneyland on its anniversary today.Our time at the park today included visiting several favorite rides, including one of the opening day attractions, the Casey Jr. Circus Train.We also enjoyed a few other rides, including…
After dinner we could slightly ease our course, trading some of our gained height for comfort. The night skies also cleared, and there was a huge shooting star streaming across the skies in the early hours. Pretty soon afterwards we started getting some shelter from the island of Tahiti, making for a more comfortable going. Eventually wind also died, and in the morning we had to motor the remaining miles. We hailed Papeete Port Control on VHF and were given permission to enter ahead of a fast…
Hog canyon Kanab Utah 37.09950° N, 112.50993° W Heading home; Going to kanab Here's the google map https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Fish+Lake,+Utah/37.0808346,-112.5294977/@37.0792953,-112.5354841,1335m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m9!4m8!1m5!1m1!1s0x874a52dbe40c46dd:0x555439702e21c704!2m2!1d-111.7078073!2d38.5501871!1m0!3e0?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDcxNS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D Apple Maps. https://maps.apple.com/directions?source=Fish+Lake+Resorts%2C+2+SR-25+Venice%2C+UT++84701+United+States&source-place-id=I228…
Balloons. I've had this image in my "photos for the blog" folder for a couple of weeks. That does not usually happen, because I mostly post images from the same day. But today I only photographed my kids being very happy about vacation starting. Oh, and it was the very last day of Kindergarten! 😱 How time flies!
Unknown location (probably inside)
Today, I endeavoured to travel to a Japanese volcano and visit a traditional Japanese onsen. I failed in such a spectacular fashion that it makes this particular report almost pointless. That’s not to say I didn’t travel. Boy, did I ever travel. I was still feeling worn out from my day at the Disney park yesterday and got off to a late start. I figured a soak in a natural hot spring would be just what the doctor ordered. I headed onto the subway and, following the directions of Apple Maps, just…
I’m at the end of the first week of my summer vacation and already the days are starting to blur together. I’m sitting on my balcony while writing this, the smell of rain in the air. It’ll be good to get some rain after these last days of heat. My roses are really feeling the strain of the heat - I’m seeing drying leaves on the Rosa Helenae rambler, and some dry heat-loving spider mites on the Rosa Camelot.
the nights are getting darker I try not to think about it the air feels like a shift away from summer already, again and I'm still here time is cruel, it won't stop not even for a moment it's a train refusing to wait that I gather the courage and jump aboard
We were back in the Bay of Islands with a weather window developing on the forecast, so we told ourselves. The forecast changes. It always does. For now, we waited. Kerri was on the WhatsApp with the community, watching the same ten-day horizon everyone else watched, knowing it would shift and crumble as it got closer. Meriwether was ready – we’d provision in Russell when it was time – but first we had to let the latest system pass over us and ride its tail out into the Pacific. The math was…
Desert Brat 2026-07-17 women are always making faces in the mirror
The following is a method I am trying out, and it might change to address needs I cannot foresee now. Emails start to pile up. Meetings demand attention and consistent follow-up. Add some unrelated stress to the mix, and here I am, resuming my bullet journal. However, a bullet journal cannot really contain all the information needed to complete my tasks. Enter the work journal. I don’t know whether that’s a thing, but I’ve been wanting to set one up for some time. Here’s what I did. The concept…
Hi all! I’m joining #WeekendCoffeeShare once again. It’s now 7:30PM, so I’ve had my last cup of coffee for the day. I need to take a shower in about half an hour, so will let my post sit for a bit then and return after I’ve had my medication and evening soft drink. Feel free to grab a cup of your favorite beverage and let’s chat. If we were having coffee, first I’d talk about the weather. We were supposed to get another heatwave here this week. Thankfully, it wasn’t that bad, but only barely…
Spent a large portion of the day moving everything off a hard drive that is beginning to die.144 words · 1 image
I thought my kettle was broken when it beeped at 95°C even though I had set it to boil but then I remembered that we are now mile-high and the water will boil at a lower temperature. I imagine this will cause even more headaches for our family’s baking recipes, but the most immediate concern is how this affects my preferred brewing method. There is always tweaking to be done, but the gist is: get the water as hot as possible and compensate for lower temperatures by grinding slightly finer (one…
Every morning Momo is awake before the sun creeps up above the mountain ridge. In summer, when the largest number of yachts rest in the harbor, this is a very early hour. Momo doesn’t mind. He doesn’t sleep well, anyway. The person in the mirror looks like his father used to look, the sick and withered version, not the hulking bull. A thought comes to Momo. What if his son looks in the mirror one day and sees Momo? And then he shakes his head. No, this is not possible. His son doesn’t know what…
Dear Constant Reader, Happy Friday! Before we get to your tip, I want to remind you about my on-line classes. The third Tuesday of every month at 7pm Eastern I’m offering a talk on history or costuming or whatever strikes my fancy. I’m having a great time nerding out, researching, and creating theses classes and presentations for you. If you can’t make the class, you’ll still get the recording and resources. Upcoming workshops are: July 21, Achieving Closure: how to choose and use the best…
Recently I’ve been kind of sad about the idea that, despite having thousands of pictures of my children, they aren’t recorded on any film negatives at all. The digital record is extensive, and it’s objectively pretty safe since I’ve backed it up in a number of places, but it feels less real. So I picked up a cheap half-frame camera kind of impulsively. I enjoyed shooting it on my vacation so much I got a used Canon Rebel G off eBay and I’ve taken some photos with that too. It’s been about six…
Some much-needed and long-delayed holiday time with my girlfriend this week! I had booked two rooms in the Holiday Inn Express in Shrewsbury, England, mainly because it had air-conditioning. As is often the case with this chain, the air-conditioning proved to be excellent in the rooms, and it nicely tempered the searing heat. I was truly grateful that I had not booked a cottage! From the car park at the front of the hotel, the view was dominated by the mass of the Wrekin hill, which loomed over…
Happy Friday! Today is National Tattoo Day (I have many tattoo ideas and exactly zero tattoos), National Lottery Day (I always wish to win but never play), and another summer Friday off! I haven’t blogged regularly since July because I’ve been nose deep in work and true to me, I was letting it spill past the end of the workday/workweek. We have a big project that is rolling along until November, and I had to develop my department’s budget for the first time and then discuss my reasoning for it…
Birthday weeks is upon us!! I’m very lucky and thankful that my siblings and I get along and are good friends as adults - we all have birthdays close to each other (almost every other week) so have started our annual Birthday Weeks. All 3 of us live in the same city so we’re able to meet up on each other’s actual birthday. Our tradition is to have the other 2 siblings pay for the bday sibling’s dinner (their choice of restaurant). We do a belated celebration when our parents are in town too -…
I wrote this post on Facebook yesterday. In 1974 the U.S. enacted permanent Daylight Saving Time by moving the clocks forward in January. It proved to be wildly unpopular, because it turns out folks going to work in the dark and kids getting hit by school buses while waiting in the morning darkness aren’t a good thing. And the decision was reversed by the end of the 1974. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill yesterday to bring permanent DST back, because it provides “extra sunlight”.…
[The photographer sweated some blood about it.] This Sunday, soccer’s World Cup will end with world #1 Argentina facing off against #2 Spain. The day prior, #3 France will play #4 England in the third-place contest. Given how things wound up, it really seems like we could have skipped the 102 matches that preceded all this, but here we are. In that championship final, Argentina’s veteran superstar Lionel Messi will line up across from Spain’s up-and-coming 19-year-old Lamine Yamal. It will not…
On May 3, 2026, I spent the afternoon walking around the Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook with a friend. That walk led to my May 25, 2026 report on seeing a large warehouse fire in Belleville, New Jersey, from across the river. I took the photo of smoke rising from the Garden State that I used in my reportage at 3:59 PM. Now let us skip ahead 51 minutes to 4:50. After admiring the scenic water views (admittedly interrupted by the troubling smoke rising from New Jersey), my friend and I…
