T H R O U G H

Last weekend, there was an annual Balloon Fest in town. I learned about this not through local media (the paper is quite dreary and a day behind); not through the community calendar online (which is woefully out of date), or through the newspaper's online edition (since it's only a portion of the actual paper). There is not a local television station for news events, and while there is a college radio station, it's not often listenable. As for having public event notices, I've not listened enough to find out.

I learned about the balloon festival by stepping outside on Friday morning to go to work, and hearing an overhead whoosh sound. When I looked up, I saw some hot air balloons floating over the city. It was all a bit exciting. Later at work, in the print edition of the newspaper, I read about a website, where I could find a schedule of events. The festival was ongoing from Friday through Sunday.

On Saturday, rain was forecast, so it was the perfect day to go find a gradual neutral density filter and adapter for my camera. Except the closest camera shops are in Toledo, an hour away. I spent the day, then, running errands out of town. When I got back, it was still raining, so I naturally took a nap, planning to go to the Balloon Fest on Sunday.

Come Sunday, around 12:30, I packed up my camera, hopped on my bike, and headed to the Balloon Fest to shoot some photos. I arrived to find about 20 kids playing soccer - and nothing else. No sign, other than an ironic signboard, that the festival had been there in the first place.

results for: through
–preposition
1. During the whole period of; throughout: They worked through the night.
2. Having reached the end of; done with: to be through one's work.
3. To and including: from 1900 through 1950. or, in this case, August 18 through August 20.

How foolish I was to assume "August 18 through 20!" meant that this included activities occuring on Sunday, the 20th......!!

Perseid Meteor Showers.....happening now!

Today is August 13th, and I just read that we're in the middle of the Perseid metor showers this year. Unfortunately, I also learned the peak of activity was to be last night!! But, activity should last through most of August, and I plan on figuring out how to capture long exposures on my digital SLR, and try my luck and shooting some stars.

From NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) site, complete with great links and photos:
While the Perseid meteor shower is scheduled to peak this weekend, bright light from an almost full Moon will also flood the night and mask the majority of relatively faint meteors. Still, skygazing in the evening before the Moon rises (before about 10 PM local time) could reveal spectacular earthgrazing meteors. Persisting even later into the moonlit night can reward northern hemisphere watchers looking for occasional Perseid fireballs.

Happy stargazing!

Pop Culture Flashback - What's Your Bacon Factor?

I was talking with a friend today who was trying to determine her Bacon factor. Remember that fun little conversation game in the 90's, six degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon? Kind of an Altman-like association - name an actor and try to link him or her to Kevin Bacon via other actors in as few links as possible. Later, students at the University of Virginia developed an internet Oracle of Bacon at Virginia. At any rate, my friend was trying to determine what her personal Bacon factor was. She'd met some singer in the late 90s and was trying to link him to Bacon. Unfortunately, I couldn't help her much.

Then she asked me. I guessed about 4 or 5. But then, I remembered when I first moved to Houston, my roommate and I were hosts for a visiting lecturer....Timothy Leary. That's a whole other story, but as it turns out, Leary has a Bacon factor of 2. Turns out Leary was in a movie that I saw in an indy theater in the early 90s (and didn't remember him being in), called Roadside Prophets - with John Doe, Arlo Guthrie, Adam Horovitz from the Beastie Boys, Flea, and Don Cheadle, among others. So my bacon factor is a 3.

Only later that day did I realize, while enjoying some VH1's "I Love the 90's", did this subject come up again - which is probably what got my friend thinking about it in the first place.

Today: Hindu Festival. Tomorrow: Antique Tractor Show. Ain't life in a small town grand??

Today I enjoyed a quick trip up to Toledo to check out the Hindu Temple's 17th annual Tala festival, complete with good performances, good food, and great weather.

On the way back, I had a great photo op encounter passing by the local car dealership, where these and more of these were on display.

Lastly, en route to get some Round Up (weed pulling is no longer something I wish to do), I noticed that the fairgrounds here are hosting an Antique Tractor show. Gonna start charging those camera batteries now....watch this spot!