Looking Up

I listened to the rain pound on the concrete decking of my yard. A lunar eclipse seemed out of the question when I went to bed. I rose at 2:38 am needing to pee. I almost didn’t bother to peek outside. I expected a thick layer of clouds, but I found the moon dancing behind a breaking layer. A few minutes later the skies cleared and I stayed up for a show.

I’m no astronomer so to me an eclipse is an eclipse. Okay, I get solar and lunar, but not so much the concept of umbra and penumbra. The difference is way cool and not so cool to the point of “should have stayed in bed”.

Back in New York it is 9:06 am, time to call the electrician, or maybe the heat and air guys or the fire department. Apartment number 3 smells smoke and hears cracking noises from the fuse box. JMJ. Here in Hawaii, the moon is just beginning to dull, as if some weak shadow is falling over it. Hey, that is what an eclipse is all about. It’s 4:09 am. The early morning hours have made me hungry. Dad is sleeping. I wish I knew how to shoot the moon with my camera. Just one big ball of blinding white light.

While I wait for something spectacular to occur, I wait on the tenant to call me back. Lost phone last month so I lost the electrician's phone number. Haven’t paid him yet for last visit in January because I left town for Hawaii and the bill is most likely sitting in Dad’s mail box. I’m darn close to becoming a deadbeat.

The peak of the event is at 4:39 am. I’m ready to crawl back onto my mattress laid out on the floor in my office. Dad’s got my bed. It’s okay. I sleep about as good as I normally sleep which isn’t good.

I feel like I need to write one of those “catch everybody up on everything that has happened” Christmas newsletters. No blogs since mid-January.

If four seasons of Lost can be covered in 4 minutes (see abc.com) I should be able to wrap up 30 days in a sentence. After subzero temperatures and enough snow to pile it over seven feet high at the end of Dad’s driveway I escaped to Hawaii. Ta-Da.

Well, the northern half of the moon is a bit darker than the lower half. I think that is the show. No stark contrasting disk falling over the light. Just a grayish foggy look. Penumbra. Remember that. If I had not known, I’d miss it. Geez, I even hear a rooster crowing. God, I hope my place isn’t burning down.