Big Meadows, Last Friday Night
The moon sank low in the west meadow, and the conversation fell to that late night timbre, matching the katydids and other musicians playing the quiet movement of the mountain nocturne.
The campers, having seen their fill of Saturn and lunar landscapes, had long since wandered back to tents and lodges.
The astronomers sat around, talking, in problem-solving mode.
“You know where the newspaper office is?”
“Not really.”
“Well, it’s…”
The issue started earlier that day. I posted on the club’s email list: “Anyone have a copy of Tuesday’s paper? I sure would dig a copy of my book review.”
Thirty five hundred feet above sea level, Rich hatched the idea.
“Bet there’s one in the dumpster behind the office. I’ll check it out.”
“Oh man, if you do, I’ll write you a blog…for what that’s worth.”
Waynesboro, Last Saturday Afternoon
“Found it!”
Madison, This Saturday Afternoon
Front porch of Yoder’s Country Store, eating triple chocolate ice cream, rocking in Adirondack chairs, watching the trucks roll down Rt. 29
“So Rich, quite an adventure, eh?”
(Rich is a modest gentleman, so I took a guess at the blanks in his story.)
Sometimes, when I walk into a big box store in a new town, I wonder if I could hang a right by the snacks, and end up back on my old front porch, a wormhole of suburbia.
Doubtless, he found something similar in the wee hours when hunting through the recycling.
An intergalactic dumpster….
“Where the laws of physics are heaped and humbled, all in a jumble, next to a pile of ripped fabric of spacetime, and Heisenburg’s trash service only gives roundabout answers about the day of pickup, and how much you can throw out, but never both in precise amounts. It’s against company policy.
Dive on in at 2 am.
PLEASE DO NOT OPEN THE BOX OF KITTENS . - MGMT
NO PLAYING DICE - GOD
NO PLAYING DICE. - MGMT
After a great distance, and unexpected encounters with The Washington Post, he found what he was looking for: Tuesday’s Paper.
(Although, when one travels this many light years, it’s hard to keep track. What is a “Tuesday” ?)
Back at Yoder’s
While all the Labor Day traffic rumbled through the cornfields, and Earth’s Sun smiled down in an ordinary way, like a magician after he’s finished with a trick, Rich walked across the parking lot, and handed me the August 22nd version of The Charlottesville Daily Progress as if nothing happened.
But I knew something had.
Thanks again for the efforts, Rich!
(Check out his podcast.)
And the article? You can read it here without visiting two dumpsters and losing years in the relativistic shift. Jane Sathe did a splendid job of capturing what I was trying to say, and writing such a nice story about the book. Thank you, Jane!
It’s good to be an Earthling.
Josh