The Adjusted Normal, 34. Of Heat and Comets
It's still hot, though not quite as much as yesterday. I did my shopping this afternoon, and with the mask and the sun, got a headache, which I am trying to get rid of within my darkened study. Tomorrow, it's supposed to go down a notch, but the house has now accumulated heat which it will need a few days to lose.
Later, when the sun sets, we'll probably sit outside on the doorstep for a while, enjoying whatever slight breeze might pop up. Last night, I remembered about the comet Neowise. So, we sat outside until the sky darkened enough to see the stars. The street light right next to us wasn't helping, but we managed to see it, looming in the darkened sky above the trees like a ghost. It wasn't there if we looked directly at it, but out of the corner of our eyes we could see the sweeping tail.
I brought out my camera and set it up on my car roof. Pointing toward where the ghost hovered, I set the exposure for eight seconds, and then bracketed with six and ten seconds. It didn't come out as bright as in some pictures online, made with good, professional cameras, but you could see it as a bright spot, with its tail flowing out behind it.
Believe it or not, that's my first comet. Haley passed by when I was a teenager, but I didn't really get a chance to be able to see it. Boston street lights tend to hide the stars, and my parents were tired in the evenings to drive miles into the darker suburbs. There was another one a few years ago, and I don't remember why I didn't see it. This one had the thoughtfulness of being bright enough, and hanging in a part of the sky visible from here.
Later, while I turned on the fan next to the bed, my husband decided to sleep on the hammock under the arbor behind the house. It's not big enough for two, and the idea of mosquitoes doing night vision landings on me is not appetizing. Before we had the hammock, he or our daughter sometimes slept outside on blankets spread out on the ground during particularly hot nights. I prefer the bed.
But when I was growing up in Boston, I sometimes slept outside, too. We lived in a triple decker, right under the hot pitch roof, and the scorching sun sent its minions of heat right into our apartment. On those nights when each breath seemed to scald, I would open both windows of my room, leave the door open, and open the small window in the bathroom across from my room, then sleep across the bed, in an attempt to find a cool spot on the sheets.
Some nights were too extreme, and I would open up a longue chair we had to take to the beach, on the back porch. I'd put a blanket on it so the plastic weaving wouldn't imprint itself on my skin, and lie down to sleep. It was cooler, but, even in a Boston neighborhood, the mosquitoes would do their nightly dance over me. Generally, before dawn I would head back inside, and drape myself over my bed for the last couple of hours of the night.
Normally, it doesn't get that hot here, but since our bedrooms are under the tile roof, the heat gets trapped during the day. With a fan, I tend to sleep easily, even pulling up the bedspread in the middle of the night. My husband hates the heat during the night, though, and finds it more difficult. So, tonight, he might go out to the hammock, again.
I just hope the temperatures cool down a bit more, and make life more agreeable during the day and the night. Still, I'm glad we don't live in the south, where temperatures of over 40ºC/104ºF are getting too common, now. There's always a bright side, I suppose.
Life continues.
Later, when the sun sets, we'll probably sit outside on the doorstep for a while, enjoying whatever slight breeze might pop up. Last night, I remembered about the comet Neowise. So, we sat outside until the sky darkened enough to see the stars. The street light right next to us wasn't helping, but we managed to see it, looming in the darkened sky above the trees like a ghost. It wasn't there if we looked directly at it, but out of the corner of our eyes we could see the sweeping tail.
I brought out my camera and set it up on my car roof. Pointing toward where the ghost hovered, I set the exposure for eight seconds, and then bracketed with six and ten seconds. It didn't come out as bright as in some pictures online, made with good, professional cameras, but you could see it as a bright spot, with its tail flowing out behind it.
Believe it or not, that's my first comet. Haley passed by when I was a teenager, but I didn't really get a chance to be able to see it. Boston street lights tend to hide the stars, and my parents were tired in the evenings to drive miles into the darker suburbs. There was another one a few years ago, and I don't remember why I didn't see it. This one had the thoughtfulness of being bright enough, and hanging in a part of the sky visible from here.
Later, while I turned on the fan next to the bed, my husband decided to sleep on the hammock under the arbor behind the house. It's not big enough for two, and the idea of mosquitoes doing night vision landings on me is not appetizing. Before we had the hammock, he or our daughter sometimes slept outside on blankets spread out on the ground during particularly hot nights. I prefer the bed.
But when I was growing up in Boston, I sometimes slept outside, too. We lived in a triple decker, right under the hot pitch roof, and the scorching sun sent its minions of heat right into our apartment. On those nights when each breath seemed to scald, I would open both windows of my room, leave the door open, and open the small window in the bathroom across from my room, then sleep across the bed, in an attempt to find a cool spot on the sheets.
Some nights were too extreme, and I would open up a longue chair we had to take to the beach, on the back porch. I'd put a blanket on it so the plastic weaving wouldn't imprint itself on my skin, and lie down to sleep. It was cooler, but, even in a Boston neighborhood, the mosquitoes would do their nightly dance over me. Generally, before dawn I would head back inside, and drape myself over my bed for the last couple of hours of the night.
Normally, it doesn't get that hot here, but since our bedrooms are under the tile roof, the heat gets trapped during the day. With a fan, I tend to sleep easily, even pulling up the bedspread in the middle of the night. My husband hates the heat during the night, though, and finds it more difficult. So, tonight, he might go out to the hammock, again.
I just hope the temperatures cool down a bit more, and make life more agreeable during the day and the night. Still, I'm glad we don't live in the south, where temperatures of over 40ºC/104ºF are getting too common, now. There's always a bright side, I suppose.
Life continues.
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