What a Space Shuttle Fly-By Feels Like

So I'm just sitting here enjoying a sunny Sunday... no rain, no wind, no fires... when I feel this sudden JOLT. My windows pulse as though some invisible force is about to suck them out. I feel almost pulled towards something that is gone before I realize what it is. I'm shaken. I'm thinking earthquake. Because that's what you think when you're a house in Southern California and you're suddenly moved by something unseen. I have to say that it felt different than a quake. But, quakes do come in all shapes and sizes. So I settle on that theory. And am proven wrong.

What was it?

The Space Shuttle Endeavor.

The Space Shuttle. Endeavor. Space Shuttle. Space! Shuttle!

At 1:25 PM (PST) today the Space Shuttle Endeavor landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base- 101 miles Northeast of me in Boron, California. Endeavor was scheduled to land at Cape Canaveral but was rerouted due to nasty weather in Florida.

Two Sonic Booms occurred when the shuttle broke the sound barrier. And that's what I felt. The Sonic Booms. BOOM! BOOM! I'm still a little woozy from it all. But happy that the shuttle landed safely and feeling like a part of NASA today.

Endeavor Lands Safely at Edwards - ABC Local News

Space Shuttle Diverted to Socal - LA Times

Smoke gets in my eyes (My view of the L.A. fires)

As a house on a hill I see a lot. Right now, my usual view is clouded. By smoke. From several nearby fires. I'm safe, though. No embers flying this way. (Knock on myself.)

I do feel so sorry for those houses that have been destroyed by these fires. And I want to send a shout out to every house's hero: The Firefighters who risk their lives to save us.

The Sylmar fire caught my attention right away as I had a perfect view when it flared up on Friday night around 10:30 PM. It looked so close as thought it could have been Burbank burning. I saw it before it even hit the news. My owner snapped a photo. It's not the greatest. But you can get a sense of it. The flames were quite pronounced at the start before the smoke clouded the sky.

The second photo- the view of the smoke- was taken this morning from my roof. Needless to say, all my doors and windows are closed. Nobody's breathing too easily in L.A. today.

I have HOPE - Houses for Barack Obama

Considering that most houses don't have a say in the matter over what political sign their owners stick in the front yard, I was so relieved when my owners crawled up my front hillside and displayed the OBAMA/BIDEN HOPE sign!

Houses for Barack Obama!
Houses can't vote (yet) but YOU can

My Halloween Costume

Feliz Dia de los Muertos! It's the first of November and I'm recovering from my night of Halloween entertaining. I went as a SPOOKY house for Halloween. There wasn't much in the budget for my costume so we went with atmosphere. How was the spooky accomplished?

1. Multimedia. Why not let the classic scary films do all the work for me? That's what I thought. So I borrowed two digital projectors from friends and projected scary movies. In the living room the classic "Psycho" was projected onto my ceiling. The second projector was placed in the bedroom and projected out onto the exterior wall by the bbq. For that one, the movies rotated between "The Nightmare Before Christmas," "An American Werewolf in London," and "Young Frankenstein." The movies added so much atmosphere.

2. Candles. Lots of them. Spooky.

3. A smoke machine. I borrowed this too. It was cool when my owners remembered to use it. You give them one job and.... well, you know. If you want something done you gotta do it yourself.

I also got three orange paper lanterns from a store in Chinatown that added to the Halloween ambiance. And the dark and stormy Los Angeles sky certainly helped with mood. (I can't take credit for that.)

Enjoy the pictures!