It’s been a busy week.
Posts in: move
Goodbye, tiny apartment.
After six years on a shelf, my old Olivetti has a room of its own.
We just moved into our house.
We just bought a house.
First and last afternoons.
1 July 2011 at 1:30pm:
30 March 2016 at 2:35pm:
Up
I’ve been curious why, when people here on the coast say they are travelling to Portland, that they are going “up to Portland.” Because I am over-educated and under-employed, I’ve had a lot of time to think about this curious figure of speech. On a map, Portland is very clearly southeast of Clatsop County. Like it or not, speakers of English speak of north as up, and south down. So why not say “down to Portland”?
Daylight
What time is it, really? Our laptops, checking in with the atomic clock, updated their times automagically. So when I looked at the bedside clock, it should have been an hour later than the computers.
But they were the same. Had the bedside clock synchronized itself, too? Apparently. What a world.
By the end of the day, we will have set our clocks back twice: once for daylight saving time, and once for passing from Mountain to Pacific. Won’t shorten the miles, however.
Starlight
As we leave the urban sprawls behind us in the east, the sky is once again a fact rather than an implication.
I have been delighted and relieved to see Venus as the morning star most mornings this week. And at night, there are more than about sixteen stars visible. Actual constellations, rather than broad asterisms. I have been able to keep track of the Moon’s phase without the use of a widget on my computer.
I may even be able to get my telescope out after six long years, dust it off, and look again at the icecaps on Mars, at Jupiter’s moons, at Saturn’s ears…