56 degrees F Thunderstorms Wind 5mph NE
Sunrise 5:52 am CDT Sunset 8:26 pm CDT
We are right now under severe thunderstorm warnings through tomorrow night.
Even though it is not storming right now here at the lake, there are storms all around us. And there is non-stop lightning all around. We don't need any more of that!
Let me give you something humorous to visualize in all of this.
Last night I got a call from FedEx saying they had a package they were going to deliver before 10:30 am today and asking me if I was going to be home to sign for it. I assured them I was going no place!
About 9:30 this morning I heard a truck. When I looked out the window, the FedEx truck was parked at the end of my driveway and the FedEx man was literally running up to the house carrying a big box! He rang the doorbell and immediately pounded on the door. He handed me the package and said I needed to sign for it.
As soon as I signed, he actually went on a full out run back to his truck.
Before he even got back out to his truck, a UPS truck pulled up right behind him.
And a UPS driver came on a full run carrying another box!
Almost as if FedEx and UPS were in a race to see who could get the new equipment here first.
It was humorous to watch to say the least.
But here was a new camera from New York City and some other equipment from Memphis, TN. It was one more reminder of how many people from across the country that it takes to make the LoonCam work!
We spent the rest of the day hooking up the new equipment and going through other debugs.
I am happy to say as of tonight, the camera is working!
We are not live yet but at least we are almost back to where we were a couple weeks ago.
Apparently Broadband has to still do some stuff to download and replace some software before they are able to upload the video from the camera. And do some other tweaking with the sound and other things. It is amazing what a simple "little" bolt of lightning can do.
Last night one of the next door neighbors saw me out working in the garden and he came over and asked when the camera was going to go live. I told him some of the challenges that we had been faced with. And that apparently there had been a lightning strike when I was out of town for a couple days last week.
Immediately he said, "I know exactly when that happened!"
One night during one of the storms, he said the whole inside of their house lit up and there was a HUGE boom of thunder. He said there was no delay between the light and the thunder.
He said the dogs hit the ceiling and went wild.
Because there was no delay between the flash of lightning and the thunder, he knew that it had struck very close.
So that confirms what we thought had happened.
Now to the loons!
At 6:40 this morning the loons came to the nest and one of them got up on the nest for about 5 minutes.
That is the only time I have seen them near the nest today - until I was out mounting the new camera on the nest. After I had been working on it for about half an hour, the saw me from wherever they were on the lake and swam in to see what I was doing.
I immediately left (I would have to finish some of the other stuff later) and they swam away after I left, without coming up to the nest, apparently comfortable that I was no danger to them or their nest.
It is a good sign that they are keeping an eye on the nest and visiting it once in a while and showing ownership of it.
Fortunately so far you have not been missing any of the action. I apologize that we have been faced with such challenges this year. And we are working hard to get it up and running. Anthony from Broadband has been home with the flu all week and yet he spent hours on the phone with me today as we worked through all the issues of hooking up new equipment. Truly going way beyond the call of duty to bring the LoonCam to you. THANK YOU, Anthony!
Hopefully you will be able to see it very soon. They are working hard on it.
Comments or Questions? LoonCam@yahoo.com I will still try to send everyone an email notification of when we are actually live with the cam. If you want a notification, send your email and I will try to notify everyone.
Copyright 2014 Larry R Backlund