Category Archives: Manmade
Major disadvantage of living in San Diego: Sunshine
There aren’t too many problems caused by living in San Diego. The cost of living is higher than many areas of the country…. State taxes are higher…. My income is higher, too, though. It’s a trade off, one I can live with.
There is an occasional earthquake but not nearly as many big earthquakes — 1 in 20 years — as the hurricanes and tropical storms that I went through in Texas — Beulah 1967, Candy 1968, Celia 1970, Fern 1971, Allen 1980, Alicia 1983. Those are just the ones that I personally went through; immediate family was affected by many more hurricanes, the most recent of which was Katrina in New Orleans. A niece and a sister both lost their homes to Katrina, and another sister had four feet of water in her home, only because she and her husband had built their home on a ten foot platform. Theirs was the only home left in their Slidell neighborhood; all the others were washed away. My birth mom, having lived in New Orleans for 35 years, evacuated to Utah before Katrina and never went back to Louisiana. She died in Utah in February 2012.
Interestingly, San Diego is only three degrees farther north than New Orleans, meaning that the Pacific hurricanes could impact us here. However, the Pacific Ocean waters near California tend to be rather cold, causing Pacific hurricanes to dissipate over Baja California as they move north. San Diego did get hit by one hurricane during the past 200 years: the 1858 San Diego Hurricane. Two other hurricanes brought wind and rain: the 1939 California tropical storm and Hurricane Kathleen in 1976.
About the only disadvantage of living in San Diego that I can think of right now is the constant sunshine. It causes havoc with our roofs, drying them out and shrinking them so that when the six weeks of rain come in December and January, many roofs leak.
The other problem that personally affects me is that pictures of San Diego can be rather plain and ordinary with the two types of skies that we typically have: blue and overcast gray. Outside of the December/January rainy season, overcast skies hits us in May and June. We call it May Gray and June Gloom.
One of the things that I’m working on in Photoshop, Lightroom, Photo-Paint, and PaintShop Pro is finding the easiest way to replace dull, boring, and uninteresting skies with something more interesting. For example, here is a recent picture of Angel Stadium of Anaheim:
In and of itself, it’s simply a documentary picture of the stadium and parking lot where the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (formerly the California Angels) play major league baseball. Pretty drab. Dull, boring, and uninteresting. I thought it would be a good picture to try out different skies and different methods of replacing skies. Here’s my favorite from my many attempts, this one done in Photoshop CS6:
Aaaaaaaaaaaah. Looks much better.
When I find the best method that works consistently well with many different types of pictures, I’ll put together a tutorial, have no fear.
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572
If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
In loving memory of Alfreda Clemmons
This morning I went to the most southwesterly city in the continental United States: Imperial Beach, California.
My purpose was to take just a couple of pictures of a sandcastle memorial. You know me, though. I come home with 291 pictures!
Well, let’s stick with the sandcastle memorial for this blog post:
Up until last year, Imperial Beach had hosted the U.S. Open Sandcastle championships for 37 years. Hundreds of sandcastle builders would converge on Imperial Beach while hundreds of thousands of gawkers (like me!) watched. So seeing huge sandcastles on the beaches at Imperial Beach is not unusual.
This sandcastle, however, was a special memorial to Alfreda Clemmons, a Native American Indian from the Viejas Tribe, for the Pow Wow By The Sea, taking place yesterday and today at the Imperial Beach Pier.
Alfreda was a 12-year-old dancer who died last year. She was a member of the Soaring Eagles Dance Team, and her last dance was last year’s Pow Wow By The Sea.
The sandcastle memorial shows an eagle with its wings wrapped around Alfreda. It was built by the I.B. Posse sandcastle team, along with Dan Gutowski of the Sand Squirrels team. Both teams have won the U.S. Open Sandcastle championship in past years. Here is a picture of Dan standing by the memorial:
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572
If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
Do not drive on tracks!
When I was young and living with my wise old grandmother in Kingsville, Texas, we would gather around the dining room table for dinner, eat, and then watch the local 6:00 news.
Like clockwork.
Occasionally there was a story about someone who did something really stupid, really dumb.
My wise old grandmother would shake her head while tapping on her temple a few times and say, “A piece missing.”
Yesterday evening I got to see a piece missing in person!
To wit:
Jim and I were stuck behind that white SUV at the far end in the last picture. We had been stuck for about five minutes, the third car back, when the first car did some quality manuevering and made it through a small cut in the median and did a U turn. When we moved up from third to second, I saw what was happening across the street at the trolley station. By that time other cars were driving through the cut to make a U turn, and we did the same.
We went through a couple of neighborhoods to get around the accident and to the train station. There we parked, walked over to the accident, and watched the action for thirty minutes until the car was towed away.
There was only one way this guy could get his car where he did: He originally was in the parking lot where Jim and I parked. From there, he went up the handicapped accessibility ramp, through the station (right side of first picture), over the railroad tracks, and then down the railroad tracks.
Three police officers gave him a field sobriety test but I couldn’t stay around to see what the ultimate outcome of that was. They did not immediately cuff him and drag him away, though, so maybe he wasn’t under the influence of anything.
The Western Division headquarters of the San Diego Police Department is just across the street, so there were plenty of police on hand. It was kind of funny watching all the police officers taking pictures with their smart phones. I must admit, though, that it is a picture for the ages.
Since this IS California, I suspect that the next state budget item will be for millions of signs to be placed at the intersections of tracks and streets: DO NOT DRIVE ON TRACKS.
Of course, I got some flash videos, too. Here is the best:
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572
If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
Friday Flower Fiesta from the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden
Today’s Friday Flower Fiesta comes to you from the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden in Arcadia, which is where Jim and I spent our 19th anniversary.
Ooops. That’s not a flower. That’s a squirrel! Well, he was the official greeter at the entrance to the Arboretum, so I’ll let him greet you to our Friday Flower Fiesta today!
Ooops.
That last one isn’t a flower, either.
That’s Zoey the Cool Cat.
Look at the expression on her face.
She is pretty upset that we were gone for sixteen hours, leaving her all alone except for that strange lady who came by to give her food and water.
I tried to get her interested in that squirrel above but she’s having none of that until I explain my absence……..
I’m Zoey the Cool Cat,
and I do not approve this post.
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572
If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I can recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
Underground in Hollywood, California
I love visiting historic places, and Hollywood certainly ranks up there with its history, especially music, movies, and television. That made Hollywood a definite stop when Jim and I went traveling on National Train Day (May 11).
We probably would have seen more of Hollywood if we weren’t admiring the many Los Angeles Metro subway stations. Following are some pictures of subway stations on the Red Line from Union Station to the Highland/Hollywood Station (North Highland Avenue at Hollywood Boulevard) in Hollywood.
Of course, “subway” does not mean a place to eat. It means going underground.
Underground was unique. Metro Rail serves an average of 363,000 people on a weekday, yet everywhere I looked it was clean, shiny, and beautiful.
I looked around for people cleaning, shining things, sweeping, picking up trash….
No one.
Maybe Los Angelenos are naturally clean people?
Maybe they simply like living, working, and riding in a clean environment?
Or……………………………..
You can’t do anything within the subway environment without risking a $250 fine.
No entry without valid fare….
No littering….
No eating or drinking….
No smoking….
No spitting or chewing gum….
No skateboarding or scooters….
No loud or rowdy activity….
No rollerblading….
No playing of sound equipment.
I can see mommy and her little child:
Child: “Mommy, I want some chewing gum.”
Mommy: “No!”
Child: “Mommy, can I turn my iPod on?”
Mommy: “No!”
Child: “Mommy, can I have my sandwich?”
Mommy: “No!”
Child: “Mommy, can I have a Coke?”
Mommy: “No!”
Child: “Mommy, can we go home?”
Mommy: “YES!”
Hmmmm. I think I’m understanding why I didn’t see any children on the subway. I think the youngest people I saw were college students on their way to classes. Interesting.
Murals were everywhere:
Anyone know what this doohickey is?
How about these doohickeys,
which were all over the walls and ceilings at one station?
If the rest of the Los Angeles Metro Rail routes — Blue, Purple, Green, Gold, and Expo lines — are anything like the Red Line, I look forward to exploring Los Angeles by rail in the next few years. No reason to stay away simply because of the traffic and lack of parking.
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572
If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
Leave the parking to them!
Not that it would ever happen to me, but if you live in San Diego and get bored after a few years, we’re fortunate to have Los Angeles just ninety miles up the road. Put San Diego, Los Angeles, and Palm Springs together — all within 100 miles of each other — and you couldn’t possibly be bored in Southern California!
I didn’t have a great appreciation for Los Angeles until recently, mainly because if I’m driving, I want to be driving! Not stuck on a freeway doing 10 mph, something that’s quite common on freeways like Interstate 5 and U.S. Highway 101 going through the heart of Los Angeles. Both freeways need a serious case of widening or, as San Antonio did, building an upper deck.
Last month, though, on National Train Day (May 11), I took Amtrak to Los Angeles and then hopped on the Los Angeles Metro subway to go over to Hollywood. Until then I had not realized that Los Angeles, in 1994, had started building a subway system. And it’s a nice one! In some future posts, I’ll show you just how nice. I might go to Los Angeles more often now that I know I can use the Metro to go to 90% of the places in Los Angeles that interest me.
My first stop on National Train Day was, of course, the historic Union Station:
Union Station opened on May 3, 1939, to serve passenger trains from Union Pacific Railroad; Southern Pacific Railroad; and Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad; and commuter trains of the Pacific Electric Railway and Los Angeles Railway. Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, it currently serves 60,000 passengers a day.
Along with passenger trains from Amtrak and Metrolink, Union Station has a separate platform for the Los Angeles Metro subway, and another area for buses, taxis, and bicyclists.
A day pass on the Metro is only $5. That allows you to ride Metro trains all day long, get on and off as you like, and really have some fun. I can highly recommend it as a way to get around the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Sightseeing is so much more fun when you don’t have to try to find a parking place!
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572
If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
It’s mine! All mine!
I took 841 pictures on National Train Day (May 11, 2013).
Since I’m trying to stay off of my broken ankle, I have time to catalog them instead of walking around Southern California taking even more pictures.
Following are some pictures taken from inside a Amtrak Pacific Surfliner train traveling north from downtown San Diego to downtown Los Angeles.
It’s mine! All mine!
San Onofre nuclear power plant.
Shut down in January 2012 and announced a couple
of days ago that it is being put out to pasture permanently.
We’re going to catch him!
Wave hello!
BNSF freight muscle
Amtrak passenger muscle
I’ve been working on the railroad….
Where’s our leader?
Remember driving down a long stretch of freeway and suddenly there’s a crook in the road? You look around and find absolutely no reason for them to put a crook in the road. Railroads do it too!
Wave hello to the nice Metrolink commuters!
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572
If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
Bridges from a train
Bridges have always fascinated me, so much so that I took a lot of civil engineering, wood engineering, and structural engineering courses while at Texas A&M University. If A&M had minors, I’d probably have an engineering minor to go with my Bachelor of Science in Forestry.
Following are some pictures of bridges taken from a northbound Amtrak Pacific Surfliner on May 11, 2013, National Train Day.
In that last picture, look at the bottom right and you’ll see a youth frantically waving his arms. The Amtrak engineer told me that the child is autistic but is always there to meet this train as it passes through the station, sometimes with mom, sometimes without.
Lastly, a flash video of the train going by San Clemente beach and the San Clemente pier. If San Clemente sounds familiar to you, it was considered “the western White House” when Richard Nixon was president (1969-1974) since he spent a lot of time at his San Clemente home.
Turn your speakers down because there is a loud train horn at the very beginning. It will make you jump if your speakers are too loud.
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572
If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
Amtrak Pacific Surfliner northbound from downtown San Diego to Camp Pendleton
When Jim and I went to Los Angeles on Sunday, May 11, for National Train Day, our purpose was to ride the trains everywhere we wanted to go. Down the hill from us we caught the San Diego Trolley:
Westbound at the 70th Street Station
5:50 a.m. on National Train Day
The Trolley took us to the historic Santa Fe Depot in downtown San Diego. There we caught Amtrak Pacific Surfliner to points north, ultimately to the even more historic Union Station in downtown Los Angeles.
The three videos below show some of the more interesting areas the trains go through. In the first one, we’re heading into Miramar Marine Corps Air Base. There are some neat landscapes but usually the front of the train is not accessible (I had a cool engineer!), the side views are horrible because of the steep canyons, and walking the tracks on the Marine Corps base is not something one wants to do. So the first video is a real rarity.
This second video is another one that I’ve always wanted to get as the train goes through the marsh that is the eastern side of Torrey Pines State Park. The video shows us cruising down the track at 92 mph, the top speed I caught us going. At the end of the video we have slowed down to 55 mph to go around the curve under the historic Del Mar bridge, currently undergoing much-needed renovation and seismic retrofitting.
This last video is the final place in San Diego County that I’ve tried so many times to get to. It’s the rail yard for Metrolink and Coaster, where the trains are stored during hours of non-operation. Unfortunately, it’s on the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base and inaccessible to mere mortals like me. We also meet a southbound Amtrak Pacific Surfliner.
Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base, at over 125,000 acres, is what separates San Diego from the Los Angeles metropolitan area. In other words, it’s probably the only thing that keeps L.A. from annexing San Diego — that we wouldn’t like!
Following are three pictures of Camp Pendleton, all taken from a speeding (85 mph) train with a Canon 550D and a Tamron 28-300mm lens at 300mm.
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572
If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
When Photoshop Photomerge goes wrong
When I was up in Los Angeles for National Train Day on May 11, I made a trip to the Capitol Records Building in Hollywood. The last time I was there was in 1978. At that time the building had a huge lobby full of gold records, most notably those from The Beatles and The Beach Boys.
I took many pictures, and twenty years later when digital cameras, scanners, and editing software came along, I scanned them. Sadly, I lost all of them in the Great Hard Drive Crash of August 2005. I was hoping to recapture those pictures.
The building was closed on May 11 (Sunday), and looking in the front entrance glass doors indicated that there no longer is a huge lobby. It’s now like most skyscrapers with an unattended lobby with a directory and elevators. No gold records to be seen anywhere. I satisfied myself with pictures of the building.
Since traffic in Hollywood is heavy, getting into the street to take one picture of a tall building wasn’t feasible. Pictures from the other side of the street were full of utility poles and wires. I decided to pick a spot without junk in the picture and take five or six pictures of sections of the building, my intent being to have Photoshop CS6 do a photomerge when I got back home.
Here is what the photomerge gave me:
I think you will agree with me that the first try at photomerge could be considered photomerge gone wrong.
In looking at the six pictures, I saw that Photomerge was trying to merge two lower pictures that looked rather normal with four upper pictures that had that dastardly tall building retreating perspective the farther up the buildng you got.
My solution was to merge the first two pictures, then merge the next two pictures, then merge the last two pictures. That left me with three pictures. Since the top two were more alike than the bottom two, I merged them, leaving me now with two pictures. A final merge of the two semifinal merges gave me this:
Much better.
Leads me to believe that the fewer pictures you force Photomerge to use, the better the resulting picture will be. Thus, if you have lots of pictures in your Photomerge, merge them two by two until you arrive at the final two-picture merge. If you started with ten pictures, your flow chart to the final merge would look like this.
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572
If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
