turbulent clouds over the San Gabriel Mountains 

beams of light on the Foothill Freeway 

Jack in the Box looking stormy 

it is raining!

it is raining outside now..

nothing major so far,
but there has also been lightning.
It is wet enough to smell good, at least.
summer rain smells different than winter rain. the smell reminds me of colorado or the sierras.. because summer rain is very rare along the California cost.

Today was my first day of work. I was at a conference.. nothing really exciting happened. I probably won't be outside this week. I am learning lots of stuff and hopefully making contacts. I am excited about my new job.

I am also really excited about the fact i can walk to just about anything. I walked to Trader Joes today to buy food... it is a very short walk. I also wandered about in a park. There are so many people on the streets, it just makes me want to wander around more. There are lots of hipsters, and lots of cute girls... unfortunately it doesnt seem that likely that i will get a good excuse to talk to a random cute girl on the street. I will have to work on that.

In any event.. things are good. but at the moment, i am just waiting for it to get going.

Well, it was getting dark, and by the time i got out there i couldnt see much. Here are some cirrus clouds glowing in the setting sun. The air is really calm and muggy out there, and kind of energetic. I still think we could get a storm... but any rain this time of year has to fight against a lot of dry air so it is far from a sure thing. 

it looks like we *might* (or might not) get a line of thunderstorms movign through LA in the next few hours. My earlier attempts to photograph distant storms were thwarted by a dead camera battery.. but i will try again after i eat.  

the view from my balcony 

closeup of my hipstery computer desk area 

my new room 

baby cactus! 

goodbye, SAMO 

And here is a small completed piece of the vegetation map i have been working on for the last 2 years. There is a lot more to be done but it was nice to have some of a complete product before l left! Now it is left to Julie and John to finish. 

...then i look at this picture and realize i am glad i am not that person anymore... (dave - look at my capris pants!). One of the problems with the last time i 'stirred things up' is that i never really made a clean break with my past.. it tormented me for almost a year and influenced my interractions with others throughout that time and after. This time... in theory... i will just be all new. I am keeping what is important from my past... my family, my friends, my experiences... but everything else will be new 

Sometimes it is really weird to look at old pictures of yourself.. you just realize things you didn't know at the time. This picture was taken within a few weeks of me moving back south.. probably even before me and Esther broke up. I dunno, maybe its just my 'i wish i were still in college' bleached hair, or maybe just that defiant look of 'angry confidence' i have going on... i look back with a mix of nostalgia and irritation. I mean, it is almost like i am not even the same person anymore.. and that was just three years. Well... when i first came back down south, i was kind of being an ass, and just dumb in general. It is nice to see that i am making progress...

flowers... and with this... i should finish loading the car and go to bed 

political commentary... 

Me and Rachel fighting over plant cover 

A typical day at work... 

Julie just gave me a cd full of a bunch of pictures from the last 3 years working at SAMO. I will be posting a few of them here.. maybe not all tonight beacuse i am currently trying to fit all my stuff into the cab of the truck (not working too well). Anyway this is the biggest brassica ever. 

I am 1337!