Snow and Track Meets

Ok, so it's not really snowing, but it LOOKS like it is. This is cotton from cottonwood trees and it is completely evil. This stuff blows everywhere and it has been so warm for the last week and a half that it is stacked up on the roofs and in every nook and cranny. It really looks like snow. I am pretty allergic to it though, so that's fun. In the picture below, that is all cottonwood on the ground.

It's on the roof as well....like I said, it totally looks like snow.

Here's a closeup of the little buggers.

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One of the things I do to make a little extra cash is work after school sports events. Last year I was trained how to use a computer system for track that takes pictures at the finish line. It is, quite literally, a photo finish system. There is a special camera that can take anywhere between 200 and 1000 pictures a second. It puts these very narrow pictures together to form a picture of the finish line at the time people cross it, so we can get very exact times.

The other guy who runs the photo system and I were hired by a local youth running club to work the timing system for their invitational track meet. I was pretty nervous about it for lots of reasons, but it went great. I have decided that little kid track meets are the AWESOMEST!!!! Those kids are better trained than the high school track kids at the meets we run at home, and the meet was run incredibly well. They seemed to be impressed with us as well, and apparently some of the other groups there asked about hiring us also.

So, despite the fact that I got sunburned on my right side only, it was a great day, I made a little extra money, and I spent the day doing something new - and better yet, doing it successfully.

Now if only I was this motivated to grade papers.