Sunday, June 29, 2008

Fireworks!


It's fireworks time again. I bought a tripod a couple weeks ago, so some pictures turned out OK.


Some got a little wavy.


Some got a lot wavy.


The fireworks were being set off above a park near Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.


Some more vibration creeping back in.


I had to use the countdown timer so the camera would stop shaking before the picture was taken.


Sometimes it worked out, sometimes it didn't. If you want to know what it looked like when it didn't work out, just turn off your monitor.


Ooo . . . .


Ahh . . . .


Ohh . . . .


Ohh (again) . . . .


I liked the fact this one was bright enough to cause the street to show up in the picture.


In addition to the park, there were some back yard fireworks that were set off.


Because these explode lower, they burn out faster.


They also seem to move faster.


Last one!


Sunday, June 29, 2008 

Category: Life

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Clouds, trees, poles, and bugs

Twister
Once again it has been a little while since I posted to my blog here. This storm did not look as menancing as some I've seen, but the clouds were reaching all the way to the ground (a little hard to see here) and seemed to be increasingly confined to a narrowing expanse as the storm front moved along. I think it probably would have developed into a weak tornado if it hadn't hit the mountain that it ran into soon after I took this picture. Fortunately I didn't run into anything while I was chasing it.


The next day I was doing some more geocaching. See? More trees.


I also visited this spot where people fly model airplanes.


Said model airplane, flying. I did not find the cache the first time I looked.


This is an entrance to the first stage of a multistage cache. I had to back out because I am large and the entrance is not, and the tunnel had about two inches of mucky mud on the bottom, so I could not crawl. Sooner or later I'll go back and crawl through the tunnel so I can find the coordinates to the next stage of the cache.


Spiders have also been a common theme. I think this may be a wolf spider. The problem is that there are hundreds of thousands of species of spiders. Anyway, this guy was just hanging out in the open, sitting on a rock, waiting for something to come along for him to capture, kill, and eat. Something maybe a little smaller than me.

Flag and Seth
One of the rare photos that have me in them in my blog. This picture was required to claim a find for one of the caches. I am big, but I am not as big as this flag.


Today I returned to the model airplane field and managed to find and log the cache here, despite all of these ants. There were a lot of them and they were none too happy about the removal or placement of this cache. I also had a first for the summer today in that I was bitten by a fly instead of a mosquito. Mosquitos, ticks, flies . . . I hope my immune system is up to all of this. So far so good.


Saturday, June 28, 2008 

Category: Life

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Some common geocaching themes


Critters are one of the things I commonly run into while geocaching. Most are usually in danger of being stepped on, including the one in this picture.


Fortunately, I spotted him. He was doing his best to remain motionless. But he was busted.


Would you believe there is a cache in here? Speaking of busted, I explained that to a cop who rolled up on me making very careful study of the environs surrounding this phone booth at 1:30 a.m. He didn't seem very interested in what I had to say. Maybe he was annoyed because I was telling him the truth and there wasn't anything he was prepared to do except go away and leave me alone. Which was good because I had to wait for him to go away so I could search some more.


These flags were flying over a memorial in Smithsburg. So it's Four Flags Over Smithsburg here.


Something I haven't quite figured out how to do is give a good vertical perspective using my camera. It seems to flatten everything out. This picture was taken from the top of a pretty steep 15 or 20 foot embankment, complete with signs to stay off of it, but you can't really tell. Or at least I can't. You were just supposed to stay off of the slope, by the way, there was a path coming around from the side that lead up to the top, where there were some benches, even.


Cemeteries seem to be a common theme lately, but I'm not sure why. But they are. So I saw a lot of cities of the dead this weekend. Unlike the police, they didn't bother me.


Lastly, I get to see a lot of evergreens, of all types. That's basically because the two closest cache series to my house have kind of a common theme that involve pine trees.


More pine trees!


Sunday, June 08, 2008 

Category: Life

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Who lives on Main Street?


Last weekend I returned to Hood for Reunion Weekend.


This was my sweet ride. I shuttled alumnae all to and fro on campus. Driving a golf cart on campus is great fun.


After I finished that, I had dinner with friends and then went in search of more caches. I didn't eat at this Cracker Barrel--it's where the cache was. And I went to another Cracker Barrel the next day and found another cache. How about that?


Speaking of caching the next day, I wound up in a cemetery. Again. Here I am on Main Street. I love the way the signs are lettered. Who lives on Main Street?


Well, this guy. Actually, no one lives on Main Street.


This isn't really the picture I was going for, but I had some problems with the batteries in my camera. I did make it out of the cemetery in time to find more caches, but I didn't take any pictures after this one!


Thursday, June 05, 2008 

Category: Life