Brandon North is a now-abandoned train station north of the city of Brandon — actually north of Forrest, which is north of Brandon. I headed up there a couple nights ago, hoping for dark skies so I could take some photos of stars.
Alas, the station itself is now more brightly-lit than when it was in service. However, just down the hill, the lights are mostly blocked. I got some good photos:
I looked out the window and saw that the clouds were lit up like fire, so I grabbed my camera and biked a block and a half to a spot where the horizon was open. Of the 40-odd shots I snapped, this was the best one.
I set my camera up outside at my in-laws’ farm, and set it to take 15-second exposures all night. I was hoping to catch some Northern Lights, since the sun fired off a coronal mass ejection on the 12th.
Thirty seconds before this photo, there was nothing. Black sky. Then, without any ramp-up, the sky turned green.
This shot is from midnight, almost on the button; probably 12:00:30 or so. The lights along the bottom are vehicles on the Trans-Canada Highway.
In mid-April , one of the admin assistants from the President’s office caught up with me at coffee time and said, “You’ve been selected as this year’s recipient of the Board of Governors’ community service award.”
I said, “Huh?” I hadn’t even know I was nominated. (I still don’t know who nominated me; it’s a private, confidential deal. But I do thank whoever it might have been.)
I was told I could have up to six guests attend the University’s convocation, if I wanted. Unfortunately, my wife was unavoidably out of town on the date of the ceremony. My mother made the trip from the big city, though, and X, my so-called “judo wife”, came along as well.
Several people asked me if I’d be making a speech; I told them that I hadn’t been informed one way or the other if a speech was expected, so I hadn’t prepared anything. I was ready to ad-lib something short, though, if the need arose. My boss ended up in the seat beside me on the stage, in the second row of the platform party. As the grads were filing across the stage to get their sheepskins, he leaned over and whispered, “So how long is your speech?”
I replied, “I really won’t know till I’m done.” He laughed softly and sat back up.
As it turned out, I didn’t need to say anything; I just stood next to the President, looking pretty, while she read off the bio I’d submitted. Then she handed me the framed certificate, the photographer (a friend of mine, as luck would have it) snapped some photos, the crowd went wild, and I sat down.
After the ceremony was complete, we stuck around for some further photos. X talked me into letting her do the kata-guruma lift for the camera. In our fancy clothes.
(If you don’t know what kata-guruma is, check the video below. Note that X put me back down on my feet, as we didn’t have any mats backstage.)
This weekend my wife and I went up to Gimli with my mother for the 122nd annual Icelandic Festival. I hadn’t been to the festival in many years — it’s on a long weekend in summertime, so it tends to attract weddings, family reunions, and other events — but this year Mom called us up about a week and a half before the weekend and said, “Hey, you want to go?”