My First & Only Blue Blood Supermoon

Earlier this morning at a quarter to 3 a.m. I checked out the blue supermoon before it turned red while I slept. I was awakened by my cat or my bladder or something at 4:35 a.m. and went out and rechecked the moon. At that point it was further to the west behind a huge oak tree sans leaves so I could see it perfectly if I stood in the right place. It was in all its blue blood supermoon splendor at that point. I went to bed thinking I'd miss it and was blessed by not missing it at all. My only regret is that I did not have a good camera with which to capture it. The last one of these visible in North America was in 1866 so I'm pretty sure I won't see another one.
*Note: supermoons are when the full moon happens when the moon is at or near its closest orbit to Earth while a blue moon is the second full moon to occur in a given month while a blood moon is when the moon is partially eclipsed enough that it casts a partial shadow upon the earth which makes it appear reddish in the sky. Photo courtesy of USFS (all rights reserved).

Graphic of the Day - Homonyms

I encountered this graphic today and found it an interesting refresher on the subject.... I had forgotten about some aspects of homonyms in regards to varieties.

Trance Is Back In Higher Place

I have not shared music here in quite some time. To kick off my return to doing so, I'm reconnecting with my trance roots by sharing the stunning progressive trance gem "Higher Place" released last May by Russian progressive trance and progressive house master producer Artem Stoliarov a.k.a. Arty under the auspices of his long-abandoned/newly-resumed Alpha 9 alias/side project. There is a point in this track where it is impossible for me to not get chills. Can you guess at which point that is? In recent years I have come to fear that trance music was wholly passé now. I feared that there was no more new beauty and quality left in the sub-genre by artists producing the new stuff as it has become mostly saturated with commercialism and imitation. Arty has generated several progressive trance gems, last year into this year, not one whole month done. I intend to share some of them here with you in the coming weeks. Crank up your sound system and enjoy!

Castle Crags Jaunt

Today I joined in on a quick road excursion out into the Machesna Wilderness Area in the La Panza Range on the Santa Lucia District of the Los Padres National Forest in eastern San Luis Obispo County. Most of the way out there I had traversed before but the final part up towards Castle Crags was new to me. We were forced to turn around due to a deep erosion-control drainage swale across the road and the characteristics of the Honda SUV in which we were driving. On the way back we stopped for a short break at the adit for the Queen Bee Mine at and in which I took some photos featured below.

These were the lowest-situated crags we encountered today before turning around. They are clearly old riverine alluvial deposts upthrust by plate tectonics and now being heavily weathered.

The fellas backed back down the road a ways and turned around at the location seen here while I stayed behind to capture images and view the surrounding terrain.

The Queen Bee Mine is a gold-bearing hardrock deposit that was not economically viable and abandoned shortly after being excavated.

The entrance to this adit used to be blocked by a heavy metal grate but that kept getting yanked off by drunken idiots with winches so now it remains open but given the adit ends about 20 feet into the hill there seems to be no need for it.

I can only imagine why somebody's chonies were left on the floor of the adit. I can certainly think of more romantic places to make "the beast with two backs" but drugs and alcohol can do remarkable things to deprive people of their dignity.
All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Graphic of the Day - Super Blue Blood Moon Eclipse

This graphic leaves out the fact this also a blue moon making it a Super Blue Blood Moon! Blue bloods in space: who knew?!

Picture of the Day - Today's #1s From #3

This was today's haul from Secret Spot #3 in Templeton: tractor-disk-fractured petrified whale vert (upper right), tractor-disk-fractured biconoid (upper left), and various carnelians and yellow agates. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Graphic of the Day - The Devil's Doorbell

Tonight I watched a special by the lady comedy duo Garfunkel & Oates on Netflix. In one of their song's lyrics was a reference to the clitoris as being "The Devil's Doorbell" which was in context a send-up of hyper-legalistic Fundamentalist Christianity's obsessive fear of sexuality and sexual pleasure. This got me curious about the hilarious expression, so after watching the comedy special I looked it up and found this satirical image macro.

Picture of the Day - Salinas River Bedrock Mortar

Today after attending a memorial service, I accompanied my buddy Mike and his brother-in-law Joe out for a hike at East Santa Margarita Lake where I captured this image of a bedrock mortar on the rock formations on the hill at the junction of Toro Creek and the Salinas River. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

R.I.P. Mark Springelmeyer

Today was the memorial service for Mark Springelmeyer whom I've known for several years now through the local Christian community. I knew OF him going back to the 1990s when I saw him as Big Taco Bell Guy walking up and down El Camino Real to and from work there over the years. Much later on I met him in person and worshiped with him at local bible studies and men's prayer breakfasts and Christian men's camps.

This is Mark (far left), my brother by another mother, Mike (center) and one of Mark's best friends and the one who found his body, and me at right on August 17, 2014, at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, for their Faith & Family event which I blogged about HERE. This was my first and only since then visit to that stadium and it was magical and Mark was part of that experience. If Mark seems a bit different, that is for a very good reason, during his first ten years of life, he was supposed to die more times than I can count on my hands but persevered through his dangerous struggles with hydrocephalus which deformed his head just a bit. Mark was a survivor and even now survives and flourishes in eternity, free of his meatsuit and encased in his new body. See you in a little while, Mark! Photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Graphic of the Day - Upcoming Santa Anas

Santa Ana Wind events in January are not unheard of but when they occur they are usually cold events, not warm events like this one. This is yet another manifestation of new climatological norms being established in California!

Quote of the Day - Lazarus vs. Trump

"Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name MOTHER OF EXILES. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. 'Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!' cries she With silent lips. 'Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!'"

~Sephardic Jewish-American Emma Lazarus' "The New Colossus" written in 1883

"Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?" 

~ German-American Donald J. Trump stated in 2018

No Trace Is No Slouch

Late last year, while exploring Youtube for new electronica gems, I chanced upon this phenomenal Middle Eastern-steeped deep house track entitled "No Trace" by Brooklyn-based Bedouin. It was the second track in an equally remarkable deep house mix entitled "Cafe De Anatolia (Deep House Selection 4)" which in turn was compiled by Cafe De Anatolia. This makes for great chill-out background music as well as is best listened to nocturnally.

Trump Tweet Generator

Scripture of the Day - David (Ps. 37:35-36)

It never ceases to amaze me how God can talk to those who are His own through His Word in contexts which can be so seemingly mundane and prosaic. Tonight, as I created my latest culinary masterpiece HERE, I crushed some bay leaves and dropped them into my nascent stew and immediately the following passage of scripture (Psalms 37:35-36) rang in my head loud and clear:

"I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found."

Picture of the Day - Kim's Killer Stew

Tonight I may have created my best stew ever.... I can't tell you the super-secret ingredients or else I'd have to kill you.
Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all right reserved).

They Like Me, They Really Like Me!

Today I received an email from the teacher for whom I subbed Tuesday at Atascadero Middle School. It went as follows:

"Hi Mr. Noyes,

I felt you should know that every class has commented that you are a wonderful teacher.  The girls in SB wrote a note saying[:]

'We agree that Mr. Noyes would be a great teacher for the high school. He is supportive, a good leader, and wise.'"

Needless to say, I was blown away by this and not expecting such feedback after only subbing/teaching five days at this school (the final four days before Christmas break and then Tuesday this week). I also heard some encouraging positive feedback from students (some of which made it into the ears of staff) the week I subbed there last month.

Picture of the Day - My Field of Dreams

I have decided to christen this "Secret Hill" which is a joke if you know where this is. Overlying it is what I think of as my field of dreams over which I have trodden down many and various trails of tears. What I mean by that is that I have oftentimes the past few months cried about a great many heavy things that have been revealed to me by God over that period of time as I traced trails and paced paths over this field's doubly-plowed surface meditatively looking for petrified whale bone and biconoids. Ah, biconoids: well that gives away generally where this is located. At other times I have not been sad but my medative rockhounding ramblings here have been my escape from thinking about heavy things or the mundanities of modern living. Heavy rains are slated for the coming days and I fear those who farm this land (from whom we have permission to be on it for rockhounding purposes) will soon seed this surface and we will have to wait until after the next harvest.
Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Fire & Water

Today I had a modified Kim Day in which I took the day off but in this case I did not go solo but joined the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen on a business roadtrip to Santa Barbara with lunch at Harry's, book browsing at Chaucer's, and then a visit to the Gaviota Coast on the way home to hunt petrified whale bone. We took Highway 154 down in order to get to our destination quicker as well as to see the aftermath of last summer's Whittier Fire (which was not fully controlled until earlier this winter), an aftermath I had not heretofore seen with mine own eyes and it was eye-opening. Dangerous weather with the potential for flashflooding and mudslides is predicted for the overnight period into tomorrow. We were chased off of Gaviota Beach at Gaviota State Park late this afternoon by the first major rain bands of this strong Pacific Storm whose circulation will pass over the Central Coast overnight into tomorrow. Above is the view along Highway 154 looking eastward across the burn scar with ominous skies clabbering up and lowering. The long story of modern California history is that of wildfire followed by flashfloods and mudslides. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved)

Picture of the Day - Here It Comes!

Late this afternoon/early this evening I was out rockhounding in my usual location of late and could not avoid noticing the spectacular sky yet with a note of foreboding as the ongoing fetch of subtropical moisture that has overridden the Central Coast the past several days is slated to finally bring in a powerful Pacific Storm in the days ahead. The story of this impending storm is written in this skyscape. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).