Thursday, November 15, 2007

Campaign 2008


Is anyone else amazed by how much time our elected leaders spend campaigning, on our dollar? After all, many of the people running for the presidency are working as public servants. A quick look at the Washington Post article on the candidates, http://projects.washingtonpost.com/2008-presidential-candidates/
shows 17 listed candidates, 10 working as elected officials. How can you do your job if you are all over the country shaking hands every day?

I would like to pull the same stunt with my boss- hey, i'm going to travel around the country for a year or two and you're going to pay and shake hands and I don't know, if you are all over the country and you're going to pay me.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Noel, a week later



Last Saturday brought Cape Cod a good old fashioned Nor'easter, the remnants of hurricane Noel. The storm took form quickly and sprinted up the Atlantic seaboard from the Caribbean to Eastern Canada in a matter of days. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Noel_(2007)
By the time it hit Cape Cod, the storm was being called a post tropical storm, still packed hurricane force winds and monster seas. The Wikipedia article says that wind gusts of 89 mph were recorded in Barnstable. I love a good storm and this baby had me reminiscing back to hurricane Bob of 1991, the last hurricane to whack the Cape. We did have a good number of trees down, especially along Route 6A, but "nothing" compared to Bob.

Once I realized that we were going to get hammered, I was getting pumped up for the surf. With 30+ foot waves offshore, there was sure to be some bombs coming onshore. Sunday, I woke early and geared up to head to the Seashore. The storm had given way to westerly winds and blue skies. I started at Coast Guard beach in Eastham and made my way up the coast, spotting all the beaches to find the best break. Normally, I would be right in the water at the first sign of good waves, but with surf of this size I could be judicious. You know the waves are big, when you can see the waves breaking over the dunes.


The photo above was taken at Whitecrest beach in Wellfleet. I am standing about 100 feet above sea level on a dune and the twig in the bottom of the picture is a 40 foot tree sticking out of the beach (which you can't see). This wasn't the biggest wave by far, but i did think it was a good shot.
I am at a disadvantage with my digital camera because the screen broke this summer. I can take pictures, but I don't exactly know what I'm taking pictures of...