Second Sunset of 2012 (mobile photo)
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Damn.
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Damn.
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Lot's going on with the sky today. First, a big I love you, now, a big ol rainbow. I predict unicorns next.
Edit: I guess I missed the DOUBLE rainbow.
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Eventually read, "I <3 U David". But it's kind of a rough day for skywriting..
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September 11, 2011.
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Today marks the beginning of a brand new category on 'Almost Native Son': Local Fails. This may or may not include gripes and observations about local architecture, signs, ARB decisions and whatever else is bugging me (yes, it's one of those days). Think 'Mr. Pottymouth', but not just focused on restaurant bathrooms + and slightly better grammar.
First up: Stupidly designed gas station shelters.
Can someone please explain this to me?
This photo (click to enlarge), taken on La Cumbre (opposite Sears) during last weekend's rain storm, is a perfect example of design fail.
Usually, when I see a roof-like structure, I assume it's meant to keep what's under it from the elements. Most of the gas station shelters around Santa Barbara look just like the one pictured, and are oddly ill-equipped to provide..umm.. shelter. Even if the rain is coming down on a windless day, you still get rained on while filling up your tank.
Yes, I know it's not the end of the world - especially in Santa Barbara where rain isn't really the norm.. but still. If you're going to spend thousands of dollars on a gas station shelter - why not build one that actually makes the getting gas process slightly less aggrivating than it already is?
So, I am curious. Are these things poorly designed because:
a) gas station architects the bottom-of-the-barrel grads from architecture schools?
b) there is some sort of backwards city/ARB constraint that awkwardly limits how big these things can be?
c) someone just thinks it's funny.
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This would have been a mobile post if I wasn't already downtown with my computer. I have never seen such a perfect and vivid sundog. Here are what few photos I could take with my iPhone. If you're reading this around 1:30pm today (Friday June 3) stop reading my stupid post and go outside. It's really something.
[more photos below]
For the curious, here's more on Sundogs:
"Sundogs are made commonly of plate-shaped hexagonal ice crystals in high and cold cirrus clouds or, during very cold weather, by ice crystals called diamond dust drifting in the air at low levels. These crystals act as prisms, bending the light rays passing through them with a minimum deflection of 22°. If the crystals are randomly oriented, a complete ring around the sun is seen — a halo. But often, as the crystals sink through the air they become vertically aligned, so sunlight is refracted horizontally — in this case, sundogs are seen.
As the sun rises higher, the rays passing through the crystals are increasingly skewed from the horizontal plane. Their angle of deviation increases and the sundogs move further from the sun.[2] However, they always stay at the same elevation as the sun.
Sundogs are red-colored at the side nearest the sun. Farther out the colors grade through oranges to blue. However, the colors overlap considerably and so are muted, never pure or saturated. The colors of the sundog finally merge into the white of theparhelic circle (if the latter is visible)." - from Wikipedia
Here's a video:
And some more photos:
So THAT happened.
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Taken from Goleta where you can see the steam coming up off of the wood fences in the sunlight.
Even smells like snow.
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Here are a few pictures from a giant (ficus?) tree that was knocked over on upper State Street and Ontare - right in front of the Hydroponics shop and the Wash n' Go. The Police officer I talked to said it was felled by 60-80MPH winds/gusts. What was remarkable about it was that the whole thing was just snapped clean off.. the trunk hanging 6 feet above an otherwise healthy-looking stump. Someone please explain this year's weather to me.
Right now, west-bound traffic is blocked on State. I'm guessing they'll have it chopped up by morning.
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Normally I like a little wet dark drippy fog. My productivity level goes way up. I took a certain amount of pride in liking less than pristine weather. I even claimed not to miss the sunny hot summer days (of which we only had , oh, seven). NOW, I am faced with the reality that it has been one of the coolest and strangest Santa Barbara summers in memory. I'm not saying I want that heat-wave back, but I am saying that I wouldn't mind some dynamic thundershowers and warm humid afternoons. Then again, someone smack me, for I am another spoilt Santa Barbaran griping about the weather.
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Just a few pictures of Santa Barbara and Goleta from the window of my plane (bound for Denver) the other day. Nice visibility and some cool clouds hanging over the mountains.
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I just snapped this picture of a partial rainbow over Santa Barbara. If you don't know why I'm typing in all caps about a rainbow..It's because you probably haven't seen the (below) video making the rounds on YouTube this week, where a guy, possibly high on a little more than life, has a meltdown when a rainbow appears in front of his house. It's gone viral enough to have been re-mixed into various songs - embedded below for your viewing pleasure.
Original Double Rainbow Video. I kind of envy how deeply he feels it. Though there may be a little more than a little medication involved.
Here's the Double Rainbow Song (awesome).
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Curious about the possibility of earning myself a fresh Darwin award, I went down to the Santa Barbara harbor in hopes of seeing whatever mild tsunami side effects I could. I wasn't too worried about being swept away because there was only a gentle 'tsunami advisory' warning, which means (apparently) that it's best to stay clear of beaches and oceanfront zones, but that no major event was expected (Stearns Wharf remained open all day).
After arriving at the Wharf, I waited around for a while. First I noticed that the tide was especially low - which I wasn't really ready to attribute it to the tsunami (though a common precursor to giant waves is of course, water levels dropping rapidly). But the more I looked at the very familiar harbor waters, the more it was clear to me that whatever was happening wasn't normal.
When I got to the top of the wharf, the muddy brown water was gently moving out to sea. Nothing shocking.. but it was definitely moving south, out the mouth of the harbor. I've seen this kind of thing happen in other tidal zones, and even here in SB to a small extent (Carp salt marsh), but this was more pronounced and a little nerve-wracking considering the context. Still, I was willing to give credit to the bizarre weather.
After a cup of chowder, I walked again to face (west) the jetty. This time it was obvious something was up - that was not due to the stormy conditions.
The water inside the channel for the harbor was suddenly turbulent, choppy and swirling - in a pattern that I've never seen before. The dredge was almost totally exposed, and the tide had dropped (even) further. The 'Conception', which was headed into the harbor, had to stop in it's tracks half-way in, and do a full-reverse for several hundred feet to get back into the open ocean. Several other boats also aborted their plans to enter, as the harbor channel rapidly turned into a shallow muddy river.
The (native) couple I was standing with (who have lived here for 50 years, and were self-described 'thrill seekers') had never seen anything like it. My instinct (from every random tsunami film or article I've ever seen) was to head for the hills. So I did (after grabbing a piece of chocolate from the Wharf candy store). As I left, I noticed that the water level was starting to gently rise again, which was reassuring. Though I have to admit that I kept a paranoid eye towards the horizon for a while.
I am now sitting a few blocks away from the beach and monitoring Twitter for tsunami news (seems that it failed to become a wave and only hit Hawaii and California in the form of a small tidal surge..).
On twitter '@ihuntmidgets' summed it up it best: " I am totally disappointed that there have been zero Patrick Swayze sightings during this Tsunami"
On a serious note, I am glad to see that no one has been hurt this far north. And of course, our thoughts are with the people Chile during such a horrible time. At magnitude 8.8.. the tectonic plates aren't messing around. And we know all too well that here in coastal california, we're not immune to much nastier days.
This doesn't really do it justice. My poor camera-phone can't zoom.
Boats (that had been waiting off the end of the wharf) finally to re-entering the harbor.
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This, only seconds after a full-on hailstorm. (click to enlarge).
I love this town.
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Well, El Nino's personality has gone from relatively boring (sun, clouds, sun), to crazy-as-an-astronaut-diaper this week. One minute, it'll be sunny, and the next; dumping rain. Then sunny again, then windy, then drizzly...and then... a freaking waterspout.
A mysterious wind event took some trees down on Haley, and some tiles from a few rooftops downtown. We've also had a weird indecisive cold spell, rivers for creeks, and giant hepatitis filled chocolate waves (see some of my fellow amazingly intelligent surfer brethren below).
Here are a few photos I took during the last day or two, complete with big waves and Mission Creek nastiness letting out into the Pacific. If the storm continues, maybe I'll grow some cojones and get a pic of a waterspout and some lighting. Or maybe I'll just run the other direction.
Mission Creek Letting out into the Pacific.
Snow in the Mountains over Santa Barbara.
There are about 2 or 3 boats washed ashore in the distance. I was amazed how much sports equipment was floating in the shallows.
This one really gets at the color of the stuff coming out of Mission Creek.
And of course Sandspit was cranking. The surfers are getting their stoke on before realizing they have Hepatitis AND sinus staph infections.
Keep in mind those little specks at the base of the wave are surfers..
Pretty. Wait. Did I just see a syringe?
More Sandspit Backwash.
Looking past the Santa Barbara Zoo to the mountains above Montecito and Carp.
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Local culture, happenings, news, art, and other miscellany.
