Halloween Drone Show

OK, what the heck is this?  Kathy saw an advertisement in Newsday for a "Halloween Drone Show."  I knew what it was instantly.  The show was put on by the town across the harbor and if you don't live there you couldn't attend.  But, we figured that if we were just across the harbor we would be able to see something.  So we ended up parking at the beach where we have our Tuesday coffee and donuts, and had a great view of the show.  There were between 75 and 100 drones, obviously computer controlled and flying in perfect formation, sometimes really close to each other.  It was astounding to see.  They all started out as a long line of lights on the far shore, and then suddenly they started flying up, one at a time like fireflies, until they were all in a giant diamond formation.

Then they started making shapes.  They formed this ghost, but what you can't see is that half of the drones don't have their light on.  Suddenly there were two ghosts overlapping and then flying away from each other!  Then there was the Halloween Pumpkin Face, below.

And then when it was time to land, the drones all turned red and returned to the diamond formation, and then one by one they began to descend like fireflies.  It was astounding to see!  The presentation lasted about 15 minutes, because most drones only have enough battery power to fly for 20 minutes.

 

Rush Hour Friday Night

I took the car and headed out to see if I could hunt down dinner for tonight.  As I drove south on Glen Cove Road, I saw this scene.  There was something about the colors of the sky, the few lingering clouds and the beauty of the red tail lights of the cars.  There was that special "something" that I recognized in a split second and so I snapped this picture.  Oh, dinner?  Kentucky Fried Chicken!   :-)

 

Moonset over Costco

We had to make a trip to Costco to buy their giant bags of cat litter, not the most fun exactly, because the bags weigh 40 pounds!  But the price is right.  As I was getting back into the car I noticed a crescent moon setting over the store.  Something incongruous about this I think - Moonrise and Moonset photos are best done,  I think, over beautiful landscapes, not big box stores.  Hey, I get my photos where I can.

 

A Haircut in a Time of Covid

                             

I was getting pretty raggedy so on Friday I made an appointment at the hairdressers.  In the old days, when I went there, the salon was full of women, many speaking Italian or Spanish, in addition to English.  I love the sounds of all the voices and the laughter.  Lucia owns the salon, and his is Janet from Columbia who washes my hair and it is always nice to talk to her.  But now the salon is mostly silent with usually just 3 people so there is plenty of distance between each of us.  It is still nice to go there, though.

No Dunkin' Donuts - Week 33

We were at the beach by ourselves again today.  Well, not exactly just by ourselves.  Now that we are showing up with donuts each Tuesday, we have the seagulls come visit us.  Some are more forward and come close as this young gull is doing.  Others keep their distance.  But actually this picture has nothing to do with gulls.  It is all about that magnificent sky!  When we arrived I wondered what I was going to shoot, then I realized that the cloud deck to the north was both beautiful and unusual.  And the foreground is illuminated by the sun and the background is not, giving an unusual feeling.  This is all about the light and the sky.

Deader than a Doornail!

So this is the last photograph that I will post of the life and death of our Sunflowers.  I promise.  I have left them on the back steps to watch them as they fade. Well, they are no longer fading - they are "deader than a doornail."  I think my mom used to say that.  Or someone said it when I was a kid, and I have always loved that expression.  But I do think that there is beauty in their form and in their colors as they deteriorate. 

 

Wilderness Sunset

I thought you would enjoy this photograph of a sunset, with a tree in it, taken in the wilderness.  Oh, the "wilderness" of the parking lot at a giant shopping center!  As long as you don't look closely, you don't see the reflections of the sky on the tops of the cars.  I almost had you fooled, right?  I think the top 2/3 of the photograph are pretty.  The bottom 1/3  not so much.