I Sea Green

Hi All!

I had a scary few minutes last Sunday. With snow in the forecast and a build-up of stuff to burn in our fire pit, I thought it timely to make a bonfire of mostly wood and cardboard -- lots of cardboard.

I love making bonfires and this was a doozy. With the cold, frozen ground and trees around and little wind, it was a safe fire. The coming snow provided a greater comfort level. We buried our overhead utility lines years ago or they would have been singed by this baby.

As I was tossing another big box on the conflagration, there was a big, white-hot flare up that almost singed my beard and temporarily blinded me.

When I backed away, I was amazed that the fire had turned completely bright sea-green. My first assumption was that the ink used on a box was burning that color, but it didn't make sense that the whole fire was perfectly green. I turned toward the house and all the lit windows were green. I looked across the yard to my neighbors houses which all had green windows.

I went inside the garage and the florescent lights were green as was everything else. Another weird thought occurred to me -- what if I can't enjoy my new HDTV? Disbelief started morphing to mild panic, as it had been a minute or two and the natural colors had not returned.

Soon it seemed to be getting better so I went back outside. The fire and lights in the windows were as green as ever.

It took about 10 minutes to get my sight working properly again and I breathed a sigh of relief.

Tried to google the phenomenon but have found nothing about it -- the flash must have short circuited the color receptors in my eyes, except for green.

Scary.

Cheers!

And no, I wasn't on acid!