Autumn

Ahh, Autumn. The autumnal equinox, equal days and nights. The start of Fall here, the start of Spring down under. The sun moves directly over the equator at noon today on its annual path through the seasons from the Northern to the Southern hemisphere.

Of course, it's not the sun doing the actual moving through the seasons; it's Earth sailing smoothly along its elliptical orbit around the sun, tilted just enough to present different hemispheres to the sun at different times of the year.

Speaking of things that are not sailing smoothly along, I am so relieved that the federal government has stepped in to save the faltering world economy with untold trillions of dollars that we don't really have and never will. I was very concerned that Wall Street brokerages, SEC regulators, banks, mortgage companies, and mortgage holders might actually be held responsible for mistakes made. Whew. That was close. Saved by the printing press.

For now. In the long run (maybe not so long of a run), by bankrupting our country, we can kiss our currency goodbye. Thought you had enough money set aside for a secure retirement? Think again. And, if you can, keep working.

Now that I've set a dismal tone for the beginning of Fall, here's an old Edgar Winter song that, although beautifully written and sung, never fails to put me in a vaguely depressed and melancholy state of mind:



Actually, I do love the autumn months. It's a visually stunning time of the year, and the weather is varied and interesting.

And I'm not really depressed. I'm just a little pissed off at the amount of irresponsibility and incompetence that has created this financial mess. And the laissez-faire "everything goes if it benefits businesses" approach of the government didn't help things.

I'll get over it. This too shall pass...

Spring Arrives (Sort Of)

You wouldn't know it from the cold, mostly cloudy weather lately, but today marks the return of Spring. The vernal equinox, with nearly equal hours of daytime and nighttime, occurs when the tilt of the earth on its axis places the sun directly over the equator.

Whereas February in Hood River was warmer than average, March has been cooler. There have only been two days so far (March 9-10) where the high reached the low to mid 60's. Sure would be nice to have some 70 degree days, but the forecast for the rest of the month is for more of the same.

Lots of snowpack in the mountains though!

Shine On

The full moon closest to the autumnal equinox is called the Harvest moon. There are several reasons why. The reason that is almost too obvious to mention (but I will), is that this is a peak harvest time of the year. Throughout history, farmers could continue harvesting well into the night.

Also, just as the sun rises directly east and sets directly west on the first day of Fall, so does the moonrise and moonset around this time of the year. This puts the moon pretty much directly overhead in the night sky, rather than lower in the sky, which makes the lighting a little bit brighter than usual.

Autumnal Equinox

Today is the autumnal equinox, otherwise known as the first day of Autumn (the first day of Spring in the southern hemisphere). Discounting twilight, and the refraction of light through the atmosphere, and a couple of other minor discrepancies, the length of the day equals the length of the night.

The changing seasons are due to the 23 degree tilt of the earth relative to its orbital plane around the sun. Today, the sun's path is directly over the equator.

Also, today the sun rises exactly in the east and sets exactly in the west. Mark the spots with gigantic stone blocks and you'll always know exactly where east and west are.

Or you could use a compass. Or a GPS. We sure do have things a lot easier than our ancient ancestors did...

It's Baaaaack....

The Hood River Weather site is back after 3 frustrating days trying to get the web space restored. To make a long story short, I called my web hosting company Saturday to report that whereas they thought I had reached my web space quota of 20 MB, I could only see about 2 MB of files in there. So, they suggested, what the heck, let's just delete the whole webspace and then I could simply re-upload the files to a newly created space. Sounded really simple in theory. 72 hours later, lots of emails back and forth, and... the site returns.

Anyway, the far more important thing that has returned today is "Spring". The vernal equinox (more or less equal day and night) officially arrived at 5:07 pm, and not a moment too soon.