Nine Squared

Having competed yet another orbit around the sun, the total of my years is equivalent to the title and graphic shown. In spite of that rather large-ish sounding number, I am still in very good health with only minor symptoms of arthritis and a slightly under-performing kidney. I still see a dermatologist who eliminates some skin carcinoma from time to time, thus reminding me of my younger days of over exposure to the sun’s UV radiation.

Here’s a brief summary of life to this point:

  • Born during the second world war in Long Beach, California.
  • Graduated High School in the early 60’s
  • Active duty US Navy – Avionics Tech School for a year
  • US Naval Missile Center, Point Mugu, CA Targets Dept. 2 years.
  • Went into Aerospace industry for the next 40 years.
  • Retired in Wickenburg, AZ.

I may have left out a few details. There are a couple of blog posts in the works that detail my Navy service – coming one of these days.

Eighteenth Blogiversary

As of today, July 17, 2024, the vernabob.com blog is eighteen years old. We keep blogging about major events these days and someday we will resume making daily entries into it like we originally intended (i.e. “Our Digital Diary.”) Meanwhile, we will do the occasional post about holidays, birthdays, anniversaries (like this) and such.

We thank the Good Lord for His continued blessings upon us and trust that He will continue to do so. And may God bless all of our readers.

July Flowers

July has always been a good month for desert cactus flowers opening. After only three days, this month gas been no disappointment. All the flowers shown below have opened on or since July first.

This first photo is of a peniocereusgreggii “Queen of the Night” flower, two of which opened up last night (July 2). They are short-lived like many cacti flowers and were mostly gone this morning. We were lucky to spot them last evening to get this photo.

These next beauties also opened overnight. They are “Cherry Red” (trichocereus) cactus flowers and look almost hot pink in the morning sun.

Our old reliable “Bishop’s Cap” cactus produces flowers many times during the year. We bought this cactus over 25 years ago in a three-inch plastic pot. These were open on the first of July.

The “Star Cactus” (Astrophytum) is also one of those that produce flowers several times a year. This flower also opened on July first.

Lastly, is our showy “Red Bird of Paradise” or “Pride of Barbados” shrub which will produce these brightly colored flowers from April through September. We have three shrubs in the courtyard.

That’s all for now. Click on any image above to view enlarged in a new window or tab.

Another Cherry Red Flower Opened

These are so beautiful – Trichocereus Grandiflorus a.k.a. “Cherry Red” cactus opened up this morning in the courtyard. There are more buds on this and other cacti in the yard and we may be getting more of these striking blooms over the next few weeks. Click on the image to view larger.

Train Siding in 3D

This is another case of “accidental stereo photo” when Verna’s camera captured a couple of photos while the truck was in motion, this time crossing the local railroad tracks near downtown Wickenburg. The train in the photo is stationary on the siding next to the main track to the right of the siding.

You will need to use your 3D glasses to view the above anaglyph (stereoscopic) photo. For your convenience, the 2D photo is shown below in case you don’t have your red/cyan glasses handy.