From the East Wing, On July 4th, , Julius Caesar &The Month of Brutus, Doing July Stuff, Looking At The Sun, Dog Days, Orion & Star Lore, Flat Rocks

Greetings to all, and welcome new friends to the East Wing.

Midsummer Day is barely past and POW ! The 4th of July. The unchallenged highlight of the summertime, 4th of July. This year with the 4th on a Sunday, everybody gets an extra holiday on the 5th of July. Now more than ever before, it’s important to never lose site of the fact that we are free because of the brave. The brave men and women of our nation from 1776 to this very day in Iraq and Afghanistan. They have kept us free to be able to say and do what we want. As a people we’re so free in our society, we don’t even know it. Like many things in life, freedom not worth nothing till it's gone. The land of the free because of the brave.

This is a real 3 day weekend, not one of those stupid made up Monday Holidays just to make an artificial 3 day weekends. I hate when they do that. I still think some dumbkoff is gona come along and propose Easter the third Monday in April and Christmas the 4th Monday in December.

But for right now we just enjoy what July has to offer, and it offers lots. Julius Caesar named July after himself when he reworked the original Roman Calendar. Guess that’s one of the little perks ya get when you’re emperor, naming a month after yourself. Boy, if I were emperor, even for a day, I’d for sure name at least one month BobbyRay, maybe even two months, but that might be too confusing for my subjects, so I’ll just stick with one month. I think I’ll pick the one with my birthday, then make EVERYBODY get me presents. It’s fun being emperor, even for one day. Ya sure get a lot of birthday presents when you’re emperor.

Interesting little note ‘bout Julius Caesar naming July after himself, ironically, the change went into effect in 44 B.C. the same year Caesar was assassinated. Maybe those ole boys with those togas got mad ‘cause Julius had his month and they didn’t. Maybe he should have changed August to Brutus. I don’t know it that would have helped any, ‘cause I heard there were other reasons too. But having the month of Brutus for sure wouldn’t hurt the situation. And that ole boy needed all the help he could get and none came forward. That whole deal of the ides of March sounded to me like a Republican plot to take control. And they’ve been plotting ever since.

With Earth at its farthest point from the Sun this month, the sunshine comes with enough power to make July the warmest month for most of the North American Continent. That’s explained by angles of the Earth in relationship to the Sun. Now if ya don’t believe me on that angle stuff, just go outside and feel the direct sunshine on your skin, stay out there a little while in the sun, now remember that feeling, and go out again in January and stay ‘bout the same time out there in the sun. Be sure you don’t wear any more clothes when you go outside in January than you did when you went outside in July. Yeah, that’s what I’m talking ‘bout. Angles of the sun. Sometimes it’ll make ya want to wear coats.

Corn knee-high by the 4th of July, many of the fields around the East Wing are full of corn this year, and I’m telling ya, it’s not gona be knee-high by the 4th of July, it’s well over 6 ft by the 4th of July. It’s the tallest July 4th corn I’ve ever seen ‘round here Years ago when the farmer planted my field across the road, south of the East Wing, I think he planted that little short yellow kind. I’m sure you’ve heard that old saying “knee high to a grasshopper”, that kinda described my cornfield.

It’s that time of the year where ya can walk into a corn field just after dark, and as the air starts to cool for the night, ya can hear the corn grow. I’m sure some people will read that hearing the corn grow stuff, and think how stupid do ya think I am. Well I sure don’t think you’re stupid, but you’re probably one of those who thinks milk comes from a box. It doesn’t, cows are involved, in a major way.

July is for doing neat outside stuff, if ya got a sailboat, sail it. Not too many sail boats ‘round me, a few, but most everybody who has a boat, also has a motor for the boat. I never got into doing much water stuff in the summertime. I guess Downtown Toto was just too far from any large body of water to get too excited ‘bout doing water stuff. The closest water was a couple mile or so north to the Yellow River. I remember some times the army (The Toto Volunteers) would march to the river. Why, in the summertime, I've seen as much as 8 – 9 inches of water at that bridge, there north of Toto. It’s hard to learn to swim in 9 inchers of water, so we just mostly sat on our butt and splashed the water.

There’s a rather large above ground pool here at the East Wing, some 18’ by 36’. It’s above ground, ‘cause if I put it in ground, I’d have to pay more real estate tax on the pool than the East Wing. The pool is 4ft deep all over. We have very strict life safety rules here at the Pool at the East Wing. And I make sure everybody reads and understands the rules before I'll allow them into the pool. The rules are: IF YA START TO DROWN, STAND UP!

Drinking lemonade outside on the deck, fireworks, watching thunderstorms from inside the East Wing, ripe peaches, watermelons, and tomatoes tasting so good ya don’t know whether to eat ‘em today or save ‘em for tomorrow, and ya always eat ‘em today and let tomorrow take care of itself. Laying on a blanket in the yard just watching the clouds float by in a cloud so blue ya can see tomorrow. Now that’s July Days.

Another neat summer thing is the Dog Days of Summer. Not everybody seems to agree on when to start the Dog Days of Summer, in Ancient Rome, back when Julius Caesar was jerking ’round with the calendar , the Dog Days started on July 24 and ended August 24 But in some places it was July 23 to August 23. It’s tuff to get those European People (German, French, Italian) to agree on anything so that’s why everybody chooses what day they want for Dog Days.

Now here in the good ole U.S. of A. we tend to let The Old Farmer's Almanac take care of stuff like that and they list Dog Days as the 40 days beginning July 3 and ending August 11, coinciding with the ancient heliacal (at sunrise) rising of the Dog Star, Sirius. It’s also interesting to note that these are the days of the year when rainfall is at its lowest levels.

I can never talk ‘bout dogdays without recalling Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol reference to dogdays. Being a Charles Dickens fan, I get as much fun out of reading this description now as the first time I read it a while back.

Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grind-stone, Scrooge! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dogdays; and didn't thaw it one degree at Christmas.

Gotta love Charles Dickens, Don’t know how many times I’ve read that story. And still re-read it from time to time. Just to savor writing such as the above paragraph. May I suggest you go back and re-read the description of Scrooge and see if ya don’t feel his cold too. Ya gotta remember now, Scrooge lived prior to air conditioning so “he iced this office in the dogdays” I don’t care who ya are, that’s a cold hearted person. Scrooge!

Don’t know why you’re suppose to eat eggs on St. Swithin’s Day (July 15th), ya just do, and oysters on St. James’s Day (July 26th). Now I can handle the St. Swithin’s Day eating an egg or two, but that St. James oyster deal is just gona pass me by. I don’t eat much of anything that swims or lives under water.

I mostly prefer to eat things that moo or grunt or even an occasional cluck or quack. Even with that limited selection of protein, there are parts I won’t eat. I never eat parts that filter, pump, think, or reproduce. It just don’t seem right to me to eat such things. But I’m a big fan of Chinese Restaurants, and once in a while I wonder if they may have slipped something in on me. Ya know, some of that stuff in the Chinese Restaurants don’t even have names, just numbers, and sometimes the numbers, they’re in Chinese. Ya just never know.

For my stargazing buddies, I just remembered that Earth reaches aphelion, its farthest point from the Sun, on this coming Tuesday, the 6th. A while back I got a new filter lens for my telescope so now I can look directly into the sun. But I haven’t done so yet. It’s kinda like the little guy in the movie with the new BB Gun, I’m afraid I'll burn my eye out. Maybe I'll risk it when I’m the farthest away from the sun.

One of the neat things ‘bout stargazing is learning ‘bout star lore, that’s about the creating and cherishing of mythical stories about the stars and star patterns (constellations and asterisms). It’s kinda like folklore based upon the stars and star patterns. Using the stars to explain religious doctrines or actual events in history is also star lore. Star lore has been around a long time. It has been practiced by nearly every culture recorded in history, dating as far back as 5,500 years ago. It was practiced by prehistoric cultures of the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods as well.

I first started to learn ‘bout star lore when I made my first telescope. It wasn’t the best scope I’ve ever looked thru, but I’ve never more proud of anything I’ve done than making that telescope. A long time ago pop bottles were made of glass and the Coke bottles had a thick base. I took two of those bottles and ground a set of lenses for my telescope. It took a while, but it worked. Don’t remember what ever happened to my first telescope, wonder if my mama has that, she saved everything else in the world.

A good example of star lore is the creation of the story ‘bout Orion the Hunter and Scorpius, the Scorpion by the ancient Greeks. Now these folks saw a very startling pattern of bright stars in the winter sky that, from their point of view, resembled a mighty hunter, which they named Orion. During the summer, they saw another startling pattern of bright stars that resembled a scorpion. They noticed that the constellations of Orion and the Scorpion were positioned at opposite ends of the sky and were never seen in the sky simultaneously. As one constellation rose above the eastern horizon, the other was setting below the western horizon, and when either one was high in the sky, the other was completely absent. The ancient Greeks felt compelled to explain this phenomenon by making up a story based on the two constellations.

The story was that Orion was a mighty and proud hunter who was stung by a scorpion. Orion died of the scorpion's sting and was placed among the stars by the gods. Although the scorpion was destroyed by the gods in vengeance for killing Orion, it was also placed among the stars. In order to prevent Orion and the scorpion from quarrelling and fighting with each other in the sky, the gods placed Orion and the Scorpion at opposite ends of the sky, and in opposite seasons, so that both of them can never be seen in the sky at the same time.

Tell ya what, I’ve looked at both Orion and Scorpius, and as much as I've tried, they still don’t look like anything ‘cept a bunch of stars. Maybe if someone would shut all the other stars off and just left those two groups shining, we’d see 'em better. But I don’t think that’s gona happen any time soon, ‘cause nobody knows where the light switch is.

While watering my deck tomatoes today I remembered a trick Lou told me ‘bout when I’d go with her to the Gardens of Southfork. To help tomatoes get through periods of drought during the Dog Days of Summer, take flat rocks and place ‘em close next to each plant. The rocks pull up water from under the ground and keep it from evaporating into the air. It works. Lou had really big and really good tomatoes every year. Most all the rocks at Southfork are flat, and there’s a lot of flat rocks at Southfork. ‘Course that stuff from the barn they put in the dirt around the tomatoes plants didn’t hurt either. For sure have to put that stuff in the dirt before the rocks are put down, 'cause it won’t work on top of rocks.

As this beautiful summer day dissolves into twilight on it’s singular journey into the darkness of history, the 2girldogs, Sophia, 1wife, 1Spike are either asleep or rapidly getting ready to go there, this day has been good, and like all days, a special gift from God.

Stay safe in Afghanistan.

From the East Wing, On July 4th, , Julius Caesar &The Month of Brutus, Doing July Stuff, Looking At The Sun, Dog Days, Orion & Star Lore, The Flat Rocks of Southfork

I wish you well,
BobbyRay