After several months of beautiful, clear days, the clouds have returned. Rain is in the forecast for at least the next 10 days (as far as weather.com is willing to predict). Hopefully it won’t last the rest of our short summer.
Cloudy days aren’t so bad, however, as long as we’re not completely enveloped in fog. Overcast days have their own beauty here. Especially when the fireweed starts blooming.
Here’s about the 30th adn 31st clips I’ve taken with the D90. I found a sequence of steps to take to maintain the video quality as much as possible, but the D90 is no HD camcorder replacement. The optimal configuration requires a fully manual lens, of which I have only one. All my others don’t have a manual aperture ring. Looks like I’ll be trying to find some old Nikkor manual lenses for video work!
The first video is a simple pan of the surrounding area, taken from our porch.
The second is inside the cabin, where you can see my workspace, as well as Macgee.
I’ll have to come up with some stories to sequence, and exercise that video production degree!
We finished up feeding the dogs around 8:30 tonight, after starting around 7. Because of the blowing snow, we also turned all the dog houses out of the wind and added more straw so they would be warmer.
The sun is setting around 7:45 now, and the twilight lasts for at least an hour after. Standing on the porch, I was struck by how much I could still see, and how blue everything looks, just before all the light fades. So I grabbed my camera and tripod, and took some pictures. These both took several seconds to expose, so I had to hold very still so I wouldn’t shake the porch floor.
To the left, you can see one of the 3 visible neighboring houses. They also have a sled dog yard. To the right, that small row of lights is the Homer Spit, where all the fishing/whale watching/bear viewing charters are, among other touristy things.
Doesn’t this look cozy? Also, I have no idea what that light is across the bay. There are several, some close to the bay, others higher up the mountains. Lost tribes? Secret government listening posts? Russian spies? I’ll let you know when I find out.
but it melted. It’s now 55 degrees F out, so no chance of it hanging around. I took some pictures, of course, before it melted this morning.
I tried to watch the debate tonight, and was initially foiled. My first attempt was at the Homer Movie Theater, where they were projecting the webcast of the debate on the big screen. I had a tech support appointment until about 4:45, so I arrived a little after 5 to find everyone leaving. I peeked inside and I saw a big frozen image of Jim Lehrer with his mouth open, and a mouse pointer frantically clicking the Play/Pause button on the web player. After waiting around for a few minutes and not seeing any more progress being made, I followed the crowd and left.
Since it was mostly sunny today, I stopped and took some pictures of the fall colors at a spot I’ve passed a couple of times and thought “that would make a good picture.” What do you think?
Turn the camera 90 degrees right, and here’s what you see:
I hopped back in my car, and started searching the radio for the debate. Fortunately, the local PRI station was carrying it on AM, so I listened to it all the way home.
Here’s what I heard: Obama explains his position on a subject. McCain attacks Obama, then gets around to explaining his history with similar decisions. Obama defends himself, maybe takes a jab at McCain, tries to stay on subject. Repeat.
I had to turn off the radio when McCain told the story of his bracelet. I’ve heard enough heart-wrenching stories told about “real” people by presidential candidates. Sadly, I turned the radio back on to hear Obama’s “I’ve gotta bracelet too!” story, and turned it right back off.
I returned home and fired up the old interweb and watched the CNN live feed, in time to hear McCain say something like “North Korea being the harshest dictatorship maybe in the world, and South Koreans are 3 inches taller.” Huh? Maybe he meant something about malnutrition due to mismanagement stunting their growth, but without some sort of context, it sounded sort of crazy.
Each candidate had their little go-to nails to hammer during each answer: McCain’s was Obama’s “naivete” and “misunderstanding situations,” Obama’s was McCain’s support for most of the Bush Administration’s policies. I think McCain’s came off as more childish and arrogant.
Hopefully the theater gets their troubles worked out before Thursday’s VP debate, since Our Very Own Governor Sarah Palin will be center stage. The town seems to be very mixed in its opinions on her, and I would like to see how that pans out in public.
