Late Night Sighting...

While watching television last night ("Ghost Hunters" rerun) I was summoned outside by Glenn. Apparently, it was an optimum time for us to see the ISS, or International Space Station.

I'm usually pretty hip to stuff like that (interesting occurrences that deal with Space), but that was the first I was hearing of it. He had been alerted to it by some of his Facebook friends. So anyway, I slid my flip-flops on, grabbed a jacket, and joined him in front of the building.

Yep, it was up there. A bright ball of light, bigger than the stars dotting the night. It was moving right along. The space station travels at over 17,000 mph. From our perspective down here it doesn't look like it's moving too terribly fast, but...well...there ya go. I think some of the stuff I've read on it said that the station sees a sunrise around every 90 minutes or so.

It was a cool feeling seeing it up there. We were able to watch it for about 4 minutes, so we actually had a nice space to view it in. I dashed inside and grabbed the binoculars and the camera. Looking at it through the binoculars could have been especially cool as I think I could have definitely made it out better, but it was just too dang bright to get a good look at it. Passed the 'noculars off to Glenn and made an effort to snap a picture of it. I fully realize that any decent photo I could take would be of a big bright dot in the sky, but that would have been fine with me. In retrospect, I should have tried to get the photo first because by the time I flashed a frantic shot it was passing behind the trees. The image I did get is completely black except for a faint grey dot the circumference of a pencil eraser. (I zoomed in thinking that would help...the station wasn't visually that big.)

Looked up the NASA site where they list ISS sightings. There is one more for Savannah:

Saturday, May 01 @ 8:28PM ~ Duration: 2 Min.

Don't know if there will be any more added to the list for this year. I joined the RSS Feed, so I'm sure I'll be alerted if there are. If you want to check it out for possible times to view it where you are, here's the link:
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/skywatch.cgi?country=United+States

The Talkin' picture box...

There are a few things I watch regularly on the tube. Some of them are drawing to/have drawn to a close for the season.

The first of the two reality shows I've been watching from the past several months has been 'Project Runway'. I was thrilled that my favorite designer won, Seth Aaron. His designs were the most interesting. The chick (can't remember her name) had some nice stuff, but it was so derivative. (I guess that can be said about most designers if you really analize what they do...you can always come up with someone they are similar to.) Its just that when I saw a lot of her stuff, I felt like I had seen it before. The main reason that I liked Seth Aaron's stuff is that I think he had a clear message as to who he is in the clothing he makes. The other guy (can't recall his name either) was just not that good. I know he won several challenges throughout the season, I know that the judges really liked his clothing...I just didn't see what they did. IMO the judges have crappy taste. He said his Fashion Week designs were inspired by his mother and her friends. I believe it. They looked very matronly, and the color pairings were hideous. Anyway, I'm very happy that things came out the way they did.

The other reality show I've been watching is RuPaul's Drag Race. The season finale is tomorrow night, followed by the behind the scenes show, followed by the reunion show. The reunion should be a real hoot...there have been some cat fights throughout the season, so I think the opera gloves might come off for a few of the 'ladies'. As for the final 3...Jujubee seems like a sweetheart and I think she has talent. Until she gets to lip-synching, that is. She does this very exagerated gaping mouth thing. She just looks like she doesn't know the lyrics. Tyra (the Beyonce worshiper/wanna-be) has won a number of challenges during the season, but I don't see why. Her make-up is always very blotchy, and messy looking...she has a deep mono-tone voice that she makes no effort to mask when she's in drag...I'm surprised that she's made it this far. As for the third gal, Raven, I'm pulling for her. She has a mouth on her and does critique others a bit harshly, but she is stunning. It's all up to RuPaul. She's been making the judgements throughout the season, so it's all up to her. Since she has picked Tyra as the winner on several challenges, I'm thinking she might pick her again. We shall see...

On a side note: I was acquainted with RuPaul in the early/mid-80's. My mother was renting the lower level of a two-story house in mid-town Atlanta from a gal who knew Ru before 'she made it'. He was a really nice guy. I'm assuming he still is. I've heard reports from people that have met him since RuPaul established 'herself'...they've said that the ego was huge. It does seem to happen to a lot of people. Oh well...

The other shows I watch regularly are still 'The Ghost Whisperer' (currently in reruns), 'Supernatural', and 'The Big Bang Theory'. Supernatural has been a bit silly this season, but highly entertaining. 'Big Bang' is just a hoot. Sheldon cracks me up. (There are elements of him that remind me of several people I've known over the years.) I also watch just about anything that deals with the supernatural (shows about ghosts/hauntings, psychics...that kind of stuff). Oh! almost forgot...also watch 'Stargate Universe'. It's actually really good. In some ways it's typical of other shows that have dealt with a group of people from earth traveling in the footsteps (or in this case the flight path) of a lost race, not knowing what happened to the other race or where they will end up...and all the while hoping to find a means to get back to earth...but it's entertaining. Which is one of the most important elements of a show I'll watch.

The last thing I'll mention is a movie I watched the other night. Well, tried to watch is more like it. 'Repo! A Genetic Opera' showed up in the free movie section of OnDemand, so I checked it out. What a piece o' crap. The fact that Paris Hilton is in it should have deterred me. Anthony Stewart Head (Giles from 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'- a show I dug) couldn't even save it. Paul Sorvino is in it and...well...all I can say is William Shatner is Poverroti compared to him. The music was bad, the lyrics were even worse...the first thing that sprung to mind was that the producers were trying to cash in on a crowd similar to the one that shows up every weekend to see 'Rocky Horror'. Fat chance... 'Repo! AGO' is just one giant crap sandwich.

Nuff said...

Rain, Rain...don't go away...

Today in Savannah...low 70's and rainy. Love it.

Sense some productivity in my near future...

Out 'n About...

It has really been beautiful here weather wise. Normally I can't really hack the sun, but the temperatures have been in the 60's and 70's, so I cope. There has been a pretty constant breeze, too, so that makes things a lot more pleasant.

The azaleas have backed off a bit. They were in great abundance for the first half of last week and then POOF! They just sort of withered and disappeared. A few bushes are experiencing some minor blooms (including a few bushes outside the back porch), but nothing to compare with the color on the other bushes of a week ago. You could hardly see any green on them they were so...bloomy...

I've been in Savannah for over a year now, but haven't gotten out to eyeball much. True, I haven't been well for a good bit of that time, but there is so much I want to see. Just tooling around looking at houses and streets is highly entertaining. An old city with lots of massive old trees and lots of Spanish moss draped and hanging everywhere...it's a place with a 'mysterious' quality. I think anyone who spends even a little time here will know exactly what I mean.

Have some pictures I've been meaning to post from a couple of outings. The pic up there at the top is from a second trip to the Bonaventure Cemetery. I love that place. I'm sure that there are many more trips in my future. Still want to find Johnny Mercers' grave...he's from Savannah. If the name doesn't ring any bells, he's a well known composer..."Moon River" is one of his. The above angel carving is from a child's burial site. Sad that it houses a child, but really exquisitely done. Had cherubs on all sides.

The pictures in the slide show above are from Fort Pulaski. Savannah has quite a history centering around the 'civil war' and the 'war between the states'. Pulaski is from the 'war between the states'. Was pretty cool. Had visited there when I was young, but think the last time I visited there was in the early 80's when I was in college in Statesboro.

The pictures in the slide show below are from Tybee Island. Mostly from the beach. As with many touristy beach stops, there was a virtual plethora of tacky nick-nack and souvenir shops. In my book, there is 'horrible tacky' and there is 'cool tacky'. At some point, there are a few things that fell into the latter category that I plan to check for in the future.

On a different tack, today is Earth Day. I've never been one to get really fanatically hardcore about many things. That being said, I think there are definitely things that a lot of people can do to make things better for us and the environment. My jury is still out on the subject of global warming. Yes, the planet is changing. Is man contributing? Probably...in a small way... but the planet has gone through changes before without the interference of "progress". There are plenty of naturally occurring phenomena that (over time) could cause the planet to have another 'ice age', could cause things to get unbearably hot, etc. We have seen an increase in earthquakes lately. We just had a volcanic eruption (I saw a news report that said that historically, when that volcano has erupted, the neighboring volcano...a "bigger" one...has always erupted). The probability of planetary catastrophe will definitely occur with or without our help. Does that sound fatalistic? Yes...I'll concede that it does. The earth is going to forge ahead with whatever cycles it needs to go through. We're not destroying the earth...we're destroying the existence of man, if anything. This giant ball is going to exist well beyond us.




Back to the premise of Earth Day. At least to the way I see it. The Earth is a beautiful thing, in many many ways. It sustains us. Physically...spiritually...it signifies different things to different people. Different cultures. After living on another planet known as "Los Angeles", moving back to a more bucolic spot/space has been more than welcome. We really need to start preserving the natural aspects of the Earth now before it's too late...I mean that in relation to man's existence. As I said before, the things we do are effecting human existence not the planets' existence. Will various species of flora and fauna go extinct anyway? Yes, they will. There is a cycle to life. There have been plenty of living things on the planet that have gone extinct through purely natural means. What we need to do is to not speed up a process, or impede nature from taking its course. I could go on a huge, many faceted rant about different elements of the process of nature, survival of the fittest, etc. I guess at the base of what I'm trying to say is we all need to do as many simple, well within our means things to help sustain the natural elements of the planet. Yes, we need to respect Mother Earth, Gaea, Terra mater...whatever name you use for her...but we also need to realise that the existence we are effecting is our own.

There ends my editorialization for today...

WHAT THE...?!

What does one usually find when cleaning beneath a bed? Dust bunnies? Cobwebs? Paper scraps a breeze may have blown under there? Maybe even a dead roach?

How about a fiddler crab...?

Shots of the day...

Todays snappies from my jaunt to the corner for Glenn's paper. Twas a beautiful day in the neighborhood indeed.

Spring Stroll...

No, I didn't fall of the planet. Well, in some respects I guess I did. Have not been feeling well for awhile and it has kind of put me off my feed in terms of my blog and other web related 'things'. My arthritis has still been giving me pains, per usual. I think the pain medication me doc prescribed is helping a bit...it's not heavy-handed (which is plenty fine with me...I hate feeling drugged). It kind of eases into pain relief mode. Better than nothing, I suppose. Something I noticed weeks ago is a weird spongey bubble on my right elbow. Obviously a pocket of fluid. I did look up 'fluid on the elbow' online, and I'm assuming it's fluid in or around the bursa ("A bursa is a slippery, sac-like tissue that normally allows smooth movement around bony prominences.") My elbow deal has all the indications of Bursitis, but the main difference of my situation from text book Bursitis is that I don't have any pain in or around it. Interesting since I seem to have pain everywhere else. I'm planning on having the doc look at it on my next check-up. I've also been sick a few times over the last several weeks. When it rains it pours, and it's been pouring for awhile now. Thankfully, I was given a slight break from all of it today. Felt 'up' enough to go for a walk and snap some photos.

Spring is definitely here. It was very pleasantly warm outside. Don't know the exact temperature, but I'm assuming it was in the 70's. Sunny, warm, and windy. The wind did make it a little difficult at times to frame some of the pictures I took...I couldn't keep my hair out of my face. I was able to get a number of snappies that I'm happy with. The marshland I've photographed many times before (I've posted several pictures of it here on my blog) is changing from brown to green. The forest of cat tails standing along the marshes edge is going to seed, so there is cat tail 'fuzz' all over the grass. There was the usual sprinkling of pine cones. I dig pine cones. Spotted a few new spring flowers that I hadn't seen before. No idea what they are called. I plan to try and find them on the internet. Maybe do a Google search of wildflowers indigenous to the Savannah area. The azaleas are out in full force. I could have taken hundreds of photos of azaleas, but...well, you seen one azalea you seen 'em all. I will say that most of the ones I scrutinized for possible photos looked pretty flawless. Some even looked fake. Larger than I remember seeing.

Swung by the pond. Didn't see the ducks, although I heard their faint quacking a few times. Was a bit perplexed as to where they were hanging out...never ended up seeing them. I did see some life under the water. Tons of tiny tadpoles. I took a couple of pics of them, but one was too blurry to bother posting. Of course it was the one with what looked like hundreds of tadpoles. I showed the picture to Glenn when I got back and he informed me that those are 'toad' tadpoles, and that the 'frog' tadpoles are much bigger and will eat them. Ah, that wacky food chain.

Past the pond is the shaded picnic table I've visited before. Here I decided to do something I hate. Decided to try and snap a picture of myself. I made several attempts, each more hideous than the last...blech. (What can I say...I'm my own worst critic.) Taking ones own picture is kind of difficult. The one I posted with the other pictures above is the least offensive to me...my head does look like a beach ball with hair though. Would have been nice to get my chin in the shot, but it's hard to frame a picture when you're not looking at the subject matter through the viewfinder. Oh well. Moving right along. I noticed something by the table area that I hadn't noticed before. The opening to a trail. I don't know what has created this fascination I have with trails in the woods. In some weird way, I suppose it sparks the adventurous side of me. The act of entering a world of pure nature. The sounds of wild life rustling through the flotsam from the various types of trees covering the forest floor. The trees in general. I dig trees. The way light splinters through the branches, glinting here and there like chaoticly formed jewels. For me it can be exhilirating and peaceful at the same time. Anyway...enough about that. Trees play a chief role in the book I've got in the works, so I'll save any narrative for that.

As I passed the swimming pool I found a bunch of leaves on the ground that had really beautiful designs on them. They almost looked like abstract paintings. Snapped photos of a couple of them. Might go back tomorrow and scope the ground out for some more. They were pretty cool.

Well, think it's time to sign off.
TTFN...