R.I.P Winter 2016/2017

Today, when I left Atascadero High School after classes ended for the day, I walked across campus to my car. During that walk I experienced an epiphany. I realized that deep winter is done here and we have transitioned to late winter/early spring from a local climatological standpoint. I can't well-explain the feeling and ideation occurring at that time, but it was very instinctual. The shortest days and longest nights and lowest average seasonal temperatures are now past although there will be more cold nights and stormy weather to come in the next two months or so. Already in recent days and weeks I have observed the ever-lengthening days and shortening nights and higher-angle sunlight. As you might have guessed by now, I'm rather quite light sensitive. So, today when I realized this thing, I felt incredibly happy and a sense of relief swept over me in light of the fact I do suffer annually from mild S.A.D. I so look forward to the first warm day and the blossoms that will soon bud as they do every February here.

Santa Margarita Lake Is Back

Today I headed out to the east side of Santa Margarita Lake (a.k.a. Salinas Reservoir) with Mike, my brother by another mother. We both hadn't hiked in too long and needed to get out and start a pattern of weekly hiking. I needed it as part of my decompressing from last week's big teaching experience and to recharge my mental-emotional batteries. Mission accomplished! It was especially satisfying to see how much water was everywhere including all types of watercourses and water catchments. Even parts of the trail we hiked (Blinn Ranch Trail which follows sections of the old road before the dam was filled) were covered in water or showed signs of water recently running over them. There were also washouts and minor landslides/rockfalls. The Salinas River was flowing strong into the back of the lake which is rapidly filling and nearly full. Areas of the back of the lake which had been bone dry for years and looking rather desolate were back under water or water was nearby.

All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved)

A-Town Area Post-Storm Water Effects

Today I took a short drive with mom to the south side of Atascadero to go see Grandpa's Pond and Halcon Road after the recent storms. We were not disappointed.

From the wet pavement on Los Palos Road it appears plenty of people are driving through the water.

For most winters this decade this road has not been covered like this.

Prior to the start of the now-ending epic drought, Halcon Road, connecting Rocky Canyon Quarry with Highway 101 on the south margin of Atascadero State Hospital property, would wash out like this every winter as the road was designed to do.

This view is looking east.

Note my little monster "Tequila" checking out the breach in the road.

Note the corrugated steel pipes which had been under the roadbed of Halcon Road but were washed down-stream a short distance.

View looking upstream.

All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

I Have Become A Teacher!

This week was a transformative period in time for me. I entered it feeling like a "student teacher" and exited it feeling like a real teacher, a professional educator. In fact, had I had my act together and my "sub papers" completed with the Atascadero Unified School District I would have been literally a professional educator as I would have been paid $121 per day for all five days of this work week as my master teacher was out of town dealing with a family health matter. I've had many things on my plate to divert my attention from doing that, plus my own procrastination combined with mistakenly believing it was more trouble than it actually is. I will fix this next week so I get paid for subbing in the future. Anywho, I digress.

This week I created all my own lesson plans which I actually taught all six periods of tenth grade world history in 85-minute block periods. I employed many of the pedagogical techniques I have been trained at Cal Poly to use in my classroom and I allowed my God-given talents and God-shaped personality to blend with that training to create a classroom environment that engaged, challenged, and taught students important details about World War One and how they relate to these very students in their lives today. From some of the formative assessments I conducted this week I know that as a group each class "got it" and in the process we bonded. Tonight I am exhausted but feel wonderful.

The Great Martian War (1913-1917)

Yesterday and today, I executed my second consecutive and second-ever fully original lesson plan created by me for all six 85-minute block periods of standard tenth grade world history that I and my co-operating teacher split this quarter. He is gone this week due to a family health emergency so instead of doing what I did the first two weeks of the quarter and of my student teaching career which was follow the general game plan of my co-teacher with my own spin on it, this week I created wholly original and organic lesson plans. In the just-ending today lesson plan, I used THIS World War One - War of the Worlds mash-up video as an anticipatory set in our current World War One unit. You might notice I posted that blog piece back in 2014. While researching it, I found this longer clip (below) from whence its footage was derived which is a faux preview of a full-length "mockumentary" for which I have heard conflicting reports as to if its existence is fictional or real, such as that would be.

Graphic of the Day - Other Brexits

My buddy Blake shared this on his Facebook the other day and now I'm sharing it with you. For those of you not hip about to what this refers, that would be Brexit, the British exit from the European Union. Map by Bezzleford (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Here GOES-16

Last November 19th, NASA launched the Next-Big-Thing in weather satellitery called GOES-16 (I'm such a weather geek I watched it launch live). Yesterday, NASA released the first images captured by the orbiting probe. Regarding this image NASA states: "This composite color full-disk visible image is from 1:07 p.m. EDT on Jan. 15, 2017, and was created using several of the 16 spectral channels available on the GOES-16 Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) instrument." For for information read article HERE. Click on image to see enlarged view. Image courtesy of NASA (all rights reserved).

Mansplaining

Given my personal deep-seated aversion to and revulsion for political correctness and virtue signaling, I am automatically predisposed to gag when I hear or see the PC-expression "mansplaining". However, I like it in this humorous context. And to you ladies, "humorous" means "funny." 

A Mini-Disaster In My Neighborhood

This morning, as the third and most powerful in a series of Pacific storms buffeted the Central Coast, my power went out shortly before church. Later I discovered it was caused by a massive tree death in my neighborhood 3-1/2 blocks north and one full block east of my house. A giant oak tree crashed down in the alley between 18th and 19th Streets and bounded by Spring and Oak Streets. The power was back on by mid-afternoon after a re-routing job by P.G.& E. Repairs to the poles and lines will take days due to four blocks worth of bent or snapped poles along the alleyway and given all the other repair work going on all over the Central Coast in the aftermath of the recent series of Pacific storms. Indeed, it is so bad around here that repair crews are being brought in from other parts of California. 

View north from the rear of Kuehl-Nicolay Funeral Home.

Zoomed in view from previously-mentioned location.

View behind Christian Life Center.

View north from 18th Street between Oak and Spring Streets.
All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Stop Calling It Sexism/Racism

The art of the open discussion is apparently over. Deigning to disagree with a woman or women does not make one a sexist or male chauvinist. Suggesting a woman or women are idiots based upon their actions or comments or beliefs is not sexism or male chauvinism. Suggesting a woman or women are idiots based upon their being a woman or women would be an actual example of sexism. The same principle applies to racism. Deigning to disagree with a person or persons of a different race than ones' own is not racism. Nor is it racism to refer to them as an idiot based upon their actions or words or beliefs --- or as Martin Luther King, Jr. suggested people ought to be judged, upon the content of their character. Suggesting a person or persons of a different race than ones' own is an idiot based upon their race would be actual example of racism.

The problem with inaccurately mislabeling somebody a sexist or racist is that it shuts down any dialogue and poisons the well of public discourse. True sexism and racism should be called out and condemned. However, it is dangerous to misuse and abuse words like sexism and racism as doing so threatens to change their meaning and diminish their cultural and social potency and bring into doubt valid claims of sexism and racism. It also allows the accuser to acquire an artificial and unearned sense of moral superiority. It lets them off the hook having to actually confront and understand ideas and perspectives very different than their own.

End of an Error

Today was the official end of the Obama Presidency as incoming President Donald J. Trump ascended to power in today's inauguration ceremony following the most unlikely political season in multiple generations. This image (possible a photo illustration and not an actual photograph) comes courtesy of an unknown source via the worldwide web.

Scripture of the Day - Daniel (2:21 & 4:17)

Tonight this passage of Scripture popped into my head as I pondered upon today's inauguration of the 45th President of the United States (or vice versa):

".... so that all peoples may know that God reigns sovereign in the realm of mankind and appoints in authority as He wishes, including even the dregs of humanity." ~ Daniel 4:17 (Kimicus ad Aburdum translation)

Whilst looking up that passage in my bible I chanced upon this passage which jumped off the page at me in the context of the same theme as the passage prior:

"And He changes the times and the seasons. He removes rulers and appoints rulers." ~ Daniel 2:21 (Kimicus ad Absurdum translation)

Picture of the Day - Yuge Wine

Today Donald Trump was inaugurated as 45th President of the United States. Tonight I arrived home to find this on my kitchen counter. My buddy/slumlord/neighbor/brother-by-another-mother Mark had ironically and sarcastically purchased some bottles of this in recent weeks in order to have fun with it with various friends which he certainly did. The 2014 Trump Meritage Monticello Red Wine blend possesses a loudly bombastic nose immediately followed by audaciously cyrillic notes of populist pandering and obdurate self-promotion, midtones of banal narcissism with pussy-grabbing musky elements, and an insufferably long-winded and overstated finish. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved). 

Graphic of the Day - Climate Anomalies 2016

Tonight I saw this graphic tweeted by NOAA on Twitter. Many/most of these facts/incidents/realities I already knew about but some I did not. To zoom in on graphic click on image. The times they be a-changin'.Courtesy of NOAA (all rights reserved).

Titanic Touchdown

Tonight on Twitter I noticed a tweet linking to this article and read it and watched its accompanying video which is above. I find this otherworldly footage fascinating and wondrous. I'm surprised I missed seeing this before now, but better late than never. In case you're wondering and haven't yet clicked on the link, this is about Saturn's moon Titan.

Channel Surfing the Northridge Quake

Twenty-three years ago this morning the M6.7 Northridge Earthquake slammed the Los Angeles Basin killing 57 people. This is a mash-up of recorded live coverage from various television news outlets. This is how I experienced the earthquake that morning, flipping from television station to station and even recording it much as this person did. However,  my VHS cassettes are not digitized and saved to Youtube... yet. I watched some of these same live segments replayed here. This is Part One of a series of twenty-four such segments with links to the next-in-sequence appearing on the player on this blog page after the video ends AND being at right of the video player on the corresponding Youtube page for this video if one goes there. Someday in in the not-too-distant future we will be doing this again for another SoCal quake. Be prepared!

Graphic of the Day - Drought Busted

As this image clearly demonstrates, the recent series of Pineapple Express Pacific storms, coming a year after one of the most powerful El Niño events on record failed to bring much rain to the southern half of the state although the northern half did receive decent rain amounts, has shrunk California's five-year drought to a considerate degree in a very short period of time despite the current weak La Niña. Current weather models are showing another Pineapple Express setting up across the Pacific and thus another deluge approaches California. God is good! Image courtesy NWS (all rights reserved).

My Toro-Villa-San Simeon Creeks Kim Day

Today I needed a Kim Day and so I took one with some special friends and their family, fellow members of The League of Extraordinary Gentleman and some of their family. An awesome day was had by all and I got out of my cage and finally got to rockhound, and at the beach after phenomenal recent storms, no less! We started at Toro Creek Inlet at what I have always called Hole-in-the-Wall Beach which is owned by a petroleum company and not state parks so it is a popular dog beach. Our middle adventure was at Toro Creek Inlet and adjacent beaches. Our last stop was my beloved San Simeon Creek Inlet which adjacent beach I consider to be "my beach." Cool stones were found by everybody and we topped the day off with some grub from Main Street Grill in Cambria. I even got to have my Natter-Nutty Smoothie from Sandy's Deli across the street, a concoction I have chistened "sex in a cup." My buddy Ron disagrees and likens it to "foreplay in a cup." Apparently, he has experienced better sex than I have. Whatever.

Beach at Toro Creek Inlet with Morro Rock in the background.

Exploring Toro Creek may reveal fresh agates and biconoid material or even the occasional Chumash arrowhead.

Villa Creek Inlet with abalone farm on the coastal hill in the distance.

Ron and his son find a small gravel bar formed in front of a seaweed plant that washed up in the recent storm.

This is mid-January on the Central Coast. Guess why I live here? That is Point Buchon in the distance.

This is very similar to another image I posted a few images up but I can't resist including it as it is so idyllic a scene.

San Simeon Creek recently blew out the summertime sandbar as a result of the recent Pacific storms. It was pushing directly out into the ocean sans any major right turns up the beach as it will do later as the creek seasonally reduces flow amount and the ocean starts pushing back at the creek and damming it up with sand and gravel during the dry season.

This is the best kind of gravel in which to rockhound and beachcomb at this beach: right after major rains and storm waves have moved substantial volumes of material about the beach and down the creek from the Santa Lucia Mountains from whence the material originates.

This was one of the prettier stones (brecciated jasper with quartz fill) I saw all day and it was fairlyi large (6"x5"x4") this is as I found it having not yet picked it up when I shot this image. The stone was donated to the driver of our expedition.

To our amazement, five C-17 Globemaster III cargo jets of the United States Air Force ambled by way too close to the beach to be legal. We didn't mind as it was exciting to see them as they headed down to Vandenberg AFB en route from probably Travis AFB.

A wave surge enters the lagoon created at San Simeon Creek inlet by the ocean trying to wall off the creek with sand and gravel as it will eventually succeed in doing this spring as with every year.

This view is up the beach looking towards the bird rookery (sea stack in the distance).
All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Atascadero Re-Laked

I worked a wedding at the AARP/Kiwanis Building in Atascadero tonight. Early on in the event before darkness set in I walked across the parking lot to the Atascadero Lake Pavilion and captured this image of the now-not-so-dry lake bed there following the recent epic rainstorms.
Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Colonial Atascadero Time Capsule Opened

This afternoon at Atascadero High School, a local history encounter broke out at a faculty development meeting. After school as faculty filed into the library for the school-wide meeting, Principal Neely directed staff to behold the just-released contents of the time capsule discovered beneath the cornerstone of the original Margarita Black Union High School building on campus (now called the "B Building"). This structure will soon be torn down to make way for progress and better earthquake safety. The artifacts interred in the time capsule fell into four basic categories: school-related papers, city-related photos, various newspapers, and coins. The time capsule was interred on May 2, 1921. The entire contents of the time capsule have been digitally preserved for posterity per the local historical society. I do not wish to caption each image as I do not know much minutiae about Atascadero history and most people taking the time to read this blog know more about it than me I suspect. In a few instances I will remark for the benefit of those readers knowing even less than I do. Enjoy!

Time capsule cylinder

Some coins of realm were included in the time capsule contents for good measure.