Shelley has arrived safely from LA, and although tired, helped us out in the field today. After picking her up and airport and running some errands in town, I shuttled some people around in a car, then went to Glaumbaer and spent the afternoon photographing all of the trenches that we had dug and profiled there.

Before taking the photos, each trench had to be cleaned so that it looked nice. To do this, we take a sharp trowel and scrape the sides of each trench in order to bring out the different colors of the strata, so that they show up well. We do this when we draw them too, but after a few days of exposure to wind and rain they lose their color and blend together.

We took regular photos and digital ones, under a variety of exposures, with and without flash, in order to obtain a range of results for our records. The photos will complement the drawings and notes that we have taken about each trench and will serve as reminders if we need to refresh our memories about what we dug into.

In the evening we attended an end-of-summer celebration put on by the college. Each department put on a little skit or song or other form of entertainment during dinner, which consisted of roast lamb chops, side dishes and ice cream. Our crew, playing off of John's remarkable resemblence to one of the Village People, did a little dance to a downloaded copy of YMCA played through a portable Macintosh. It lasted only 45 seconds, but we had fun and got a good round of applause. (No, pictures are NOT available!)

So that was today.

But let me talk about last night. Brian and I came up to the computer lab to do some work around 11:00 pm last night, after dinner at Glaumbaer. We left the lab about 2:00 am, but the late night turned out to be worth it. We saw the aurora borealis! What beauty! Extremely cool.

In this case we saw numerous ribbons of a pale green light fading in and out, twisting sinuously across the night sky. The sun was starting to rise in the northeast, however we were on a dark road and stopped the car just at the right time to open the sunroof and look straight up as the aurora burst into shimmering green and violet and spread out in a starburst.

Truly memorable, for my first sighting. I don't know whether the weather will cooperate like last night with a clear sky, or whether we will have the fortitude to get up or stay up to see them again, but if you ever get the chance to see them, take it.