satellite images

I'd swear it was just a few months ago that I saved a satellite photo of my house. I want one of my town, though, and I can't find one that doesn't have a website's name stamped all over it. Google Maps doesn't have a decent picture of my area. I thought Mapquest did sat photos, but I can't find them. Terraserver won't let you save anything.

Anyone have any suggestions?

covered in ash - the fireworks

This year, the wind was blowing towards our customary fireworks viewing area. The spot is already rather close to the launching spot, so we had a lot of ash fall on us. There were a few glowing bits of shell that landed near us. One hunk of charred paper got in Cyn's eye. We almost had to get water to wash it out.

The works were beautiful, as usual. There were a few types I hadn't seen before. Some seemed to last longer than in previous years' shows, like the really huge ones, that left showers of orange sparks that drifted over our heads (and sent our friend Pat under a tree in refuge). There were some that created a swarm of green flares, that very slowly drifted towards the ground. There was one type that dropped a shower of orange sparks from on high, and they too, drifted slowly down, but in cascading, vertical lines. The smiley faces were popular this year. During the grand finale the fireworks were so thick that the boomers were lighting up the smoke from the inside, like a thunderhead. I love the ones that do a change-up. They'll send out two rings of red and blue flares, and then send out trails of silver sparks that flash at their ends.

I hear that Grafton's fireworks are ranked number three in the state.