This is the usual time for me and my wife to take time off from our jobs and our blogs and web site duties. Two weeks this year, down from three last year, because of the Obama recession. Damn the libs.
To start off my “holiday”, which hardly ever ends up being a holiday for me, my wife went to her high school grad reunion, leaving me home alone. That’s trouble.
Taking full advantage of the opportunity, I did some guy things, which didn’t involve semi-automatic handguns and rifles, because she likes to be part of that action, and we intend to get into it lots, this holiday.
• Went to Home Depot (love that place. Love it).
• Went to Canadian Tire. Snore.
• Bought a sandwich and an ice tea, and drove (in a truck —take that, enviropuffs) to the airport (we call it YVR around here), to my little spot at the end of the north runway, to watch planes land almost right on my head (I still can’t believe we’re allowed to be this close, post 9-11). There were lots of other guys there.
Actual picture taken with my Panasonic DMC-LC40, although candidly, it was taken during last year’s summer holiday. This year I didn’t go with the camera.:
• Then I drove over to and went inside the YVR itself, to the new “observation gallery”, which is really just a place where you can watch what I just watched, except it’s indoors, in a terrible location by comparison, and there’s tourists and things.
• Then went to Rona. Love Rona.
Meanwhile lightning was striking. Thunder and lightning. So when I got home, I grabbed a beer (Alexander Keith’s Red Amber Ale, my latest favorite), went to my office, turned off the computer to save it from lightning-based electrical surges, and sat at my big office window and watched the awesome show.
Now I could have taken this two ways: it could be a sign that I’m making the wrong decision —that I should really continue working these next two weeks. Or it could mean I’m right-on, and this is a free show to help me start my time off and help me get it off to a booming start with a thunderous bang.
Yeah anyway I grabbed the camera and set it up to try to capture what seemed like the rapture. And here’s what I got, using that same Panasonic DMC-LC40, in video mode, then transferring the video through my now-on computer to Adobe Premier, and, finding the exact right frames, exporting these images:
This is looking out my window at the sky above my neighbor’s house:
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These next two seem to depict lightning trying to engulf my neighbor’s house. It’s one frame after another. No she wasn’t struck, but it sure does look like she was. You should have heard it.
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This one looks like Obama’s poll numbers. Goin’ down, baby!
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These next two — again it’s one frame after another — lit up the sky. Beauty.
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I literally felt this one. I swear I could smell it. Freaked me out. Of course I’d gone on to rum and coke by this time.
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This one reminds my of the Conservative Party of Canada’s poll numbers after four years.
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This was amazing. I didn’t capture it quite right because my camera is too slow in video mode, but it started out as one bolt, then formed into this snake-like thang. Naturally its snake-like figure and funky beak reminds me of the liberals’ various social (and “early learning” —wink!) programs. Appropriately, the sound emanating from this bolt of lightning was not thunderous, but rather a fart-like sound.
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As you can tell, this one lit up the evening sky.
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And then it slowly ended. But not before the sun, just setting now, made a brief appearance at the opposite end of the sky, and caused this sensation, which I captured using that same camera set on automatic, with flash, just to the right and beyond the Mimosa tree in our front yard:
And anyway, that’s one of the reasons I believe in God.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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