Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

Weather Underground insists that "current conditions" as of 23:53 in Martinsburg are "clear". Funny, but when we were driving around and looking at the sky, it was high stratus clouds, no stars, no meteors, definitely not clear. I really hope the skies clear before the main peak of the meteor shower before dawn.

... because breakfast today was half a loaf of fresh Amish cheese-bread. Except that I don't feel guilty for pigging out on it, because the shop where we bought it just exuded wholesomeness, y'know?

The clouds parted somewhat. We set an alarm for 4:30, and I looked outside trying to figure out whether we'd be able to see any meteors. It didn't look like we'd be able to see much, but we headed towards Antietam anyhow. Apparently the peak was a bit earlier than predicted -- we saw some meteors (would have seen more, but for the clouds covering about two thirds of the sky), but other folks said we missed the really spectacular part of the show. *sigh* I doubt I caught any on film, but with any luck I'll have some dramatic sunrise-over-Antietam photos to make up for it. Still glad we went out there to try to watch anyhow.

The older-than-I-am cameras got some use this morning. You see, in addition to the "B" ("bulb") setting, which leaves the shutter open as long as your finger or a locking cable release is pressing the button, they have a "T" ("telescope"?) setting which leaves the shutter open until you select a different shutter speed or cock the shutter again. Since I have only one cable release and I was using three cameras, having cameras that can hold their own shutters open as long as I want is a good thing. And it's not like I minded the lack of a meter, out there in the dark with multiple-minute exposures. Plus, they're easy to operate with gloves on.

On the way home, I heard a woman on the radio who I swear sounded like a grossly over-produced version of merde! Similar voice, similar intonation, similar use of her voice, similar songwriting style (but a rather slower tempo than Merde would have done it) ... but the voice sounded a little too "processed" and the arrangement was way overdone with too many silly fiddledy-bits in the high end in the background. Made me miss Merde's singing that much more than I already did.