Vic Socotra

21 December 2010

A Total Eclipse of the Moon

Thank God, the long slide into darkness is arrested. We begin to make some progress into the light again, now that the Solstice has arrived. There is a lot to be thankful for. No war in Korea, for one, and the puzzled Persians are going to have to scrap their computers and replace all the centrifuges on their nuclear program.

The underwear bomber only blow off his genitals over Detroit. The Times Square and Stockhom bombers got it wrong.

Some things are going right in the wide world, and that is best when some things go wrong.

We were at Willow last night, not a surprise, but a great and impromptu group went at it with holiday gusto. Old Jim was not anchoring the bar, which made me a little sad. Family stuff in Ohio, I think, but this is a special night for him.

By my count, it is the night that is the longest. He is quick to remind me that the sun has gone down a little earlier for the past five days, and it is the dawn that is later. Something to do with the wobbling inclination of the poles or something, and he was quite adamant about the matter.

I suspect he was won many a bar-bet on the matter down through the years, and it is just another case of all of us being wrong and him being right. I am always happy to learn new stuff.

I did not get up in the night to catch the rare event that marked the precision of the heavens. As Tuesday arrived in Arlington, the orbital planes aligned in the vastness.
The bulk of the earth on which I dozed prevented the vast burning bulk of Old Sol from reaching the silver silence of the surface of the Moon.

A total lunar eclipse, the first to coincide with the Solstice in three hundred and seventy-two years.

The heart of the event occurred at 3:16 EST, which coincided with a brief moment of consciousness. It was happening right outside the windows at Big Pink, if I had thought to look out the tall single-pained glass. The sky was cloudless and crystalline.

They say it was not dark, but a rich copper color, which makes me think of the taste of blood.

Missed it.

The next one won’t happen, according to those who know these things, until 2094. Thus, it is safe to say that it was a one in a lifetime experience.

I wish I had gotten up for it.