Climbing the Third Stair

Yes, it's been awhile. I've been writing story-stuff and trying to remodel my production schedule at work while being understaffed and dealing with other managerial stuff. But that's not important now. What is important is that last week much of the world was treated to the sight of a total lunar eclipse, and I got to see it. I almost didn't, because though I knew about it I spent most of Wednesday night trying to finish off a story that HAD TO GET DONE and had been resisting efforts to get done for some time.

So, anyway, I was sitting in my chair slaving over a hot laptop when my phone rang. I didn't get up to answer it because over the years I've slid into the habit of letting my machine screen my calls, but when I heard mbf Karin's voice I jumped up (after carefully removing the laptop), tripped out of the blanket around my legs, hurtled into the bed room and grabbed the phone. Karin and Ami call from time to time to chat, but rarely on weeknights, so something had to be happening to prompt her call now.

"Nancy!" she exclaimed. "Have you seen the eclipse?" "Not yet," I said. "I'm writing and I was going to finish this scene off first." "GO NOW!" Karin said. "It's in totality!" "I'm hanging up now and putting on my shoes," I said. I put on my shoes and coat reflecting on how lucky I was to have friends like that.

The moon looked like a sepia photograph of itself. It ranged in color from smoky-quartz in the upper left quadrant to ivory in the lower right. Later when I checked the NASA website on the eclipse I found that this was caused by the fact that parts of the moon were much deeper into the earth's shadow, which I thought was very cool.

I admired the moon for as long as I could take the cold and then I went back in to write. I went back out just after totality had ended and saw something breathtaking: most of the moon was still dark, but one edge was now a bright, eye-searing silver. It made me wish I could paint, though even that would probably not be enough to do it justice.

There will not be another lunar eclipse for several years. I need to remember to call Karin when it approaches, to return her kindness.

I woke up this morning to the sound of rain and my alarm clock. I had set it for an early hour because this was the first week of the Farmer's Market down at the Haymarket and I was, as always, looking forward to fresh, juicy radishes. I turned my alarm clock off and went back to bed because while I'm willing to get up early on a Saturday morning for fresh vegetables I draw the line at getting rained on. So I drowsed/slept for a few extra hours, savoring the sound of the rain and thunder that came through my bedroom window--lying in bed and listening to thunder has always been one of my favorite things.

I finally got up and got my shower, and by then it was 8 o'clock, the official start time of the Farmer's Market. The rain was then coming down hard, so hard the air had turned grayish. At this rate it feels like I'm never going to get my garden in the back yard going! It stopped raining during the middle of the day and we even had some sunshine, but it's getting dark and thundery again.

I checked the National Weather Service website, which had this cheery bit of news:

The NWS Storm Prediction Center is forecasting the development of a few strong tornadoes over parts of the central plains Saturday afternoon and Saturday night. The areas most likely to experience this activity include central Kansas and central Nebraska. Strong tornadoes, very large hail, and damaging winds will likely be observed.

Just what I want to hear on the anniversary of the May 1975 Omaha Tornado!

It's somewhat depressing to realize that I have no working flashlights or portable radios in the house atm. Since I stopped going camping with the Girl Scouts, I have no reminders to buy batteries. Maybe, having written it here, I'll remember this week. In the meantime I should hurry along the fic I'm writing--if the tornado sirens go off, I probably won't stop to grab my computer on the way to the basement.

I walked to the bus stop this morning when dawn was in the eastern sky but the sun had yet to make an appearance. The moon was full and still high in the west, and a little ways to the left of it was a bright star--so bright it had to be a planet. There was another bright star in the south-east, and I guessed it was a planet also.

When I got to work I did a websearch for star maps, and found a really nice-looking one that needed my latitude and longitude (which, sadly, I do not have memorized), and this one at Weather Underground that needed my zip code (which I do have memorized).

Checking the dawn sky with this map has left me with a mystery, as the south-western star appears to be Jupiter, but there doesn't seem to be any planets where the south-eastern star was. It might be Altair, but that doesn't seem right. The game's afoot! I need to look up my lat and long, and do some more map-hunting.