Picture of the Day - Solar Eclipse

Today's solar eclipse captured not the way I intended. I could not get my little pocket-sized amateur photographer's camera to not cause each image of the eclipse to be washed out with the Sun's glare no matter what I did to play around with the settings. Rather serendipitously I captured colorful double-images of the eclipse by way of two optical artifacts of the camera itself.  Both are located below and just to the right of the halo of the Sun. One artifact is blue-green and one is blue and both are probably identical images apart from their color and intensity difference. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Scripture of the Day - John (I John 3:20-1)

"For if our conscience convicts us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our conscience convicts us not, then have we confidence before God." 

 ~ I John 3:20-21

This passage has been growing on my mind for some time but with growing strength through unto the present. I do not feel any conviction upon me by this passage but I am intensely cognizant of its power and awaiting some clarification as to God's intent in it as it pertains to me. I feel on the verge of understanding this matter and I believe with some measure of confidence that it is more a positive than negative thing.

Harmony Headlands Virgin Visit

Today the El Ejercicios (well, a small contingent of them anyway) conducted a couple of coast walks along the north coast of San Luis Obispo County. For various reasons most members were unable to join us so we looked at today as partly for us and partly a recon operation for future walks for the rest of the group. Our first walk of the day was a first-time visit to Harmony Headlands State Park, a newer state park on the Central Coast of California. In attendance were Kameron McMeekin, Sarah Masters and her beau Anthony and lastly, myself. Dogs are unwelcome in the state parks system (an outrage worthy of a future rant here) so I had to leave my dog at home. Upon parking our two cars in the parking lot adjacent to Highway 1 we headed out the main trail towards the coast a couple of miles away. The following images were taken in the order they appear below. *NOTE: my camera battery pooped out while visiting this park and I was unable to take any additional photos for the remainder of the day.  

Following our visit to Harmony Headlands State Park we headed up the coast to Cambria, CA, and had lunch at Sandy's Deli where I had my precious, yes, my presshhhhiooouuussss Nanner Nutty Smoothie which I washed down with a Big Sur Tuna Avocado Sandwich.

Following the ensuing foodgasm I achieved from that culinary indulgence I headed up the coast in a cloud of dopamine and endorphins with just Kameron at this point as Sarah and Anthony had to leave us for work.
We drove all the way up to Ragged Point as Kameron had not been that far up Hwy. 1 before. We then turned around and headed back down the coast to the elephant seal rookery and watched the show for a little while.

After that we drove down to the old San Simeon townsite and parked at Sebastian Store intending to walk out to the end of San Simeon Point. Parking outside William Randolph Hearst State Park proper in order to avoid paying the parking fee we walked down to the beach and walked west until we reached the start of the trail out to the end of San Simeon Point. From there we walked out to the end of the point where we saw a gray whale leaving the cove and headed out to sea around the point. After exploring the forest of blue gum eucalyptus and Monterey pine we headed back to the car and drove home.

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

2012 Cuesta Graduation

This afternoon fellow El Ejercicios gang member Kameron McMeekin and I drove down to the Cuesta College main campus in San Luis Obispo and attended its 2012 graduation ceremony wherein two fellow-members of our gang were graduating, to wit, Dina Fahmy and Maile Kahn. We were late and thus missed much of the inane speach-giving but did make it in time for the part we wanted to see which was the walking of our friends and brief visit thereafter. Congratulations Dina and Maile - you both looked stunning and we're so proud of you and will miss you. Good luck and Godspeed in the next stage of your journey! 

The four amigos!

Dina Fahmy and I

Maile Kahn and Dina Fahmy.

Dina Fahmy and Kameron McMeekin.

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

Picture of the Day - Shark Alert!

Observed at the dog beach between Cayucos and Morro Bay and refers to an incident yesterday that comes on the heels of a great white shark attacking a kayaking fisherman near Cambria five days ago. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

SLO Co. FD Water Rescue Apparatus

Today while visiting the classic California beach town of Cayucos I happened by a training exercise involving three of San Luis Obispo County FD's rescue watercraft. This was the middle edition of three consecutive days of such training at three different sites along the coast of San Luis Obispo County. This particular training exercise was also going to be partly a night-time operations exercise this evening through midnight. This was planned well in advance and had nothing to do with the recent shark incidents along the coast over the past week and/or the water rescue of a near-fatal hypothermia victim a short distance up the coast during the same period.

Utility 3462

Utility 3462 and trailer for Boat 62 based at Station 62 in Avila Beach, CA.

Utility 3415

Utility 3415 and trailer for Boat15 based at Station 15 in Los Osos, CA.

Pismo Beach Lifeguard unit.

Pismo Beach FD Lifeguard unit and trailer for Boat 64.

Boat 64

Boat 62

Boat 15 with Boats 62 and 64 in background.

Close-up view of Boat 62 with Pismo Beach FD Lifeguard unit and trailer and Utility 3462 in background.

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

Donna Summer Worked Hard For The Money

It was reported this morning that 1970's disco diva Donna Summer left this world earlier this morning. This news hurt me because I always liked her in her 1980's musical formulation. I did not follow pop cultural music growing up as a small child in the 1970's so I missed her earlier disco work from whence she made her musical mark and for whence she was more culturally relevant. Below is my favorite song by her and one which I have actual memories of watching the music video on MTV in the mid-1980's.