Apparently I still haven’t posted all my aurora photos

The skies have been relatively quiet for a while now, and I’m getting anxious for another chance to go out and capture the night sky in all its glory. There was an opportunity to get the moon at a very close proximity as it traversed the horizon, but clouds and wind shot that down all weekend. I was perusing some of the year’s previous shots while updating my shot log and got one from this old abandoned farmstead during one of the last major solar storms.

A couple of pals and I worked that location for all it was worth, since it offered such an amazing assortment of foreground objects at which to point our cameras. Tractors, windmills, old buildings, stripped cars…you name it, we had it. That includes a skunk which decided to make an appearance at one point, but it scampered back into hiding when it realized it had company.

When you absolutely have to get something lifted atop your capitol building

As I drove past the capitol on Boulevard Avenue, I noticed something peeking: the boom of an obviously very large crane. Circling around to the north I found the Wanzek guys lifting materials up to the top of the capitol with a large crane capable of lifting 275 tons. This looks like the same monster that was parked on North 9th Street to help lift new elevator parts and stuff to the top of St. Alexius.

The capitol will be undergoing some limestone reclamation and repair in the near future, making for some interesting closures around the grounds. It’ll be interesting to see this local landmark get a facelift inside and out!

Blast from the (spelling) past

I had the opportunity to pore over some boxes in the garage last night which my mom brought to me a year or so ago. I knew they contained old Peanuts paperback books and even some Archie comics, but they contained a lot of other cool stuff as well. Among those items was an envelope of State Spelling Bee memorabilia from 1983, the year I was a semi-finalist. I was the Mandan & Morton County champion that year, which is what got me the trip across the river to eat Beef Stroganoff, play Centipede in the arcade between rounds, and make some new friends as geeky as I.