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Everyone in the West.
Dec. 1st, 2002 05:02 amGo outdoors now! Look at the moon! Look at Venus!
Dec. 1st, 2002
Conjunction
Dec. 1st, 2002 07:06 amAgain the night had turned cold. The warm breezes of the last few nights had been stilled, and the hush lying over the forest was as deep as the darkness. When Venus and the moon first rose, and hung for a while in the bare branches of the oaks, they were blurred by thin clouds. Above them, stars glittered in clear sky. I watched the smiling crescent and its companion swing free of the tangling twigs and float through the layer of clouds and into the clarity. The part of the moon not illuminated by sunlight glowed with earthshine. Even in such close proximity to the moon, Venus was very bright. But, a little way above it, Mars was a dim, reddish pinpoint, unable to compete with its flamboyant sister planet.
Overhead, a few patches of cloud picked up the glow of moonlight, and in the west, they were thick enough to obscure all but the brightest stars. But Venus and the moon continued to shed their steady, white light as the clear sky gradually shaded from black to deep blue. The stars around them faded and vanished, and a red glow came into the clouds through which they had passed earlier. The pines emerged from darkness and a soft morning breeze began to blow, and the first songbirds chirped. The full orb of the moon vanished in the brightening sky, leaving only the shining crescent, and Venus seemed to grow smaller, yet brighter than its larger and nearer companion. I don't know for how long it will remain visible, and I won't be staying up to see it vanish. I know that the pale moon will probably outlast it. I know that, unseen, Venus will still be there, passing overhead as I sleep. The thought pleases me.
Overhead, a few patches of cloud picked up the glow of moonlight, and in the west, they were thick enough to obscure all but the brightest stars. But Venus and the moon continued to shed their steady, white light as the clear sky gradually shaded from black to deep blue. The stars around them faded and vanished, and a red glow came into the clouds through which they had passed earlier. The pines emerged from darkness and a soft morning breeze began to blow, and the first songbirds chirped. The full orb of the moon vanished in the brightening sky, leaving only the shining crescent, and Venus seemed to grow smaller, yet brighter than its larger and nearer companion. I don't know for how long it will remain visible, and I won't be staying up to see it vanish. I know that the pale moon will probably outlast it. I know that, unseen, Venus will still be there, passing overhead as I sleep. The thought pleases me.
I know that December takes its name from the fact that it was the tenth month of the early Roman calendar, but the name always reminds me of descending. This is the time of long nights, when we slip down into the bottom of the year, and begin the climb back up from those cold and murky depths, toward the light of spring. December is not my favorite month. The coming winter may be cold, but at least, then, the days will be growing longer again. Now, in the abbreviated evenings, I grow impatient for the solstice to arrive, and the new year. The best of autumn has passed, and I can only look forward to the first green of spring, and the scent of spurge laurel on the warming air.
My doltishness has reached a new level.
A few months ago, I finally got the Windows Clipboard working, and began using it for all sorts of things. However, I found that when I saved a file, I was unable to delete it later. Files began piling up, and I was having a hard time finding the ones I wanted amid all the detritus I was unable to delete.
Then I found this web site where I could ask a question, and people who actually knew something about computers would answer it. I asked how to delete the junk from the clipboard. Within a couple of days, I got three answers. One of them worked very well. I'm pretty sure I wrote the instructions down, and bookmarked the page. Naturally, I promptly forgot how the deleting was done. Tonight I went looking for the paper with the instructions. I can't find it. I decided to go back to the page at the web site, but I can't find the URL among my bookmarks. I have forgotten the name of the web site!
I must face the truth. I am not meant to operate a computer. I have no business operating a computer. And, I am obviously developing Alzheimer's. I am now going to go watch television, and fry some more brain cells. They'll all be useless, soon, anyway.
A few months ago, I finally got the Windows Clipboard working, and began using it for all sorts of things. However, I found that when I saved a file, I was unable to delete it later. Files began piling up, and I was having a hard time finding the ones I wanted amid all the detritus I was unable to delete.
Then I found this web site where I could ask a question, and people who actually knew something about computers would answer it. I asked how to delete the junk from the clipboard. Within a couple of days, I got three answers. One of them worked very well. I'm pretty sure I wrote the instructions down, and bookmarked the page. Naturally, I promptly forgot how the deleting was done. Tonight I went looking for the paper with the instructions. I can't find it. I decided to go back to the page at the web site, but I can't find the URL among my bookmarks. I have forgotten the name of the web site!
I must face the truth. I am not meant to operate a computer. I have no business operating a computer. And, I am obviously developing Alzheimer's. I am now going to go watch television, and fry some more brain cells. They'll all be useless, soon, anyway.