Categories
Insulators Photos

A Windfall of Insulators 💨

Henry continues successfully defending his crown as potentially The Luckiest Kid Ever™ 😌.

First, he was invited to visit Fresno to survey & sample from the huge collection of Lou Hall. Lou is the former president of the national insulator club & has been collecting for half a century! He and his lovely wife hosted us for four+ hours, setting up Hen with a great variety of interesting pieces. Thinking of Margot, they even gave us a cute painted snowman made from an insulator!

Afterwards we camped near Exeter, CA (roughly an hour south), where the hosts had previously given Hen some insulators. This time Big Henry (the host) came through with some even bigger glass, plus some hundred-year-old magazines that our Henry saved from being used as kindling (!).

The next day we drove into Exeter for breakfast with collector Dave Brown, who likewise entertained us with his impressive collection (even including insulators embedded underwater in his pool!) and generously provisioned Hen with as many items as our now-sagging Westy could carry. Here’s a gallery from our visits.

Following our return, the ongoing storms continued to wreak havoc on our area, and strong winds toppled a eucalyptus tree that in turn felled a giant electrical tower—narrowly missing our neighbor Severn’s yard! Noticing that repair crews were working around the clock to replace it, Henry & I drove over with our big camera lens. He of course proceeded to chat up the linemen—and they of course were happy to provision him with a bunch of insulators! 🤪

Check out a separate gallery of shots from the day.

Categories
Christmas Photos

Waving In The New Year 🌊

“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night…” So it’s said of the Postal Service, and so it could be said of this year’s Christmas trip.

Grandpa Liggett had been due to join us in SJ the day after Christmas, but weather & Southwest Airlines had other plans. Happily, he was able to reschedule for a week later, and we made the most of it by using Margot’s new AirBnB credits to book a lovely little place near Monterey, just half a block from the ocean.

Although rain & wind whipped the whole coast during our visit, we were able to get out to favorite sites like the Monterey Bay Aquarium, taking in sights of everything from adorable otters to scary giant Japanese crabs.

The weather made for some spectacular waves, and my photo assistant Henry nervously & vocally deterred me from heading too close to any danger. “Just don’t let my dad get taken by a sneaker wave!” added Margot.

Happily we made it home dry(ish) and happy. Check out the gallery for a full tour.

Categories
Photos Severn Pacific Videos

Night Delights

Continuing our theme of sharing tasty holiday leftovers, I’ve gathered up a couple of fun memories from the last month or so.

Towards the end of November, we were delighted to visit nearby History Park & join in the ceremonial relighting of the Stephen’s Meat Products sign. That may not sound like a big deal, and it probably wouldn’t be in most Henry-less households, but our guy loves vintage signage & has long been a fan of the San Jose Signs Project. Until the sign was recently removed to make was for the new Google campus, it cheerfully lit up the sky near our neighborhood. Now it’s been relocated to History Park, and we loved joining the mayor and hundreds of area residents to celebrate the work of local sign- and printmaking artisans—then see “Stephen” dance again!

Here’s a little gallery from the evening.

Then, right before Christmas, our neighbor Severn hosted a lovely backyard party & enlisted Hen to be his sole engineer! Our guy delighted his numerous passengers—including the Sugar Plum Fairy!—until they’d finally run the engine’s battery down to zero. Check out a small gallery plus some video from the event: