Was taking my dogs out earlier tonight when I looked up at the moon, and there was a beautiful halo encircling it. So, after dogs finished their business, I ran and grabbed my camera, and out the back door I went, with no lights on.
By the time I got back outside, which was maybe all of 5 minutes (!), as I am standing there, getting the settings on the camera to what I want to try, I hear chewing. I look up and start peering into the dark, sure there is an almost full moon sitting right at zenith, with lovely light shining down, but it is still dark. Now, you have to understand, my backyard butts up to, well, nothing but woods. So, there are no lights. In the house I go, flip on the spotlights, even they don’t reach into the far recesses of my backyard, hook the leash back on to my big dog and out the backdoor we go. Again.
When we were outside earlier, she never alerted. But this time, she sniffed the air, walked off the porch, sniffed again, and stared straight into the darkness, then her hackles went up and she started a low growl. So, being the brave person that I am, back into the house we go, locked the deadbolt and switched off the lights, stowed camera away. *grins* Needless to say, I didn’t get the halo shot, but did search through my archives and brought you a shot that I took a couple of years ago instead.
You see, her reaction told me that it indeed was an animal in the yard somewhere, the four-legged kind of animal. That is all I wanted to know, to make sure it was not the two-legged kind, if you catch my drift. What kind of four-legged animal I didn’t want to find out, at least not tonight.
The last time I got surprised by a four-legged animal, I was out shooting astroimages with my telescope and about had a heart attack when I could see an animal sitting, watching me, maybe 15 feet from me. At that time, I had been out long enough that my eyes had adjusted to the dark, so it was very unnerving to say the least. Especially, when I flipped on the flashlights and the lanterns to see what it was.
There in my yard, sitting next to the magnolia tree, was a panther. Had I not been so startled, I probably would have grabbed the camera off the telescope and shot some images, but first instincts were to get it out of the yard and back into the woods. Not because I was afraid it would hurt me (okay, it could kill me and no one would have woken up to hear my screams), but because I didn’t want it to become used to people and coming close. The more I thought about it since that time, I can only guess, that because I had all the lights off, it was curious. I don’t know if that was it or not, but about 3 weeks later, while out walking in the same woods, during the day, we saw a panther running down one of the dirt roads that cuts through. The one in my yard wasn’t as big, so I like to think that maybe there are more.
While we are on the subject of full moons - this Friday, the 12th, go outside at sunset and watch as the moon comes up over the horizon, it will be a spectacular site to behold!
So on Friday the 12th if you turn around and look toward the east just after sunset you will see a super huge full Moon just rising, the largest and closest full Moon of 2008.
Yup, we are having a full moon, on a Friday and it will be a big moon. Hopefully, we won’t be socked in my clouds, that would really upset me, because I love looking at the moon. But, even if we are, all is not lost, because on January 10th, 2009 (right around the corner), we will have the biggest and closest full moon again, this time for 2009! Not too shabby.
Okay, back to the weather, we are supposed to actually get some weather again tomorrow. Today, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and the panhandle of Florida got it! There was a confirmed EF-0 tornado in Northwest Georgia and a handful of wind reports. Yesterday though, between tornadoes, hail and wind, the southeast was mighty busy. Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina were all affected. Check out Dewdrop’s blog for more information, she always has the good stuff! :D
And speaking of Dewdrop, I have to say I am very proud of her for completing the NWS Jetstream quizzes. Kudos to you chica! :D And it is with you in mind, that I have sprinkled throughout this post, my merit certificates. I had completed the quizzes back in July, offline, and had found a couple of errors in answers. Well, I finally sent off note today to Dennis Cain, a.k.a. “Professor Weather”, with the National Weather Service in Fort Worth, Texas. He got them all fixed, extremely quickly too! WooHoo! So, I went online and took all the quizzes, which really didn’t take long at all, since I had already studied everything, and printed out all the lessons. No, I’m not trying to show up Dew, and she knows that, I just had more time on my hands to do them all then she did today. *grins* I’m sharing them with you, because, it is something that I had been wanting to accomplish, and with her push, I did. So thanks!
I had spoken before about this great resource back in June. Go, check it out and see how you do with the quizzes!
