I want some coffee!

 ... when it starts with a photo-worthy sunrise. A November sunrise here in San Pedro Valley. We've had strange weather this past year- largely notable because there were no big temperature extremes. Plus we were cheated a bit on monsoons- the weather gods think we need to do a diligent job conserving our water and apparently that's not happening.  But a really strange thing is the very few times we got above the 100°F mark- the most notable was when we hit 110°F. Yeah, it got hot, but not unbearable. My blog posts on previous summers contained a lot of very descriptive analyses (I think the technical term is 'whining'), but those episodes were strangely missing this year: "... and the times they are a-changing ". But we should know clearly when fall is upon us as that's when snowbirds start arriving in the park from the North country. Well... US snowbirds this year. I read today in BBC news that large numbers of Canadian snowbirds are making other plans f...

 ... right from the git-go. Looking to the South. Looked threatening but it was all bluster. Rainy season (properly monsoons) are technically over for the year. But weather being weather it gets to do what it wants. And a little more bluster the next morning. But that's all we got. So the best move was to ignore the weather. The weather gods were apparently offended and stopped entertaining me. Those clouds down against the horizon dissipated not long after I got this shot. It's Fall now and dawn is much later- so we made a change. I was given a diet plan by a nutritionist in Key West maybe 20 years ago. That plan said I was to first eat my meal, then sometime in the 15 min to 2 hr interval which follows I was to walk for at least 10 min. I did that for a time while living in the Florida Keys then later in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Then we discovered RVs and 3 walks per day after meals went out the window till we landed in Southeast Arizona. But Arizona weather drove me to do a lon...

Dawn after some rain Yeah- the morning after. The morning after a bit of rain here in the San Pedro Valley.  July & August, normally the first and second months of our three month long monsoon season, were disappointing. Then along came September... September (if I remember the rain gauge readings!) managed almost 2" of the wet stuff. Excellent! Not enough to fix the drought but much appreciated none the less. The photo above is looking East toward the Dragoon Mountains as the sun was about to put in a wet-ish appearance. You can see the wet streak down the road-center of the 300 row. And yes... I'm a sucker for sunrise and sunset photos! Here are a few more gratuitous sunrise/sunset shots from San Pedro Valley... The Dragoons in the distance, to the East across the San Pedro Valley Another morning shot off to the Southwest. Our back yard neighbor is Paula who enjoys these 'pixie-lights' around her lot  

Road trip! (photo by Quintin Gellar) How many times must I have asked that as a child? Yikes! Must have driven my parents nuts. Makes it sound like I hated long road trips but the opposite is actually the case: I loved exploring the world by driving.  We were a family hooked on travel by car. No doubt motivated in part by gas rationing during WW-II. Even as a very young child sitting in the back seat I enjoyed the passing scenery. Besides, a Sunday drive often meant we were going to get at least one meal out at a restaurant: "Are we there yet?" Wartime Reminiscences. The truth is I loved it when we went on those drives or went on a summer vacation. After WW-II when gas rationing went away we would go for a long drive on Sunday. Lots of post-war families did that... "the Sunday drive". But a Sunday drive for our family often involved hundreds of miles! But that was post war. Gas was rationed during WW-II. Most cars were left parked and just sat. If the owner had en...

I should quit and accept my academic losses but as usual I have yet another "oh btw...", this time related to the Northrop 'flying wing'. Apparently Northrop isn't done with its involvement in the 'flying wing' concept. Northrop-Grumman Corp has a current contract to design and build aircraft for a flying wing variant of a bomber which uses the flying wing (sort of) configuration. The plane is the B-21 which is pictured below. Note this is not an X (eXperimental) variant which would have been designated XB-21. The contract includes production of 40 - 80 aircraft.   Northrop-Grumman B-21 prototype. Not the 'boomerang' configuration I think of when I think of a 'flying wing', but it meets the essential criteria. The B-21 surface configuration is intended to minimize radar reflection to make weapons-tracking of the bomber more difficult. To my eye this photo is of a smallish plane. The published specs, however, say the bomber in these photos h...

I graduated 6 Dec 1960 with a BS degree in aeronautical engineering from a small private school in Inglewood, California named at the time Northrop Institute of Technology (NIT). Originally named Northrop Aeronautical Institute it became NIT when they were approved by the state of California to offer a BS degree instead of a diploma; that was in 1959. The beginnings, however, are not what they might seem. The school was founded by John K Northrop, the same guy who in 1939 founded Northrop Aircraft and was also the creator of that company's 'flying wing' prototype pictured below. John K Northrop (rt) and test pilot Moye Stephens I've always felt good about my time at that school and the quality of the education I received. And I could point to others in the aircraft and defense industries who were shining examples of what was good about NAI & NIT. Sometime in probably mid-1991 I learned from a co-worker at Lockheed Missiles & Space Co. that the engineering school...

... a dust storm hit us without warning.    Well this was a first for us in 15-1/2 years. We often see dust devils on the valley floor of San Pedro Valley, but this is the first time we've had the ugly reality of what it's like to live in the Phoenix area. That metropolitan city gets one or more every year and it's downright ugly. Our version was a little tame by their standards but nasty none the less.    The pic below was taken by someone here in the park- I don't know their name to give them credit. My own pic was nothing more than a dusty sky. A dust storm that hit us here in the park a few days ago.   But they have the real deal down in Chandler, AZ. I would not want to have been there for this event! Aerial photo of a dust storm in Chandler, AZ (Phoenix area) on 24 Aug 2025 Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I managed a couple 'typical' sunrise and sunset photos of what we enjoy here at SKP Saguaro Co-op. Sunrise over the Dragoon range (hidden by the trees). A ...