Ambiance

Orion

November 27, 2010 at 11:30 am (By Amba)

Having gone to sleep around 12:30, I woke at 5:48.  It was my habit to sleep about 5 hours a night, staying up late to have some time for myself, and waking up relatively early to tend to J.  (I was not too sleep-deprived because I’d take a nap sometime later in the day.)  That schedule seems to be stamped on my nervous system for the time being.  Anyway, I had to pee.

The window was full of pale light, but dawn wasn’t visible yet.  (I suppose we had already entered astronomical twilight.)  It was the half moon — technically third quarter — shining directly overhead, so brightly that the sand was silver and there were sharp black shadows under the palm trees and the beach chairs.  Despite the bright moon, the first few stealthy photons of sunlight, and the light pollution at both ends of this island, I could see quite a few stars.  Especially Orion, my favorite constellation, standing foursquare and manly above the Gulf of Mexico, framed right in the center of my window.

I sat down and answered an e-mail from Pat, and minutes later, when I looked again, the moon had dimmed and the stars were gone, erased by a rolling fog.