LIGHTS OUT

The moon rose over the mountain last night already partially eclipsed.

People gathered by the edge of "the Savannah", as SWMBO calls it, to watch the passage of the Earth across the moon's surface.

One of our neighbors, Rick, and I contemplated that since the Earth was causing the shadow on the face of the moon and we were on the Earth, we should be able to wave our hands in the air and see it on the moon's surface.

But Rick explained to me that the distance from us to the moon being 238,900 miles would probably prevent that.

So we just stood and watched the progression and chatted about other things.

SWMBO reminded us of the total solar eclipse we experienced when we lived in Mexico and how the turkeys at a house down the street flew up into the trees and roosted when the sky grew dark.

And how our yard boy at the time arrived a day or two before and tied red cloth to a branch in each of the many fruit trees in our yard. He said it would prevent the fruit from falling when the eclipse occurred.

Well, a silly superstition, you say?

As SWMBO responds "Maybe so but we didn't lose a single mango, avocado, orange or grapefruit!"