Gone Somewhere

One thing that really shocked me when I first moved to Georgia was the evening thunderstorms. Wow, what a light show they give you. I thought I’d take a little space here to share with y’all what these are like.

I took these pictures last night (June 27, 2008), starting around 9:30. The sun was down, and it was dark out. Here’s a picture looking out the window of our front window:

When a storm comes it, it usually starts a bit slow. There is a little lightning, but it’s relatively small, and often a ways off. (There is a decent delay between the light and sound.)

This is usually the point I head out to the front porch. This is covered, and protects me from any rain, and hopefully the lightning.  I settle into my chair, and get set up, and try to be patient. Eventually, the fireworks start.

Now here, I should mention that I normally use a tripod. However, earlier this week, my friend Paul lent me his image stabilization lens, and I wanted to see how well it worked. It took me a couple shots to get used to standing completely still after the lightning until the shutter closed. (When I’m on a tripod, I usually slap my hand over the lens after the picture to try to prevent over exposing.) But heck, I still think this is a cool picture.

As more lightning roles through, I hopefully manage to capture some of it:

Now, remember the first picture at the top? Where I mentioned it was dark out? Here are a couple shots to show you how bright it can get:

(This second one was taken about 15 seconds before the first picture at the beginning!)

Now, of course, I always hope for one picture to knock my socks off. Last night worked out for me with this picture:

That’s it for now. Until next time…

So there I was…Lunchtime yesterday. Heading out for my run, and at the last second, decided to do loops around our complex instead of my usual route. It’s a nice 1.2 mile loop that has some flat sections, so I could work on my walking form.

It started off good…the first lap went with no problems. I was feeling pretty good, and the heat wasn’t bad. For the second lap, I decided to go the opposite direction. That’s how I usually do this, because the hills are very different in the other direction.

So, I make it off the sidestreets, and am heading up Piedmont, on the sidewalk. Up head, the driveway has a lady waiting to turn right, traffic on the street, and a truck waiting to make a left into the driveway. Okay, I’m worried about the truck, since if anyone’s going to speed without paying attention it’s him.

I get to the driveway…head out in front of the car thats still waiting for traffic. Heck, there was still traffic. Right as I pass her passenger headlight, she starts pulling forward. I sidestep to the right, thinking “this can’t be happening, there wasn’t a break in traffic.” She keeps coming. I end up on her hood. She’s still moving forward. Holy crap, I’m just like John McClane in Die Hard. Whew, she stops and I fall off her hood, a full lane into the street.

I get up and walk back to the sidewalk and stand in front of her passenger door and give her a “what’s going on” gesture. (No, not the bird, but arms up and a “WTF” look.) She completes her turn and pauses in the road. I stand there. She starts to drive off. I start yelling in ways I haven’t yelled since getting out of the army.

I sit down and catch my breath. and wait a good few minutes. Stand up, look around, and she is no-where to be seen. I sit back down and wait another few minutes. She still hasn’t shown up. I get up and walk back to my building, absolutely amazed that not only did she not stop, but heck, she didn’t even roll down her window and ask if I was OK. And of all the traffic behind her and on the street that saw this, no one else stopped either. Holy crap. People suck.

Well, I’m okay. Bruised my wrist a little bit falling off her hood. I filed a report with my building’s security, and the security with the rest of the complex. I also filed a report with Atlanta’s finest, just in case she gets tracked down. (There is actually a decent chance of it, since we know what parking lot she was coming out off, that’s not for visitors, and I got a partial plate number and description.)

So, the only thing I could think of is this is all that dang Tag games fault, since I broke the chain and didn’t forward to 5 people.  Yeah, I guess I could blame David, since he tagged me…

Update (6/26/08): Looks like I smashed the face on my new watch too. That’s a bummer, because I’ve only had it a couple weeks, and this was my third time using it. No word yet if they’ve found the person.

Ah, last night started with good intentions. Headed to bed early, planned to sleep in a little bit, then head out for a run. Come 4:30 though, I was awake. But it’s not as bad as it seems, since I was woken up by a big thunderstorm. I was awake enough to decide to grab my camera and see what I get lucky with.

So, 4 minutes later, standing on the front porch in my pajamas, I start shooting. Hmmm…it’s mainly whats called Cloud-to-Cloud lightning, which gives nice light and a lot of thunder, but not a whole lot to take pictures of. After about an hour, as I was starting to get a little bored, one bolt shot right over my head, with the thunder following immediately. (And as the pros say, it sufficiently scared the crap out of me made me jump.)

After being sufficiently awakened by that, I did manage to get two shots in:

Now, for those people interested in such things, here’s how I do this.

It’s important to have a tripod. And a camera that can be set in “bulb” mode, where you can hold the shutter open as long as you want, or a “time” mode, where you can tell it how long to stay open. A cable release is helpful.

Set up the camera, plug your cable in, and grab a chair. I generally start with short exposures, and build up to longer as I see how each exposure comes out. In the middle of the night, if the street lamps are out, I’ve done 15-20 seconds. The shot on the left is a 9 second exposure, and 11 seconds. (Of course, I’m holding it open, then once I see the lightning, I release the shutter so it closes.)

I generally step the shutter down a couple stops to help block out extra ambient like. I suppose a filter would probably help with this, but I don’t have the appropriate one.

(I should probably note that I’m sitting on my front porch, which is covered. That’s important so I don’t get soaked if it’s raining, and I have some sort of protection from the lightning.)

Well, now that the sky is clear, I should probably for that run. But heading back to bed is looking pretty good too…

Oh, I’ve been tagged by David Ray. Guess that makes me it. For those of you who don’t spend their lives in front of their computer reading running blogs, this is blog-chain letter. Whoever is tagged answers 5 questions (related to running), then passes this on to 5 others. I don’t know the origins, so the rumors about untold wealth and success if the chain is continues (or a miserable death on a lonely road if it’s broken) could be completely true. Who knows.

So, here are my answers

1- How would you describe your running 10 years ago?

Running 10 years ago? hahahahaha! Lets see…I stopped running in 94, and didn’t start again until 2002, so that puts 10 years ago right in the middle of nothing. However, that was right about when I started doing Aikido, which I did for around 3 years. That involved a lot of being thrown around and slamming into the floor. Some may consider that more exciting than running. Or heck, for some, that may be exactly like a typical run.

2-What is your best and worst run/race experience?

Best: Uh, usually when its over. Haha. See, I’m funny. Because that’s a joke. What, you want something real? Okay, the NYC Marathon in 2004 was really awesome. I’d consider this race a must do for anyone looking for a destination marathons, because it’s just a big ol’ party. Plus, the fact that my wife was there, and because of the course, she was able to meet me at a number of spots without much difficulty (and even walk with me for a little while), made this special.

Worst: Lets see:

- Miles 14-20 of the 2002 Seattle Marathon. I wasn’t prepared for the hills. Plus, a week in Las Vegas before this probably didn’t help. (Although my wallet was lighter, so I suppose I had less weight to carry.)

- Miles 17-25.5 of the 2007 ING Georgia marathon. Man, I was hurting and it was freezing out.

- Hurting my knee a month before the Darkside Marathon. I was really looking forward to that, so it really bummed me out that I wouldn’t be able to do the whole thing. But I still had a good time for the 16 miles I completed, and I’ll go back to finish it next time around.

3- Why do you run?

I enjoy it. I suppose it’s good for me. It gets me out of the house. I get to hang out with my friends. And it’s a hobby I can take with me anywhere.

4- What is the best or worst piece of advice you’ve been given about running?

Heres the advice I would give. It doesn’t really answer the question, but hey, it’s my question and I can answer how I want.

Shoes-get shoes that fit properly. If your going to wear shoes when you run (and there are people that don’t), this is really important. Unfortunately, no one told me this and I had to figure it out the hard way. (My first half marathon, I finished and one foot was just one huge blister.)

Lubricant-Bodyglide/Vaseline/etc is your friend. Sure wish someone told me this earlier.

Hydrate often and well. Again, how come no one tells me these things until after I start complaining about it?

5- Tell us something surprising about yourself that not many people would know.

Just because I like to ramble on, spewing bits of information all over the internet, sharing my opinion of whoever happens to read it, doesn’t mean I actually want to give out any personal information. I find it really pretty scary how much you can find out about a person online.

There is a letter to the editor of my college paper I wrote back in ‘96 or so, and it still pops up on searches for me. Now, that would be okay, but the letter was a response to another letter that someone else wrote, and meant to be a bit light. (The original letter writer was taking their self a little too serious.) However, when you see my letter, you don’t see the original letter, so it can be taken very much out of context and make me sound like a real ass. (Well, I probably sound that way a lot.)

So, now I tend to be a bit more careful of what I write online. I’ve thought about waging an all-out internet war on people/businesses where I felt they were acting inappropriately., but then decided not too because years down the road, it would still be out there to haunt me. (For instance, the builder of our house backed out of a bunch of promises they made. We were upset, and we want to make sure other people knew about it as they were decided to buy a house from these builders. But, in the end, we decided to let it go, because it wasn’t going to change anything.)

**********************************

Okay, that’s the end of it. I’m supposed to pass this on to 5 other people, but that means I’d need to know 5 other people with running blogs who haven’t received this before. And since I’ve seen most the ones I’ve read get this, I don’t have anyone left. (I did leave a comment on Donald’s blog that could be considered a tag. He’s not getting around to doing this for a while.)

So, I’ll break the chain and hope that it doesn’t kill me. Who knows, next week if you read a post about how I ended up getting lost on my run, stung by bees, bit by a snake, then hit by a car, you can just blame it on this.

(And if you read this, but don’t have a blog, and want to do a guest post here, let me know. Then the chain won’t be broken, and I’ll finish my next race in first place, get sponsors and live the good life.)

Trip to Baton Rouge part II. (Click here to read part I.)

So, after a late night of gambling, Friday got us up early to hit the road again. Of course, because we needed sustenance, we headed to the Hard Rock Cafe for breakfast and the opportunity to win a little more money. Then, off we went down highway 90 towards New Orleans.

The beach was pretty, and we stopped for some pictures. It wasn’t until after we had everything setup that we really noticed we were standing on the foundation of a house that was wiped out by hurricane Katrina. (Well, at least we assume that, given all the damage we were seeing in this particular area.)

Instead of going straight to New Orleans, we headed up to the bridge across Lake Pontchartrain. Its the longest bridge over open water in the world, so we felt the need to go over it. However, after the first 10 miles, it started to get a little boring (it is 24 or 25 miles long). We then circled back down to the city, cruised around a little bit, then headed up a scenic byway towards Baton Rouge. (We were going to see more of the tourist stuff, then decided it would be better as a full day of site-seeing, so we put it off.)

Okay, to skip some boring stuff, we passed some plantations, got to our hotel, wandered around town for a little while seeing some sites, then picked my grandmother up from the airport.

Saturday, we headed back out to see the plantations we skipped yesterday. The one that really interested us was Oak Alley, so that’s where we went. The tour was interesting, and we got some great pictures of the grounds (we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside).

Heading back into town along highway 1, we passed many old homes and some locks heading off the river. (They were long since dammed up and no longer in use. But still neat to see.)

Saturday evening was topped off by a party. We hung out with friends and family (a whole lot of cousins), ate some good cajun food and enjoyed ourselves. (And the food was all kosher. Apparently there is a place in New Orleans to get good kosher sausage.)

Sunday, we went to the the wedding. (The groom is my first cousin, once removed.) It was nice, and the reception afterwards was good. Again, a lot of quality time was spent with all the cousins from all over the place. We got caught up with all the family happenings, and know all the gossip now.

Afterwards, some of us headed out for more site seeing and dinner.

Some shrimp boats in Biloxi, Mississippi.

A barge heading up the Mississippi River.

The USS Kidd, a restored WWII destroy is parked along the river front in Baton Rouge.

This is an old, blocked off lock on Highway 1, between Plaquemine and Turnerville, just a bit outside Baton Rouge.

Here is an oak behind the mansion at the Oak Alley plantation. Check out the size of it compared to the bench in the corner.

A shot of Oak Alley, taken from the balcony of the mansion. Right at the end of this alley is a small road - on the other side of the road is the levee holding in the Mississippi. At the time the plantation was built, the levee was shorter and the house could be seen from the river. It became a landmark and the sailors called it Oak Alley, so the name of the plantation was changed from the original French name.

This, being the South, had lots of bugs. There were tons of dragonflies around, so of course I had to take a picture.

<Warning: Spoilers may be in this. Then again, there may not. Only the Mole knows.>

<You should watch episode 3 before reading.>

Oooh….this week was pretty good.

So far, we haven’t noticed anything in the opening credits that have jumped out as a clue. The only thing that stands out is Nicole going on about how it’s a game, and she’ll say anything.

The first challenge looked like fun. Imagine doing a luge blindfolded! heck, maybe it wouldn’t be as scary that way. I guess I’ll probably never know.

What was suspicious?

Nicoles sabotage seemed too obvious. Saying there were two apples? Then blaming her partner? it was weakly done, and just not believable.

Craig talking at the finish line was an easy way to sabotage without anyone noticing. Bobby also did this. Come one, this is the perfect way to sabotage.

Speaking of Bobby, he misidentified a fruit. Easy to do though, so was it suspicious? Maybe.

Of course, the biggest thing that slipped by–the host eating a green apple. And they made a point of showing him doing it. Yeah! We gotcha ya!

Now, the second challenge had a few moments too. We thought it was funny that the men got bikini-style shorts, where the women got the mens style. Made us laugh, along with the group of teenage boys following the gals around.

Now, Mark opting out was suspicious, since he was the first one ready to go when they were describing the challenge. Of course, after seeing Bobby running around in shorts, we now understand why he can’t run. That boy needs to eat. a lot.

We thought Nicole getting clothes from a store was suspicious, but then we realized that it was within the rules. Now, Craig finding the laundry mat seems innocent enough.

Okay, thats what we noticed. I guess we now know who isn’t The Mole. Especially with the bonus person leaving.

Here’s the picks so far:

Previous:

Week 1, Week 2

Another recap site.

This last weekend, we took a drive to Baton Rouge, Louisiana for a wedding. (A bit over 600 miles from home.) This details the first part of the journey.

Leaving on Thursday morning, our plan was to meander down to Biloxi, Mississippi by side roads and small highways. Generally, we enjoy taking the scenic route that’s slower instead of the interstate. The first couple hours of our trip were spent skirting Atlanta, getting down to Peachtree City. Heading South from there, we drove through a small town where some of Gone with the Wind was filmed, but didn’t stop since it would be easy to come back as a day trip.

Because it took us longer to get south of Atlanta than we planned, we decided to hop on I-85 to get us into Alabama. (Again, knowing this portion of the journey would be easy to come back to.) A quick trip got us to Montgomery, Alabama. For the record, the folks at the Alabama welcome center were friendly and offered plenty of suggestions for stops to make, such as Tuskegee. They also suggested highway 31, which parallels I-85, which is what we decided to do. Hopping off the freeway here, we found the cheapest gas of the trip, $3.76/gallon.

Although this portion of the trip was pretty, there weren’t many interesting sights to see or shops to stop at. (We were hoping to hit flea markets and small antique shops en-route.) So, back onto the freeway for the remaining miles to Mobile.

Coming into Mobile, the bridges and swamps provided a nice change of scenery. We took a detour to stop at the USS Alabama. The $2.00 parking fee is more than worth it just to get some pictures of the ship, planes and ground vehicles. We’ll tour the inside of the ship and the submarine on the next trip.

(As a side note, I was disappointed with myself for incorrectly identifying a Russian T-55 tank as a T-52. Oh well, good thing I’m not in the Army any more. Plus, an M1A1 will easily take either one out before I ever have the need to ID it.)

Downtown Mobile had some old buildings that are worth seeing.

A casual drive on highway 90 brought us to Biloxi. Most of the casinos have been rebuilt, and the area seems to be doing well. We got a room at the Best Western that we were impressed with. (Had a fridge and microwave.) Dinner in the IP Casino was disappointing because the service wasn’t great and the food bland. However, we enjoyed a couple hours at the 3 card poker table before calling it a night.

Below are some random pictures from this portion of the trip.

Going over a bridge into Mobile, Alabama.

Dianna saw this Seagull being fed by a kid. Looks like it was trying to hover like a hummingbird.

This is a lighthouse on the coast. It was originally built in the early 1800’s. After Hurricane Katrina, they moved it inland a few hundred feet.

This is the beach at night. A 30 second exposure makes it look almost like daylight. (Dianna had the idea of trying to capture the clouds, Rahn had the technical know-how.)

A sample of the architecture in downtown Mobile.

(Too be continued…)

<Warning: Spoilers may be in this. Then again, there may not. Only the Mole knows.>

<You should watch episode 2 before reading.>

Wow! What a week it was - who knows who the dang mole is?

In the first challenge, just about everyone did something to make you think its them:

• Bobby, who said he played soccer, absolutely sucked.
• Craig shot into the wrong goal.
• Everyone on the soccer team got lost.
• The chain kept coming off the bike.

The second challenge had a few moments. After all, really, the guy catching (I can’t remember his name), was he really smart enough to figure out the immunity on his own?

And come on, Bobby being pushed around in the wheelbarrow. That was a bit too much. Craig redeemed himself a bit with the slingshot though…

Okay, here are the picks so far:

Previous Entries: Week1

Okay, anyone who has known me long enough to ever have a conversation about reality TV will know that in my opinion, the best show ever made was The Mole. Unfortunately, it was canceled after 9/11. Anderson Cooper made a great host, and the game was very mentally challenging. (The Amazing Race is a very close second.)

Happily, this summer they have brought it back. A new host, and a bit different look, but so far it looks good. As we watched the first week, eagerly looking for clues, we decided to keep track of who we thought it was. (You know, play along.) Of course, we’ve always done this, but this time I decided to do it in writing.

On mentioning it to a couple people, they wanted to play too.

So, I’m starting the weekly tracking here until the series is gone.

For those wanting to play, here are the rules:

• I can only track the first 10 people here. (Otherwise, I’ll end up with too big of list. If it looks like it will be easy, I’ll add more.) But anyone can post their thoughts in the comments.
• You can change your vote from week-to-week. E-mail me your vote after I’ve posted for the week and before the next weeks show. (We watch everything by TIVO, so are often a day or two behind.) I’ll make the updates to the table.
• Feel free to comment on your reasons for your choices below, but you don’t have to.
• You should narrow it down, but if you have two choices in a given week, that is OK. I know I do.

And with that, here’s the beginning:

Rahn: Alex or Kristen

D: Craig or Nicole (but, to be honest, she thought it was Marcie until Marcie was eliminated at the end of the first show)

Vic: Mark or Nicole

JC: Alex (or the guy that teamed up with Marcie)

AD: ???

Other posts in series:  Week 2

This morning, as a rare treat, GUTS (Georgia Ultrarunning and Trailrunning Society) had a monthly training run on our side of town. So, being the card carrying member that I am, and having never gone to one of their runs, I figured it sounded good. They were going to the Suwanee Greenway to run. It’s about a 9 mile, multi-surfaced trail that has a lot of trails branching off it.

I met up with Brad to carpool down. Now, neither one of us actually had a copy of the email giving directions, but I had looked up the directions on how to get there. Off we go, and get there in. We see a small parking lot, which the absent email said was there, along with a large complex with plenty of parking behind it. Being that the lot was empty, we drove into the park and checked things out.

In the next parking lot, we saw a number of people hanging out. We quickly realized that they weren’t who we were looking for. They had a big banner out that said “Happy Runners – Asian Running Club”, with a bit of Korean on it. After circling through the parking lot a few times, asking people if they were with guts, we headed back up to the first lot. By this time, the Happy Runners group had grown to about 50 people, and they were all circled in a tennis court doing some group stretching. (Hmmm…how novel.)

Well, we parked and headed out on our own. The park has a nice trail with some rolling hills headed down to the greenway path. We crossed some wooden boardwalks, which was kind of neat. We passed a number of the Asian runners (and a couple probably passed us), and were having a good time.

About a mile into it, a decent sized group headed towards us. Looking at them, a number of them had their GUTS shirts on, so we paused to chat for a minute. Turns out, they parked off a different road than us. (We had figured as much.) So they continued on their way, and we decided to go down to where they were parked just so we knew where it was.

The trip down and back was pretty uneventful. Nice and flat, mostly in shade. One of the happy runners kept leapfrogging with us, and since he had a camera, we’ll now be famous somewhere in the annals of their club. (And we’ll probably stand out, being the only two Gringo’s.) The scenery was nice, everyone was friendly, and in the shade, it wasn’t too hot.

Coming back, we separated for a bit, since Brad wanted to stretch his legs. He took off ahead, and a while later, the GUTS group was heading back towards me with Brad in tow. We decided not to run back down to their parking area with them, but instead headed back to the car. Once we got there and cooled off a bit, we drove down and met up with them.

They had ice cold drinks, bagels, muffins, donuts and were hanging out socializing. I felt welcome as we hung out for a while and mainly talked to Debbie. (The organizer of the run, and someone I met a couple weeks ago down at Peachtree City.) With this kind of food, I may have to make it to more of their runs. (And I was impressed that some of them thought ahead and brought chairs. Good idea.)

That’s about it. We’ll definitely hit these trails again, and try to add them into our weekly rotation. Even with all the pavement, I think it was worthwhile.

And for those following the saga of LK, today I wore a knee brace. It was one of the smaller ones that go just below the knee. I was a skeptic and didn’t think it would make much difference. Boy, I was wrong. I had some occasional pangs, but overall felt my knee was good for must the run. I was hurting from taking two weeks off, but that’s different.