I am the Burgerfan!

… too slow for lightning, and too slow to escape mosquitoes. Last night a great lightning storm was passing over to the north. The lightning was tall and storm was far away, so from where I was it was dry, and there were no clouds above. This made for a great chance to get out into the field and get some wide angle shots without fear of getting wet. Despite spraying, I was mobbed by mosquitoes, and had nothing to show for it save for some bites. Once I got set up, the storm had progressed too far eastward.

Rewind a few days to the storm that woke everyone up on Saturday at 4am. That was a great storm with fantastic lightning! After twenty minutes realizing that I am not getting back to sleep, and that the storm isn’t passing, I decided to try to get some photos while only half awake. I found out which side of the house they were at, and the moment I set up my tripod… the storm jumped 15 km to the east.

I did get one photo though. Its not the greatest, but it is my first lightning pic of the summer (and probably one of the earliest photos in a day I’ve ever voluntarily taken). If we get a storm during convenient primetime hours, I’ll probably be trying again.

I went into the undeveloped field behind our place for a few minutes to get a closeup of some Canadian Geese (Canada Gooses?) doing watch duty. I managed to get all the way in and snap some photos before being mobbed by mosquitoes. But I won’t feel so guilty now when I sit down to play video games for the rest of the evening with really nice weather out.

Something I need to remember: always check the camera settings. I always assume the camera is ready and waiting in ‘P’ mode. In this case, it was on Aperture mode, around f5.6. Ugh. Not what I wanted, but good enough.

Geese on Watch

Alternate selection, with massive cropping:

Geese on Watch - Alternate

As the sun sets on another day, the back yard waits patiently for another day of fun and entertainment.

Waiting for Another Day

Alternate photo (this one was my original concept, but I liked the first one more):

Waiting for Another Day - Alternate

Starting off the Sherwood Park leg of the 2010 Olympic torch relay. I actually caught the torch lighting from the master flame!

Last night I dreamt that my car went missing, only to find that I parked in a different place. Then when I went to work, all the parking spaces were full and I had to park elsewhere.

I’ve seen people remark that this passing decade was bland, and/or they’d rather get on to the next one. Me, I think it was fairly major. Any ten year window is a lot of time for events to happen in.

While any window of time has its bad events, the celebrations were often enough and grand enough to make this 2000 to ‘twenty-ought-nine’ decade my favourite so far. Not that I’ve had many to choose from. Here is ten years in short summary from my point of view:

• Witnessed the start of a new century, and millennium. Living to tell that sufficient work was done to ensure that computers would not annihilate the planet at this junction.
• Graduated from University, and saw my friends graduate. Started the ‘first day of the rest of my life’ in my profession. Seeing all my friends start at the same starting gate at the same time(ish) and witnessing where we’ve all progressed to has been fun.
• Presented at an industry conference. I don’t remember how I got that courage, but hope to do it again.
• Started a family. Marrying, supporting, and being supported by someone I love for a lifetime of adventures ensures that this and future decades will be bright. Bringing Lola into the world has brought about even more adventures.
• Bought our first house, and then built a new house. No more rent was nice, but we really miss the free heating bill.
• Traveled. Discovered that Los Angeles wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be (in fact its quite enjoyable!), and made several return trips. Backpacked around the world (and in the process, inspired others to travel). Made a return trip to Europe (and would go back a lot more if the wallet wasn’t so empty).
• A new car!
• Witnessing my friends’ celebrations, from new homes and new families to new jobs in new cities and countries. I’m hoping they too will have found this decade fantastic.