none too soon

Today was my last day as department head and the last day before beginning my sabbatical. That wasn't really on my mind as it is Saturday and I've left town. With my cat under Paul's watchful eye, I've packed a Bolex with a battery powered intervolometer, my old super-8 camera, a brand new microscopic sized HDV camera, and a still camera (oh yes, and the family) into the car and have landed myself in amazing Cypress Hills Saskatchewan. The pine trees of the area are tall and straight and I've wanted to shoot them for years. Of course, I had to overcome my own hurdles such as having not charged my batteries and thus could not shoot what I needed. Instead, we hopped back in the car and drove to Eastend, Saskatchewan where Scotty the T-Rex was unearthed a few years ago. It has a museum that is small but beautiful, tunneled into the side of the hill. However, I was not the only one with power problems. The storm last night not only broke hundreds of branches off trees in the Eastend area, it also had 12 lightening strikes on power poles and so when we arrived at 3:00 in the afternoon, there'd been no electricity since 11pm the night before. The town was basically closed. The dinosaur museum was open with tours being conducted by flashlight. For lunch we went into the town of Shaunavan to a cool little diner that is one of those dreamt of places, the well maintained old diner that is retro without trying and still has low prices! While there, we also popped into the town's museum/art gallery where we saw a stuffed albino baby chick with four legs, preserved under a glass dome since 1903.