Rainy Day

SUMMARY: Wordless Wednesday (yeah so it's Thursday, what's your point?)

If you're dyin' for words, here:

(Such a challenge--if I had leaned to the right about 18", I could have gotten all the crap out of the view. However, I risked him moving when I simply very slowly leaned slightly backwards and lifted the camera off the desk (also which meant I stopped using the keyboard)--his ears immediately turned back to me, so I had to look away and make keyboard noises until his ears went forward again. Leaning slowly in the chair doesn't make much noise, but enough that dogs hear it. Clicking this one shot caused him to leap up and come over to check out what's going on. Now he's curled up in bed in the other room instead. Another dream of a perfect shot crushed. And you can see that even as I lifted the camera to my eye, his ears are already starting to point back towards me.)

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It's Raining! It's Raining! It's Raining!

SUMMARY: I know that it's not a miracle, but--

Looks like it will be measurable rain. Can't even remember the last time this happened. April? March?

I hope that it keeps up enough to help my yard, or those of my many friends who have turned off their irrigation in this drought.

More, I hope that it's raining where the King Fire still runs out of control--95,000 acres and counting. 148 square miles (384 sq. km). That's three times the size of San Francisco and coming up quickly on the entire city of San Jose, which sprawls up and down and across this valley, housing a million people, and includes many square miles of open land.

8,000 people currently fight this fire, which threatens 12,000 individual homes as they try to hold it back.

This is not the biggest fire we've ever had (although it rapidly approaches the top 20), and it's not the only fire currently burning in California, but we have agility friends who live in the area, and it's the worst going at the moment.

But--it's raining!

San Jose City of Trees Through the Rain

SUMMARY: Wordless Wednesday

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Hiking in the Rain With Glass

SUMMARY: Sierra Vista sunrise hike with spectacles and telephoto lens.

The Santa Clara County Open Space District planned this nifty event--on February 29, just because it's an unusual date, do an unusual thing by allowing a limited number of people to drive up and park in Sierra Vista Park (normally you can only get there by hiking up 1500 feet from Alum Rock park), watch the sunrise, and go for an early hike. We've had such great weather all winter--even spring-like lately--and so I signed up.

Of course, last night a big storm blew in. They sent email asking whether anyone wanted to cancel. Apparently a bunch did, but not me, and not an intrepid dozen others.

Here's how it worked out:

Sunrise over San Jose: Ha ha! Just kidding! That's the glow of the city lights through my rainy windshield at 5:30 in the morning.

OK, the *real* sunrise over San Jose. In other words--it merely got a little lighter and the blasting wind and rain let up a bit.

We did actually hike after the sun theoretically rose. Here are those of us who decided to keep on going for a mile or so before the weight of the mud on our boots and the total soakage of our clothing made us think better of doing more (I'm on the right in, yes, bluejeans).

Even with a hat and a hood, I looked like this at the end of the hike. The brim on my hat did nothing to keep my glasses dry.

And despite a plastic cover for my camera (and a sunguard on the lens) and my attempts to baby it, the lens repeatedly became covered with water droplets, and so almost all the photos are blurred like you're looking through water. Because, ha ha, you are.

This was my first attempt at shooting in the rain, on the go, with a plastic cover, using a tripod. I learned some things but the results were less than stellar.  With that caveat, you can see my very few other photos that weren't completely terrible: http://elf1.smugmug.com/Hiking/Sierra-Vista-Sunrise-Rain-Hike/21696926_r6XLQq