Friday night windmill

I haven’t been out with the camera much lately, as demonstrated by the sporadic posting lately. The fact of the matter is that I had a three month old son with pneumonia, involving a three night hospital stay, the Mandan Art Show to prepare for, a freelance DVD job that kept me up late for several nights, and some nasty weather to boot. Tonight broke that string of events…sorta.

I grabbed my photo buddy Ken, whose work is showcased a lot on KFYR TV’s Sky Spies page, and we headed north to catch the sunset. Little PJ was still suffering from a cold, but on the mend. His RSV test was negative, he’d had a fun day at home with mom and afternoon with dad, so it was time to dash out and see what the sky had to present.

I drove us out in the middle of nowhere, near my favorite Northern Lights spot, and found this windmill. I haven’t actually been on this particular road in the daytime, so I never knew it was there before! We took a number of shots from a variety of angles, and this was my result. It’s amazing how different my shots look from the ones Ken took. We had different angles, resulting in a different chunk of sky, so I had none of the gold or brilliant color that he had. Instead I opted for the cool blue of the northwestern sky.

We were about to head for higher ground and set up for the sunset when my beloved wife called to tell me that PJ had spiked a nasty fever. We threw the gear in the truck, pointed it back toward town, and I came home to tend to my little man. A little bit of baby Tylenol cured the fever, and he spent the rest of the evening playing and laughing with daddy until bedtime. I saw that Kevin Lawrence used one of Ken’s windmill photos on the 10 o’clock news, so apparently the brief venture up north turned out as a photographic success for both of us.

I wonder if they’ve got Kenny Baker in there

I saw this mailbox the other day and, as a Star Wars geek, it certainly caught my eye. The first question to cross my mind was, “I wonder if they’ve got Kenny Baker in there? It’s actually a bit of an inside joke.

My workplace has a handful of Star Wars fans. We don’t come to work in our stormtrooper outfits or anything, but we like the movies. We also try to deny the fact, since it’s pretty much the mark of a nerd. So, when I made a comment one time about “what, did they stick Kenny Baker in there?” I accidentally broadcast my geekdom to the whole office. Like they didn’t know anyway.

Anyway, they’re selling Star Wars stamps, I guess…and that’s the reason for this promotion. The mailbox has a web address on the side (now a dead link) where you could vote for your favorite Star Wars stamp and that sort of thing. I’m a stamp collector and a Star Wars fan, but I haven’t voted yet. Maybe after I’m done organizing my pocket protectors and trying to define Pi to 67,891 digits. If you know the significance of that number, or clicked on the Pi link to see what Wikipedia has to say about it, you really ARE a geek! Welcome to the club. Now hitch up those pants, soldier!

Got a new Greg

It’s that time of year in Bismarck-Mandan, where all the critters start making an appearance again: birds, squirrels, and bunnies. I’ve written in the past about the various manifestations of Greg the Bunny, and this is the new Greg. He and his girlfriend have set up residence near the back boundary of our property, and I’ve spotted the two of them a couple of times.

We don’t have a garden right now, so I’m not too concerned about bunnies. Last year’s Greg had a liking for my wife’s flower beds, but they make a rabbit repellent for that. So, until we get a garden planted, the Gregs are invited to stay. They’re so cute!