Spent some time this morning cleaning up after yesterday’s flooding. We found a frog hanging out in our garage puddles. Poor frog didn’t seem too pleased that we were squeegeeing all the water out with an old mop. Eventually (after some gentle prodding with aforementioned mop) we encouraged him to head outside, and find a more natural puddle somewhere.
Now the sandbags are all stacked up in case we need them again later, most of the standing water is out of the garage, and things are …
One of the perks of going to visit the observatory with an astronomer is that I got access inside the telescopes, and also to the walkway outside the dome (which is about three stories up, and an excellent place to take sunrise/sunset pictures). I put a few shots from inside the telescope dome up on flickr, with notes about the equipment. The third photo in that series shows the little tiny holes in the mirror of the Harlan J. Smith telescope from when one of the telescope operators got disgruntled and shot the mirror with his gun.
Also over …
The first few days we were at the observatory, we had tons of rain. The weather alternated between thunderstorms, rain, and thick clouds.
Most of the time the weather was so bad we didn’t even want to leave the lodge (which meant I got lots of writing done!). But every now and then the clouds would part, which makes for some nice dramatic sky pictures:
Sunrise was at about 7:15am, and I managed to wake up early enough to set up and take photographs three times during the trip. This shot shows the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (in the hills on the left side of the photo) just as the sun peeked over the mountains. A few of my other favorite sunrise photos are up on flickr.
Last weekend was my second consecutive weekend spent at a con. This time around it was Armadillocon, a little local Austin con that was an entirely different experience than Worldcon in Denver. I had a good time at both cons, but I found Worldcon a bit overwhelming, and Armadillocon was more my speed. I had a lovely time meeting and hanging out with several people I’d only known online and/or through their work before — Steven Utley (impatientape), MK Hobson (mkhobson), Lon Prater (lonfiction), Sheila Williams, Eric Marin (ericmarin), and Patrick Swenson …
Today’s date: March 14th
Today’s high temperature: 91 degrees
Every year Austin sets up a Trail of Lights at Zilker Park. Peter and I went last night, so I got to play around with my camera (the photograph shown above, for instance, is one where I zoomed out while taking a long exposure). My favorite display was the tunnel of stars near the exit:
As usual, I’ve got more photos up on my flickr site.
The air is finally starting to feel crisp in the mornings and evenings, so I can almost believe that it’s fall. Mid-afternoon is pleasantly warm weather for hiking, so this afternoon Peter and I went to McKinney Falls park:
The water level was pretty low so the falls themselves were not especially impressive, but the park had a lot of scenic spots along the creek, which made for a pleasant afternoon walk.
Well, after several long days of driving, I arrived in Austin on Monday night. Here’s what I’ve learned so far:
– Texas is HOT.
– The speed limit from El Paso to Austin is mostly 80 mph. You can make pretty good time driving across Texas.
– If you’re trying to get somewhere in Austin, go in the opposite direction, then make a U-turn. It is impossible to go somewhere by moving toward your destination.
– Tacos here are cheap and tasty.
– Airconditioning is good.
– Giant swarms of crickets are icky.
– …
