ionosphere

Archive for September, 2009

Because that’s exactly what it was yesterday afternoon. Been having a toothache for a while now and finally got over to Newtown Endodontics to get it taken care of.  It didn’t take all that long and the Doctor was gentle and the surroundings pretty serene. Made a difference to me.  Sue drove me over there and that let me allow my mind to drift on the way.  Sort of a Zen state that you have to get yourself into to deal with these things. One of my biggest problems is my history with medical illus­tration. I visualize all too clearly the pulp being removed from the center of that molar and the small circular files penetrating into the root itself. Widening the lumen and removing the tissue that has any feeling. Porous bone through which the syringe with anesthesia has to reach. I could do a great painting of it… But the theater of the mind will suffice. I’m glad that it is today instead of yesterday and it is mostly over now.

Yep — When you under­stand how things work — sometimes they are larger than life… yuk.

I was napping on the loveseat yesterday evening post root canal and a line of showers and thunder­storms came through and Sue got to see a double rainbow. That’s pretty sweet. I didn’t see much more than a bunch of overcast by the time I got the camera there.  I did see a really red tinted sky. It was also gone before I could take a shot. Weather effects are often very fugitive.  Sue got the camera just in time because she caught it — though faintly.

My Dear Wife Susan and I attended a wedding on Long Island in Westbury this past Thursday afternoon. Debbie, one of Sue’s best friends from High School, had her son Brian getting married to Anna and we were lucky enough to be invited. It was all very, very, nice. Next morning we met Sue’s brother Alan and Debbie for a bite to eat at a local diner in Carle Place. Then we started out on the road. Sue and I were going to go to the furthest point away from Manhattan and the Boroughs on Long Island — Montauk Point. We stopped briefly in Rockville Centre where Sue Leffler had grown up, to photo­graph additional reference for drawing and painting. Then off to the east. It just kept getting more open and cleaner the further you were from New York City. Getting there was very straight­forward out Montauk Highway through Amagansett and the Hamptons to the town of Montauk. Really not a bad drive at all. If only there was a way to circumvent the very busy urban areas on the way in. Aircraft would most likely be the best choice eastward.

What a beautiful place! Their thousand dollar fine for littering has certainly paid off. It was truly spotless. Not what I’d pictured in my mind’s eye at all — this was just as if we’d been trans­ported to the New England coast. Really nice and a bit rustic with Apple Orchards and fields of Sunflowers swaying in the wind. Quite picturesque. I loved it. We had nice fresh seafood to eat and Sue was able to get Lobster. Sue was unfor­tu­nately a bit under the weather with a cold and we sought relief at the only game in town “Montauk Medical Group” where Dr. Knott runs his business. Once diagnosed and prescribed medicine we went over to White’s Department Store where they also fill prescrip­tions in their Pharmacy in the back. Leaving a couple scripts to be filled we went across the street and had brunch on Saturday. Out on the overlook you can see across the scrub plant dune cover to sandbars that close off a large pond of salt water which is appar­ently flooded on a regular basis. Certain areas there have full tree canopy covering the road and a few times we saw the sun penetrating the foliage and illumi­nating the sea mist with focused beams of light. We call that “God Light”.

The only negative aspect of this trip was that Sue didn’t feel partic­u­larly well — she did take care of that — and that we had such a short visit with the end of Long Island.  I’d say that I’m pretty certain that we’ll go back to see it again. If not physi­cally, my mind will surely go back. I shot these images all in a few quick bursts and I was surprised that the weather had turned out as nicely as it had. Initial forecasts had it raining Thursday with additional showers and temper­a­tures fifteen degrees below normal. It just all blew out of here on Saturday night. All night long a rumble punctuated sleep as a cold front blew through and building trim, awnings and windows shook. Couldn’t have asked for nicer weather. On the way back we stopped at the famous “Lunch” restaurant where you can get a “Lobster Roll”. I never had a Lobster Roll and was picturing something similar to a spring roll or an egg roll. It is a toasted hot dog bun filled to the brim with “Lobster Salad”. Lots of pink claw meat. Sue had that and I had New England Style Clam Chowder. I also saw that they cook Puffers (blowfish) there for the tasty bit of meat within. A really nice trip. Sue has yet to get over her ailment and I’m coughing as well now. It will pass.

Memories like this trip sustain one through the gray skies of winter.

Glad that I shifted over to a new format before all the inspiring Autumnal color comes sweeping in. Not a real exciting day here in Holland. The girls are home and Caroline is getting over her cold. Liv was doing her aimwork — I mean… homework on the machine nearby. Sue had me put on all of my suits to help clear space used unnec­es­sarily by stuff that I don’t like or doesn’t fit any longer. I’m still trying to figure out how a suit or pair of slacks can shrink all by itself sitting in the closet ? Maybe, just maybe, it’s tied into ice cream or other desserts that sponta­neously disappear…

Well - you never know. I have to go get my haircut tomorrow and much like a sheep I do so every six months or so whether it needs it or not. The storm that was in here since Wednesday night finally blew on out this morning. We had some great low altitude cloud­scapes flying by yesterday afternoon. Stark contrast.

The mosquitoes are still around. Sue isn’t too fond of pillow talk…  so when I told her about my plans to go outside and grab the moon this morning — I was hushed and told “Shoot the Moon”. So I did. I shot the Waning Gibbous Moon as shown here at 6:39 AM Eastern Daylight Time. This was my last exposure this morning. The bugs were out as I shot in the direction opposite sunrise. The exposure was manip­u­lated in Photoshop.  It was already fairly bright outside as I took this last shot. I’d switched over to Pattern Metering and was going to see if I couldn’t pull some of the sky blue into the image. I trashed that thought and instead just manip­u­lated to the expected Lunar Image. I even shot this a stop down and it was only 1/200^th of a second at F/3.6. Next Moonrise here happens at 8:01 PM tonight and the next Moonset is at 8:31 AM tomorrow morning. We won’t see a Full Moon again for 27 days and 5 hours. Looks like a good day.

High clouds, diffused skies. Latitude and longitude. Warmer colors with blue fill in the shadows. The angle of that light. The nuance. These are the clues that are given to the human well prior to temper­ature drop and

mass migra­tions of birds. It’s all coming. The autumnal entity. I feel it. Growing up in New Jersey and just being here in Pennsylvania… You can see a different light. The light that I’m seeing reminds me of visiting

relatives and the holidays to come. Labor Day weekend. Summer’s last hurrah. I know just the color projected as that sun sets across the bay from Ocean City. The warm sky-dome glow that extends to the East

over the calm ocean. The warm cool mix of color on a mostly flat ocean and the occasional splash to remind one that there is another life beneath the surface. Flounder are slipping out the inlets headed for deep water

and Bluefish are moving South. Soon the Tuna will be in the canyons. Stripers. Weakfish. Now is the time. The geese have been moving for almost a month now. Tonight there is a full moon. The skies were appar­ently layered last night with lots of cloud levels and the spectrum of color around the moon spoke of the frozen water crystals well above us. There is a big change. I shot a couple images that I dropped in here. The plants know.

Sue Beauchamp and I celebrated our Second Wedding anniversary just this past Monday, August 31^st Two Thousand & Nine

What a nice time we had. We went for a walk in New Hope and looked at galleries and then we went out to dinner. Unfortunately we had to rush home to the girls as there was school the next day. Our anniversary is the thirty first and that was the first day of school in the Council Rock Schools. We went past the Restaurant 552 where we were married by the Mayor of Newtown and they are out of business. A sign of the times I suppose. On our walk we saw quite a few places that are now out of business.

The Sunflower was our wedding theme also. When our anniversary came there had to be Sunflowers. Lots of Sunflowers. Interesting flower. With all those seeds — it’s amazing that they aren’t growing every­where. Big changes on the heels of Hurricane Bill. After the storms and rain it just seems like Summer gave up. There is a chill in the morning and the days are getting shorter quickly. It’s going to be a good fall. Apples and pumpkins are just around the bend. Looking forward to it. I look forward to most things these days.