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Month: February 2008
It’s Ash Wednesday, and hence the first day of the Lenten season. It caught a lot of people by surprise today because it’s only the 6TH of February. Why so early you may ask ?
It’s because we have a very early Easter this year. Easter Sunday falls on Sunday March 23RD 2008. It’s the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the 21ST of March. A full moon actually occurs precisely on the 21ST of March this year, so this year’s Easter Sunday falls on the 2ND earliest possible calendar date. The last time Easter Sunday fell on the 22ND of March (the earliest possible calendar date) – 1818 ! The next time it happens – 2285 !
Easter Sunday can occur as late as April 25TH. That would push Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent forward to March 10TH. In just 3 years – 2011 – Easter Sunday will fall on the 2ND latest possible calendar date – April 24TH. Blame it on the Moon !
Don’t forget that this is a leap year. Yes we have a February 29TH this year. It falls on a Friday.
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Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts
If it’s Tuesday night then you just know that I’ve got 10 things on my mind:
1. We shot past 4,000 total views on this blog today. That’s pretty good for a little over two months of blogging action. We just went through a six-day slump on here. That’s six days in a row in which we finished at or below 45 views for a single day. It’s over now. The recovery has begun. Thank you fellow bloggers for returning from hiatus.
2. It happened again. I was mistaken for someone who recently attended Homestead Senior High School. Do I look that young ? This just in. I attended high school up in Northern Virginia 23 to 26 years ago (1981-1985).
3. Yesterday I was asked by a co-worker if I dyed my hair. He was actually being sincere when he asked me that. Do I look that old ? This just in. If I dyed my hair do you really think that I would leave the gray hair visible near my sideburns ?
4. When I get home from work each afternoon it’s pretty much routine – blog while watching “The People’s Court” at 3 PM followed by “Judge Judy” at 4 PM. Oh yeah – and take my Nature Made Omega-3 Fish Oil 1200 mg supplement.
5. It’s Fat Tuesday, so you know what that means. All over the French Quarter of New Orleans sins are being committed. Even in my previous life I never got that careless.
6. A lot of sports experts stated beforehand that it would be a cold dreary day in the Arizona desert before the New York Football Giants would beat the unbeatable New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII. They were right.
7. I’ve never been a fan of Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers, but even I was singing along to such classics as “I Won’t Back Down”, “Free Fallin'”, and “Running Down A Dream” during the Super Bowl halftime show.
8. January is over, and so are my various ailments. My lower-back is fine. My right shoulder feels normal. My bad cold is long gone. All is well with me in February.
9. I got a haircut yesterday at the legendary Woody’s Barber Shop in Homestead. The dude that took care of my hair spent a good 20 minutes with it. He took his time. He did it right. I’ll be back for more in April.
10. I gave myself a brand new modern computer system at work today with AMD Athlon duo core processors and two gigabytes of RAM. I did that because I could.
This morning as I drove eastbound to work shortly before 6 AM I watched a nice little show in the southeastern sky featuring an old fading (waning crescent) Moon, the bright and sparkling Venus, and the brilliant Jupiter all right next to each other forming a nice little triangle.
Venus and Jupiter continue to put on a close show for a few more mornings during the hour before dawn. As the month of February progresses Jupiter eases higher in the morning sky while Venus fades away into the Sun’s early-morning glare. (The Moon shows up as a New Moon shortly after Sunset at the end of this week.)
This is one of my favourite web sites to check out what’s goin’ on in the skies up above from dusk to dawn. It’s updated daily.
CountUp 