John & Anne Wiley

2012/11/11

Far Out

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,People,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 02:30

Far out of town to the West beyond Refugio is a little enclave with some wonderfully creative homes on the bluffs overlooking the beach. Unless you’ve flown low and slow along this coast (or spend a lot of time on Google Earth) you might never know such beautiful and whimsical houses are there. Places like this with its sprawling free-form roof, and a little rounded structure behind it at the right.

1301 Free Form

1301 Free Form

This next one shaped somewhat like a sea creature’s shell, evokes the late 1960s when architecture expanded with all manner of “far out” rounded forms. Must be a very cozy and beautiful place to live.

1304 Sea Shell

1304 Sea Shell

Two doors down is this home with a very angular collection of shapes, offering a great contrast in its straight lines.

1306 Sharp Angles

1306 Sharp Angles

With so many of our homes following the rectangular form, it’s always fun to see architects and builders going far out of the norm. Maybe this proves yet again that diversity is a core human value.

2012/11/10

Down Home

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,People,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 00:34

Maybe my tastes in aerial pix is predictable, but is it explicable? I like rocks, and you’ve seen plenty of those here. I like mansions & grand estates, as you’ve noticed. I like sea life & surfers. I also like abandoned human stuff, like this little shack near the beach up past the grand Bacara resort.

1318 Down Home

1318 Down Home

I’ve noticed it often on flights past this area, and thought I’d already shared an aerial pic of it here. Since I couldn’t find any pix here going back a few months and as already mentioned this sort of thing intrigues me, here’s a view down into it.

As for explaining this particular fascination, maybe it’s about Life. Seems to me many of us would like to be remembered when we’re gone, and noticing this remembers the people who lived there in a way. For me it’s also about noticing Now. Imagining myself there when it was inhabited, reminds me that those people most likely seldom if ever thought about it. We tend to live as if things will never change, caught up in living so much we aren’t really aware. When I’ve spoken impulsively, sometimes I can “see” the words hanging in the air and feel something like regret that I wasn’t more aware. If we’d lived here would we have been conscious of our good fortune in living with loved ones on a bluff over the sea, or might all our attention been spent on the mundane? There was a line in a song something like, “Loving is mainly just memories. When you’re gone I’ll be glad to love you.”

2012/11/07

Other Side

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 21:10

Sometimes I’ve wished you could see more pix from Tripp’s other side. Though she takes fewer pix, it’s always fun to see things from Anne’s side of the plane. There’s also a fascinating contrast from the other side of our gender orientation. Maybe some day she’ll get more motivated to post her perspective, but meanwhile here are some of my faves among her pix from two recent flights.

4387 Hill To Islands

4387 Hill To Islands

On many flights, she gets this view as we obey ATC’s directive to “follow 101 to the harbor.” That’s “TV Hill” at the bottom-right, SBCC in the middle, and “our” spot on Shoreline Park just to the right. I like how she captures the wave texture in this view of East Beach where we used to walk daily when we first moved here.

4421 Wave Sweep

4421 Wave Sweep

Lately she’s been fascinated with all the construction on the Mesa, and I like how this view puts it in context with downtown at the top-right.

4431 Mesa Construction

4431 Mesa Construction

Last up is this view past Hope Ranch to the West, taken the next day with her polarizing filter. I’m going to post a larger version of this one to my Photo Page.

4473 Hope To West

4473 Hope To West

2012/10/30

Extremes

Filed under: Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 00:05

They say global warming leads to extremes in weather. This evening as we look out at beautiful blue skies with a gentle breeze wafting 73° sea air through the palms, the weather seems anything but extreme.

0508 Evening Hills

0508 Evening Hills

Our thoughts turn to our beloved Allie where it’s 25° and snow, and precious Molly where a hurricane approaches with a stinging mist blasting horizontally and winds aloft raging at 190mph according to this aviation website.

Aviation Wind Map

Aviation Wind Map

It’s easy to see how intense and uncharacteristically south-bending the jetstream is up at 36,000 feet where a few airliners are making rapid progress by riding it. Down at the surface, 70mph winds and rain are ramping up to wreak havoc on the northeast. Here’s hoping you’re warm and safe, and that our loved ones come through this ok.

2012/10/25

Clarity

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 19:10

I like clarity. Between people when there’s understanding, compassion and rapport, my heart soars. When pondering a problem, I love that moment of clarity when a solution emerges. There’s another sort of clarity that gets me excited, and that’s when the air is free of haze, smoke, dust or anything else that limits our ability to see far into the distance. Recently we’ve enjoyed each of these forms of clarity, and here’s an example of the latter.

1088 Home Free

1088 Home Free

When our hometown is free of anything that reduces clarity, pix like this are possible. Interestingly, our eye sees it this way on most flights. While you can improve clarity with Photoshop, it can be quite a bit of work and still not come across with the punch of a clear day. This one was back on 10/14 when we flew sweet Sarah, and we flew yesterday for another clear day that I’ve sent pix of to Edhat (see link in the right column here). She also got to see our peaks from the air for her first time, and one of my favs from those pix are the shots of Tooth Rock (aka Cathedral Peak).

1118 Tooth Rock

1118 Tooth Rock

The light was just right for a good look deep into the “cavity” at the bottom as we passed. How many people have lived in this over the ages?

1121 Cathedral Cavity

1121 Cathedral Cavity

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