
Monday morning I got my 1,250 words done quickly, then rewarded myself with a couple more episodes of Carnivàle. (Aside: I don’t know what’s up with the à in Carnivàle, any more than I know what’s up with my friend that insisted on pronouncing it Carnivalé.)
In the afternoon I headed into town on a couple missions: I wanted to get some supplies for the cabin (milk for my morning coffee, for instance, and peanut butter for my toast), and I wanted to upload Sunday’s photos, if possible. I took my laptop to the coffee shop for the second mission, and got permission to plug it in. (The battery no longer charges, and it’s time for a new laptop, or at least a new battery.) I sat down at a table near the outlet, pulled out my laptop, and discovered that I’d left the cord back at the cabin.
At least I managed to get milk and peanut butter.
Later in the day I went for a bike ride, and snapped photos of a bush full of red berries (I think they’re probably chokecherries, but I’m not sure enough that I’m going to taste them) and some of the bison in the bison enclosure (see up top).

In the evening, after supper, I did my 1,250 words, then went to bed fairly early. I had a plan, you see: I set my alarm for 2:30 AM, with the intent of getting to the abandoned house (see Sunday’s post) to get a longer set of star trails. I wanted to get there before moonset, so that the moon would partly light the house, and then stay till after the moon had gone down.
Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate. Clouds started rolling in to the north (to shoot the house, I’m shooting to the northeast), meaning that my star trail plan would be nixed. Also, I miscalculated how much moon I’d have; it had nearly set by the time I got halfway to the house.
Sighing, longing for bed, I turned around and started home. Something made me stop, though, about halfway back, at the top of a valley on the road between Minnedosa and Erickson.
The aurora were putting on a bit of a light show. I’d checked Space Weather earlier in the day, and found that there was a chance of a mild geomagnetic storm, so I kind of halfway expected it.
I stopped, and got some photos. I’m happy with what I got. At least I didn’t get up at 2:30 AM and drive 45 minutes round-trip for nothing.

Interested in prints of my photos? Let me know, and we can work something out.