weather being nasty

Keren is in Tel Aviv right now, having fun with family and friends and catching up on work. It was 85 F today (Sunday) in Chicago, maybe as warm as Tel Aviv! The first brave souls tiptoed out into the Lake, hoping to cool off, ever so careful to keep important waist-level cargo safely out of reach of the icy 45 F water. If you don't like heat, just wait a day...or if that's too long, then 6 hours...tonight!

So here I am with the scroogim and the camera, and some time on my hands. A northwest wind is picking up as a cold front is pushing through Chicago tonight, usually a good excuse for nature to make some fireworks, and this time for me, a chance to improve my non-existent photography skills, which are to Keren's picture-taking talents as Coors Light is to Guinness. Yuck (depending on how you look at it).

It's 10:00 pm, and I see fleeting flashes to the West and Northwest. In my giddiness, I randomly mash some buttons on the camera to slow the shutter speed (note to self: I flipped the dial to "M"). Looking out our West window down Bryn Mawr, I note that the sky is almost blue at this exposure time (upper right). I also congratulate myself for having discovered the shutter speed option, already known to even the most amateur of photographers.

Nothing interesting yet, but about 10:30 the fireworks begin. One of the first (unfortunately blurry - I had a few Coors Lights waiting for the storm to show up) signs of the storm front as it blew over the airport some 15 miles West can be seen at the right.

1.21 GIGAWATTS of flux capacitor juice! Somewhere, a high school kid is going to back to screw up his past. For those interested, here are instructions to build your own flux capacitor. Happy time travelling. For now, the self-induced pressure is on to take a few pretty pictures and make my wife proud. [In retrospect this wasn't too fun. It quickly became a competition between me and myself, a sure guarantee to crap on my parade.]

That's cloud-to-ground lightning (upper right): mistress of the unlucky, slayer of golfers, barbequer of cattle, probably striking out near the airport. After messing around with shutter speed some more (note to self: AUTO), and taking a break to distract the scroogim (and entertain myself) with the laser pointer, I meticulously experiment with minimizing my "shakes". I turn the camera at every angle, leaning against the window and the window frame, leaving greasy prints from my hands and sweaty forehead on the window that only make my short fuse this night burn quicker. I violently curse myself and the camera as the lightshow outside rages on, and my near misses pile up. My wife is an expert at putting out these self-ignited flames. I miss her.

Finally, by 11:00pm, I hit a couple of almost home runs. The storm has died down, and after a half hour of laughing at my expense, mother nature in her pity lets loose a few parting fireworks. By now I have tamed the camera and am ready:

Bingo! Cloud-to-cloud lightning. It only took 47 shots. I conclude that they must have made digital cameras for goons like me. Neighbors in the foreground building at the top reach for their phones to call the police on a peeping tom. To my frustration, the second bolt (bottom) looks like a parting shot from mother nature, almost like a taunting middle finger. I now realize it wasn't pity after all that prompted her to surrender this shot. It was jest. Very funny. Before some unnamed catastrophe befalls my camera, I upload the pictures to the computer. There. Done. Time to pet the scroogim and go to bed. (And also time for a few more huge nuclear lighting bolts, now that the camera is put away - nice try, Weather, I'm not going to sprint for the camera anymore).

The midwest is notorious for its severe weather (see Tornado Alley). Chicago is close enough that we should get some spectacular weather - spectacular at a distance, that is. I'm fascinated by lightning, and despite my impatience and clumsiness, I plan to out-do these pictures soon.