I comment from time to time on the weather in Southern California, but I normally refrain from saying too much about it during this time of the year. Why? Mainly because I believe it's the Rose Parade's fault that we have so many people living here in California today.
I'm a perfect example of it I guess. Although I consider myself a Californian, I wasn't born here, rather was transported here by my parents in the early 60s much like many of the kids I went to school with at the time.
My 5th grade teacher Mrs. Packard, on the first day of school, brought out a map of the United States, then proceeded to name every state and ask us to raise our hands when she came to the state where we were born. She started in Maine where she was born, and went across to California. Allen Schoff and I raised our hands when Indiana was called. Of the 27 or so children in the class, I believe there was one person who raised his or her hand when the last state, California was called. California was a state of immigrants from other states at the time.
I believe that every January 1st, the weather gods smile down upon Pasadena, California. It has to be since we've only had two years in the last 60+ years where it's rained on the Rose Parade. Every year, people back in the midwest and east coast huddle inside their houses while it's snowing outside and it's 20 degrees and they watch the Rose Parade, live from Pasadena. The conversation goes something like this.
"Henry!"
"What Martha?"
"Come and watch the parade with me."
"Look Martha. They're wearing shorts again on January 1st. That's it, we're moving to California!"
And the population of California inches up again. So why do I tell this story? Because I'm posting something that might encourage people to move out here. My last post dealt with the Yahoo Weather App where I'd submitted photos to be included in the weather app. The screen shot shows one of my photos on the main page of the weather app for Pasadena, a shot that I took just before Thanksgiving this year of Pasadena's city hall. For all of you back east, please don't look at the temperature.
When I saw this challenge show up at the beginning of the month, I really didn't give it much thought. I haven't participated in a couple of months of the blogger's challenge and I actually feel quite badly about that. I made a commitment to the group that I would participate and I feel like I've dropped the ball, so here's my five entries for this month's challenge of Outdoors.
1. Veteran's Memorial
I found this Veteran's Memorial maintained by the city of Burbank on Labor Day while out geocaching. Once again, this silly game takes me to a very memorable spot. In fact, four of the five shots taken for this month's theme were taken while I was out geocaching, either by myself or with a friend.
Memorials were set in stone around this eternal flame obelisk for the various wars in which the United States has participated. Plaques honoring Bob Hope, as well as the different branches of service were there, including the Coast Guard.
My friend and I were on a mission on Labor Day to find at least 10 multi-caches in one day as part of a geocaching challenge that's been set up in my area. The challenge is to find at least 10 of a particular type of cache in a day. However, there are seven different types of caches (icons) you have to find before you can claim the challenge cache. I already have a day with at least 10 Unknown finds and also another day with at least 10 traditional finds, so this day was dedicated to Multi-cache finds. Believe me when I say it's harder than it appears. We had 17 multi-cache finds that we attempted and we got exactly 10 that day and spent most of the day doing it.
2. Fire fighting 101
Usually, when people think about forest fires, or brush fires, they think disaster. In most cases they're correct, but only because we have had about a century and a half of fire suppression that has resulted in areas that are supposed to be open, now densely foliated and ripe for huge fires like we've seen burn across the western United States over the past couple of years. Only in recent decades have we learned the benefits that smaller fires have on the ecology of any region. Giant Sequoias have those burn marks on their bark for a reason.
Several weeks ago, a small fire started about 2 miles west of my house in the Claremont College's Robert J. Bernard Field Station. Local fire fighters, including this water dropping plane, one other just like it and several helicopters quickly were able to get the fire under control and the fire only burned 17 acres of the 86 acres of what is mostly coastal sage scrub, a plant ecosystem that is becoming increasingly rare due to suburban expansion in Los Angeles County. The Claremont Colleges are excited about observing how the area regenerates itself over the coming months and years.
3. Zen
Another geocaching trip yielded this shot of a large cement Buddha. I had been out geocaching in the local area and I found myself close to this virtual cache called Bronze Carriages. The answers I needed took me inside the Hsi Lai Buddhist temple, one of the largest Buddhist temples in the area.
Once I got the needed information for the geocache, I wandered around the gardens. They are immaculate and very calming to the soul. There were several signs as I entered the temple forbidding photography, so I honored the request and kept my camera shuttered. This photo was taken outside the grounds in the parking lot where photography is allowed. It's really too bad they don't allow photography as I think the place would be a Mecca for some photographers. Still, it was nice just to enjoy the scenery without having to worry about "getting the shot."
I decided to process this in monotone because I think it brought out more of the texture of the figure than did color. I was able to up the contrast quite a bit which really helped accent it. The only think different I would do with this shot would be to PhotoShop out the chain in the lower part of the photo.
4. Lemon Creek Egret
On the same day as I visited the Buddhist temple, I also found myself in a small park hunting for a geocache. As I walked along the trail next to this small creek, I spotted this four foot tall egret wading in the waters. I think it was casually waiting for small fish to swim by. I missed several attempts it made, but got several nice shots, including this one just after water had dripped off its bill and created splash rings in the water.
My wife and I visited Yellowstone National Park on our honeymoon and something a ranger said at one of their ranger talks has always stuck with me. He said, "If you cause an animal to move, you're too close." That's good advice to heed, especially in that neck of the woods since getting too close to a bison, elk, moose, or grizzly bear could be fatal.
This encounter didn't endanger my health at all, but I got to experience that proximity rule. The egret was perfectly happy to be wading along with me on the bank at a certain distance. But at some point, I crossed that invisible barrier and the egret then quickly moved away from me to get me out of its proximity circle. We were almost playing a little game of cat and mouse as I was trying to see how close I could get before it would move. Invariably, it always seemed to be the same distance before it would move away. I guess what this really tells me is I need a longer lens for these kinds of shots. I can get closer with the lens yet still let the animal enjoy its solitude.
5. Spruce Needles
Finally, here's a shot I don't normally take. This past weekend, I went out hiking in the Deukmejian Wilderness Park with a caching buddy of mine. This would be the first hike I'd been on since May because of the heat buildup from summer. It's not fun to hike in extreme temperatures, so the fall, winter, and spring are really good times out here to enjoy good hikes.
Neither of us had been to this park before, so it was going to be a new experience for both of us. The city of Glendale, CA has developed several trails in this park and placed benches in strategic spots long the trail for hikers to relax. We enjoyed a 2.75 mile loop, found 7 caches in the park and had a great time.
But back to the photo. As I noted above, I don't normally take photos of tree branches or needles. However, there was something about the needles the light in the background that look intriguing so I fired off several shots, getting this one that I really liked. I guess I just need to retrain myself to look at the smaller things and not concentrate on the pretty flowers all of the time. There's beauty all around us, even if it's not pink or yellow and blooming.
Well, there you go. My five photos for September's challenge of Outdoors. Please stop by P.J.'s blog page to view other like minded individuals and their interpretations of Outdoors.
This is not a article I would usually write, but I stumbled across a website today that had some pretty sobering statistics. According to this site, I was the 2,909,470,267th person alive when I was born and the 76,444,994,032nd person to have lived since history began. In my mind, those are staggering numbers. Think of all the people that have ever been on this earth and 1 in 15 are alive right now. Between the time I was born and my daughter, my first born, was born, 3.7 trillion people were born, including my three sisters and my wife.
Since I was born the population of the planet has more than doubled with the population surpassing 7 billion people in October 2011. If that trend continues, the population of the earth will pass 8 billion in the year 2025 and it could conceivably triple since I was born by the year 2043. With good health, I think I have a reasonable chance of still being alive then and 9 billion people on the planet sounds like just an enormous amount of people.
With the strain from this many people, resources, such as food, water and fuel will become increasingly scarce. Based on the consumption of resources and the population increased, sometime during the 2030s, the UN estimates that we will need the equivalent of two earths in order to support all of the people in it. Of course a lot can change between now and then.
Clearly, this can't happen since we only have one earth. But technology could bail us out. 200 years ago, 97% of people in the United States lived and worked on farms supplying the needs of the entire country. Today, only about 3% of our population lives and works on farms and those farms supply most of the food for the world. Somewhere down the road, there has to be a limit to the amount of food that can be produced. What it is, we don't know yet. Perhaps we've already hit the limit. That food will be a limiting factor on the population of the planet is a foregone conclusion. Fresh, clean, drinkable water will be the other main limiting factor.
I do not know what the answers to these problems will be and of other problems that plague this planet, but it seems as if we need to work together. I'm concerned about the future of number 80,198,082,265, number 80,520,546,297 and number 81,067,205,912. How we react to this in the future will probably be our legacy to not only our children but our grandchildren, great grandchildren and beyond. What numbers are you concerned about? And consider this. In the time it took you to read this short article, the earth's population increased by slightly more than 1000 people.
