Music, Not Moons

I’m getting more and more skeptical about these “once in a lifetime events” that the media hypes.  Maybe it’s because I’m fast aging beyond the charts in terms of life expectancy for women in the United States.  It’s 81, according to a December 2017 HuffPost article and since I’ll be 82 toward the end of February,  once in a lifetime doesn’t always cut it anymore.

However, tomorrow night’s super blue blood moon that will be visible as a blue moon, a supermoon and a total lunar eclipse coincide to create the spectacle which experts say has not been viewed for 150 years.  If those experts are correct – another thing I am finding more reasons to doubt as I approach my BEY (Beyond Expectancy Years) – then, indeed, tomorrow night’s phenomenon will be new for me.

Tomorrow?

Part of the problem, I think, in these once-in-a-lifetime deals is that I’m having trouble remembering all the ones I’ve seen.  Some niggling little part of me thinks that ‘they’ are sneaking repeats in and counting on us older, fuzzier people not to remember.  Of course, tomorrow’s triple-header has not been seen since 1866.  If that’s true, I’m pretty sure I wasn’t around to see it.  Parts of it, yes, but not all in one fell swoop.

The parts involve our second full moon for this month, commonly called a “blue moon.”  Plus, a full eclipse caused by the moon passing through the earth’s shadow that will cause the moon to take on a coppery color for about an hour – the “blood” part.  And the “super” aspect is because this particular passage is happening when the moon is at the closest point in its elliptical orbit to the earth.  So…super blue blood moon!

Moonrise Over Willapa Bay, August 2013

Of course, for us here on the western edge, the biggest unknown is will it even be visible.  Cloud cover in January is always a distinct possibility.  One website said that the best chance for us would be to watch our TVs.  Well… wouldn’t you know?  Maybe that will be the once-in-a-lifetime event for me –   watching the moon on television instead of through my east windows as it rises over the bay.  A bit underwhelming as singular lifetime events go.  Just sayin’…