darkoshi | Entries tagged with sun

It's the time of the year and time of the day when sunlight hits the small mirror ball hanging by the window in one room. It throws glints of light across the walls and across me. I give the ball a slight twist, and the bits of light dance around the room. It is beautiful to watch.

I've previously taken videos, wanting to show how neat it looks. But I lack time to upload and post them; there are other things that need to be done.

...Ahh well. I decided to go ahead post one of those videos. I didn't think it would take 5.5 hours* to accomplish, but there you have it. That's why I rarely do.

Watch on YouTube

Video title: Sunshine & Mirrorball

*Sure, I also took a walk down memory lane, browsing through and renaming 150 photos and other videos. And I washed sheets and ate dinner and hung up on a phone call, and updated the video editor software.

yes, I was just outside enjoying the piercing heat of bright sunshine on my skin

but if I were outside a nuclear reactor and felt that same sensation, I'd be freaking out wanting to get away and protect myself from the cancer-inducing rays

At Q's house in the morning. Quiet, placid, murky water in the ~2/3s drained lake. Sparkles of sunlight glinting from the water surface where bubbles of air, from critters down below, surface and pop.

Even in this 100+ degree weather, the dogs sometimes lay out in the sun as if it feels good.

Today Zorro did it again. At first I was going to tell her to go in the shade or come back inside with me. But then I thought, why not? and tried it myself for a few minutes. The sun was so bright, I had to shade my eyes with my arm. But it was very nice. Nice warm sun on my skin. Pretty green leaves rustling in the tree. Blue sky, white clouds.

Crossposts: http://darkoshi.livejournal.com/659513.html

I made a batch of "Pistachio and Rosewater Cupcakes" (sans frosting) today, but forgot to add in the pistachios. They taste great anyway.

Pink magnolias abloom:

Me back in January, suited up for using the angle grinder:

A sunrise last month:

Doglets:

Crossposts: http://darkoshi.livejournal.com/648212.html

Still emotional. This guy I don't even really know, other than the name, posted on one of the lists that he was throwing a milestone birthday party for himself and inviting all his friends to come to a fun event... That seemed like such a brave, unusual thing to do, when I read it. But now he cancelled it, due to "not really any interest". Made me cry to think about it from his point of view. Which is somewhat silly, right?, as maybe it didn't even bother him that much, if he was that brave to begin with.

But anyway.

Sunshine! Finally. The birds and squirrels are scampering and playing in it.

I got a good amount of sleep last night and feel much better today.

It looks like I'm going to be doing Halloween again this year. Got a pumpkin, got candy....
But it seems I shall have to invest in some advertising of my candy-giveaway business, if I want to get any costumed munchkins at all at my doorstep on the special day. A nearby house has a fantastic Halloween display with a lighted ghoul clawing its way out of the ground. I will put colored lights up on one of the trees in my front-yard. And perhaps I'll go see what kind of decorations they have available this year the stores... Hehehheh, Halloween stuff, and having an actual reason to buy it!

I discovered that hollow doors aren't hollow on about the outer 1.5 inches of the door edges. (Hurrah for stud-finders!) That made putting up the magnetic doorstop much easier than I had thought it was going to be. I also got the push-down spring-loaded doorstops put up on 2 of the other doors. They were even easier to install than the magnetic one. But they are too slick on the bottom to work very well. I will attach some better rubber so that they hold the doors better.

Today was the first day since I started growing my bangs out that my hair felt comfortable enough not to have to pin it back out of my face. In other words, it wasn't scratching my eyeballs or tickling my nose.

It sure is nice to be able to pull shirts over my head again, without it messing up the pins in my hair. And it looks much better without the pins.

.

I can see the sun as it rises from the yellow room window.

(The sun below the horizon is a window reflection.)
It is surprising how fast the sun rises - on the day I took the above photo, the sun was only halfway over the horizon when I first looked out the window, and that is what I wanted to capture. But in the minute or so that it took me to get my camera from the other room, it had already risen all the way over the horizon, as can be seen in the photo.

I will take a photo every week or so until the solstice, so I can see how the sun moves along the horizon, and what the southernmost sunrise point is... Maybe I'll try to figure out where it should rise on the solstice, based on this data, and then see if I'm right or not.

Crossposts: http://darkoshi.livejournal.com/446267.html

I noticed that one of the quarters I have is dated 1972. It is as old as I am. I wonder where it has been in its lifetime, what many places it has travelled to and from, how many pockets and purses and cash-registers it has been in, how many hands it has touched.

Light from the setting sun was giving things a golden tinge as I got out of my car in a store's parking lot this evening. Then I looked at the sky, and saw a wonderful rainbow appearing - a full semi-circle, from close to the horizon on one side, to behind the store building on the other. There were dark clouds in the sky in that direction. It had been sprinkling while I was driving, but had stopped. There was even a faint 2nd rainbow, too.

What an orange-red sun, just above the horizon. If I had my camera here, I'd take a photo of it.

I've been idly wondering whether to buy a new digital camera, or to just get a new cellphone which includes a camera in it.

I was clearing some gutters out and decided to go on the roof to get at some stuff I couldn't reach from the ladder. (And to challenge my fear of heights.)

What I learned: A rooftop can become very very hot when the sun's been shining on it. Don't go up there on a sunny day without gloves and protective clothing.

Luckily I did have gloves within easy reach. But I still managed to slightly burn the palm of one hand and the side of one calf. Trying to quickly get off a roof back onto your ladder, when you're shaking with fear, both of falling and of being stuck on that burning hot surface... Whew.

Current Mood: shaky

Starting in 2007, Daylight Savings Time in the U.S. will start earlier and end later. We will have about 3 more weeks of DST. Our start and end dates still won't match up with Europe's.

From Wiki... "Clocks will be set ahead one hour on the second Sunday of March instead of the current first Sunday of April. Clocks will be set back one hour on the first Sunday in November, rather than the last Sunday of October. ... This will affect accuracy of electronic clocks that had pre-programmed dates for adjusting to daylight saving time. The date for the end of daylight saving time has the effect of increasing evening light on Halloween (October 31)."

..

My compass doesn't seem to consistently point in the same direction for North. Sigh. How can I use my compass, when I can't even be sure it's pointing in the right direction?

Columbia, SC data
(latitude 34 degrees north, longitude ~81 degrees west)

- Magnetic North is 6 degrees 40' west of geographic North

- On the summer solstice, sunrise azimuth is at ~ 61 degrees, and sunset is at ~298 degrees.
- On the winter solstice, sunrise azimuth is at ~118 degrees, and sunset is at ~241 degrees.

Ie., the sunrise angle varies between 0 and ~29 degrees north and south of Due East
and the sunset angle varies between 0 and ~29 degrees north and south of Due West.

- The sun's highest altitude in the sky is...
on the summer solstice at 80 degrees,
on the equinox at 56 degrees,
and on the winter solstice at 32 degrees.

- In the summer, earlist sunrise is at 6:12am and latest sunset is at 8:40pm (Daylight Savings Time).
- In the winter, latest sunrise is at 7:30 am and earliest sunset is at 5:15pm (Standard Time).