Ed Levine Park 2009

A couple days ago, Khamalani, Darren, Seann and I drove to Ed Levine Park. The day was overcast and windy. The reason for the drive was to take some Christmas photos for Kama and her family. I took about 40 pictures and this morning I am working on sorting and editing the photos. I also took this photo of a tree near the shore of Sandy Wool Lake. You could see the waves on the lake caused by the wind. Nevertheless, I liked the composition so I took the shot.

Turkey Trot

On Thanksgiving day, my daughter Shimaine and her friend Tasha ran a 10k race in downtown San Jose. A job well done to both ladies. I often wish I could run again, I really miss it. But, my knees are bad, so I am confined to walking which, in itself, is not a bad thing. I guess I should count myself lucky that I can still walk.

Fall Leaves

I love the colors in Fall. Here are a couple pictures of red colored leaves. The rich red tones are really fantastic.

Humongous Waves

This last weekend, the northern California coast had giant waves hitting the shores. An after effect of a storm, somewhere in the Pacific. I took my tripod and camera early Saturday morning and got these shots of the waves. I did suffer one casualty. The high waves were coming onto the shore, covering the whole beach where I was taking pictures. I found a small hill mound about 3 feet above the shore, near a cliff, to climb on to keep from getting wet. Unfortunately, there was no room for my tripod and I left it on the shore leaning against a wall cliff. A giant wave came, covered the beach with water, almost reached me and knocked my tripod down. I retrieved it, but it was covered with sand and water and tiny little animal creatures. I spent 3 hours Saturday trying to clean my tripod of the sand and grime that got lodged in it.

I'm not sure you can see the surfer catching the wave.

There are 2 surfers in this picture, one on top of the wave the other near the bottom.

Casto Lights

A couple days ago, the place that I work at, Casto Travel, had their outside sign illuminated. Now, anyone traveling down 1st street near Trimble, will be able to see our location.

Halloween 2009

On Halloween night, we were visited by the devil, little Seann came down to show us his costume. Celena and Tijan, who sometimes babysit him, posed for a picture.



Little Irelan went as Princess Jasmine and was joined by our neighbor Henna ,who went as Snow White.


The day after Halloween, Irelan let me take a couple of pictures of her in her costume

Mushrooms

Of course, after the rains come the mushrooms.

Raining Cats & Dogs.

That same day that I took those pictures of the ominous clouds, in the afternoon , the sky opened and a deluge of rain came pouring down. It only lasted 15 minutes, but in those 15 minutes we had wide spread flooding everywhere. We are definitely experiencing crazy weather.

Ominous clouds

Yesterday, early morning, I looked in the sky and saw this strange cloud formation. It looked like there was smoke emanating from the sky. A very foreboding look.








Then I turned around and saw this rainbow.

JapanTown in San Jose

Last Thursday went to Japantown with a couple of co-workers and had some Japanese food. Good stuff, I like the teriyaki steak and deep fried vegetables. The photo below is a banner hanging on a street light.

Fall at work

Fall is upon us and our environment is beginning to change. I walked around work a couple days ago and snapped these photos

Renaissance Faire

This last weekend the family made a trip to the Renaissance Faire in Hollister, CA. My 2 daughters, wife, son-in-law and of course Irelan and her mom. Everyone was in agreement that it was a great time. As usual pictures are provided with some commentary. Enjoy

The morning of the Renaissance Faire, Irelan spent the night at our house and these are a couple of shots of Irelan posing eating her cereal breakfast.




This is one of the open areas at the Faire.


We stopped at site that was having a puppet show and let Irelan enjoy it. I don't think she was the only one enjoying it




Irelan wanted to get on this big, humongous swing, so Tasha and I got on it with her. It was a lot of fun but I felt sorry for the 2 large burly men that had to swing us.




I liked these ribbons that where hanging. The colors gave a nice presentation of the colors at the Faire.


One of the performers.


This was the stage of a really funny show put on by 2 really funny ladies.


Some material sold at the Faire.



I don't know what this is or what it represents but I knew I had to get a picture of it.


I really liked this hanging glass ornament


Future be told.


After the Faire, we visited a farm that had a lot of interesting play things for kids





On the way home, everyone was tired. Tasha and the princess took the opportunity to get some shut eye.

Firewood

Last weekend I received my firewood delivery, 3 cords of it. It took a couple of days to stack it in my backyard but I finally finished with the help of my son-in-law and neighbor. I've been doing this for 30 years and it doesn't get any easier. It's good to have help.

The wood piled on my driveway.


My backyard before the wood.


My backyard with about 65% of my wood stacked


My backyard with all the wood stacked.

Pirate

Saw this cool ornament in the parking lot, so I took a picture. I have a few more that I will be showing in the near future.

Fire