Monday, January 29, 2007

Gale Force Winds

I did a pretty good job of capturing the sights and sounds of gale force winds blowing through the trees and palms without getting the horrible sound caused by the wind when it hits the tiny microphone on my tiny camera by standing on the protected side of the house.

While waiting for this video to upload I heard a loud noise from something blowing over.

( There is a definite downgrade in image quality in the YouTube format. Why is that? On my Kodak Viewer it is clear as can be.)



I went outside to see what it was and saw that my neighbor's Hideous Plastic House including the truck camper shell top suspended from the rafters had blown over the fence and into my yard. He was home doing lots of remodeling work and we took it apart and had it out of there in five minutes with no damage really to the plants.















My little Slice of the Sky just got a teensy bit better. Praise be to the Gods of Wind.

3 comments:

Annie in Austin said...

Score one for the wind gods - maybe the neighbors won't get around to putting it back up for awhile.
Do you think the action in the film takes more resolution? I've noticed some YouTube music videos are really choppy looking when the singer is dancing.

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

Anonymous said...

A "Gale" or a "Strong Gale" is really something to experience. As a sailor, I've been caught in a few on a sailboat. Each experience would have been terrifying if they weren't so... well... EXCITING. You may lose your boat at any minute (and therefore, in cold Lake Michigan, your life) but all focus and energy is directed at harnessing the wind and surviving the fury. It is a magnificent experience (if one lives).

If I sound wistful about it, as peculiar as it sounds, I am. Not that I actually LOOK FORWARD to the next one. But, when my time comes, I want to go out as an old sunburned man fighting a strong gale on a singlehanded boat. You know, "Do not go gently into that good night" and all that stuff.

It must have been something on the shore. It is interesting that you reconnect us with the sea. The Hawaii in my mind has, of late (beacuse of you) become a gardening place and not an ocean place.

"Gale Force Winds"... I've writen about the Beaufort system of wind ratings (Gale, Storm, Freshening Breeze), if you are interested.

Christopher C. NC said...

My neighbor said he was not going to put it back up, it was on his list of things to do to take it down. Hooray!

As a video viewer I would not be impressed to see the crappy quality of the videos I posted. Your resolution comment got me searching since my camera came with a very terse owners manual. Via YouTube's guidelines and Kodak's main site for my camera number I found my resolution is set too high.

My camera can be set to a lower 320x240 pixel size for taking video that Youtube says works best on their site. I will have to do some experimenting. I will be very happy if these videos look better. It is still majorly windy today.

A notch down from the Gale Force Winds which can be EXCITING I suppose because it is such a strong force. They make me very cranky though.

I'll have to check out your wind rating Hank to see if there is a difference between a freshening breeze and a foul wind.