Bonfire

You may want to read the previous post to get a better feel for this post. Just a suggestion, friend.

Later, during my sister and brother-in-law's 23rd year wedding anniversary party, my brother-in-law started a bonfire.

First, he started out dumping some old bill receipts onto a few open flames. This escalated into a mattress frame being thrown on top the heap. Then an old broken down chair was thrown on top of that.

When the fire was really going good, I threw about a large kitchen bag's worth of old receipts, bills and other outdated forms onto the fire.

When we were tanked and feeling pretty marvelous, we all grabbed our chairs and sat around the bonfire, feeling the inviting heat and enjoying our faraway stares into the flames of hell and well, um, burning medical insurance forms, furniture and whatever else we could think of throwing into the bonfire.

I wanted to throw my friend, who suffers from MS, into the fire, but a couple friends thought it was too early in the evening yet.

(sigh) I guess it would take a few more margaritas and glasses of bourbon for my jovial group.

Just kidding, Marty.

I've always found fire to be mesmerizing. I could stare into the fire all night. Which all of us did, pretty much, while talking nonsensically to one another, in a half arc around the bonfire.

Do you perceive images within the fire? Enlarge the picture to see what I see. Get as close as you want. See the weird beings? Look closely! Don't worry! I won't kick your ass into the fire like I usually would. :-) I'm adding the smiley face, here, to give you the impression I'm joking about that last part.

Look closely! (boot)

Here we are, in a half arc around the bonfire, in drunken, happy stupors.

Seeing The Light Through A Darkened Sky

Wind Gusts and Downpours

First off, I would like to thank all of my first followers and fellow bloggers for checking out my new site and leaving kind remarks. I know this is quite different from my other site and I believe I'm staying more true to myself and everyone else by showing another facet of my personality.

Today, we had some inclement weather in the tri-state Ohio Valley area. Tornado warnings were being given for nearly every county. We had wind gusts of up to 70 mph. What better time, I thought, than to go out and take some snapshots. Who knows? Maybe I'll see a tornado or perhaps a tree breaking in half and landing on the hood of my truck or a house, I thought, to my morbid delight. What fun!

The photos show a gradual progression of the severity of today's storm. In this one, you can see the clouds gathering, quite nicely.

I like this pic because the rain drops hitting the parking lot really show the intensity of their impact when you zoom in on them.

This is pretty cool, too. If you have a decent imagination, you can see patterns, shapes and forms on the front windshield. This is also one you would definitely want to zoom in on.

The visibility became progressively worse, as you can see. And it's because of the rain... Not clouds, fog or steam.

Notice how it became so dark, even though it was just 1:00 in the afternoon, that the parking lot lights came on.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to capture any tornado shots but I still liked what I was able to get. When you look at the details of a photograph, you will surprise yourself, at times, by the scope of what you are able to perceive and observe.