Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

Tonight I took a channel-surfing approach to fireworks: I watched a little bit of each of many displays. By "many", I mean somewhere between 18 and 24.

I identified 18 different launch points for skyrockets from the back window on the third floor of my house. I later spotted four more distinct launch points visible from the front window. When the Inner Harbour show started (which is partically obscured by trees and a church, from my window), I hopped in the car, hit I95, went just past the beltway, got off on the I195/166 exit, cruised through the Park And Ride (from which two different fireworks shows were visible ... Ellicot City and Catonsville? Arbutus and Catonsville?), got back on I95 heading North, and figured that if I timed it right, I'd see a reasonable portion of the Inner Harbour display through my windshield. While driving, I saw two more displays that I'm certain I didn't see from my house, and a couple more than I might have also seen from home.

While I'd long thought that the MLK Ave exit flyover would be a great vantage point, I hadn't actually planned on stopping there because there's not that much of a shoulder. But there were enough other cars parked along there (and several other points on I95/I395) that I figured I was partly protected by the other cars. So I watched the rest of the Inner Harbour display from there, along with a smaller display in a direction somewhat East of BWI.

I drove home figuring that was the end of the fireworks, but I headed up to the third floor just in case. There were still a lot of bursts to the South and West, finally petering out around 22:40.

I didn't get any photos, but I got a good show ... or a couple dozen. (I'm not sure how many different shows I saw, because some of the launch points had a sufficiently narrow angle of separation between them from my viewpoint, that they could have been opposite ends of a high school football field if they were closer to me than they looked. (This is why I say "18 to 24" displays.) Many of the launch points were within Baltimore (as were all the ground displays that I saw reflections/glare from, including one on Pratt Street that I could see part of between the houses). Either a lot more small communities staged their own shows this year, or a whole lot of private individuals were firing off skyrockets. I wish I had an ultra-wide-angle lens (my widest is 24mm) so I could capture enough of the skyline at once to really show the effect. (For some of these displays I was only seeing the few highest bursts; for others I saw most of the show but at such a distance that it was pretty tiny. Showing all these small peeks scattered across 160 degrees of horizon would have been dramatic even though only the closest would make a good photo on their own.)

I can see a long distance in some directions (those not blocked by buildings or trees). I'm not sure what the show waaaay over on the horizon was; I'm wondering whether I can see Jessup from Lombard Street, or was that Elkridge? It was the right direction for either of those, and a clear shot to the horizon without tree/building interference. When one of the really late ones to the West-Southwest ended, it revealed another in the same direction twice as far away! (That direction is obscured by buildings, so I only got what peeked over the rooftops.)

Some of the late fireworks were really high, which made the more distant ones nicely visible and gave the inside-Baltimore ones a spectacular surround feel.

My original plan had been to go join the crowd at the Inner Harbor and try to get a spot to set up my tripod where fun bits of skyline would be in the frame, but I wimped out because to get there early enough to get a good spot (and parking near enough to lug the camera bag), I figured I'd have to deal with the record heat for too long, so I wimped out. (Maybe someone else can tell me whether I could've waited until it cooled off the little bit that it did, and still gotten the view I wanted.) But if I'd followed my original plan, I wouldn't have found out how incredibly many different directions I could see fireworks in at once from my house.

I missed the DC and NYC shows on television, 'cause I was hanging out my window or driving around, not doing any literal channel surfing. I heard those were especially spectacular (especially NYC), but I'm glad I got to experience the "surrounded by celebrations in every direction" effect that leaning out my window provided.

So after my last entry, I went to bed. Still trying to get used to the Neurontin -- the first dose had me feeling out-of-sorts for the next three days, but yesterday wasn't as bad. I felt like I was wrestling, or caught in a tug-of-war between sleep and waking, when I woke up in the morning, felt reasonably alert-ish (adjusted for the heat) until a Serious Nap Attack in the afternoon, and felt like I was moving in slow motion but could deal anyhow after my nap.

Last night/this morning I took another dose, and as I said above, went to bed a little after my last post here. I didn't feel especially sleepy, but it did feel like maybe, just maybe, it would help a little bit in getting to sleep.

Then my legs started doing that annoying almost-cramp thing they do, and this time my arms did it as well. The sun is coming up, and I'm still awake. Somehow I don't think Friday is gonna be as productive as I'd hoped. *sigh*

BTW, for readers who don't already know them, the music I'm listening to, Peat And Barley, is Bill Mitchell and Becky Ross, two members of The Homespun Ceilidh Band.

My Laserjet IIP Plus has started crinkling the bottom of each page. I thought a roller had died or something. But once in a while it works okay. I finally got around to poking at it, and couldn't find a darned thing obviously wrongish, but I did notice how very spongy and tacky the last set of rollers is. (The problem only shows up when I use top output. If I flip the thingie that makes paper come out the front -- where I don't have a tray to catch it -- it's fine.)

I shot canned air at the rollers from a couple different directions for a while, and the next couple pages that came out were un-wrinkled. The next couple after that, several minutes later, are slightly wrinkled.

It's too bloody hot in my office for my printer to work correctly. The rubber of the rollers is getting all squishified from the heat.

Now to figure out a cheaper solution than using a can or two of canned air every day. Hmm. This might actually justify putting a new air conditioner on my credit card, nervous as that makes me with my current finances. Have to think about that a while.