A Blue Super-Moon
As a nod to the uniqueness of the moment and as a bonus for my readers (at least those who like my stories), I am sending out a second story today, just like August is sending us a second full moon tonight at 9:30pm. A Blue Moon, as most of you know is when there is a second full moon in a month (a month being, by definition, a lunar cycle). That natural anomaly and contradiction all rolled into one should be special enough, but man’s fallibility and nature’s persistence show up on average once every two years or so. The other thing that the celestial cycles also give us are full moons what happen when the moon is closest in its orbit to the earth. That’s called a Super Moon (or for those who love the movie Moonstruck, as we do, called Cosmo’s Moon), and that happens as a often as 2-4 times a year. But a Blue Super Moon only happens every 14 years or so. It last happened in 2009 and will next happen in 2037 according to celestial maps.
In case you were wondering if this is all some vague unnoticeable astronomical anomaly that only geeks with telescopes can appreciate, this moon will be about 17% bigger than normal and 30% brighter than normal. That’s a pretty significant and noticeable difference to just about everyone on the face of the earth (except for those poor souls under cloud cover like the folks in the Florida Big Bend area that are suffering under the Category 4 Idalia clouds). If you have a clear sky, you are going to want to go out and howl a bit at this extra-big and extra-bright orb in the sky and dance around the campfire like the beasts that we all are inside.
I also want to mention that on this Blue Super Moon Wednesday, August 30th, my baby boy, Thomas (like Twitter and Prince, now known as Tom) turns a ripe age of 28. That means he was born under a Blue Super Moon and is experiencing his second since then. I don’t believe in coincidence as much as fate, so it must mean something that he is preparing for his wedding day this weekend and that all causes me to wonder where and when we will all be at the next Blue Super Moon in 2037. He will be 42 years old, the same age (give or take) as his older brother, Roger, who will be Best Man at his wedding this weekend. Of course, Roger will be 55 at the next Blue Super Moon and his sister, Carolyn, will be 51. That alone is hard to imagine for a father. I will be 83 (God willing) and Kim will be 79, just a bit older than her older sister, Sharon, is now. We occasionally think in dog years of 7, but maybe now we have to think in Blue Super Moon years of 14.
This is a big day in the cosmos and a big day in my family’s life. If you are wondering what makes me think about all of this a clear and sunny August morning, you have to remember that my hilltop, from where I have written and will write most of my daily stories, is called Casa Moonstruck for a reason. As the last line in that great movie declares, “Ala Famiglia!”