A very happy Deepavali to every one

2020 is the year of staying at home. Deepavali is a stay at home festival for the morning but in the evening, you go see all your friends and relatives and join them in the firecracker fun.. 

This year it has been a muted affair. The gatherings are smaller and we meet only people in "our bubble" which is a good thing.

We did have new clothes, great eats and some sparklers! San and me teamed up to make a lot of sweets and savories (and she got some guidance from our neighbor on some sweets and they reminded me of my grandma cooking with her aunt Ambulu when we were kids.. they would spend days planning before the cooking started!). We did go solo on some items..

She sparkles better than those sparklers..It was a good thing I adjusted an almost underexposed shot and realized this was actually a good thing!

This is the first Diwali without jr. being present at home. That was constantly in the back of my head and I am not sure how many years it will take for me to realize that you cannot expect to see kids for Diwali or take that for granted anymore! Given every now and then I manage to go to India to celebrate with my parents, know that the kids will come back home after they grow up to celebrate.. maybe more often than I did.

The little one knows of my secret plan to keep her closer to home and continues to roll her eyes everytime I suggest colleges within a 20 mile radius. 

Life comes full circle.. What I did to my parents, my kids will do to me. Good news is that I am already in the "brace" position. 

It is my sincere wish that we get over COVID soon in the coming year! People are still dying and folks are still denying the truth and reality. Diwali or Deepavali is literally the triump of truth over lies, light over darkness.. knowledge is the true illuminator! 

May knowledge and facts make a comeback after this Diwali !! 

For someone who is staying at home, we have done a good job dressing up at every opportunity.. 

Still don't know how my wife is able to handle Jr.'s being away so calmly compared to me. Either she is made of different stuff or she is faking it really well. Have some things to learn and understand.

Once again, wishing you all a wonderful Deepavali/ Diwali!!

Devils slide - an afternoon trip

Given the last 7 months, we decided to take another short ride to a place within an hour radius that has not been visited in the last 20 years.. San found just the place in Devils slide near Pacifica. 

The weather was pleasant and we drove almost an hour to the parking lot there. Then there was a hike that was 3 miles back and forth from one parking lot to the other and back. This is a beautiful bike and walkway that goes around the mountainside overlooking the pacific ocean. 

There were 6 whales there breaching, but we could not catch it. 

We had great visibiilty while we walked one way and it started raining on our way back. For some reason we were just happy to be there and didn't care. 

We met an interesting old man called "Uncle Ericson" who was an 84 year old retired plastic surgeon who walks this path every day. we got to chat with him in the drizzle on the way back and he told us some stories about the place. That made the return walk interesting! He told us about this Jeep that was rolled down the slope by theives and how it has been there since 1999 and now trees are growing through it!

Got to take some pictures with both the iPhone and the Canon this time. 

It is all mixed and matched here (some of the iPhone photos adjusted in snapseed as well)

 a slideshow of the rest of the pictures..

Loved the place and the walk.. we were both happy to walk together someplace after a long time!

Hope we find more local gems like this!

The birds must be crazy

Yesterday, during my yoga class at home (done with a teachers voice recording for instruction) there were a lot of banging noises at regular intervals. Thought someone was throwing stones on my window or a tennis ball.. was already on the floor series and wiped out, so it was easy to ignore and keep going with the class.

This morning was a different story. As soon as the class started there was a thud. Then I saw this bird come and fly full force against the window and hit the glass..

It did it again. . . and again.. so I had to pause the audio, take a 15 minute break to film this angry bird that was distracting me from yoga. 

Bird 1: Sundar 0 

it doesnt take much to beat me.. any small distraction could ruin my focus. so it is a miracle that I can go through any class.

Even took a slow mo video of it. It is a very determined bird.. the way it preps on the edge of the fence in the same location and launches itself at the window. We never furnished the guest room after finishing construction 4 years ago.. so it just has this Dhoti on push pins for a curtain. maybe that is giving it a very strong reflection? Don't know. Have never seen any bird behave like this before. 

I have seen a bird fight with its reflection on our Prius side mirror and go shit all over the window..

but this one is weird! 

After resuming the class I just got used to the bang and thud every 2 minutes.. 

This bird made at least 40 attempts that I counted over a 90 minute period. If only my focus and determination to ignore this noise and keep doing yoga matched that of the bird's to come hit the window!!!

Then again on a positive note, it is end of September and we still have 3 months to go in 2020.. but my yoga attendance has been great as there is no travel!

the birds are all back.. including the hummingbird family. Hope to get some pictures over the weekend just sitting down in one place in the backyard, camera in hand.. it is a meditation of sorts. Keep focusing on one place hoping the hummingbird will come to that flower again! 

In spite of all the antics, the bird made me go outside and watch it post class for 30 minutes and I realized it was not one bird.. there were two taking turns!!

It must be some kind of game..