…from looking at his blog today, but Craig just turned 30. Go wish him many happy returns.
Day: August 18, 2003
Mothman: hosed down in Rutland
Jim Heaney, AKA Mothman, updated yesterday from Rutland, Vermont, where Chris Doyle has been apparently hosing him down. He notes that the Appalachian Trail was probably one of the few places in the Northeast that was completely unaffected by the power outage this past weekend. He also notes, “Strange to think ‘nearly over’ and ‘500 miles to go’ at the same time, isn’t it?”
Rough and Tumble Thresherman’s Reunion 2003
Esta has already written about our experience at Rough and Tumble 2003. I can only add a few impressions, and of course the linked photographs. For the most part the photos didn’t come out very well. Some of it was just the mud and the rain (though Esta is right—it was cleaner than I remembered it).
Probably the most disappointing aspect of the day was that between the mud, the rain, and the fact that it was the afternoon of the last day of the show, we didn’t see the crowds and carnival-like atmosphere that we saw in years past. But it was definitely steampunk.
The best part about the trip
Since I have just come into our house and have all but collapsed prostrate on the bed, I’m tempted to declare the ability to nap at 3 pm on a Monday afternoon the best part of the vacation. Of course, I’d be lying. It’s somewhere in between a fresh ear of corn just picked out of a field and steamed/roasted over a fire, laughing with my grandfather, and having my young first cousin (once removed) grab my index finger with a chubby fist… and then attempt to maneuver said finger to his mouth where he could eat it. I swear, the child almost had his feet in his mouth at one point.
Heading back
More detailed notes, including Rough and Tumble, soon. For now a quick link to photos of the picnic and the Brackbill farm—and the newest cousin, my cousin Catherine’s son Johnathan. And probably the best picture I’ve ever taken of my grandfather, right.
I’ll get to post this entry, started in Baltimore where I had WiFi, when I get home. Right now I’m waiting in Chicago, which is obstinately WiFiFree, and so have a chance to look over some of the photos I took this weekend with my phonecam. The major thing that strikes me (and has probably already struck any more photography-savvy readers of this blog) is the color balance problem. The Nokia 3650 appears to do some image processing, including at least color and level correction—what I see in the viewfinder before I snap the photo isn’t exactly what I see afterwards. And the results can be uneven. I already noticed this with the Tradiscantia photos I took in my garden last weekend, and am noticing it more with the series I took of the farmhouse. Though I took the photos from more or less the same vantage point, the color of the grass is dramatically different in the photos I took from the tree shade than the ones I took closer to the house. Not ideal. And there doesn’t seem to be a way to turn it off either.
A small regret: the picture I took of the dedication stone in the center of the farmhouse’s wall didn’t come out clearly enough to show the engraving. I could only see a little from the ground, but it was something along the lines of “Hershey, 1857” with a good deal of text before and after. I never noticed it before, and when I asked my mom about it she confessed she hadn’t either. Something to check out another time.