Here we go again

The Weather Widget is glowing Advisory! and we’re in for it again. Might as well pull some bright bits and pieces out of the post pantry while the Writing Studio and Bait Shop sinks to its icicles in a black and white world.

That cheerful offer appeared on the side of US-31 a couple of weeks ago. Then we had a thaw. Then we had a couple of really beautiful days. That probably made the Free Snow folks happy, but it sent the DN North American Championship Ice-boat Regatta off to Wisconsin in search of better ice. Babs and I were over at Torch Lake watching them pack up. So here’s a picture of Babs at work.

Until I started walking Miss Sadie at dawn, I paid little attention to all the activity in the sky. Gradually I began to notice that the moon moved around more than the sun did, and sometimes disappeared altogether. Hmm. One morning we headed down to the beach and stood rooted. The biggest full moon I’ve ever seen was setting to the west over Grand Traverse Bay just as the sun rose over Torch Lake to the east.  The sky glowed.  Wispy scarves of cloud trailed across the moon face. The bay was shimmering silk, and everywhere, everywhere, were reflections of silver moon and pale pink clouds and blue water. Oh my. Thank you for this day.

Months later I mentioned the experience to Dad, and he googled about on the ‘net exploring the subject. He told me it probably occurred in mid-March, because that was when the solunar tables showed the full moon setting at sunrise in this part of the world in that particular year. The what tables?  Hunters and fishers who are skilled, rather than dumblucky like me, know all about hunting/fishing solunar tables. Then I found them on the weather page of the Traverse City Record-Eagle, hiding in all those graphics about the next big storm due to come at us across Big Blue. Now I keep an eye on them, because someday I want to see that particular moonset/sunrise vision again. February 9 looked like a good bet, but Mama Nature was being a crankypants and hid most of the glory in thick clouds. Here’s the best we could do this month. I’m holding a good thought for March.