One of the ingredients the Lord leavened my bread of life with is an extra helping of the observation ingredient.
Some people go around life with their mouths hanging open.
Some people have open minds.
Some folks have open arms.
I just kinda’ amble aimlessly around the world gawking at stuff with open eyes, letting it all soak in.
I just enjoy the sights along life’s road.
The Full Wolf Moon of early January 2023 is a classic example of my eyes soaking up a lot more than my brain can comprehend.
Googling the recent full moon, I find that it wasn’t just me that found the event exceptional.
Observers from all over the world took note of some really great lunar viewing.
The Full Wolf Moon, due to an elliptical orbit, was at its farthest point from earth at 252,145 miles.
This is what is referred to as a “micromoon,” the exact opposite of a full moon at its closest to earth known as a “supermoon.”
The Old Farmer’s Almanac, of which a copy always is always at arm’s reach from my “easy reading chair,” says the Full Wolf Moon name arises from the hard winter times when wolves could be howling as a result of hunger.
I really enjoyed watching the Full Wolf Moon rise over the Pine Mountain Range from Highcliff.
I just can’t get my mind around what scientists say is nothing more than an optical illusion.
I would first note the glow of the moon lighting the caricatures of trees atop the crest of Pine Mountain.
Then a seemingly huge, yellowish orb would ease above the mountaintop.
Low on the horizon, the full moon materialized as a celestial object of absolutely enormous size.
However, as the arc of the moon progressed through the night, the higher the moon rose, the smaller it appeared to be.
On the morning of Jan. 7, when I crossed the Highcliff Bridge, looking downstream, the moon cast as beautiful a reflection of itself upon the deep pools as I’ve ever seen.
This was just before the sun peeked up.
There was a deep yellow-orange glow to the east contrasting the soft white glow of the moon to the west.
The observer part of me took precedence over.
I stood mid-bridge and took cell phone photos of the simultaneous sunrise and moonset to savor in days to come.
I think I really need some professional therapy!
My current cell phone is home to 9,051 images and 653 videos.
Let us not get into my memory sticks of photos stuck in various drawers!!
Daughter Bekah Jo and Sonny Law Jordan got me a Garmin GPS watch for Christmas.
I am still learning to use just a few of its many features.
I have used handheld GPS units for the last several years.
But now I have almost all of those capabilities in a wrist-worn unit.
I love cycling through the sunrise and sunset tables.
The moonrise and moonset tables are cool as well, especially the little moon icons showing exactly what the phase is.
Temperature, elevation, barometric pressure, heart rate, steps taken, and of course, navigation are all there to access as well.
To an obsessive-compulsive observer of life, all these facts and figures can be a bit all-consuming.
To those who travel life’s road unburdened by such observational duress, I snap to salute in your presence.
I don’t know about wolves howling at the recent full moon.
I have had the pleasure of hearing wolves howl while out in the great Northwoods of Wisconsin.
An incident like that can sorta’ make your hair feel electrified.
I can relate that our dogs like their evening “paw-trol” of Highcliff.
No matter the weather, I roll the back windows down in the truck so they can stick their heads out in the airstream and let their jaws flap in the wind.
The other evening, as the Full Wolf Moon rose over Mud Creek Gap; huge, glowing yellow, with wispy clouds adding a layer of strangeness over its silhouette, Beanz the Schnauzer, Roxie the Weimaraner, and Alice the Bird Dawg’ all howled as we rolled along.
