Be still my heart!

I finally broke down and bought a camera made in this century! It's an Olympus Pen E-PL2 with a micro four thirds, 12 megapixel sensor and a 14-42mm kit lens. That's equivalent to 28-84mm in a 35mm format. The maximum aperture is f3.5 at 14mm and it stops down to f22. This camera does everything a DSLR can do, but it's a smaller, lighter package. Still, with the kit lens attached it's not exactly pocketable, but that will change when I get a 17mm prime lens that's much shorter.

This is an HDR image of a storm front that came through yesterday afternoon. Oddly enough, it came from the northeast, when most storms approach from the west. Just after I took this, the gust front hit and temperatures dropped about 15 degrees in a matter of seconds. While we've had some much needed rain this week, this storm didn't drop any more water on us.

I worked today, another overtime shift that started at 4AM. At the end of it, I was exhausted, so I took the quick route home along US169. It's a limited access, four-lane highway. The road has the usual wide shoulder strewn with debris. In Oklahoma, it's legal to ride there, but it's not very pleasant.

As I approached the bridge over Bird Creek, a bicyclist was traveling north. She had just left the on-ramp and was riding on the shoulder. But at the bridge the shoulder almost disappears. It narrows to no more than 18 inches. I changed lanes before overtaking, but as I looked in my rear view, she was riding the perilously narrow shoulder as other traffic went by at 65-70mph without moving to the left at all. It would be nerve-wracking for me to attempt to ride there. Still, I have to admire her determination.