Large Moon Hanging

Driving back from walking Lucy, the Wonder Dog (you wonder if she thinks at all) I enjoyed a very large and yellow moon slightly above the horizon. I knew that the Full Moon was within the next day or so, and looked up the data when I got home. Full Moon is officially at 3:59 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on July 18. So the moon tonight is pretty much full.

I enjoyed the look I had at this Thunder Moon, as the web site Earth and Sky calls it, after the Native American name for the July Full Moon.

I have developed an interest late in life for the great wheel of heaven and its perambulation about the universe. It is salutary to keep in mind that we are all part of a complex web of life and planets and the illimitable spaces of the universe. We are all very small beer, after all.

My Saturday Night

A funny thing happened to the quiet night we planned last night. We were sitting on my Beloved’s couch as I watched Boston play Cleveland, and she read her book, when a series of odd noises from outside got my attention. A couple of beeps like a auto horn, a “whump” like something hitting the ground. I got up to investigate, and looking off the deck saw my car in flames in the driveway.

A little over an hour later, the fire department crews of three trucks departed, having extinguished the blaze with admirable efficiency. Those men and women earn their pay, and then some. My car had been parked for maybe twenty minutes when something ignited it. I may never know exactly what caused the fire.

Now for the grind of insurance claims, clean up of the driveway, temporary transportation and finding another vehicle with whatever the insurance claim yields. I could have done without this ordeal. Fortunately, the fire did not start in the middle of the night, when we were asleep. Even more fortunately, there was no wind last night, or the house might have caught fire as well. As it was, my Beloved’s little car was singed and will need repair. It is still drivable, so that is a small mercy.

The greatest mercy is that our previous plans to keep the grandchildren overnight were changed. I can’t really contemplate what might have happened if that had been the case. I do not want to do so. I am glad they were safe with other grandparents.

Thank the merciful Lord.