Unintentional Stalkers

You're still going to have to wait for pics of the pigeon babies and NOW the sunrise we witnessed.

Speaking of sunrise. Last night there was a family from Colorado at the show...and it wasn't their first time. They were easily recognized by us staff. During the dream no one would volunteer...not even the table of teens who had been dominating the yelling of suggestions that night. When Seth finally offered a free drink the hand of the mom shot up.

We found out that it was their last night there and all sorts of other fun stuff. A really happy family. Mom, Dad, and two girls...all smiles all the way.

Well, this morning Deanna and I drove to the top of the mountain to see the sun rise. Time of sunrise: 5:04am. Time of departure: 3:40am. Time I went to sleep: 0.

So we leave and get to the mountain around 4:30. I get out my camera and tripod. It's cloudy out on the horizon where the sky is slowly getting lighter. All of a sudden a huge fog bank comes in and covers the people on the mountain...nothing to see. We wait, and wait, and wait. More people show up...the fog gets blown away then comes back then goes away. People are taking pictures of the sunset with flash*. People are wrapped in blankets. One lady is in a sitting fetal position behind a rock to block the wind because she is in shorts and a T-Shirt.

My camera starts collecting condensation. I wipe it off.

Boom! Sunrise! I take pictures like a madman only to realize at the end that my lens is covered in mist. Don't take photos on no sleep, kids...you get stupid.

As we went back to the car and start it up a car pulls up right next to us and people get out. It's the family from the show...the family from Colorado. Deanna makes a comment about them stalking us and they laugh. We leave.

Off to town to find out which breakfast place opens the soonest...it's 5:27am.

There is a place called Jordan's that opened at 5:00. The next place to open is at 6:00. Everyone who does the dream seems to go to Jordans for blueberry pancakes so we go in...plus they're the only thing open. I order a ham and cheese omlette, Deanna orders the denver. And in walks that family again. More bits.

PS. if you go to Jordan's, get the blueberry something. I don't like blueberries. But the omlette was awful. The ham was sliced deli-ham...about 3 slices...wrapped in egg. They didn't dice the ham at all.


*Taking pictures of a sunrise with a flash...especially in misty weather...is dumb. If the subject you're trying to shoot isn't within, say, 20 feet...all you're doing is lighting up the space around you. In the case of the sunrise, those people will get a nice shot of the mist reflecting the flash. If you're at a concert or sporting event, and not in good seats, all you're doing is lighting up the backs of the heads in front of you.

Ever seen a Pigeon puke?

I have. And I'll be damned if that pesky camera wasn't sitting on the desk at home. There is a covering on the deck at the theater. Everywhere along the beams are those spikes that are supposed to keep pigeons off things. It works pretty well, but one little piece fell off. In that one space is a pigeon nest. We've been watching it all summer and a few days ago we were able to see the chicks peeking up. It was a first for me to see a pigeon chick...let alone two.

Well, today, the mom comes swooping in and lands on the lamp. Totally ignoring the spikes on the lamp, and then flys to the nest. The chicks start chirping and pecking at the mom's mouth. I've seen footage of baby sparrows or robins where the mom pukes up food into the baby's mouths. With the pigeon, the baby puts it's beak inside the mom's and the mom start's heaving. I can do a pretty accurate impersonation in person if anyone is interested.

Tomorrow I will try to remember to get a picture. It's my day off and I'm waking up at 3:45 AM to go see the sunrise from the top of a mountain.

Lazy Days

It seems like it's been awhile since I've had a day off. We do shows 6 days a week with one day off. Everyone's day off this week was the 4th of July. No shows on that night since everyone would be watching fireworks. This day off meant getting up early (7:30 instead of the all to frequent 11:30) and going into town to be part of the parade. From there we went to a BBQ at Steve Raab's, then got home around 7:00 or so (Deanna and I didn't stay for fireworks). Probably the busiest day off we've had.

So today is lazy. I had a dream last night that I got back to Chicago, but then I came back to Maine with Emily and someone else. They were going to be doing shows here and I wanted to show them around. Emily was freaked out about money.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get in some good photography and a nap. Tomorrow is the day off for both Deanna and I. We are going to get up early and drive to the top of Cadillac Mountain. We've been there already about an hour before sunset...


...but I want to get there for the sunrise and take some photos. We'll also get breakfast in town and maybe do an early morning sea kayak trip.

Later that night, if we're not dead tired, we'll go to the Lumber Jack show. They also have the Lumber Jills. It promises to be quite entertaining.

Anyone reading this thing yet?

From Real World to Real World

Living here in Maine has been like the Real World, but boring in comparison. We're all older and seemingly less horny than anyone on the Real World. Once we leave here we go back to Chicago which will be like a smaller Real World. Nate and Adam from Portland are staying with us while they do the IO Intensive. Here's to hoping they got in ok and that nothing was dead in the fridge...like a renegade raccoon or something that managed to get in the apartment, get in the fridge, but then get sealed in.

Right now Deanna and Jen are watching Connie and Carla. A movie I can only describe thus far as "awful". It's like Beaches meets Thelma & Louise meets Romy & Michelle (or whatever the actual title of that one is), but very bad.

We got Team America: World Police a couple of weeks ago. I wish I would have seen it in the theaters. I can't wait to purchase it and watch it a lot and sing the songs.

Did someone say sassy?

Here is the post to make sassy comments in. Sass away!

Ugh...I forgot comments

I set the comments to "on"...but apparently I didn't save the setting. They are on now.

Stand and Deliver!

This, dear friends, is a Lupine (LOO-PIN). One of my favorite Monty Python sketches was about Dennis Moore the Lupin Bandit. You can read about it here...or at least listen to the song.

Lupines are everywhere in Maine. I guess they grow like crazy. More on Lupines.

Nature, Ho!

Deanna and I went for a bike ride along Carriage Trails. They were built by Rockefeller so he could, well, ride carriages around the island. They are well maintained and cover a lot of the island. I saw some cool things on that ride.
Fairly early in the ride Deanna said "Hey, look at those mushrooms!" So, I shot a roll of film on them. She wasn't expecting me to shoot a whole roll, but they were cool. I think they were poisonous though. An old lady came up to us and said they were edible. She showed us by eating one...then she exploded!
Later on we stopped by a pond/lake and I found this Dragonfly sunning on a rock. There were a few Dragonflies frolicking about. As I took a picture of this Dragonfly I heard a humming sound in the distance. It got louder and louder and louder. This Dragonfly and I sprung up to see what was going on. It was a swarm of Dragonflies coming back with pieces of the old lady that ate the mushroom! They were all taking the pieces into the nest for eating. This Dragonfly wanted to go eat and took off, but stopped mid-air to look back at me as if to invite me to dinner. I declined. We will always be friends though. Dragonflies eating exploded old ladies is just a part of the Circle of Life.
This is one of two turtles trying to make a break for it across the Carriage Trail. When they hear Dragonflies they can go pretty fast.

Shhhh...Pretend it's early June!

Backtracking. Here is a shot of Niagra Falls. We ended our first day of travel to Improvacadia just outside of Buffalo, NY. Niagra Falls was only 40 miles off the path, so we went!

Poor little guy...

Here is a cool moth that was hanging out near the theater. I think it was in bad shape, but it was cool. I'll try to put up some of my pics I've taken so far...you know...to make up for lost time.

On the drive home last night we saw a fox running down the side of the road. It looked like it had a tennis ball or an apple in it's mouth. No picture of that though.

Congrats to Bobby and Laurel on their engagement! I found out via the J.R.B.I.M.S. (Johnny Roast Beef Internet Mystery Squad).

Kayaks

Yay! Images!

Once I started digging I found this:

Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Image-uploading was briefly down due to a bug, which has now been fixed.
Posted by Eric at 14:12

So I guess I just had to chill a bit and wait for the bug to be fixed.

These are some kayaks that were lined up ever so nicely on a pier in Bar Harbor, ME.

photo © Rance Rizzutto

Is this thing on?

A blog starts. Deanna has one. So does Tara. Rich, Molly, Brendan...probably some others. I had a blog when I first moved to Chicago but I have no idea where it is, what it's called...I just know it's still out there 'cause my typical username(s) wouldn't work when I created this.

Here's me seeing if this will let me post a picture:

And here's me not seeing a picture after a window that said "uploading photo" just went blank. I'll get it down.

Also...here's me after nothing would publish, I had two of the same blog listed, and deleted one to find out the initial template I picked when creating the blog no longer existed...I had no template.

I'll put a picture in another post.