I’m seriously not liking the early evenings and long nights. I feel claustrophobic as dark descends and then proceeds to overstay its welcome. Yesterday when dusk arrived I closed my blinds as usual, and then noticed it was only 4:45. That just ain’t right. Luckily, in a few weeks we begin to trudge our way back toward light. I do, however, think I’d prefer living at this latitude than in an equatorial place like Costa Rica. I’d miss the summers of long days, and I don’t think total darkness at 6:00 every evening year-round would agree with me. My memory is that it goes from day to night precipitously, but since I am ignorant about planetary science, I may have that wrong.
Okay, I just Googled it, using highly sophisticated search terms: does it get dark more quickly near the equator. And look at that. It’s not my imagination.
Yes, twilight is shorter at the equator and longer closer to the poles… the sun drops quickly down toward the horizon – and it just as quickly sinks below the horizon. So darkness falls suddenly.
earthsky.org (whatever that is)
And why is this? Cornell’s Ask an Astronomer site explains.
The simple answer is that at low latitudes, the sun sets perpendicular to the horizon, while at higher latitudes, the sun can set at a more oblique angle, allowing it to remain close to the horizon after sunset for a longer period of time.
Our ever-spinning Earth has locally been just the tiniest bit jumpy lately. While Eleni & Company were visiting a few weeks ago, there was a matched pair of tiny quakes centered down the street in Kensington.
And then the day before I left for Chico last week I felt another single jolt that turned out to have the same epicenter, within walking distance of my house. Concerned about what would happen if my only asset were leveled, I made another call to my insurance agent to ask about earthquake policies. Boy, is it ridiculous how expensive they are, and for such limited coverage.
So, yeah: Chico. This is what I saw there during my two-day stay:
Pictured above are (clockwise):
- Jesse modeling his brand-new snake scarf knitted for him by his Mama Ginna with help from Ember, who also made that perfect pink tongue.
- Eleni’s and Ruby’s favorite activity, which is essentially a combination of the classic “So big!” baby game and the “Let’s go AHHHHHHH as loudly and for as long as we can without taking a breath” trick.
- Ember scampering up a trunk at Bidwell Park (photo taken, as usual, from the only Ember-permitted angle: behind her).
A couple times Ruby fussed when I walked away, which was endearing. We’re old pals by now. Jesse spent a lot of time showing me his recently organized room (lots of rainbow decorations in there) and projects he’s working on. Like, I watched as he spent ages covering a small piggy bank with bits of Play-Doh. Though I’m not sure of the objective, clearly it was important work. He is also having lots of fun with Ghost, one of their two new cats.
To my surprise and delight, Em chose to stay with me both nights at our rather uniquely decorated AirBnB.
She had endless fun crashing down those stairs on her butt over and over, careening between wall and banister at top speed. To change things up, she’d wiggle her head through the space between two high steps and hang upside-down by her knees from one of them.
Ever since she was tiny, one of my primary pet names for her has been Monkey. But she recently gave me the news that monkeys creep her out. Oops. So I’m trying to break my deeply ingrained habit. I’ve reached the point at which I can stop myself at Mon—but it’s hard since I don’t have another name to replace it with. To remedy that, Em and I considered dozens of alternatives, from Alligator to Spider (ugh) to Weasel. In the end, we arrived atOtter. Excellent choice.
After bidding a reluctant farewell to my Chico family, I made the short (1.5-hour) drive eastward to see some of my Sierra Foothills friends for the first time in months. First stop: a lovely visit with Marianna and Stephen in their spacious backyard where they treated me like royalty, serving a yummy lunch (including air-fried French fries) followed by a homemade passionfruit dark chocolate truffle.
Then it was back down to Grass Valley and The Rancho, home of TJ and Richard. I arrived comfortably before dark and settled in for rounds of:
- Parcheesi. My knowledge of virtually every subtle rule of the game did not once translate to victory. Of course it didn’t help that I kept forgetting which color my pieces were as I moved around the board.
- Qwirkle. Boy oh boy. At least I’m consistent (I kept getting confused and losing).
- Yahtzee. TJ and I have played this together for years, in West Virginia, South Carolina, and all across sunny California.
Over the next 36 hours I chattered on to TJ, talking so much you’d think I were an old woman who lives alone. Next visit, I’m gonna try to keep my mouth shuttish.
On the eve of my departure TJ showed me where my house is, as seen from her yard. To get home I just aim for the sunset.
(Sorry I missed you this time, Syd.)
Three Recent Stories from Chico
1. Kids Say the Darndest Things
Eleni reports that when she reminded 7-year-old Jesse to turn off the light as he left the bathroom, he moaned, “Why do I have to do everything?!”
In a similar vein, just today I found this in one of my scrapbooks:
2. Vaccines
Three days ago Jesse and Ember got their second vaccines. While they had no side-effects from the first, the second resulted in about 24 hours of flulike symptoms for him, while she was only mildly affected. Exciting that this time has finally arrived, but disconcerting that only one of Em’s friends has started with the inoculations.
3. Masks
When masked Jason was pumping gas into the truck yesterday evening, some guy approached and greeted him with, “Hey, Diaper-Face.” What stunning wit and intellect. What humanity and acceptance. If you knew Jason, you’d know it’s a Really Stupid Idea to taunt him. It has the potential not to end well. But there was no drama. All he did was catch up to the dude and reply, “Hi, Dead Man Walking.”
I wouldn’t want to live in Chico, with its high proportion of anti-vaxxers, anti-maskers, and Drumpf supporters.
Good response from Jason!!