Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

I haven't put a computer on the 3rd floor yet, so the last two entries were mailed from my phone. It looks like all but one of the fireworks displays has petered out, so I figured I'd come write something longer than 160 bytes long.

Earlier I'd hoped not to need any pain meds on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day, but the migraine pretty much shot that notion. I still don't have proper migraine meds, so I took Canadian OTC codeine+caffeine+acetaminophen, which helps quite a bit against migraine even though it's nowhere near as effective as Midrin. Even with the drugs in me, I didn't feel steady enough to want to climb out a 3rd floor window onto a stepladder with a tripod, nor steady enough to reasonably brace a camera against the wall or window for a long exposure while leaning out, so I didn't shoot the fireworks. But I figure I'll be living in this house for quite some time, so I'll get other opportunities. (Though I'll be checking an ephemeris later to see when the moon will be so conveniently placed in the sky again.) Of course, on years when I'm actually feeling well, I'll want to go someplace else, either closer to some big gathering or (more likely) to a party with friends. So the really cool photos I know I can get will wait for a year when I feel too crappy to go out but well enough to climb out over a three story drop in the dark. It'll happen.

It actually makes more sense for me to try to photograph the New Year fireworks than the Independence Day ones, because the trees are a lot easier to see through when they ain't got their leaves, so my effective horizon is lower. I'm not sure whether to count the Baltimore fireworks as one display or two -- I saw two launch points far enough apart that if I wanted to compose "here's a fireworks display" frames as opposed to "here's the city skyline with fireworks over parts of it", they'd be two separate shots. One looked like it was maybe right near the aquarium -- ? -- and didn't go very high. The northern edge of it was cut off from my view by buildings. But it definitely included stuff shooting several stories into the air; it wasn't just reflections of a ground display off of nearby buildings. The other was where I expected it, a barge or barges in the harbour -- not as close to the Domino Sugar plant as the television news made it sound like it would be; from my angle it looked like maybe closer to the Rusty Scupper?

Those were about as close to due east as I can see from that window (the church on the next block obscures my view directly east). The Baltimore Inner Harbor display was the only one both large enough and near enough to be worth really sitting and watching, but I'm still entertained by just how much else I can see from here. There was a small display that I didn't notice at first east-southeast, another small display due south, a somewhat larger one (not as large as the Baltimore display, and smaller-looking yet because of the distance) barely west of south, an occasional rocket high enough to see west-southwest, and something closer but not very high (I could see over the buildings about a fifth of what I could hear) not quite due west. On the other side of the house, I could hear a lot of noise to the north-northwest and west-northwest, but could not see anything other than a reflection of a single bright blast north-northwest. I also heard random bangs and pops that may have been the guns that folks were so many times reminded not to fire into the air, or more innocuous ladyfingers, cherrybombs, and bottle rockets. At one point I heard a sound very much like sleet or small hail landing on rooftops nearby -- making me wonder, as noted in my previous entry, whether someone had fired a shotgun into the air. I don't know how hard those pellets come back down^[1].

I didn't try to be in position to watch the very start of the fireworks. I decided at nearly the last minute (well, the last quarter-hour) that I wanted to do something symbolic to commemorate the turning of the year, so I turned off all the lights in the house (even the small one over the back stair), then lit candles when midnight struck. Yeah, it sounds like more of a solstice thing, doesn't it? Whatever -- it had some sense of endingness and beginingness to it for me. And as a side effect, it was a chance to enjoy the candles I was given a week ago. :-) The other thing I decided to do was to start the new year with a mug of decaf Earl Grey.

Anyhow, for folks in my time zone or east of me (actually, noting how long I've spent composing this, for the folks in Central time as well (on third thought, most folks well west of here aren't going to get around to seeing this until morning anyhow, so make this for tout le monde)), Happy Secular^[2] New Year (2005 CE^[3]) to everyone, and Happy Christian New Year (Anno Domini 2005) for my fellow Christians!

PS: Just as I finished writing this, I heard noises where I shouldn't hear noises, so I took my phone and a flashlight to see whether anyone was on the fire escape next door. I saw noone, but there were other flashlights waving around at ground level, so I checked out the back door. It's the police, so I guess I don't have to call them. And the police helicopter just started circling overhead and shining that bright light thisaway. I wonder what's up. But I figure I'll retreat behind a locked door (and turn on a lot of lights so that my windows provide the police more light in that space between the houses) instead of watching from the back porch.

[1] I know bullets come down pretty darned fast; I'm not sure whether they reach terminal velocity or not, so I don't know whether they land at the same speed as they left the gun. I'm guessing that shotgun pellets fall a bit more slowly because they're not pointed and because their mass-to-surface-area is smaller, but since I don't know the terminal velocity of a shotgun pellet either, that's just a guess. And of course, a spherical pellet won't be slowed by tumbling the way a bullet might.

[2] Or if you live someplace that uses a different calendar for almost everything, then Happy International-Commerce New Year...

[3] Common Era, just in case there are still one or two people not already familiar with that abbreviation.

"Never make a decision immediately upon waking up from a bad dream." -- Anon. (swiped from redbird, 2004-07-27

theferrett wrote, "[...] let's start a lame-assed meme! In the comments to this entry, tell me:
1) What was the best LiveJournal post that I made this year?
2) What was the best post that you made this year? (Linky linky, please.)"

This looks like fun, so I'd like to play too. :-) But as protection against smartasses, I'll rephrase "this year" as "in 2004", lest someone decide to limit it to the entries I've posted today.