I was about ready for bed last night when I got an exciting call from a friend: the Northern Lights are bright tonight! So I grabbed my wife and a couple of good friends, hopped in the truck, and blazed up north. The auroras were visible, the night relatively calm but cool. And while the sky the was lit to the north, it pretty much sat there and teased us for a while before settling down.
Don't get me wrong...any Northern Lights are a treat. This one I'd hoped would be a little extra special because one of our friends who came along is from "the South" and I was hoping for a spectacular show for her. While we saw a lot of shooting stars, likely stragglers from the Orionid shower last week, the auroras didn't really live up to any of my stories of past experiences. Bummer.
I take stargazing pretty seriously. I tend to measure and schedule things in 15 minute increments, and within one of those periods I can have the truck rolling with my standard stargazing setup:
- Camera equipment
- Folding camping chairs
- Jackets and gloves
- Cooler of water, Dew, or Red Bull from the fridge in the garage
- Speaker system for the iPod
- Inverter & extension cord to power 'em
- Maglite
- Sunflower seeds, jerky, etc.
- Can of spare fuel from the garage pump (in case we go crazy)
- GPS receiver, now that I finally have one
I have a standard set of stargazing music ready to go on the iPod, too. We stood outside the truck with the music going for a while last night, just looking at the amazingly clear view of the stars and exclaiming when a meteor would zip past. All was not lost. But I really hope for an opportunity to show Jenny and my other Southern friends what the Northern Lights can really be like here in North Dakota.
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So, after spending all day hiking around a coal mine and filming from a 10 million pound crane (cool!), I decided that the cure for standing out in the cold and hiking all over was...yes, that's right: standing out in the cold and hiking all over! Bismarck, however, was ever so slightly warmer than the mine where I'd worked all day. The wind had toned down a little, too.
I had this grand idea about how the sun, since it now travels so low in the sky, would be perfectly framed if I stood at one end of the historic railroad bridge and it appeared at the other end. A combination of fatigue, sky conditions, and a reluctance to be a tresspasser changed my mind. But I did find a couple of really nice sunset photos from the bike path up on the hill.
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Obviously this picture wasn't taken this week; the phase of the moon and the leaves on the trees betray that. But it's one of those photos I've got "in the holster" for when I need them, and it came to mind tonight as I read an article by Tessa Sandstrom in the new issue of the Dakota Beacon.
In her article, Ms. Sandstrom talks about the history of this building and its importance during Bismarck's railroad days. She's got some neat historic photos to accompany her research and a few neat odd facts to boot.
If you haven't picked up an issue of the Dakota Beacon yet, you don't know what you're missing. There are complementary copies available at many Bismarck locations, including an honor-system box in front of the Post Office on Rosser. I highly recommend that you read and subscribe to this magazine - I do! You won't be disappointed.
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Apparently a few people thought my Name that Fountain post was kinda fun, so I'll throw this one at you. Perhaps I should use the word "identify" instead of "name" for this, as I'm sure they already have names. In any case, let's see how much time you spend ambling around Bismarck. It shouldn't be too hard for you to pick out this little item. Any takers?
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No, I'm not introducing any BMB swag just yet... but I am helping out for a good cause. There's a girl at our church who sells calendars for two purposes: she plays the violin, and as she gets older she needs a larger fiddle to play. The second cause is our church, as she gives a good portion of the money she earns to the church. This time it's for the building fund, as our church has outgrown its current location and is looking forward to being able to build.
I agree to help her sell calendars each year, and I figured this might be a way to help give a few of them a good home. These calendars have stunning photography (not mine) for each month and a Bible verse for each month and week as well. Not only are they useful chronologically, they're also handy spiritually. And they look really good, too. The pages are really thick and could be cut to hang once the month is up, if you find a photo or verse that really pleases you.
I have ten calendars left for the low price of six dollars each. Yep, that's right, $6. Then they're gone until next year. If you'd like one, please click on the "Contact Me" Link on the upper right corner of my blog. If you're reading this on a site that syndicates this blog, such as KXMB.com, you'll need to visit my site at www.bismarckmandanblog.com and find the link.
There are only ten of these left out of several boxes of 'em! They typically go pretty fast, so get in touch with me before the weekend.
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Calendar
