September 21. 2009 by Dick.

Today is the last day of summer here in North Puffin.

[sigh]

Since the rotation axis of the Earth is almost perpendicular to its orbital plane, today is the last day in which we have more light than dark. An equinox occurs twice a year when the constant tilt of the Earth’s axis aligns the Sun vertically above the Equator. In the coming winter months the Earth’s axis will incline farther and farther away from the Sun and we will gladly entertain thoughts of Global Warming as we stoke the wood stove in a vain attempt at Local Warming.

Schizophrenic weather.

Pretty cool here this morning at 48̊ outside and 60̊ in the bathroom when I arose. On the other hand, it is sunny and mild with the thermometer headed perhaps for the upper 70s. That means an afternoon for shorts and sandals bracketed by flannels morning and night. Not cold enough to start the wood stove. Too cold not to. My fingers and my bald head got colder just typing that.

I need a sale on toques.

Last night I sat on the deck looking out over the Lake. A couple of errant ducks paddled around thinking duck-like thoughts and a lone fisherman cast his line occasionally from a boat drifting in the shallows. The late afternoon sun continued to warm me after a couple of hours of yard work. The deck offered an oasis for an adult beverage, a bowl of peanuts, and the final chapters of Wicked Prey, John Sandford’s latest beach book set against the Republican convention last year in Minnesnowta. The sunset painted the sky as character Letty West returned to school with her new name.

The lush, kaleidoscopic foliage display will start soon. Some of the brain dead locust leaves here in North Puffin began dropping in July but our canopy will stay mostly green for another week or maybe tow. As a photographer, I will celebrate and luxuriate in the colors of our hills and valleys but I will miss the long days of summer.

People ask, this time of year, “What’s your favorite season?” Fall is grand for its colors. Winter brings quiet solitude and peace. Spring signals rebirth. Me, I like Daylight Savings Time.

Some pan Daylight Savings as an artificial construct but I find it more comfortable to have that extra hour of daylight during my waking hours. In fact, I believe … I believe … I believe we should insist that Congress prescribe an extra hour of daylight in every day, winter and summer, spring and fall. Congress believes it can legislate human behavior; why not change some natural law, too.

Today is the last day in which we have more light than dark. I hope that is not a metaphor for the political dark ages now approaching.

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April 5. 2009 by Dick.

Sort of…

It was 80 degrees and 80 percent at 8 o’clock ante meridiem with both the thermometer and the hygrometer headed for the high 80s here in Paradise. I’ve managed to avoid firing up the air conditioning although that is getting more difficult; the house temp is reasonable even during the heat of the afternoon but the humidity keeps on climbing.

It is only sort of grand and glorious because at 2 o’clock this ayem all the older clocks with Daylight Savings Time settings and all un-updated computer systems thought the Eastern Time Zone, the Central Time Zone, the Mountain Time Zone, and the Western Time Zone should lose an hour of sleep. That is exactly what my clock radio did. I could not imagine why the radio was blaring at seven o’clock on a Sunday morning.

I like Daylight Savings Time.

I do not like getting blasted out of bed at seven o’clock on a Sunday morning.

New Zealand entomologist George Vernon Hudson first proposed changing the clocks forward and back to take better advantage of late afternoon sunlight in 1895. The U.S. House of Representatives considered “saving” daylight in 1909, but that initial effort died in committee. Germany wanted to conserve coal during WWI and imposed the first nationwide Daylight Savings Time in 1916. The U.S. established it in 1918 as a direct result of the Great War; Congress repealed DST just a year later but put it back in place for WWII. Peacetime DST began here in 1966.

I have now reset the clock radio.

Thanks to the U.S. Congress, I’ll have to do that four times this year instead of two and I won’t be sure which devices will set themselves correctly, which still think it is 1967 when the federal Uniform Time Act became effective. I do know the ones that don’t screw up; they’re the ones with counterweights or springs and a winding key.

I like Daylight Savings Time. It would be better if we simply stayed on it.

Posted in Seasonal, Society, Random Access | 2 Comments »

December 25. 2008 by Dick.

In Charlotte, Vermont, a school got hammered to take down its candy cane decorations because a grinch there says they have an overt Christmas message. CANDY CANES! The Menorah probably stayed up, though.

Every radio station has defaulted to Christmas music. I’m surprised we haven’t lost that, too. I don’t particularly like Christmas music but my radio has an off switch. I don’t have to listen to it if I don’t want to.

I was raised in a family that was Quaker on one side, Presbyterian on the other. I may not be as organized now as I was when I reached the age of accountability and joined the Presbyterian church but I am still a Christian. And, of course, a WASP.

You don’t have to be either.

Today is the day Christians celebrate the birth of the Christ child and the meaning of Christianity. It was a pretty big day before the stock exchange took it over.

It doesn’t mean Do unto all the other religions, then cut out.

Here’s the thing. If you offer food to the monks on Vesak, Buddha’s Birthday, I will honor your commitment to the poor. If you celebrate Diwali, the Festival of Lights, I will honor with you the victory of Lord Ram over the demon-king Ravana. If you fast during Ramadan when the Qur’an was revealed to Mohammad, I will honor your patience and humility. If you celebrate the most solemn and important of Jewish holidays, Yom Kippur, I will honor your atonement and repentance. If you light the candles of Kwanzaa, I will help you honor your heritage. And if you are a lib’rul atheist, I will not proselytize.

That maybe the most important message.

You don’t have to be a Buddhist, a Christian, a Hindu, Islamic, a Jew, a Kwanzaan celebrant, or an atheist; I have no expectation that you should. It is time, on this Christian holy day, to let Christians be Christians.

My right to impose my own beliefs stops at my property line (or the end of my nose when I’m out in public). The Charlotte, Vermont, grinch’s right to his own idiocy stops at pretty much the same place. It is time to stop accepting that “politically correct” credo and start honoring the true message of Christmas.

Scythian philosopher Anacharsis wrote in the 6th century BCE, “Wise men argue causes, and fools decide them.”

Peace.

Posted in Seasonal, Society, PC, Big Thoughts, Random Access | 3 Comments »