Hazy shade of summer

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I don’t think the Bangles will mind me mangling the title of one of their biggest hits to suit my purpose. I could also say, “If you can’t beat ’em – join ’em” in reference to the ubiquitous power lines.

North Dakota, especially the “energy corridor” in which our fair cities reside, provides electricity for a very large area. Although lignite coal isn’t necessarily the “best” coal, the people in charge of converting it to electricity continue to strive to extract the most out of it in as clean a fashion as possible. Since we need wires to get all that electricity somewhere, there are power lines wherever a hopeful photographer may point his camera. And there still aren’t enough, by the way.

That’s why somewhere along the line I fell in love with power line towers. Perhaps it’s because I know what they mean to our state. Maybe it’s the way they stand fast across the rugged prairie, or what they deliver to thousands, if not millions, of hopeful customers. In any case, I’ve got LOTS of power line tower photos.

This particular morning, from about a week or so ago, was quite hazy due to the humidity. That same haze was giving me a rough time in my quest to spot Perseid meteors, so I was happy to be able to at least use it to my advantage. I was getting ready for an all-day video shoot, so I ran to work early. Along the way I spotted these towers, and dashed out for a quick click of the shutter.

The electrons whizzing over my head probably heated up some Minnesotan’s breakfast that morning, or kept some little kid’s life support machine running in a hospital. Maybe it powered someone’s computer so they could read my blog!

Obviously not a state job

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As a current city employee and a former state DOT employee, I’m entitled to make jokes about government work. That’s why I feel free–no, compelled to say that the ratio of supervisors to workers here is completely opposite of a government scenario. Jokingly, of course!

It doesn’t look like supervising this operation is a really keen job, either; it involves staring at four little duck butts! They are pretty cute, though. My little boy PJ was excited to see the ducks. We watched them eat for a little while, then moved on.

End of the line

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Just in case you were wondering where your dial tone went! This pole, and the end of the wire which wraps around it, sit aside a gravel road north of Bismarck. Maybe they’ve gone wireless up that way!

Actually, according to this press release from the ND Public Service Commission (PDF format) there are more wireless phones than land lines in North Dakota, and have been for a couple of years now. We ditched the land line (and all the ridiculous surcharges) in our house long ago, and so have many of our friends. Apparently many North Dakotans are doing the same. Especially the folks at the other end of the wire pictured above, I presume!

The moon…it’s a matter of perspective

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My friend Petey often says, and I’ve adopted this as my personal motto, “Some days it’s better to be lucky than good.” Luck accounts for a great number of the finest photographs out there, since the one element completely out of the photographer’s control is the convergence of time and place to formulate the perfect moment. The photo above is one of those moments.

I’m sure many of you have noticed that magnificent full moon we have had the past few nights (Brucellosis, I’m talking about YOU). It’s a fun photographic subject, but without a telescope or a very expensive lens it’s hard to get any really impressive photographs of it. The true beauty of such a moon, however, lies in its relationship to objects below.

I was bummed about missing Sunday night’s sunset by only a short moment. As I came up south Washington Street, I noticed the moon rising in the east, and it looked quite cool. I bolted up to a hill in northwest Bismarck, and caught that nice moon in a nice relationship to the state capitol building!

It ain’t easy getting a shot like this. Monday night I tried to better it, hoping to get a photo of the moon right beside the capitol, and was unable to do so. I realized that without roof access somewhere, it’s nearly impossible to get such a shot. The reason is that one has to be far enough away from the capitol to make it appear small in the shot, having a good relationship with the moon, but also be positioned in the correct angle. Frankly, there aren’t many positions in Bismarck that fit the bill. Either there’s a power line, tree or building in the way, or the angle is just plain wrong. As it turns out, Sunday night I was lucky. Good.

Tiger from below

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This is the view from one of the cooler parts of the new cat exhibit at the Dakota Zoo here in Bismarck. The tiger exhibit is finished, the tigers are laying around like cats do, and one of them decided to soak up the sun from atop the glass viewing portal.

This enclosure is cool in that you can look all around, and you have to duck to walk through a kiddie-sized tunnel to get to it. Naturally the kids love it, at least mine do. It’s just tall enough to push our stroller through without scraping my knuckles. If the cats aren’t doing anything exciting (let’s face, it…they’re CATS) the kids will probably like dashing around in the tunnels.

The snow leopard part of the “big cat” exhibit is still under construction, part of a campaign of expansion and enhancement at the zoo.

Sunday morning steeple

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I don’t expect anyone to guess the church beneath this steeple, since it’s not in Bismarck-Mandan. I took my little boy up to Lake Sakakawea this weekend. I had three objectives: check out our place and see how tall the grass was (and if my new key works), see how 18-month old PJ does with spending the night in a tent, and run around the area to let my boy see the lake, the dam, the fish, the birds, and any other sights we could find.

Not only did I succeed on all counts, but PJ loved the tent and my new key works in the lock. We also have a lot more water up there than we did the last time I ventured north. I’m told that the big lake has been coming up at a fantastic pace recently.

I also had the chance to do some photography in the area, so this is the steeple of the little lutheran church southwest of Pick City. When I took it, PJ was in the passenger seat of my truck saying “Happy!” over and over. I think he likes camping.

Golden Dragon

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This is a great time of year to hit any small body of water and check out the dragonflies. I’m sure they love all those little annoying bugs that do so well in this type of weather. I think they eat mosquitoes…if that’s the case, they’ve got plenty of food available!

This year hasn’t been so good as 2006. That year I saw so many different types and colors of dragonflies and damselflies, it was amazing. Hopefully they come back in equal numbers sometimes soon; they’re pretty interesting to watch!

The not-so-mysterious face on the Memorial Bridge

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No, I’m not talking about anything that Richard Hoaxland found on Mars’ Cydonia region… this is simply evidence of someone putting some joy into their work, and it’s sticking out of the side of the approach to the old Memorial Bridge.

You can see it as you approach it from east or west on the new bridge; simply look at the end of the beams holding up the approach to the old bridge on the Mandan side. What I figure is that it was necessary to cap the end of the old beam with concrete when they tore down part of the approach to make room for construction. When putting the concrete in place, I suppose a worker with a sense of humor added the smiley face.

Hat tip to Brucellosis for spotting this back the rest of us were still confined to the old bridge. He spotted it while on a walking tour of the bridge, and I’ve been waiting patiently to see it for myself. Thankfully it was still there once the new bridge opened; I’m not about to go trespassing. Now one can see it simply by driving by, but be careful! You don’t want to have an accident while rubbernecking, do you?

Consolation and blessed memories

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Last week I took my 35,000th photo with this camera. What more suitable way to chalk up such a milestone than by documenting a fun time playing with my son? I was feeding our 19 month old, PJ, while his little brother Jonathan, now almost 9 months old, played with his toys on the floor nearby. Little “Sparky,” as Jonathan is often called, gets the honor of being the 35,000th picture.

I just got done spoon-feeding Jonathan tonight, as one does with such a little baby, and it reminded me of a story I heard this weekend.

Click on the dreaded Windows icon to hear two brief examples of consolation.

I know, I am no huge fan of Microsoft or Windows. If you have a Mac and want to listen to it, simply click here to download the components to play Windows Media files in the Quicktime Player on your Mac (free). I use them to listen to ASX, WMV, and WMA files on my liquid-cooled, quad-core G5 Mac at work. They are fantastic, and they are free.

Back to the audio. Touching stuff, huh? As a relatively new daddy I was floored by these two stories. They were spoken by a missionary to the Pacific who visited our church this weekend. I’d love to give him direct credit, but some of these guys take a risks being in the field, often political and sometimes physical. Putting their names on the Internet can sometimes cause unintended harm and I’d hate to do so.

Hopefully by electronically enabling you to hear this man’s words, which moved me as I struggle to be a good daddy and provide my little boys with blessed memories, I can pass along some of that consolation he was talking about.