In any case, these are issues only for the astronomical record books. This month's full Moon won't look dramatically brighter than normal. Most people won't notice a thing, despite the e-mail chain letter that implies we'll see something amazing. Nope. Grinch was wrong. Well we always want to be agreeable as possible here on Paddlewise but I just got out of the car after driving south from Portland, Oregon 70 miles into the Willamette valley on I-5. The moon was *spectacular*! Perhaps this happens all the time and we miss it. Too bad. Also just at sunset the moon was already up perhaps 30 minutes and close to the horizon and therefore looked larger. The pink-rose glow of the thin clouds framed the moon perfectly; the same color washed Mt. Hood 20 degrees east. I was standing in a parking lot of a shopping mall with my 8 year old daughter. As we stared foolishly grinning at these twin scenic beauties Annie (the kid) noticed that unlike our semi-mesmerized selves many people were hunkered down in cars attending to nothing more than the hubbub of shopping schedules and the local traffic jam. Annie said we should run out an tell them all: "Get out of your cars and look at the Moon! See the mountain!" I was a wonderful scene. We didn't of course. But she was right. Don't believe the grinch. If this is not the best moon in a century then at least it is a grand moment too enjoy. That's good enough. Happy solstice to all, And remember, moon baths taken regularly will make your brain strong and your muscles nimble. Or so the kids say. And I listen. Rich -- Richard G. Mitchell, Jr. Oregon State University Department of Sociology Corvallis, OR 97331 (541) 752-1323 phone/fax mitchelr_at_ucs.orst.edu *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Dec 21 1999 - 22:57:02 PST
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:30:18 PDT