Sunset in a neighbor’s window. It was beautiful out here today. Probably close to 70. Clear and dry and except for the short daylight, no clue what time of year it might be, except a nice one. Thanks to the fact the 49ers were playing the Bears today in Chicago, I got to see the contrast with back-there weather. In the first quarter, the temperature was 49 and falling, and it was blowing so hard (gusting over 50 mph, I think) it seemed hard for the players to predict what would happen to the ball from second to second as it sailed through the air. The wind turned a game between two pretty bad teams into a decent entertainment. Important from the native Chicagoan’s point of view: The Bears won.
Hi Dan: Great picture. This evening in New York there is a ring around the (full?) moon and Mars is a few degrees below the moon. Kind of a nice sight. It was warm here today as well, in the upper sixties, I reckon. It is positively balmy here tonight, at least for this time of year. I have to get a camera and shoots some images of NY Harbor in the morning. I drive Sean to school at Coney Island everyday and have the opportunity to see the harbor at sunrise. At one point we round a bend on the Belt Parkway and… there is the Statue of Liberty, copper green in red light. More than once I have told Sean to look and remember it. Not many sixth-graders get to see such a sight, everyday, on the way to school. Generally, he is sort of ho-hum about it, kind of the way we were, walking by Jimmy D’s on our way to St. Mary’s all those years ago. And what does Jimmy D’s have in common with Lady Liberty? Well, one has a torch and the other was torched.
Joking aside though, all of that red and magenta light is an arresting sight. You are just walking around the house or driving around a bend in the road and there it is…and it almost isn’t right to not stop and contemplate. It is light that people have been trying to replicate on cave walls, in Gothic cathedrals, on canvas and in movie theatres for thousands of years.
Another connection between Lady Liberty and Jimmy D’s: Wretched refuse.
I was working over in Marin County today — I think it was up in the 70s — and left just as the sun was going down behind Mount Tamalpais. Got to see the moon and Mars over the hills. More about that later.
You never know what impressions stick with the kids. I’m sure Thom and Eamon have lots of memories of me pointing out all the sights I find amazing — Mount Shasta! Wow! But I feel like I got some of that tendency to just linger and watch the sunset from Dad, who I remember liking that time of day. So something gets passed on, whether we know it or not.