Day 209
Once in a blue moon do we get a night like this … clear, cooling and if you are anywhere near me … the air is alive with the chirping of a million happy insects enjoying the second full moon of the month.
A second full moon, in any given month, does happen but very rarely. In September 1950 the second full moon that month had a bit of a blue hue (due to smoke, forest fires or volcanic activity) and so it was named a blue moon. And since a second full moon happens so rarely, things that also happen rarely are said to happen … (according to folk lore) … once in a blue moon.
And though the second full moon does happen, due to our calendar imperfectly synched to a lunar month (being 29.5 days) … a blue moon happens only once in every two or three years. The next one is expected to happen in July 2015.
Of course, that is, if the Mayans are incorrect and we continue to exist after December 21st of this year.
(FYI: I wanted to make a Mayan calendar with monthly Mayan ruins pictured and recipes and tidbits about the people and having the 21st be the last filled in date – with all rest of that month’s date boxes empty (to be filled in if we survived) … but I was slow on the draw. Darn it anyway. Could have been my big money-maker!)
In any case, back to the blue moon. Not being a member of the group Sha Na Na, I do not know all their songs. I do know, however, the one entitled Blue Moon. And I have been belting it out since finding out that the full moon overhead tonight is indeed named the same as the song.
And I am finding it eerily poignant that Neil Armstrong’s memorial service was today. How cosmically perfect that the first man on the moon who said those 10 simple, powerful words … “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” be honored the day that a blue moon should be overhead. Awesome.
And for as lovely as it is … as full moons always remind me of Tim … and they are big and beautiful and peaceful, tonight’s moon’s blue moon affiliation is driving me crazy. Unfortunately for me, I’m one of those people who get a tune stuck in my head and it replays … over and over and over again. So, this week I’ve been singing bits and pieces of the Blue Moon song … bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, dang, dang, dang, dang, dang, ding a dong … etc … while in the shower, in the car, in the line at the grocery store. It’s madness.
And, if for only that reason … I’m really happy this occurrence happens only once in a … well … blue moon.