Looking like it should be much closer to the horizon, the almost full moon tonight is tinted distinctively yellow. Like the green cheese is really yellow Cheddar cheese. The reason, of course, is smoke particles from the catastrophic California Firestorms filtering out blue moonlight, thus making the moon look yellowish.

I took this a while ago using the little A710IS Canon on a mini tripod. Click for a closer view.

Last Sunday at the local indoor firing range I took this shot of Verna punching holes in a silhouette target with the S&W 908 9mm semi-automatic pistol. On the right side of the photo, an ejected 9×19mm brass case and it’s shadow hovers in mid-air just before it ricocheted off of the partition onto the floor. Click for the close-up to see the brass.

When we spend time outdoors on the weekends, I often enjoy a bottle or two of Sam Adams Lager. After I pour the bottle in the mug, Bear will come up to me, salivating, and looking like she is sooooo parched. So I let her get the last trickles out of the bottle.

Verna snapped this while we were barbecuing out back.

Spineless or giant yucca is true to both its names: Its leaves are pliable and lack the sharp spines on the tips that are so characteristic of most yuccas, and this is one big yucca, getting up to 30 ft (9.1 m) tall. With age the trunk becomes rough and thick, and when mature it develops a swollen base and often branches a few feet off the ground. The leaves, which grow in a spiral rosette are shiny green, to 4 ft (1.2 m) long and about 3 in (7.6 cm) wide with serrated margins. Like other yuccas, this one has white bell shaped flowers borne on tall stalks above the foliage in summer. This yucca, ‘Variegata,’ has leaves with creamy yellow margins.

Spineless yucca is the tallest of the yuccas, and is often used as a framing specimen at the side of a building or along a walkway. It makes a striking presence in large landscapes, but may be too much for a small yard. Since they lack the sharp spines of other yuccas, spineless yuccas are harmless and can be used where most others cannot. They are grown in containers and sometimes seen in indoor malls. Use this handsome tropical looking yucca as an accent in a gravelly succulent garden, but realize it will get large. The flower petals are edible.

This individual yucca is growing in the South Coast Botanic Garden in Palos Verdes, California. I took this vertical panorama picture during our stroll through the cactus garden on Saturday. Click on the picture for a giant view.

We went to the Botanic Garden today for a mum show and sale. We took a walk down to the cactus garden where I snapped the three images for this panoramic view. Click the image to view large size.

Earlier this year we made a decision to get a couple of .45 ACP pistols; we’ve been shopping for a while now, and to “celebrate” the most ridiculous recently passed anti-second amendment laws in California, we decided that now is the time. I have been saving up some spare change in the slush fund, and just this week it passed the threshold for acquisition. So, the countdown is on . . .

Verna decided on the Para Ordinance “Warthog.” One reviewer had this to offer:

The original super-compact .45 with truly awesome firepower is the Para Warthog. There is no 1911-style, ten-round, semi-auto in the world smaller than the Warthog. The Warthog is remarkably controllable, thanks to its superbly engineered and contoured grip design. Add the feeding and extracting reliability of the exclusive new Para Power Extractor and you have the best super-compact pistol on the ground or in the air.

My choice was to go with the Glock 30. I already own a G-26 9mm and love it. It’s lightweight, has a great feel to it when I shoot and it’s easy to maintain. Based on my satisfaction with the 9mm, I ordered the new pistol which isn’t much bigger than it’s 9mm counterpart.

The Glock 30 is the smaller frame .45 caliber version of the Glock 21. Like the Glock 26, it has a 10 round capacity in a dual stack magazine. When I hold the pistol, it seems to have the same weight and feel of my Glock 26. According to reviews I read about firing the Glock 30, it should be every bit as reliable as my Glock 26.

I’m looking forward to the waiting period to end, as is Verna. We only get to wait because obtuse California politicians believe that penalizing legitimate firearms owners will make criminals somehow stop committing crimes with guns. Oh! The insanity!

I generally don’t post political things here unless they’re really funny or outrageously mind-boggling. This is a case of the latter.

Certain pediatricians now employ the practice of asking kids if “Daddy has a gun,” and, if the answer is “yes,” they follow-up with questions about weapons in the home - legitimate or not. I infer from this that they must think children with gun-owning parents have some sort of health risk.

A recent case in Massachusetts involved a mom and her five-year-old in for a check-up. The doctor asked about guns, and since there was a legally-owned gun in the household, he followed up by filing a police report. Didn’t they do this in Germany when the Nazis were in charge?

Let’s consider some numbers:

In the U.S. in 2003, there were 28 accidental gunshot deaths among 10 year old or younger children. There were an estimated 90 million gun owners and about 277 million guns nationwide at that time. There also were 40 million (or so) kids under the age of 10 in 2003. So actually a small percentage of children were killed or about 0.00007 percent (1 child for every 1.4 million) - still way too many, but a small percentage. This also translates that only one gun out of every 100 million guns was involved in the death of a child that year.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1400 kids are killed yearly by automobile accidents, either as passengers or as pedestrians. Why not ask if Daddy owns a car? 90 kids are drowned in bathtubs annually - should we put locks on tubs? Space heaters, swimming pools, bicycles, toxic cleaning agents, skateboards and a host of other common articles are factors in child fatalities. When you add all these “health” risks together, the health risk of a gun in the household is not only dwarfed, but practically eliminated. Why not ask about other known-to-be-dangerous items?

Kids are not so much at risk from guns as they are from parents with habitual substance abuse, violent criminal records, domestic violence and such. Pediatricians should zero in on whether children have parents who are people who would use guns violently, not if “Daddy has a gun.”

Of course anti-gun fanatics and leftists are arithmetically challenged, preferring hyperbole to statistics. Crusading for children, it seems, is a favorite ploy by the left, except when it comes to crusading for abortion wherein children are intentionally killed for the sake of “health” or “convenience.”

Interview your health professionals (after all, they work for you) and see if they have an anti-gun agenda - if they do, FIRE THEM!

And OBTW (oh, by the way) if the country goes to a national health care system, certain anti-gun politicians (Hillary!) will assign a health professional(?) to you - you will have NO choice in the matter, since free trade and competition are the enemies of socialism.