02 March, 2006
that ol' devil moon

i slipped out of the front door at work, long about 6PM, last night... hoping a swift application of nicotine would help me find reasons to keep my head down and get through the night without calamity... or exiting, huffily. or, at least, diminish some of the snark that has been popping out of my head with alarming frequency.

hanging low on the dimming horizon, preparing to set, was the crescent moon... only, it wasn't simply the crescent that balanced there. plainly, the rest of the orb was fully visible in the dusk. my Virginia forebears would find this most disturbing--surely it's a bad omen to see the dark part, in their minds.

so, why did they have to let me in on it?

oh, yes! to add to my list of ridiculous superstitions!

consequently, i was expecting the other shoe to drop for the rest of the night.
i didn't have to wait long to find out why, either.

pinching pennies, and adhering to my "waste not, want not" philosophy, i packed in food to carry to work with me... including the shrimp curry i'd made on Saturday. don't let the pervasive spices fool you, ye unwary... those shrimp will taste like chlorine, after that long. that is not a good thing.

my stomach would tell you, if you could translate the Godzilla-like trumpetings... portents of craptastic gastric evil to come. and chills.

lessons learned.

i was thinking about that moon, just a while ago... and recalling an earlier entry when i was fascinated by the American Indian names for when it's full. in March, it could be called the "Chaste Moon"... which i have had more than enough of. better still, the "Sugar Moon", or the "Sap Moon"... which coincides with my west coast meeting with Elle "A" rather more succinctly, in less than two weeks.

i'd vowed, long ago, to return to the west... i just couldn't predict how or when it would happen. this is a Good Thing... omens never take the place of the pleasant surprises that await the clear-headed.

...or the clear-coloned.

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